LoL Wild Rift Brand Build & Guide (Patch 5.0) - Runes, Counters, Items, Ability Analysis

A Tier

Class: Mage

Recommended Lane: Support

Best Brand Wild Rift build guide for Season 11 Patch 5.0 of WR. With our Brand guide you will learn which items to build, runes to select, skill order, who counters Brand, and how to use abilities properly.

Recommended Builds

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Starting Item

Boots

Core Items

Complete Build

Runes

Brand is the burning embodiment of greed and vengeance. Once the son of a Freljordian healer and an apprentice and friend of the famous sorcerer Ryze, the former Kegan Rodhe sought the power of the World Runes for himself and as result, he became an anarchic being that only knows how to take and burn everything in his path. Brand is a backline mage that burns the enemy team through his potent flame magic. Nothing, not even the most hardened tanks, can survive his blazing fury.

Brand Wild Rift Build Recommendation

Here are Item Build Recommendations that works on this champion and which are the best build for Brand Wild Rift in this patch.

The Burning Vengeance

Void Staff [This item has been removed from WR]

The Burning Vengeance build is the support Brand Wild Rift build that focuses on increasing the effectiveness of Brand’s passive, Blaze by stacking effects on it through the core items.

Liandry’s Torment grants the Torment passive that burns the HP of enemies you have landed abilities on, increasing your total damage to 4% max HP over 4 seconds. Plus, its Madness passive increases your total damage output up to a maximum of 6%. Tanks will melt through your passives once you acquire this item.
Boots of Mana grant ability power, magic penetration, and Mana Restoration benefit a caster mage champion like Brand.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity will help you spam Brand’s abilities more often thanks to the ability haste it gives, you’ll mostly be running Ignite and its cooldown will also be reduced. Upgrade with the Shadows Enchant to help with vision control. Upgrade with the Stasis Enchant for a defensive option or upgrade with the Protobelt Enchant for a mobility option.
Rylai’s Crystal Scepter will apply a slow on enemies you have damaged with your abilities thanks to its Icy passive. As long as your Blaze passive is active on enemies, the slow will remain.
Morellonomicon will apply Grievous Wounds on enemies you have damaged with Brand’s abilities and it will stay there as long as they are Ablaze. Consider buying Oblivion Orb at the earlier stages of the game if the enemy has lots of healing or self-sustaining abilities.
Void Staff is bought next because enemies would most probably build magic resist to survive against your onslaught. The high amount of magic penetration will make their magic resist item useless against you.
Rabadon’s Deathcap is your overkill item. This will ramp up your damage output for the late game. As a support, it is unlikely that you will reach the stage of the game where you can buy your sixth item but if you did, you will be destroying them with just one combo.

The Explosive Radiation

The Explosive Radiation Brand Wild Rift build is most viable in the mid lane as the additional early game AoE damage will help on shoving lanes and burst damage.

Luden’s Echo is your burst damage item choice if the enemy has three or more squishy champions or if they have no tanks. When combined with Brand’s 2nd ability, Pillar of Flame, the Discordic Echo passive of this item will deal surprising amounts of burst damage.

Runes for Brand in Wild Rift

Aery is the safest rune choice for Brand. It will increase your poke damage and if you are close enough to enemies and you chained two or more abilities, you will be able to proc Aery twice. Electrocute is the better rune choice if you are playing Brand as a burst damage mage.
Brutal’s flat AP and magic penetration bonus is great for early game harassing so you can build your lead and pressure the enemy from the get-go.
Bone Plating will help you survive against flankers as you will always be a target for assassinations because of Brand’s high damage potential and his innate immobility.
Hunter – Genius grants bonus ability haste with each unique takedown. Brand doesn’t really stack much ability haste from items so this rune will give more for each takedown. If you have trouble managing Brand’s mana in the early game, get Manaflow Band instead.

Spells

In our Brand Wild Rift Guide, here are the best champion spells that you can equip on him.

Ignite and Brand’s passive, Blaze will make it hard for enemies to survive the stacked damage per second.

Brand is an immobile mage so he absolutely needs Flash in order to survive if an enemy manages to get near to him.

Skill Order

Brand’s 2nd ability, Pillar of Flame is maxed first as it deals the most damage, especially when cast on targets that are Ablaze. His 1st ability, Sear is maxed next to lower its cooldown so you will be able to stun enemies more often. The 3rd ability, Conflagration is maxed last because it is mostly used only to spread Brand’s passive. Get a point in Brand’s ultimate, Pyroclasm when possible.

Abilities

Blaze

Passive

Brand’s abilities set enemies Ablaze, dealing 3% of their max Health as magic damage over 4 seconds.

Stacking Ablaze 3 times on champions and large monsters cause them to detonate after seconds, dealing 10% (10% + 0.02%) of each nearby max Health as magic damage.

Sear

Active

Launches a fireball that deals 80 magic damage (80 + 55%) to the first enemy hit.

