Posted on by Harry Brown

Dominate Top Lane with Briar: A Master-Tier Guide (Plus AMA)

Feast on Them: A Master-Tier Guide to Briar Top (Plus AMA)

Hello everyone, I’m Nathan, better known as CrimsonL7 in the League of Legends community. As a newly minted Masters-tier Briar/Vlad Top player, and the recent rank one Briar in North America, I’m excited to share the knowledge I’ve gained about this ferocious champion in a top lane setting.

While I enjoy playing Briar, my disdain for the jungle role prevents me from one-tricking her. This leaves me with top and mid, but the short lane in mid hinders Briar’s potential. Therefore, top lane it is! At the time of writing this guide, I hold a 65% win rate over 60 games as Briar top this season. While I may not be the highest elo player, the lack of high-elo Briar Top representation motivated me to create this guide. Consider this your source for mastering the untamed power of Briar top.

This guide aims to answer your questions about why Briar Top is a viable pick, how to leverage her strengths, and ultimately, how to dominate your lane opponents.

Table of Contents

Runes and Summoner Spells

Let’s dissect the optimal rune setup for Briar Top. Since her release, there’s been debate surrounding the ideal keystone: Press the Attack (PTA), Conqueror, or Hail of Blades. While PTA and Conqueror suit a bruiser playstyle, Hail of Blades synergizes with a lethality build. We’ll explore both.

The Outdated Path: Lethality Briar (Don’t Do It)

Upon release, Briar’s lethality build overshadowed her bruiser potential, turning her into a living weapon of destruction, sacrificing her own life to obliterate anyone in her path. However, Riot nerfed this playstyle in patch 14.2, shifting some of her abilities to magic damage and scaling her bonus healing with health, incentivizing bruiser itemization. While I strongly advise against lethality Briar top, I’ll briefly explain its mechanics for context.

Major Keystone:

Hail of Blades reigns supreme for lethality Briar, enabling her signature one-shot potential. The core combo involves casting W, then Q onto an enemy, unleashing the empowered auto-attacks before canceling the fourth auto with W’s recast. This devastating sequence can eliminate most squishy targets.

Minor Keystones:

  • Sudden Impact: Briar’s ability to proc this rune with three of her abilities, coupled with the low cooldown, makes it ideal for amplifying her early game burst damage.
  • Eyeball Collection: This rune provides a steady stream of bonus AD, rewarding Briar’s aggressive playstyle and snowball potential.
  • Treasure Hunter: Accelerating your access to crucial lethality items is paramount, making Treasure Hunter the optimal choice in this row.

Secondary Runes:

Precision tree complements lethality Briar’s need for raw damage.

  • Legend: Alacrity: Increased attack speed translates to more damage, amplifying Briar’s killing power.
  • Coup de Grace: Since lethality Briar thrives on bursting enemies from full health, Coup de Grace’s execute synergy with her bite makes it a superior choice over Cut Down.

Mini Runes:

Always opt for double adaptive force and early health for a balanced stat boost.

Build:

While any item with lethality might seem tempting, this build severely underperforms in the top lane. I recommend researching popular assassin builds for a general idea, but don’t expect miracles.

The Superior Choice: CHAD Bruiser Briar Top

Eclipsed by lethality in the past, bruiser Briar now takes center stage. This build transforms her into an unstoppable force, capable of taking over games with a few early kills. Her strengths include exceptional 1v1 dueling, unmatched wave clear, strong 1v2 potential, and oppressive late-game side lane control. This section will equip you with the knowledge to unleash her true potential.

Summoner Spells

Teleport + Ignite: This combination is essential for 90% of your games. Ignite amplifies Briar’s already potent dueling, allowing her to overwhelm even the most formidable top lane champions. While some might argue that her global ultimate negates the need for Teleport, Briar’s R is notoriously unreliable.

Think of it this way: You’re in a crucial Baron fight, and you see an opportunity to unleash your ultimate from bot lane. You confidently cast it, only to watch in horror as it sails past your intended target, leading to your team’s demise.

Instead, utilize Teleport’s strategic advantage. Teleport to a flank ward behind the enemy team, putting your R in a near-guaranteed position to connect. This not only secures the engage but also pincers the enemy team, setting up your team for a decisive victory.

Flash:

Flash holds limited value on Briar, as attempting to escape while berserked often leads to running back towards danger. Consider it only for additional safety in extremely unfavorable matchups where early aggression from champions like Olaf, Tryndamere, or Darius could spell disaster.

Main Keystone

Since the PTA rework in patch 14.10 and the changes to Briar’s Q in 14.2, PTA has become the undisputed king for bruiser Briar. The ability for Briar’s A to proc on-hit effects, including PTA, allows her to fully stack it in under a second.

But it gets even better! PTA’s duration persists as long as the user remains in combat. While most champions lose PTA after a trade, Briar’s bleed continuously refreshes its duration, granting her additional time to re-engage if desired. This synergy makes PTA the undisputed champion for bruiser Briar, outperforming even Conqueror in every scenario.

Minor Keystones:

  • Triumph: This rune is simply broken on bruiser Briar. The healing it provides, amplified by her passive, makes it comparable to a Death’s Dance. Trust me, you won’t regret taking it.
  • Legend: Alacrity/Legend: Bloodline: This is where personal preference comes into play. I favor Legend: Alacrity, as Briar struggles to build attack speed, making the rune’s bonus valuable. Additionally, its early game focus synergizes well with Briar’s snowball potential. While Legend: Bloodline offers more healing, it can be rendered useless by a single piece of anti-heal.
  • Last Stand: This clutch rune can single-handedly turn the tide of a fight. It’s incredibly powerful on any champion that can utilize it, and Briar is no exception.
  • Bone Plating: This rune is my go-to in the secondary tree, even in poke matchups. As a dive champion, Briar benefits immensely from the added tankiness it provides, allowing for aggressive plays when it’s available. Even against poke, simply wait for Bone Plating to recharge before engaging, effectively gaining extra health for the trade.
  • Overgrowth: Free health is always welcome. This rune provides additional survivability and synergizes with Briar’s passive healing. It’s essentially 300-400 gold worth of health, making it a no-brainer.

