All THREATS are Rated as if Briar is in a 1v1 against them. No help from anyone else (supports/ADCs are RATED on how easily they KITE Briar's engage)
EXTREME = UNPLAYABLE
Starting with JAX its Probably worth perma banning if you ever want to play Briar, very common toplane pick so you might as well AFK because you never beat Jax at any point in the game due to his E and scaling.
Rammus
EXTREME = UNPLAYABLE
Aftershock + Rammus Armor & passive thornmail + item Thornmail will cause Briar to commit Sodoku. Maybe you can kill him but only if his Aftershock and/or his W is on cooldown. Very small windows to play around and you cant usually kill him during them either.
Ivern
Proper use of Daisy knockups + Ivern E slows and Q roots will completely halt Birars engage. Late game when he has max CDR/ability haste he can just chain CC you and make it near impossible for you to engage on himself or his allies
Shaco
BOXES ARE YOUR WORST ENEMY. He can lead you straight into his traps when you are taunted onto him. If the player is REALLY good at Shaco they can ALSO force Briar to attack his clone during her W or blocking Briars Ult with his clone and forcing you to be locked onto his clone until it dies. This is heavily Shaco favored matchup unless he is really behind.
Taliyah
Really hard to chase down. Her whole kit punishes people who run in a straight line and when self taunted youre gonna eat every rock she throws every knock back from her W and every explosive stone from her E whenever you use Q or W dashes. Luckily a lot of people dont play her.
Cassiopeia
Miasma DISABLES your Q and your W1 dash. If you use W1 or Land R on her, you cant turn away from her Ultimate. Pretty much always destroys you.
Teemo
If teemo has a lot of CDR for his Q you will be essentially useless vs him let alone in team fights. He can force you to walk into every shroom he sets up + blind Q makes it almost impossible to play Briar if hes on the enemy team at all.
Nilah
Nilah W makes her immune to all auto attacks which is amazing against Briar and makes it near impossible for Briar to kill her unless youre REALLY ahead. Nilah can also use her E Dash right over you the moment you start to charge your E which means you'll almost never land an E on her and like I said earlier, her W negates all your auto attacks during Briar Berserking mode which means 2 of your main abilities are just non-existent vs her.
Graves
MAJOR = ENEMY FAVORED
If you are jungling vs an Enemy Graves, he will naturally have an Advantage. His armor stacking Grit + his extra little mobility makes him hard to fight or kill. Briar will also be taking every single shotgun pellet to her mouth due to her self taunt on a graves giving him more damage. However, if the graves isnt keeping his grit fully stacked before fights, it makes it really easy to kill him as he wont usually build much armor. So a good graves player would be a 5 but most solo q graves will put him at a 4 in threat difficulty.
Kha'Zix
Khazix DESTROYS Briar early and can bully her out of the game. However, Khazix can manipulate your self-taunt by going invisible. This almost always gives him an advantage against Briar. Briar W will still heat-seek Khazix if he goes invis, but if he has W evolve for 90% slow you will never catch him. If khazix goes invisible while briar is fighting him near any minion or other enemies, like for example scuttle crab, it will break aggro from Khazix and throw briar at the next closes target, essentially wasting her W. Almost impossible to win this matchup as its heavily khazix sided.
Master Yi
After further research, Briar Q easily stops Master Yis meditate heal. Save it for that and you out trade him most times unless hes fed. The biggest problem with Master Yi is that his Alpha Strike can cancel your W and can also use his Alpha Strike to dodge briar R very easily. If Briar uses Blood Frenzy on Yi and then he uses Alpha Strike it will cancel out Briars W completely. Try to not use W until he alpha strikes.
Hwei
Almost unplayable unless you land Ult on him. He can easily fear + ult briar and you will never catch him.
Elise
Elise is a really hard matchup for Briar. Can completely dodge your ult with her Rappel in spider form, and cocoon Briar to stop you from berserking. Still needs the elise player to have good reaction times but honestly still in her favor just because of her Cocoon
Kayn
BLUE KAYN
Blue kayn is really good against Briar and is the best form for kayn against briar. Its hard to get since Briar gives kayn red orbs but if its a good game for kayn to get his blue form it makes it almost impossible for briar to ever catch him with his W being a 90% slow. His ultimate has further range and is great to out space briar if she ever catches him but with Kayn E being on a permanent 8 second cooldown once he gets his form he is VERY slippery and hard to catch as he wont ever try to duel you and just out poke briar with his W range + slow.
Amumu
Amumu passive reducing basic attack damage coupled with his guaranteed armor stacking makes it really hard to ever kill Amumu and he can also peel Briar very easily off his team making you very unlikely to succeed.
Nocturne
Noc as a Jungler always wins. After further testing everything in his kit is pretty much a direct counter to everything in Briars kit. Quite unplayable, his early game is stronger than Briar as well since his Q gives him bonus AD to stat check briar early, spell shield can eat briar ult or stop briar from stunning him with Q and even stop briar from knocking him back with her E either. His fear can always be saved when briar is in Blood Frenzy mode which will pretty much auto win every fight against briar.
Rengar
EVEN = SKILL MATCHUP
Briar can just use her E whenever Rengar tries to do his Pounce combo on her. Reduces his burst and allows you to turn the fight. Forces rengar to ult away from you
Sylas
With full crit Briar, sylas can easily burst you when he gets 2/3 items, he can also use briars ult better than her as it has high AP scaling too. If you can use Briars E to minimize his burst combo you might be able to kill him but thats easier said than done.
Renata Glasc
Her Ultimate overrides Briars W and overrides Briars Ultimate, making Briar chase your allies. She can also stop you with her CC and her Revive ability. Source: https://youtu.be/SzUslTUY6dg?feature=shared&t=350
Lulu
Lulu Polymorph really just counters your entire kit. Most people can at least run away when polymorphed but briar will run AT her still when polymorphed and cant use E during a polymorph to cancel the self-taunt. If you ult someone she can Ult your target for a free knock up and polymorph you to easily turn the fight.
Gangplank
During Briars self-taunt, shes gonna walk into every barrel and wont have the option to destroy them once you use Briar W1 or R. He can just farm barrels on you that you will never be able to destroy. He can also cleanse Briar Q stun, E stun, or R fear.