Blaze: Sear stuns for 1.75 seconds if the target is ablaze.

Pillar of Flame

Active

After a short delay fire erupts at a location, dealing 75 magic damage (75 + 60%) to enemies.

Blaze: Pillar of Flame deals 25% more damage to enemies that are ablaze.

Conflagration

Active

Ignites enemies near the target, dealing 70 magic damage (70 + 45% AP).

Blaze: Conflagration spread farther if the target is ablaze.

Pyroclasm

Active

Releases a torrent of flame that bounces up to 5 times between enemies or himself, each bounce dealing 100 magic damage (100 + 25% AP).

Blaze: Pyroclasm briefly slows by 30% if the target is ablaze.

Bounces attempt to max stack Blaze on champions.

Abilities Analysis

Innate Passive: Blaze

Brand’s abilities set enemies Ablaze. Enemies that are Ablaze are dealt 3% of their max HP as magic damage over 4 seconds. That is 0.75% magic damage per second.

Marking enemies three times with Blaze will cause them to detonate, dealing magic damage based on the max HP of all nearby enemies. This means that it deals more damage if you can proc it while they are grouped up together. Although, the mark detonates after a two second delay so it is highly unlikely it will detonate while they are all close together as their first instinct will be to run away from each other.

The detonation also applies Blaze on other enemies if they did not detonate simultaneously with the initial target. After detonation, an enemy cannot receive additional marks for a short period of time but they will continue to receive damage over time if they are hit with Brand’s abilities.

The tooltip uses the words “Stacking Ablaze” but only the marks stacks, the damage over time portion of the passive remains the same even with one, two, or three stacks.

The damage over time applies item effects such as the Torment passive of Liandry’s Torment, Icy passive of Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, and Grievous Wounds of Morellonomicon. This means that after the fourth tick of Ablaze, the Torment passive, for example, will continue to deal damage over time for 3 more seconds.

There are two ways to fully utilize Brand’s passive:

The first one is the most obvious, to quickly stack the marks in order to detonate them.
The second one is to pace your skillshots each two to three seconds so that the enemies will constantly be receiving the damage over time portion of the passive.

Q | 1st Ability: Sear

Sear is a linear skill shot that deals damage to the first enemy hit. If the target is Ablaze, Sear stuns for 1.5 seconds.

Sear is Brand’s only self-peeling and crowd control tool. It is primarily used to stun a target to lock them down and burst them to death or it is used to help Brand escape enemies.

Since Brand is an immobile and squishy mage, it is best to play it extra safe when Sear is on cooldown. But if you haven’t used it yet, enemies would be wary of you so use the pressure wisely. You have four seconds of Blaze so you can take your time before using this ability to increase your chances of stunning the enemy.

Sear can be buffered with Flash through a 1st + Flash combo. Sear is cast before using Flash to cancel its animation to surprise enemies.

W | 2nd Ability: Pillar of Flame

Pillar of Flame is Brand’s main burst damage ability. It deals 25% more damage to enemies that are Ablaze.

Pillar of Flame is an area skill shot tool so it is easier to land compared to Sear due to the fact that enemy champions cannot hide behind minions to avoid this ability.

In the laning phase, you can easily land Pillar of Flame to harass the enemy by waiting for them to go near to last hit minions, especially the cannon minions.

If you have a clear path towards the enemy, you can simultaneously cast his 1st ability, Sear together with Pillar of Flame for a quick combo as they have similar ranges. Cast Sear first to deal more damage or cast Pillar of Flame first to stun the enemy.

E | 3rd Ability: Conflagration

Conflagration is a point-and-click ability that spreads on nearby enemies. If the main target is Ablaze, Conflagration spreads farther.

Conflagration is the easiest way to apply and spread Blaze stacks. Use it before your other abilities so you can apply the Blaze effects to your other abilities.

If the enemy is playing extra safely, you can harass them by using Brand’s 1st ability, Sear on a nearby minion then casting Conflagration on that minion. Since the target is Ablaze, it will spread Conflagration to enemies with few options for counterplay.

R | Ultimate: Pyroclasm

Pyroclasm can be one of the most devastating ultimates in Wild Rift. Brand releases a torrent of flame that can bounce up to 5 times between enemies or himself. Each bounce deals magic damage and applies a stack of Blaze. If the target is already Ablaze, the target is slowed and Pyroclasm prioritizes targets that have two stacks then one before it bounces to enemies that have no stacks.

Pyroclasm is best used when multiple enemies are controlled through area control abilities of your teammates.

On 1v1 situations, it can deal burst damage, especially when chained with your other abilities since Pyroclasm can also bounce through Brand himself. Also, on 1v1 situations, you can use Pyroclasm to bluff enemies that you are throwing his 1st ability, Sear so you can surprise the enemy that your stun is still available.

Standard Combo:

3rd > 1st > 2nd > [Ult]

Brand Early Game Guide

Brand is oppressive in the early game as long as you can land his skill shots. Set your enemies Ablaze using his 1st ability, Sear or 3rd ability, Conflagration then follow it up with his 2nd ability, Pillar of Flame to deal more damage.

