Brand's Skill Sequence

[quote=UltimateHavok]I've never used Brand before, but I saw he was going to be free this week and always wanted to try him so I looked up some builds to get a feel for how he plays. However, after looking over his skills and the top rated builds for him I had some concerns and theories. All of the top rated builds choose to level Pillar of Flame first, and the top rated guide for Brand even had the idea to begin your skill sequence with Pillar of Flame. This is my comment I posted on their build: "I haven't played Brand, but just by a quick look at his skills I was wondering something. You level pillar of flame first, but is that really the best route? Consider the following: - The difference in damage between Sear and Pillar of Flame isn't huge. - Sear has a much lower CD that drops every level until it gets to 6 seconds, where Pillar of Flame is capped at a 10 second cooldown. - Sear cost 50 mana and does not rise, PoF starts at 70 and goes to 110. - PoF does 25% more damage if your target is ablaze, if you are using this skill first as your initiation you miss out on a lot of damage output. - PoF is harder to land than Sear. To me, it seems like Sear is a much larger threat than PoF. It is much more spammable while conserving more mana, attacking faster because of low CD, and you don't have the potential of your attacks being dodged or missing. If you were to Start by leveling Sear, then Conflag, then PoF you could use it in the following combo: Conflag->Sear for stun->Land Pillar of Flame because they can't move for two seconds and do 25% more damage with PoF because they are ablaze->Sear Again for stun->???->Profit. The passive AoE from Conflag doesn't do anything 1v1, so would potentially only be used in team fights. Also, Conflag does the least amount of damage out of your abilities. Maybe in a Team fight throw down PoF in the middle of the enemy or focus one in particular, throw out Sear for stun and then Conflag for AoE? I haven't looked much into his ult Pyroclasm but I'm sure that fits in especially well for teamfights somewhere. :P Again, I've never played Brand and I'm going to test this tonight, it's all just theorycraft and I don't know exactly how he plays out yet but was just a few thoughts that if I'm correct you may want to take into consideration to maximize early game, as well as through out the game, strong damage output. It just seems sad to waste a 25% increase in damage and potential to miss your target, especially since if you do miss your strongest nuking spell it could change things completely in a 1v1. Also, Sear does more damage if you take into account the fact that the CD is almost half of PoF when leveled up and costs half the mana. Sear = Better Spam, Best skill to conserve mana, and maximizing damage if used to stun and set ablaze before PoF to gauruntee hit and 25% more damage from PoF." So would not Sear be a more powerful ability to use? This is my reasoning for such: Sear at level 5 w/ 400 AP : 240 + (400 x .65) = 500 [Includes 2 second stun if target is ablaze.] Pillar of Flame at level 5 w/ 400 AP : 260 + (400 x .60) = 500 [+ (500 x .25) = 625] Brackets indicate damage if the target is already ablaze. Now here's the thing; Sear at level 5 has a 6 second cooldown (level 1 is 8 second cooldown). Pillar of Flame has a 10 second cooldown at every level. Sear also costs 50 mana at every level, while Pillar of Flame costs 110 mana at level 5 (70 mana at level one.) While not being as big of a deal late game this helps conserve a lot of mana early game for longer harassment if this is your main ability. So really, Sear at level 5 w/ 400 AP does 1k damage every 12 seconds. Pillar of Flame does 625 damage every 10 seconds. Well really, when the 12 seconds is up it could be cast again for 1.5k damage and when the 10 seconds is up PoF can be cast again for 1.25k damage but Sear can still be cast yet again while this is on CD. Basically, you can cast Sear almost twice as often as PoF and you don't need your target to be ablaze to do the extra damage. Without that, they dish out the exact same with 400 AP. My idea is that Sear is a much better spammable ability, especially early game, and if you Conflag->Sear and stun->PoF is the best combo (at least for 1v1). But like I've said, I haven't played Brand yet (will tonight), but does my basic math and theory all seem correct? I don't find anything wrong with it unless there's something I don't know. Opinions?[/quote]

[quote=Chiro]"To me, it seems like Sear is a much larger threat than PoF. It is much more spammable while conserving more mana, attacking faster because of low CD, and you don't have the potential of your attacks being dodged or missing." Not sure if you know, but Sear's a skillshot and as such can be blocked by creeps and champions. Pillar is much easier to land. It's not that fast moving either so it's kinda hard to connect with it anyway. Besides his ult, Conflagarate is Brand's only lock-on skill. You're going to want to harrass with that. Also keep in mind that leveling up Sear would detriment your farming ability with Pillar of Flames. Your combos are fine, though. Conflagarate > Sear > Pillar is the standard sequence.[/quote]

[quote=Searz]Pillar es #1[/quote]

[quote=B-Wong][quote=Searz] Pillar es #1 [/quote] Pillar is soooooooooooo strong.[/quote]

[quote=Searz]Seriously, level pillar and land a conflagation+pillar. You'll eat half their HP.[/quote]

[quote=SixSonatas]Heavy CC team fight sequence (assuming you have like an Amumu, Sona, even Ashe or something): Q -> E -> W -> R = Highest AoE damage rotation; use with AoE stun/snare/super slow R -> Q -> E -> W = Chain Stun; more single target rotation; use with single target stun Light CC team fight sequence: R -> E -> W -> Q = Enter team fight with R as it's already going on; do huge damage in the chaos W -> Q -> R -> E = Initiation with Brand's single target stun; follow up with leftover AoE damage Laning: E -> Q -> W = Standard full rotation harass W -> E (before W hits) = Standard amp'd pillar harass Q -> E (E spread hits) = Half rotation push harass W -> E (on creeps) = Standard push/harass[/quote]

[quote=UltimateHavok][quote=Chiro] "To me, it seems like Sear is a much larger threat than PoF. It is much more spammable while conserving more mana, attacking faster because of low CD, and you don't have the potential of your attacks being dodged or missing." Not sure if you know, but Sear's a skillshot and as such can be blocked by creeps and champions. Pillar is much easier to land. It's not that fast moving either so it's kinda hard to connect with it anyway. Besides his ult, Conflagarate is Brand's only lock-on skill. You're going to want to harrass with that. Also keep in mind that leveling up Sear would detriment your farming ability with Pillar of Flames. Your combos are fine, though. Conflagarate > Sear > Pillar is the standard sequence. [/quote] Ok, no I didn't know it was a skill shot. As I said, I haven't played Brand yet and was just thinking about stuff as I read through some guides since I'll be playing him this week since he's free. heh Hmm, yea, now I understand why Pillar is leveled first in all the guides I read.[/quote]

[quote=SixSonatas]Don't forget that Pillar does 25% amplified damage if the target is Ablaze. That's the main kicker to Brand's Pillar.[/quote]