Weird Pick #174: Mid Lane Briar

The champion who can't stop attacking, dropped into the lane with the least room to run.

Briar is a jungler. She's been a jungler since the day she released, and the reason nobody laned her is obvious the first time you try: she has an ability that takes the controls away from you and sends her at whatever's nearest. That's a disaster in a long lane. Mid isn't a long lane.

So how does this work anyway?

Weird Pick #174

Mid Lane Briar

Off-Meta Build

How to Play Mid Lane Briar

Abilities

Q, E, W then prioritize R > Q > W > E

Summoner Spells

Flash

Ignite

Starting Items

Doran's Blade

Health Potion

Strategy

Farm quietly until level six, then spend every ultimate on the enemy mid laner and force them to buy an escape they didn't want

Core Items

Sundered Sky

Mercury's Treads

Black Cleaver

Sterak's Gage

Death's Dance

Mid Lane Briar Runes Setup

Briar Mid Lane Runes

Precision

Resolve

Precision: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Bloodline, Coup de Grace

Resolve: Bone Plating, Overgrowth

Shards: Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, Health

When to Pick This

Pick it into an immobile mage. Certain Death [R] is a targeted, long range, unstoppable arrival on a champion who has no way to be somewhere else, and against an artillery mid laner it's simply a delivery. The moment they see it locked they have to spend gold on an escape item they'd rather not own.

The second signal is a jungler on your team who likes to fight. Briar's ultimate fears everyone standing around the target, so a two-person dive on a warded lane still works. That's rare enough to be worth building a plan around.

Skip it against a mid laner with a blink and a wave clear button. They'll farm from a distance you can't cross without dying, and every minute you're not fighting is a minute this pick does nothing.

How It Works

A Short Lane Hides Her Worst Problem

Losing control of your own champion is fatal in top lane, where the walk home is long and the enemy jungler has ten seconds to arrive. Mid, you're never more than a few steps from your own tower. The frenzy that would have killed you in a side lane just drags you into a trade you can usually afford.

She Heals Through Everything Mages Do

Poke is how a mid laner wins a lane they can't fight in, and Briar's whole kit converts damage dealt back into health. Against a champion whose plan is to chip you down twenty percent at a time (five trades for a full health bar), that plan needs to work faster than she can undo it, and usually it doesn't.

The Ultimate Turns Mid Into A Gank Lane

Certain Death [R] crosses more ground than any gank does, and it lands with crowd control attached. Every wave you push is a threat to the enemy jungler standing near their own blue buff as well as to the laner. That pressure exists whether or not you ever use it (the part people underrate).

Nobody Has Played Against It

The enemy mid laner has a plan for Yasuo and no plan for this. They'll stand a step too close at level three because their instinct says the melee champion in front of them can't reach. This edge goes away the moment they figure it out, so cash it in early.

Potential Pitfalls

You Do Not Fully Own Your Own Champion

This is the thing that decides whether you like the pick. Blood Frenzy [W] sends her at the nearest enemy, and the nearest enemy is often a caster minion standing between you and the person you meant to hit. Learn to cancel it early rather than learning to live with it, because the cancel is what turns a mistake into a trade you chose.

The Wave Goes Wherever It Wants

Briar clears fast and can't help herself, so the wave shoves. That's a permanently open lane against a mid laner with a roam button, and it means your side of the map is lit up for the enemy jungler more or less continuously. Ward for it before you need to.

Ranged And Mobile Ends It

There's no build path around a mid laner who dashes away and keeps farming. Briar has one gap closer and one commitment button, and a champion who beats both simply never has to play the game you want. Check what's locked on the other side before you take this, since the draft tells you the answer for free.

Mid Lane Briar Conclusions

She's a bad laner in a lane that forgives bad laners. It's a better pitch than it sounds: mid is short, mid is close to your tower, and mid is full of champions who lose the moment something melee gets on top of them and refuses to leave.

Take it as a counter pick, take Ignite, and understand you're playing for the first fifteen minutes rather than the last fifteen. If the enemy mid laner can't run away from you, they're going to have a long game. If they can, you're going to.

Suggested Tier: Tier 3

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