Lucian and Braum's Devastating Champion Synergy

Lucian and Braum excel as a bot lane duo: they have an incredibly strong laning phase, and can utilise their passives to CC enemies quickly.

Overview

Lucian has a very aggressive trading pattern during the laning phase, as he can use his abilities to damage the enemy and immediately use his passive to follow up with 2 basic attacks. His bread and butter combo is using E to get in range of the enemy bot lane, land 2 basic attacks if they lack mobility, then using Q and another 2 basic attacks.

Given that Lucian’s E is his only mobility tool, it’s important to only use it aggressively if it’s safe. Before using your E to go forward, make sure your support is nearby and you have bot side vision to ensure the enemy jungler isn’t in the area, else you may find yourself in a tricky situation.  

Once you have purchased Galeforce, you can combo it with your E to instantly traverse a large distance and catch enemies off guard. This is a huge point of power for Lucian, as he becomes incredibly mobile and can use this mobility to land multiple hits of his ultimate and decimate the enemy.

Meanwhile, Braum is a versatile champion with defensive and offensive capabilities. His Q and passive can be used to CC enemies -- protecting your allies or locking down an enemy for your team to blow up -- while his E is a fantastic tool to absorb abilities for your team. Braum’s W also has eclectic uses: you can use it to escape enemies, combo it with your E to shield an ally, or use it to move forward to catch out enemy with your Q or basic attacks.

Mastering your E is key when playing Braum, as it intercepts all projectiles including ultimates like Ornn’s and Ashe’s. However, you need to aim the shield so that it will block these incoming abilities, and position yourself in front of your allies so that they will be protected. Additionally, Braum takes 100% reduced damage from the first ability absorbed by the shield, so you should use your E just as the enemy uses their most potent abilities.

Synergy

Lucian and Braum have excellent synergy due to their passives. Once an enemy has at least one stack of Braum’s passive, more stacks can be generated when allies land basic attacks on that enemy. Therefore, if Braum can land a basic attack or Q on the enemy bot lane, Lucian can easily generate the last stacks with the bonus basic attacks he gets from his passive.

This means the duo have perpetual threat in lane, because Braum can slow enemies with his Q while Lucian dashes forward with his E to land more abilities and proc Braum’s passive. In addition, Braum has multiple ways to proc Lucian’s second passive and empower his next basic attacks:

  • Whenever Braum uses his W on Lucian, as it grants bonus armour and magic resist
  • Whenever Braum shields Lucian with Guardian, or heals him with Font of Life

Runes and Items

Press The Attack is a fantastic keystone on Lucian; it's very easy to proc from the extra basic attacks granted by his passive, and increases the overall damage of his combo. Given how much Lucian uses his abilities, he is more mana hungry than other ADCs so taking runes like Presence Of Mind and Biscuit Delivery is important.

As previously discussed, Galeforce is Lucian's best mythic. It makes Lucian a hyper-mobile threat and means he can engage from a surprisingly long distance and catch enemies off-guard. His build can be rounded out with standard AD items, such as Essence Reaver, Infinity Edge and Serylda's Grudge.

Guardian is a fantastic keystone for Braum, because it's another way he can protect his allies and is very easy to proc given how much time Braum spends next to his allies. Font Of Life is another great rune due to the plethora of ways Braum can CC enemies.

Locket of the Iron Solari is optimal when your team falls behind or is very squishy, while Evenshroud can be a great counter to teams with fed carries. The build should be finished off with items to make Braum even more durable, like Thornmail and Knight's Vow.

Summary

Lucian and Braum's have incredible synergy, and can chunk down enemies in the laning phase by stunning them with Braum's passive. Braum has a lot of offensive threat but can still protect his team, while Lucian can take full advantage of his mobility to pick off enemies in the mid game.