How to balance Brand

It's VERY simple.

Make the explosion from his passive apply 2 stacks of Blaze, and make his Ultimate apply NONE. Or at least none on the first hit, or first couple hits.

Or at least make SOMETHING like that work. It would punish the shit "I play brand for ez wins lol" players and reward the professionals who know how and where to stack Blaze in teamfights.

How many times have you experienced the following? You're playing against a Brand Support as an ADC, and you spend all game side-stepping his massive, massive W. Eventually he lands one, so he flashes up to you and insta-E's. You, being better than him, manage to sidestep his Q, but then he just lobs that dumbass ult at you to proc the third stack of Blaze anyways! All the skill and effort you put into that fight gets completely negated because he has two point-and-click abilities to easily proc his passive every single time!

It's dumb. It's just as avoidable as Annie's Bear-Stun. Meaning, "Lol, you didn't use your 300-second-cooldown flash? You're supposed to use your 300-second-cooldown flash EVERY time the enemy mage uses his 80-second ult! Duh!!! Learn to play!!!!!!!!"

I play Brand a lot, but I'm not one of those people. I respect Brand a lot as a champion! He's what every mage SHOULD be like -- choosing which ability to use first, because the combination of abilities used dictates the outcome of your combo. Q-E-W is for wave clear. E-Q-W is for risky assassination. W-Q-E is for kiting. E-R-Ignite is the dumb pussy move every braindead Brand player resorts to to compensate for their lack of genuine skill. It's obnoxious.