Hello everyone, welcome to my Braum guide! My name is Jovy, and I'm an admin here on MOBAFire and an avid League player, who's been hooked since late 2011. I started maining support around the middle of 2012 so I've got almost a decade of experience with the role! I picked Braum up on release in season 4 and I've been playing/maining him off and on ever since. Braum is a fantastic team-oriented pick. His whole kit is all about protecting his allies and enabling them to grab kills, either with the help of his crowd control or his surprising early game damage. If you're an LEC or LCS watcher, you might have picked up that he's a pretty consistently popular pick in pro play. This is all because of his enabling playstyle, a good team will be incredible with a Braum at their side. SoloQ doesn't see as much Braum because, well, it tends to be less team-oriented and more chaotic. Nevertheless, certain team comps benefit immensely from Braum, and he can shut down key enemy champions as well, which makes him invaluable in certain games!

Braum, the Heart of Freljord - a top tier tanky support, similar to the likes of Alistar and Leona. He's got decent damage, good CC and thus good peel, many poro friends and, according to lore, everyone likes him. Has he any drawbacks at all? Just a few.

- Vulnerable to poke: Like most melee champions, Braum has to be careful when laning against ranged enemies, for they can poke him down with either ranged abilities or autoattacks. Although Braum's E can lower the amount of damage Braum takes from poke, E has a large CD that's best saved for trading.

- Can't poke efficiently: Not only do you have a problem dealing with poke, but also with poking yourself. You have one ranged skillshot with which to poke with, but, unfortunately, using it too often in lane will cause you to have low mana. Additionally, it can be evaded/intercepted with some effort and, when it does hit, it doesn't do as much damage as you might like it to.

- No sustain: Although you are tanky, you have no sustain bar your health regen and potions, if you buy them. This can be a problem if you get poked down too much, as you'll be forced to go back. Utilising your E and W, you can avoid dropping too low on HP, but this will deplete your mana supplies. All these together mean that Braum in general has a pretty weak laning phase.

And as for the advantages:

+ Many slows, stuns and more: A lot of crowd control, good for both protecting your allies and destroying your enemies, as well as for engagements and disengagements. His Q and R slow enemies, and his R also knocks enemies up, and then there's his passive, which can apply multiple stuns to multiple people in teamfights with just an auto-attack from you. Extremely valuable in teamfights and lane phase.

+ Amazing peel: Being able to apply slows and stuns so effortlessly make peeling for your team extremely easy. If anyone jumps on your ADC, it's enough to just slap him a few times with your AA and he'll be stunned. After the stun wears off, you can easily hit your Q, ult or exhaust. Whatever's necessary.

+ Roam and gank potentional: Again this is where your CC comes in. Not only is Braum a great roamer (good movement speed with boots, a gap closer and CC) but he's great when recieving a gank, as he has great follow up and engagement.

+ Tanky: Good tank stats that are also boosted when you use your W make Braum very durable. When stats alone aren't enough, you have your E which basically nullifies all damage heading towards you. This makes you a nice sponge in teamfights, amazing in 2v2 duels bot lane and overall a huge pain to play against.

When you or your nearby ally take damage, both of you gain movememnt speed and a shield. This can be a quick defense and escape mechanism (making use of the speed, you can quickly disengage) or you can take advantage of the speed and shield and counter-engage.

Font of Life tags enemies whose movement you've impaired and allies who then attack this target get slightly healed. A good choice for someone with as much CC as Braum.

After taking damage, the next 3 attacks or spells from the same enemy will deal less damage to you. A very powerful rune, especially during laning phase when you're much squishier. It's great for melee supports so you can negate some idle poke as well, like from Brand or Lux.

Braum benefits greatly from health as it will make him both tankier and a bit physically stronger since his Q scales with it. Overgrowth is an easy choice to boost your max HP for free.

With this rune you receive a biscuit every 3 minutes until the 12th which, when consumed, grants you health and mana. Everytime you consume a biscuit you also gain a permanent boost to your maximum mana.

