Diablo 4 Sorcerer best build, skills, enchantments, gear and gems

How to play as a Sorcerer in Diablo 4

Even though Diablo 4 in general is not a mechanically complex game and it’s focused on killing – a lot of – enemies, this simple idea becomes quite difficult to perform when you have large groups of demons throwing dangerously glowing things at you. This whole scenario can be a nightmare if you aren’t as beefy as a Druid or Barbarian, but it can become a fun time for Sorcerers. It all depends on how you play with the class.

The Sorcerer is not an easy class to play with and there are a few good reasons for that. First, it’s a very squishy class, which means you can die pretty easily since it doesn’t have a lot of health. Because of that, positioning becomes fundamental to survive in encounters against powerful enemies. In addition to that, movement is life, so, to stay alive and keep causing damage, you must learn how to kite enemies. To do so, you just need to walk between attacks. Besides that, Sorcerer’s skills use a lot of mana. Managing your mana is also a challenge when you begin playing the class and have no tools to help you regenerate it faster.

Because of these layers of micro-management of resources and positioning, getting used to the class and mastering it might take a while. But, with this build, which is great for the process of levelling your character, you have all the tools needed to reduce all the problems you might have while playing as a Sorcerer. The concept behind it is to take advantage of your crowd-control skills to create windows to deal as much damage as possible.

The core skills of this build are Chain Lightning and Hydra, while the rest of our choices have all been picked to increase the efficiency of these two. These two skills synergize well because Chain Lightning has a passive that increases your character’s Critical Strike Chance and the Hydra receive a Critical Strike Chance buff when you land a crit. This interaction may sound too simple, but it’s extremely effective. In addition to these two skills, you’ll also have Spark as your basic attack, Blizzard, Ice Armor, and your ultimate Inferno to help you.

So, when you engage enemies, you want to cast Hydra and use Chain Lightning. To keep enemies far from you and at Hydra’s range, cast Inferno which not only helps you group enemies and pull them but allows you to cast a new Hydra without spending Mana. If Inferno is on cooldown, use Blizzard in the region where the Hydras have spawned, which slows/freezes them. Remember to start kiting enemies either using Chain Lightning or Spark. And remember that Ice Armor should be popped if you get surrounded by enemies who either escaped from your crowd control skill or just appeared after that. Although you regenerate resources faster with Enhanced Ice Armor, popping it only to get your Mana back earlier is always risky.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer best skills

Sorcerers have a pretty vast kit in terms of giving you multiple ways of causing damage and affecting enemies with detrimental effects in Diablo 4. At the same time, this is a very egocentric class, offering no way to help their group. But, considering what was explained in the previous section, there are some specific skills you must spend your Skill Points on for this build to work.

Basic Node

• Spark: As your basic attack, Spark is quite a solid option considering that it deals good single target and area-of-effect damage, it increases your Critical Strike Chance, and it’s easier to hit enemies with. When running Spark, you inevitably need to get the Enhanced Spark and the Gliting Spark upgrade.

Core Node

• Chain Lightning: By using this skill, lightning bounces from one enemy to another or you. Picking the Enhanced Chain Lightning and the Greater Chain Lightning, the attack will not only become a good single-target skill but also increases Critical Strike Chance per time it bounced, buffing your Hydras.

Defensive Node

• Ice Armor: Considering sorcerers can’t take too much damage, having a defensive skill is important, even though you can avoid taking damage using your crowd control skills. There are, however, situations where you get surrounded by too many enemies or you mob a group of demons while most of your skills are on cooldown. This is when Ice armor shines since it creates a barrier around you for a short period. When upgraded to Enhanced Ice Armor, you regenerate mana faster while the barrier is up.
• Glass Cannon: This passive skill makes you take more damage in exchange for higher damage output. Now that you have Ice armor, taking a little bit more damage is worth it since we’re talking about dealing way more damage. And you don’t need to worry about taking damage if enemies die faster, right?

Conjuration Node

• Hydra: As mentioned, this is one of the most important skills in this build – and a very cool one to use! It invokes a hydra with three heads that attack enemies that are close to where you placed them. Once you unlock Enhanced Hydra, you can get an extra head in case you cast the skill when you’re healthy. You must also go for the Invoked Hydra upgrade, which increases the hydra’s Critical Strike Chance whenever you land a crit hit.

