Despite the long wait since its original announcement, the Baldur’s Gate 3 imminent launch has everyone hyping at dangerously cyberpunk-like levels, making many wonder whether we’re entering one of those dreaded “Fall From Grace” cycles that seem to loom over every loved developer.

If you have lived through the fall of beloved giants, and have subscribed to the “We Do Not Preorder” mantra, this article is for you. And it’s also to tell you that, actually, you SHOULD preorder Baldur’s Gate 3

BG3 Preorders & Collector’s Editions: Why You SHOULD Preorder this Game

The game is coming to PC first followed by Playstation, and Xbox at a later date. Below is a quick reminder of what you can get, which you can skip if you know already. If you want to score some extra goodies, we have 3 collector’s editions that we are giving away right now: you can sign up on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Map page on the BG3 Wiki.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Digital Deluxe Edition – $79.99 USD

Platforms: PC/PS5

• Baldur’s Gate 3 on chosen platform
• Divinity Bard Song Pack
• Exclusive Dice Theme
• Treasures from Rivellon Pack
• Adventurer’s Pouch
• Digital OST (Original Soundtrack)
• Digital Artbook
• Digital Character Sheets

Baldur’s Gate 3 Collector’s Edition – $269.99 USD

Platforms: PC/PS5

• Baldur’s Gate 3 game code on chosen platform
• Custom sticker sheet
• 25cm Mind Flayer vs. Drow battle diorama
• 160-page hardcover art book
• Cloth map of Faerûn
• A set of D&D-inspired origin character sheets
• Metal tadpole keyring
• Magic: The Gathering booster pack
• Custom-engraved metal d20 based on the dice from Baldur’s Gate 3
• Certificate of authenticity
• Collector’s Edition owners will receive an exclusive in-game skin based on the physical Metal D20.
• All Digital Deluxe Edition DLC content

Should you Preorder Baldur’s Gate 3

So you know what editions are available, what they cost… and now you must decide, should you preorder? With the many and mounting disappointments over the years, it’s only understandable that gamers have become wary of the practice. Many times games are marketed with let’s call it “Forward-looking statements” that are more akin to wishful thinking, and a lot of money is used in manipulating press, content creators and that very gullible friend we all have that eventually talks us into riding that hype train all the way down its fiery derailment.

Recent Preorder Hype Fiascos

Distant memories now but many will remember that once upon a time we all LOVED Bioware and Blizzard. They were industry pillars who put out love projects and gave them decades of attention. More recently, there was the No Man’s Sky launch fiasco, the inexplicable duality of user vs critic approaches to Last of Us 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, and the all too recent Diablo 4 Season nerfhammer that took the wind out of most endgame enthusiasts. It has become apparent that a “wait and see” approach may be needed even with industry darlings such as Naughty Dog or CDPR.

The idea of a disappointing entry on a well-loved series is not new, of course, but the locked-in preorder sales, late or inexplicably good reviews, and dodgy refund practices have made gamers consistently more wary of hitting that “pre-order” button.

But BG3 is different

If you have read this far and you follow this channel, this must have all been sounding quite familiar. That is because on November 4th 2021 I proudly published the very controversial “You Should Preorder Elden Ring“. I don’t think I have ever been more right before in my life, until now, when I’m telling you that you should Preorder BG3.

The reasons for me risking eating my very public hat are the same that led me to spend the money I’ve already spent buying 5+ copies for myself and friends: everything you can research and look at clearly and pointedly shows Larian, just like FromSoftware did last year, is about to deliver a heavy hitter that is really going to change RPG gaming forever.

A History of Releases

Let’s begin with the same analysis we did for FromSoftware. The key issues that any studio finds are usually based around staffing, expansion or acquisition, and how the people who added the original magic are placed within the growing organizations.

Note: This table only focuses on related titles.

If you look at the above table, you’ll notice the following things: Naughty Dog had a consistent tone at the top until the key lead staff exited, and the people left to try to steer the wrap-up of the series could not find the right tempo to rekindle that magic that had carried so well to very different IPs.

