Brunhilda — Patch 1.62 Verdict
[Default: B]
Brunhilda — Marksman Guide
Brunhilda is a long-range marksman built around controlled spacing and sustained poke. Pick her to win lanes quietly, then one day the enemy looks up and their dragon is gone and their inhibitor is cracked. She belongs in the dragon lane in the current meta, and her A-tier rating comes from being genuinely difficult to close on when played correctly, not from doing anything flashy. Her kit layers a passive that rewards staying at max range and punishing over-extensions, a mobility tool that doubles as a dodge on a reasonably short cooldown, and a sharpened-range ultimate that puts her in threat range from distances most tanks and fighters simply cannot close. You walk up, she walks back, and somehow you've lost a third of your HP and a summoner spell before the trade even felt like it started. She sits at A tier rather than S this patch because the Thai server's current high-mobility assassin prevalence, particularly Quillen and Butterfly, keeps her honest, and her laning floor is lower than Tel'Annas or Violet if you fumble her positioning. That said, players with crisp kiting mechanics and a support who can peel will find her one of the most rewarding carries in the game. Pick her into poke-heavy compositions, avoid picking her into all-in dive, and respect your own squishiness.
Strengths
- +Brunhilda's max-range passive bonus gives her one of the safest damage profiles in the dragon lane, allowing her to win sustained poke trades without ever needing to walk into the enemy's engage range.
- +Her mobility skill provides genuine disengage against single-target divers, meaning standard assassin picks like Quillen must burn two or more gap-closers to reach her if she pre-positions with terrain awareness.
- +The ultimate's extended range turns every late-game teamfight into a threat from an angle the enemy may not even be facing, enabling her to snipe priority targets from outside vision range.
- +She scales hard through mid-game item breakpoints and becomes increasingly difficult to trade into once she has two core attack items, rewarding players who reach that threshold with a significant damage lead.
Weaknesses
- −Her laning phase before the first item back is fragile, she has no built-in sustain and a single successful all-in from an aggressive support-carry duo can erase her HP lead and CS advantage simultaneously.
- −Against double-dash assassins or compositions with two forms of hard engage, her single mobility tool is simply not enough, and she requires support peel or she will feed if caught alone.
- −Her damage output is highly positional: play her too close and the passive drops off, play her too far back and she doesn't contribute to the fight at all, the margin of error is narrower than most players expect.
- −Hard crowd control, particularly long-duration roots or stuns, interrupts her ultimate channel and wastes a major cooldown, making her feel significantly weaker against CC-heavy compositions than she does in ideal conditions.
Abilities
PRedeploy
Brunhilda gains 80% movement speed that diminishes over 2s. Allows Entrenchment to be canceled immediately.Increases 40-60 attack damage
1Sentry
Brunhilda throws a trap at the target location (when located in the bush, friendly units gain vision around it). Enemies who touch it take 200-400 (+50%of AD) physical damage, and enemy heroes receive an additional 30% movement speed reduction, 15%-30% armor reduction and are revealed for 2s. Brunhilda gains a shield that absorbs 200-400 (+50%of AD) damage for 3s. Up to 2 mines may be active at the same time.
2Entrench
Brunhilda becomes entrenched for 15s, during which she is unable to move but gains 240-360 armor and magic defense. Her normal attacks deal 350-550 (+100%of AD) physical damage to enemies at the center of the target area (-40% to enemies on the edge) for a maximum of 7 times.Recast to cancel entrenchment
RBallistics
When Brunhilda's normal attacks hit an enemy, her crit chance increases by 3%, and her physical damage increases by 8 for 3s (up to 5 stacks).(No effect against normal wildlings)
How to Use Brunhilda's Kit
Brunhilda's passive rewards consistent auto-attack spacing, activating when you maintain distance from targets, and forms the backbone of her damage identity. The most common mistake is trading at mid-range where the passive bonus doesn't fully stack; always walk the line between max attack range and creep-block. Think of it as a tax on your own positioning: every step closer to your target is a tax you pay with lost passive value.
This is your primary poke and should be used on cooldown in lane provided the angle doesn't expose you to a gank. Animation-cancel it into an auto-attack immediately after the projectile leaves, the window is tight but the combined burst is noticeably higher than casting in isolation. Avoid telegraphing it by walking forward; throw it from a stationary or backward-stepping position so you're already retreating when the enemy wants to retaliate.
