Diablo 4: Season 4 – Sorcerer Leveling Build

The Sorcerer is one of the classic Diablo 4 classes that has been a part of the game since the beginning of the franchise. Players and critics are just starting to sink their teeth into the buffet of adventure and bloody combat that awaits all who wander into Sanctuary in the latest release, and many are choosing the Sorcerer class to guide their way through it.

Those who have already experienced the Sorcerer of Diablo 4 need to be aware of a few changes to the classic spellcasting class, and new players might have to get used to the RPG progression and other related details. These first few levels are the hardest, so here are a few recommendations for getting through the toughest part of the grind at a more fun, faster pace.

Updated May 17, 2024 by Marc Santos: Diablo 4 has received a plethora of updates since its launch, and many of those brought about some major balance changes for the five classes, including the Sorcerer. While this class still plays more or less the same as before, some builds did get changed significantly, and new ones have become more viable in Season 4. This guide has been updated to reflect the state of the Sorcerer in the current meta — the recommended builds have been changed to be more in-depth when it comes to gear and ability recommendations.

The Lore Of The Sorcerer

Frost, shock, and pyromancy are the three elements over which the Sorcerers of Sanctuary wield control. No matter the choice, Sorcerers in Diablo 4 will always be great for PvE..

• The player can use a Skill Tree to customize their character’s magical abilities, but there are handy utility spells that are great in any build.
• Every build needs a balance of offensive and defensive spells. It’s fun to mix and match early in the game and find out which build works best for each individual.
• Each time a player wipes out their skill tree to start again, it costs gold.

Gear & Stat Priority

Weapons and gear for the Sorcerer are limited, with most of the power reserved for the actual magical abilities. There are also types of gear characters can equip and stats they can prioritize to make the leveling process easier.

Stats

• Intelligence. This is the most important stat for the Sorcerer. It increases the damage to their main skills and abilities.
• Wisdom. Every Sorcerer build is thirsty for Mana, and this stat improves the character’s regeneration rate in this essential magical resource.
• Dexterity. Only slightly more important than Wisdom, this stat improves the Sorcerer’s chance of getting a critical hit with their spells.
• Strength. Improves the character’s AC the higher it is, which is more important for melee builds and classes.
• Damage Over Time: Stack this if you’re building into Burning builds.
• Critical Hit Chance: Great for Lightning skills and Fire builds that use Fireball or Meteor.
• Vulnerable Damage: Get this if you plan on using plenty of Ice skills.

For simplicity’s sake, focus on getting as much Intelligence to improve your damage The bonuses provided by other stats aren’t as important, and you can get them through the affix bonuses of your items.

Armor, Weapons, and Other Accessories

The game has a handy built-in feature that compares different pieces of gear in the inventory with something that’s already equipped, but keep an eye on the stats when using this. Even though an item is generally better, it might not have bonuses for specific stats that are more important for the build.

Enchantment Slots

This is a talent unique to the Sorcerer class and can be accessed through the Skill Tree. Two spells can be chosen from a variety of Core or Defensive skills to become more powerful. Every 15 levels, the Sorcerer can choose 2, so one at level 15 and another at level 30.

Skill Trees

There are three elements in the Sorcerer’s spell repertoire, and a character can specialize in one or mix them all up. Most leveling builds utilizes several elemental powers at once. It’s easier to specialize at higher levels, but when it comes to getting through the initial grind, a mix of talents is better.

Each Sorcerer build starts with one or two Basic skills that expand out to more powerful Core skills, followed by Defensive skills. This is followed at higher levels by Conjuration, Mastery, and Ultimate. The last is mainly for characters at higher levels although it is possible to access it earlier.

A player doesn’t have to wipe out all of their choices and start from scratch if they change their mind or make a mistake. Right-click on an individual spell in the Skill Tree to refund points.

Enhancements

These are extra perks that Sorcerers can access in the Skill Tree and branch off from other spells. Every spell has an Enhancement that can give it a longer range, a damage-over-time ability, a better chance for a critical hit, or to improve overall damage.

Action Bars

Remember that the Diablo 4 controls consist of only four abilities on the keyboard plus two more on the mouse, so there’s no reason to spread a character’s points too thin. It’s better to have a few more powerful skills than too many

Sorcerer passives are fairly inflexible. Many of the class’ strongest passives only improve certain elemental disciplines. It’s better to focus on one element until you get enough points to invest in more passive skills. Some important passives include:

• Devastation: Increases max mana.
• Elemental Dominance: Increases the damage of Core Skills when cast above 50 mana.
• Glass Cannon: Deal and take more damage.
• Precision Magic: Increases Lucky Hit Chance
• Align the Elements: Gain Damage Reduction versus elite enemies.

The Best Sorcerer Leveling Builds

As far as Passive skills go, simply take those that match your chosen element. Pick between damage and defense based on what you need at the moment.

Incinerate Sorcerer Build

As the name suggests, this build specializes in fire skills — specifically, Incinerate and Hydra. The Incinerate Sorcerer build in Diablo 4 received a major buff in Season 3, and it’s now viable even early on, where players don’t have every Aspect or Skill they need to make it work.

For Aspects, you’ll want to get Conflagration as soon as possible from the Light’s Watch dungeon to increase Incinerate’s damage. Flamethrower is also great for increasing Incinerate’s effective range.

Ice Shards

This focuses on Ice to freeze and make enemies Vulnerable. It might suffer a bit at the start due to Ice Shards’ lack of AOE, but that shouldn’t be a problem once you get your Legendary Aspects.

The must-have Legendary Aspect here is Piercing Cold, which lets Ice Shards’ projectiles penetrate targets. Add Conceited on top of this to get even more damage from Ice Shards while Ice Armor is active.

Chain Lightning Sorcerer Leveling Build

This build focuses on Lightning skills to deal high impact damage between multiple targets, making it great for killing bosses and hordes alike. It won’t have as much AOE power as a Fireball build, but it’s fast, flexible, and fun enough to be viable at all stages of the game.

For Aspects, get Edgemaster and Expectant to boost Chain Lightning’s damage. Recharging Aspect is good if you’re running into mana issues, but otherwise, it’d be best to use effects that boost your damage so each Chain Lightning cast is more efficient.