Wintertide Brand

Wintertide BrandSpell, AoE, Cold, Duration, Brand
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (6-16) Mana
Cast Time: 0.70 secRequires Level 12Creates a magical brand which can attach to a nearby enemy, dealing cold damage over time and chilling them. It periodically activates while attached, gaining stages that raise the damage. When removed, a short-duration debuff dealing the same damage over time and chill is applied to each nearby enemy. The brand keeps its charges while detached.Activates every 0.25 seconds while Attached
Increases and Reductions to Cast Speed also apply to this Skill's Activation frequency
Deals (13.7-261.2) Base Cold Damage per second
Can have an additional Brand Attached to an Enemy
Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to this Skill's Damage Over Time effect
Can be Detached for a total Duration of 6.00 seconds
Can be Attached for a total Duration of 2.00 seconds
Base Debuff Duration is 1.00 seconds
Debuff deals 20% more Damage per Stage
Maximum 20 Stages

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Debuff deals +(0.25-5)% more Damage per StagePlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.

Acquisition
Drop level: 12Vendor Offer
1x Scroll FragmentMetadata
Item class: Skill Gem
Metadata ID: Metadata/Items/Gems/SkillGemWintertideBrand

Wintertide Brand is a spell that creates a brand at the target position. While attached, the brands deals cold damage over time to the attached target and chills them. When the enemies it attached to die or the attached duration end, it creates an area of effect that applies the total amount of DoT that it has dealt to the enemy it attached to the surrounding enemies.

Skill functions and interactions

• Debuffs: Wintertide Brand applies two separate debuffs: Wintertide and Wintertide's End.
  • Wintertide: While a Wintertide Brand is attached to an enemy, it continuously applies a durationless Wintertide debuff. This debuff chills and applies Cold Damage over Time based on the brand's current stage.
    • The Wintertide debuff's cold damage over time scales with number of times the Wintertide Brand has activated, up to 20 stages by default.
    • Multiple instances of this debuff stack and will each deal damage. This means that multiple wintertide brands applied to the same enemy will each deal damage. Each brand will keep track of its own stages and each Wintertide debuff will apply damage accordingly.
    • This debuff has no duration and will be removed immediately when the brand detaches from the enemy.
  • Wintertide's End: When a Wintertide Brand is removed from an enemy, a Wintertide's End debuff is applied to all enemies in an area centered on the previously branded enemy.
    • This debuff chills and deals Cold Damage over Time equal to the previously applied Wintertide debuff damage, including the stacking damage from the modifier Debuff deals % more Damage per Stage.
    • This debuff will be applied to the previously branded enemy, if it is still alive.
    • This debuff has a base duration of 1 second and can be modified by Increased Skill Effect Duration and Brand Skills Have Increased Duration.
    • Multiple instances of this debuff can be applied to an enemy at the same time, but only the strongest instance of Wintertide's End will deal damage at any given moment.
    • An enemy can be affected by both Wintertide and Wintertide's End at the same time and will take damage from both.
    • Brands can be removed from an enemy by being overwritten by a freshly cast brand, the branded enemy dying, Brand Recall, or the brand attaching to a new target by Brand Mastery.

• Stages: Each brand separately tracks its own stage, independent of other Brands.
  • With each brand activation the brand gains a stage, scaling its debuff damage.
  • The brand keeps its stages while detached.

• Activation Frequency: While attached, each Brand gains one stages every time it activates.
  • The activation rate (and hence the stage-gaining rate) can be affected by modifiers such as Activation Frequency or cast speed and Swiftbrand SupportSwiftbrand SupportBrand, Support
    Icon: t
    Level: (1-20)
    Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 31Supports skills which create brands.Supported Skills have 65% less Attached Duration
    Supported Skills have 65% less Detached Duration
    Supported Skills have (30-44)% more Activation frequency
    
    Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
    Supported Skills have (0.25-5)% more Activation frequencyThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket. or Brandsurge.
  • By default, with a 0.25 second activation frequency and 2 second attached duration, Wintertide Brand will only reach 8 stages. Investment into Activation Frequency, cast speed, Increased Skill Effect Duration, and Brand Skills Have Increased Duration is needed to reach maximum stage.
  • Notably, merely reaching maximum stages before the brand expires does not maximize Wintertide brand's damage. This is due to the brand's stages resetting with each recast/brand expiration. Increased duration and activation frequency will continue to scale the ability's average damage.

