What Happened To Brand? Why NO ONE Plays Him Anymore | League of Legends

Even though he's decently common sight in bottom ranks like Iron, Bronze and Silver, Brand's presence in Diamond+ is a lot lower than it used to be. Today we'll be looking through Brand's design to find out what caused him to drop off a lot in representation in high elo.
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#LoL #Brand #LeagueofLegends

[@zoltantakacs3269]

man how i would wish to not see players play this champ

[@WillWoh]

Same, fuck brand

[@DidYouSayChoco]

Hahaha facts

[@simlox3480]

I feel you. I hate any carry Supports as an Aphelios otp . And Brand ist with Senna the Number 1

[@SpookSkellington]

@@simlox3480 I play Brand to make your enchanter support miserable, killing the enemy ADC is just a neat bonus.

[@simlox3480]

@SpookSkellington well i Like Tanks more and i hate Brand because they dont have value in lanr for me. I Just wanna scale and every Brand in my Team Takes the Wave with w e after lyandris Like i hate them

[@codyp9416]

As someone who plays only ARAM (usually with a group of friends) Brand is highly desired in my games

[@elih6087]

Yeah same. I was very confused why he would say no one plays him because I see him all the time. Then I remembered I only play ARAM.

[@worldiefeard8396]

Imagine a champion that relies on enemies stacking toghether, on a map that forces enemies to stack toghether... xdd

[@hrodvithit]

As someone who plays a lot of ARAM, and mains champions like Udyr, Voli etc, Brand finishing Rylai's is the reason Rylai's needs to be removed from the game.

[@KhârnTheAngry]

⁠@@hrodvithitMy friends only wanna plays some rams, and im a. bruiser main, so ashe w spam builds or rylais “abusers” are the bane of my existance lmao Why does Brand E reaches that far 😂😂

[@1dingerr]

​@PainGumbo this is why ARAM games suck. You get lethality Caitlin/Jinx players and ap ashe/kaisa players that sit a mile away under turret and just spam one ability. I feel like these champs should take like 20% increased damage to make it fair.

[@xDarkestDemonx]

The discrepancy between high and low elo is pretty much that the amount of damage Brand can deal is less up to how good the Brand player is, but how bad the enemies are in their movement. He is a unique kind of zone controlling champion that doesn't really control a set zone like Anivia or Orianna do, but instead the area around individual enemy champions. If enemies clump together, Brand can pop off. If they scatter, he loses more than half of his damage, even more if he misses any of his spells. And as you mentioned in the video, low elo is more prone to that not only due to their bad movement, but also due to the champion choices. In high elo it's an absolute rarety to have clumped up fights like this. People play the sidelanes, know how to flank and you simply have team compositions where teams just aren't aligned like that, because you have assassins, engage tanks and mobile marksmen who just all operate on different ranges and don't run around next to one another. And as long as Brands kit operates like this, I don't think they will ever find a middle ground. Current Brand can only work consistently in high elo if his numbers are inflated, so he can work without explosion chains. But that makes him overpowered in low elo. The only way I see that would make him viable in both, is to reduce the amount of power he gets from these chain explosions on multiple people and give him some more power in his own right. Basically, no longer making his pressure entirely dependant on the enemies movement. But that would require extensive changes to his E, R and passive explosion, so I don't really see that happen any time soon. Something like, enemy champions recieve reduced damage from explosions triggered on someone else. Maybe even a reduction in explosion radius. And then more power into his basic spells, probably a completely new E and R being able to bounce off of allies as well, as having more bounces based on rank (similar to Xerath ult with more shots per rank). Basically, just reduce the power in the most ideal event of a 5 man team just stacking together and being hit by all 5 explosions, but increasing his power in less ideal circumstances while also giving him and his team more agency in how to approach situations, rather than to just hope that the enemy team sticks together.

[@hamdepaf6686]

An interesting change to make his zone control better is to have the explosion stay where it was triggered and not follow the enemy around. Giving the player a better option at choosing where it goes off and taking the enemies ability to move it.

[@xDarkestDemonx]

