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Thoughts on Brand Support

RISE Shlack123·1/8/2016, 1:00:09 AM·4 votes·1,572 views

Alright, so this post is regarding Brand support being a little too strong at the moment. I'm being as objective as possible, and this is not intended to be a salty post. These are just my observations on Brand running in the support role. These thoughts are on top of the fact that almost every Brand support I've encountered refuses to build a Sightstone or provide vision for their team. They are basically running bottom lane mage and not being a true support for their team, and it's quite frustrating because Brand's base damages and interactions with FQC allow him to do so.

  1. Brand's passive. As it stands right now, if Brand hits you with any of his abilities, even at level 1, he burns you for 8% of your max health as magic damage on top of the damage he does with the ability he hits you with. I could honestly stop at his passive alone and make a good case for toning down the numbers. 8% max hp damage over 4 seconds is simply too strong in the early levels. I'd suggest making his passive scale with level. Brand's passive also allows him to get every proc of FQC with one ability hit, and that should be reverted. He abuses this item more than any other champion in the game, and he gets plenty of gold in the support role to afford a nearly full-AP build.

  2. Brand's Q (Sear). Not a huge problem, to be honest. It's a skillshot that is around medium difficulty to land. When paired with Blaze, a Q stun is a reasonable stun for a support or any mage, so I really don't have issues with this ability at all.

  3. Brand's W (Pillar of Flame). This ability has a huge amount of zone and poke coupled with moderately high base damages. The range on this ability is a little too big, and the radius is a bit too large as well. The cast time isn't instant, but unless you are playing a mobile ADC, it may as well be. The damage seems to apply before the ability's animation has finished, in my experience, also making it even harder to dodge. You also have to take into consideration the 25% bonus damage his W will do if you're marked with his passive. I'd suggest either reducing the ability's range or its radius. His W definitely needs a tweak in the numbers - its base damage needs to be lowered, as well as its passive-enhanced version. As it is right now, Brand support is able to nearly zone your ADC completely off of CS because the damage you take from his W + his passive is too high.

  4. Brand's E (Conflagration). In my opinion, this ability's base damages are a bit too high at early levels given the fact that it's targeted and spreads to nearby units if they are marked with Brand's passive. This ability also makes setting up a Q stun much easier due to not being a skillshot. If Brand didn't have such lane control at early levels, you could punish him for coming in close to cast E on your carry. But as it stands, Brand generally controls the lane and forces you to play around him. Brand can also extend the effective range of his E by can hitting your backline minions with his W, and then simply targeting your caster minions with his E to hit you or your ADC with the damage spread (if you're close enough). This use of Brand's E is relatively easy to pull off since minions don't try to dodge his abilities. This ability could use a raw numbers nerf.

  5. Brand's R (Pyroclasm). This ability is actually okay due to it being an ultimate. It does punish you for clumping up, and it does a fair amount of damage if you don't separate, but it has a reasonable AP ratio and can be outplayed by proper use of mobility spells or even Flash if you're close to death.

Overall, Brand does too much base damage when coupled with his passive's burn and how his passive interacts with his basic spells. He has far too much range, base damage and relative safety in most lane matchups. I've made my suggestions to what nerfs I'd think would be reasonable to make Brand support viable but not overbearing. If these changes affected solo Brand, then adjustments could be made in ratios to compensate. But as Brand currently stands, he's far too oppressive in the support role.

Also, I know how to counter him in lane as a support. I know how to dodge his abilities. This post isn't about countering Brand, and I wasn't just beaten by a Brand support. I actually win a decent percentage of the games when the enemy has a Brand support. This post is just aimed at fleshing out my thoughts on the state of Brand and why he's oppressive as hell in the bottom lane. And I'm just providing my thoughts as a support / ADC main on how Brand could be brought down a peg or two to be viable as support but not overbearing and frustrating as hell to play against.

18 Comments

Simple Moon1/8/2016, 1:14:21 AM3 votes

Brand is suppose to be a midlane champ. He is balanced for his role in the midlane. There won't be any changes to his kit because a pro played him in the LCS as support and everyone started doing it after. He's a squishy. I love playing against a brand support because that means I can gank and get two kills instead of a tank making an escape. Same as when I'm an ADC. He is no more annoying then playing against a Lux support. Who also feels overpowering since she is able to do so much damage. Yet again. Very squishy. But a good gank from your jungle and they won't be so oppressive anymore.

Eric Senpai1/8/2016, 4:22:27 AM2 votes

I've been playing brand recently in normals and team builder, and I have 24 wins and 4 losses on him. I played most of the games as support and the post game stats show I deal either the most damage or the second most damage.

Ya, his base stats are sorta high, I think his r and his passive need to be dialed back.

Also, sorry, I'm one of those supports that buy sightstone really late :3.

The Bearded Bard1/8/2016, 12:11:25 PM1 votes

I don't see the problem with a mage going bot lane. No one says you have to run support + ADC bot lane.

Fızz1/8/2016, 4:39:05 PM1 votes

he's going to have a nerf in 6.1 meddler posted that once

Itadaki Seieki1/8/2016, 4:58:36 PM1 votes

He's suppose to be played Middle.

Look at it this way;

Malz has a suppression and a silence, should he be considered a support?

Ziggs has a slow, and a knock-up? Is he a support too?

He was made to be a Middle lane Mage. Just because he has a stun and a bouncing ulti doesn't make him a support. He has no utility besides landing E Q, and even then that isn't peel. His entire goal is to peel by killing the enemy team.

Athenes Lulu1/8/2016, 5:23:07 PM1 votes

He's not only squishy but also have really high costs of things. With enough outsmarting, it's not hard to make stupid Brands go OOM or even low on health very quickly, making him not so useful anymore in lane.

Also don't forget that the prices of his core items remain untouched, therefore making him being able to get items and scale faster than your typical midlane mage does.

jdizzle3671/23/2016, 8:14:59 PM1 votes

Frankly he evens out in the long run. He's oppressive during the laning phase but he either has to steal cs and kills from the adc in order o scale so the adc becomes irrelevant or he does very little damage. Also he completely lacks peel beyond a very situational difficult to land stun so if the enemy team is dive heavy the adc is shit outta luck. Honestly when i pay adc brand is my least favorite support to have they are consistently toxic, steal my kills and farm, they shove the lane hard. Honestly if the enemy team has brand support just sit back and play safe during laning and laugh as your actual support becomes so much more useful and you have twice the enemy adc's farm because your janna didn't steal any from you.