Why is Brand's base MP5 so high? Isn't this what's keeping him botlane?

He has 8 MP5 at level 1, while every other mid mage besides Taliyah has 6 (she has 7, as does Galio if you count him as a mage). It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up, especially when looking at Brand support with Spellthief's.

Zyra and Morgana have 11.5, but they seem to have been balanced around being supports, who have high regen to compensate for not being able to use Doran's Ring in their main role, among other things.

If you want to actually move Brand out of the support role and not just half-ass it (giving him a mana refund on killing ablaze units without actually lowering his costs or his MP5 at all, which ends up accomplishing basically nothing in terms of moving him out of support), maybe this would be a good place to look?

There's also the matter of base damage versus scalings, but adjusting MP5 is probably easier.