@hamdepaf6686 I also thought about that, but I am actually not sure if that would help him or harm him. The problem with that would be that, while his zone control would be less dependant on the enemies movement, it would only be so once you get it off. Keep in mind that his passive is not the only thing that is victim to the dependance on enemies grouping up, his E and R also fall into that category. They can only be used if an enemy is there to begin with and are weak if only one enemy is there to be hit. Ult can even be completely nullyfied by the enemies movement. So this change would ultimately not accomblish much, as you'd still need to get a combo off first to have any kind of zone control and the spells would still have the same issue. The only thing that would change is that mobile champs would have an easier time to get out of it, of they are the center of the explosion. Pretty much every other mage has zoning tools that just work by themselves. Orianna ball, Viktor W and R, Ziggs E and W, Zyras plants, I could go on. Brand is entirely dependant on enemies clumping together to get anything out of his spells, as E and R deal very low amounts of damage if they only hit one target, and his passive explosion only really pops off if it can chain multiple explosions. And all that on an immobile mage, with medium to low range whose only defensive ability is a skillshot based stun that needs set up and can be body blocked. That's also something to keep in mind, his whole combo hinges on either hitting W and then following up with Q to make it safe to walk up for E/R; or he has to take the risk to walk up and E/R preferably a group of enemies for massive spread damage. He doesn't have a good opener for his combo. So the only way I see how to mend all this is to rework either his E or his R to be something that isn't tied to the enemies movement (so, a target AoE or a skillshot) and also something that can actually open his combo. For Example: New ultimate: Pyroclasm Brand hurls a fireball onto a targeted area (AoE spell, projectile just for flavor, can't be windwalled or anything so a little like a Ziggs ult) that damages all enemies struck and leaves the ground burning for a few seconds, slowing enemies inside. Both the initial blast as well as the burning ground apply a stack of blaze, but an enemy can not gain more than one from this ability. The burning ground will refresh the duration of blaze stacks, tho. An ultimate like that would still work for clustered up enemies, but is way more flexible in its usage, provides zoning that is completely independant from the enemies movement and also can work as an opener for his combo due to the slow (and obviously higher range as its no longer a point and click spell). As much as I love Brands current ult.. as an ability it just doesn't hold up in modern league of legends. It will always be good in low elo and bad in high elo simply because of how it works. It can not be significantly buffed because it's point and click and auto targeted... and only has any value if it has targets to bounce off of. That works in ARAM, maybe even on lane and against enemies who don't know how to position or don't know how to counter it (move apart, use an ability to block it or get untargetable). But against anyone with a brain it just isn't a good ability in the modern, fast paced and dynamic League of Legends.

[@hamdepaf6686]

@@xDarkestDemonx I do think it would help him in the sense of his kit, because not everything is nullified by going further apart now. like for someone who is targeted by your ult to also leave the blast zone might mean they have to dodge much further into your team than they would need previously. Naturally his power budget still needs to be rebalanced, especially with people now being able to get out of his main damage tool. I agree that his Ult is probably the biggest flop in his kit, while the other abilities aren't stellar by any means, his ult is too easily negated by movement.

[@tomwanders6022]

I think degrouping enemy comps is a thing, that you can use in a skill full way as well, protecting each other becomes a lot harder, if your brand land a spell and instant presses e, proccing a rylais Slow on every one. The way I see brand is as an amazing counter card, to protect and tankier teamcomps, but he also works really well into low-mid range, because you usually have to be close to the target with multiple melee champs, which is where brand shines.

[@TStizzle19]

I respect how in depth this comment is.

[@chaosityinthemaking7427]

This aged like milk

[@DylanGosseye]

Also the fact that with all the damage in this game, if you miss your Q stun, you are dead 9/10 times (that 1/10 being you having flash).

[@mikey-bl2oc]

aged like milk

[@Axle_Tavish]

Well, now EVERYBODY play him. Thanks for this video.

[@Viusthas]

that didn't age well

[@trickle1386]

I got M7 playing him for like 5 days as a ranked support in low elo. He’s free ELO in like silver below maybe gold and below.

[@julsegs]

His passive procing two stacks of support quest makes him fun and easy to abuse as support in low elo ngl 😆

[@narwhalito]

what does m7 mean

[@hammerdev5246]

mastery 7@@narwhalito

[@Charles-kc2vt]

If you're not horrible, you can easily make it to GM with Brand. Free wins.

[@tragedy8365]

This aged well

[@BrutalSalamander1]

There's a high elo Brand mid player who essentially uses him as a debuff champion with Rylais and oblivion orb after buying Liandry. The slow makes it easier to be hit abilities and combos, provides utility for your team and your burn can essentially keep orb's healing debuff on an enemy champion for over 10 seconds. He doesn't care as much about explosions than he does about spreading aoe dot debuffs but he often manages to get kills anyway. I think most people just don't try to delve into his unique strengths and rather focus on how he compares in one aspect to other mages

[@bigsmoke4592]

before watching i wanna say that brand supports in low elo are one of the few who understand the value of agression and pressure. brands tend to farm a lot of your waves and obviously don't heal or peel for you at all but it feels good knowing that your support will actually present a problem to the enemy giving me room to farm. especially enchanters tend to just stand behind you and you will automatically just lose lvl2, lvl3 and you lose lane in general suriving 1v2 trying to get what CS you can under tower.

[@yououttapocket]

While brand does not have strong direct peel, with the assistance of a decent jungler he can very easily convert your dead adc into a dead enemy adc support and jungle, with the right situations. He has some of the strongest late game team fighting in low elo.

[@atomickarate3421]

As a support main this is why Senna,Xerath, and brand are my favorites. In low elo adcs are already having anime battles with the canon minion and don't always pay attention to your goated Renata Q outplay to follow up.

[@StonedDragons]

As an enchanter support main I find it relatively easy to give annoying amounts of poke with any of them (new yuumi aside), the pain I feel playing brand is the mobility creep of the game, unless you manage to land that stun on an assassin and go off they are either one shotting you or going over a wall, probably both. He both cannot keep up and has no inherent survival tools.

[@Chris_J._Cueto]

I cant wait to see a video on Briar once everyone gets use to her, love to hear your analysis and thoughts on the champion. I personaly love the champ, havnt had much fun on a champ like this without getting frustrated. Love youre vids, listen to vars 1 and 2 at work and once i get into star rail, definitely gonna check your 3rd channel out!❤

[@hrodvithit]

Literally the only thing that's hard about Briar is learning when to press W and when not to press W. (A problem that slowly becomes less important as the game goes on) I actually have no idea what's so hard about it.