CD Projekt Red

CDPR’s story is rather different, as it is their success that brought about the studio’s fall from public grace. The company became listed in the Warsaw exchange in 2016, and by 2019 the original 100-person team that developed the first Witcher game became 1100 people across 5 subsidiaries. This may mean little to gamers, but such rapid expansion is a business nightmare. The development models that had worked so well for a one-company team of 100 do not scale well to a 1000+ 5-branch operation, and the talent that had previously had to worry only about product quality were probably now managing corporate resources and trying to direct the 10-fold increase in personnel.

FromSoftware

Enter FromSoftware, this is a completely different growth pattern. From has consistently stuck to developing games and publishing locally, then seeking larger publishers for international distribution. This means the core structure of FromSoftware has not changed much, going from about 100 employees in 2008 to 349 in 2022. Hidetaka Miyazaki, the person most closely associated with the creative vision of the studio and the incredible success of titles has remained intimately involved with development and management, rather than being relegated to business meetings to manage thousands of people or multiple branches.

Larian Studios

Now if we look at Larian Studios, you will find that the blossoming success they gathered from their “breakthrough” with Divinity Original Sin and Divinity Original Sin 2 did not have a significant impact on their operations. Larian was founded and continues to be very actively and clearly lovingly run by Swen Vicke. You can see him on everything from marketing to bug coding and motion capture. He’s even there at the GameShows and the streams to talk with fans and journalists.

The size of the studio has also remained well in hand, considering it is only 400 people and was founded in 1996, and its 6 satellite offices are thus not an overbearing human resources nightmare for the core dev team. This is a team that has not had major turnover or burnout, and has been consistently putting out a tried and true style of game for decades, and thus are intimately familiar with the product and the audience.

Why I Preordered Baldur’s Gate 3

Anyone who visits the channel often knows that I am not against preorders per se, but I do put a lot of consideration into the titles that I will get and why. Most people would say there’s no reason to prepay for something that you aren’t sure will provide what it promises, and that we should not encourage this tactic at all as it creates an unfavorable consumer loop.

But, just like Elden Ring, BG3 deserves your preorder as a reward. The Larian team have a consistent track record for this type of game, so you KNOW what they can put out, what they have already put out, and how they do it. They have provided plans, panels and an almost cruelly extensive Early Access. They said it was to gather feedback, and the changes we’re seeing with the Full Version absolutely demonstrate they put those early access years to work despite their relatively small size.

Onwards and Upwards

While Covid seemed to shut development down for everyone else, Larian managed to continue to expand and refine their original promise, getting now to the stage where I am truly impressed with the sheer scale of the possibility of this game. It is an obvious labour of love that benefits from the technical expertise and hard-earned experience of its dev team. We have met them and talked to them so many times that I feel we can vouch for their incredible passion and commitment to honoring Baldur’s Gate. I mentioned this when I created A Brief History of D&D article, and I’m proud to say that years after that video I still feel confident saying there’s nobody better than Larian to bring DnD to digital gaming.

We remember the classics like Kotor, Mass Effect, Skyrim because of how they shook the industry into something new. In this age of disposable and forgettable mass-marketed experiences, I feel it’s important to stand, applaud and support the developers that are still doing this with passion. So I give Larian my preorder vote of confidence. I know their product will change the way I want my RPGs forever, and there will be a before and after in customization and delivery of this style of game. I think it will do so for everyone, even the hardcore realtime players who may be still glaring from the sidelines.

So what are your plans? Are you preordering? Have you been compulsively playing early access? Are you having anxiety where you dream about the game everyday? We’ll have more prelaunch content coming daily so you can kill at least a few minutes.

If you’re planning on picking up Baldur’s Gate 3 be sure to check out our wiki for builds, classes, spells and more.

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Editions & Collector’s Editions: Should You Preorder? appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Remnant 2 Review we’ll be taking an in-depth look at the anticipated sequel to Remnant from the Ashes, which brings a lot of new mechanics and improvements to the franchise. Developed by Gunfire Games, Remnant II takes the foundation laid by its predecessor and builds upon it. But the question is: Should you play Remnant II? Is it a Soulslike game? How is the character progress in Remnant 2? Read on to find out.