This rune will give you boots for free at 12 minutes, but remove the possibility to buy boots before they spawn into your inventory. Ideally, you will get a few takedowns before the 12th minute which lowers the spawning time of the boots, which makes the waiting an acceptable tradeoff for the free shoes. Magical boots are also slightly faster than Boots of Speed and its upgrades!

This spell will essentially just give you some CDR for everything - spells, items, abilities and an increased CDR cap to boot. CDR is always useful so this is a pretty safe pick-up on any champion, Braum included.

Niche rune choice, can be helpful for saving your ally if they get stunned or slowed. You'll get a movement speed boost running towards them and the boost will put you in range for W and E and hopefully save your ally.

Essential on nearly every champion in the game, and essential on Braum as well. It's not only the best defensive spell, but also the best offensive spell. Defensively it's used as an escape, an extra - more reliable - gap closer for you. Offensively it can be used to catch up to enemies that are trying to escape, or in order to get in range to use your abilities on your enemies.

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Ignite is a great summoner spell for aggressive supports. The idea is that Ignite will increase your kill potential in lane and you and your marksman will get super powerful and be able to do amazing things during mid game. Take Ignite especially when you're against squishy enemies, or when you're laning with an aggressive Marksman, and when you're against a lot of healing champions like Dr Mundo, Soraka, Vladimir and others.

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I like to take Exhaust when I'm in a very unfavourable match-up or against lanes with a lot of burst damage, such as when you're against the likes of Brand or Draven. Sometimes it's beneficial to pick up when the enemy has a lot of assassins, as Exhaust can negate a lot of their damage if it's well-timed.

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Braum's basic attacks and Winter's Bite apply stacks of Concussive Blows. Once the first stack has been applied, the basic attacks of any allied champion will generate Concussive Blow stacks. Upon reaching 4 stacks, the target is stunned and takes 16 + (10 * level) magic damage.

Braum's bread and butter. This ability is what makes Braum such a strong 2v2er and teamfighter, for he can apply a stack on anyone on their team and his allies can quickly stun them.

Once an enemy is stunned, he cannot gain any stacks in the next 8 seconds, but during this time he will take bonus magic damage from Braum's AAs. Although the magic damage is pretty insignificant in teamfights, in lane it can be rather useful, so make sure to take advantage of the magic damage as well.

Enemies will not just stand in your melee range or run into your Qs, and in fact as soon as they get one stack they'll probably run for the hills. This is why you need to be clever when using this passive. In lane a good way of applying a quick stun on the enemy is this: walk up to (or use your W on a minion to get in melee range) the enemy (support) and AA as many times as you can before they run out of range, this will usually be after one or two AAs. Once they're out of melee range, Q them. Now they have at least two stacks and are slowed, giving you time to squeeze in at least one more AA, if not two. Even if you don't stun them, you chunked them for a good bit of health with the magic damage from Concussive Blows and your basic attack damage.

Braum propels ice from his shield that travels forward in a line, dealing magic damage and slowing the first enemy hit by 70%, which decays over 2 seconds.

His other bread and butter! This is your only "spammable" ranged ability and so it is utilised for poking as well as engaging.

Poking with this ability doesn't just consist of aiming it and pressing a button. If you use it from long range, it will not only be more difficult to hit, but it will also be something of a waste even if it does hit. Why? Because it's very mana inefficient. This because, for one, it costs a rather considerable amount of mana, especially when spammed. For two, it doesn't really do much damage, especially at earlier levels and when you haven't gotten any HP items. So in order to utilise it efficiently, make sure to couple your Q with either some AAs from you, or some AAs/abilities from your ADC. Using it without any "backup" will result in you going OOM, and your enemies still having an adequate amount of health.

In teamfights this ability can be used as an effective engagement tool. Using this applies a stack of your passive, which is basically a signal for your team to attack, especially your ranged teammates. Hitting your Q at a start of a teamfight is basically a free stun, and a free kill or at least a free flash-burn.