[@ruschev2]

My favorite part about Briar is how she says "I'm not just a living weapon"

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

I'm just waiting for her winrate to drop again because she is SO easy to deal with. I get actually annoyed when my team bans briar because it's such a waste of a ban. People learned how to play her but per usual people refuse to learn how to play vs her. Hopefully soon people will stop wasting their bans!!

[@hrodvithit]

@@TheCosmicAstro- I think it's a bit of a weird time to release a healing focused champ when wounds is so cheap and accessible. Given that she literally has a tunnel vision ability, it's a bit of a weird time to release her with tenacity being so shit.

[@TheCosmicAstro-]

@hrodvithit cheap accessible and STRONG. 40% is crazy plus you get the full effect with 800 gold as opposed to before where it was on partially effective till full item. The fact that some people think GW is weak right now is nuts

[@LifenKnight]

Brand should be able to W himself and E himself. After that he should be able to trigger his passive on himself XD

[@mozzy2968]

THANK YOU FOR BRING UP THE RANGE. I used to play him a ton in lower elo but once I hit gold(pre emerald). I really felt how low range he was. Considering he has no mobility, delayed cc, and mediocre range. It feels really bad to play once people understand that they can counter engage him. I personally think either bonus movespeed while enemies are burning or just upping his range on his spells a bit would make him a lot better. Brand has to dance on the very edge of his range while other mages have much more wiggle room with thwir range or more reliable cc/mobility to maintain range. He feels outdated. The item update also made his three item core of liandries/hourglass/rylais harder to get and weaker, three items he heavily relies on to be effective.

[@Generic65]

you make a good point there; he could gain stacking movespeed the more enemies are set ablaze. something like 1-2% move speed per champion and .5% per minion/jungle monster

[@CJonesFL]

I really like these ideas for the movement speed. I think that would really help brand. Also I would give his E just a little bit more range because it's way too short. To pull off your full max damage combo you have to be way to close. Also increasing brands R bounce range and speed would help greatly. I don't think that's too much to ask and it wouldn't make him OP. It would bring him up to par imo.

[@milanesadearsenico]

You should do Why no one plays Renata

[@cloutedd.687]

As an ADC, i really can't respect you if you take Brand to botlane.

[@DarthRadical]

As APC or as support too?

[@cloutedd.687]

@@DarthRadical both. If you pick support Brand, you can't really control your spells (like the E dmg) effect on the wave. That, paired with the general lack of knowledge about waves in low Elo, Is pretty bad. If you pick Brand APC, it shares the same problem with other APC champs; way too forgiving gameplay compared to traditional adc's.

[@kauanjos3199]

Support brand is legit the most useless thing in the game, at least lux support has a shield and she can always build support if she's behind

[@julsegs]

​@@kauanjos3199 i beg to disagree, he is fun to use against enchanters who don't know or want to cheese with u in the early game, he stacks his support quest for wars quickly because of his damage + passive burn (hitting one spell rewards two stacks that easily)

[@MrTalithan]

​@kauanjos3199 ' most useless thing in the game' he says, while brand does enough damage to single handedly decide a fight because other supports just...don't.

[@isaaccho7752]

I swear this champ is hidden op. People who play him have a high death count but always tops damage. He's a suicide ap bomber like karthus.

[@edgarretana8377]

Exactly. Like I’m never scared to die to a brand because just dodge his stun and w but it’s always scary to jump him because even with just his e r he can get you super low and take you out of the fight.

[@Lin_Nascimento]

I dont think anyone likes brand, other than brand mains

[@zzxxccvvkk5]

Brand fall is because of feature creep. Subjectivly did a good vu redesign, but he needs more rage, an stride. why aa no inflict pass, no fire trail, ult he become untargetable pyroclasm fireball, add reposition at end, champs cant become untargetable to it. some much can be done

[@Ryan_Samuelson]

As an Emerald Player who forgot about Brand, thank you for reminding me. I'm now going to go play him a few times in normals because I miss seeing him.

[@Jkhb100]

I see him in Emerald pretty often in jungle nowadays

[@Ryan_Samuelson]

@@Jkhb100 a lot has changed since this video was released 😂

[@viltautasYT]

i see brand decently often enough (1/40 games?) and they always suck, literally met 1 brand that didnt feed...

[@RiptidexRiltreks]

Flat damage taliyah doing 1800dmg in 2 abilities (she's fed) vs brand missing his q and you get away with half hp and a DH slap (has also fed)

[@malace2]

i haven't watched yet but my guess is dashes. it is always dashes

[@rubixx_6924]

the recent brand buffs just made me sad, cause they show that riot doesnt really understand brands problem his mana sustain was already good enough, his ap ratios werent that amazing but late game brand deals already enough dmg so just buffing his ap ratios seems pretty useless cause he aint lacking dmg but he needs serious qol changes if they want him to be a midlaner again and since he got the buff he will sadly be ignored for the next months

[@Nako3]

Brand is the most boring champ I have ever played. He would definitely benefit from a rework.

[@SpookSkellington]

I see Brand very often because i wish to commit warcrimes in the botlane, and setting enchanters on fire is fun to me.