Wukong
If the wukong is really good he will make sure to use his Clone to tank your W. Its hard to pull off but if done well can really screw you over.
Evelynn
Charming is weird semi-counter since Briar is already running at her when going Berserk, however during a charm you cant attack so Briar has to make sure evelynn doesnt have charm before going in to win.
Poppy
Poppy W allows Poppy to stop Briar Q every time. However, this requires the poppy to have good reaction time. Poppy can also bait Brair when shes taunted to stand near a wall for a free stun. However this again is completely based on if the poppy is good enough to do all that or not.
Jarvan IV
Jarvan loses really hard to Briar Early game but J4 tends to gank more than invade which briar can almost never win a 2v2 early vs J4. Briar outscales J4 but early game is a bit rough. A good J4 can easily take over the early game against a Briar and make it impossible to come back.
Ekko
MORE SKILL MATCHUPS. As briar you MUST save your E to buffer Ekkos W stun. If you can do this you will likely win every fight beause your E cant be stopped by CC. He can burst Briar and is hard to kill with his ultimate up which makes this a skill matchup
Milio
Very easy to escape Briar as a Milio. Milio Q is always going to hit you if you ever try to focus him or his ADC which stops your engage pretty hard. The increased range he gives his carries will allow them to kite the hell out of you. If you ever land an ult on him and fear his surrounding team he can just press R and cleanse your entire ult fear range since it doesnt fear the initial target. If he times his Q right he can always cancel Briars Q with his Q as its a low cooldown. This makes Milio a target you NEVER want to focus because you will rarely be able to stick onto him if you do. Obviously you win in a 1v1, but my point is Milio is never going to fight you and is excellent at kiting you and buffing his entire team to kite you with him.
Kayn
RED KAYN
Rhaast is the decent against Briar as Rhaast is able to brust and out heal Briars damage and kite her with his W knock up and E away through walls. Rhaast W knock up will always make it hard for briar to ever run him down. Rhaast can also use his R to turn the fight if he gets low and hide in it for the duration of Briars W. He cant really duel briar as Rhaast but if he can space her out he will win most fights.
Diana
If briar falls behind Diana can easily burst briar and can win short trades with her shield and Ultimate + hourglass. Otherwise briar will usually win.
Hecarim
More skill matchups. Briar E can buffer Hecarim Ultimate & fear and use Briar E to cancel out Hecarim E as well. Hecarim needs to space the Briar really hard with his max Q range which makes this matchup a bit easier for Briar.
Udyr
Kindred
Kindred needs to be a kiting GOD to win this matchup. Briar E can push Kindred out of her ult if you can get the angle.
Gragas
Gragas always has to waste his ultimate to get briar off him or his team mates, This makes him good to stop briar engage but not win a 1v1 completely.
Lillia
Lillia must space briar really well with her Q move speed and E slows and Ultimate sleep. Shes very hard to catch with everything up and is stronger then Briar but only if you kite with her really well.
Viego
This is a skill matchup, but Veigo is favored early so if he uses that to get ahead he will stay ahead. Briar needs to not fight him in his E and Briar must use Briar's E to reduce his Stun combo/ultimate damage. If viego catches briar without her E hes likely killing her.
Lee Sin
Lee can disengage the fights against briar very well with his Ultimate but loses early to briar without it. If he doesnt kill briar or put her near death with his initial combo briar will just heal it all back and turn the fight
Warwick
Warwick plays a lot like briar, almost identical playstyles. That being Said his fear gives him the advantage in all early fights but briar has the stats to outscale him late game. Warwick must invade and punish briar early or else briar will take over the game
Volibear
Briar must use Her E to buffer Volibear Thunder Stun combo. If you can do that you can easily turn the fight. If you dont you will likely lose.
Malphite
Full armor stacking + attack speed reduction and movepseed steal AND movespeed reduction. This makes it really hard for Briar to kill a malphite but only if briar is behind
Zac
Zac is really easy for briar to beat. He is tanky but you can just E buffer his entire combo and use Briar Q to cancel Zac E. His passive can be annoying so its up to briar to keep an eye on that.
Rek'Sai
Reksai isnt op against briar, Briar can easily tell when Reksai is underground and buffer the knock up combo from Reksai with Briar E and negate a lot of reksais burst, once her burst is over Briar will win the fight if she doesnt die from it initially. However reksai is always stronger early so if the reksai invades he can make briar useless.
Rumble
Rumble can easily overpower a briar if Rumble manipulates briar Berserk to sit in his ultimate and burn Briar to death, he is never a target briar should focus unless he is behind.
Xin Zhao
Dr. Mundo
His passive prevents him from being feared from Briars AOE fear from her ult, Mundo can also outheal Briars W damage + R and anti heals Briar with thornmail + tabis for free. You also cant use Briar E or Q on him pretty much ever thanks to his passive. So fighting him or locking him down will be near impossible unless you are SUPER ahead or he is very behind.
Darius
He destroys Briar Pre-level 6. Briar needs to use her Q or W dash INSIDE his Q so he doesnt full heal.
Trundle
Huge trundle favor early as his Q reduces your AD and his lifesteal can mimick yours at 1 item. Briar outscales trundle but a good trundle can take you out of the game early.
Alistar
Alistar will ping pong you during your Self Taunt. Alistar has access to Frozen Heart + Randuins ontop of his Ult and CC Combo and possibly thornmail. All he has to do is ult and combo you and you cant really kill him if you taunt onto him. He cant kill you either but he can hold you off until his team mates do.
Zoe
Zoe Sleep bubble is really easy to land when you taunt onto her. Not much room for outplay and if you get hit it stops you from being taunted by putting you to sleep effectively never catching a Zoe or team fights as long as her E is up. If her E is down she can buffer your Q stun with her R. Depends on how good the zoe is.