Remnant II Review

Remnant II: Story and Setting

Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth Remnant II is a direct sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes. You play as the Traveler, an individual who can traverse through realms via World Stones and possesses extraordinary will and resolve. The World Stones connect Earth to other Locations and beings. It’s one of the greatest human discoveries and triumphs of mankind, but also their gravest downfall.

The main enemy in Remnant 2 is the Root, a grave threat that has left humanity on the brink of extinction and brought about the collapse of civilization. Humanity strives to recover, setting a base of operations in Ward 13, the last standing bastion of safety, and a recurring location from the previous title.

While the story of Remnant 2 continues along the same lines as From the Ashes. The narrative design may feel clumsy at times. Rather than progressing in a crescendo of intrigue, the game fizzles out when it comes to lore aspects, and fails to capitalize on the most interesting parts of Remnant’s unique setting.

Story Progression

Story Progression is also lacking, and I found myself begrudging my unrelatable companions and insipid supporting characters. The Traveler, seems stuck in an unfortunate cockiness that was off-putting as well, leaving me with little emotional investment in any of the available cast, which is a shame.

Despite the shortcomings in narrative development and writing, the Remnant 2 team did successfully create an interesting world. The World Building is actually quite enticing, and I found myself pondering and inventing my own independent backstory to the circumstances of each world that I visited: how did this place come to be? What led to its current state? Will my actions here change the fate of this realm? Should I try a different approach in my next playthrough? My interactions with the factions and parties that I met in other realms felt like the true story, even though they are considered side content or flavor text.

In short, the story and narrative of Remnant 2 is not as compelling as I would like for my RPGs. But there are highs to be found by looking thoroughly, and fortunately, the game does shine on its core focus: Gameplay.

Remnant II Review – Gameplay

Level design, overall gameplay, and replayability are Remnant 2’s strongest aspects, it is clear this is where Gunfire focused their talents and efforts. Remnant II features a great blend of exploration, combat, and character progression. As a player, you’ll embark on a journey through diverse and dangerous environments, encountering a wide range of enemies and bosses along the way and with the freedom to engage them via a vast array of intricate character Builds.

Remnant II – Exploration

We all know how progression goes for Soulslike titles. However, this is where the Remnant series deviates from the template by relying on RNG when generating the content of your playthrough. For clarity, each playthrough will be different as the game assigns and randomized the events and scenarios that a player encounters in a certain world. This covers dungeons, map layouts, enemies, main objectives, and even NPCs. Expect different encounters and gameplay variations that may involve puzzles reminiscent of Resident Evil series or a little bit of platforming and avoiding deadly traps on certain levels when cycling on each playthrough.

I quite enjoy this mechanic, as starting a new playthrough provides a fresh experience due to the variety of stories involved, and cycling through these worlds makes your character stronger every run. The more you hunt for rare loot, the more your character develops via XP for your Archetypes equipped and through valuable materials to upgrade your weaponry.

This provides an addicting loop that can become quite obsessive, particularly if you’re taking on it with friends. There are drawbacks, of course, as you may find farming time-consuming when trying to hunt a specific boss in a dungeon for certain loot, especially Archetype Engrams, which let you access different Archetypes, since I needed to restart the worlds countless times and check if the dungeon I was looking for was generated each time.

RNG by Design

The whole RNG design is a double-edged sword and players with limited time may not appreciate this aspect, while those that enjoy a bit of a grind or some farming to acquire the gear they need, will likely look at this as a major plus point of the game.

Gunfire has provided some ways to circumvent this in a sense though, as a player can engage in two modes: The Main Campaign Mode, and Adventure Mode. The main campaign is self-explanatory, this determines the progress of the story. It is advisable to start your first playthrough here rather than spamming Adventure Mode so your progression follows certain main story objectives rather than plunging into new worlds without it in mind. Once the player unlocks all worlds, these worlds can be revisited in Ward 13‘s World Stone. Adventure Mode on the other hand serves as “quick matches” and they can be reset limitlessly while retaining the character’s main progress.

