Diablo 4 Barbarian build: Stay buffed
Diablo 4 Rogue build: Need for bleed
Diablo 4 Druid build: Air and weres
Diablo 4 Necromancer build: Stay undead
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, both Hydra and Chain Lightning are high-damage skills, which you'll be using early on, and once you unlock your first enchantment slot, you'll be easily mowing down enemies, even at lower levels.
As a ranged caster, you have less survivability in close-quarters combat, so the build below uses a buffed Teleport skill to help you get out of trouble quickly. You don't have to stick to everything that's suggested below either, as there is plenty of room for adjustment here if you want to buff your damage or survivability. 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, as well as for fresh level 50s.
Burning Meteor Sorcerer build
🔥You want strong AoE and DoT damage
🔥You need a speedy way to escape dangerous foes
🔥You enjoy scorching everything with fiery many-headed minions
The Burning Meteor sorcerer build is a pretty straightforward one. You'll want to pull enemies together using Inferno then Immobilize them with casts of Meteor. You can then use Fire Bolt and Hydra to catch any stragglers to make sure you set everything and everyone on fire. Having a point in Fireball to activate its Enchantment is also a win, as enemies will explode for 50% of Fireball's damage when they die. Burning meteor right enough. Best of all, you can simply Teleport away if you've had enough. Bye then!
Skills
Here are the six skills you'll need for this build:
- Fire Bolt: Again, another skill definitely worth investing in early on as it throws a flaming bolt that not only deals damage, it also applies a burning DoT. Its enhanced version pierces through burning enemies.
- Chain Lightning: This chains up a lightning spell between enemies up to six times, with a +3% crit chance when enhanced. It's useful in a group but better one-on-one with the high single-target damage it offers.
- Hydra: With this skill, you'll be able to summon a three-headed hydra that spits fire. It gets better: the enhanced version can grow an additional head as long as you have more than 80% of your health.
- Inferno: This is sort of like the Hydra's big bad brother. You can spawn a fiery serpent that burns all enemies in an area for eight seconds, continuously pulls enemies toward its centre, and allows spells to be cast with no mana cost when active.
- Meteor: With Meteor, you can launch a strike on a wide area and burn the target location, and with enhanced, there's a 30% chance for extra meteors to fall on the same location if you hit three or more enemies.
- Teleport: You can turn yourself into a lightning bolt and travel to a target location to deal damage. With the enhanced Teleport, there's a 0.5 second cooldown reduction for every enemy you hit.
Passives and Enchantments
For Passives, you'll want a point in Inner Flames to unlock the nodes behind it, which you should then max out. Devouring Blaze increases your critical strike damage against Burning enemies, plus even further when they are Immobilized, while Crippling Flames gives a chance for your Pyromancy skills to Immobilize enemies.
Fiery Surge increases your Mana regeneration per Burning enemy killed, and Endless Pyre buffs Burning damage the longer they remain Burning. Warmth is another good choice for more passive healing if you're looking for somewhere to spend your Renown points. 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.
For your first Enchantment, which unlocks at level 15, you need Fireball. This makes enemies explode for 50% of Fireball's damage when they die—and those explosions will soon add up on a busy battlefield. The second enchantment slot is a little more flexible, though I'd go with Meteor, giving it a chance to activate whenever you're attacking.
Aspects
Here are the six aspects that I recommend for this build:
| Aspect of Control | This allows you to deal 35% more damage to Immobilized enemies, and thanks to Meteor, this bonus should come into play often. |
| Aspect of the Three Curses | This increases the critical strike damage Meteor deals against Healthy targets (above 80% HP), so it gives a boost to your opening damage. |
| Aspect of Inner Calm | Increased damage when standing still might not sound ideal for a squishy Sorcerer, but you should be stationary for the majority of your Inferno duration so you'll see a significant damage increase. |
| Aspect of Disobedience | Thanks to your Hydra, you'll pretty much always be dealing damage, even in situations where you need to kite enemies around. This means you should have increased Armor from this Aspect for the majority of the time. |
| Aspect of Singed Extremities | Slowed enemies give you more room to breathe and as most encounters will see you Immobilizing enemies, automatically applying a Slow effect with this Aspect once the crowd control wears off is a no-brainer. |
| Everliving Aspect | Most enemies you touch will be Crowd Controlled at some point or other. Taking 25% less damage from them while the effect remains means less danger from ranged attacks. |
The Legendary Aspects for this build are fairly straightforward. The six listed above are important to make this build work and as Aspect of Control is the most vital for damage, you should consider imprinting it on your staff to give it the 100% power boost. Aspect of Inner Calm, though it might sound dangerous, comes into play during your Inferno cast window, when you will be stood still for the duration, hard-casting Meteor. There are other potentially good Legendary Aspects you can play around with but those listed above are a solid starting point.
Gems and Affix priority
For Paragon levels, I've gone with the Searing Heat board for Meteor buffs, though Burning Instinct also looks like a solid option. The Adept Glyph is also a solid choice, giving increased damage to Meteor while the Additional bonus increases its impact radius significantly.
For optimal damage output, you should look for bonus damage against Crowd Controlled or Burning enemies as every enemy you face is going to suffer from one, or both, of those debuffs. Defense-wise, damage reduction from enemies that are Burning is good to have on armor, as is max evade charges which can be found on boots. Extra ranks of your most used skills are also welcome.
For gems, Amethysts, depending on their quality, will buff damage over time by 5-7% and grant the same damage reduction if used with armor pieces, and Sapphires will give between 7.5-10.5% crit damage increase against crowd-controlled enemies when applied to a weapon. Meanwhile, I'd suggest using your jewellery gem slots to round out your overall resistances.