Treat this as a defensive cooldown first and a gap-closer never, burning it to chase is the single most punishable thing a Brunhilda player can do. The mobility it provides is short enough that an enemy with a hard CC chain will still catch you if you mis-time it; save it for the moment a diver commits, not the moment they appear on your screen. Pairing it with a ward-jump or terrain edge massively extends the effective escape distance.
Her ultimate extends effective range and dramatically increases single-target burst, making it the correct tool for sniping low-health enemies retreating through fog or for popping a high-priority target in a teamfight before you're in a position where their team can reach you. The key discipline is not panic-casting it the instant a fight starts, wait for the frontline to absorb CC so the channel isn't interrupted. Practiced players weave auto-attacks between casts during the ultimate window to maximize total output.
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Sentry | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | 13 | · | · |
2Entrench | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | 14 | · |
RBallistics | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Core Combos
Standard Poke Trade
Use in lane to whittle down the enemy carry without overcommitting, Q into immediate double auto while the passive is hot, then walk back before the support can respond.
Anti-Dive Escape
Save W for the moment the diver commits their primary gap-closer, dash through terrain or backwards, and immediately pivot to fire Q and autos into their back while they reset their dash cooldown.
Teamfight Snipe
Open with passive-stacked autos and Q on the frontline, then activate R once the enemy's CC abilities are spent so the channel isn't interrupted mid-cast.
Flicker Extend
In dire situations where W alone isn't enough distance, W into Flicker buys enough gap for R to safely channel from a position the enemy can no longer reach in time.
Gameplan
Brunhilda's first real spike arrives when she completes her initial attack-speed and critical item, typically around the eight-to-ten-minute mark. At that point her passive damage becomes oppressive in short trades. She peaks sharply at two core items in the mid-game, and that is the window to push objectives and call for fights. Her late-game power is legitimate but slightly flat compared to hypercarries like Tel'Annas. If the game drags past 20 minutes without objectives, she loses her edge. Play to close through mid-game advantages, not to outscale.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Farm under passive-range discipline — every CS you take should come from a position where your passive is active; never last-hit by walking into the minion wave.
- →Use Q on cooldown to pressure the enemy carry off CS, targeting them rather than minions in the final two seconds of a minion's HP if you can safely do both.
- →Respect level-two all-ins from aggressive bot-lane duos; if the enemy has a hook support like Grakk or an all-in support like Baldum, hug your tower until you have your W to escape.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →Rotate to dragon immediately after your first item power spike — your passive damage in a short burst fight around the objective is significantly higher than the enemy expects at this timing.
- →Play split-poke on the dragon lane tower once the laning phase breaks down: chip the tower with passive-stack autos, back off when anyone rotates, and convert that tower gold advantage into your second item.
- →Track enemy assassin cooldowns in teamfights and only R when you confirm the primary threat to you has burned their gap-closer on someone else.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →Position at maximum range behind your frontline at all times — do not chase kills, do not walk forward for a better angle, let your tank create the angle for you.
- →Prioritize the enemy carry and the highest-damage mage with your R snipe; eliminating their damage dealers before they eliminate yours wins teamfights at this stage of the game.
- →If you are ahead, proxy-push the side lanes between fights to force the enemy to answer you rather than grouping for a five-on-five where your positioning advantage is less pronounced.
Matchups
Brunhilda is not a first-pick carry. She is a counterpick or a second-rotation pick. If the enemy team shows no hard-engage assassin and has a poke-based or peel-based composition, she is one of the strongest picks available. The heroes to dodge are Butterfly and Quillen, both common in Thai Diamond and above. If both are open on the enemy side, strongly consider Tel'Annas or Violet instead. In bad matchups, specifically when you are matched against a Murad, buy early armor or HP items in your second slot instead of raw attack and play entirely through passive laning. Your synergy picks are worth hard-communicating in lobby. A Lumburr or Annette support transforms a mediocre game into a dominant one.
Brunhilda gets countered by
ButterflyButterfly's invisibility and double-dash let her bypass Brunhilda's W entirely, appearing directly on top of her before the dash cooldown can be used reactively.