Malzahar
Dont ever try to fight Malzahar unless you know 100% his ult is down. His passive shield does NOT stop briars ultimate ability. Malzahar shield is a damage reduction shield not a spell shield like Sivirs (See sivir spell shield)
Sivir
SIVIR SPELL SHIELD COMPLETELY CONSUMES BRIARS ULT. If sivir presses E she can block Briars ultimate and you wont fly to her if it hits Sivir's shield. She can also use it to block your E or Q so Sivir shield is really hard to play against as well as her being able to easily kite you with her Ultimate. Its not even hard to react to it due to the global sound queue and effect the enemies See when briar ults. The only way Sivir is weak against briar is if sivir doenst have her shield up but her shield is always a lower CD than Briar ult so itll be hard but not impossible (See malzahar)
Nasus
Late game, Wither reduces Briar attack speed by a LOT and also saps your movespeed as well. All Nasus has to do is Wither Briar as soon as briar taunts and with ghost he can easily outrun you. If he has tons of passive stacks + frozen heart or randuins since he can easily stack armor- you will be pretty useless against him. However you destroy him early if he chooses to fight you, and if hes behind hes usually a free kill.
Caitlyn
Hard to avoid Cait traps when running in a straight line. Cait + Lulu makes you non-existent. Your ultimate landing on her is the only shot you have to kill her but even then she can just E flash and usually get away.
Veigar
Briar ult makes you unstoppable so Veigar cant stop your ult with his cage. However, if he saves the cage after you land or when you dont have ultimate up- youre pretty useless
Azir
Azir is similar to veigar. Briar ult makes you unstoppable so Azir cant stop your ult with R. However, if he saves his R after you land or when you dont have ultimate up- youre pretty useless
Vex
Vex is similar to veigar and Azir. Briar ult makes you unstoppable so Vex cant stop your ult with her FEAR. However, if Vex saves her Fear after you land or when you dont have ultimate up- youre pretty useless
Heimerdinger
Very Hard to kill a Heimerdinger late game where he sits around his Ult + turrets + hourglass and 600 AP which almost every heimer will run. You should completely avoid fighting a Heimer unless he doesnt have hourglass
Annie
Annie is a champion that excels at destroying melee champs due to her range and Thornmail E + Tibbers stun. This makes annie extremely well against a Briar but requires the annie to be very conscious of her Ult cooldowns and passive Stun stacks
Bel'Veth
MINOR = BRIAR FAVORED.
Briar almost FULL COUNTERS Bel'veth.
BelVeth E gives Belveth 70% damage reduction which Briar can completely disable. Briar can use Briar's Q to stun and stop Belveth during her E. Briar Can also save Briar's E and use it when Bel'Veth tries to knock up Briar with Bel'Veth W. Briar E cannot be canceled when charging it up making Bel'Veths knock up useless. As long as you save your Q to cancel Bel'Veths E, You can also use Briar E to buffer Bel'Veth W, and never lose a fight.
Nidalee
Most nidalee players are bad except for high elo, However its pretty easy to land a huge range nidalee spear on a self-taunted briar. But briar can dodge it with her W 1 or overwhelm nidalee with Briars ultimate
Nunu & Willump
Another champion Ultimate that briar can completely cancel with her Ultimate. Nunus only chance against you is an ultimate out of vision but as long as you keep vision of him you can always cancel his ultimate with yours and follow his ganks around the map with your ult as well. Even if you dont have R up you can just tap Q on nunus head during his ult and stop it that way too.
Skarner
Vi
Most of these Even matchups require Briar to use her E damage negation and healing to buffer critical abilities from an enemy. In Vi's case Briar should always use Briar E to buffer Vi Q or Vi Ultimate. This will help you disengage the vi and turn the fight easily after as these abilities are very telegraphed.
Kayn
BASE KAYN
Briar ***** on early game kayn, if he walks over a wall Briar can almost always hop over it with her W or Q him to stun him out of the wall. Briar E also stuns him if you hit him while hes in his E in a wall
Karthus
Fiddlesticks
Anivia
Anivia is annoying with her stuns and slows but Briar can always hop over anivia wall. Shes harder to kill late game because of seraphs shield + hourglass and egg passive so briar needs to be very aware of these cooldowns before fighting her.
Samira
Samira W wind-wall can completely eat Briar's ult as long as the Samira doesnt have the reaction time of a turtle. Which will be pretty much every time since her W cooldown is always shorter than Briars ult cooldown. Playing against a Samira makes it impossible to get a pick on her or anyone else if she groups
Yasuo
Another wind wall another problem. In a full auto attack battle Briar beats Yasuo, But Yasuo can easily kite Briar by dashing away to minions during Briars Berserk mode and also Windwalling Briar Ultimate from himself or to protect his team, effectively making you never land an ultimate all game.
Jhin
TINY = FREE KILLS ALL GAME
BRIAR ULTIMATE CANCLES JHIN ULTIMATE. WAIT TILL JHIN ULTS THEN JUST ULT NEAR THE SMALL PART OF HIS CONE EVEN WITHOUT VISION YOU WILL HIT STOP HIS ULT AND DESTROY HIM LOL
Miss Fortune
Mf is really annoying when ahead, but thats honestly every adc. The worst part about mf is her movementspeed, she can literally out run you if shes not incombat which is really lame.
Zyra
Zyra can be annoying if they are really good at setting up their plants. If zyra sits on her plants and roots Briar it stops your engage entirely. BUT if zyra wastes her Root or doesnt have ult, shes pretty much a free kill.
Sona
Sona needs to always ult you and exhaust you and even then will still probably die as a free kill.
Shen
Very hard for briar to do anything against a good shen player. Whenever Briar goes on a target, shen can easily just press R, taunt briar and force Briar to attack his "Spirit's Refuge" where it blocks all auto attacks, and essentially be a direct counter to all of briars possible engage and cancel out her ult as he can just press R on the target you hit to avoid Briars fear and help his ally.
Smolder
Hard to really lock down a smolder unless you commit to a flash or ultimate engage. The fact he can fly over walls makes it very hard to lock him down + he builds a lot more bruiser tank items so it can be hard to one shot him unlike other adcs.
Bard
Nothing this character can do helps briar in anyway. His Q is a short range skillshot that most players are going to miss unless they are a bard 1 trick, his W movespeed isnt that much, his E portal cant even be taken by a Briar if you are self taunted and Briar W can go over pretty much every wall anyways, and his ultimate has negative synergy with briar ultimate as it will save whatever target briar is able to hit from her ultimate
Illaoi
Illaoi doesnt have a massive amount of synergy with Briar, depending on the situation Illaoi can actually screw over briars W taunt when Illaoi pulls out a clone of her enemy with Illoai E. This can cause briars taunt to lock onto the wrong target and also block Briars ultimate.