In lane, when engaging, be sure to follow the instructions from above. Before using your Q, AA your enemies in order to be able to land a quick stun before they run out of range.

Braum leaps to a nearby ally, positioning himself between his target and their nearest enemy champion. On arrival, Braum and his friend gain bonus armour and magic resist for 3 seconds.

Aside from being a run o' the mill gap closer, it will grant you and your ally a good bit of bonus MR and armour. You can also self-cast this ability so that you gain these stats when you are alone and taking damage from enemies/tanking a tower/dragon/a minion wave/etc.

This ability may also be utilised as an escape in certain scenarios. This is only possible if there's minions or an allied champion nearby in a convenient position.

But there are many more uses to this ability. Getting to lane quicker - by bouncing onto the lane friend ahead of you or a minion. Then there's leaping onto your lane friend during 2v2 fights so you are both tankier. Additionally, it is possible to leap over some walls and terrain if an ally is on the other side. This is possibe at the Baron and Dragon pits.

And finally, using it to get in melee range and engage fights. This you do by leaping onto a minion that has positioned itself just in front of your enemy laner. This will put you in the position between that minion and the enemy, and in very close range of that enemy. You can now, if close enough, AA them to apply stacks, or, if not close enough, Q them.

Additionally if possible, you can flank your enemies using this ability by bouncing onto a minion once the enemy has gone past the caster minion line. Using your W in such fashion is something that could be quite useful when you are roaming (or ganking) another lane.

Braum raises his shield, creating a barrier that intercepts all incoming, hostile projectiles for the next 3-4 seconds. Braum takes no damage from the first projectile he intercepts and reduced damage from intercepted projectiles thereafter. He also gains 10% movement speed for the duration of the ability.

Braum's final bread and butter. I promise.

So, bluntly put, this shield is ridiculous. It will basically nullify all damage heading for you, and it lasts for a whole 3-4 seconds.

The most obvious use of this ability is during trading in bot lane, or if that wasn't obvious - now you know. When your ADC starts fighting the enemy ADC, get in between them (either by walking if you're close enough, or using your W otherwise) and use this ability. Now your ADC and you will take near to no damage, whereas the enemy will still take a considerable amount.

Next, blocking abilities. Things like Enchanted Crystal Arrow, Trueshot Barrage, Super Mega Death Rocket! and Boomerang Blade, that would normally do a lot of damage, can be blocked completely by this shield. You can save yourself and your allies from taking fatal damage by using this ability.

But why stop there? Blocking damage? Puh. Block things like Death Sentence, Rocket Grab and Dark Binding for your ADC in lane. This by, once again, either walking in between your AD and the skillshot, or by using your W and then E. Sure, you'll be taking a hook to the face and get CC'd, but you're much tankier than your AD, and you're not even a primary target. If you've used your E to block something, there's still a couple more seconds before it disappears, and you won't take much damage until it does.

Braum slams his shield into the ground, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a line as well as those in an X-radius area around him. The first champion hit is knocked up for 1-1.5 seconds, and subsequent enemies are also knocked up but only briefly.

Actual final bread and butter. Nah, kidding, but it's pretty good. This is an AoE slow and knock-up, that does a good bit of damage and, frankly, is very pleasing to the eye.

Although it's relatively long range, it's somewhat slow and enemies can dodge it if they see it coming, especially if they have some sort of gap closer. This is why you should try to use this while your enemies are slowed with Q, or some ally ability, or, better yet, when they're stunned.

When to use it specifically? Generally it's best used in teamfights, when your enemies are clumped up together. This ability sets up for many combos, such as Bullet Time, Curse of the Sad Mummy, Glacial Prison and Last Breath, for example.

You take Q at level one and max it first. This is so that it has a shorter CD and does more damage, as this is your primary way of engaging and poking.

You take your first point in W at lvl 3 and max it last. Alternatively, you can choose to put the first point in at lvl 4, but it's safer to do it sooner as you might need it in case of a gank.

