Choose the lineage your crystal carries
A Brand is the lineage of a Warden’s Soul Crystal, guarded by an Order that lends it its name. There are six. Each has a lean, a signature, and a Wasteland full of opinions about it.
One Brand, four facets
A crystal carries exactly one Brand, and a Warden never mixes lineages: no Lampbearer runes on a Hollowed crystal. Role flexibility comes from the crystal’s four facets, Tank, Healer, DPS and Support, each a full loadout with its own bar and its own name drawn from the Brand’s lore. The prototype role of a Brand is a lean, not a restriction. A Lampbearer can be built as a tank, and a Brazen as a healer, entirely from within their own signature runes.
Each facet carries four signature actives for its role, four slots drawn from the universal pool, and a shared bank of passive slots. Switching facet swaps the whole action bar and passive set at once.
The universal pool
Every Brand draws on runes that belong to no lineage: basic strikes and bolts, a taunt, a cleanse, a dash, a stealth step, a root and a slow, and the universal interrupt, Rebuke. They fill the shared slots of every facet, so no Warden is ever without the basics. Passives from the same pool are always on while their facet is active.
Lampbearer
Wardens of the Lamp Orders who channel the same Aether-Lamps that ward the cities. Their light heals, wards and, turned outward, sears. The kit leans towards protection but never loses its teeth: the radiance that mends an ally can brand an enemy.
- Order
- The Lamp Orders
- Signature
- Light essence
- Schools
- Aether, turning to Fire when it attacks
- Facets
- Oath-Sworn (Tank), Lamp-Tender (Healer), Burning Vigil (DPS), Beacon-Warden (Support)
Signature mechanics
Radiance and reveal. Radiance runes light up what they touch and blind it, so the target deals less damage.
Oath of the Lamp. A light-tether binds an ally: part of the damage they would take is drawn back to you. A bodyguard’s pact, cast ahead of the blow.
Runes to know
- Blinding Radiance: An area burst that pulls enemy attention and dims their attacks at once.
- Oath of the Lamp: The signature bodyguard tether.
- Light Heal: The fast, single-target rotational heal.
- Lamp’s Judgment: A piercing lance of radiance that leaves a burn.
- Beacon: The widest burst in the Brand’s kit, folding a defence buff into everyone caught in it.
Brazen
The line-holders of the Wastelands. Brass Legion Wardens wear their Aether-warding as heavy plate and stand where the fight is worst. Their power is industrial, the furnace and the slag rather than mysticism, and it rewards presence: hard taunts, stances, and strikes that make an enemy keep looking at you.
- Order
- The Brass Legion
- Signature
- Brass essence
- Schools
- Physical, with Fire from the forge
- Facets
- Brass-Wall (Tank), Forge-Surgeon (Healer), Slag-Hammer (DPS), Iron-Commander (Support)
Signature mechanics
Fortification. Circuits that raise all-round defence alongside damage reduction, more heavily than any other Brand.
Hard threat. Taunts that force enemies to acknowledge the Warden holding them. Brazen do not dodge the fight; they become it.
Runes to know
- Iron Taunt: The group-fight opener: an area taunt that redirects threat to you.
- Warding Stance: A stance that makes the Brass-Wall the tankiest facet in the game while it holds.
- Undying: A big defensive cooldown, built to cost something to pull.
- Brass Charge: A gap-closer that deals damage and roots.
- Iron Oath: Pulls a fraction of an ally’s incoming damage onto you.
Hourshade
The underground Brand. Hour’s Guild Wardens distrust the Lamp Orders and work in the space between light and dark: stolen shadow where the Lampbearers wield licensed light. Their rhythm is stealth entry, a burst window, and a bleed that keeps working after it closes.
- Order
- The Hour’s Guild
- Signature
- Shadow essence
- Schools
- Physical and Poison
- Facets
- Ghost-Ward (Tank), Shade-Surgeon (Healer), The Long Dark (DPS), Veil-Weaver (Support)
Signature mechanics
Stealth. Shroud circuits drop you off the threat table until the effect breaks. Hourshade build it into a combat cooldown, not just a utility dash.
Poison and tempo. Poison is the Brand’s signature secondary school. Tempo circuits land on the enemy, slowing movement and casting together.
Runes to know
- Shroud of Hours: Stealth and damage reduction in one cast: you vanish, and come back hardened.
