Best Diablo 4 Sorcerer build: Hydra Meteor for damage and mobility

The best Diablo 4 sorcerer build might seem impossible to pin down when you consider how many directions you can take the class. That said, they have a few high-damage skills hidden up their sleeves, such as Hydra and Chain Lightning, which you'll be utilizing early on. This ensures you'll be easily mowing down enemies, even at lower levels.

As a ranged caster, you'd generally expect to have less survivability in close-quarters combat, and the build below uses a buffed Teleport skill to help you get out of trouble quickly. There's room for adjustment here and there, too, so you don't have to stick to everything that's suggested below. More builds will be added to this guide once we've glimpsed more of the endgame. For now, though, here's the best Diablo 4 sorcerer build for your leveling needs to get you started in Sanctuary.

Hydra Meteor Sorcerer build 

• Skills: Spark for early levels then Fire Bolt, Chain Lightning, Hydra, Inferno, Meteor, Teleport
• Passive Skills: Inner Flames, Crippling Flames, Devouring Blaze, Fiery Surge, Endless Pyre
• Enchantments: Fireball, Meteor
• Legendary Aspects: Aspect of the Three Curses, Aspect of Control, Aspect of the Unwavering

This build relies on Burning damage, raining Meteors down onto enemies' heads, and locking them in place while you continue to hit them with your Inferno Ultimate or other spells. Your Fireball Enchantment will then pretty much annihilate anything in the vicinity, letting your Hydra or a cast of Chain Lightning clear up any stragglers.

I'd recommend Spark as your base skill when starting out, though switching to Fire Bolt later will give you additional burning damage. Chain Lightning also plays a part in this build because of its high damage, and it will be your bread and butter for early levels until you get to the good stuff. Grab it as soon as possible to benefit from the high single-target damage it offers, thanks to its chain mechanic, meaning it will bounce between you and the enemy if only the two of you are present.

Hydra is another strong single-target spell, though this one is more set it and forget it. Once you've planted the fiery Hydra, it will get to work hurling fire at enemies within range, freeing you up to teleport around and fire off other skills. You also want at least one point in Fireball so you can activate its Enchantment, meaning enemies will explode for 50% of Fireball's damage when they die—and those explosions will soon add up on a busy battlefield.

Thanks to the effect of the Fireball Enchantment, and later, Meteor, this build really shines when fighting groups of enemies. Inferno is great with its pull effect, and Meteor's Immobilise effect will anchor many enemies in one place, allowing you to pelt them with subsequent Meteor casts. The Esu's Ferocity Key Passive ties in well with its critical strike damage, and critical strike chance increases for fire-based damage.

Once you have the bulk of your skills unlocked, you want to open a fight by planting down a Hydra, then, if it's a group, hard cast Meteor to hit as many enemies as possible which should hopefully trigger subsequent Meteor hits, thanks to the enchantment. As enemies die, the Fireball Enchantment will chain damage amongst the rest of the group, taking them out quickly. If enemies are more spread out, you can use your Inferno Ultimate to help pull them in before hard-casting Meteor.

Plant your Hydra for single-target encounters such as bosses, then pelt them with Chain Lightning. You can cast off the odd Meteor if they happen to stand still long enough, otherwise, keep hurling lightning at them and refresh your Hydra whenever it expires. In both AoE and single-target instances, use Fire Bolt (or Spark if you went with that) whenever your run out of Mana to let it regenerate. As far as defence goes—let's not forget you're a squishy caster—Teleport and its damage reduction passive is a solid option for getting out of trouble quickly. 

Aspects and Passive skills

For Passives, you'll want a point in Inner Flames to unlock the nodes behind it, which you should then max out. Devouring Blaze, which increases your critical strike damage against Burning enemies, increased if they are Immobilized, and Crippling Flames, which gives a chance for your Pyromancy skills to Immobilize enemies. Fiery Surge increases your Mana regeneration per Burning enemy killed, and Endless Pyre increases Burning damage the longer they remain Burning. There are other passives you can play around with which can help shore up any weaknesses you feel you might have, such as survivability or even more damage, but the ones I've listed above are a solid choice for this build.

You'll find plenty of gear as you level, and you can farm Legendary Aspects from dungeons. Here are the Aspects that you should target to help this build shine:

• Aspect of the Three Curses: Meteor deals 35% increased critical strike damage against Healthy targets.
• Aspect of Control: You deal 30% more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies.
• Aspect of the Unwavering: Taking direct damage has a 2% chance to reset the cooldown of one of your Defensive skills.

The Legendary Aspects are fairly straightforward, and you can mix and match based on your needs. That said, you might want to consider a few for this build: Aspect of the Three Curses makes your Meteor deal 35% increased damage to Healthy targets—that's anything with over 80% health. Meanwhile, Aspect of Control lets you deal an extra 30% damage to Immobilized enemies, which should be happening frequently, thanks to your Meteor. Aspect of the Unwavering is also nice to have as it gives a chance to reset the cooldown of Teleport, meaning you can zip out of trouble more often.

There are other potentially good Legendary Aspects you can play around with but I've chosen to list those you can acquire easily from dungeons, so you're not relying on RNG to make the build work.