Penance Brand's (base version) Energy Mechanics do not function as described

Penance Brand appears to be bugged in terms of how it generates energy on targets, and potentially has been since the gem's mechanics were split into 3 during the introduction of Transfigured Gems in 3.23 Affliction League.

From the Gem's skill description:

"Creates a magical brand which can attach to a nearby enemy. It periodically activates while attached, adding energy to the branded enemy. When the branded enemy reaches 20 energy, a large explosion occurs and the brand is removed. All energy is removed from the enemy when the brand is detached."

This implies that the energy is generated by the Brand onto the Branded target, and that upon the branded enemy reaching 20 Energy, an explosion occurs and the Brand is removed.

Further notes from the poewiki page of the gem:

By this logic, it should be assumed that using the Runebinder Keystone to attach 2 Penance Brands onto the same target should effectively double the energy gain rate, i.e. halving the effective duration before detonation and remove both brands after causing a single explosion.

However this is not the case, and it appears as though the Energy gain is on the Brand itself when it is attached to an enemy, as when you attach 2 Penance Brands onto an enemy, two separate explosions occur one after another, implying that the energy is relative to the brand and not the enemy it's attached to (with that said, removing a brand with brand recall does still reset its gained energy, so at least that works).

Video testing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZwoBcZ5C7M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhf_F1XrCg

Apologies regarding the second video, my latency during recording was rather poor at the time.

It would be appreciated if it could be made clear whether Penance Brand works as intended and the skill description is simply unclear, or if this is a bug.

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Tsriel#3739 wrote:

By this logic, it should be assumed that using the Runebinder Keystone to attach 2 Penance Brands onto the same target should effectively double the energy gain rate, i.e. halving the effective duration before detonation

Yes

"

Tsriel#3739 wrote:

and remove both brands after causing a single explosion.

No



It should roughly halve the time before detonation. If you have high activation rate and are casting them directly on the enemy, you might not be able to see that clearly.

Compare the time between attachment and first explosion, and first explosion to second explosion, when attaching two Penance Brands to the enemy. Your second video does this to an extent, but the difference would be more clear if placing the brands in one spot unattached, then luring an enemy into them.

However, there won't be "a single brand that removes both Brands".

One brand sees the enemy at 20 energy and explodes, consuming the energy on the monster as it expires after the explosion. The other brand then sees that the monster isn't at 20 energy, and continues accumulating energy. This is why there is only one explosion.

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One brand sees the enemy at 20 energy and explodes, consuming the energy on the monster as it expires after the explosion. The other brand then sees that the monster isn't at 20 energy, and continues accumulating energy. This is why there is only one explosion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCL_pAyS1wY

Went back and did further testing, grabbing 3 Cluster Jewels with the Remarkable Notable to see if this is the case and you are correct, the duration of the first explosion is significantly lower than that of the second one which only has one brand to work with. Thank you, I appreciate the clarification.

With that said, the wiki should probably be updated by the community regarding the "all attached brands are removed" comment, and being honest I think the skill feels clunky, demanding lots of investment with the way it currently works. But this is bug reports not gem feedback, so I will leave it at that.