Braum ARAM Build and Guide

Updated for patch 26.22. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch; ARAM balance numbers come from the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data.

A Braum ARAM build is tank support items on a champion the mode quietly buffs: Braum deals 105% damage and carries a 120% healing modifier on the Howling Abyss. One lane means every enemy projectile comes from one direction, which is the direction Unbreakable faces, so you build Health, resistances and items that pay out when you slow or stun, which he does constantly.

The items are ours, chosen from what they do in patch 26.22. No win-rate tables behind them.

How is Braum changed in ARAM?

Braum deals 105% damage in ARAM and has a healing modifier of 120%. Two numbers, both up. The damage one is a small gift to a champion whose output is a slow, a four-stack stun and a knock-up, so the extra damage shows up as slightly faster trades rather than kills. The healing modifier is the odd one, because none of Braum’s four abilities heals. What it applies to isn’t spelled out in the ability text; the Wiki lists it on his ARAM line, and the kit itself has no heal, so treat it as a note rather than something to build around. Why buff him at all? Because he’s a 125-range tank who has to walk to everything, and on the Abyss the walk is longer than it looks. To be fair, neither change moves how he plays. They just make the walk survivable.

Why does Braum fit the Howling Abyss?

Because the whole enemy team stands in front of him, and his shield faces front. Riot’s data for patch 26.22:

• Concussive Blows (passive): his attacks apply stacks; after the first, ally attacks stack it too. At 4 stacks the target is stunned and takes magic damage, then can’t take new stacks for a few seconds but takes bonus magic damage from his attacks.
• Winter’s Bite (Q): ice from his shield that slows, deals magic damage and applies a stack. Cooldown 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds.
• Stand Behind Me (W): a leap to an allied champion or minion; both gain Armor and Magic Resist for a few seconds. Cooldown 12/11/10/9/8.
• Unbreakable (E): his shield goes up in a direction for several seconds, intercepting and destroying all projectiles from it, negating the first attack and reducing the rest. Cooldown 16/14/12/10/8.
• Glacial Fissure (R): a slam that knocks up enemies nearby and in a line, leaving a slowing fissure. Cooldown 130/115/100.

On Summoner’s Rift the hard part of playing Braum is guessing where the damage comes from. On the Abyss there’s no guess. Five enemies, one corridor, one direction (and a shield that covers it), so the enemy marksman’s attacks, the mage’s skillshots and the support’s hook all arrive at the same shield. Stand Behind Me always has a target, since four allies stand within reach at all times, and Glacial Fissure across a lane that is already a line knocks up more people than it ever does on the Rift. Where does it go wrong? Areas and beams. A Xerath barrage or a Brand pillar doesn’t care which way the shield points, and Braum’s 125 range means he answers neither.

What should a Braum ARAM build focus on?

Health and resistances first, then items whose passives trigger on the things Braum does anyway: slowing, stunning and casting his ultimate. Four items from the current patch.

Bandlepipes first, and it’s the item that fits him best: 200 Health, 15 Ability Haste, 20 Armor and 20 Magic Resist, with Fanfare triggering whenever you slow or immobilize an enemy champion, granting you 20 Move Speed and giving nearby allies Attack Speed. Winter’s Bite slows, the four-stack stun immobilizes, and the trail Glacial Fissure leaves behind slows again. Honestly, Braum triggers Fanfare more or less every time he presses a button, and Attack Speed for allies is Concussive Blows stacking faster.

Locket of the Iron Solari is second. 200 Health, 30 Armor, 30 Magic Resist and 10 Ability Haste, and Devotion grants nearby allies a 290 to 360 Shield that decays over 2.5 seconds. On the Abyss “nearby allies” is the whole team, and the Shield lands exactly when Glacial Fissure goes in and everyone follows. The resistances stack with Stand Behind Me’s, which already gives him and one ally Armor and Magic Resist on arrival.

Zeke’s Convergence is third, for the ultimate: 300 Health, 25 Armor, 25 Magic Resist and 10 Ability Haste, with Frostfire Tempest summoning a storm around you for 5 seconds when you cast your ultimate, dealing 30 magic damage per second to enemy champions and slowing them by 30%. Glacial Fissure already knocks up and leaves a slowing fissure. Add a storm that slows everyone around Braum for 5 seconds and the enemy team is walking out of the fight in slow motion (which is when Concussive Blows gets its fourth stack).