[@IgnacioEsteves]

your playstyle is fire 🔥🔥🔥 I'm sorry

[@SpookSkellington]

@@IgnacioEsteves I am wanted in 42 countries for napalm related warcrimes.

[@dylanfarris7647]

Brand is a champion that had a lot of counter play in a game where a lot of champs have no counter play. His kit is just so shit compared to so many other champs.

[@miafiolekova5817]

I would not call it shit, i would call it old. It was fine when champs are slow and lumbering. But now almost every new champ for the last few years comes with one or more dashes to get on him and take him out or just dodge his abilities.

[@Jokrboss99]

@@miafiolekova5817I mean his E and R literally disappear if the enemy champion goes invisible/out of vision while casting them. Most champs have a refund mechanic, but Brand just gets fked

[@Jokrboss99]

The R cast, not bounce ^

[@JustinSeizure]

It's so sad that well designed champions like Brand are now basically out of date because of power creep. I'd rather have 10 more champs designed properly like him than 1 more overloaded "I have 4 dashes, self healing and reset mechanics" travesty.

[@eryalmario5299]

I think brand is way too fair of a champion - dodge w and q then move away from your team if he ults

[@arcanegale285]

No offense Vars, I like your videos, but I wanted to check because 6:27 didn't seem correct to me and the most picked mid laners in every elo below platinum are Zed, Yasuo and Yone. For the record Xerath is 18th in gold so it's much more likely that you'll find an assassin/skirmisher than Xerath in low elo. and I did verify this thus am curious where you got your info from. Now, while these aren't good in low elo, they're more popular than any mage with all 3 of them having around 10% pickrate. I'm not a good player but I'm not a bad player either, I'm in the middle of the rank table being somewhere within the Plat-Emerald line so yeah that's all I wanted to say

[@vnshngpnt]

Brand is just underwhelming. His numbers are too low to actually kill anyone, his combo is unreliable and hard to land, his range is small and his dream ult + passive combo is impossible to achieve in modern league where everyone moves around at 500 movespeed. He needs small rework to be viable.

[@deonm4759]

This video just proves his similarly to ryze He was ryze's apprentice, his abilities play off each other, he's super mana hungry, and he is perpetually nerfed for fear of pro play

[@TheHarimir]

problem: he is to fair. the asassin with mobilety single target burst, reset mekanics and an exicute does burst better and with more flash

[@AshBlossomWorshiper]

Til brand is bald. I always assumed he had fire hair

[@ryansaniel3913]

Brand with or without items his damage is so massive

[@sekira4516]

Indeed, however as players get better and coordination improves he has more and more difficulty *applying* that damage.

[@PhungBach_nv]

Problem is his item build . burn + slow + ignore mdef = no cd . miss Q = face palm build more cd to do combo = half ass mage . no burst for low hp type nor burn health of tankie . use Q stun for other hit target ? alot champ do much better .

[@OatsMealz]

tldr Brand has been nerfed over the years to do dmg similar to other mages, but he's a champ thats balanced when he does more dmg than other mages.

[@Cocarr0.0]

saw the title and audibly went "thank god"

[@davidyanez7055]

Everyone plays brand..

[@xerathgaming1915]

make xerath next

[@edgarretana8377]

Xerath is simple. All his abilities are skill shots so he’s harder to play simply because you need to be more accurate. It really doesn’t help that his e stun duration decreases depending on how short it travels so if you’re playing mid and a jg Kha jumps at you and you land your stun it’s only gonna last like .5 of a second.

[@bioraidos5454]

I don't play ranked, but I swear man if I do not ban this abomination of a champion he is picked 9/10 times. I just can't deal with him no matter what. Just seeing him be picked on the enemy team gets me tilted because I know I will not have a fun time at all because I will have to dodge skillshots more often than landing them or engaging the enemy. His passive is already enough to make himobnoxious but the vast majority of Brands pick Liandry's so you're adding in more burn on top of his passive. He is basically my one perma ban, I cannot stand playing against him as a support main, he is the one character I just do not know how to counter in the slightest and if you were to ask me which champion I'd want deleted from the game I swear I'd be answering Brand without thinking twice. If he were to never be played again then good, keep him off the game, keep him FAR away from the game and let him be the first ever legacy champion.

[@SaSo-mk6yh]

He gets outranged by zyra.

[@ethanstyant9704]

Laning against brand (especially supp) is miserable because you will lose 1/4 of your health because he pressed W and E on a minion. I've gotten way better at dodging his W due to experience but you can't dodge an ability which can span the width of a lane I hate seeing senna supp for a similar reason, she has fuck off range even in early game and a slow she basically doesn't have to aim. Mid to late game she chunks you with instant Auto q while you can't even see her

[@speedhacks9151]

you literally just back away from minions when he Ws them and wait til his passive is gone. that's what anyone who is good does. and as a brand main its hella annoying

[@firestorm8265]

“Why no one plays brand.” Let’s keep it that way.

