Should Brands's ult be reworked?

Zenba Cat·3/16/2015, 2:03:35 AM·6 votes·1,167 views

So Brand seems like a really awesome champions, so why does noone play him? I asked around and nearly everyone's reply is that his ult is way to random. Its cool that it can target creeps, but theres a good chance it just bounces off and only hits a champion once or twice. There was also the chance that it only hit champions, and ended up doing way more damage than it should have.

So I suggest reducing its total damage, but make it at least 50 to 75% more likely to target champions over minions, without losing the ability to target minions. Sure theres other ways to change his ult, like reworking it completely. But I think this is a lot simpler way of making him more viable, and funner to play. So do you think it should be changed?

16 Comments

Pyro3/16/2015, 6:57:32 AM4 votes

As a Brand main: looking at the previous few reworks (Cassiopeia, Veigar, Kassadin), I would like Riot to stay the hell away from Brand for now.

PoE00dpWDk3/16/2015, 7:08:14 AM3 votes

No, I don't think this is the right change to make to brand to make his ult more reliable. Brand is more or less a combo mage who uses his prior spell cast to enhance the next one. He use to have a purely random ult where by hitting ablazed target it started to move faster by some amount. This then got changed to the current form where hitting ablazed targets will prioritize a champion for the next bounce, with this you should be able to kill all the randomness in his ult by setting it up. Your change would hurt his damage while really hurting the point of setting up the ult in the first place. Brands current "best" tool for spreading his ablazed effect is with his E ability though the problem comes with the fact this is a two step process light some one then E them. This is also hindered by the fact the E's spread radius is not much farther than just a normal W which while easier to dodge can be used some what safer. So to make Brands life easier without killing a lot of depth to him just up the spread range on his E and if you have to cut into that abilities damage instead, though he really needs it all.

The other reason his ult is consider random is not that it can fly off and kill some creeps, but that if you ult the team instead of bursting that one or two squishy VIP you just tapped the tanks a few times or had it eaten by some other ability.

Slaaneshine3/16/2015, 2:46:02 AM2 votes

Honestly, if it could bounce of himself it would be better off by miles. He could 1v1 extremely well then, and it would still put him at risky as he would have to be rather close to his opponent.

danmarge3/16/2015, 2:15:35 AM1 votes

The ult prioritizes champions that are burning from his other skills so just hit them with a skill then ult

The Red Warden3/16/2015, 3:42:03 AM1 votes

I always though of Brand as an combo mage who can mix his spells in different ways to get the most out of them but the ult doesn't really interact with that concept.

So my idea is to make it work like Gnar 's Q where if Brand can catch it on the return most of his spells will lose around 50-75% of their cooldowns. It initially starts off as a skillshot that collides with the first target hit then returning, it will stop if it hits a second person the return to add counterplay. This shifts its desired usage to be later in the fight after he has used his full combo, with this acting as a reset. It's higher risk but if it works the reward is another devastating spell combo.

It is also thematic since it fits with 's desire in how it rewards him for setting more people on fire with getting to set more people on fire.

Kitten of Evil3/16/2015, 3:06:32 AM1 votes

No one plays Brand because Leblanc and other assassins counter him HARD. In other words, the current meta.

Voidac3/16/2015, 2:18:04 AM1 votes

His ult already does little damage per hit compared to other ults, and the amount of setup required is a little silly. But I don't think Riot will touch him for a long time. Nerfing his damage is a bad idea. What I suggested was making the first hit on each target deal more damage then reduce any further damage that target takes if his ult bounces back.

This would make him even more viable in a 1v1 and wouldn't punish him so hard when his ult refuses to bounce back to the champ.

Here's the logic: Say his ult manages to bounce to the target champ twice as it is now, it'll deal 150(+50% AP) per hit. That's 300(+100% AP). Assuming you have exactly 100 AP, that's 200 to 400 damage. But more often than not, it will decide to run off into minions, meaning you'll only deal the initial 200 damage. Make the first bounce deal 200 (+ 50% AP) and have additional bounces only deal 100 (+50% AP) to that target.

In doing so, it's so much less costly if your ult runs away, you're still doing the same damage to that target, no more damage. And it's much more useful in river encounters with the enemy jungle.

SpongebobIsLife3/16/2015, 2:26:02 AM1 votes

honestly, what I thought they should do about this ult, is make it so that it always prioritizes champions when bouncing, after all, you're never going to be using it to cs or anything, and then for the blaze effect, give it like a .5 sec fear on each target hit; however, they can only be feared once. If that's too much, then you can reduce the duration of his sear stun to 1.5 or 1.75 seconds.