Brand at some point is going to need changes to make him a viable mid.
Not sure what they did to Brand but there's almost no reason to play him mid as opposed to "support". Brand gets outclassed by most other mids (
,
,
etc.) so the only other role he can go to is botlane with an ADC. But he's just as bad there because of DShield and all of the sustain supports. When is he ever going to get changes?