[@xarao]

why no one plays renata glasc when? my poor Glasc has a 2% pick rate only D:

[@JohnDoe-vt8vp]

Mobility and dmg creep of the game made the champ unplayable

[@user-hy4eo8zr5f]

The only real reason i dont like him ain't because of his dmg. Its just i hate dealing with poke, and i find his one of the most annoying

[@moobo3944]

Him and Swain share similar issues, too low range to fight other mages, too vulnerable early to fight assassins. So they remain as a stain upon low elo botlane much to the dissatisfaction of the people who actually want to play them.

[@nebula6053]

The only difference is that Swain prefers long combat fights with ult

[@michealman264]

Can u pls do Nilah next. She was released last yr but immediately just forgotten.

[@cyrdach7578]

I think his passive burn should scale more with ap with less base DMG - making his support form just about the same as the current one but actually intensiving him on mid

[@Senumunu]

he was quite good back when mana pots existed and auto attack was a more important tool for mages in lane also jungle was harder so you didnt get ganked every 35sec by a mobility monster

[@davidmoak1219]

When mana pots existed AD annie was a superior adc with range, attack speed, and built in stun. Then they thought hey Annie and TF are way too stronk at ADC so one of the steps they took was take away annies insane auto attack range. The community complained about having her auto range nearly halved so they reverted the range change and now we have the annie of today that has GARBAGE attack speed scaling because they don't want to see ADC annie. Yet ADC tf is still now viable. Slightly unrelated note, they took away AP Master Yi because it was 'unfair and largely untargetable and not the intended way to play a hyper carry without a window to counter'. Then they completely make the AP Yi nerf pointless by adding Duskblade, a NEW way to be completely be untargetable. TL;DR: Give is AP yi back since the reasoning behind nerfing it has been completely ignored. League History from a beta player.

[@elliotyong2331]

You should make a why no one plays Shen given that many one tricks right now are outright refusing to play the champ.

[@fuzzwobble]

TBH what holds Brand back more than anything is the bugs with his ultimate. So, so often it doesn't bounce when it should. Some examples from my most recent game: > Hit the ADC and Sup with W, they were low enough to die to R, throw R, it bounces to minions even with champions with burn in range. > Threw R into an Amumu as he was using bandage. Hit him before he started moving. He was next to a Caitlyn so it was either bounce to her and his teammates, or bounce off of me and kill him during the engage. R instead got confused and despawned and didn't bounce. > Threw R into a clump of low health enemies with 2 stacks of burn on them. An enemy Mordekaiser ults me. This despawns my R to not bounce to him, nor continue bouncing outside of shadow realm. Went from killing at least him or killing all their squishies, to nothing. Those three memorable occasions were in ONE. SINGLE. GAME.

[@DanielYolehCow]

Thank you Vars for another great video! I love the series very much, you put a lot of time and hard work into each video, wishing you more subscribers and success!

[@natking1u1z99]

Brand is a dead champ, pff yeah right!

[@MAMAJUGO]

If very small number adjustments throw the viability of almost any champion completely swinging in the other direction, would that means that the game is very balanced, or that it's very imbalanced?

[@goldenmairon2371]

It's not that it's very balanced it's that every champion is like a straw that riot drops from time to time and breaks the camels back. League is only balanced if you consider a house supported with duck tape to be balanced.

[@xDarkestDemonx]

It means that these champions have very few levers of balance in their kit. Those are usually very old champions that only have very few things in their kit. Take Annie for example, when they buffed Tibbers to have AP scalings on his HP and defenses, Annies winrate and playrate exploded. That's because Annie basically only does one thing: blow people up and then annoy them with Tibbers. She also has very few numbers in her kit, as her Q, W and R are just flat damage and her E just a shield with some damage on top. Now look at all the patch notes that newer champions got. Zeri, Irelia, Akali. They all were in the patch notes comically often, even having whole mechanics or item interactions removed, because they had so many things in their kit, that if one aspect of theirs was removed, they could adapt and focus on something else. If you buff or nerf Annies - or Brands for that matter - damage, the winrate of theirs will be impacted quite a lot, because dealing damage is all that defines them. Meanwhile, buffing or nerfing the damage of someone with more options and flexibility in their kit, rarely has the same impact. They need often need more extensive changes, because they have so many levers of balance.

[@I_FUCKING_HATE_YOUTUBE]

Brand's gameplay loop is essentially to blow all his load with one spell rotation + ult and die. No one picks him in high elo because people know how to dodge and the strategy of being a kamikaze is way more difficult to pull off, his shittiness is related to the fact of not having guaranteed damage like Karthus. I think he's so good in low elo because he's just oppressive in lane and noobs usually win by stomping the shit out their lane opponents. I swear to God just give him survivability + utility and he becomes balanced in low elo: lower every spell's damage especially his passive damage by a lot and give him a shield + cd reduction for the three hit proc (maybe also a heal reduction on passive hit, but looks op to be honest) , then make his W shred resistances or something. That's just an idea, probably bad, but at least he isn't discount karthus and maintains his battlemage identity.

[@frobo]

your thumbnails never cease to amaze me

[@KevinTheCardigan]

Why would Brand be considered least popular? He's picked as often as Sona, Neeko, Seraphine. Out of 40 meta support champs, he's like top 20 in popularity (Diamond+)I think conceptually, you're really missing the mark on this series, especially when you haven't covered obvious champions like Annie, Taric, and Corki.