• Hit: Wintertide Brand does not hit. This prevents it from being supported by support gems such as Hextouch SupportHextouch SupportSupport, Hex, Trigger
  Icon: &
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 38Must support both a skill that hits enemies, and a hex curse skill to work. The hex will be applied when enemies are hit by the other skill. Cannot support totems, traps, or mines. Minions cannot apply hexes this way.Supported Skills apply supported Curses on Hit
  You cannot Cast Supported Curse Spells
  35% less Effect of Supported Curses
  Supported Skills have (50-31)% reduced Curse Duration
  
  Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
  Supported Skills have (0.5-10)% increased Curse DurationThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket., triggering Elemental Equilibrium, or having its damage reflected back to the player.

• Area: Neither Wintertide nor Wintertide's End apply area damage and increased Area Damage will not scale this skill's damage. However, modifiers to Increased Area of Effect will modify the application area of Wintertide's End.

• Chill: Both Wintertide and Wintertide's End cause the enemy to be chilled.
  • By default, both debuffs cause a typical base chill of 10% reduced action speed.
  • This chill can be scaled with Increased Effect of Cold Ailments and Increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments.
  • This skill does not create a chilling area.
  • After an undocumented change in Version 3.15.0, when supported by Elemental Focus SupportElemental Focus SupportSupport
    Icon: F
    Level: (1-20)
    Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 18Supports any skill that hits or burns enemies, or inflicts elemental ailments.Supported Skills deal (20-34)% more Elemental Damage
    Supported Skills cannot inflict Elemental Ailments
    
    Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
    Supported Skills deal (0.5-10)% increased Elemental DamageThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket., the debuffs no longer chill enemies.

• Duration: Increased Skill Effect Duration and Brand Skills Have Increased Duration will affect Wintertide brand's total attached duration, total detached duration, and Wintertide's End debuff duration.

Gem level progression

Level			Mana Cost	Cold DPS	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	12	33	6	13.7	0	0
2	15	39	6	16.9	15249	15249
3	19	48	7	22	41517	56766
4	23	56	8	28.1	81983	138749
5	27	64	9	35.4	147968	286717
6	31	73	9	44	250557	537274
7	35	81	10	54.1	405086	942360
8	38	88	11	62.9	447718	1390078
9	41	94	11	72.8	615318	2005396
10	44	100	12	83.9	834639	2840035
11	47	106	12	96.5	1570760	4410795
12	50	113	13	110.7	1633987	6044782
13	53	119	13	126.6	2151030	8195812
14	56	125	14	144.5	2812189	11008001
15	59	132	14	164.6	5099360	16107361
16	62	138	15	187.1	9400731	25508092
17	64	142	15	203.6	15273366	40781458
18	66	146	16	221.3	26286582	67068040
19	68	151	16	240.5	62890590	129958630
20	70	155	16	261.2	212046017	342004647
21	72	159	17	283.4	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	17	307.4	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	18	333.1	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	18	360.9	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	18	390.8	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	19	422.9	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	19	457.4	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	19	494.6	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	20	534.5	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	20	577.5	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	20	600.1	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	20	623.6	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	21	647.9	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	21	673.1	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	21	699.2	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	21	726.3	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	21	754.4	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	22	783.4	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	22	813.5	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	22	844.8	N/A	N/A

Gem quality

Type	Additional Effects per 1-20% Quality	Weight
Superior	Debuff deals +(0.25-5)% more Damage per Stage	1

Item acquisition

Wintertide Brand can drop anywhere.

