Briar Jungle Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities

Briar is the 164th champion in League of Legends. She was released in LoL in Patch 13.18 alongside other significant changes to the game.

Briar is a skirmish-heavy champion who excels in fights and 1v1 duels. However, she requires some time to come online. Her damage output is relatively high, which is a great advantage. Additionally, she has a lot of built-in sustain thanks to her Passive, allowing her to outlast opponents and win fights.

1. Pros

• Decent mobility
• Powerful duelist
• Nice crowd controling abilities
• Amazing potential to engage fights
• Can clean the jungle without losing lots of HP
• Good scaling into late game
• She can attack enemies almost across the whole map due to her Ultimate ability

2. Cons

• She pays her health for using abilities without having base health regeneration
• Items with "grievous wounds" effect can counter her
• Taunts herself and the player loses control over her by using W and R
• Vulnerable to CC and can be kited

• Briar is a jungler that specializes in 1 vs 1 combat, so always look into invading the enemy jungler when they're alone. A good strategy for this is to place a ward on either their Red Brambleback or Blue Sentinel and use Certain Death to kill them when they're least expecting it.
• Try to fight in the jungle, as Briar can push enemies into the wall and CC them using Chilling Scream.
• Briar is a great ganking jungler that excels on lanes which have good follow-up crowd control and damage.
• Using Head Rush is an important part of Briar's spell kit because it acts as both a gap-closer and keeps the enemy stunned while she damages them.
• Proper use of Chilling Scream will allow you to cancel Blood Frenzy, sometimes saving you from most certain death, so don't waste it.
• Don't cast Snack Attack too early in the Blood Frenzy mode in order to maximize your damage output by having the bonus attack speed for as long as possible.

• Charge up your E, then Q, AA, W, W, and AA to finish.
• Lead with Q then charge your E, then W, and W again!
• Pop your W, then W again, Q and then E.
• Pop your R then W, Q, W and E!
• Q to an ally, then W, W, E and a few AA's to finish.
• Lead with W then Q, W, charge your E then hit that R!
• Flash and W onto your enemy, then Q and E!
• Use your R then Q, then W to reposition before using your E!

1. Pro Briar Jungle Path —full clear with a lvl 3 gank from a Raptor start

The Pro Briar Jungle Path is a six camp clear that starts on the Raptors. As Briar, unlock Blood Frenzy and clear them leashless, doing so your character gets level two and unlocks Chilling Scream. Red Brambleback is next, after which you'll kill the Krugs. Finishing these two grants you level three so that you can unlock Head Rush— a very valuable skill for ganking. Depending on your side, gank Top or Bottom lane if there's good potential and then recall back to base. Go to the Blue side of the jungle and proceed to clear Murk Wolves, Blue Sentinel and Gromp as this will grant you level four. Upgrade Blood Frenzy, clear the Rift Scuttler and gank a nearby lane.

This Briar Jungle Clear is great even in the hands of beginners as it's quite easy to do and allows the player to output huge early game pressure, it might even score you a first blood!

Jungle Route Summary:

• Raptor > Red Brambleback > Krug > Murk Wolf > Blue Sentinel > Gromp > Rift Scuttler > Gank (Mid)

2. Briar Jungle Path —full clear with a Blue Buff start

This Briar jungle clear guide focuses on starting at the Blue Sentinel and doing a full jungle clear that has high Red Buff uptime. Start by unlocking Blood Frenzy as your first ability. This will provide you with sustained damage and healing during your jungle clear. Begin the jungle clear by taking down the Blue Sentinel and after defeating the Blue Sentinel, unlock Chilling Scream and move on to the Gromp camp. Proceed to the Murk Wolves camp next. Use your abilities to quickly clear the wolves which will grant you level three and unlock Head Rush. Path towards the Raptors camp after clearing the Murk Wolves. Once the Raptors are cleared, make your way to the Red Brambleback camp. After defeating the Red Brambleback, move on to the Krugs camp. This should give you level four so that you can upgrade Blood Frenzy. With your jungle clear complete, look to secure vision and potentially gank a nearby lane before before or after taking the Rift Scuttler.

This Briar jungle clear guide provides an easy-to-follow path for efficient jungle clearing that everyone will be able to do.