Milio
Milio provides three essential things for Briar, Increased attack range, massive Cleanse from crowd control and additional Tenacity. These are the areas where Briar struggles the most and a milio can easily patch those up. His increased attack range ability stacks on Briar with lethal tempo + W bite increased range for 250 attack range total. (Briar base attack range is 125) Essentially doubling Briars attack range. His biggest problem is his lack of damage and lack of CC.
Orianna
Playing for Orianas Ultimate combo with Briar is really nasty. The fact Oriana can ball briar to not only speed her up and provide her with a shield, but just free ult combo anyone that tries to fight back with briar essentially makes it so that no one can fight briar.
Sivir
Sivir ultimate providing a large movespeed buff for briar helps a lot, however thats all that sivir has that really helps briar in any way. Its also at a 3 because if sivir uses her ult for herself instead of helping briar make plays then she is just useless.
Vex
Vex is decent with briar as both of their ultimates function roughly the same. However Vex cant do much to help briar before she has her ultimate and can only really follow briar into fights but her ultimate isnt as long of a range which makes it harder to follow briar.
Ivern
Ivern is at a 3 because he is VERY good with Briar, but this is a jungle briar guide, which means if an ivern is on your team hes probably in a lane which should never be the case and will hurt your more as a result. Ivern would be S+ for briar top players but thats not this guide so...
Shen
Shen is amazing for Briar as his ultimate allows for clutch outplays from Briar when shes low on HP. The double taunt interaction will allow Briar to be taunted onto an enemy that is taunted onto shen, essentially making them unable to fight back. The fact that Shen's ultimate is global makes it one of the best pairs with Briar ultimate as he can follow her around the map and taunt Briar's target that isnt feared to instantly blow them up.
Yuumi
Generally enchanters are always going to be a favorite paired with Briar so this will go the same for pretty much every other enchanter on this list. Yuumi is able to attach to Briar, provide her movespeed, and fly around the map with her ultimate to lock down briars target. Clear and obvious synergy.
Karma
Karmas massive movement speed buff with her constant shielding and Shurelya's Reverie option allows briar to stick to her enemies easily and support her by locking them down with karmas W.
Braum
Amazing matchup with ally briar, as long as Braum can get a passive stack on a target briar can easilly take care of the rest. Briar has 3 auto resets so she can almost instantly proc braums passive stun. Ontop of the fact that braum shield and dash + his Q slow on a target can help briar lock down an enemy very easily.
Jhin
Jhin has a lot of setup for Briar with his W root and Curtain Call ultimate being able to lock down an an area and help a Briar from afar. Enemies wont be able to turn against Briar because then they will eat every shot from Jhin ult and vice versa. Jhin is just really weak early and since briar is also weak early makes it very hard to win most botside fights or objectives.
Kayle
Kayle is a strong pairing with Briar but kayle has an extremely weak early game as most people are aware of. Briar also has a really weak early game which is the biggest problem with this pairing. When you pick + kayle, you are likely forced to give every topside objective. Even when kayle has her ultimate, its still not enough to win some 2v2 skirmishes unless youre already ahead.
Zilean
Zilean is such an ideal pick for briar, the insane amount of movespeed and CDR this champion has and can offer briar to speed her up like Usain Bolt makes just that worth picking. However his ultimate that allows him to place it on briar so when she dives in she cant be focused or will just revive with full hp makes it too good to pass up.
Renata Glasc
Renata is almost perfect for Briar, she provides a shield and allows briar to dive and not risk dying with renatas revive ability. Briar can easily dive and get a kill with Renata revive on and allow Briar to play crazy. Renatas worst issue is low damage and low mobility which makes it harder to keep up with briar.
Taric
While it might be a bit tricky to pull off, if taric uses his R and is tethered to Briar once she ults, it should perfectly allow her to become immune to all damage as soon as she flys in. Even if she doesnt ult in, taric keeps her healthy and tanky with his shield and healing spells and the Taric E stun sets up perfectly with briar.
Kled
Kled is similar to sivir but in the toplane for Briar. His ultimate providing allies and Briar movesped helps her instantly lock down a target with him. The opposite is also true when Briar uses her ultimate Kled ult has just as far of a range that he can follow her with.
Samira
Samira knockup passive that she has activates when a target is crowd controlled. Briar can easily crowd control an enemy with her Q and E and R aoe Fear allowing samira to get free procs to her passive and ultimate stacks.
Kai'Sa
Kaisa is amazing when paired with Briar, most people dont know that kaisa gains TWO STACKS of her passive, if a nearby ally Crowd Controls an enemy near kaisa. Briar Q/E/R fear can all instantly apply 2 stacks for kaisa passive and allow her to get her ultimate off on any target she chooses. She can also easily ult in an help assassinate a target with Briar ultimate. Her hybrid damage also allows briar to build full ad the enemy doesnt get as much value from stacking armor with kaisas magic damage.
Kennen
Kennen is a very good toplaner currently and excels with Briar as a jungler. Kennen provides great gank setup with his stun and ultimate and builds full AP so the enemy isnt able to stack full armor against a briar and if they do Kennen will oneshot them. His only problem is that hes not as mobile as briar without his flash or ghost up so youll need to play around his cooldowns.
Twisted Fate
Twisted fate is an amazing pair for briar as a mid laner. He has great gank setups with his gold card and once he hits 6 can easily teleport around the map to follow Briar whenever she ults and set up for the easiest bot or top lane dives with no time for the enemy team to react since both his ult and briars are global. Heavy AP damage from TF only makes him stronger if they all try to build armor against Briar
Caitlyn
Briars AOE fear allows Caitlyn to land a lot of ultimate shots for free. Briar can force people to move out of the way with her ult fear and whatever target Briar lands on, cait and preemptively press R and it will almost always land since everyone nearby will be feared and unable to tank it.
Camille
Camille ultimate completely locks down an enemy making them unable to run from Briar and allowing briar to shred the target for free. Camille is also extremely mobile and has great gank setup for briar
Kalista
Kalista in general is just not that good of an adc pick, however she still does have synergy with briar allowing briar to go in deep and save her with Kalista R or take briar in and throw briar at the enemy. Shes just not too good in general with or without briar.
