The Brand Theorycraft Thread

[quote=Jebus McAzn][b]Passive: Blaze[/b] Brand's spells light his targets ablaze, dealing 2% of their maximum Health in magic damage per second for 4 seconds. [b]Sear[/b] Brand launches a ball of fire forward that deals (80/120/160/200/240) (+0.65 per ability power) magic damage. If the target is ablaze, the target will be stunned for 2 seconds. Cost: 50 Mana [b]Pillar of Flame[/b] After a short delay, Brand creates a pillar of flame at a target area, dealing (80/125/170/215/260) (+0.6 per ability power) magic damage to enemy units with the area. Units that are ablaze take an additional 25% damage. (That comes out to 100/156/213/269/325 + 0.75 AP) Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 Mana [b]Conflagration[/b] Brand conjures a powerful blast at his target, dealing (70/105/140/175/210) (+0.55 per ability power) magic damage to them. If the target is ablaze, the conflagration spreads to nearby enemies. Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana [b]Ultimate: Pyroclasm[/b] Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire, dealing (150/250/350) (+0.5 per ability power) magic damage each time it bounces. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm's missile speed increases. Maximum of 5 bounces. Cost: 100/150/200 Mana So at maximum, it hits one target 3 times, coming out to (450/750/1050) (+1.5 per ability power) maximum damage on one target. This guy has slightly better AP scaling than Annie considering that he has four offensive abilities. The stun is very powerful but not AoE. Overall, it seems like he can do more burst in small skirmishes but is still extremely deadly in big fights. I'm thinking about building him like a caster focused on early game aggression and late game survivability. Doran's Ring-Boots-Catalyst Merc Treads/Sorc Shoes Rabadon's Deathcap Zhonya's Hourglass Banshee's Veil Void Staff Thoughts? I don't know if you WANT to get RoA on him, or even Archangel's. Straight rushing that Deathcap after your Catalyst doesn't seem like a bad idea. CDR could also be very viable on him - maybe Morello's Evil Tome.[/quote]

[quote=JunSupport]I'd build some CDR to spam his Sear. It stuns if the enemy is blaze, and from the video has a very short cooldown. Definitely having Gylphs of Celerity for end game CDR. Standard 9/0/21 for AP users. Sapphire + 2 pots Tear Sorcerer's Shoes Morello's Rylai's Abyssal Scepter Zhonya's Hourglass Archangels. CDR, Health, Slows, MR, Armor, tons of AP in every nook. Tear + Rylai > RoA in my opinion, I don't really see hp+ap+mp w/o any uniques to be any good except in special cases. He's a pretty standard caster once you get past his "unique" combo-casting.[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]No Rabadon's? Judging from his skills, he doesn't seem nearly as mana intensive as Annie, meaning that I don't much see the point in Tear/Archangel's.[/quote]

[quote=caucheka]whats the cooldowns on his skills? if they fairly nice i'd suggest that archangels.[/quote]

[quote=EvilDice]My build is similar to Jun's. The order I am thinking so far is: Sapphire+2HP Tear Sorcs Deathcap Rylai's Void Tome Archangel's BV/Hourglass [quote=Jebus McAzn] No Rabadon's? Judging from his skills, he doesn't seem nearly as mana intensive as Annie, meaning that I don't much see the point in Tear/Archangel's. [/quote] From playing him so far it seems mana's a bitch for him. You can achieve good mana with Catalyst as well but it's just an expensive item and makes the jump to a Deathcap more painful.[/quote]

[quote=JunSupport]Came up with this in the last 5 minutes. I built for utility. Phreak almost never shows bad clips about himself unless it's a death. If he's a proper nuker, he WILL get OOM if you use more then 2~3 combos in succession. Archangels is fair more useful in this case. If I get fed, I'd skip Abyssal and sub Zhonya's for Deathcap. An early Deathcap in normal games (not one-sided Spotlights) invites doom, due to lack of survivability. Rushing Morello's is already pushing the envelope.[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]Judging from Stonewall's video, the cooldown on his W seems to be fixed at 9 seconds while his E seems to be 11/10/9/8/7 seconds. EDIT: From the champion spotlight, I'm guessing that his rank 3 ult has about a 70 second cooldown. Q reaches around a 4-5 second cooldown at rank 5.[/quote]

[quote=JunSupport]Oh, and here's a bit of psychology for you lot. Building Deathcap may give you some nice early burst, but you know what else that does? It cripples your burst mid-game when the enemies smarten up and buy Negatron cloaks. Even Mejai's Soulstealer is more subtle in power-creep relative to Deathcap. Intelligent enemies are intelligent. They go "omg, that Brand rushed a deathcap and is getting fed! Need a NCloak time" then they buy Negatron cloaks, survive your burst, then what you have left is your skills on CD, while they maul you. ~ ~ ~ If you're pubstomping, stack Deathcaps with 1 Archangel, it's all good. :) EDIT: Even if you somehow get a Rylai too, guess what? YOU HAVE NO ARMOR/MR~ Hahahaha~ Squishy caster is squishy. XP[/quote]

[quote=EvilDice]Ehhh, maybe. I've only played two games with the guy, but the first game when I rushed a Tome it just didn't feel like I was getting my damage fast enough. I will have to test this out a lot more. One thing is certain with this guy though. I am going to farm, farm, farm till I can't farm no more.[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]If you force them to buy a Negatron Cloak early, you're doing a good job setting the late game up for your AD carry to dominate. :) What are your opinions on summoner spells? Personally I say Flash/Ignite because, like Annie, his potential to instagib enemies is huge. Ghost/Ignite and Ghost/Flash are also viable, I guess.[/quote]