Jungle Route Summary:

• Blue Sentinel > Gromp > Murk Wolf > Raptor > Red Brambleback > Krug > Rift Scuttler > Gank (Mid)

3. Fast Gank Briar Jungle Path —three camps into gank from a Red Buff start

The Fast Gank Briar Jungle Path is designed for quick early ganks, starting from the Red Brambleback and leveraging Briar's abilities to surprise enemies. Begin by unlocking Blood Frenzy as your first ability for sustained damage and healing during your jungle clear. Proceed to clear the Red Brambleback and while a leash isn't necessary, assistance from allies can help optimize your clear speed. After clearing Red, unlock Chilling Scream and use it to swiftly clear the Raptors. The AoE damage from Chilling Scream will help you clear the camp very quickly. Next, head to the Gromp camp. Upon reaching level three, unlock Head Rush. This ability will provide you with an insanely useful dash and stun that's perfect for early ganks. Depending on the lane positions and enemy movements, you may catch opponents off guard with an unexpected gank. After the gank, return to your jungle and clear the Blue Sentinel and Murk Wolves camps. Use your abilities to efficiently clear these camps. Once cleared, head to the river to secure the Rift Scuttler. After securing Rift Scuttler you can choose to do another gank if opportunities arise or reset to base to purchase items.

This Fast Gank Briar Jungle Path emphasizes early aggression and surprise ganks to create pressure on the map and catch opponents off guard. Adjust your gameplay based on the evolving state of the game and always be ready to capitalize on enemy mistakes.

Jungle Route Summary:

• Red Brambleback > Raptor > Gromp > Gank (Mid) > Blue Sentinel > Murk Wolf > Rift Scuttler > Gank (Mid)

It is essential as a Briar player to full clear. Briar can start at either Red buff or Blue buff so always start the buff closest to your botlane for a leash. They might be upset and not want to leash but reassure them that this gives you a faster clear and allows you to get to your ultimate faster than having a toplaner leash. As a repayment be sure to come back and use Briar Ultimate down in botlane to help them out.

1. Power Spikes

Briar jungle pathing is very similar to a Master Yi or Warwick as her ganks are drastically weaker without her ultimate. Briar gains a massive power spike as soon as she hits level 4 and level 6. You should never consider fighting in the early game until you are at least at that one of those powerspikes.

2. How to Gank as Briar?

Do not be fooled by Briar's Head Rush stun as an effective means for a gank as it is only 0.85 seconds in duration. So unless you have a huge follow up from an ally like Blitzcrank its honestly not worth trying to force a gank with.

You should only gank as Briar if you see an enemy over-extending without flash or around 50% of their Total HP. Otherwise you should always prioritize farming because the faster you get to level 6 with Briar the faster you can take over the game and snowball. Ganking risks getting yourself killed or putting yourself behind in farm XP & gold. As soon as you get level 6 with Briar that opens up the opportunity to fight anywhere on the map that you want but there are a couple caveats when it comes to using Briar ult.

3. Briar Ultimate Ganking:

Do not ever use Briar ult down midlane if the 1st enemy outer mid lane tower has not been destroyed. Middle Lane in summoners rift is statistically the shortest length lane. Given that Briars Certain Death does not fear the initial target it hits, this makes it even worse to ult down mid. If Briar hits a midlane target, they will always be relatively close to their tower and closer to safety. Even worse, champs like Zed or LeBlanc can easily dash back to their tower once hit and force Briar to chase them and turn the gank around on you for a free kill.

Bot lane & Top lane are the best options for Briar Certain Death as these lanes are a lot longer in length and enemies are more at risk of dying to you if this ability lands since they have to run further back to reach their tower or any safety.

Bottom Lane is the best option to ult down and Briar should always ult botlane unless they have Sivir or Samira. These two adcs are the only threats as they can press 1 button to completely cancel out Briar ult with Spell Shield and Blade Whirl which make it so that you can never ult them if these spells are up.