Pyke
Pyke would be higher but it really depends on whos playing it. If they miss every Hook and Ultimate as pyke they are just useless, so this pick is really skill dependent because an amazing pyke would be tier 5 but a bad pyke is worth tier 2.
Morgana
Black shield and morganas lock down potential with her Q and R allow briar to have an easy time running in and ganking enemies. She doesnt have any healing or shielding besides from magic damage so unless theyre all CC heavy it might not be too good to pick.
Yorick
Yorick is able to lock down enemies inside his cage to set up for briar, however i have personally tested and experience that Briar E knockback pushes enemies OUTSIDE of Yoricks cage. Meaning that you wont get the bonus knock back damage into the wall, and the enemy trapped in the cage will escape for free.
Urgot
Urgots ultimate can be timed to to the target that briar ults so that he can gain the free R execute with Urgot. Other than that they have a bit of anti synergy with his E being a knock in and Briar E being a knock back. He also struggles with Briar and his W also focusing minions or the wrong target so if both him and briar use W and it focuses the wrong targets it can get pretty messed up.
Aurelion Sol
When Briar uses her ultimate and is able to fear an enemy, this will allow Aurelion Sol to have amazing setup for his Ultimate and vice versa. Double massive AOE ult wombo combo, might be tricky to pull off but will always win a fight if it does.
Lulu
Decent enchanter for lulu, her ultimate is the best but having to decide between using Lulu W for movespeed or using Lulu W for polymorph makes her not that great.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Bard
Nothing this character can do helps briar in anyway. His Q is a short range skillshot that most players are going to miss unless they are a bard 1 trick, his W movespeed isnt that much, his E portal cant even be taken by a Briar if you are self taunted and Briar W can go over pretty much every wall anyways, and his ultimate has negative synergy with briar ultimate as it will save whatever target briar is able to hit from her ultimate
Illaoi
Illaoi doesnt have a massive amount of synergy with Briar, depending on the situation Illaoi can actually screw over briars W taunt when Illaoi pulls out a clone of her enemy with Illoai E. This can cause briars taunt to lock onto the wrong target and also block Briars ultimate.
Milio
Milio provides three essential things for Briar, Increased attack range, massive Cleanse from crowd control and additional Tenacity. These are the areas where Briar struggles the most and a milio can easily patch those up. His increased attack range ability stacks on Briar with lethal tempo + W bite increased range for 250 attack range total. (Briar base attack range is 125) Essentially doubling Briars attack range. His biggest problem is his lack of damage and lack of CC.
Orianna
Playing for Orianas Ultimate combo with Briar is really nasty. The fact Oriana can ball briar to not only speed her up and provide her with a shield, but just free ult combo anyone that tries to fight back with briar essentially makes it so that no one can fight briar.
Sivir
Sivir ultimate providing a large movespeed buff for briar helps a lot, however thats all that sivir has that really helps briar in any way. Its also at a 3 because if sivir uses her ult for herself instead of helping briar make plays then she is just useless.
Vex
Vex is decent with briar as both of their ultimates function roughly the same. However Vex cant do much to help briar before she has her ultimate and can only really follow briar into fights but her ultimate isnt as long of a range which makes it harder to follow briar.
Ivern
Ivern is at a 3 because he is VERY good with Briar, but this is a jungle briar guide, which means if an ivern is on your team hes probably in a lane which should never be the case and will hurt your more as a result. Ivern would be S+ for briar top players but thats not this guide so...
Shen
Shen is amazing for Briar as his ultimate allows for clutch outplays from Briar when shes low on HP. The double taunt interaction will allow Briar to be taunted onto an enemy that is taunted onto shen, essentially making them unable to fight back. The fact that Shen's ultimate is global makes it one of the best pairs with Briar ultimate as he can follow her around the map and taunt Briar's target that isnt feared to instantly blow them up.
Yuumi
Generally enchanters are always going to be a favorite paired with Briar so this will go the same for pretty much every other enchanter on this list. Yuumi is able to attach to Briar, provide her movespeed, and fly around the map with her ultimate to lock down briars target. Clear and obvious synergy.
Karma
Karmas massive movement speed buff with her constant shielding and Shurelya's Reverie option allows briar to stick to her enemies easily and support her by locking them down with karmas W.
Braum
Amazing matchup with ally briar, as long as Braum can get a passive stack on a target briar can easilly take care of the rest. Briar has 3 auto resets so she can almost instantly proc braums passive stun. Ontop of the fact that braum shield and dash + his Q slow on a target can help briar lock down an enemy very easily.
Jhin
Jhin has a lot of setup for Briar with his W root and Curtain Call ultimate being able to lock down an an area and help a Briar from afar. Enemies wont be able to turn against Briar because then they will eat every shot from Jhin ult and vice versa. Jhin is just really weak early and since briar is also weak early makes it very hard to win most botside fights or objectives.
Kayle
Kayle is a strong pairing with Briar but kayle has an extremely weak early game as most people are aware of. Briar also has a really weak early game which is the biggest problem with this pairing. When you pick + kayle, you are likely forced to give every topside objective. Even when kayle has her ultimate, its still not enough to win some 2v2 skirmishes unless youre already ahead.
Zilean
Zilean is such an ideal pick for briar, the insane amount of movespeed and CDR this champion has and can offer briar to speed her up like Usain Bolt makes just that worth picking. However his ultimate that allows him to place it on briar so when she dives in she cant be focused or will just revive with full hp makes it too good to pass up.
Renata Glasc
Renata is almost perfect for Briar, she provides a shield and allows briar to dive and not risk dying with renatas revive ability. Briar can easily dive and get a kill with Renata revive on and allow Briar to play crazy. Renatas worst issue is low damage and low mobility which makes it harder to keep up with briar.
Taric
While it might be a bit tricky to pull off, if taric uses his R and is tethered to Briar once she ults, it should perfectly allow her to become immune to all damage as soon as she flys in. Even if she doesnt ult in, taric keeps her healthy and tanky with his shield and healing spells and the Taric E stun sets up perfectly with briar.
Kled
Kled is similar to sivir but in the toplane for Briar. His ultimate providing allies and Briar movesped helps her instantly lock down a target with him. The opposite is also true when Briar uses her ultimate Kled ult has just as far of a range that he can follow her with.
