Braum is the strong man support of the League. With a deep masculine voice that soothes his ADC, telling them things like 'You can always trust Braum' and 'My Shield is here for you'. With his oversized shield and muscles, and these quotes, which ADC can NOT feel safe with him? He is the ultimate bodyguard, taking hits and CC for his team with his shield, boosting their MR and armour, dishing out stuns with his basic attacks and knocking up whole teams with his earth-shattering ultimate. A good Braum player will make several clutch saves, and frustrate the enemy team by forcing them to focus him rather than his squishy allies and makes a great scaling off-tank in the late game, with decent laning prowess too. The ability to go aggressive or defensive and save your ADC nearly as well as a Janna make him a great pick for a Solo Q support and his wombo combo potential can make him fairly strong in competitive play, and he holds just above a 50% winrate in both. Some of the best Braum players include: Krepo, Lustboy, BunnyFuFuu, Aphromoo and Madlife
Strengths:
-Great late game scaling
- Great synergy with auto-attacking/AD champs
- Great gank setups
- Powerful without mana
- Can save ADC's in scary situations
Weaknesses:
- Struggles using his passive with AD casters or ability reliant carries (Urgot, Corki etc.)
- Two defensive abilites makes his aggression harder in lane without help
- No gap closer to hostiles
- No hard engage outside of his ultimate
- CC can be unreliable if teammates do not understand it
When to pick Braum:
- When your ADC needs more peel
- Vs high cooldown poke compositions
When not to pick Braum:
-Your team has no initiation
- You have a caster based ADC
Summoner Spells:
Flash/Exhaust - Good for shutting down assassins late game
Flash/Ignite - If you want the extra kill pressure or are against heavy healers like Mundo/Swain
Flash/Teleport - If you like taking Braum top, take this
Braum's Skill Set
Passive - Concussive Blows
Use in kit - This passive is what gives Braum his CC before 6. It ties most of his kit together quite nicely, and means that he wants to get right up in opponent's faces to auto-attack them, as well as giving him crazy synergy with AD carries.
Summary - Whenever Braum tags an opponent with either an auto-attack or his Q it applies a stack of concussive blows. From there Braum and other allies can trigger the stacks and when they reach four stacks (shown by an indicator) with auto-attacks and on-hit spells, the target will be stunned for 1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds. They cannot be stunned for a short after, but Braum's auto-attacks and Q will deal bonus magic damage to the target.
Using this skill - Whenever possible tag as many enemies with this as possible. There is no limit on the number of enemies that can be affected by a single stack of this skill, so stack it on lots of enemies rather than focusing one down where possible, your allied ADC should be able to proc the stun off whoever he is focusing. Obviously if he is being jumped on you will want to help proc the stun and peel for him, but most times try to get the stack on everyone, especially in lane trades this can result in a really heavily won trade for you. As a side note, this passive has crazy synergy with Yi and Lucian as the double hits they provide proc it twice, making the stun easier to get.
Q - Winter's Bite
Use in kit - Braum's ranged harass spell, and main damage source in lane. It has crazy high bases damage and can really chunk, as well as slowing to allow your allies to get in range to proc the concussive blows this also applies. This is Braum's ONLY way to apply concussive blows if he isn't in melee range so can be great for helping allies out too far away from you. It is usually maxed first.
Summary - With high base damages (70 scaling up to 250) and a large 70% slow this skill really chunks and helps engages in lane. This is what makes Braum harder to poke down and fairly good at poking and kiting other melee supports, as well as giving him similar range to his carry if they engage alone and is mostly used to get the passive off.
Using this skill - In bot lane this can be used to apply concussive blows at range if your AD goes in alone, or apply it to the target that isnt in melee range of you. If you can apply concussive blows to one target with your basic attacks and tag the other one with this spell, your ADC should be able to take them out using the stun that will follow up. It can also check brushes, as it makes a different sound when it impacts an enemy unit, and generally help you and your ADC kite.
W - Stand Behind Me
Use in kit - This is how Braum gets around! It allows him to jump around to ally champions and minions, and gives him and any target champion an armor and magic resisit buff. Combined with the rest of his kit, this is what makes Braum so good at saving allies that get themselves in a little bit too deep, and lets him place himself in the way of incoming damage.
Summary - A short range, targeted dash that empowers ally champions and Braum with extra resists, and can be used on minions for extra in-lane mobility. It can also be self-cast if you have nothing to jump to just to give you the resists. It will automatically place Braum between the target ally and the nearest enemy champion.
Using this skill - As mentioned above, this places Braum right between his ally and the enemy, making it easy to tank skillshots for your team, such as nidalee spears or ashe arrows. This is what Braum does best, tank damage and CC for his team and keep them alive and this is the skill that helps him do it so effectively even without communication from his allies, as well as providing a nice buff to keep him and his ally alive. In lane it should be used on your ADC in all-ins to make you both beefier if it doesn't compromise your positioning, and can be used on lane minions to jump on your opponent and suprise them.