A trick to safely harass enemies from a safe distance is to use the 1st ability, Sear on a minion to set it Ablaze then use the 3rd ability, Conflagration on the minion to make the flame jump to the enemy champion.

Wait for the enemy to go for a last hit, especially on cannon minions to punish them for gaining gold.

If possible, try to land all three basic abilities on the enemy to detonate the Blaze passive.

While harassing the enemy, always remember that Brand is an immobile mage that can be easily killed so never overextend and always stay at the warded side of the lane.

Brand Late Game Guide

In the middle and late game, Brand is going to play the role of an artillery mage and then wait for the opportunity to burst down the enemy team with your whole combo.

Brand’s kit works better if the enemy team is grouped up together so wait for the opportunity for it to happen before casting all of Brand’s abilities, especially his ultimate, Pyroclasm that can be extremely deadly when used in the right situation.

While waiting for the right situation to arise, stay in the backlines but at the same time try to hit enemies from a safe distance so you’ll be able to damage them and stack Blaze on them.

Synergies

For our Brand Wild Rift Guide, we highly recommend using him with the following champions as they synergize well with him.

Amumu’s passive, Curse of the Sad Mummy will turn 10% of the Brand’s magic damage into true damage as long as Amumu is near your targets. Plus, his ultimate, Curse of the Sad Mummy can produce devastating results when combined with Brand’s ultimate, Pyroclasm.

Nunu & Willump is a prolific jungler who is capable of setting up plays for Brand to get early game kills and snowball from there. Their ultimates when cast together can also create a devastating effect to the enemy team if they are not careful.

All Brand Wild Rift Counter Champions

In this section, we’ll specifically show champions that can easily counter Brand in Wild Rift.

Fizz and Zed are mobile assassins capable of easily penetrating the backline and one-shotting immobile mages like Brand. Immediately buy a Stasis Enchant to counter their ultimate and in the late game, where they don’t even need their ultimate to kill you, wait for them to burn their abilities before showing yourself.

Soraka is an Enchanter support with lots of healing. She will deny your DPS with her healing and in the late game, even with Grievous Wounds, she will be troublesome to deal with. Look for an opportunity to burst her, preferably with a teammate to help you with bursting her down.

Pros & Cons About Brand

Here are some pros and cons if you are playing with Brand in Wild Rift.

Pros

Brand is a mage that is not item reliant. This is the main reason that he can work as support. The damage from his passive, Blaze is based on the enemy’s HP so he can deal damage as long as you can consistently land his skillshots.
Because of his passive, Blaze, he can deal so much damage even to tanks that have high HP. But at the same time, he can burst down squishies through his combos.
Brand has good objective control because he forces enemies to scatter as his damage amplifies when enemies group up.
He has good crowd control on his 1st ability, Sear and once he has items with passive effects like Liandry’s Torment, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, Morellonomicon, he can easily apply all the effects through his abilities and the effects would be reapplied through the duration of his passive, Blaze.

Cons

Brand is highly reliant on his skillshots. Two of his abilities, the 1st ability, Sear and 2nd ability, Pillar of Flame are skillshots that require some patience and experience to land and his ultimate, Pyroclasm also requires some game sense to use effectively.
He has no mobility whatsoever and his range is average so proper positioning is necessary both from you and your teammates.

FAQ's About Brand in Wild Rift

How good is Brand in Wild Rift?

Brand is a (Tier A) champion. He is an oppressive laner and he can build a lead early through the pressure built up from his skillshots. Plus, he creates extreme pressure in team fights because he deals more damage when people are grouped up.

What role / lane should I play with Brand in Wild Rift?

Brand is traditionally played as an offensive support because he plays well even without much gold gain. He can also be played in the mid lane as he is an oppressive laner that can easily create lane priority.

What abilities do I level up with Brand?

What items should I build with Brand?

Brand’s core items are Liandry’s Torment so you’ll be able to stack more % HP damage over time, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter as its Icy passive that slows down enemies is reapplied each time the Blaze passive ticks. Brand can also buy Luden’s Echo as a first item for more burst damage.

What Runes should I use when playing as Brand?

Aery allows Brand to consistently deal more damage through pokes. Alternatively, Electrocute is great for bursting down a single target. His other runes are Brutal, Bone Plating, and Hunter – Genius.

How do I maximize my damage as Brand?

You can maximize damage as brand through two ways, first by consistently landing skillshots so that the enemy would always be Ablazed. The most ideal pacing on Brand’s abilities is once every two seconds.

The second way is to burst down enemies and quickly apply the Detonation of the Blaze passive by quickly using all the basic abilities in quick succession. You have to have a clean hit for Brand’s 1st ability, Sear and the ideal combo progression is 3rd > 1st > 2nd.

List of all Wild Rift Champion builds

Last updated on August 29th, 2023