Wintertide brand and Spell echo?

The 9% Increased damage on Branded target.. is it just 9% "Increased" or 9% "more" damage? Because if it's just 9% increased, that's quite low??

Another question. Cold Damage Over Time is not Damage Aliment right? I see many mods for Damage Aliment damage Faster. Not sure if this applies to Wintertide. I don't think so??

To your first question:

Wintertide brand can't freeze inherently, because freeze needs a hit as u said.
BUT, there is the Hypothermia Support gem, that state "chilled enemies have a chance to freeze" and as far as I witnessed, it works with Wintertide Brand.
Keep in mind tho, the duration of freeze depends on the damage of the "hit" usually, so those freezes are extremely short and u can't shatter enemies.

Also there's Occultists Freeze mechanic, but that's not unique for Wintertide Brand, it's just a "freeze aura" basically.

2nd question:

No, Watcher's Eye don't stack, because they are limited to 1 per build. U can't socket more than one basically.

3rd question: 9% increased damage taken is different from "dealing increased damage urself". It is a more multiplier, additive with negative elemental resistances... so the more -res u have, the less impact increased damage taken has. But for DoTs is very good most of the time, because its harder to lower resistances in general.

4th question: Cold Damage over Time is no ailment, so those notes don't work for Wintertide Brand.

You are so awesome!!! Thanks for the answers. Wintertide is just so different from any other builds I've tried. This doesn't work, that doesn't work.....

So many things don't work with Wintertide debuffs but it also makes itemization easier so I can narrow down to exactly what I need! I don't need to worry about criticals which I hate.


Now I need to find a way to lower aura cost. What's the best way? I saw there is an amulet for it?


One more question. I read that Damage increase to DoT multiplier is most effective to increase Wintertide damage. What about Spell Damage? Are they both the same effectiveness or DoT Multiplier is even better?

I am asking this because I see they buffed jewels to have 6-8% increase to dot multiplier and Scion is good at using jewels. I find it rather difficult to stack Spell damage as many spell damage also gives me +critical which I don't need.

Hm, can't help too much with Auras, because since I mostly play SSF I don't really care for build enabling Uniques.

But I think the best options are first Enlighten Support, then the notes on the tree, especially those top left and top right if u can get them easily.

Depending on what Auras u use, there are also some new Masteries that have 25-100% Aura Reservation efficiency (100% for Clarity and 25% for Discipline for example).

And lastly there are influenced modifiers for Amulets... Hunter should be able to give Mana Reservation efficiency for Malevolence, just not sure how much.

#2 for the Spell scaling:

DoT Multiplier is better in general, but u should still try to get as much Spell damage as possible. Just because the multiplier basically multiplies ur added Spell damage aswell. So if u have to make a decision to go DoT multi or Spell damage, always go Multi... but if there is no Multi, Spell damage is still good.

Cast speed is also kind of important as is Brand/Spell duration if u wanna max ur dps.
Wintertide is very different from most skills in terms of its scaling potential, but it has some unique perks that I don't want to spoil entirely :)

And btw. I'm also playing Wintertide Brand right now, that's why I researched alot as I made my build before the league.

/e: For ur question about jewels, I believe jewels are the biggest damage increase u can get for Wintertide Brand if they are well rolled. Don't know if its worth going Scion for that tho.

What's the secret behind Wintertide? I find it very strong so far but I am still leveling in Storyline.

What about +Cold damage to Spell? Does it apply to Wintertide as well?

What about +Area damage? There is a node that increases Area damage and Area effect. I like having bigger aoe.


I went with Scion only because I've never played a Scion before. I picked Trickster but I can't decide who I want next. I am leaning towards Jugg for immune to chill and extra Endurance charge. It may be a strange choice. lol


All the Cold keystones/cluster are very far. Shadow is closer.


Any good idea for 2nd ascendancy for Scion as Wintertide? I know I don't want Occultist. I know she is strong but I am not energy shield.

So +flat cold damage to spells doesn't work, because that only counts for "hit" spells.

AoE damage doesn't work aswell, because the damage element of Wintertide isn't aoe, only the spreading mechanic is aoe... so increased aoe works, but not increased aoe damage.

The "secret" behind Wintertide is, that u can double ur dps when played right.

Wintertide is unique in that it leaves a debuff on the target when the Brand is removed. That debuff deals the same damage the brand DoT did before and it stacks with the brand itself.
So if u detach the brand via brand recall for example near ur main target, it will apply the debuff and reattach the brands onto the same target again, doubling the dps for the duration of the debuff.
Now the secondary debuff is very short, with only 1 second, but u can increase it with brand and skill duration effects.

If u then lower the cooldown of ur brand recall ability to roughly the same amount of the length of that debuff, u can use brand recall on cooldown while having 100% uptime of the secondary debuff aswell as the brands on the target, resulting in 100% more dps.
U only need to recast the brands occasionally.

Thats for single target in general, but u can also make use of that mechanic in aoe clear situations.
There's a new Mastery in the Brand wheel "Brands attach to a new enemy every time they activate, no more than once every 0,3s".
That means that ur brands jump to a new target every 0,3s, leaving the secondary debuff on the initial target and spreading. Only tried that Mastery today and it enhanced my clear speed immense.

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For the Scion choice, mhm... Trickster seems to be only defensive, so I'd choose something that ups ur damage for mapping later on.
It's actually not easy. There aren't many good choices for Wintertide damage. The only one being pretty good I'd say is Elementalist, because it gives u 20% additional exposure, meaning u lower the resistances of monsters by 35% instead of 15% using frost bomb. So that's roughly a 20% damage increase and u can use an additional golem, if u want to.

U definitely need to think about some kind of defense outside of the trickster recovery. Otherwise u'll die alot in maps :D

btw. u should definitely choose to start from the shadow area as ur last ascendency points.

There are some good notables in that area, 2% life on kill, a cold mastery wheel, some damage over time stuff ect.

Also I saw u specced into the Brand critical wheel. Those points are pretty wasted tbh. I'd use the other wheel at the top, that gives u 2 more brands without a mastery.
U can also choose to pick evasion as defence from that area, if u want to.

I'm building towards ES+evasion+block right now. Should be pretty tanky in the end.

So much good information here!!!!

Yes, I've noticed that sometimes my dot hit hard when I recall my brands. I see +skill effect nodes are quite important for Wintertide. My wintertide shows 1.85s debuff duration so I have 1.85s to do double DoT damage right?


I took the Brand with +critical because it's closer. I just wanted 2 extra brands mastery but I will respect out later. My passive tree is a mess now. I am testing things out.

I am leaning towards Mind over matter defensive since I don't use much mana at all. I can't leech so I need regen.

It's hard to shop for a good DoT Wand. Most of them have flat damage or criticals that do nothing for me.