Knight’s Vow closes it: 200 Health, 40 Armor, 10 Ability Haste and 100% Base Health Regen, and Pledge designates an ally as Worthy, after which Sacrifice makes you take 14% of the damage they receive while near them and heal for 12% of the damage they deal to champions. Pick the carry (always the carry). The catch is that the heal counts as healing, and this is where the 120% modifier may finally earn its line on the Wiki. Boots: Plated Steelcaps against attackers (25 Armor, 10% less damage from attacks), Mercury’s Treads against mages (30% Tenacity).

How do you play Braum on the Howling Abyss?

• Shield toward the marksman, not the mage. Unbreakable intercepts projectiles; attacks are projectiles, barrages aren’t.
• Stack the passive on whoever your ADC is already hitting. After Braum’s first stack, ally attacks add stacks, so Braum needs to land only the first hit and the carry supplies the other three.
• Glacial Fissure down the lane, not across it. The knock-up hits enemies in a line in front of you, and the lane is a line.
• Leap to the ally in trouble, not the ally in front. Stand Behind Me gives both of you Armor and Magic Resist, and the carry needs them more than the tank does.
• Max Q. Winter’s Bite is your only poke and your Fanfare trigger, and its cooldown drops from 8 seconds to 6.

How do shopping and Mark change the game on the Howling Abyss?

With no recall on the Abyss, the fountain at the start and after each death is the only shop you’ll see. The relics along the lane are the healing between deaths, and for the team’s tank that means the order of purchases is the order of fights survived. In practice, buy the resistance that matches the enemy’s damage first, the Health second, and finish Bandlepipes before any of the bigger items, because its passive is the one that changes how fights feel (allies hitting faster is allies stunning faster). Dying with a full item’s worth of gold unspent is the classic ARAM tank mistake, and Braum, who dies last if he’s doing it right, makes it more than most.

Mark, the snowball spell unique to ARAM, lets you dash to whichever champion it hits, and you commit to it before the game loads. For Braum it’s the engage he doesn’t otherwise have: 125 range and no dash toward enemies means Glacial Fissure usually starts from wherever he happens to be standing, and a snowball that lands puts him in the middle of them first. Funny enough, Stand Behind Me is the way back, since it leaps to an ally rather than an enemy. Snowball in, Fissure, shield, leap out, and that’s a Braum fight on the Abyss from start to finish.

Is Braum good in ARAM?

Yes, and more than his modifiers suggest. 105% damage and 120% healing are minor, but the map does the real work: one direction for the shield, allies always within leap range, and a line for the ultimate to travel down. What he can’t do is deal with poke that isn’t a projectile, and a team of area mages turns him into a slow man with a shield pointed at nothing.

The supports built to do that are in the Braum counters guide, and most of them are worse for him here than on the Rift. Our guide to LoL roles explains what a support is for in a normal game. The item database has every item above with patch history, and the Braum skins page has the cosmetics.

Put simply: shield the marksman, stack the stun with your carry, Fissure down the lane, and leap back to whoever needs the resistances. That’s the Braum ARAM build at work. Then you respawn, finish the Locket, and go stand in front of someone again.

FAQ

Is Braum buffed in ARAM?

Slightly. The League of Legends Wiki’s champion data for patch 26.22 lists him at 105% damage dealt with a 120% healing modifier on the Howling Abyss, and no damage-taken change.

What items does the Braum ARAM build use?

Bandlepipes, Locket of the Iron Solari, Zeke’s Convergence and Knight’s Vow, with Plated Steelcaps or Mercury’s Treads depending on the enemy damage.

Does Unbreakable block everything on the Howling Abyss?

No. It intercepts projectiles from the direction Braum faces, negates the first attack and reduces the rest. Area spells and beams aren’t projectiles and go straight through.

Why Bandlepipes on Braum?

Fanfare triggers when you slow or immobilize an enemy champion, and Braum slows with Winter’s Bite and the Glacial Fissure trail and stuns with Concussive Blows, so the passive is up almost constantly.

Is this build based on win rates?

No. Braum’s patch 26.22 ability text and the item data are the whole basis for it.