[@fortheloveofgodlaugh2981]

I singlehandedly blame this video for what happened last month. 53% WR Brand ADC JG

[@MadIIMike]

I'm low elo, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I think Brand is a good support champ but suffers from the reputation gained from midlane. Brand struggles to roam and he's a obvious target for both ganks and picks with nothing really out of the ordinary to make up for it by midlane standards. As a Support however, a lot of it is mitigated by having extra wards and a teammate (granted, that one is a a variable in any support's plans), while facing 2 opponents in lane adds massive potential for his ult. Building Liandry's, Demonic Embrace and Rylais makes his DoT extremely potent and it's often overlooked that his explosion after 3 stacks applies another stack (but limited to one stack), further extending the duration of said items.

[@GameBreaker1055]

Brand's kit just lacks elegance in every way. It's too simple what he's supposed to do and that handicaps how much he can put out. Maybe they should give him an on-fieled gimmick with little ambers dropping when he blows up minions, monsters and champions so he has a tool to control a an area properly and reduce his flat damage to compensate.

[@rence234]

As a former Brand main, yeah I can agree he's too slow and inconsistent to be picked. I remember back in the day that you Max E first cause it was just free damage while keeping your lane opponent off the minion wave

[@AkiraSakko]

About 2 weeks ago, I played Brand in Aram. He dominated the first 10 minutes but then fell off real hard.

[@coffeebot7016]

You did it wrong then. He scales very well because his AP ratio is good and a lot of his damage is % based.

[@worldiefeard8396]

@@coffeebot7016sorta, Brand in Aram depends a lot on what the enemy composition is. Against certain long range comps you're completely useless, as well as against too mobile comps. Basically like most midrange mages in aram. If you're against a bunch of melee/tanks though... oh boi BAKOOM

[@1dingerr]

​@@coffeebot7016there's a point in a lot of aram games though where the enemy team will blow you up before you can cast more than 2 abilities. He's still good, but he definitely doesn't feel as strong late when everyone has a FON and can't be killed by one rotation.

[@AkiraSakko]

@@coffeebot7016 if I recalled correctly, their team only have 1 tank, that is Cho'Gath but my team can hardly kill him. I did rush magic pen items and Liandry is my core item but welp, we lost....

[@sekira4516]

@@AkiraSakko yeah Cho'gath and Mundo as well are Juggernauts that eventually outscale your damage output because of the sheer hp they get from Heartsteel. Like they'll get 1.5k bonus hp *just* from Heartsteel almost every game.

[@voidgods]

Being unable to miss a single skill otherwise resetting Blaze stacks is actually a good design topic to discuss about Brand. There's indeed not much though to be given other than spam all 3 skills at once, or more realistically, keep trying to E+Q so you can finally W. It's boring and repetitive gameplay. I think a good gameplay rework would be making Blaze affect him instead of the target (so Brand burns brighter/hotter for each stack), and his skills get increased effects based on the stacks, let's say capped at 20 stacks (4 per target - passive no longer deals tick damage until Brand reached 12 stacks). Repeated casts of the same skill on the same target don't add up (so needs at least 3 targets to reach 12 stacks, one target would only stack the passive to 4). All CDs are considerably lower, especially E. At 6-12-20 stacks his skills are modified so you are incentivized to hit skills on as many different targets as possible instead of QWER one target. This would reinforce his role as a teamfighter, also means he is rewarded for landing skills but not as punished for missing them (stacks could last a fair bit longer now), he's also less oppressive in mid/bot lane and only truly shines in skirmishes and TFs where like an ember that turns into a forest fire, you can let Brand cook. At 20 stacks Q pierces all targets hit, W makes a volcano erupt from the ground blocking the path, E spreads to a ground AoE that keeps burning everyone inside, R sends a deathball that tracks all enemies, like a slow moving Final Fantasy limit break/Dragon Ball Spirit bomb. Skill expression would be a lot higher as well as a good players can keep track of how many stacks each enemy has and choose between increasing total stack count and hit new enemies or focusing on an enemy that is already at max stacks but is a higher priority.

[@beigaming8403]

This also would mean that brand will either be insanelu weak in 1v1 or insanely stong in tf. I am assuming that blaze only works on champion

[@voidgods]

@@beigaming8403 I don't think it's a bad thing if he's weak in 1v1, a lot of the area control mages are not really that great in lane and will only really get kills if the enemy makes a mistake. Maybe make it so he can get more stacks per target after a per-champ CD (like J4 passive), so if Brand can land consistent poke he will eventually stack over the cap on a single target and get strong 1v1 (while also giving the enemy the option to not fight during this time and wait for the stacks to fall off or force Brand to play forward to keep the enemy away from the wave - and putting himself at risk). Lots of play/counterplay

[@beigaming8403]

@@voidgods Too weak, he will be a worser version of veigar, lower range and worser waveclear. Monster in if and just dead against assasin

[@voidgods]

@@beigaming8403 yes sure, the specifics don't really matter as much as changing his identity - from an ability spammer with no skill expression that just happens to have fire as a theme to an actual "raging fire" that either burns you down slowly (which Riot already distanced him from) or in this case, burns increasingly brighter/stronger as the teamfight (or the game - but late game scaling Champs are too many already) goes on. Riot likes themes and having champions adhere to core themes nowadays so I believe a change like that makes more sense than just changing skill numbers around or doing minor reworks that at the end amount to the same dilemma keeping him in this limbo

[@DraphEnjoyer]

Brand is the “im titled to shit” champ supports lock in to “carry” Only thing worse is a default skin Lux as your support

[@muratemreyurdalan2734]

this video didnt age well

[@n3tt149]

Watching the video, lol champ select in background, enemy picks Brand supp (: (Emerald IV, so basicly Gold IV rank).