Remnant II – Combat

Remnant II’s combat is fast-paced, and intense, requiring precise timing and strategic thinking that follows the familiar tempo of the Soulslike Genre. Some of the original allure of Remnant from the Ashes was its nods to the Fromsoftware titles, and Souls fans will see the similarities and note the varied applications of familiar mechanics.

Intermingling souls and traditional RPG mechanics with third-person shooting and some new and clever ideas, the gameplay is simply a lot of fun. The controls are improved from the previous title, and their fluidity allows for quick movement and dynamic combat maneuvers. Manage your ammo and time your shots carefully while calculating dodge timings and I-framing against hordes of enemies.

Remnant II is a step up from its predecessor in most cases and enemy designs have also improved. Like in a Souls game, every enemy poses a decent threat, regardless of its size, and each world features its own kind of creatures and enemies, with their own strengths and weaknesses for you to discover and exploit.

Enemies

There are many enemy groups and they can become overwhelming, with Elite mobs having the assistance of a group of minions that you have to thin out before you can proceed. These encounters are fun to play, and you will probably appreciate them even more when playing cooperatively.

If you are an enthusiast of the genre, and are accustomed to the traditional Soulslike design where the main focus is melee combat, even if you have modest experience in shooters you should have no issues, thanks to the well-thought-out combat mechanics, transitioning and adapting to Remnant’s gameplay is easy. If you have not played the first title, you should expect to die a lot while learning and adjusting to the new mechanics and tempo, which is typical Soulslike design.

The overall difficulty is debatable as “skill-based”, but it may pose a challenge for beginners while fans of the previous game will feel right at home, particularly with the approach to Boss encounters, and each boss encounter has mechanics of its own.

It is plain to see that the bosses in Remnant II are not as good as those you’d find in a FromSoftware title, however, each of the bosses in Remnant II has mechanics that you must discern and counter, from finding weak spots to identifying arena safe spaces. These can also come to feel gimmicky, but overall the combination of level design, enemy and boss farming is a good gameplay loop with entertaining combat, mainly because of the build variety. So let’s look into that a bit more.

The Traveler’s Archetypes

Defeating hordes of enemies and relatively good bosses is fun on its own, but how much more if correlated with an intricate class system and a competitive array of weapon types? Remnant II provides a hefty amount of customization with a good variety of builds to suit different playstyles.

Archetypes are Remnant 2’s classes and you gain class experience as you kill enemies. Similar to D&D classes, as the Archetype level goes up, the more “features” in the form of perks and skills that the player unlocks. Players can start with distinct Classes right from the start by selecting one of: The Hunter, The Challenger, The Handler, and The Medic. Each type has unique gameplay and they all interact in a multiplayer party. For example The Hunter is the basic DPS that specializes in critical hits, while The Medic provides support to the team with helpful buffs such as damage mitigations and heals.

The most interesting part about the classes is not only that you unlock more classes by playing further into the game, but that you can also slot a second class, and gain levels in that class. Multiclassing is massive in the sense that each build can have a primary Archetype and equip a second one, enjoying all the passive buffs, perks, and unique traits. This makes builds and combinations really fun to explore and discover, which is only then enhanced further by equipment. 

The Traveler’s Equipment

Archetypes are already a treat but how about Weapons and Armor sets? There’s a significant repertoire of both traditional or otherworldly guns and melee weapons available in the game. Weapons that have unique stats and effects are categorized into three main types, Long Guns, Melee Weapons, and Hand Guns. Further customization can be made by adding Mods.

Armor passive bonuses from the first game have been removed, so you now don’t have to focus on a specific set and can instead equip each slot of your inventory based on the benefits each piece provides, which was one of the main changes requested by the fans of the original title.

