Brand is currently considered a subpar midlaner and a top tier Support.
My only question is......how? and why did this happen? How did a "tons of damage" mage with one unreliable form of CC become a primary support?
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Don't have to deal with crappy matchups you'd get in mid lane
R is better in a lane against two people
Passive damage went from 2% max health -> 4% max health.
Just keep the enemy near their tower with your W and your ADC can farm all game.
Because his base damages are absurd.
Nerf base damage significantly -> Significantly increase ratios.
There you go, Brand is back mid lane.
Well, because what is currently making brand strong is his passive. It has limited AP scaling so the AP from his items and xp from levels he'd build mid don't really make it any more powerful.
His passive is the OP part of his kit, and it doesn't get any stronger or weaker with AP or levels, so the extra gold and xp you get by going mid is generally unnecessary on him. If he went mid, he'd just be a sub par mage with a good passive. By going support, he requires much less resources and can still apply his passive to enemies, which is basically the only redeeming part of his kit.
I hope this makes sense lol.
My only question is......how? and why did this happen? How did a "**;tons of damage**" mage with one unreliable form of CC become a primary support?
You kind of answered your own question.
Outside of that, Brand has horrible wave clear, horrible lane sustain, and horrible ratios, all of which equate to a horrible midlaner.
Traditional supports > Brand support. Make bot lane great again.
wdym how they buffed him like 3 times this season lmao
not counting rilai's buff.
Rito kept buffing his base damage while not giving him waveclear, so he will always end up support because he won't need to care about wave management and can poke people with.his high base damage.
I want him back mid. Riot just revert the changes, really no reason to eve change him in the first place, except for his uh... ignite thing.
Tried to help someone with their promos, we couldn't do anything to this "support" Brand on the enemy team, unless we basically suicided 2 or 3 people solely to get him, of whom did almost twice as much damage as any other person on his team, and we had gotten every dragon, every elder dragon, and two of the three barons. This guy carried his team kicking and screaming the whole way because his sheer burst as well as dps (thanks to the % damage involved, even when building the appropriate MR items).
Like, come on, at least nerf his ultimate cooldown! Something, anything! He is stupidly strong.
He doesn't have to use his abilities to farm and can focus on making his poke always just hit the enemy without losing the pressure.
Brand mid is a late game powerhouse with a 58% win rate in matches that last 40+ minutes. Hardly subpar.
He becomes an URF mode champion that can almost chain CC a single person indefinitely.
It becomes very hard to get on top of a good brand who knows how to land his skillshots as even the beefiest tanks get chunked for 40% of their hp when they try.
His teamfighting is also one of the best (and braindead) in the game.
Why would you call him subpar?
every other support had their damage nerfed to be unable to compete with his and if his damage is nerfed, he has nothing to offer at all
he also functions better the more targets there are within a vicinity
Ulti works better vs 2 players. Also he has absolutely retarded base damages and horrendous scalings compared to other mages. Why take solo lane gold when you don't need it to obliterate teams?
common sense answer. His harrass, passive and ult are all very good in 2v2 scenarios early game, not so much in a 1v1 scenario were you don't have bushes to hurl your shit from
no one considers that
Is like asking "why is Rengar good top but not mid?"
Really strong scaling from rylais/liandries. You got a second mid on a support budget. Great for when your mid was AD. The poke breaks shorter ranged bot laners, whats short range in mid is quite acceptable in bot. His AOE (and bounce, very importanly) get so much more damage in a 2v2 lane than a 1v1 lane.
I just thought it was cause he is a AoE mage and thus he can double his damage in the bot lane so even with less items he is doing more because now he is hurting 2 people instead of 1
That buff kinda sucked. he needs MORE
As a mid brand main, I feel the struggle. I wish he would get reworked into a viable mid laner.
idk imo support brand needs a nerf
I think we've seen the gradual pushing of midlane mages into the support role. It started with Lux a couple seasons ago, then it was Karma, then Zyra, then Orianna, then it was just kind of a slippery slope from there.
Hopefully the new AP item changes reverse a little bit of this. I love midlane mages, my absolute favorite role to play. Going support is still fun but it just feels a little underwhelming 
A combination of getting buffed, being able to apply spellthief's passive easily and having an ult that is much better when there are multiple people around.