First point is taken at lvl 2, as this is when the first duels occur in bot lane. You max it second, and maxing it will increase the duration and lower the CD.

As with all ultimates, you put a point in R every time you are able. Level 6, 11 and then 16.

Steel Shoulderguards are the obvious starter item for melee tank supports. Steelguards and their upgrades give you health, a very valuable stat for tanks, a bit of AD and passive gold generation.

Health potions are necessary because as a melee support, you'll be in danger of getting poked down. If you're too low on health to engage, then you are basically useless.

Warding Totem is your "starting" totem, you get this with Relic Shield at the very start of the game. It stocks 2 wards and you use these to either ward the enterances to bot lane or to ward the lane brush in order to keep an eye on the enemy support.

Best option for aggreesive makin'-things-happen supports. Boots of mobility grant a load of out-of-combat movement speed which makes roaming, warding and engaging a lot easier for you. Being super fast is very intimidating for the enemy laners as well.

Once you've unlocked wards from your gold item, you won't need Totem anymore. The best thing to do is to get Oracle Lens and use it to clear enemy wards. Generally you'll want to clear wards when you are looking to have your junger gank.

This item auto-ugprades from Runesteel Spaulders and it gives you an extra ward and some health, health regen and AD. Stats aside, the most important thing about getting this upgrade is the fact that you'll be able to carry 4 wards in your pocket instead of 3, which means you'll need to recall less for ward-refreshing.

This item gives your ADC numerous boosts. When you're near your partner, the damage he deals to enemies will heal you and a percentage of the damage they take will be redirected towards you and deal true damage. Though you will take some damage with this item, it'll certainly be less than what your AD could handle as you will have a lot more health. Aside from this, the item itself is great as all the stats compliment Braum greatly.

The stats are great and the passive has excellent synergy with Braum. Ulting near an ally summons a "storm" around you which slows and burns the enemies.

A great item for starting fights or escaping from less-than-favourable ones. The stats you get from this item also complement Braum greatly. The only downside is that it's quite pricey, so you might want to skip it if there are more pressing items you need to get for your team.

Solari is your go-to item when you need Magic Resistance. Aside from the very useful stats like health, health regen and magic resist of course, you gain an incredibly strong active. The active will shield every one of your team members for 2 seconds, which is very useful in teamfights especially versus AoE enemy team comps. For example, it's incredibly useful against a Karthus, Miss Fortune or Fiddlesticks.

This item basically bulks you up significantly, increasing your armour and MR by 40 in teamfights (or small skirmishes) when there are 3 enemies nearby. Outside of this passive (called Stone Skin), the item stats are great and synergize well with Braum, and there's also an added active which increases your size and health, but lowers your damage. As you're a tank and not a damage dealer, the active gives you no real drawbacks and will simply make you tougher to kill in team fights.

Dead Man's Plate is built from Giant's Belt and Chain Vest, so it grants a big amount of armour and health. It additionally grants a passive called Dreadnought, which stacks while you're moving. As you move, you gradually gain up to 60 movement speed and your next auto-attack deals extra damage. Useful stats and a useful passive = great item.

Randuin's Omen consists of similar components as the above item so it's another good general choice when you need to get tankier. You will want to get it specifically when your ADC is struggling to get certain champions off their back. So against things that really stick to your ADC and are difficult to peel or kite, get this item. A couple examples are Jax or Nasus.

Frozen Heart is a good armour choice which you should specifically pick up if you're struggling to fight champions who rely on attack speed - Jax, Vayne and Tryndamere for example.

Thornmail gives a good mix of armour and health with a unique passive. When enemies auto-attack you when you've got this item, some % of the damage they do reflects back onto them as magic damage. The damage scales with level and with bonus armour, so the more armour you have the more potent the ability is. I'd suggest building this against teams that consist namely, or entirely, of physical damage dealers.

