Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight, featuring Braum, the Heart of the Freljord.
Braum is a hero of the Freljord, a champion strongman famed for his selfless and legendary feats.
Once a simple goat herder,
Braum found an unbreakable door and uses it as a shield to protect man and creature alike on his journey through Runeterra.
In game, Braum is a tanky support with the ability to defend allies from a barrage of attacks
before hammering out his own immense crowd control abilities.
Whenever Braum attacks an enemy, he applies a stack of his passive: Concussive Blows.
If Braum dishes out four blows to the head, he deals a burst of magic damage and stuns his enemy.
For a brief period after, Braum's basic attacks against them deal extra magic damage,
although they won't receive additional stacks of Concussive Blows.
There are two things worth noting here: first, Braum’s allies can help trigger the stun with basic attacks and on-hit abilities.
Second, Braum can initiate Concussive Blows against multiple enemies simultaneously.
Braum’s Q is Winter’s Bite.
Braum punches his shield, sending out a frozen skillshot that damages and heavily slows the first enemy struck.
Winter’s Bite also applies Concussive Blows, giving him the opportunity to stun distant enemies.
Winter’s Bite is essential for gaining lane dominance.
Tag your opponents with it from range to give your marksman opportunities for great trades.
Braum’s W is Stand Behind Me.
A targeted ability that Braum can only use on himself and his friends, Stand Behind Me sends Braum leaping to an allied champion or minion,
giving him and his ally bonus armor and magic resistance.
Note that Braum will automatically stand between his target and the nearest enemy champion,
allowing him to effortlessly block skillshots with his awesome body. Seriously, check out those pecs.
Use Stand Behind Me whenever you’re separated from your allies.
Since it allows you to cross over terrain, you can keep yourself in a good position while buffing their defenses.
Unbreakable, Braum’s E, is his signature defensive ability.
On activation, Braum raises his shield in a target direction for a few seconds, blocking all damage from the first incoming attack or spell.
Any subsequent damage from that direction is reduced by a percentage while the shield remains active.
The most notable thing about Unbreakable is that Braum’s shield intercepts and stops all incoming projectiles,
even those targeted at allies behind him.
This allows Braum to tank damage and crowd control effects for his team.
Here’s one nuance worth pointing out: though Unbreakable doesn’t intercept non projectile abilities,
he does reduce the damage he takes provided his shield is facing the source of the damage.
For example, if Unbreakable faces the center of Zyra’s ultimate, Braum will take reduced damage, but he won’t prevent damage to his allies.
Braum can cast other abilities and move slightly faster while the shield is raised,
and keeps his shield pointed at the initial target direction regardless of his movement.
Finally, as awesome as Unbreakable is, it’s not awesome enough to block turret attacks or true damage.
Unbreakable can negate major area of effect spells for your teammates.
Save it for hard hitting ultimates to block off a barrage of attacks.
Braum’s ultimate is Glacial Fissure.
Braum slams his shield into the ground, sending out a huge shockwave that knocks-up, damages and slows enemies in a line.
Enemy units immediately around Braum are knocked up significantly higher than enemies further away.
If there are no enemy champions immediately around Braum, the first champion in the shockwave is knocked up higher instead.
Glacial Fissure also leaves behind a large zone of ice that slows all enemies.
Glacial Fissure is great for disengaging from team fights.
The ability creates a slow zone that will handicap your opponents, especially in the narrow corridors of the jungle.
Braum strikes his own destiny.
One of his many ability,
Stand Behind Me is an extremely versatile skill that has several offensive and defensive options when paired with the rest of his kit.
Let’s look at a few important plays you’ll need in order to become master of the mustache.
The first is blocking for an ally.
Determine what direction the most damage or crowd control is coming from,
then leap in to get between danger and your ally before using Unbreakable to disrupt the attack.
This is your basic defensive pattern for clutch saves, and requires good timing.
When assisting allies in a chase or aggressive play, use Stand Behind Me instead as a gap closer.
By choosing an ally closest to your enemy you can often put yourself in range to slow them with Winter's Bite.
Since the dash automatically places you on the side closest to your enemy, you’ll have an easier time lining up the skillshot.
You can also jump to allied minions, allowing for some tricky plays in lane.
Finally, if one of your friends gets caught out in a bad situation surrounded by enemy champions, Braum can come to the rescue.
Use Stand Behind Me to jump to the center of the action, then knock up and slow everyone around your ally with your ultimate.
This will give your team a chance to disengage, or allow other allies to step in and help if needed.
In lane, a successful Braum will constantly look for opportunities to stack his passive for a stun.
By tagging Janna with Winter’s Bite, he makes it easy for Quinn to follow up and pick her off with the bonus damage and stun.
Turning his attention to Vayne, he stacks Concussive Blows with another Q and basic attacks,
helping focus her down before she can land a killing blow on Quinn.
Braum is especially adept at helping allies survive ganks with his W and E.
As soon as Quinn is caught out,
he immediately uses Stand Behind Me to boost her defenses and help her survive focus fire from Pantheon and Vayne.
Note that Braum makes sure to stay behind Quinn while using Unbreakable so he can tank any attacks directed at her,
forcing Vayne to hit him instead as they retreat.
Braum’s Unbreakable completely negates damage from the first attack or spell that hits him,
so with careful timing you can effectively cancel your opponent’s most damaging attack.
Here, Braum blocks the gold card and the damage reduction gives him just enough defense to survive.
Braum excels when sticking close to his allies.
As soon as Twitch appears, Braum repositions to the front of his marksman, ready to not only intercept Twitch’s damage,
but also hit both enemies with Glacial Fissure.
Rather than chase for kills, Braum sticks with Ezreal, and applies Concussive Blows to any of his targets.
When playing Braum, your goal isn’t so much to dive on the enemy as it is to keep your squishy friends unsquashed.
Stand Behind Me’s low cooldown allows Braum multiple chances to reposition and help allies in long teamfights.
In this example, Braum quickly finds himself singled out after committing to defend Garen.
He uses Stand Behind Me to jump to Miss Fortune, and although he dies, he helps MF pick up the triple kill.
A well-played Braum boldly throws himself in harm’s way to protect his friends.
When timed correctly, Unbreakable has the potential to shield allies against tons of damage.
With great positioning here, Braum turns a lethal AoE combo into more of a mild annoyance,
almost singlehandedly turning the tide of this fight.
Braum’s big heart needs a lot of protection.
Focus on health, armor, and magic resistance.
Tenacity is also especially helpful, since Unbreakable means Braum will be tanking crowd control meant for his allies.
Mix in cooldown reduction to maximize Braum’s own crowd control,
and you’ll have a heavy frontline specialist ready to defend against any amount of aggression or unexpected bear wrestling.
Thanks for tuning in to the Braum Champion Spotlight.
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