Team Synergy
Briar is a dive engine that demands immediate enemy respect. In Mayhem, where damage numbers are inflated and cooldowns are short, she functions as a chaotic initiator who forces enemies to unload their cooldowns or die. She does not poke. She does not peel. She exists to sprint at the highest priority target and force a 1v5 that her team must immediately capitalize on. Because her W and R force her to attack, she relies heavily on teammates who can either follow her aggression instantly or keep her alive while she eats crowd control.
What Briar Needs From Her Team
- Hard Follow-Up: She commits first. If teammates hesitate, she dies.
- Disengage or Counter-Engage: If she dives a fed carry and gets peeled, she needs a Zilean or Gragas to turn the enemy counter-attack into a second fight.
- Anti-Poke Support: She has no answer to heavy poke before level 6. She needs a healer or a shielder to bridge the gap until she can force an all-in.
Top Teammate Synergies
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Zilean (Speed and Resurrection Safety Net)
Synergy Mechanism: Zilean is arguably Briar's best partner in Mayhem. The speed boost from Time Warp allows Briar to close the gap during her ultimate or W activation, often reaching targets before they can react. More importantly, Chronoshift (R) solves Briar's biggest weakness: over-committing. If Briar dives the backline and gets burst down, Zilean brings her back up with full health, resetting the fight while enemy cooldowns are down.
Best Scenario: Briar R onto the enemy ADC. Zilean speeds her up, then ults her the moment she drops to 30% HP. She revives, fears everyone around her, and cleans up the fight.
Enemy Answer: Enemies must wait out the Zilean R duration or switch targets to Zilean first. Hard disengage supports like Janna can knock Briar away, wasting the resurrection buff.
Failure Risk: If Zilean is caught or poked down before the fight, Briar has no safety net. A Zilean without mana is a dead weight for a dive comp.
Recovery: If Briar dies without a revive, Zilean should use his bombs to zone the enemy off her corpse, preventing resets.
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Ornn (Setup and Upgrade Value)
Synergy Mechanism: Ornn provides the reliable crowd control Briar lacks. His R knocks enemies up in a line, grouping them perfectly for Briar to land a multi-man fear or just cleave through them with her W. In Mayhem, Ornn also provides item upgrades, which makes Briar's mid-game spike even more terrifying.
Best Scenario: Ornn engages with R from a distance. As enemies are knocked up, Briar follows with her own R, chaining CC and ensuring the enemy backline cannot flash or dash away.
Enemy Answer: Cleanse effects or Quicksilver can break Ornn's knockup chain. Mobile carries like Ezreal or Tristana can dodge the initial Ornn R, leaving Briar to dive into a fully ready enemy team.
Failure Risk: If Ornn misses his R, Briar has no setup. She is forced to engage blind, which often results in her getting kited to death.
Recovery: Ornn can use his E to knockup anyone focusing Briar, peeling for her if the engage goes wrong.
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Soraka (Sustain to Ignore Poke)
Synergy Mechanism: Briar has no range and no sustain outside of her lifesteal, which only works if she is attacking something. Soraka allows Briar to survive the pre-6 poke phase. Once Briar hits 6, Soraka's global R allows Briar to dive towers or deep backlines without instantly dying to burst.
Best Scenario: Briar takes a bad trade or gets poked to half HP. Soraka heals her to full. Briar immediately engages again while the enemy abilities are on cooldown, creating a tempo advantage.
Enemy Answer: Anti-heal is mandatory. Executioner's Calling or Morellonomicon cuts Soraka's healing and Briar's lifesteal, making the dive much riskier. Burst mages can also try to kill Briar through the heal.
Failure Risk: If Soraka runs out of mana or gets silenced, Briar becomes very vulnerable to poke. Soraka is also a sitting duck; if she dies, Briar loses her sustain engine.
Recovery: Soraka can use her silence (E) to stop enemy mages from bursting Briar down during a retreat.
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Yasuo (The Ultimate Combo)
Synergy Mechanism: This is a classic "knockup into ult" combo. Briar's R applies a slow and knockback, and her E can sometimes disrupt positioning, but Ornn or Malphite are better setup. However, Yasuo works well with Briar because he can follow her dive instantly. Once Briar creates chaos, Yasuo uses his E to dash through the fight, using his windwall to block the crucial auto-attacks or projectiles that would kill Briar during her channel.
Best Scenario: Briar dives the backline. Yasuo throws a windwall to block enemy ADC damage. He then uses his R on any targets Briar knocks up or disrupts.
Enemy Answer: Point-and-click crowd control ruins this duo. A simple Lissandra R or Malzahar R on Briar stops the engage before Yasuo can follow up.
Failure Risk: Both champions are melee and need to go in. If they fall behind early, they have no range to farm safely. They get poked down and become useless.
Recovery: Yasuo can use windwall to cover a retreat, blocking skillshots while Briar runs away with her E.
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Lillia (Speed and Spread Damage)
Synergy Mechanism: Lillia and Briar form a "run at you" composition. Lillia's passive burns enemies and her speed boost from Q makes her hard to catch. She can initiate with her R, putting enemies to sleep. Briar then runs in while they are asleep, guaranteeing a clean engage. The speed boost from Lillia's movespeed also helps Briar stick to targets.
Best Scenario: Lillia lands a multi-man R. Briar waits for the sleep to pop, then uses her full combo on the most dangerous target, effectively deleting them before they can react.
Enemy Answer: Spread out. If Lillia only hits the tank, Briar has to dive the backline alone. The enemy support can use Mikael's Blessing to cleanse the sleep.
Failure Risk: Lillia is squishy. If she gets caught out, Briar has no engage tool other than her own R, which might be too slow to save Lillia.
Recovery: Lillia can use her E to check bushes or slow enemies chasing Briar, helping the team disengage.