Ulting to gank a toplaner is very hard as most toplaners have a lot more escapes and are a lot tankier than the average adc. This makes it more unlikely to get a kill off ulting toplaners and a lot more likely to get a kill from ulting bot lane. By using Briar ult botlane you can fully utilize the Certain Death AOE fear and separate the support from its ADC or vice versa. This by itself is enough to cause players to panick especially when they get feared. The chances of a kill from ulting botlane are far higher as you also will have your own botlane to back you up. Even if a jungler ganks bot before you, Briar ult gives the perfect counter gank setup and pretty much wins every fight so long as it hits and gets the fear off on a few others.

4. Gameplay

• Early game:

You should try to powerfarm as fast as possible to get level 6 when you can do ganks from long distances. However, it doesn't mean that Briar cannot gank before lvl-6, but you need level 3 at least to have access to your major abilities. You can make ganks earlier if you see a good opportunity like the enemy champion is staying far away from his tower. The easiest lane to gank is where an unmobile champion stays far from his tower and your allied champion has some kind of CC to dismove the enemy while Briar is approaching.

You have two options when you want to gank someone. You can either use Certain Death or try to walk out and come closer to an enemy to use Blood Frenzy + Head Rush combo on him. Your enemy can probably try to escape by using Flash or some ability like a blink or dash to make distance between your champions. And this is the time when you can try to catch him up by using Certain Death.

• Mid game:

This is the time Briar has to hunt her enemies the most. With 1-2 items + T2 boots she is strong enough to 1v1 most champions. It's easier to pick enemies alone during the mid period of the game. After each successful attack you should look to get any epic monsters while your team has the number advantage. Especially you should target immobile enemy champions who could be beaten 1v1 by Briar. Don't forget to keep clearing your camps (and enemy camps as well if possible) to not get behind in terms of exp and gold.

• Late game:

This stage of the game is to some degree harder for Briar than mid game since enemies are going to group up and it's much harder to pick single targets. And it's harder for Briar to kill a target in a teamfight because she taunts herself and can be easy target for enemy's skill shots and CC abilities. For most champions it's much easier to kite and fight Briar in team fights than in 1v1 scenario.

In team fights you can be an engaging champion and start fights thanks to Certain Death. If you have no other champs who can engage, then it's going to be your task for the game. It's better to have more protective items to be able to withstand few seconds for your allies to catch you up in the fight. You can and should also be a frontline for your team.

Another scenario is when you have 1-2 tanky champions in your team. In this case you can buy more damage for Briar and look to delete most dangerous enemies. Your abilities Certain Death and Blood Frenzy allow you to attack enemy team from flanks or from behind. It makes it easier to target squishy enemy carry champions like marksmen and mages. Let your tanky allies to engage and force enemies to use some of their strongest spells and CC abilities and then you joing the fight.

If a team fight was successful in late game, try to immediately take Baron Nashor, try to destroy some inhibitor or even try to finish the game. Enemy champions will be dead for next 40+ seconds so you would have enough time to do something to increase your chances to make your victory closer.

Briar wins duels at very specific levels. The earliest she can even win a duel is at level 4 when she has at least 2 points in her W. This makes it so that Briar can easily win a 1v1 fight with her increased stat checks from Blood Frenzy if no one else interferes. However most fights you are rarely going to be a fair 1v1 which is when you need to wait for level 6 power spike. The increased armor, mr, and life steal and movespeed from Certain Death allow briar to be a bit more tanky especially when combined with her ̶3̶5̶% 40% damage reduction while using Chilling Scream. These two power spikes at level 4 & 6 are when Briar is at her strongest but not unstoppable. Even at these levels, briars biggest power spike comes at two items.

When dueling, make sure to save all of Briars abilities. Do not ever use Chilling Scream unless its to stop an enemys burst combo or to stop yourself from Berserking in Blood Frenzy. You do not want to be in a frenzy with your Chilling Scream down as it is almost always going to get yourself killed.

Briar is a powerful bruiser with a high-damage playstyle and exceptional sustain. While she needs time to reach her power spike, once she has the right items, she can dominate fights and overwhelm enemies in 1v1 situations. However, Briar's weakness lies in her vulnerability to kiting and her reliance on precise engages. To maximize her potential, players must carefully time their engages and use her abilities effectively. When played correctly, Briar can become an unstoppable fighting machine on the battlefield.

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Good luck to you! – Cheng