Brand mid is still bad (effort post, not a rant)

The mana return change hasn't done enough. It doesn't become useful until midgame when he's doing a lot of waveclear in which case it makes it a little cheaper. He has a lot of issues in other places that keep him from being a good mid laner.

https://puu.sh/ydU4P/c9a6d44bf3.png

Scaling It's not good. His combo (assuming W is empowered) only has a 165% total AP ratio, or 190% if you add the ult and it doesn't bounce. If the ult hits an enemy 3 times then he has 240%. Any time his passive gets to 3 stacks on a target he gets another 1.5% of their health per 100 AP additional damage to them. That's not a lot. At 500 AP that's 7.5% so against a 2000 HP target that's 150 damage which is equivalent to a 30% flat damage AP ratio.

Annie has 230% total when she casts QWR, no special conditions. Tibbers aura has a 10% that's guaranteed to hit at least once and then his attacks have 15%. She's not even really amazing mid herself but her scaling is much more consistent than Brand.

Vel'koz has 365% on his full combo including his passive. (Assuming only 1 cast of W) and he has more CC that is easier to land which enables him to kite much more easily than Brand.

Ahri has 253% while having superior mobility and easier to land, stronger CC.

Orianna with QWR and 1 autoattack has 205%. She can get more with more autoattacks or hitting the damage from E but basically she has similar scaling as Brand even though her kit is absolutely bristling with utility.

Brand's scaling would make sense if his kit had more other tools but he literally just has a single target stun. He can sometimes land a really big combo in a teamfight which makes multiple enemies explode on each other and that's the only way he can get huge damage. It's generally not practical. Other mages don't have to work that hard.

Other Thoughts

As mentioned above, he doesn't have anything besides damage and a single target stun. So either he needs lots more scaling or he needs some additional tools. I think it would be great to give him more tools to make him more interesting and raise his skill cap.

I also think that some of his base damage should be shaved off for more scaling because, at least in my experience, people don't seem to enjoy playing against Support Brand. The most important place to do this is Pyroclasm and Blaze explosion because when he hits level 6 in bot lane he has so much more opportunity to get off a good ult compared to when he's mid. So these abilities should depend more on scaling.

EDIT: Winrate by game time, and winrate by games played graphs from http://champion.gg/champion/Brand/Middle https://puu.sh/ydTV9/1fd6fbf7ea.png

Point 1: His winrate by game length is absurdly favorable for pre-20 minutes, and below the baseline after 20 minutes. Don't tell me he's fine if he gets through the laning phase. If anything that's the only time he's good.

Point 2: His winrate by games played doesn't increase by much with games played, meaning his skill floor is too high and his skill cap is too low. This is why I suggest adding some additional tools or mechanics.

I have some suggestions!

Blaze:

• Brand's basic attacks deal magic damage instead of physical damage, and against ablaze targets deal AP scaling bonus damage.
• Explosion Damage less base, more scaling.

Pillar of Flame:

• Base damage at early ranks down, scaling up.

Conflagration:

• Remake: Brand intensifies his flames, gaining a buff which increases his movement speed and heals him over time. His next basic attack is empowered to have a faster projectile, deal bonus magic damage, and add a stack of blaze. Ablaze: The empowered basic attack deals AoE damage around the target.

Pyroclasm

• AP scaling up.
• Rescale base damage to be weaker at rank 1, stronger at ranks 2 and 3.
• Can now bounce off himself if there are no enemies in range. Heals himself for a flat amount with high AP scaling each time it bounces off himself.