Samira
Samira knockup passive that she has activates when a target is crowd controlled. Briar can easily crowd control an enemy with her Q and E and R aoe Fear allowing samira to get free procs to her passive and ultimate stacks.
Kai'Sa
Kaisa is amazing when paired with Briar, most people dont know that kaisa gains TWO STACKS of her passive, if a nearby ally Crowd Controls an enemy near kaisa. Briar Q/E/R fear can all instantly apply 2 stacks for kaisa passive and allow her to get her ultimate off on any target she chooses. She can also easily ult in an help assassinate a target with Briar ultimate. Her hybrid damage also allows briar to build full ad the enemy doesnt get as much value from stacking armor with kaisas magic damage.
Kennen
Kennen is a very good toplaner currently and excels with Briar as a jungler. Kennen provides great gank setup with his stun and ultimate and builds full AP so the enemy isnt able to stack full armor against a briar and if they do Kennen will oneshot them. His only problem is that hes not as mobile as briar without his flash or ghost up so youll need to play around his cooldowns.
Twisted Fate
Twisted fate is an amazing pair for briar as a mid laner. He has great gank setups with his gold card and once he hits 6 can easily teleport around the map to follow Briar whenever she ults and set up for the easiest bot or top lane dives with no time for the enemy team to react since both his ult and briars are global. Heavy AP damage from TF only makes him stronger if they all try to build armor against Briar
Caitlyn
Briars AOE fear allows Caitlyn to land a lot of ultimate shots for free. Briar can force people to move out of the way with her ult fear and whatever target Briar lands on, cait and preemptively press R and it will almost always land since everyone nearby will be feared and unable to tank it.
Camille
Camille ultimate completely locks down an enemy making them unable to run from Briar and allowing briar to shred the target for free. Camille is also extremely mobile and has great gank setup for briar
Kalista
Kalista in general is just not that good of an adc pick, however she still does have synergy with briar allowing briar to go in deep and save her with Kalista R or take briar in and throw briar at the enemy. Shes just not too good in general with or without briar.
Pyke
Pyke would be higher but it really depends on whos playing it. If they miss every Hook and Ultimate as pyke they are just useless, so this pick is really skill dependent because an amazing pyke would be tier 5 but a bad pyke is worth tier 2.
Morgana
Black shield and morganas lock down potential with her Q and R allow briar to have an easy time running in and ganking enemies. She doesnt have any healing or shielding besides from magic damage so unless theyre all CC heavy it might not be too good to pick.
Yorick
Yorick is able to lock down enemies inside his cage to set up for briar, however i have personally tested and experience that Briar E knockback pushes enemies OUTSIDE of Yoricks cage. Meaning that you wont get the bonus knock back damage into the wall, and the enemy trapped in the cage will escape for free.
Urgot
Urgots ultimate can be timed to to the target that briar ults so that he can gain the free R execute with Urgot. Other than that they have a bit of anti synergy with his E being a knock in and Briar E being a knock back. He also struggles with Briar and his W also focusing minions or the wrong target so if both him and briar use W and it focuses the wrong targets it can get pretty messed up.
Aurelion Sol
When Briar uses her ultimate and is able to fear an enemy, this will allow Aurelion Sol to have amazing setup for his Ultimate and vice versa. Double massive AOE ult wombo combo, might be tricky to pull off but will always win a fight if it does.
Lulu
Decent enchanter for lulu, her ultimate is the best but having to decide between using Lulu W for movespeed or using Lulu W for polymorph makes her not that great.
The NEW Press the Attack is only 8% damage increase to yourself, it used to be a debuff to enemies and make them take more damage from EVERYONE, THIS IS A NERF.
Briar stacks Conqueror VERY fast and also benefits a LOT from Conq self-healing at max stacks. The new PTA is still not better than Conq. PTA is worse early because its 8% increase on briars 65 Base AD which is literally +5 AD. Conq is around 13 AD to 30 AD at max stacks and also heals you for 8% of all damage you deal. PTA is worse early and only slightly outscales conq damage wise late game
here is the data with the same target and the same build
PTA VS CONQ
SYROBE'SCRIT BRIAR | League of Legends PATCH 14.11 PBE Build |
SYROBE'SBRUISER BRIAR | League of Legends PATCH 14.11 PBE Build |
PBE PATCH 14.11 IS LIVE and it includes NEW items that are NOT on mobafire yet so I will show you all below the NEW crit items and CHANGES to crit items that makes BRIAR viable ONCE AGAIN!!!
I will post a full build shortly but here are the NEW items LIVE on PBE 14.11
SYROBES NEW FULL BRUISER BRIAR BUILD HAS ALMOST AS MUCH AD AS FULL CRIT LOL
THIS NEW ITEM IS INSANE??? LOOK AT MY HP AND DAMGE
Briar Passive causes her targets to bleed whenever they take damage from Briar's attacks, both abilities and basic attacks. Crimson Curse actually deals more damage than Hemorrhage except darius bleed gives him bonus attack damage at max stacks and resets on his ultimate. Briar bleed deals physical damage which can be reduced by armor, which heals Briar overtime. The healing is 25% of the damage Briars bleed deals after being reduced by enemy defensive stats. If a target dies with bleed stacks still going, she will heal the rest of their duration instantly. This does not result in a higher healing amount but just faster application of her passive healing.
Briar also gains increased healing from everything that heals her, including her Crimson Curse healing her Blood Frenzy healing and her Chilling Scream healing. Those abilites have natural healing which gets increased the lower Briar's HP is. This increased healing also applies to any lifesteal or omnivamp items Briar purchases from the shop.
Passive ability visual
BRIAR Q EXPLAINED:
Very small gap close with a targeted lock on stun. Reduces armor when it hits and does minimal damage. You can animation cancel Briar Q by using Briar W first. Briar W1 -> Briar Q instantly casts and cancles the animation for maximum damage output. Briar Q is also an auto attack reset and can be used to refresh her attack timer.
Briar's Head Rush can also be utilized during her Blood Frenzy to stop Briar from seeking out champions as long as she uses Head Rush on a minion or monster.
