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The best Sorcerer build for endgame - Diablo 4

Our Diablo 4 Sorcerer build for the endgame relies on lightning with a touch of frost.

Josh Broadwell

July 5, 2023 2:45 PM

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The best Diablo 4 Sorcerer build for the endgame centers on lightning skills and the crackling energy they help create. Blizzard and flame builds work, albeit unevenly. However, our electric build is best suited to help you through leveling and post-Lilith content alike whether you’re playing alone or with friends.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer endgame build

Our Sorcerer build includes a healthy mix of offensive and defensive skills, and while lightning is the build’s foundation, we included a few other skills to help defeat enemies with electric resistance. While investing in two defensive skills might seem counterintuitive when abilities such as Hydra and Frozen Orb are right there, the Sorcerer needs a bit of additional help to stay safe. They may be powerful, but they have no other buffer to help reduce damage taken, unlike the Necromancer and Rogue. This way, you can stay safe even without relying on friends in multiplayer.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer endgame skills

Here’s what worked best for us.

Basic Skill – Arc Lash (Enhanced, Glinting Arc Lash)

Arc Lash is an excellent skill with high critical chances and a quick animation that means you can fire off more attacks in quick succession. You should invest five skill points in this one.

The Enhanced version gives you an extra lash when you land a critical hit, and Glinting will reduce your cooldowns when you stun a foe.

Core Skill – Charged Bolts (Enhanced, Destructive Charged Bolts)

We opted for Charged Bolts over Chain Lightning for a few reasons. Charged Bolts’ description might say it has a “random pattern,” but it basically affects any enemy in the area that you cast it in. That’s more reliable than Chain Lightning’s random bounces and means you end up dealing more damage. Destructive Charged Bolts also reduces the damage that enemies deal, which is excellent fo the squishy Sorcerer.

Invest five points into this one.

Second Core Skill – Fireball (Enhanced)

While some builds prefer investing in Glass Cannon to boost your damage and increase how much damage you take, we decided to use Fireball for extra damage potential instead. Fireball also lets you keep enemies at a greater distance than Charged Bolts, so in theory, you won’t have to activate your defensive skills as often.

Invest three points in this skill, and unlock its Enhanced version to increase the explosion radius.

Defensive Skill – Frost Nova (Enhanced, Mystical Frost Nova)

Frost Nova generates a blast of frigid air around you for three seconds and freezes nearby enemies. It’s an excellent way to handle crowds, and the Enhanced version reduces its own cooldown if Frost Nova defeats enemies. Mystical Frost Nova makes foes and bosses vulnerable.

Put five skill points in Frost Nova

Second Defensive Skill – Flame Shield (Enhanced, Shimmering Flame Shield)

Flame Shield is essentially the fire version of Frost Nova, but the real reason for investing in it is to get the Shimmering enhancement. Shimmering Flame Shield restores some of your life, making it useful stopgap when you need to save your potions. You technically just need one skill point in Flame Shield, but if you have points to spare and want to deal extra fire damage, go ahead and put a few more in here.

Defensive Passive: Elemental Attunement

Elemental Attunement gives you a small chance to reset one of your cooldowns when you land a critical hit. It can only happen once every 10 seconds, though. Put two skill points in this passive.

Conjuration Skill – Lightning Spear (Enhanced, Summoned Lightning Spear)

Lightning Spear chucks a bolt of lightning in front of you for six seconds and deals heavy damage, with a decent chance of landing a critical hit. The Enhanced version boosts that critical chance even further, and the Summoned upgrade gives it a hefty damage boost when you have Crackling Energy stacks.

Put at least four points into this.

Conjuration Passives – Protection

Protection grants you a barrier when you use a cooldown skill. It only lasts two seconds, but it can make a big difference. Put three points into Protection.

Mastery Skills – Ball Lightning (Enhanced, Wizard’s Ball Lightning)

Ball Lightning is the electrical form of Frost Orb. You send a giant ball of lightning in front of you that continually zaps enemies. The Enhanced upgrade increases its power based on your attack speed, and the Wizard’s version generates Crackling Energy when the ball hits an enemy four times.

Put five points into this skill.

Mastery Passives – Static Discharge, Devouring Flame

Static Discharge gives your critical hits a chance to create Crackling Energy, while Devouring Flame lets you deal more damage to burning enemies.

Ultimate Skill – Unstable Currents (Prime, Supreme)

When you use a shock skill while Unstable Currents is active, you’ll randomly cast one of your Core, Conjuration, or Mastery shock skills as well, hence our choice to fill the build with shock skills. The Prime upgrade raises your attack speed by 25 percent – a nice complement for Ball Lightning – and the Supreme version makes it so Crackling Energy stays active until the skill ends.

Ultimate Passives – Hoarfrost, Electrocution, Coursing Currents

Hoarfrost increases the damage dealt to Chilled and Frozen enemies and fits well with Frost Nova. Electrocution reduces how much damage enemies deal when your shock skills land a critical hit, and Coursing Currents raises your critical strike chance when you use a shock skill.

This setup should see you through your Lilith battle and first Capstone dungeon and well into the endgame. If you're keen on trying another class, check out our Diablo 4 Barbarian build guide as well.

Josh Broadwell

Contributing Editor

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or VG 24/7 or on Twitter, shouting about Trails. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or curled up with an RPG of some description.