Lets talk about Brand (change suggestions)

**I'd really like feedback even if it is just to tell me I'm full of it. ** Hi Brand is one of my favorite champions. Sadly I feel like the current meta has just left brand by the wayside and I want to suggest some changes that will raise his skill floor, increase his skill ceiling and give Brand some counter-play options to hard engages.

State of Brand

Brand has access to an incredible amount of damage. He can really turn a teamfight with the aoe that he brings. Brand is especially good in small skirmishes. However, he simply has too many trade offs to currently be viable compared to other mages.

Brand has two major problems right now. As a combo mage, brand is heavily reliant on landing all his skill shots to access his damage potential. This is good and one thing I really don't want to be changed. If brand can't land his skill shots he shouldn't be able to access his damage. However, as more mobility has been added to the game this has become harder. Other combo mages like Leblanc have a ton of mobility themselves, which helps them compensate. Meanwhile, Brand is one of the least mobile champs in the game. Champions like Gragas and Ziggs have comparable AOE damage to brand while being incredibly mobile and not at all reliant on landing combos to access their damage. Meanwhile, Brand suffers because his ult is easily countered by a single person with a spellshield, Banshee's Veil, Hourglass or via highly mobile champions taking it away from their team. Brand has to work harder to get his damage, is very immobile (which leads to the next problem) and has an ult with arguably too much counter-play available.

As an immobile champion, Brand needs a way to get highly mobile bursty champions like Zed or Fizz off him. His Q (or hourglass which anyone can get) is his only real option. This ability is a skillshot. However, even if you can land it on a target they already need to be on fire for it work as peel. By the time Brand can E and land a Q half the time he'll be dead or already dying. Brand has to work harder than probably any other champion in the game to access his CC. This seems unfair given his general lack of mobility and how easily his ult can be countered. Compare that to champions like Ziggs or Gragas who both have easy ways to escape.

I hope the changes I purpose can address these issues, while still keeping the essence of what it feels like to play brand. I want to give several options for changes that I think would help Brand. This ideas aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but I think even one would go a long way toward increasing Brand's viability in the current meta.

**First Change: Nerf his E, included in all other changes **

Right now bad Brands can use his E to punish other champions in lane early. This really isn't in line with what the vision for Brand should be (as a combo reliant mage). By nerfing the damage on his E and raising the mana costs, power can be shifted to other parts of his kit to make him viable, but hopefully not making him too strong. His E should be lead into other sources of damage, not be mindlessly spammed for damage and possibly a combo if brand is lucky.

I suggest something like this

MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+ 55%) COST: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 MANA COOLDOWN: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8

To

MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 90 / 125 / 160 / 195 (+ 45%) COST: 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 MANA COOLDOWN: 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9

Change Suggestion 1: Add a knockback to his Q

Essentially I suggest giving Brand's Q a knockback when the target isn't ablaze which turns into a stun when the target is ablaze. This gives Brand a way to more quickly get a high damage champion off him, but forces him to sacrifice his stun for it and requiring him to still land a skillshot. To compensate for this, we'll slightly reduce the duration of his stun. We'll also slightly increase the damage of his q to encourage Brand to use it more to poke. This also lets highly skilled brands use their Q to push people into his W, giving him more reason to open up with his Q instead of always with his E.

I suggest something like this

ACTIVE: Brand launches a fireball forward that deals magic damage to the first enemy it hits and knocks them back. If the target is ablaze, the target is instead stunned for 1.75 seconds.

MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 65% AP) to MAGIC DAMAGE: 90 / 130 / 175 / 210 / 250 (+ 70% AP)

**Change Suggestion Two: Rename E to heat exhaustion and give Brand's E an aoe slow when target is ablaze. **

Right now there isn't much of a reason to use Brand's E in a teamfight in any way besides just getting a target ablaze. You can either do way more aoe damage with his W or provide a stun. This gives Brand an option to do slightly less damage, while providing some much needed utility to his team. A targeted slow will also give him some hope of peeling. It allows Brand to trade his burst damage on his W for more, but slower, damage if he builds a Liandry's torment. I don't think this would be OP in lane, because Liandry's is fairly expensive and if Brand rushes it he loses a lot of AP.

Something like this

ACTIVE: Brand wilt's his opponent with extreme heat, dealing magic damage and reducing their movement and attack speed by 15% for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second. If the target is ablaze they are slowed reducing their movement speed and attack speed by 30% for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds, the conflagration will also spread to nearby enemies slowing them.

Change suggestion 3: Nerf his Stun, add a knockup to the center of his W and a slow on the sides.

This change only works if his stun is reduced to 1.5 seconds. However, now his W will slow ablaze targets on the sides by 25% for 1.5 seconds and knock up targets in the center for .5 seconds. This rewards highly skilled Brands and gives him more utility in a teamfight, while not increasing the overall time Brand can disable targets 1v1.

**Change suggestion 4: Make his ult less easily countered. **

It absurd that Brand's ult is so easy for one champion to get rid of. If one person negates Gragas' or Ziggs' ult it doesn't just poof out of existence. Make it so that if a Target becomes invulnerable or spellshielded they take no damage from Brand's ult, but it still bounces to another target.

I hope there is something in my post you found worthwhile. I love brand, but he really needs some changes to make him relevant to the game.