Firebrand TLDR

Standing	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
St.L	5	3	9	+6	+6
St.M	8	3	15	+1	0
St.H	10	2(7)4	18	+2	+1

Dear sweet craziness is this fool safe.  Relative testing, meaning that I tried all manner of normal punishes, shows that the Pushblock The M method doesn't work at all against Firebrand.  In fact, the only time you can pushblock and punish is when he's attacking you from the corner.  St.H is insanely safe for ending hitconfirms if you don't want to commit to a Demon Missile mixup or don't have an assist to back him up.  It's also good to note that Firebrand is on the faster end of the L's.  We'll get into that in a minute.

Crouching	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Cr.L	4	2	12	0	-1
Cr.M	8	4	17	-2	-3
Cr.H	10	8	26	--	-11

As far as I've seen, 4 is the fastest a normal gets without help in this game.  It may have short range, but the speed of a wavedash does wonders for punishing with a 4 frame normal.  Any time I've ever mentioned a move being borderline punishable by the faster members of the cast, I'm pointing mostly at Firebrand.  Don't get into the habit of abusing his slide too much and too carelessly (explained below) because it's one of those Hulk-Punishable moves.

Jumping	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
J.L	5	3	17	+12	+11
J.M	8	4	22	+17	+16
J.H	8	3(2)4	29	+19	+18
JD.H	18	Until Grounded	11	--	+11

Some special notes about his air normals.  Firebrand's L has a good enough angle on it to get instant overheads on some members of the cast.  As of this posting I haven't tested it on every character, but it works on a crouching Magneto so I assume it works on the majority.  The larger characters can net you a full combo, but the smaller ones might require an assist to take advantage of it.

The JD.H is a really good normal to use for pressure.  It is largely unaffected by pushblocking and very safe on block.  Following it up with an air Bon Voyage leaves a 2 frame gap where your opponent can do anything and even if that is pushblocked you're still right in their face (and safe).  On hit you can go ahead straight into a combo.

Launchers	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
St.S	9	5	30	--	-12
J.S	10	4	32	+15	+14

Not much to say here so I'll put my closing notes on Firebrand's normals in this slot.

By and large Firebrand is a very safe character.  Ending hitconfirms with St.H leaves you safe against practically all punishes (except things like Spell of Vishanti/Gimlet on pushblock) and his air JD.H is great for keeping up pressure.  Further down I'll have more notes about Bon Voyage and Luminous Body that will pertain to that as well, but we'll get there when we get there.

Spitfire	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Spitfire L	16	--	29	0	-1
Spitfire M	16	--	29	0	-1
Spitfire H	26	--	20*	--	+54(+41)

*Recovery in the air is until you are grounded.

Each of these projectiles has 5 low durability points except H on the ground (which the initial spit only has 3) and then spawns 5 more projectiles at 3 points a piece.

These are not good for projectile wars.  You won't win them so don't really try.  As an example, Magneto gets two Disruptors to your one Spitfire.  While each cancels each other out, the second one will hit you unopposed if you try to keep throwing them out.  You're much better off flying up and throwing out Spitfire M's since that's a much harder angle to counter.

H is pretty much used for OTGs post throw.  It doesn't really work as a pressure tool on point since pushblocking will put you far away (where you don't want to be).  Keep note though since you can use this assist for pressure if you have Firebrand on your team.

Demon Missile	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Missile L	15	20	21	+2	+1
Missile M	15	20	21	-17	-18
Missile H	23(~60)	30	0	-4	-4

The Demon Missiles are good mixup tools if you tack them on the end of blockstrings.  We'll start with L since it's generally the safest of the three.

Demon Missile L, when not pushed, leaves you in a position to follow up with a air Bon Voyage.  All of that is generally safe on block, but you may want to be careful since being +1 really doesn't mean much.  Chances are you can be thrown out of the startup of your next move or hit with a beam special if it's fast enough.  This brings us to the next Missile.

Missile M isn't safe at all.  Even on hit you're at a severe disadvantage.  To make it safe you need an assist that can really cover you or works well for crossups.  Iron Man's Unibeam is a good example since it has 25 active frames to cover your -17/18 and let you combo on hit.  Other assists would work as well, but this is a general example.  The Missile is unaffected for the most part by pushblocking which is where your mixups come in.  Training your opponent to not pushblock M Missiles (since it doesn't do much) can give you non-pushed L's and more air-to-ground pressure.

H Missile's frames for the unblockable were counted roughly, so take my count with a grain of salt.  This really shouldn't be used too much since -4 on this move specifically leaves you vulnerable.  Most of the time -4 is a break point for punishes since there aren't normals outside of certain situations that are that fast, but you are left in air in a flight state after this move connects.  This means that you can't block and that you can be thrown since this is another move unaltered by pushblocking.  Cover this with an assist or use it for the unblockable setups.

Hover	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Hell's Elevator	26	--	1	--	--
Hell Dive	15	--	--	--	--
Hover	30	--	--	--	--

Not much to say here since these are all movement related specials, but it's good to note that there is (almost) no recovery on the command airdashes.  This makes them relatively useful (especially Dive M) for pressure after being pushblocked out.

Bon Voyage?	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Bon Voyage	13	15	28	--	-30(+10)

Bon Voyage is an amazing move, just don't use it on the ground.  At -30 it's one of those moves you can have a tea party before punishing it, but used from the air you're left at +10 which means you have time to start a ground string when it's blocked.

Hypers	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Dark Fire	12+1	50	33*	-14	-25
Luminous Body	9+11	--	--	--	--
Chaos Tide	9+0	--	20	--	--

Some notes on Dark Fire aren't really needed aside from positioning.  Being directly above your opponent seems to yield to most damage followed by next to on the ground, a dash away on the ground, then a dash away from the air.  Of course, don't use this raw as you're very open to punish on block.

Luminous Body is interesting in that it gives you 25% more speed.  What this means is that your 4 frame normal becomes a 3 frame normal, which is rare to see outside of XF level 3.  You can also use it to cancel otherwise unsafe moves and make them safe with the added bonus of better frames on everything.  I don't have the time to calculate the exact difference across all of his moves, but generally speaking Firebrand gets 1-2 frames faster on all of his fastest startups.

As for Chaos Tide, any move done by the helper is the exact same as Firebrand's version of the same move.

Assists	Startup	Active	Recovery	Recovery (Other)
Spitfire H	50	--	111	81
Missile M	39	20	112	82
Missile H	50	31	112	82

Firebrand's assists are generally poor since none of them have any invincibility on them and there are better pressure options across the cast.  Missile M can be used to extend combos off of OTG moves though, which is its only real utility.

Honorable mention goes to Spitfire H though since you can use it for certain OTG situations (as an example, after Vergil's S in an air series since it ground bounces) but the duration of the flame can be used as a decent pressure tool if you're pressed for one.

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That's really it for Firebrand.  So long as you end your blocked hitconfirms in St.H or stick to your air attacks you're generally very safe.  He's also fairly good at capitalizing on mistakes thanks to his quick speed and very fast normals (even moreso with Luminous Body on), but at range he really doesn't have the tools to get damage or maintain pressure.

As always, feedback is welcome and my contact info can be found in the first news post.  Feel free to contact me however and whenever you want and I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as I can.  Thanks for your time and have a good one wherever you may be.