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Brand, The Burning Vengeance
Brand is an aoe burst mage. What he lacks in consistent cc he makes up for with raw damage output. Unfortunately, this output comes in the early mid game rather than the late game. If you want a damage dealer who dishes out a ton of damage late game, play annie. If you want someone who can decimate his lane and be a force before full 5's teamfights, Brand may be your guy.
Patch Notes
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V1.0.0.121:
Fixed a bug where Pyroclasm could instant-kill enemies under some circumstances.
V1.0.0.116:
Pyroclasm:
It no longer gets blocked by spell shields.
Fixed a bug where it could sometimes fizzle if there was an enemy stealthed nearby.
V1.0.0.115: Added. (Original Stats)
Sear: Brand launches a ball of fire forward that deals magic damage. If the target is ablaze, the target will be stunned for 2 seconds.
Pillar of Flame: After a short delay, Brand creates a pillar of flame at a target area, dealing magic damage to enemy units with the area. Units that are ablaze take an additional 25% damage.
Conflagration: Brand conjures a powerful blast at his target, dealing magic damage to them. If the target is ablaze, the conflagration spreads to nearby enemies.
Pyroclasm (Ultimate): Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire, dealing damage each time it bounces. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm's missile speed increases.
Blaze (Innate): Brand's spells light his targets ablaze, dealing 2% of their maximum Health in magic damage per second for 4 seconds.
Fixed a bug where Pyroclasm could instant-kill enemies under some circumstances.
V1.0.0.116:
Pyroclasm:
It no longer gets blocked by spell shields.
Fixed a bug where it could sometimes fizzle if there was an enemy stealthed nearby.
V1.0.0.115: Added. (Original Stats)
Sear: Brand launches a ball of fire forward that deals magic damage. If the target is ablaze, the target will be stunned for 2 seconds.
Pillar of Flame: After a short delay, Brand creates a pillar of flame at a target area, dealing magic damage to enemy units with the area. Units that are ablaze take an additional 25% damage.
Conflagration: Brand conjures a powerful blast at his target, dealing magic damage to them. If the target is ablaze, the conflagration spreads to nearby enemies.
Pyroclasm (Ultimate): Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire, dealing damage each time it bounces. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm's missile speed increases.
Blaze (Innate): Brand's spells light his targets ablaze, dealing 2% of their maximum Health in magic damage per second for 4 seconds.
Abilities
Passive: Blaze- (Innate): Brand's spells light his targets ablaze, dealing 2% of their maximum health in magic damage per second for 4 seconds.
His passive. Very nice for dealing a bit of extra damage after you are out of range.
q: Sear- (Active): Brand launches a fireball forward that deals magic damage. If the target is ablaze, the target will be stunned for 2 seconds.
Line skillshot. Decent projectile speed, 2 second stun nothing to laugh at, even if it is conditional. Often the best way to land your w is to e>q someone to root them in place and provide the damage boost for w.
W: Pillar of Flame- (Active): After a short delay, Brand creates a pillar of flame at a target area, dealing magic damage to enemy units within the area. Units that are ablaze take an additional 25% damage.
Your main source of damage. If you can, you always want to have the enemy ablaze for the extra damage. However, as this is his longest ranged spell, you often just want to drop one where you know a bunch of enemies will be, even if this is your lead. This is especially true for 5v5 fights, where Brand struggles.
E: Conflagration- (Active): Brand conjures a powerful blast at his target, dealing magic damage to them. If the target is ablaze the conflagration will damage nearby enemies as well.
The only way you have to consistently apply your passive, apart from your ultimate. What you gain in consistency you lose in damage, and the ablaze passive is really only useful as a way to apply your passive to an enemy champion in lane, via a creep that survived a w.
Ultimate: Pryoclasm- (Active): Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire that bounces between enemies, dealing damage each time it bounces. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm's missile speed increases. It will bounce up to four times for a total of five hits, and can hit the same enemy up to three times.
His ultimate, and a meh one at that. The damage is decent, but realistically the spell is incredibly underwhelming. It hits minions, the bounces are random, and the champ you want to take the most damage more than once is super iffy. This spell works best in 2v2 sitiations, as that is the only way to ensure an enemy takes max damage. In full late game 5's, this spell is next to useless. You cant fight if there are minions around, as they steal damage from enemy champs. Just because of the way it works, and will fizzle if there arent any more champions for it to bounce too, its best just to throw this out as soon as the fight starts
Masteries
9-0-21, standard caster
Runes
Mpen reds, Armor yellows, AP/lvl Blues, Flat Ap quints
Summoners
Flash Ignite.
You want kills in the early game, ignite lets you do this, and flash is a must have.
Skill Order
wqwewr r>w>e>q
Picking up q at 1 is usless, you need the passive for the stun. Basically, W at level 1 if you want to teamfight, e if you want some quick lane harass. W does the most damage, so max that to farm and hurt enemies with. E is good for harass.
Build Order
Open- Boots+3 or Dorans Ring. Depends on how much harass you expect to take and how much you feel the extra AP and mana will allow you to kill your lane opponent
2nd buy- Up to 3 rings total, boots 1
Next- Sorc boots, Needlessly Large Rod
Then- Finnish Deathcap, grab a BV if they have no mr or you need survivability, Void Staff if you want to do more damage and are safe enough without BV
Finally- grab whatever you didnt get from above, and finish your build according to preference. Zhonyas is good, as is Will of the Ancients.
Playstyle
Brand is an early mid game caster. You are able to bully your lane opponent around with w, and also use it to farm. I generally alternate between a farming shot and a harass shot, at least until they have proven they can avoid it regularly. Once you have all 3 abilities, you can go for the kill. e>q for a stun, dropping w underneath to hit the full 25% boost of damage. Ignite to pick up the kill if need be. Your ult is fairly unreliable for this. Use it either to finish the opponent off or early on if you can be assured of it bouncing off a minion and back on to the enemy.
Laning Tips: Your w is a great harass ability as well as a great farm ability. Against strong harass champions like cass and orianna, you want to be able to dance in, drop a w on the ranged creeps or enemy champ and then dance out, come back in and auto for the cs, threatening more w spam. The damage is very good, so they will be forced to respect you just as much as you respect them. Its always advisable to drop a w to see how well you can stand up to their harass. If you cant, use w to farm primarily, but make sure to use it to harass just to remind them to let you farm. Against champs who cannot harass as easily like annie, you can stay back and out of range until you hit a w, then bully them back with the threat of more w's. If a ranged minions survives a w, use e to bounce the blaze to an enemy, then q them for the stun and more damage. Brand has a strong lane against pretty much every champ, due to w being such a strong ability which has a long range.
Mid game you want to roam around picking up kills, provided it is safe to leave your lane without it falling and your falling behind too much from a lack of gold or exp. You want to be mid because your ult will be most effective in 3v3 dragon fight situations. Otherwise your goal is to farm and get your bigger items. Again, however, you are a mid game caster. You want to use that to put the enemy team behind.
Late game your utility falls off a cliff compared to the other aoe champs like annie and anivia. Your w is the only real consistent way you have to do aoe damage. Launch it and your ultimate at the start of a fight, as that is the only time you can rely on the 2 spells to do consistent aoe damage. Then pick an enemy and combo them to death, using e>q to stun, w for the burst and hopefully kill. Otherwise keep cyling with whatever is up in order to grab the kill. Then pick another champ and do the same.