Recipes

Wintertide Brand can be created from the following recipes:

Amount	Part	Description	Meta
13	The CataclysmThe Cataclysm13Level 21 Spell Gem CorruptedThe mighty warriors traded in blows, the nimble archers in arrows, yet it was the brazen thaumaturgists who would bring catastrophe to all.	Random corrupted level 21 Spell gem	A
6	The FoxThe Fox6Level 20 Gem"Masters of wit, strength and cunning. To survive the harsh winters, you must be like the fox." - Ezomyte Proverb	Random level 20 gem	A
3	Gemcutter's PromiseGemcutter's Promise3Gem Quality: +20%"I swore to use my position to help the people. What good is power when it just accumulates on the already-powerful?" - Erasmus, Imperial Gemcutter	Random gem with 20% quality	A
1	Gemcutter's IncubatorGemcutter's IncubatorStack Size: 10Adds an incubated Quality Gem item to an equippable item Item drops after killing {0} monstersRight click this item then left click an item to apply it. The Incubated item drops after killing a specific number of monsters.	Random gem with 1–20% quality	A
1	The VoidThe Void1Reach into the Void and claim your prize.	Random divination card set exchange	A

Quest reward

This item is given as a quest reward for the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓
The Siren's Cadence Act 1	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✗

Vendor reward

This item can be bought at the listed NPC vendors, after completing the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓
The Siren's Cadence Act 1 Nessa	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
A Fixture of Fate Act 3 Siosa	✓
Fallen from Grace Act 6 Lilly Roth	✓

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Wintertide Brand.

Note that helmet enchantments are no longer obtainable since version 3.23.0 and can only be obtained in permanent leagues as already enchanted items from before this patch.

Name		Labyrinth	Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Winter Brand Chill Efffect 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Wintertide Brand has 25% increased Chill Effect	helmet 100
Enchantment Winter Brand Chill Efffect 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Wintertide Brand has 40% increased Chill Effect	helmet 100
Enchantment Winter Brand Damage 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Wintertide Brand deals 25% increased Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Winter Brand Damage 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Wintertide Brand deals 40% increased Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Winter Brand Stages 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Wintertide Brand has +2 to maximum Stages	helmet 100
Enchantment Winter Brand Stages 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Wintertide Brand has +4 to maximum Stages	helmet 100

Alternate skill effects

Wintertide Brand has the following alternate skill effects:

Item	Effect(s)
Celestial Brand EffectCelestial Brand EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Brand becomes a Celestial Effect.	Your Brand becomes a Celestial Effect.

Related unique items

The following unique items are related to Wintertide Brand:

Item	Base Item		Stats
Replica AllelopathyReplica Allelopathy Satin GlovesEnergy Shield: (56-72)Requires Level 41, 60 IntGrants Level 22 Wintertide Brand Skill (100-120)% increased Energy Shield 10% increased Area of Effect Immune to Chill Wintertide Brand has (20-30)% increased Chill Effect"There seems to be some innate relationship between the forces of chaos and cold. Perhaps we should consult an occultist."	Satin Gloves	41	Grants Level 22 Wintertide Brand Skill (100-120)% increased Energy Shield 10% increased Area of Effect Immune to Chill Wintertide Brand has (20-30)% increased Chill Effect

Version history

Version	Changes
3.23.0	Quality now causes the Debuff to deal +0-5% more Damage per Stage, instead of providing +0-10% to Cold Damage over Time Multiplier.
3.16.0	Now deals 13.7 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 12.5), up to 261.2 at gem level 20 (previously 164.6).
3.15.0	When supported by Elemental Focus SupportElemental Focus SupportSupport Icon: F Level: (1-20) Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 18Supports any skill that hits or burns enemies, or inflicts elemental ailments.Supported Skills deal (20-34)% more Elemental Damage Supported Skills cannot inflict Elemental Ailments Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: Supported Skills deal (0.5-10)% increased Elemental DamageThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket., debuffs no longer apply chill. [Undocumented This change was not documented by any official sources. It was discovered through player testing or datamining.]
3.11.0	Wintertide Brand has been added to the game.