League Of Legends: Braum Item Build, Masteries & Runes

With every League Of Legends new Champion release it’s always interesting to see the kinds of items that best suit their playstyle. And Braum, the latest League Of Legends Champion to be released, is no different.

But sadly his build is also fairly mundane. As a tanky support Braum relies entirely on a stock of health, and since only one of his abilities scales off his ability power there aren’t even any clever item builds to go for with that in mind.

As a result, Braum’s item build, masteries and rune set is all fairly simple to grasp and – in most cases – following the in-game recommended guide will see you through to the end.

League Of Legends – Braum’s Masteries

As a tanky support the masteries you choose for Braum should be fairly obvious. You’ll want to focus on health and damage reduction, and so the standard Defense tree will be the best option for you here.

Though you could go with the traditional 21 points in Defense and 9 in Utility, there aren’t actually that many points worth spending in the latter for Braum.

Throwing 3 points into Summoner’s Insight will be useful though, since it’ll give you access to your Heal spell (which should be standard on Braum) a little more often. Since most ADCs carry Heal these days too, it’ll give you a little extra lane sustain.

That’ll need 7 points in total, with 23 leftover to spend in Defense. We’ve got a suggested mastery build below, but you can adapt it slightly.

You may want to swap points in Perseverance for full points in Legendary Guardian and Runic Blessing instead, for example.

As long as you max out Veteran’s Scars, Hardiness and Resistance as well as unlock Reinforced Armor and Evasive then you’ll have the general mastery build you want for Braum.

League Of Legends – Braum’s Runes

As a tanky support the rune setup for Braum is perhaps the easiest of most Champions.

It doesn’t matter how you spread the cost, you’re going to want to focus on additional armour, magic resist and health.

We’d recommend Scaling Health Seals, Armor Marks and Scaling Magic Resist Glyphs for the best combo – it’ll give you the late-game health and magic resist you’ll need in teamfights, while boosting your early-game armour for resistance against your enemy ADC.

As for Quintessences, your options are a little more varied here. The safe option is to opt for Armor Quints, which will make your early game much easier.

Alternatively swapping them out for Health will give you the overall advantage but will rely on your ability to judge danger. A mix of Health and Armor Quints could be a better option for you.

Or you could forgo tankiness here and choose Movement Speed Quints. It doesn’t sync with Braum’s kit too much, but it’ll give you that extra manoeuvrability to make sure you can get around in the middle of a teamfight to block the biggest threats.

If you trust your own skills, this could be a good choice for Braum.

League Of Legends – Braum’s Item Build

Where many Champions have a great deal of flexibility with regards to items, Braum’s item build is a little more set in stone – not unlike the Champion himself.

Focusing on building tankiness is never a difficult thing to do in League Of Legends, just stack on tons of health, armour and magic resist and your job is done.

In fact, only Braum’s ultimate ability is affected by his AP statistic (at +40% of total AP) and as such it’s practically useless to focus on this aspect.

Additionally there could be an argument that activating the stun with Concussive Blows and using the extra magic damage given to Braum’s basic attacks calls for boosting his attack speed – but getting it to a reliable, effective state would mean missing out on all the core features of his build. It’s not recommended.

But there are some interesting routes you can take for tanky Braum, depending on how the match is playing out, so here’s some suggestions for Braum’s item build progression.

Braum’s Starting Items

You’ll want to open with Relic Shield (which you should build as quickly as you can into Face of the Mountain), a potion, the ward trinket of your choice and a stealth ward.

If you’re planning on going back early, then perhaps stack up on potions instead and spare the stealth ward – but we wouldn’t recommend it.

Remember to make use of Relic Shield’s cash boost by last-hitting minions when you have a stack ready, since it will give you and your ally extra gold and a small health restore.

Braum’s First Back Items

You’ll want to head back at around 900 gold, to upgrade to Targon’s Brace for 500 gold, Boots of Speed for 325 gold and an extra stealth ward (or more) for your lane.

This will likely be the same every time you play, regardless of how the game is playing out. Rushing Face of the Mountain will be important.

All the same, if you find you’re having a tough game and you’re forced back to base then picking up Cloth Armor (300 gold) for a bit extra tankiness wouldn’t be a waste, since it could upgrade into a few useful Braum items.

Or you could get a Sapphire Crystal for the same reason, giving you the mana needed to spam some of your abilities.

Braum’s First Main Items

You want to try and get Face of the Mountain first, since the item gives Braum everything that he needs a little bit of – health, cooldown reduction, health regen and that gold boost. The extra active effect adds to your repertoire of features, too.

Sightstone – and its follow up, Ruby Sightstone – are obvious items for any support, and while other players ought to be dropping wards too invariably your map’s vision will come down to your own ability to ward the map.

Lastly, if the opportunity arises you’ll want to grab your Tier 2 boots. Whether you get Ninja Tabi or Mercury’s Treads will be game dependant, and come down to whether you want to protect more against physical damage or magic damage.

As an aside, your choice of boot enchantments comes down to either Captain (to assist allies into getting into a fight) or Homeguard (for base defence).

Braum’s Core Items

There aren’t many items open to Braum, so his core list of items is perhaps more specific than most.

There’s two really core items for Braum, though: Frozen Heart and Randuin’s Omen. The former adds a lot of armour so is great for resisting powerful AD Champions, while its cooldown reduction and attack speed debuff on nearby enemies makes it useful for you in a fight.

Randuin’s Omen is a fairly obvious choice, bringing with it a great amount of armour and health, as well slowing an attackers attack speed and movement speed – since you’re aiming to take the brunt of the attack, this is helpful indeed.

Outside of that you’re going to want some extra magic resistance, and your core choices here are Banshee’s Veil (for when you’re up against AP damage dealers who’s relies on burst damage) or Locket of the Iron Solari (for more general magic resistance, but also its ability to buff your team).

Other Useful Items

If you pick three of those four core items, then you’ve still got space for a variety of potential choices to round out your kit. It’s here where you’ll really need to evaluate the state of the game.

If you find yourself not taking all that much damage – perhaps the enemy team haven’t had such a good game – then opting for Warmog’s Armor will give you that extra 1000 points of health that’ll make you even more of an irritant (and help you take even more damage).

Thornmail is a really good option on Braum too, since his E ability aims to draw fire onto him. Though it doesn’t add much in the way of health or other stats – which is why it often gets overlooked – the counter damage can be effective for Braum to share the damage he takes.

If you find you’re taking a lot of magic damage – or find the enemy team composition is largely favouring magic – then a Spirit Visage is the obvious choice, though its passive likely won’t reward much from this build.

Additionally you can even go for Sunfire Cape since you’ll find yourself in amongst the enemy on numerous occasions and that spread of extra damage could be useful. We wouldn’t recommend it though, for fear of accidentally stealing kills you don’t need.

Elsewhere the rarely seen Zeke’s Herald could actually have an advantage by boosting your teams attack damage and life steal, though this should only really be bought if you’ve an attack damage player who’s on a bit of a steamrolling.

Lastly there is an argument to be made for Iceborn Gauntlet, due to the way it synergises alongside the extra magic damage caused through Concussive Blows (post-stun).

However, it’s probably not the best item on Braum and perhaps best used when your team has quite a tanky composition (and therefore less reliant on you taking the brunt of the damage).