[@darceyfrkovic3165]

i think Brand should have flat number DOT damage instead of % health. then they can move his power budget around a bit. OR they make his passive NOT STACK with over burn items.

[@AkshansYoutubeAccount]

make video about: "why no supporter in gold or lower ever logs in somthing else than mage support despite not knowing that this means having to dmg enemey in order to outvalue engade or enchanter" this is 10% morgana 20% brand, 15% xerath 5% zyra, 50% lux and a 100% grief

[@elprincipito6400]

im OTP and MAIN Brand from a lot of years ago... Brand no has mobility It has damage, but it depends a lot on the item, it means that if you stay behind, you've already lost... it doesn't have a real CC, LOL now there is a lot of mobility, very mobile champions and with quite a few gap closer skills... maybe brand in Under Elo you play more, it's for the same reason that people still learn to play, so there are "better" champions.

[@frankiecoss7141]

This just sounds like you're reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", "... but even that wasn't enough"

[@OldUsk]

Its the same problem with Vayne, Max health damage no matter what champion you are is disgusting, even in all elos. No matter if you squishy or tanky 10% of your hp is 10% its not comparable to 500 flat damage. Now Riot cant fix brand for that one reason its the same with any champion with max hp damage 1 buff puts over the edge in all elos. Brand is destructive low elo because *nobody dodges* its why you see alot of tanks/bruisers in it too. Garen, darius etc. Dont need to dodge when they can go in and then execute. Problem is brand is good design to counter that. I dont hate brand's kit as much hate his design. Dude on fire. Wears belted pants.

[@einjharrelraca]

The issue with brand is that he is a squishy immobile with an easy to dodge kit. And 1 of those 3 things is a death sentence in league of mobility

[@lolmanboss]

My problems with Brand: Has low range for how squishy he is After one rotation, you may as well not be present at all, since it takes so darn long His DMG output is sub par to many enchanters I play. Eigther give him range or just swap out his %Health dmg to flat dmg and increase his flat dmg or decrease his CD

[@polishhockeyfan]

I think even in his current state, he's just so idiot proof for low ELO support and thats why he's popular. Its so easy to attrition out opponents and landing one ability essentially gives you all your Spellthiefs stacks, which gives him more money for his items and wards, etc., and people in low ELO dont know how to punish low mobility champs like Brand or Veigar.

[@andreasberger4]

The thing about brand is.... why would you pick him over Zyra? Similar damage, but Zyra has so much more utility. A bad player will deal more damage with brand but an experienced player will utilitze the plants better and shred the enemies. Brand can stun 1 enemy, zyra has an aoe line root and a giant aoe knockup. That little extra damage from brand is not gonna matter for shit in comparison.

[@irdestroyer]

I used to main Brand and climbed to Plat with Brand support many seasons ago. Once he got nerfed over and over I can't play him anymore. You can't carry the way you used to; you have to land your combo multiple times at close range as a squishy mage in a meta where tanks can one-shot you. You also can't deviate from building burn + mpen so getting a zhonyas or banshees at any point just kills your damage output.

[@raikaria3090]

One massive thing you forgot to add that really handicaps Brand in higher elo. You mentioned his lack of range. You did not mention Brand's complete lack of mobility and complete lack of defense. So Brand has to get closer than most other mages... while having no mobility and no defence. In addittion; he needs to survive long enough to get his full rotation off, actually land it, and hope the enemy tea dosen't scatter while he slowly walks up and does this. Without getting C.C'ed or just nuked. And Brand is even less mobile and durable than Annie; who also generally starts her combo with an AoE stun; rather than having to use an ability; then try and land a single target skillshot for a single stun.

[@carltaylor2975]

I love your videos but I'm not sure champions should be balanced for the majority. I've never come in contact with anything in the real world that is balanced for people who don't know what they are doing. That's just now how it works, and to me it makes sense for things to be balanced at the highest levels of skill. Think of what would happen if we balanced any other sport that way. What would happen to fighters if we took away weight classes? All the lower weight people would be stomped. There's many more examples I could give but the point is we shouldn't reward mediocrity.

[@LDGRXR]

"brands presense in diamond+ is a lot lower than it used to be" "why no one plays brand" "diamond: 2% of the playerbase" No one? Hella misleading title. Iron bronze and silver is like 70% of the playerbase

[@kiwwat4139]

As a proud no-elo player (around since season five and never even done my ranked placements), this guy was so annoying these last two years, but I am starting to see him less and less. Though as a support player, I personally think that all mage supports should just go back to midlane except for maybe Lux and Morg, because they at least have shields.

[@TheIrrelevantYT]

I play him in the ADC role. I might still have a 100% winrate so far.

