Tough Love - Conflicted Feelings On Playing Braum
No preamble, I love Braum. As a champion in League, as a character in the larger world of Runeterra, and as a general ideal of loveable dorky manliness and heroism, he is far and away my favorite.
I love getting into character as Braum when I play him. I load up an hour long loop of his theme song, I start singing aloud in a poor immitation of his thick syrupy accent, and once in game I try my best to embody the spirit and playfulness that is the Heart of the Freljord through chatting in character with enemies and allies alike.
As I play, I try to embody the ideals of fairness, kindness, patience, and goodness that Braum stands for. When allies curse or lay blame or start abusing each other, I try to respond the way Braum would - reassuring people that despite whatever mistakes may have just happened, it isn't the end of the world; that we can still win - and more importantly that we can have fun trying, even if we lose - if only we step back, relax, and come together to work as a team.
Those who don't want to listen, I will give a bit of space, then try again to persuade after a little bit. If I get flamed, I try to turn insults into jokes, in order to defuse tension and to build comraderie - even with members of the enemy team. I never let myself lash out at anyone, if I can help it. I always try my best to remain cool and calm in the face of the nastiest and most toxic of players - because I know that's what Braum would do.
It's a tough thing to choose to do, but I feel like Braum would approve of my trying to promote good sportsmanship and a more pleasant experience for all.
On the other side of the equation, however, there's Braum as a video game character.
Braum is a big, hulking, tanky support. Playing as Braum, I can pull off some plays that just feel immensely satisfying, both in terms of enjoying the player fantasy he embodies, and in terms of knowing that I am contributing to my team and helping to swing a match in our favor. I love being able to throw up my shield and block hostile abilities, and I love literally jumping into the thick of a fray to protect my allies.
Yet despite all those positive points, Braum has a few very thorny problems that badly mar his gameplay experience - at least for me personally, although I assume for others as well.
Braum feels buggy and inconsistant. It may be that he isn't actually as mechanically awkward as he feels, but I get the constant unpleasant impression that his key abilities are simply not working the way they seem like they ought to.
The biggest culprit is Braum's signature move, Unbreakable. On the most basic level, it operates like it should - you point it in the proper direction, and it shields you from damage coming from that direction. Where things start to fall apart is in the more complicated interactions, like how it responds to crowd control - or rather, fails to.
The problem is that it doesn't feel like it operates properly compared to similar shielding mechanics. Take the various forms of Spell Shields - all of them not only prevent the full damage of a single ability or spell, but they also negate all crowd control associated with that single ability or spell. The same also applies to Morgana's Black Shield, although it operates slightly differently and isn't limited to shielding the target from a single ability or spell.
Why is it that Braum's massive, enchanted, unbreakable shield can block damage, but not block the secondary crowd control effects? It doesn't make thematic sense. If the shield can block the damage of a hostile spell, why can't it also block the other effects - particularly when all other shield effects operate that way?
Why is it a giant magically impenetrable door is less protective than a bubble of mana? Why do physical things like Zyra's rooting vines or Alistar's headbutt get cancelled out entirely by simple immaterial spells, but the exact same things still manage to take partial effect against a combination of a giant sturdy door with a heart of true ice, and the ancient arcane magics permanently imbued into it?
Of course, I've yet to even mention the absolute worst offender in terms of absurd comparisons - Yasuo and his Wind Wall.
How does it make any sense at all that an ordinary man, with absolutely no personal magical power, can, with simple physical prowess, create a gust of mere air that is able to completely and utterly negate projectiles, spells, and effects that Braum's massive shield cannot fully stop? Why is empty air stronger than an unbreakable magic shield in essentially every single instance?
It feel absolutely horrible. It feels completely unfair. It feels like Braum is being made to play by a completely different set of rules than everyone else is, and it makes facing off against common foes like Yasuo and Morgana an absolute nightmare.
When the enemy fires a skillshot at me, I can quickly throw up my shield to take zero damage from the initial hit, but I still get rooted, or stunned, or slowed, or knocked up, or pulled, or charmed, or whatever else, and that opens me up to further punishment. When I fire a skillshot at an enemy with a different, less material shield of their own, they simply shrug it off completely and escape.
There are other problems, of course.
Braum's ultimate, Glacial Fissure, faces similar annoyances. Despite being an "underground" projectile similar in nature to Nautilus' Depth Charge, it still gets blocked by Yasuo's Wind Wall while Depth Charge does not. And despite having a substantial windup time in the form of the animation that leads into the casting of the spell, Glacial Fissure does not count as "Casting" for that entire duration and can therefor be interrupted by crowd control, unlike visually similar pass-through linear skillshot ultimates like Lux's Final Spark and Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage.
There's also just the sheer repeated frustration of watching your own abilities get blocked by the spell shields of other characters - and even a store bought item like Banshee's Veil! - while Unbreakable repeatedly falls flat in comparison.
When you trade skillshot slows with another champion in lane, and their slow takes effect and yours doesn't because their shield is just flatly superior to yours, it makes you want to scream in frustration.
When you fire off an ult at the entire enemy team to initiate a fight on your terms, and it just fizzles because that damn samurai threw out a puff of wind from the back lines - and then you throw up your shield to block an enemy ult but still get knocked airborne, which let's Yasuo initiate on you with Last Breath and force a teamfight on his terms - it really makes you want to punch something or go flip a table.
Braum is a solid champion, but he just feels absolutely horrible to play as sometimes.
