You hate him. I hate him. If you don’t hate him, you probably play him. Yes, you guessed it, it’s Brand. As a jungler he’s strong in the right hands, but as a support it feels like he’s constantly blowing you up – especially if you’re a squishy enchanter main like me. So, imagine my face when I noticed that the latest round of League of Legends patch notes finally hand the Burning Vengeance some nerfs. Spoiler alert: I’m smiling.
Brand support has been the bane of my existence in League of Legends Season 14. With the increase in burst damage across the board, and a series of absolutely busted item builds, the fiery menace has effectively become a permaban for me – I guess at least it’s taught me how to play into Blitzcrank.
While his kit can be negated with enough experience, at the moment it does feel like, if you play one of the MOBA‘s squishier champions, he can half-health you in an instant. While he’s not too high on the LoL tier list at Emerald plus, he sits in the top tier from Iron to Emerald, giving him that ‘ff at 14’ sort of reputation.
Thankfully, League of Legends patch 14.5 hits Brand with a few much-needed nerfs to his support and mid power, placated with a small buff to his jungling abilities. His Blaze damage now deals an extra 15% to monsters, to help you jungle a little quicker, but the major change is to Pyroclasm (R).
The overall damage Pyroclasm does has been nerfed as Brand scales, dropping from 100/200/300 (+25% AP) to 100/175/250 (+25% AP). Its cooldown has also been increased by five, ten, and 15 seconds as he scales. This should mean he tails off a little late game – where burst becomes more of an issue – but maintains his early jungle presence.
Elsewhere on the Rift, Seraphine is getting yet another rework, and Rek’Sai gets a few buffs following her somewhat failed 14.4 changes. Smolder also gets a few adjustments, aimed at discouraging tankier builds so that players focus on scaling towards the late-game.
League of Legends 14.5 skins
This patch doesn’t offer as many skins as its predecessors, with only three new cosmetics making their way into the store. These go live on Wednesday, March 6 at 12pm PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT / 9pm CEST.
The League of Legends patch 14.5 skins and chromas are listed below:
Skins
- Project Gangplank
- Project Jax
- Project Naafiri
Chromas
- Opulent Porcelain Aurelion Sol
- Opulent Porcelain Darius
- Opulent Porcelain Graves
- Opulent Porcelain Irelia
- Opulent Porcelain Miss Fortune
- Opulent Porcelain Morgana
- Project Gangplank
- Project Jax
- Project Naafiri
If you, like me, have spent too much money outfitting your mains, then you’re probably interested to see the which League of Legends skins are currently on sale – don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Or, if you’re looking for something a little more classy, we have a rundown of the current League of Legends Mythic shop, too.
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