Diablo 4, Sorcerer(ess) Guide 3/4
All Defensive and Conjuration Skills
The Defensive Skills Cluster
Requires 6 points to unlock. By incorporating Defensive Skills into your build, you can significantly enhance your Sorcerer’s ability to survive in combat. These skills can give you a Shield, Crowd-Control enemies, or help you escape from danger.
Frost Nova has a moderate Cooldown, but its Enhancement can reduce it even further. In comparison to Ice Armor and Flame Shield, its range is quite decent, and it has the added advantage of immediately freezing foes, rendering them susceptible to an additional 20% damage. Ice Armor performs best when paired with Skills that already deal cold damage, such as Ice Shards. Ice Armor’s duration can be prolonged using Upgrades.
Flame Shield
Surrounds the Sorcerer in flames, dealing damage to surrounding enemies and making the Sorcerer Immune. Can be upgraded to increase movement speed, reduce mana cost and heal you.
Engulf yourself in flames for 2 seconds, Burning surrounding enemies for 19% damage per second. While Flame Shield is active, you are Immune.
🔥 Fire Damage [Pyromancy]
🔮 Mana cost: 0
⏳ Cooldown: 20.0 seconds
✶ Enhancement: Flame Shield grants 25% Movement Speed while active.
↑ Upgrade (Mystical): You gain 25% Mana Cost Reduction while Flame Shield is active.
↑ Upgrade (Shimmering): Flame Shield Heals you for 50% of your missing Life.
Teleport
Allows the Sorcerer to transform into Lightning and teleport to a target location, dealing damage to surrounding enemies upon arrival. Can be upgraded with Crackling Energy after teleporting.
Transform into lightning, becoming Unstoppable and surging to the target location, dealing 21% damage around you upon arrival.
⚡️ Lightning Damage [Shock]
🔮 Mana cost: 0
⏳ Cooldown: 11.0 seconds
✶ Enhancement: Teleports Cooldown is decreased by 0.5 seconds per enemy hit, up to 3 seconds.
↑ Upgrade (Mystical): For 4 seconds after teleporting, Crackling Energy hits 2 additional enemies.
↑ Upgrade (Shimmering): After teleporting, you gain 30% Damage Reduction for 5 seconds.
Ice Armor
Creates a Barrier of ice around the Sorcerer that absorbs damage and grows stronger with damage dealt by the Sorcerer. Can be upgraded to increase Mana regeneration, increase Barrier growth against Vulnerable enemies, or have a chance to Freeze enemies that hit the Sorcerer.
A barrier of ice forms around you for 6 seconds, absorbing 30% of your Base Life in damage. While Ice Armor is active, 10% of your damage dealt is added to its barrier.
❄️ Cold Damage [Frost]
🔮 Mana cost: 0
⏳ Cooldown: 20.0 seconds
✶ Enhancement: While Ice Armor is active your Mana Regeneration is increased by 25%.
↑ Upgrade (Mystical): Damage against Vulnerable enemies contributes 100% more to Ice Armor’s barrier.
↑ Upgrade (Shimmering): Enemies that hit you while Ice Armor is active have a 15% chance to become Frozen for 3 seconds.
Frost Nova
Unleashes a frost attack that Freezes surrounding enemies. Killing Frozen enemies reduces the Cooldown time. Can be upgraded to make enemies Vulnerable, generate Mana per enemy hit, or increase Vulnerability time against bosses.
Unleash a torrent of frost, freezing enemies around you for 2 seconds.
❄️ Cold Damage [Frost]
🔮 Mana cost: 0
⏳ Cooldown: 15.0 seconds
✶ Enhancement: Killing enemies frozen by Frost Nova reduces its Cooldown by 2 seconds, up to 6 seconds per cast.
↑ Upgrade (Mystical): Frost Nova makes enemies vulnerable for 4 seconds, increased to 8 seconds against Bosses.
↑ Upgrade (Shimmering): Frost Nova generates 4 Mana per enemy hit.
Passive Defensive
Glass Cannon
You deal 6% increased damage, but take 3% more damage.
Elemental Attunement
Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have a 5% chance to reset the Cooldown of one of your Defensive Skills. Can only happen once every 10 seconds.