Before jumping into Braum-specific gameplay, I'd like to talk about certain general points of gameplay for support players. This includes, roaming, a word on timing spells and camps, a word on the importance of communication, the issue of kill-stealing and, finally, wave management.




Roaming involves leaving your lane in order to gank another. You've got a lot of CC so ganking is very easy and it is encouraged that you roam at least a little each game if it's possible.

Bad times to roam:

Bot lane is pushed to your tower: In this scenario, leaving your lane would mean, at best, losing bottom tower. At worst, they could tower dive and kill your ADC, then take tower.

Your AD has just arrived to lane after having recalled: This means that he's been off lane, missing CS, and if you leave him now he'll get zoned and lose even more.

Good times to roam:

When you're playing against a passive lane: This means there won't constantly be fighting bot lane and you're free to sneak off mid lane for some action.

When you've just recalled: Before heading bot lane, sneak off to top or mid lane and do a quick gank.

Where you roam, as in which lane, depends on your team as well as the enemy team. Although mid lane is closer, it's arguably more difficult to gank, because the lane is shorter - meaning there's less distance between the enemy and their tower. If they're nowhere near their turret, there's still several exits from mid lane, whereas bot and top there's only the one towards river and the one toweards the tower.

That said, if the enemy mid laner is one that's easy to gank - no gap closers or their Flash is on CD, no CC or low CC/unreliable CC, squishy or on low HP - in spite of the fact that mid is tougher to gank, it's a good idea to do so.

The same can be said about top lane. It's an easier lane to gank, but it's far away and therefore it's riskier. For one, because your ADC will be alone for a long time, and, for two, because it'll take you longer to get back to your own lane if the gank is unsuccessful, meaning you'll lose out on more XP/gold than you would if you failed a mid lane roam.

A successful mid or top lane gank can secure a Rift Herald or Dragon, towers, or just kills for your laners - unless you steal 'em (try not to!).



Traditionally the support is expected to keep track of and remind the team of certain in-game timers. This is probably because supports don't have to CS, so they have some extra time and brain power to spare. Keep track of summoner spell cooldowns (especially Flash, which is 5 minutes) and Dragon/Baron timers and ping them when they are about to spawn. I ping each time when there is 1 minute until Dragon or Baron spawn, to make sure my team doesn't forget to recall and start heading that way if necessary.




League of Legends is a team game and it requires good rapport between you and your fellow teammates. But bot lane especially is the lane which requires the most trust & communication, since you are two people working together towards the same goal, like the symbiotic relationship between some fishies and sea anemones. You keep your ADC safe, farmed and happy and they'll reward you with a nice victory screen.

Of course in order to achieve this you need to have good synergy with your ADC and good communication. Synergy can be hard to come by, and it's usually best for you to adjust your playstyle slightly depending on the ADC (both champion and person). If they're playing passively, rushing in on risky fights might result in some fish dinner for the enemy. This is why a lot of people play duoQ bot lane, since then they are always aware of the limits of their partner.

When you are playing solo though, you'll need to rely on the chat and the pings. Chatting in the middle of the game is probably ill-advised, as it's not a particularly slow moving game, especially in laning phase, this is why you will have to learn to use your pings properly. The help ping when you are trying to escape (it'll notify your ADC to come to you so you can E off him or counter-engage), the danger ping or retreat ping when you notice a foreigner near bot lane. Most importantly you'll want to notify your ADC about the cooldowns of your spells and abilities (alt+click on ability/spell). If you notify your ADC that your exhaust isn't up for another 20 seconds, they'll know to patiently wait before an engage, or to play safe.

Firstly, you need to utilise your Steel Shoulderguards efficiently all throughout lane and this is how:

First wave: Last-hit two MELEE minions. Do not bother wasting your stack(s) on caster minions, as they give you less gold. Third wave: By the third wave you'll have regained a third stack, which you will use to kill the cannon minion. These minions grant the most gold and you'll want to kill these every time. They spawn every 3 waves.

