League of Legends Briar: Best Runes, Item Builds & More

Briar is the newest champion to join the ever-expanding roster of League of Legends champions. She is a jungler and according to the lore, she was created from hemomancy or blood magic by the Black Rose in Noxus to be a living weapon. Being a skirmish-heavy champion, Briar is good in both teamfights and 1v1s.

This 164th champion was released on 13th September with LoL Patch 13.18 and she has been live only for a day and players have already started to play her both in pubs and ranked.

In this article, we will dive into the best builds, runes, and items that are currently working for Briar in League of Legends.

Briar's Abilities Explained

Since Briar is a new champion in League of Legends, let us first break down her abilities so we have an idea of what to expect from the hangry jungler.

Passive: Crimson Curse

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.

Notably, Briar has no base health regeneration and her abilities cost health to cast.

Q: Head Rush

Briar leaps to a unit, stunning them and reducing their armor.

W: Blood Frenzy/Snack Attack

Briar dashes to the nearest enemy (prioritizing champions) while gaining attack speed and movement speed, dealing physical damage. Recasting this ability will heal her, and then she deals extra damage (missing health physical damage) to them.

E: Chilling Scream

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.

R: Certain Death

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 (either Briar or her prey) dies. During this time she gains armor, magic resist, and additional move speed.

What to Build on Briar Jungle?

Briar is a champion who was created by Riot Games to give players the opportunity to "lose control to gain power." Instead of complex skill shots and sophisticated mechanics, Briar is all about timing, and choosing when to fight.

Before get into what items to build on Briar, let us take a look at what most people are opting for as Runes for this new champion:

Primary Rune Tree: Precision

• Conqueror

• Triumph

• Legend: Alacrity

• Coup de Grace

Secondary Rune Tree: Resolve

• Conditioning

• Overgrowth

Finally choose +10% Attack Speed, +9 Adaptive Force and +6 Armor

Her ability maxing order can be the following:

W - Q - E - W - W - R - W - Q- W - Q - R - Q - Q - E - E

The idea is to max W: Blood Frenzy first, followed by Q: Head Rush and lastly, E: Chilling Scream.

Since Briar is a jungler, naturally you will end up picking Smite and Flash as your Summoner Spells.

Briar's Itemization

Since it is Briar's first few days on the Rift, we can expect more variation of items in the upcoming patches. Currently, players are building the following items on her on LoL Patch 13.18:

Starter Items @ 14 seconds into the game

• Mosstomper Seedling

• Health Potion

• Stealth Ward

Early Items @ 4 mins

• Vampiric Scepter

• Boots

Core Items @ 21 mins

• Blade of The Ruined King

• Plated Steelcaps

• Stridebreaker

Full Build

• Blade of The Ruined King

• Plated Steelcaps

• Stridebreaker

• Black Cleaver

• Death's Dance

• Guardian Angel

However, instead of the Black Cleaver, you can also opt for Sterak's Gage as your fourth item choice. This will be effective against champions with burst damage like Zed, LeBlanc, Talon and against champions with heavy crowd control like Lissandra and Sejuani.

Some of the other situational items for Briar are Wit's End, Ravenous Hydra, Maw of Malmortius, Titanic Hydra, and Spirit Visage.

You will like playing Briar if you are already used to playing champions like Vi, Diana and Camille, since all these champions enjoy going all-in on their foes. Likewise, if you like playing healing champions like Warwick, Aatrox, or Vladimir, be sure to give Briar a try in your next game.