Q ability visual
BRIAR W1 (DASH) EXPLAINED:
Briar W has two parts which are referred to here as W1 and W2. This section will cover both parts. Briar W1 puts her in a Berserking state where she prioritizes any nearby champions. If no champions nearby it focuses minions and monsters instead, even WITHOUT vision of everything. This ability is heat-seeking and only range based. Briar can use Head Rush to prioritize minions and stop focusing champions to avoide committing sodoku.
Briar W1 is also a medium length dash. W1 can dash over almost EVERY wall in the game I made a video to show every possible wall jump See WALL GUIDE HERE
BRIAR W2 (BITE) EXPLAINED:
Briar W2 when activated, Increases Briars Attack Range from 125 to 175 (+50) for one single auto attack. This auto attack will heal Briar based on the damage it does and deals additional damage based on how low the enemy is. With the crit build this W2 bite is treated as an auto attack which allows it to CRITCALLY STRIKE. This is the foundation for the crit build as you will heal a lot more on a W2 crit than you would normally and dont need to save it for when the enemy is low. You can raw W2 an enemy and heal for a massive ammount as long as its a crit. This is also an auto attack reset which refreshes Briars attack timer.
This ability lasts for 5 seconds, can be stopped early with Chilling Scream, and will STOP focusing champions if Briar uses Head Rush on a MINION
W1 (DASH) & W2 (BITE) Visual
BRIAR E EXPLAINED:
Briars E is almost functionally the same as Irelia's Defiant Dance.
Chilling Scream cannot be stopped by ANY crowd control and will keep charging up even if briar is stunned, knocked back, knocked up, silenced etc. This provides Briar with a ̶3̶5̶% 40% damage reduction at all ranks of E which should ALWAYS be saved. Never try to start a fight with E or finish off an enemy with E. Use your Chilling Scream for your self as that 40% damage reduction is applied the exact frame tick that you press it and heals you for quite a bit being increased by your passive the lower HP you are.
EDIT: briar got a hotfix since her GLOBAL winrate is 34%. This is a result of everyone building bruiser instead of crit. Source here as of 09/15/2023
E ability visual
BRIAR R1 & R2 EXPLAINED:
Briar sends out an Ultimate very similar to Super Mega Death Rocket! except it does NOT deal damage when it hits. Certain Death R1 is just a mark nothing else. After R1 hits a target it marks them. Then Briar is forced to take her R2 which sends her flying directly towards the enemy she marked with R1. All enemies including the initial marked target will take AOE damage from Briar ONLY when she arrives. Upon arriving Briar Certain Death ALSO FEARS everyone EXCEPT the initial marked target.
EVERY Possible Wall Jump, Hop, or Dash in Summoners Rift with Briar W1.
This is why you should always take Ghost and not Flash on Briar_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(13.19) I got crit briar nerfed sorry guys it was too op
ITS STILL FINE THO JUST CHANGE RUNES AND ITS HONESTLY VERY STRONG STILL
I think briar is just weaker early now, will formulate my thoughts later into a video for what to build! Full Patch Here
[Yes I asked premission from Riot August to share these DM's dont worry]
🧾[Briar Gameplay Codex] 📚
See chapters below:
-JUNGLING 🌲🌳
How to Jungle as Briar:
It is essential as a Briar player to full clear.
Briar can start at either Red buff or Blue buff so always start the buff closest to your botlane for a leash. They might be upset and not want to leash but reassure them that this gives you a faster clear and allows you to get to your ultimate faster than having a toplaner leash. As a repayment be sure to come back and use Briar Ultimate down in botlane to help them out.
POWER SPIKES
Briar jungle pathing is very similar to a Master Yi or Warwick as her ganks are drastically weaker without her ultimate. Briar gains a MASSIVE power spike as soon as she hits level 4 and level 6. You should never consider fighting in the early game until you are at least at that one of those powerspikes.
-GANKING 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
How to Gank as Briar:
Do not be fooled by Briar's Head Rush stun as an effective means for a gank as it is only 0.85 seconds in duration. So unless you have a huge follow up from an ally like Blitzcrank its honestly not worth trying to force a gank with.
You should only gank as Briar if you see an enemy over-extending without flash or around 50% of their Total HP. Otherwise you should always prioritize farming because the faster you get to level 6 with Briar the faster you can take over the game and snowball. Ganking risks getting yourself killed or putting yourself behind in farm XP & gold. As soon as you get level 6 with Briar that opens up the opportunity to fight anywhere on the map that you want but there are a couple caveats when it comes to using Briar ult.
BRIAR ULTIMATE GANKING:
-#1 Do not EVER use Briar ult down midlane if the 1st enemy outer mid lane tower has NOT been destroyed. Middle Lane in summoners rift is statistically the shortest length lane. Given that Briars Certain Death does not fear the initial target it hits, this makes it even worse to ult down mid. If Briar hits a midlane target, they will always be relatively close to their tower and closer to safety. Even worse, champs like Zed or LeBlanc can easily dash back to their tower once hit and force Briar to chase them and turn the gank around on you for a free kill.
-#2 Bot lane & Top lane are the best options for Briar Certain Death as these lanes are a lot longer in length and enemies are more at risk of dying to you if this ability lands since they have to run further back to reach their tower or any safety.
-#3 Bottom Lane is the best option to ult down and Briar should always ult botlane unless they have Sivir or Samira. These two adcs are the only threats as they can press 1 button to completely cancel out Briar ult with Spell Shield and Blade Whirl which make it so that you can never ult them if these spells are up.
Ulting to gank a toplaner is very hard as most toplaners have a lot more escapes and are a lot tankier than the average adc. This makes it more unlikely to get a kill off ulting toplaners and a lot more likely to get a kill from ulting bot lane. By using Briar ult botlane you can fully utilize the Certain Death AOE fear and separate the support from its ADC or vice versa. This by itself is enough to cause players to panick especially when they get feared. The chances of a kill from ulting botlane are far higher as you also will have your own botlane to back you up. Even if a jungler ganks bot before you, Briar ult gives the perfect counter gank setup and pretty much wins every fight so long as it hits and gets the fear off on a few others.