Mastery Node

• Icy Veil: One of the passive skills in this node, Icy Veil increases the duration of your barrier. This is an interesting buff to your Ice Armor, considering it’s basically your emergency button. Having your barrier for longer periods allows you to wait until an important skill gets off cooldown.
• Blizzard: Because, when using this build, you want to have your Hydra and Chain Lightning hitting as many enemies as possible, Blizzard is one of the tools you have at your disposal to control the groups of demons you’re fighting. It summons a blizzard that deals damage and Chills enemies. With Enhanced Blizzard, Frozen enemies take more damage, and once you get the Wizard’s Blizzard upgrade, your Core skill costs less Mana when Blizzard is active.

Ultimate Node

• Inferno: Probably one of the best looking skills in Diablo 4, with Inferno, you summon a serpent of fire that burns enemies. By unlocking its upgrade Prime Inferno, enemies are kept in the serpent’s area since it pulls them to its centre. The last upgrade in Inferno’s tree is Supreme Inferno which makes your Pyromancy Skills cost no Mana as long as Inferno is active.

Key Passive Node

• Vyr’s Mastery: You may want to consider this skill because it makes enemies take more damage and do less damage. In addition to that, these effects are buffed when you land Critical Strikes, which is great considering the skills we picked so far.

Diablo IV Sorcerer best enchantment

As a Sorcerer in Diablo 4, you should always run Fireball in one of your enchantment slots. With this skill, there’s the chance of an enemy exploding after they die, causing damage to other enemies around them.

Once you have reach Level 15 and Level 30, you unlock one slot of enchantment. You can, then, place any of the skills you have already unlocked into these two slots to have access to special passive abilities.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer best aspects

When using this Sorcerer build in Diablo 4, you want to run pieces of equipment with the following aspects:

• Elementalist's Aspect
• Aspect of Control
• Aspect of Efficiency
• Recharging Aspect

Elementalist's Aspect is so good because it grants an increased Critical Strike Chance for Core or Mastery Skills that are cast at, or above, 100 Mana. So managing your Mana usage extra carefully is required with this Aspect - but it's worth it!

Something that can assist with this management is the Aspect of Efficiency, which reduces the Mana cost of Core and Mastery skills after casting a Basic skill. This allows for a greater uptime of having Mana past 100.

Another boost to Mana comes from the Recharging Aspect, which grants Mana every time Chain Lightning bounces off you.

Finally, although not as good as it used to be, the Aspect of Control also pairs well with our build, as it deals increased damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies.

While there are Aspects that come with specific items, most of the ones listed here can be earned as rewards for completing dungeons in the game. After they are in your Codex of Power, you can always print them to your rare pieces of gear - but keep in mind they won't be as powerful as Aspects you find on gear in the wild.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer best gear

Although this Diablo 4 Sorcerer build is completely dependent on skills, so the gear you have only improves its efficiency, there are always rolls of attributes you should prioritise. First, pieces that increase the Critical Strike Chance and Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies are pretty good for you. Consider giving priority to the equipment that comes with the Sorcerer’s core attributes: Willpower, Intelligence, and Dexterity.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer best gems

To help this build be even more efficient, there are a few gems you can put into your armor and weapons. The first option is to use Sapphire in your weapons because it increases your Critical Strike Damage to enemies that are under the effect of crowd control abilities. Since we want to use Inferno and Blizzard whenever you are fighting, this gem considerably increases your damage output.

Diamonds are also a solid option for your armor, which increases your Barrier Generation, as well as for your weapons, increasing your Ultimate Skill Damage. Because Inferno is a consistent part of your rotation, and not only used when finding yourself in the ideal situation, it’s worth it to buff the damage of your ultimate.

A solid third option is to equip a Topaz to either your weapon or armor. While in the former it increases your Basic Skill Damage, if equipped in the latter the Topaz reduces the damage when you are affected by the enemy’s Crowd Control abilities. It isn’t, however, the perfect gem for this build.