Brand, the Burning Vengeance - Rework

Hello, summoners! I'm here to make a suggestion on how to buff up. Now I know he's not in a bad spot, just suffering a little from lacking movement options and being a bit dull to play in my opinion. Exploring a "fire mage" archetype sounds interesting, but we've got a few characters that clash with that design and limit Brands options for a remake.

- She's one of the first big fire mages ever released and her design shows it. Loads of AoE spells, her passive that implies "fire gets hotter when you feed it" with a stun on every fifth cast and her E, that burns enemies back.

- While he's not a fire mage archetype, he still has a few designs that steal from this archetype. Heat mechanic, where his spells get more and more powerful as you "feed the fire" and a flame cone. I wonder why Brand wasn't a clear cut for a modified version of his passive.

- The poison theme on Cassiopeia works similar to Brands Blaze - effect, as her E is amplified by the application of a DoT. After the slight rework, she even got a scaling passive, that touches the "feed the fire" theme briefly.

So there's a few things we can either embrace or try to shy away from. If you pick Brand in your team, what do you expect? For me, it has always been:

• Big AoE damage.
• Good mid-game with passive, that shreds HP as the enemy doesn't have much magic resistance yet.
• Ultimate that's powerful when enemies are close.
• Comboing his abilities together for different effects.

What do you give up when you pick Brand?

• Less mobility on your midlane.
• Vulnerability to any gap closer.
• Long cooldowns, less skirmish.
• Longer the game goes, the less effective his passive is.

I personally think his AoE, fire effect combos and his bouncing ultimate are essential to his kit, as is his lack of mobility. What I'm looking for is to give him a bit more engaging gameplay rather than Flash - E - Q - W - R combo for kills and emphasize what happens when you feed the fire. I'm not going to talk about numbers, but gameplay style.

- SKILLS -

"No changes for passive, I feel it's good for what it does. It enables Brand to combo his moves together and that's what we're here to emphasize."

Passive - Blaze Brand's abilities light his targets ablaze upon damaging them, dealing X% of their maximum health magic damage over 4Xseconds, capped at X against monsters, and empowering his abilities against them.

"Projectile speed toned down, always stuns, now pierces targets who afflicted with Blaze. While it's cool to oneshot people with a very fast projectile that stuns, I always felt a bit unrewarding to only get a stun as a reward. By giving the enemy a bit more time to react, we have counterplay and a very big payout during teamfights, as you can stun almost everyone if you're close enough, ala Syndra ball.

Q - Sear Brand launches a fireball in a line that deals magic damage and stuns the first enemy it hits.

BLAZE: The fireball pierces targets afflicted with Blaze.

"Damage down, but causes true damage instead of magic damage. The increase to damage is a fine buff, but I'd want emphasize the payoff if you decide to inflict max AoE damage and being able to deal even with the tankiest opponents. Fire consumes.

W - Pillar of Fire After a 0.625-second delay, Brand creates a burst of fire at the target area, dealing magic damage to all enemies inside.

** BLAZE: ** Damage inflicted by Pillar of Flame deals true damage instead of magic damage.

_Now explodes with a proper AoE if the target is afflicted with Blaze. Adding more to his skills whenever you hit a Blaze afflicted target sounds logical. If you could see the AoE radius around a target you mouse over with the skill, it would be more clear who you could hit with the explosion. Right now you have to estimate." _

E - Conflagration Brand blasts the target opponent with fire, dealing them magic damage.

BLAZE: Conflagration causes the target to explode, dealing the damage in an AoE.

_Damage down, speed down, but prioritizes champions constantly and adds extra bounces if the target is on fire. Basically, if you keep feeding your ult with Blaze, it will continue to bounce, bounce and deal damage. If your team helps to keep the enemy team in place for a longer period of time. It's like a small minigame of pinball! _

R - Pyroclasm Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire to the target enemy that bounces between enemies up to X times, dealing magic damage each time. Pyroclasm attempts to prioritize champions, if they're close.

If Pyroclasm's current target becomes invalid, it selects a new enemy at no cost to its remaining bounces. If there are no other valid targets, Pyroclasm refunds X mana and resets its cooldown.

BLAZE: Pyroclasm bounces an extra time each time it hits a target with Blaze, but consumes the Blaze.

- ENDING NOTE -

So here's my long-short suggestion for Brand. I honestly hope he'll get some more love after that FX upgrade, considering he should've been part of the Fjeljord update... Throw me your comments and thoughts!