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Brand needs a rework (badly!)

rtbf34391052·3/4/2015, 5:21:34 AM·3 votes·2,225 views

Riot, I think it's about time that Brand has gotten a reworking. Brand is a combo mage, meaning that in order to succeed he has to land multiple abilities on a target at a time. Obviously, he cannot succeed by poking with Pillar of Flame nor by making plays around the map with the mobility he doesn't have. This is all fine, but the conditions that you have to meet in order to succeed with this champion are absurdly limited.

Similar to Xerath, often you must land your stun in order to make plays with this champion. However, in order to land your stun the target must be ablazed. You have three ways of doing this, and in my opinion they're all bad options. First, you can attempt to land pillar of flame. However, this is your most damaging ability and if they juke this then you're in a heap of trouble. Also, because of low AP scaling the ability doesn't really do that much damage without the 25% damage increase. Another way is to use your ultimate to get them ablaze. However, if you do this then miss your stun and you're basically the laughing stock of the game. This would also be a bad idea if pyroclasm will bounce to minions instead of champions.

The third way to land the stun is probably how Brand was intended to be played, but it's also extremely bad. This is to walk into 625 range to use conflagration and follow up with the stun. Brand is a champion with no mobility and no defensive abilities other than the stun. With that said, the need to get so close to the opponent to land the stun is absurd! In order to meet Brand's win condition of blowing up sons of bitches he has to take the risk of getting so close to the target (and by default the enemy team) that if his stun is dodged there's a VERY good chance that you've overextended and are about to die a miserable death.

Also, brands ultimate makes no sense as well. In order for his ult to prioritize champions his targets must be ablaze. Often times the only way to get them ablaze is to land Conflagration on them. In order to do this (and not blow your stun) not only do you have to once again get in 625 range with no mobility of defensive abilities, but you also have to land pillar of flame. If your pillar of flame is juked, then there's a good chance that you might have single handedly lost your team a teamfight if your ultimate bounces to minions/pets.

I haven't seen brand in the patch notes for a very long time. You've done some great things reworking many champs in the game, and I think it's about time for Brand's update.

3 Comments

DaCush3/4/2015, 5:47:23 AM1 votes

Ya, I felt the same way when I first played him. Like alright, I have to do this ability in order to get this effect but I also want this effect but it's impossible without doing this ability first. Basically you have to sacrifice one effect in order to get another. You can't get the best of both worlds. Which makes sense imo except for the ultimate. Because no matter what, there is no reason to risk missing pillar to get your ultimate off of multiple champions so you always go the route with the stun instead. It's just too much of a risk.

Anyways, although the effects could be done a little better, Brand is still really strong. He's just not played that often because he's not played in the LCS and he's an immobile mage and everyone thinks you need to have mobility to be viable which is simply not true especially for Brand. (Or they don't have his zombie skin and think it's pointless to play him without using the best skin in the entire game xD)

In regards to other champions though, Brand is not even close to being on the queue for a rework. There are a lot of other champions that are in dire need of one while brand is still a great champion atm. (Ashe Galio Kennen Mordekaiser MissFortune Poppy Ryze Taric Urgot Yorick to name a few)

HamburgerJunior3/4/2015, 3:00:43 PM1 votes

I don't think he really needs a rework. IMO they should just swap the stun on q for the damage on w. That way when you ult you can literally make an engage out of it if you're good and they happen to be in the right position. This also allows for greater single target burst which would help him out alot early game.