After the third wave keep saving your stacks for every third wave until your Shoulderguards upgrade. Once you've collected 500 gold you'll be able to consistently keep bot lane warded; so it's extremely important to be on top of your CS-ing and get the upgrades ASAP!

Now level one Braum is not exactly the strongest champion in the game. Depending on the match-up, you will either want to chill in the back and approach only to get the Shoulderguards stacks (this is when you're against a ranged, especially pokey, support) or (if you're against a melee support) you'll be able to assert some dominance without being scared of getting poked down. The important thing is, whether you're against a ranged or melee support, NOT to get poked down. If you take too much damage, you can kiss a level two fight goodbye.



What comes next depends on at least three factors.

1) Who got level 2 first? If you got level 2 first, it's usually a no-brainer. You're stronger, healthier and you've got an extra ability on your opponent. If you haven't gotten poked down and you're in a favourable match-up, you may want to get Stand Behind Me at level 2 and engage, hopefully snag a kill or a couple of summoner spells. 2) Are you low? If you got poked down too hard at level 1, even if you get level 2 first you will probably want to err on the side of caution, unless the enemy is very low as well. 3) Who are you up against, again? Now if you're high on health and you've gotten level 2 first, chances are whomever you're against is in hot water. However, if the enemy is ALSO level 2, and you're all equally healthy, then you may have to pause and consider the match-up. Do you win a straight up 2v2, or can they turn it around in their favour if you engage?

The big change between levels 1-5 and lvl 6 is, obviously, you've got your ultimate now, and so do your enemy laners and your lane mate. Fights are now more serious as every fight may result in a kill for either team. Additionally, you are more susceptible to being ganked by the enemy jungler, mid laner, top laner or all three at once even.

How do I know if I'm getting ganked? Wards. By now you should have your Eye item and you better use it. Having Dragon and Tri brush warded is usually enough to ensure your safety, but wards are useless if you haven't got good map awareness. Every few seconds you must look at the map, especially if your team has pinged that their lane has an enemy missing, to make sure nobody is heading bot lane. Another thing to look out for is the Teleport animation coming from the enemy top laner.

Having your ult also means that your ganks are more potent. Roaming around this time is encouraged.

Team fights start occuring around the time lane phase ends and mid game begins, and they don't stop until one of the Nexuses turns to shards. Usually teamfights are connected to objectives - towers, inhibs, Dragons, Barons, even regular buffs and the Scuttler. People will find any excuse to fight these days.

There's a few roles you play in teamfights:

1) The Tank As you're a bulky durable support, sometimes the only thing you end up doing in a teamfight is soak up a lot of damage. In no sense is this a bad thing. I mean, either you take 2k damage or your AD does, and they die. 2) The Peeler Sticking to your ADC like glue, not leaving him unless you have to and peeling off assassins, bruisers and all sorts of other nasty things off of him using your abilities and Exhaust. Don't forget you have active items - Randuin's Omen, Locket of the Iron Solari, Redemption! This is basically your primary function in most teamfights. 3) The CC Machine CC as many people as possible. You can apply Concussive Blows stacks and stuns to more than just one person in teamfights, as your team is always there to AA the poor fool who got hit by your AA/Q. 4) The Initiator Braum has some decent catch potential with his long ranged slow and knock-up. You might end up being the one who engages the teamfights, but usually you will want someone else in the team (your jungler or top laner, as they tend to be engagers/tanks like you) to do this instead so that you are free to peel and assist. 5) That Guy Who Got Caught And, well, sometimes you're that guy.

← Click here to check out my general guide on Warding to learn all about it! .

And that concludes my guide. I hope you found it helpful, thanks for reading and good luck on the Rift!

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, please feel free to post in the comments or send me a private message. I will read everything and reply to all questions and criticism. I've written a couple other other guides, and, if you liked this one, checking them out would be appreciated ♥

Thanks to my friend Shea for helping me keep the build & guide updated :) I warmly recommend checking out his guide on GP and TF if you also play mid lane!