Remnant 2 Review – Design, Audio, and Visual

Remnant II’s level design was a surprisingly bright point for me. I could see the efforts the developers did to make each level or world unique as possible for the player to explore, and this was definitely appreciated. I found myself frequently halting just to take in the landscapes in front of me. The lush forest of Yaesha and its floating islands, the unearthly and massive barren fields of N’Erud and dead spaceships with aliens’ nests, Losomn’s dark fantasy-themed castles, and maze-like city streets, to the mysterious and bizarre Labyrinth that connects all worlds. Each of these worlds provided compelling encounters due to the well-thought-out environmental storytelling.

The world design is also supported by a strong soundtrack that matches the setting and delivers the right atmosphere for nearly every situation. The voice acting is also competent and well-suited to the game, making everything work well together to help you lose yourself in the creative vision of the team.

Graphics

While the graphics are not the top of the industry, they are improved from the previous title and serviceable for modern gaming. You will probably notice this most on the character models and on the cosmetics for armor and weapons as you play.

Performance

Performance-wise, the game ran smoothly for me at 2k resolution with 80 frames per second. Your preferences and mileage may vary depending on your rig. We did however encounter several bugs and rendering issues, however we had a very early access copy of the game that is missing crucial patches that should be done by launch, so overall I don’t think there will be anything game-breaking. That said, and as always, we cannot verify how the game will look after the day 1 patch, so if you have performance-related concerns you can wait until then and check out our streams to see how it’s looking on launch day.

Remnant II: Replayability & Pricepoint

Replayability & Multiplayer Aspects

Replayability is one of Remnant 2’s greatest strengths, but if you don’t like the “loot farm”, it can also be its greatest flaw. If you are the type of player who loves exploring an ever-changing world and loves to tinker with builds via RNG, this is for you. Endgame activities include trying harder difficulties while improving your builds, revamping your equipment, or exploring the different options for the many random scenarios you encounter as side stories.

But why dive into a sea of RNG alone when you can play with friends? Much like its predecessor, Remnant II offers a rewarding multiplayer experience. Team up with friends or random players online to tackle challenging missions together and explore intricately map layouts.

I really enjoyed my time with the game and the cooperative gameplay adds another layer of excitement and strategy, as players can combine their skills and abilities to overcome formidable enemies and bosses. The seamless integration of multiplayer features makes Remnant II a truly social and collaborative experience.

Price Point

My first playthrough in Remnant II took 25 to 30 hours, but bear in mind that the game progression is highly dependent on the player’s skill level so this may greatly vary. Your first playthrough is almost the introduction to the game as the whole point is to delve deeper into the difficulties and get more loot. Considering the Steam Standard Edition is being sold at 49.99, the sheer amount of content that the game offers makes it worth every penny for players who enjoy this kind of gameplay loop, particularly if they want to play with others.

Final Thoughts

Remnant II is a step up compared to its predecessor in every way, and it’s clear that Gunfire put effort into listening to fan feedback. Striking world design, immersive character progression and combat, cooperative multiplayer features, an engaging gameplay loop, and good replayability propel Remnant 2 forward where many games have taken steps backwards.

If you are a new player and still on the fence, I highly suggest hopping into the game despite its perceived difficulty, as you can easily find help online to get over the initial hurdles.

Jumping into Remnant II? Check out our Beginner Guide to get all the necessary tips & tricks. Head to our wiki for all the info on classes, builds, weapons and more.

The post Remnant 2 Review appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Frost Orb Sorcerer – Lvl 70 Ice Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Sorceress Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Lvl 70+ Ice Sorcerer. This is a thematic build focused on keeping your gameplay fun while still giving you quick clears of content and keeping you alive. If you are looking for a control mage build to both get you from the beginning of Tier IV up to the very late game, then this Diablo 4 Ice Shards Mage Build guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Perfected Permafrost Build – Frost Orb & Ice Shards

I made this build because I prefer to have lots of fancy effects on screen, and I wanted to recreate the classic D2 Frozen Orb build where possible. With a clever combination of skills and some unorthodox choices, you’ll be playing a very powerful build that that doesn’t just rely on mindlessly pressing Ice Shards, and has fantastic AoE capabilities. You will be clearing content very fast without losing engagement, and of course, you’ll be looking stylish while you do it.

