Can someone explain to me, how exactly is Brand balanced, compared to Ziggs or Xerath?

Kalarepa·1/4/2015, 6:00:33 PM·2 votes·1,326 views

Because if you compare those 3, they have similar damage, similar CC, but Brand has 2x lower range. Also remember, that Xerath and Ziggs are picked in tournaments, while Brand is NEVER picked. Yet the community thinks, that Brand is perfectly fine.

I like Brand, but when I play vs Ziggs, Xerath or even Lux, I feel like I'm handicapping myself by playing someone so risky (I need to walk right into enemies to do damage).

33 Comments

Stars Shaper1/4/2015, 6:05:39 PM6 votes

Brand damage output is far superior.

You ofc are gonna suffer from playing against long ranges and mobility assassins.

Cindikle1/4/2015, 7:37:40 PM3 votes

Brand will put out more damage in a teamfight than those two.

Xerath's Q/E/R have small/narrow areas of damage. R makes it so he can't move. In a teamfight he's easily taken down.

Ziggs only really bring his R to a teamfight. His Q can easily jump over an enemy. His CC is minimal with a lengthy cooldown. And his mindfield is more for zone control than damage.

Xerath and Ziggs are siege champions. Brand is an AoE mage. He will do devastating damage to a team if you let him. His stun is also stronger than their CC.

You can't gauge them on how much damage they can do to a single target. Because that's not how comparing different champions works. Brand will do more damage to a whole team because his abilities cover a better area while Ziggs and Xerath can fire their abilities further.

What makes Xerath and Ziggs playable in the LCS is that their CC doesn't require the same setup. They can escape a gank easier. But not every champion must be LCS quality. Not every champion needs to be great in soloQ.

Leafie1/4/2015, 6:02:31 PM3 votes

I don't think anyone ever insisted that Brand is perfectly fine.

His pick-rate is a whopping 4.2%. No one plays him because he's shit.

5G8Nri0B541/5/2015, 9:36:42 PM1 votes

Theoretically Brand SHOULD deal more overall damage if he is facing off against two champions and enemies are balls deep on him.

Obviously everybody knows that Brand is pretty garbage in practice compared to not just Ziggs and Xerath, but Syndra or any other mages that happens to be viable atm.

Brand's issue isn't that his damage is bad, but rather he lacks everything else (although his AP scaling is kinda shit...). Look at his only form of defence, a skillshot that only stuns if his enemies are already ablaze compared to others who can simply whip it out. Look at his range, it forces him to get into reaming distance of everyone else and assassins.

In your typical game, a Brand will not be able to escape any ganks. He will get destroyed in lane. While other champions can safely farm up or out-harass the enemy while often having their own means of escaping a gank. So in the end, Brand will be pretty underfarmed under equal-skill conditions due to his lack of tools to survive the climate of long ranged mages and assassins.

To put it another way, why do you think Tristana is often considered more powerful than Kog'maw late game despite the fact that Kog'maw theoretically inflicts far more damage under optimal circumstances?

Chaotic Reks1/4/2015, 7:00:02 PM1 votes

Let's take a look at his kit than shall we?

Passive: 8% max health as DoT, applied with all spells, stacks with item 3151 Q: Skillshot/2 second stun W: AoE nuke with 25% more damage E: Point and click instant damage, can spread to other enemies. R: BOING BOING BOING pentakill

Giovarco1/4/2015, 6:37:22 PM1 votes

Brand is fine as he's, but I think that his passive should scale with a flat dmg + %AP. It would be better I think.

Yakas1/4/2015, 8:06:20 PM1 votes

Brand is a solo queue champion. He isn't bad but he isn't good against organized teams.