The Conjuration Skills Cluster
Requires 11 points to unlock. Another important aspect of the Sorcerer’s skill tree is the Conjuration Skills cluster. Although not full-fledged minions due they are still very useful because they can help you to reset your Cooldowns or deal extra damage while you focus on casting your Core Skills.
If you are looking to increase your damage output, then Hydra is a great option. Additionally, Hydras automatically target enemies which is very useful. On the other hand, if you are looking to reduce your Cooldowns, Ice Blades and Lightning Spear can be helpful. If you feel very squishy, the passives Mana Shield and Align the Elements are also great choices to invest in order to reduce the damage you take.
Hydra
Summons a 3-headed Hydra that spits fire at nearby enemies. Can gain an additional head and increase Critical Strike Chance depending on the upgrade.
Summon a 3-headed Hydra for 8 seconds. Each head spits fire at a nearby enemy, dealing 25% damage.
🔥 Fire Damage [Pyromancy]
🔮 Mana cost: 20
⏳ Cooldown: 0
✶ Enhancement: While healthy, your cast of Hydra gain 1 additional head.
↑ Upgrade (Summoned): Hydra also Burns enemies for an additional 12% of its base damage dealt over 6 seconds.
↑ Upgrade (Invoked): After you Critically Strike, Hydras gain 30% Critical Strike Chance for 3 seconds.
Ice Blades
Conjure ice blades that rapidly slash enemies for damage and have a chance to make them vulnerable. Cooldown is reduced when hitting Vulnerable enemies, and the upgrade can reduce Cooldowns for other skills or increase attack speed.
Conure ice blades for 6 seconds that rapidly slash enemies for 26% damage and has a 20% chance to make them Vulnerable for 2 seconds.
❄️ Cold Damage [Frost]
🔮 Mana cost: 0
⏳ Cooldown: 12.0 seconds
✶ Enhancement: Ice Blades’s Cooldown is reduced by 1 second each time it hits a vulnerable enemy.
↑ Upgrade (Summoned): 50% of Enhanced Ice Blade’s Cooldown reduction is applied to your other Skills.
↑ Upgrade (Invoked): Your Ice Blades gain 10% increased Attack Speed per active Ice Blades.
Lightning Spear
Conjure a crackling spear of lightning that seeks out enemies and deals damage. Critically striking can increase Critical Strike Chance or Stun enemies.
Conure a Crackling spear of lightning that seeks out enemies for 6 seconds, dealing 12% damage per hit.
⚡️ Lightning Damage [Shock]
🔮 Mana cost: 0
⏳ Cooldown: 20.0 seconds
✶ Enhancement: After Critically Striking, Lightning Spear gains a 5% increased stacking Critical Strike Chance for its duration.
↑ Upgrade (Summoned): Collecting Crackling Energy increase the damage of your next Lightning Spear cast by 20%, up to 100%.
↑ Upgrade (Invoked): Lightning Spear Stuns enemies for 2 seconds when Critical Striking.
Passive Conjuration
Align the Elements
You gain 5% Damage Reduction against Elites for each second you haven’t taken damage from one, up to 50%.
Mana Shield
Every time you spend 100 Mana, you gain 5% Damage Reduction for 5 seconds. Requires 1 point in Align the Elements.
Protection
Using a Cooldown grans 10% of your Maximum Life as barrier for 5 seconds. Requires 1 point in Align the Elements.
Precision Magic
Your Lucky Hit Chance is increased by 5%.
Conjuration Mastery
You deal 1% increased damage for each active Conjuration Skill.
Status affects
- Vulnerable enemies take 20% increased damage. Frozen enemies cannot move or attack. Enemies can be frozen by repeatedly Chilling them.
- Barriers absorb damage from all sources up to a specific amount.
- Crackling Energy periodically damages surrounding enemies when picked up.
- Healthy characters have amore than 80% of their Life.
- Chilled enemies have reduced Movement Speed. Repeatedly chilling an enemy will Freeze it.
- Frozen enemies cannot move or attack. Enemies can be frozen by repeatedly chilling them.
- Immune characters cannot be damaged and all negative effects are removed and prevented.
- Unstoppable characters have all Control Impairing Effects removed and prevented.
All information in this article is from the Open Beta of Diablo 4. The content presented here is subject to change.
