Brand
Matchup Summary
Brand is a relatively easy match up to have access onto, with his only main strength being his combo based damage if he's able to land his abiltiies. Renekton can easily jump onto Brand at will, allowing him to easily burst him down and kill him within 1 or 2 trades. When playing into Brand, try to avoid his W damage, as well as looking to avoid his Q stun. You can avoid Brand Q by using your E creatively to bait it out, or side step when walking towards him, providing you the kill windows needed to kill Brand. When it comes to teamfights, try to avoid clumping up into Brand's potential R usage. If Brand does R you, try to reposition away from any teammates, as you're able to deny his R from doing any bonus damage or applying his blaze passive.
Detailed Tips
- 01
Play For Sustain Early - Brand's Damage can most certainly be very annoying within most parts of the game, especially combined with Renekton's low magic resist. To combat Brand’s early poke damage, make sure to abuse D Shield + Second Wind to soak up his overall damage, allowing you to combo more effectively and lower his overall lane presence.
- 02
Respect Brand's Blaze Combo - The way his passive works is that if he lands one ability he applies his blaze passive, which empowers his next ability. Most often Brand will E to easily apply blaze, then he will Q > W. Respect his combo to remove the leverage and advantage Brand can gain within the lane.
- 03
Dodge His Stun - Once Brand E's he will most likely look to Q if there's nothing blocking it, with that we can dash to the side or try to double dash over him if the opportunity is there. If he misses you can look to heavy trade and heavily abuse the Brand pick. The more damage you have the easier it is to kill him too.
- 04
Play Wave On Your Side - Playing the wave on your side essentially means playing wave states on your side of the map, via abusing wave manipulation tactics or freezing on your side of the map. Simply use this to help you combo on your laner, taking away any space from them being able to trade you back (This also helps prevent the enemy running you down with their extended or sustained movement speed abilities). You can also use this wave state to run down your opponent with your abilities up, helping you obtain kills a lot easier vs stalemate or ranged match ups. Look to do this when your opponents are below 50% HP, or potentially make a mistake to provide you an all in opportunity to run them down.
- 05
Respect His R - Brand R is an annoyingly frustrating ability that can change any skirmish or teamfight, so make sure to drag it away if brand R hits. Also Understand He can cheese in bushes and try to full combo onto you or your team. Play for vision and don't give him that opportunity to land.
- 06
Quick Trades - E > Q > AA > W > AA > E Out / E > Q > W > E / E Q E - These combos allow for Renekton to get quick damage off in being able to keep health up and whittling his opponent down, use these to get your laner low and look for a low HP kill with flash.
- 07
Rush Mercury Treads - Rushing Mercury is a giant advantage against Brand as you’re easily able to tank his CC duration, as well as the fact you lower a ton of his overall damage. Another underrated aspect is the movement speed, which also allows you to easily manoeuvre against his abilities and presents an easier time in dealing with Brand.
- 08
Build Hexdrinker, Eclipse, Stridebreaker or Profane - Go Hexdrinker to lower Brand’s overall damage and have a MR shield / Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Stridebreaker to cripple Brand's mobility and provide teammates with additional utility. / Go Profane for full damage focused playstyles.
- 09
Mid Game + Teamfight Tips - As already mentioned, Brand’s overall objective will be trying to get a maximum value R in a teamfight, which ultimately leads into cataclysmic circumstances if you play into it. Within teamfights try to hard burst him before he gets into a position to land his AoE R. Try to hard burst him first if he tries to get into range of your team, or alternatively try to tank the R he lands and reposition away from your team. Doing this simply means he loses out on a ton of damage for his team overall presenting you with the ability to easily win and shut him down.