This is an advanced version of our level 50 Permafrost Sorcerer, with some key differences based mainly around the focus of your skill allocation and the optimization of the gear you should use. The advanced paragon boards bring in extra damage and survivability that you really need.

Your gameplay rotation is simple: You can run through or past enemies to get them chilled, then when in the middle of the group use Frost Nova and quickly unleash a Frozen Orb + free Ice Shards. Or if you prefer you can cast Blizzard from outside the room and then simply funnel in Frozen Orbs to clear out a room. You get survivability from Ice Armor and a double cast of Frost Nova that can CC everything around you and let you get away with ease.

And if you run into single mobs that are moving out of your Frozen Orb: use the Ice Shards skill to quickly take them down.

The Ice Sorcerer is one of the most powerful builds in the whole game, but the gameplay can get rather boring if you opt for the more traditional Ice Shards focused build. With the Frozen Orb approach, you’ll have a lot of gameplay fun while still being able to clear rooms very quickly.

The build is simple to set up, and has a wide variety of options to further improve it, making it a good choice for both players that are just starting with Tier IV, and those engaged in the endgame grind.

Diablo 4 Ice Sorcerer Build LvL 70+: Skill Distribution

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your build, and that starts with skills. Our skill choices are very similar to the Ice Sorcerer level 50, with specific adjustments based on how the endgame actually plays. The most important part of skill selection is that this build, as all the builds I make, is FLEXIBLE. If you are just starting and can’t find specific gear and want to put a point into a shield, do it. You can swap it later. If you want to use teleport, you can do it too.

My objective was to create and demonstrate an exclusively ice sorc that was viable at this point in the game, so I have focused and redoubled on ice only, but the build will work even if you change small aspects.

And of course, keep in mind your skillpoints should also move if you don’t have all of them yet and have found equipment with the skill. For example if you’re trying to build this from the start of the game, or if you are missing reputation skillpoints, you can find a head piece with +Frozen Orb – then you could not put extra points into it yet and up your Ice Shards damage first, etc.

The skill allocation speaks for itself, you will be mostly using your Blizzard to reduce your mana cost and inflict some chill, while your Orbs and Frost Nova make sure everything is vulnerable and ready to take massive damage as soon as its frozen. If you run into survivability problems, you’ll be swapping some aspects around to give yourself Unstoppable with Ice Armor, but I didn’t find this necessary so far.

Enchantments

The sorceress enchantment system is full of opportunity and can also be very tempting for opportunistic assignment. You may get a piece of gear with a free Ice Blades that we did not put any points in, and it may slot beautifully into your build. The same can be said for Teleport, etc.

That said, you absolutely must put one of the enchantments as Ice Shards. This enchantment is very powerful and the key binding aspect behind the build’s elite-deleting capabilities. Ice Shards auto-cast and seek Frozen enemies, requiring no aiming or resources, which lets you fill the room with frozen orbs as they go.

For my second enchantment, if you want to stick to my recommendation, we’ll use Frozen Orb. There’s a 20% chance of a free Frozen Orb being cast together with any non-basic skill you cast. It’s a very good mana saver and they proc often as all your skills can trigger this effect.

Diablo 4 Perfected Permafrost Sorc Build: Equipment, Gems and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any endgame build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long term goal. You won’t have all paragon boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

My current build is making use of two unique items. In practice they can be very rare drops, bad rolls, or you may get a godtier item some other way, so you can always adapt based on your own drops.

As a general note, try to prioritize Cooldown Reduction, Mana Cost Reduction, Cold / Vulnerable / Frost Skill Damage, and damage reduction from X.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an equipment piece with +100 Intelligence might unlock one or more node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helmet

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Unwavering: Taking direct damage has a [2-6%] chance to reset the Cooldown of one of your Defensive Skills. This is really awesome for this build, as any direct damage you take may reset your Frost Nova or Ice Armor cooldowns, giving you a great bubble, AoE freeze and +10% damage for 4 seconds.

or

Aspect of the Protector: Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to [x] damage for [10] seconds. This effect can only happen once every [30] seconds. You want to have a high roll on this to maximize the usefulness of the barrier. You will engage elites all the time and 30 seconds is a quick cooldown, plus ten seconds is usually enough to decimate an elite group.

