Are we talking about different things? Gut can brand us, so in a sense that's taking the brand. But the brand is also left lying in one of the braziers, and you can pick it up, which is another sense of taking the brand.
But though I did try that latter in one patch, I couldn't then find a way of using it to mimic Gut's brand. Not sure if that changed? Or I just missed something obvious like trying to dip it in fire first. That feels like something that could have been added to Larian's systemics for the full release if it wasn't there in EA.
