I’ve been spending a lot of my LoL time on Brand, more than most of the recent champions and mostly because he’s a lot of fun to play. His combo system is an absolute blast – one of the best examples of a champions that forces you to make decisions when choosing your spells. For the most part, I also think he’s pretty balanced.
If I have one complaint about Brand it’s that the range on his E is just a little too long. He’s a fairly slow champion – he feels slow, anyway – so I understand that it’s a sizable radius, but coupled with his passive it deals an awful lot of damage from pretty huge distance. Other than that, I love the skill. The Blaze synergy is great for a little bounce damage off the caster minions if your opponent gets too close.
Pillar of Flame is probably my second favorite skill in Brand’s arsenal. The animation is great and the damage is impressive, especially if your target is ablaze. I do think the W->E combo might give him a little too much farming potential, but a simple mana tweak would address the problem.
As far as stuns go, I think Brand is in a good spot. His stun is not just a skillshot but a conditional skillshot at that. You miss it and you’re pretty much sunk if someone’s in your face. That kind of risk also makes it a lot of fun to land, especially when you snake it through a minion or two.
I have mixed feelings about his ult. If the circumstance is just right it feels pretty good, but the circumstance is rarely just right. In most cases I see it wipe out a few minions, dealing damage to a hero or two along the way. Though I do occasionally wish it dealt a bit more damage, I think erring on the low or unreliable side of damage is better than the alternative.
I’ve heard a lot of people complain that he’s OP, but I just haven’t seen it yet. He is very high burst, in much the same way that other casters can be, it’s just that his playstyle rewards skill more than many others.
The Brand Champion Spotlight is live, giving us a look at his skills in action. I’m pretty excited about Brand – his passive doesn’t seem crazy strong, even if I am a bit worried about those high-MR targets. Judging by what we can see, I’d say the only thing I don’t like about him off the bat is that it’s a little difficult to see when his Conflagrate actually casts. That’s a pretty minor complaint compared to a couple of recent releases.
I really like the shift toward skirmishing heroes over teamfight/tanky heroes. The fact that Pyroclasm only has a couple bounces makes it really devastating against two heroes, but sort of average against more than that. It’s a solid balance idea that should hopefully keep him from just solo-nuking entire teams.
The official Brand ability list showed up pretty early this week – sometime yesterday evening if I saw correctly. It’s nice to see a champ in the mix that isn’t tanky DPS, though I do wonder if his ult won’t be a little strong. Let’s take a look at the skills.
Sear: Brand launches a ball of fire forward that deals magic damage. If the target is ablaze, the target will be stunned.
Pillar of Flame: 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 additional 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 (Passive): Brand’s basic abilities light his targets ablaze, dealing a percentage of their maximum Health in magic damage per second.
I really like the synergy of his passive with his other skills. The overall strength of the passive will of course be determined by just how much of a percentage of the target’s health it deals. It’s interesting to see Riot trying to address the Tanky DPS issue directly through character design. I think it’s important to remember that the characters this passive plays best against are characters that already tend to stack a decent amount of magic resistance. My guess is that, even with the passive, Brand won’t stand a chance against a fairly tanky team. Magic resistance will negate a large portion of the damage, just as it does with characters like Kog’Maw and items like Bloodrazor/Deathfire Grasp.
I’m also interested in Brand’s ultimate design. Are we seeing a return to the AoE metagame? Be sure to check back on Tuesday for my impressions.
The champion sneak peek is up for Riot’s next addition to the League. Brand, the Burning Vengeance will be joining the game in the next patch.
Here’s the official blurb:
Here at Riot Games, we’ve been positively burning with anticipation to tell you about this next champion. And that’s not just smoke and mirrors! If you’ve ever come under fire from critics for leaving a candle unattended, forgetting to turn the grill off, or an over-enthusiasm for fireworks displays, he’s sure to spark your interest. Start getting fired up for Brand, the Burning Vengeance. He’s a real spitfire who is sure to attract all you combustion connoisseurs out there like a moth to a flame.
Hey, did we mention that he’s on fire?
His concept art is pretty cool, and, judging by the look of the image, could be his splash screen. I wonder if we’re looking at some sort of fire mage, maybe even Annie’s father? That would be an interesting bit of lore. You gotta feel at least a little bit bad for this guy – Lee Sin’s hype is a hard act to follow.
