Is Brand AP or AD? – Everything You Need To Know

Brand is one of the few champions in lol that are both easy to play and very strong, all while radiating a familiar image. For those of you who play mages, Brand’s whole “fire” gimmick feels like something that would do magic damage and scale with AP, which is the case with Brand.

 Although some might assume Brand does “fire damage” or something along the lines, unfortunately, elemental damage types do not exist in League of Legends.

You should know this about Brand as a champion in League of Legends.

Brand is primarily an AP champion in League of Legends. He exclusively builds AP since all of his abilities scale with it. He cannot possibly build AD due to a lack of good attack range and AD ratios on his spells. Brand is known to melt people in team fights via his passive and Liandry’s Anguish, which is only made possible by building AP.

Brand is a very straightforward mage. He has a cc spell, a damage AOE spell, and an ult that enhances this further. His passive also allows for the enhancement of his abilities when used in coordination with each other. Brand is known to require minimum skill since all he has to do is press r and watch the enemy team explode.

However, he is still a mage at the end of the day. Like other mages, he has his weaknesses. First and foremost, he is very prone to being oneshot (this is negated by building Zhonya’s Hourglass but it is still inevitable nonetheless).

Secondly, he lacks upfront burst and relies on DOT (damage over time) to kill his opponents, something which can be very unreliable vs bruisers or ADCs with a lot of lifesteal. Finally, Brand is not meant to be played midlane, so his gameplay works well in the support role where he can actually kill the ADC but when it comes to any other lane, he falls behind massively.

One could argue that Brand is not worth playing with such a basic kit, but to one’s surprise, Brand often turns out to be fun and engaging since his gameplay is far more relaxing than something like Yone perhaps.

Is Full AP Brand Worth It In LoL?

Brand can be played in a few ways. The first one is his trusty and reliable DOT build with Liandry’s and Demonic Embrace, and the second one is his more burst-aligned Luden’s and Shadowflame build.

For the purposes of this guide, we will be focusing on the higher winrate, more reliable and most picked item path of Liandry’s. Currently, this build focuses on maximum DOT and does not sacrifice much for it. Brand often ends up carrying team fights due to this item combination alone.

How Do You Play Full AP Brand In LoL?

If you are looking for a build for Brand that will dominate while working well in the current meta, We have it.

Best Runes for Full AP Brand in LoL:

• Dark Harvest- Damaging ability damage against enemy champions below 50% of their maximum health deal 20 − 60 (based on level) (+ 5 per Soul) (+ 15% AP) bonus Magic damage and, after a 1.75-second delay, reap 1 Soul. This cannot occur again for 45 seconds, resetting to 1.5 seconds upon scoring a takedown against an enemy champion.

While not on cooldown, the soul is also taken upon receiving the kill credit of a champion killed by minions, turrets or monsters.

• Taste of Blood- Damaging an enemy champion heals you for 16 − 30 (based on level) (+ 8% AP).
• Eyeball Collection- Collect 1 Eyeball whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion, up to 10.

Gain 2 Ability Power per Eyeball collected, up to 20 Ability Power. Completing your collection awards an additional 10 Ability Power.

• Relentless Hunter- Gain 5 (+ 8 per Bounty Hunter stack) out-of-combat movement speed, up to 45 at 5 stacks.

Earn a Bounty Hunter stack whenever scoring a takedown against an enemy champion, up to one per unique champion.

• Manaflow Band- Affecting an enemy champion with an ability permanently increases your maximum mana by 25, up to 250 mana. Mana gained from this effect preserves your current mana.

After reaching 250 bonus mana, permanently restore 1% of your missing mana every 5 seconds.

• Scorch- Dealing ability damage to an enemy Champion icon.png champion sets them on fire, dealing them 20 − 40 (based on level) bonus magic damage after 1 second, further increasing your burn damage from your passive.

For bonuses, go AP, AP, and armor or Mr depending on the matchup.

Best AP Brand Item build in Season 12 (in order):

• Sorcerer’s Shoes- Great first buy as it helps you do more damage with every ability while also offering some mobility when being chased in a difficult situation
• Liandry’s Anguish- Mandatory item on Brand as it synergizes with your kit by applying on every person repeatedly when you press r or combo someone with q and w and e
• Zhonya’s Hourglass- Great defensive item for any mage, especially so you can stall to wait for your abilities to get off of cooldown
• Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre- Offers a slow every time you hit an ability, especially good because your passive burn continually applies it so it is as good as sudden death for an immobile enemy
• Demonic Embrace- Second mandatory burn item that enhances the already excellent burn on his passive
• Rabadon’s Deathcap / Morellonomicon / Void Staff- A huge AP steroid to help finish enemy champions / Healing reduction for when the enemy team has an enchanter or a bruiser who heals / Good magic penetration for when the enemy team has a lot of magic resist.

Brand can also build situational items like Crown of the Shattered Queen, Everfrost, Night Harvester, Horizon Focus, Moonstone Renewer, Shadowflame, and Seraph’s Embrace.

What Lane Is Brand?

Brand is designed to be a support through and through. Although he does not meet the criteria for what is considered to be a “supportive” champion, Brand struggles a lot when it comes to laning solo as he is heavily reliant on his ultimate if he wants to kill someone alone.

In the bottom lane, Brand is allowed to consistently land his poke in the form of W and enhanced E and in addition to this, if he manages to hit his q, that usually results in a kill or heavy poke depending on the nature of your ADC.

Consequently, this guide has been made only for Brand support. We do not recommend playing Brand in any other lane, however, you are welcome to give it a try for yourself and come up with a better conclusion.

When To Pick Brand?

Brand is an exceptional pick into all types of poking supports. From karma to ashe to Morgana, you name it. Brand excels in these matchups simply because he can outpoke and outrange them at the same time, all while outbursting them as well when it comes to it.

The problem lies in the fact that Brand is balanced around his ultimate being unreliable, so his other sources of damage have to keep up in case his R completely misses.

You should also consider playing Brand when the enemy team does not have much Mr build paths for them; Your team picked 3 / 4 AD champions. This sort of scenario can be perfect for Brand especially because Brand can do a lot of damage near neutral objectives due to the natural grouped formation of teams while taking said objectives.

This does not mean there are no better picks than Brand, because especially after the durability patch, Brand is not that strong. So, do consider other options before locking him it if you want to play to win.

Final Thoughts

Even though Brand is not the most popular pick of recent times, one cannot deny the simple mechanics that allow him to dish out more damage than most of his AP support counterparts. Do give him a try if you enjoy sitting back and watching the world burn because that is quite literally the premise of the champion at its fundamental level.

That being said, we hope this article has helped you understand the basics of Brand and what to do when picking him as well as when to pick him properly. As always, leave your suggestions and comments down in the comments section below. Until next time!