-DUELING⚔️🤺
How to DUEL with BRIAR:
Briar wins duels at very specific levels. The earliest she can even win a duel is at level 4 when she has at least 2 points in her W. This makes it so that Briar can easily win a 1v1 fight with her increased stat checks from Blood Frenzy if no one else interferes. However most fights you are rarely going to be a fair 1v1 which is when you need to wait for level 6 power spike. The increased armor, mr, and life steal and movespeed from Certain Death allow briar to be a bit more tanky especially when combined with her ̶3̶5̶% 40% damage reduction while using Chilling Scream. These two power spikes at level 4 & 6 are when Briar is at her strongest but not unstoppable. Even at these levels, briars biggest power spike comes at two items.
When dueling, make sure to SAVE all of Briars abilities. Do not EVER use Chilling Scream unless its to stop an enemys burst combo or to stop yourself from Berserking in Blood Frenzy. You do NOT want to be in a frenzy with your Chilling Scream down as it is almost always going to get yourself killed.
COMBOS & ANIMATION CANCELS
Briar can animation cancel her Blood Frenzy if she uses that first and then instantly uses her Head Rush ability. The combo would be W1 -> Q very fast but not at the same time just Press W and Q right after. This will cancel the dash animation of Briars Head Rush and also cancel the dash animation of Blood Frenzy and instantly gap close, stun, and enter frenzy mode all within the same second. So always make sure you save your Q so that you can use it to animation cancel Briar's W.
Briar's Q, W1 and W2 are all auto attack resets that refresh Briar's attack timer, so with enough practice you can auto almost 3-4 times instantly.
-SMITE SECURING⚡⚡⚡
Briar has extremely strong Smite securing as her W deals execute damage to minions.
However, when using Blood Frenzy on something like dragon or rift herald, Briar will stop attacking the monsters and focus any enemy champions if they come too close.
Be sure to only use Briar W on an objective when it gets low and if Briar tries to auto path away from the monsters to nearby enemy champs, you can FORCE Briar to stay on the objective if you press Q on it as Briar's Head Rush will stop Briar from targeting champions if she uses it on a minion or monster during her Blood Frenzy
Be sure to W1 + Q on the objective, followed by the W2 + Smite at the same time to execute the objective and secure it.
Briar Related Patch History
14.6 more briar nerfs...
Riot already gutted the crit builds for briar and more recently are tanking her viability with lethality. Patch 14.6 is nerfing a lot more base healing and base damage on all her abilities. Yeah you get to Q and ward hop now very similar to Jax Leap Strike. but this is one small positive change with 3 direct nerfs to her W healing W attack speed and R damage. Riot is trying their hardest to force briar into a Bruiser playstyle and remove most of her damage and healing while making her scale on base HP. For newer players Id recommend going bruiser and only go lethality briar anymore if you are extremely experienced with that play style like myself.
14.3 Not many changes to briar directly, BUT Stridebreaker was reworked and is a VERY GOOD ITEM ON BRIAR NOW
Stride Breaker is now a tiamat item argubly better than titanic for Briar.
It gives attack speed, AOE melee damage, an active that slows everyone in it for 35% and gives briar +35% movespeed FOR EACH PERSON HIT. This equals around 200+ move speed with t2 boots and stride breaker as an item.
Briar W also gives movespeed so using her W and Stride breaker means NO ONE CAN OUT RUN YOU, its almost guaranteed to burn a flash and increase her GANKING potential significantly
14.2: Tldr Bruiser is even better, lethality is still strong, crit is dead.
Honestly crit briar has already been dead for a while now. I showed my crit build to Riot August as soon as briar went live on PBE last September and since then he has made her less viable with crit for multiple patches.
This is pretty understanable as my mathematically correct Crit briar build was literally broken and even after the nerfs was still decently strong.
However now Crit is very very bad compared to other builds now!
Also the new mini runes dont change much, always take the 10% tenacity and slow resist one, however I haven't found it to be noticebly impactful.
14.1: NEW SEASON 14 ITEMS FOR BRIAR!!!
JAKSHO IS OP ON BRIAR MUST BUY ITEM
Its uptime is 2x longer thanks to her passiv bleed keeping her in combat for 5 extra seconds after she stops hitting a target.At level 6 Briar has 53 armor and 65 MR
This becomes 119 armor 138 MR after using ultimate with JUST JAKSHO.
This item gives SOOO much value. Full lethality than either jaksho or GA for defensive items is best build right now.
TL;DR
In Season 13 Briar was kind of split into separate Bruiser/crit/lethality builds and playstyles due to the Mythic Lock system.
Now that mythics are removed, you can just be a mix of EVERYTHING. Builds will be more situational, if the enemy is more squishy you can stack more lethality items, but if theyre more tanky you can opt for a bruiser on-hit briar build that gives you HP and a ton of attack speed as well as armor pen, armor, and MR!
LETHALITY BRIAR BUILD EXPLANATION:
I tried Voltaic Cyclosword and its a good item but its awkward to build.
Ghostblade is by far the best FIRST item now that Duskblade is removed and Eclipse is no longer a Lethality item. It provides higher DPS as Voltaic is only stronger for the single empowered Auto it gives.
If you take Voltaic CycloSword 2nd item it feels good, but then if you do this you wont have Collector until your 3rd item. If you do take collector 3rd item then it delays your Armor pen until 4th item. You pretty much always need a last whisper item 3rd because if you get 2 lethality items early, the enemy will almost always have more armor by your 3rd item which makes raw lethality not as good.
BRIAR IS REALLY STRONG IN SEASON 14! However her builds might take a while to get used to a new playstyle for most of you. Crit Briar is largely dead since they nerfed her too many times. Lethality is strong and even Bruiser Briar has a lot more damage now thanks to the new eclipse making it a bruiser item!
BRUISER BRIAR BUILD EXPLANATION:
In Season 13, Bruiser Briar was really bad. This was a result of her many CONSECUTIVE nerfs over the next 3 months after she released. Her best first item was Goredrinker or Stridebreaker, but both of these builds still weren't good as she lacked a lot of base damage from the previous nerfs and building bruiser made it so her damage was nonexistent.
In Season 14 Bruiser is now really strong because they removed gore and made stride worse, so the best first item is Eclipse! This is now a bruiser item and NOT an assassin item! It provides a LOTTT more damage early and allows you to build full bruiser after without hurting your Damage.
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