- Shadow Strike: The fastest strike in the game, with the shortest cooldown of any active rune.
- Bleeding Edge: The signature Physical bleed.
- Poison Blade: A fire-and-forget poison with a long duration.
- The Long Hour: The strongest lasting movement debuff in the game: a mark that stretches time for the target.
Hollowed
Heretics who embraced the cost. Every other Order’s doctrine is to ration the self you spend; the Hollowed say rationing only gets you killed slowly, and push their own becoming while it still buys power. The Brand shares its name with the Wasteland monsters on purpose.
- Order
- The Hollowed Compact
- Signature
- Void essence
- Schools
- Corruption
- Facets
- Dread Vessel (Tank), Hollow Mercy (Healer), Void-Born (DPS), Unraveler (Support)
Signature mechanics
The Corruption meter. Corruption rises as you deal Corruption damage and only falls by decay or by spending it. It gives a continuous bonus to damage (or healing, for the healer facet). At 40, 70 and 90 it adds telegraphed penalties: extra damage taken and, higher up, a bleed on your own output. Out of combat it drains, faster inside a Lamp’s light.
Consume and Discharge. Consuming runes draw the meter down for a sizeable boost to their damage, and relieve the penalty bands. At its peak the meter can be Discharged, a burst of Corruption damage around you that resets it partway.
Runes to know
- Void Bolt: The highest single-hit damage in the entire rune library.
- Hollow Surge: A long cast that is the Brand’s weakest moment if interrupted and its strongest if it lands.
- Void Transfusion: The healer’s signature channel, every tick drawn from the caster’s own reserves.
- Soul Shatter: The Hollowed interrupt, a projectile you can see coming.
- Discharge: Releases the meter at its highest band.
Lampwick
Hunters of the gas-lamp-and-iron tradition. Wasteland Scouts rune their firearms rather than themselves and treat distance as a weapon. Every kit is written around never letting the enemy reach them: ranged Forms, suppression to hold them off, and traps for whoever breaks through.
- Order
- The Wasteland Scouts
- Signature
- Ordnance essence
- Schools
- Physical
- Facets
- Iron Sights (Tank), Field Medic (Healer), True Shot (DPS), Trapper’s Hand (Support)
Signature mechanics
The magazine. A six-round magazine. Each Ordnance rune spends a round, and rounds refill one at a time while you are out of combat. Discipline about ammunition, not a spell bar, is the Brand’s resource.
Ammunition. Five round types: Standard, Incendiary, Net, Tincture and Piercing. The shape of a rune’s circuit decides which it loads: a healing circuit loads Tincture, a fire circuit Incendiary.
Runes to know
- Aimed Shot: A short cast, alternated with instant fillers to set the facet’s rhythm.
- Rapid Fire: A burst of instant rounds.
- Mending Shot: Heals with a quick tick and a sustained one.
- Trap Kit: A placed, pre-set control tool, best laid before a fight.
- Net Round: The kite tool: slows or roots a pursuer.
Wraithbinder
Wardens who bind the dead, willingly or otherwise. Distrusted by Lamp Orders and Hollowed alike, they walk the line between cleric and necromancer. Their circuits lean on spending something precious, a spirit, to reach exceptional power.
- Order
- The Tether-Coven
- Signature
- Spirit essence
- Schools
- Aether and Corruption
- Facets
- Death’s Ward (Tank), Soul Shepherd (Healer), Wraith-Flayer (DPS), Tether-Weaver (Support)
Signature mechanics
Spirits. A crystal holds up to three bound spirit slots. Wraithbinder runes spend them: consuming a spirit amplifies a cast, binding captures a new one from a recently slain foe, and fatiguing one weakens it without releasing it, a softer cost.
Tether. The Support facet’s namesake: a fraction of the damage an ally would take is rerouted to you for as long as the link holds. Three Brands share the bodyguard archetype, each with a different cost.
Runes to know
- Tether: The facet’s namesake ability, linking you to an ally.
- Soul Knit: The primary channel heal; its spirit is fatigued, not consumed, and recovers later.
- Wraith Surge: An area explosion built to spend the whole bound menagerie at once.
- Possession: The premium crowd control: briefly turns a target against its own allies.
- Death’s Reprieve: The legendary save, a heal cast outside the global cooldown, with the longest cooldown in the library.
Pick a lineage. Spend yourself wisely.
Sign-ups are closed for now. If you already have an account, you can still sign in.