[@facundosilva2449]

Why would champions have to be balanced around the majority of the playerbase when champion viability is only relevant in high ELO and competitive play, you can get to masters ELO with about any fucking champion no matter how shit it is

[@alexandercortes9751]

I’m a emerald zed otp (kinda) who plays a lot of pretty mechanical champions, I also hardcore main brand in the midlane for the past few seasons but sometimes i rotate him out with Vladimir because the champ does get bad at times stat wise, but imo i would never play brand first game of the day after a break because i consider him harder to have success on mechanically in the mid lane as a carry and I very much disagree that the champ is brain damaged and easy to play, if you think hes easy you’ve never played good brand. Imo u can do whatever u want on support brand because doing literally anything is doing more than a support should be able to do while just spamming ur abilities as they come up in lane being pretty unskilled and u dont have to worry about solo kills is why I think mechanically every support I’ve ever seen makes the champ look bad and makes me cringe. Brand in the mid lane isnt a press 4 buttons and done champion, he is a mobility battle mage champ without any real movement speed abilities. A lot of the time you have to dish out multiple rotations of your abilities while dodging all skill shots and kitting with rylais slow when you get it. With one mistake in movement being gg. Brands combo isnt enough damage for a carry role like mid lane in my opinion so its not enough to just press your 4 buttons where proper cracked movement lets you “unleash it!”. This is of course unless your “noob stomping” in low elo and get strong enough, but I’m talking about playing him in higher elos, like rat irl plays him masters to challenger if hes played well. Brand in the midlane is pretty snowbally, and you aren’t a champion without your mythic so you often needs tons of auto attacks and there’s a lot of skill expression going against champs like yone/zed which are fun champs to go against with brand but you have to play well. Brand doesnt scale all too well in the midlane, in support i think he scales like crazy because again its like having a weak to average midlaner to have a strong brand support. In mid you cant carry unless you go crazy in the lane and get your items before everyone else and play all the fights well.

[@tyago1949]

Liandry's and Demonic's = double burn. Brand's kit plus the 2 items and morello = plus 1 kill. 😢

[@Kittydango]

Must be in higher elo. Down here in the dumps of bronze/silver, he's showing his burnt-bacon self as support usually. It's so bad i find myself happier seeing a naut or senna.

[@v0ss1b4r]

so giving someone -5 movespeed is possible, but maybe not DOUBLING the passive dmg wasnt tried?

[@DeltaRed12]

I wonder if twisted fate would ever show up on this, with a mighty 3.5% pickrate across all ranks. But I main the guy so I would already know why hes not picked lol

[@martinconverss2195]

I think it’s honestly fine for some champs to be low Elo only as long as they teach people the game. Brand was one of my first supports and the experience was really good

[@21526]

Without watching the video I can tell you. Mobility creep makes more stationary Champs less fun to play since you constantly feel slow and boxed in.

[@patmcroin]

Just lower his burn damage. Add a dash to his e. Move the stun to his w and the dmg buff to his q and replace his explode dmg to burn ticks refunding cooldowns on basic abilities. Then he is a mage with a fast q skill shot if you’re good. Some sort of stupid zeri cass hybrid that riot would make these days

[@hrodvithit]

Y not just rework brand as an AP Bruiser after reworking AP Bruiser items. There is basically only one AP Bruiser currently in the game, and when Brand is strong he feels unfair, when he's weak, it feels unfair to have him on your team.

[@oetic5016]

I find it veryy frusterating to lane high elo with brand but find myself stomping norms beyond what a fed adc will so idk power trip or viability it just sucks but he is my second m7 champ.

[@JulianneStingray]

I think Brand could work in high elo. Tyler1 played Brand ADC a decent amount to some success

[@pokefriend123]

Brand jg unironically better than most META junglers. That clear speed is no joke!

[@2bestlel837]

brand is a much better support champion than mid imo. it’s a lot more forgiving when you have another teammate to peel for you if you miss your abilities, and facing 2 enemies = more value out of your abilities. his only cc is his q but his sheer damage and area control is enough to dominate the lane, because brand can press E on a minion and burn both bot laners. if they don’t back off or even decide to engage you can w key them, dump your abilities, and your adc cleans up easy. especially when you reach lvl 6 he’s gonna dominate because it’s infinitely easier to stack 3 burns, and the chain damage is unreal. support brand can easily overtake his adc if played right while being in a much safer lane than mid

[@AlryFireBlade]

I only see him sometimes as a Support, but then it is mostly a OTP playing him.

[@sirki2885]

Brand has the range of a battlemage without the defences( the stun is too inconsistent) with the skill damage and accuracy of an artillery mage while having to jump through the most hoops to get the burst mage damage. Without doing a full rework the best prob way to make his abilities work better is to tone down the passive explosion damage but let his q straight up stun and have the empowered q do something else (like be better single dps/explode). This will give him back the consistency he needs to at least garuntee his damage goes off without getting jumped on before the damage can even land

[@Roze_aye]

you know. id love to see a video like this about lux. I'm personally unranked (i have no desire to play rankex whatsoever) so I see her pretty often whenever im not playing her myself. But you well basically never see her at high play. I have my own ideas why, but i'd love to see a video about it none the less

[@Chieftian101]

I’ll put myself as a low Eli player, I’d be perfectly happy if brand has a 38% wr and .1% pick rate.