Understanding Briar’s Identity

Riot categorizes Briar as a dive champion, blending assassin and bruiser elements. This assessment rings true! Her primary objective is to appear out of nowhere in a teamfight, wreaking havoc and obliterating anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in her path. This unique and enjoyable playstyle sets her apart from the rest of the roster.

Briar: A Scaling Champion?

Contrary to popular belief, I consider Briar a scaling pick. While she might have resembled champions like Lee Sin or Pantheon on release, capable of deleting targets at level 2 or 3, the current iteration of Briar requires a different approach.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not implying that Briar is weak early. However, even without snowballing, she can still become a late-game monster. In fact, Briar possesses one of the weakest level 1-3s among top laners. Think of her like Aatrox, whose early game strength is gated behind his Q’s second rank. Similarly, Briar’s true potential unfolds as she levels her W, gaining valuable stats with each point. Once her W is maxed, each point in Q further amplifies her power with bonus armor and magic resistance shred.

Early Game Domination: Laning Phase and Matchup Guide

As mentioned earlier, Briar’s level 1 and 2 are among the weakest in the top lane. Your primary goal is to survive. This might seem daunting, as opponents will undoubtedly exploit your lack of Flash and pressure aggressively. Focus on farming what you can, conceding when necessary, and allowing the wave to push towards your tower. This mitigates your early game vulnerability and sets up future kills, as Briar excels at running down opponents, which proves difficult under their own turret.

The Secret Sauce: Abusing PTA for Easy Kills

With the advent of the new PTA, a potent combo has emerged for Briar top (credit to Drututt for popularizing it). The combo is simple: cast W, then Q onto your opponent, securing the first PTA proc. Allow Briar to auto-attack once for the second PTA proc, then immediately recast W for an auto-attack reset, fully stacking PTA. Finally, use E to disengage.

This trade is incredibly powerful and leaves little room for counterplay. However, it’s crucial to avoid using it while overextended, as it leaves you vulnerable without cooldowns. The optimal time to strike is when the wave is crashing under your tower, guaranteeing your safety after the trade. Rinse and repeat this combo until you can confidently all-in and secure the kill. It’s that simple.

Mid and Late Game Mastery: Scaling into a Nightmare

Congratulations on winning your lane! Now what? You have two primary options:

  1. Become a Bush Assassin: Position yourself off vision and patiently wait for unsuspecting prey to wander into your R range. This almost always guarantees a free kill in a 1v1 scenario.
  2. Side Lane Pressure and Ganks: Push your lane and rotate to gank mid lane or join jungle skirmishes with a numbers advantage. With a few kills under your belt, extending your lead becomes effortless. Even getting ganked can work in your favor, as you can often trade 1 for 1. Embrace a fearless mindset, as high deaths are often a byproduct of Briar’s aggressive playstyle.

Briar’s mid-game macro mirrors that of most top laners. If you’re comfortable with the role, you’ll thrive here.

Late Game Dominance: The Unkillable Vampire Queen

With 4-5 items, you become a force of nature. Only the most skilled duelists with significant gold and anti-heal can withstand your 1v1 prowess. Landing your R spells doom for the enemy team, as they’ll need their full might to overcome your healing, health, and bonus resistances.

Prioritize playing around your R in the late game. Use it only when you’re confident of a hit, and remember the Teleport trick to guarantee a backline engage.

Item Build for Bruiser Briar

While item guides tend to become outdated quickly, I’ll outline the core stats Briar prioritizes, allowing you to adapt your build based on the game state.

Core Stats (in order of priority):

  1. Cooldown Reduction: Lower cooldowns significantly amplify Briar’s strength, enabling more frequent berserks, shreds, and stuns.
  2. Attack Damage: This one’s a no-brainer.
  3. Health: Briar’s low base health and passive scaling make stacking health incredibly valuable.
  4. Attack Speed/Lifesteal: Blade of the Ruined King (Bork) is the only item that provides both, making it a core component of any bruiser Briar build.

My Go-To Core Build:

  • Black Cleaver: Provides a good mix of AD, HP, and CDR, with the added bonus of armor shredding.
  • Blade of the Ruined King: Offers attack speed, lifesteal, and on-hit damage, synergizing perfectly with Briar’s kit.
  • Randuin’s Omen: Grants armor, health, and a powerful active that reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies, making it ideal for teamfights.

After completing your core, adapt your build based on the game state and the stats outlined above. Remember, prioritize CDR over raw AD or health on your first back.

Advanced Tips and Tricks

  • Master the Wall Stun: Briar’s E deals significant damage and inflicts a lengthy stun when used against a wall. Guarantee the stun by casting Q, then immediately channeling E towards the wall. This combo is perfect for poking without committing to a full engage.
  • Maximize E Healing: Hitting the entire minion wave with your E significantly increases your regeneration due to your bleed passive.
  • Doran’s Blade over Doran’s Shield: In most cases, Doran’s Blade outperforms Doran’s Shield on Briar. The additional AD and lifesteal provide more lane sustain and kill pressure.

Ask Me Anything (AMA)

That concludes my guide to Briar Top. I hope you found it informative and insightful. Now, it’s your turn! Feel free to ask any questions you might have about Briar, this guide, or even Vlad Top (another champion I enjoy playing). Let’s discuss and refine our understanding of these powerful champions together!

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