QuillenQuillen's triple-blink assassination pattern is specifically designed to kill stationary or kiting marksmen, and his invisibility approach gives Brunhilda zero warning to pre-position her W.
MuradMurad's ultimate pulls Brunhilda into a duel dimension where her range advantage is irrelevant and her W cannot interact with terrain to escape, making the matchup almost unwinnable without peel.
BaldumBaldum's long-range grab into full-lock setup negates Brunhilda's spacing and perfectly enables the enemy carry to trade at a range where her passive is not active.
Brunhilda synergizes with
AnnetteAnnette's knock-up and wind wall create the exact kind of peel corridor Brunhilda needs, keeping divers off her while she channels R safely from the back line.
GildurGildur's shield and AOE CC chain buys the time Brunhilda needs to stack her passive and complete a full DPS rotation without being interrupted.
LumburrLumburr's constant AOE displacement in teamfights forces enemies to deal with the frontline instead of walking through it to reach Brunhilda, extending her safe damage window enormously.
AleisterAleister's global ultimate can teleport directly to Brunhilda's side of the map to peel for her, and his base-kit slow gives her additional auto-attack windows against kiting targets.
Pro Tips
- →Learn to read the enemy support's position before using W, the most common death on Brunhilda is dashing into the enemy support's CC rather than away from it, so map awareness of both threats is required before you commit the cooldown.
- →Your passive has a maximum-range sweet spot that changes based on your current attack-range items; after buying each new item, spend 30 seconds in a custom lobby re-learning where the passive activates so muscle memory stays accurate.
- →Against dive compositions, use terrain features at the dragon-lane river entrance as a natural W amplifier, a dash through a narrow chokepoint forces any chasing melee into a thin corridor where your Q can hit them in their own face.
- →In the late game, do not follow your team into the enemy base after a won teamfight if any enemy assassin is unaccounted for, the respawn timers are short enough that a Quillen or Butterfly can come back mid-push and kill you before your team notices, converting your winning game into a loss.
Brunhilda is the right pick for disciplined marksman players who are already comfortable with kiting and terrain exploitation and want a carry whose power curve rewards intelligence over mechanical flashiness. Her A-tier status this patch is stable and unlikely to drop until the meta shifts further toward triple-dive compositions. The single most important thing to master on her is the W timing, not the escape itself, but the read of when the enemy has committed their gap-closer so that the dash lands in the right direction. Get that right and everything else follows.
Brunhilda — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brunhilda good in the current ROV patch?+
Yes. Brunhilda is a solid A-tier pick on the Thai server right now. Her long-range poke and passive-based sustained damage are genuinely difficult to deal with in compositions that lack a fast, mobile assassin. She won't win you games through raw mechanics alone the way an S-tier hypercarry might, but in the right team composition she consistently out-values her draft slot. Exact win and pick rate figures should be verified on live aggregators since they shift weekly.
What is the best build for Brunhilda?+
Start with attack speed and early crit to activate her passive breakpoint as quickly as possible, then move into a standard marksman critical-strike core, prioritizing items that extend range or add movement speed so her positioning advantage compounds with raw stats. Item names and stats change with each balance pass, so cross-reference with current Thai-server build data on sites like ROV.GG or the Doyser channel for the most up-to-date item order. The rule of thumb: if an item doesn't make you harder to catch or harder to stand in front of, it belongs third or later.
How do you counter Brunhilda?+
The cleanest counter is a fast-initiation assassin who can reach her before she uses her W. Quillen and Butterfly are the textbook answers on the current Thai server because both approach from invisible angles that give her no time to pre-position the escape. A long-range hard-CC support like Baldum can also lock her in place while the carry closes the gap, removing her passive spacing advantage entirely. When playing into her, respect that she hits hard from ranges that feel safe and never walk in a straight line between abilities.
Is Brunhilda hard to play / good for beginners?+
She's rated Medium difficulty. In practice her mechanics are not complex, but her positional discipline is. A beginner can press her buttons in the right order without much trouble, but playing her at the range margin where her passive is active while simultaneously tracking two enemy threats is genuinely hard to do consistently before Diamond rank. She is not the best learning carry for new players. Violet or Valhein will teach fundamentals more forgivingly. For players already comfortable with marksman positioning who want a high-ceiling poke carry, she is an excellent investment.