Overview
Briar is very literally a gremlin and is a jungler who has global pressure thanks to her ultimate allowing her to jump on enemies from literally anywhere on the map at any time so long as she lands it. This gives her a ton of pick potential, especially against enemies with lazy pathing or lazy vision control. Combined with the sustain built into her kit, she’s a champion that’s very capable of hard carrying fights to lead her team to victory. Click here for the latest data on her best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Briar
Because she doesn't passively heal, you'll want to continue fighting for as long as possible. Running away while burning, for example, is just guaranteed death! She has excellent sustain and should try to look for outplays even from low HP.
If you land your Certain Death [R], you have to take it. No matter what. Otherwise, no one will respect you. Not even yourself.
Strengths
Briar can join a fight anywhere on the map with Certain Death [R] as long as she can hit it. Like Ashe arrows, she can sometimes land a hail mary from super far away to then jump on targets when they least suspect it -- this can be useful if you shoot it from lane or on enemies you know are recalling (which can be made easier with good deep vision control on enemies). Enemies who are stuck CSing large minion waves under turrets while low on HP can also be juicy targets for her. And once she’s able to start the fight, she brings CC on both Head Rush [Q] and Chilling Scream [E], which makes her very hard to deal with in close quarters, as she can also heal up quickly with Crimson Curse [P]. Overall, she’s a champion with a ton of pick potential and can create a lot of 5v4 situations for her team.
Weaknesses
“My mind is telling me no, but my body… my body.” There’s a famous Lee Sin clip that runs to this song, and Briar mains will find it very relatable. The rules are simple: if you land your Certain Death [R] from across the map, then you must take it, no matter how dumb it is. This makes Briar a champion that can throw leads as much as she can create them. Sure, you could just not take bad trips with your ultimate, but what’s the point of playing a game if you aren’t going to have fun? Briar is also going to be more susceptible to anti-healing than other champions, and because she relies on damage to sustain herself, if she falls behind, she’ll have trouble staying relevant in fights.
Game Plan
Early Game: She has solid gank potential early on and can do well in skirmishes in dense terrain thanks to her Chilling Scream [E] providing stuns upon knocking enemies into walls. Once your ultimate is online, you should constantly be looking for even half HP enemies - if you can land your ultimate on them, it should be an easy kill.
Mid Game: At this point you want to be looking for picks with your ultimate as much as possible. You can do this by aggressively invading the enemy jungle or shadowing side laners who are in 1v1 situations.
Late Game: You continue to do what you did in the mid game, though it may be more prudent to look for flank angles at this point instead of relying on long range shots with your R.
