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Brand is in a bit of a wierd spot right now.

Tupptupp XD·1/11/2015, 10:11:06 AM·7 votes·1,373 views

Brand's kit is quite strange. He has his passive which does DOT, and his E is there for the sole purpose of spreading it around. However, his Q/W and ult focus on burst damage. Brand right now can go either a 'burn build' with Rylais/liandrys or a standard deathcap/void staff/zhonyas build. The thing is, once you build him one way, half of his skills become strong, and the other half become kind of wasted. Like if you go for burn brand, his w,e,and R are only really useful to spread the fire around, and once that happens, they don't do much damage by themselves. Similarly, if you go a standard build, his E becomes nearly useless as it has such a low AP ratio it's damage is quite negligible, and it has no sort of CC attached to it either.

His kit also kind of contradicts itself. If he's supposed to use passive and burn to build damage, you want to spread your spells out to keep reapplying the passive, but if you want burst, you have to use everything at the same time, and get minimal effect from his passive.

What I'm saying is people should be able to build brand either way, and have all his abilities be useful.

Another thing is that he is also outclassed because of this flexibility between builds.

You want a stun and high burst, just play syndra,

You want good poke and some utility? Play xerath.

You want high sustained damage and good utility?, play malzahar/cass/ hell even mordekaiser lol.

Personally, I think his E should boost the damage of his passive if used directly on a champion since it's a very risky spell to use with such short range.

What do you think? Could he use a bit of a change? Do you like him the way he is? Is he really outclassed by other champs? Is his only decent role support right now?

8 Comments

5G8Nri0B541/12/2015, 12:37:09 AM2 votes

Even though Brand is supposed to be a burst mage...............I don't recommend building him that way.

Quite frankly, his ratios are pretty trashy. A burn build that focuses on survivability seems to be the more viable of the path if only because it also incorporates spell pen earlier and takes advantage of his % damage and more focus on his base, which unlike his ratios, aren't crap.

That and his R isn't the most reliable. I wish that there was a mechanic where if the ability doesn't detect ANY unit at all, it will use Brand as a conduit instead of just dying off with a single hit.

It's overly situational for an ultimate when you compare it to...most other champions. And it's ratio isn't the most impressive anyways.

JustMyBassCannon1/11/2015, 10:16:02 AM2 votes

I personally like Brand the way he is.

He currently holds a position in the top 5 mages for burst potential, has a solid late game due to AoE and %HP burn, and I enjoy the playstyle.

And it's not like he can't multitask. Pretty common to have Rylai's, Liandry's, Rabadon's and Void Staff on the same Brand build.

B3ER1/11/2015, 11:34:21 AM1 votes

I like Brand as a combo mage. If anything, I'd like to see Riot expand on the Blaze+Spell interactions. I'll elaborate:

Passive: applies a stack for each spell hit, max 3 stacks. Each stack applies a DoT of X% max health. Q: At 1 stack stuns for 1.5 seconds. At 2 stacks stuns for 2.0 seconds. At 3 stacks stuns for 2.5 seconds + extra effect (e.g. grants vision of target).

Now this for all spells with slightly improved animations for each stack, so clarity is preserved. For his ult you can imagine a 3 stack version that ignores minions, has increased speed and a larger bounce distance.

This will emphasize the options where he has to sacrifice utility for damage or vice versa. A healthier version of our beloved Orianna who doesn't need to make that choice. She has both.

VDc0zCqe0w1/11/2015, 7:29:38 PM1 votes

Brand is exactly the same as any old AP mid caster (Annie, Zyra, Morgana), , he's better as support, quite weird if you ask me but it's like this

Narasimha1/11/2015, 8:24:29 PM1 votes

He's a burst AOE mage. He specializes in hitting a lot of people with a lot of spells. Syndra can burst down one person, but a good Brand can keep the entire enemy team fleeing in terror.

Quort1/11/2015, 9:13:49 PM1 votes

Ack! Kinda unrelated but I hate seeing fiery champions spreading around Rylai's icy slow effect! I also cringe whenever I buy Sunfire Cape on Ice Drake Shyvana! xD

On topic... I always felt like Brand's DoT was useful to gradually reduce enemy HP while conserving mana (hit them with a spell every once in a while and let the DoT go to work) to set up for a burst combo later. It's also a decent finisher when combined with Ignite.

Apex Citavista1/12/2015, 2:36:14 AM1 votes

Honestly I think he is way better as he is. I mained brand bot lane when I played ranked 3, and he is incredibly powerful. I've odne both builds, and thats the good thing about him, because he has more viable builds paths for whatever your team needs. As for what you say about his E, I think you're very wrong. Yeah the ap ratios are not that great, however the affect it gives is amazing, for small instant burst, and instant harass. It's actually one of my favorite spell on him because it helps clearing waves and farming very easy in the early levels.

Giovarco1/11/2015, 10:54:19 AM1 votes

E can't be buffer because it wouldbe too strong against melee champions. However, in a sense, you're right. I think that his passive should deal flat dmg + %AP and extend (not refresh) his passive effect. He's good in lane, but in teamfight he has too low range. He could Q->E->W->R and deal tons of damage, but his E is too weak. Maybe E's range should scale with R's levels to make him not oppressive in lane.