E- Unbreakable
Use in kit - And this is the clutch save mechanic Braum has. Whether it's an auto-attack, a Morgana bind or an Ashe arrow, whatever hits this shield will not hurt anybody stood behind Braum, and every projectile to come into contact with the wall will hit Braum only. This is what makes Braum so good at protecting people, and how he tanks CC and damage for his team most effectively, and also makes him a real annoyance to the enemy team.
Summary - This wall will block 100% of the damage of the first attack to hit it, and block any further damage in that direction by 30%, scaling up to 40% at max rank. Lasting for 3-4 seconds (again depending on rank) means this skill can block a serious amount of punishment from ranged carries trying to right click anyone behind you to death.
Using this skill - Try to save this to block a really high damage or high CC skill that would otherwise kill any squishier teammates, for example Jayce E-Q combo or Grave's Collateral Damage. If you find it difficult to position to predict these don't forget that your W will place you automatically in-between your allies and incoming damage, so using these skills together is often the way to save people.
R - Glacial Fissure
Use in kit - Braum's ultimate is a massive team-wide CC and debuff, perfect for kiting back a whole team, saving an endangered carry and isn't half bad engage either! As a huge AoE magic damage spell with high base damages, as well as slowing everyone in it and knocking up those that get to close (or the first person hit) its excellent for helping AD's kite or simply following up that big frontline you have.
Summary - With a decent scaling slow of 40-60%, knock-up duration of 1-1.5 seconds for those close and damage scaling from 150-350 (with a 60% AP ratio) this ultimate can really devastate a team used well. Braum will leave a line of ice in-front of him in a target direction for 1250 units, which slows and he will also knock-up targets in his immediate vicinity (including behind him), or if no targets are found it will be the first one hit. Everyone else is simply slowed, but it does fairly good damage and allows him to close the gap to apply his passive, or allow teammates to catch up.
Using this skill - This skill is best used right on top of your main carry when they get in trouble. It will give them room to breathe with the knock-up and kite with the slows. Try to jump to them with W first to give them some resists, then put your wall up and follow them back, tanking all the damage and CC you can while applying concussive blows to anyone within reach. With a great ADC, and a few mistakes from the enemies, you can literally 2v5 a team by kiting over the slowing field. It CAN also be used as engage, but it's pretty unreliable and other supports do it much better. However, it does work OK as follow up engage if you catch someone vulnerable out of position.
Braum's Build Paths
Standard Support -
Face of the Mountain, Sightstone, Randuin's Omen, Banshee's veil, Mikael's Crucible, Boots of Mobility (w/Captain enchant), Sweeping Lens
This is a fairly standard Braum build that can be used nearly every game. Your build SHOULD change every game as a support, with only the relic shield and sightstone being absolutely mandatory on him. Other great options to consider are Locket Of the Iron Solari if the enemy has a lot of wombo-combo magic damage, Sunfire Cape if you want to deal a little more damage or (better) don't have enough gold for Randuins, Spirit Visage for the CDR, Banner of Command, Warmogs and Righteous Glory if no-one else builds it.
Top Lane Braum-
Blade of the Ruined King, Ninja Tabi/Merc Treads, Randuin's Omen, Banshee's veil, Warmogs, Righteous Glory
Ok, this is not something I'd do in ranked, but its SO fun. Blade has great synergy with your passive and can really hurt your opponent, and the tank items mean you can do your job as body guard all the better. It's like support Braum, but it hurts! (P.S For Jungle Braum, just swap one item out for Cinderhulk and that works too!)
Using Braum
Lane - In lane Braum's role heavily depends on his ADC. If it is a late game scaling carry like Vayne or Kog'Maw play defensive and body guard, landing q's where possible and just keeping them alive for their late game carry potential. However, with lanes like Graves or Lucian you can play REALLY aggressive, using your stun offensively due to the burst potential of these carries. Braum is especially good with Lucian due to double shot and the fact Lucian trades pretty well even on his own, however, Braum is not as strong as other supports at going all-in in the laning phase (*coughs* LEONA) so don't pick him for that.
Midgame - Try to roam a little and get some good vision down with your sightstone. Braum solo roams aren't too terrifying but with an auto-attack based jungler at his side he can cause some real chaos. You can also choose to just stick on your ADC or midlaner and keep them safe, and this is your best plan in a midgame teamfight unless you can get into the backline and your own backline stay relatively safe.
Lategame - Now your number one role is keeping that carry alive. No other job. Keep vision on key objectives but other than that do not leave your ADC's side for ANY reason. Death timers are long and your carry is vital in winning you the game as they're likely the strongest player on the map in this late game, so keep them safe and supported.
Braum summary
Braum is pretty powerful in lane, and versatile in his role as a bodyguard or aggressive support. As the game goes on he scales fantastically as a wall for your squishy teammates, and provides fantastic CC. His roams can be a little lacklustre and he shuts down long cooldown poke amazingly, but his lack of synergy with caster based carries such as Urgot leave a little to be desired if you blind pick him. Situational, but very powerful in the right hands in both solo q or competetive 5v5 play.
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