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Why do people play brand support?

Annestria·3/5/2020, 2:45:33 AM·1 votes·2,951 views

I have no clue honestly. It just seems awful. He doesn't have the mana pool/regen to poke/harass. His Stun does not last that long. and its a 2 ability skill shot. Chances are, they will dodge at least 1 which means, No stun. On top of that, you just burned a lot of mana for a small amount of burn damage. If the Marksman gets caught out Brand can't save them. Lulu might, Morgana Might. Leona Probably could. Janna Probably could. but brand. Not saying its impossible but, we're bordering on redundant. Half the time I am Dueling my own support for CS..

Why do people refuse to play any of the Actual "Support" characters. Soraka, Thresh, Blitzcrank, Sona, Janna, Lulu, Bard, Braum, Taric, Leona, Morgana, Lux, Kayle even.. Why play brand over any of these supports?

It feels like a very "I don't trust my Marksman" kind of thing. If you want to play Off-Meta I would take Jarvan Support. Hes good CC, Can trap the enemy with Cataclysm, His E-Q combo is good, does a bit of damage, and traps the enemy. His Golden Aegis is a Barrier for him and Slows enemy players hit by it down.

some one please enlighten me.

21 Comments

Catastroclysm3/5/2020, 4:21:50 AM4 votes

He deals 100 billion damage with only magic pen so he doesn't need much gold. His waveclear sucks ass, and his ultimate relies on hitting at least 2 targets. Support is his best role.

Ice Weasel X3/5/2020, 2:51:03 AM4 votes

If it's so awful, then why does it work? Why did Riot publish an article about why it works? Why do pros play it?

It's a high pressure support game, and it's fun.

Sanity x Agony3/5/2020, 3:14:41 AM3 votes

He use to be a mid laner along with Zyra. They were pushed out because of the mobility creep and assassins in mid. He's better as a support in this meta because of his strong poke damage.

gileskd3/5/2020, 3:19:52 AM2 votes

people play brand support because its better than brand mid/top brand ults 1 v 1 in mid lane, its not gonna bounce off champion to champion brand ults 2 v 2 in bot lane, its gonna bounce off champion to champion brand ults in a team fight. point and click that you can only dodge further bounces by getting out of range all brand needs to succeed is to build damage pretty much

Dorans Pants3/5/2020, 10:41:22 AM1 votes

mage-supports combine a lot of different functions which are usually exclusive to specific support types.

They can hard engage similar to hook-supports ( but less reliable ) You can poke like enchanters ( even better ) You can peel like wardens ( but less reliable ) They scale ( most supports are stagnant or fall off )

This makes them a lot more versatile and therefore more appealing for confident support players who still want to play support, but don´t want to be as team reliant as they would be with other support picks. I would claim that, usually, dmg is far easier to apply in a game than utility, so even when enchanters, for example, look pretty powerful on paper, a lot of their power budgets end up not being utilized to the fullest, due to the aforementioned team reliance.

As an example: when a mage like Velkoz uses his ult in a teamfight he will have a good chance at applying most of his dmg, whereas someone like Janna can end up in a situation where her ult is only used as an additional knockback if her teammates decide to fight outside her heal. In this case, 50% of that power budget would go to waste without the support player having any say in that regard.

Jinzo Torrance3/5/2020, 12:07:15 PM1 votes

Immobile mages are the best designed class in League (apart for a few), heavily relying on positioning and cooldowns, they should be played everywhere and buffed so much that they crowd every other pick. Not sarcasm.

Darkdemon6533/5/2020, 4:34:09 PM1 votes

Because even with no items, he can still do a ludicrous amount of damage if the enemy team doesn't handle his abilities properly (which can be hard to do and comes at a cost even if done properly)

Fella Air3/5/2020, 4:36:14 PM1 votes

Honestly, if he buys rylais his cc becomes pretty decent. He can shore up the magic damage on a team because you wouldn't believe how often your 4 teammates decide to go all AD. He can control the flow of lane by forcing the enemy carry to constantly dodge or take really bad poke on low mana cost and low cooldown. He has very good anti-tank stats from his %AP damage and the fact that his build almost always involved Rylai/Liandry. And, yes, frankly there are many times when I DON'T trust my adc. As a support main who interacts with them constantly, I find adc players to be some of the most toxic and unskilled players in the entire game. From the way you're talking and implicitly demanding that people play "Actual supports" which is just a laundry list of people who essentially suck you off in lane and make you look good ... (Despite the fact that you will likely give them no credit when they do actually help you make plays) I can only assume you're an ad main. Doesn't necessarily mean you're toxic or bad but it probably means our philosophies fall on different sides of this issue.

I will admit that Brand has a severe lack of mobility, and in higher elos the enemy team usually knows to scatter in a way that makes his ult way less useful.

Tr4shB4NSYST3M3/5/2020, 5:12:28 PM1 votes

B/c he scales into a strong teamfighting mage.

1800NICECLIENT3/5/2020, 4:53:16 AM1 votes

I've hit Diamond with support Brand before. He's actually quite solid, but he has good match ups and bad match ups. He does a crazy amount of damage and scales well with little gold. His only weakness is the player piloting him, spacing properly, and knowing which part of your QWE to land in what order before you either all in or kite out. He works great with any ADC that has solid poke or an AOE ult. (MF/EZ)

Champs that do well into Brand are some assassins, and higher range burst mages(Syndra comes to mind.)

Legendary Ayachi3/5/2020, 7:32:19 AM1 votes

Brand Support is a solid pick, deals good damage and is viable throughout the game. I pick him when I feel like the ADC is going to be a monkey or when our team comp could use some AP. Electrocute/Dark Harvest is good on him but I run Phase Rush on Brand as he tends to be Immobile and he becomes vulnerable when he executes his combos, not to mention that Phase Rush procs off his passive and opens up the Sorcery Tree for Brand which greatly synergizes with him.

LanceTheJungler3/5/2020, 8:42:09 AM1 votes

Because they want to be a mid lane mage player but lack the skills so they just wack off in the support role hoping to get carried. Out of all league players the only players I hate more than ignite top laners are mage support players.