Briar build guide: skill order, best runes, items to buy. How to play Briar, next League of Legends vampire jungler champion
In the middle of September Riot Games will add a new jungler called Briar to League of Legends. She is a vampire, who will be the first character in the game without a base health regen. Let's figure out how to play her, what items to buy and what runes to pick.
Briar abilities
The champion ended up simple in terms of mechanics. She feels like a mix of Warwick and Vi in terms of gameplay. As of her role, she is a diving jungler, whose main objective is to get to the backline quickly and wreck havoc there or under the turret. She will work the best in the low rank games, since the opponents there are less coordinated and don't protect their supports as much.
Crimson Curse (Passive)
Briar gains increased Healing based on her missing health, and her attacks and abilities apply a bleed for short duration that stacks. The bleed deals physical damage based on the number of stacks and Heals Briar for a percentage of the pre-mitigation damage. Briar has no base health regeneration, and her abilities cost health to cast.
Briar's passive highlights her vampiric abilities. It makes her auto-attacks stronger and allows her to not fall behind in terms of hp in the jungle and during fights.
Head Rush (Q)
Briar leaps to a target, stunning them for a short duration, dealing physical damage, and reducing their armor. Briar will stop prioritizing champions if she casts this Ability on a minion or monster during Blood Frenzy.
This ability really helps Briar with mobility, allowing her to jump over small walls if you see the enemy. Since the champion deals most of its damage with auto-attacks, it will help you chasing and killing the targets.
Blood Frenzy/Snack Attack (W)
Briar leaps to a location and enters a Blood Frenzy, self-taunting to the nearest enemy (prioritizing champions) for a period of time. While in Blood Frenzy, she gains Attack Speed and Move Speed, and her attacks now deal physical damage around the main target. Briar can Recast this ability to empower her next attack. It deals missing health physical damage and heals Briar for a large percentage of the damage dealt.
The main ability of Briar, with which she clears the jungle and kills the opponents. It also helps with the mobility with its small dash.
Chilling Scream (E)
Begin Charging: Briar removes Blood Frenzy and gathers energy, gaining damage reduction and restoring health. Release: Briar unleashes a scream that deals damage based on time charged and slows for a short duration. When fully charged the scream knocks back, dealing additional damage to enemies that hit a wall and stunning them.
This ability helps you control her Frenzy a bit. Try to use it to push the enemies into walls, or activate it if you got under heavy focus.
Certain Death (R)
Briar kicks a hemolith and flies to the location of the first champion hit, marking them as her prey. On landing she deals a large amount of physical damage to everything nearby and causes nearby enemies to Flee. She then enters an empowered Blood Frenzy and will pursue her prey until one of them dies. During this time she gains Armor, Magic Resist, and additional Move Speed.
Briar's ultimate feels like a mix of strongest abilities of Warwick and Vex. The radius is more than half of the map, so you can use that to chase the running enemy or to initiate a fight.
Briar build ability order
First you should focus on getting W, since it decreases the cooldown a lot, and also increases all of its parameters. The next to max is Q, which decreases its cooldown and increases armor penetration. The ultimate is, as usual, leveled up at first opportunity, and E is the last priority.
Briar rune build picks guide
She basically has only one option, but it's a perfect one, with Conqueror. This set of runes will help to increase the damage and survivability of the champion. You can also try to play with Press the Attack, but from our experience Conqueror is a much better pick.
Briar what items to buy guide
She has three good mythics: Trinity Force, Stridebreaker, and Goredrinker. The first one will help in the duels, while the other two will be better for teamfights, adding some control or survivability. The rest of the legendaries depends on your teammates. If you need to tank more, pick more survivability items. And if you have someone to take the attention from you, allowing you to deal a lot of damage, focus on that instead. The best starter for you should be Scorchclaw Pup or Gustwalker Hatchling.
Briar counterpicks
Since she is a jungler, she doesn't have a solid specific counter-pick. She is vulnerable to long-range pokes and a lot of crowd control. Try to pick champions like Leona, Nautilus, Lux, Veigar, Morgana, Jayce, Ornn, Shen, and so on.