Affixes

• Cooldown Reduction (If you want more frost novas)
• +Intelligence
• +Willpower
• +Dexterity
• Life on Kill
• Maximum Life
• + Total Armor

Chest

Legendary Aspect

Frostblitz Aspect: Frost Nova gains an additional Charge but the Cooldown per Charge is increased by 30-40%. This means your maxed out 17 second Frost Nova will actually be in a ~24 second cooldown, but you’ll get an extra cast. I strongly recommend getting this aspect as the extra wait is manageable with cooldown reduction on your Helm, Amulet or Offhand. If you want to minimize the impact of the cooldown increase, you can apply this on your amulet instead.

Affixes

• + Damage
• + Frost Skill Damage
• + Cold Damage
• + Stats
• + Damage Reduction from X (if you get max damage reduction rolls they can be excellent for keeping you alive)
• + Total Armor

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Inner Calm: Deal [3.0-10.0]%[x] increased damage for each second you stand still, up to [30]% [x]. You want to roll 9 or 10% for this to be worth it, but this aspect adds 30% damage after 3 seconds of standing still, which is completely doable if you are managing your positioning and making good use of your barrier and Frost Nova. It will also pile onto the 10% damage increase we get after using either of those skills, making your Freeze combo truly deadly.

or

Conceited Aspect: Deal [15-25%] increased damage while you have a Barrier active. If you have trouble standing still, the conceited aspect is also a good choice as you will be getting barriers whenever a frozen enemy dies, and you will also be able to use Ice Armor as a double damage boost during boss fights.

Affixes

• + Critical Strike Chance (I strongly recommend this)
• + Frozen Orb (I strongly recommend this: get up to 4 ranks)
• + Ice Shards (I strongly recommend this: get up to 4 ranks)
• + Intelligence
• + Willpower
• + Dexterity
• + Attack Speed

Unique Equipment

Unique Gloves “Frostburn” are a tempting option for this slot but I don’t think that they are as impactful as having straight up 4 ranks of both of your core skills. You’ll be freezing everything anyway, and we aren’t building for Lucky Hit so it’s overall an underwhelming choice. It’s better to get a customized aspect and the ranks to skills + stats

Waist

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Disobedience: You gain [0.25-0.50]%[x] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [25.00-50.00]%[x]. This is essentially a big boost to your survivability, but you want to get a high roll to really make it count. You’ll be dealing damage constantly and greatly benefit from it.

or

Snowveiled Aspect: Casting Ice Armor makes you Unstoppable for [2.0-3.0] seconds. This can be very useful to break CCs and escape dicey situations in dungeons. This aspect can only be applied to helms, chest pants and amulets so I don’t run it in favor of other damage stats, but if you are having survivability issues you can consider it.

Affixes

• + Blizzard
• + Damage Reduction (all types)
• + Stats

Unique Equipment

Unique Pants “Iceheart Brais” are an excellent choice and my recommendation for this slot. It gives you a significant chance to make frozen enemies unleash a Frost Nova, which will extend the effect of your Freeze-Damage combo, and has excellent extra stats such as Intelligence and Damage to Frozen Enemies.

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Wind Striker Aspect: Critical Strikes grant [8.0-16.0]% Movement Speed for 1 second, up to 6 seconds. This slot is rather underwhelming until you get the unique boots that match the build. You can use this to move around faster if you’d like.

or

Ghostwalker Aspect: Only take this if you are using Snowveiled Aspect. While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain [10- 25%] increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies. This aspect greatly increases your movement speed everytime your Ice Armor pops. In addition, it will allow you to freely move through enemies, so you can use Ice Armor to break CC and this aspects will allow you to move away from the spot.

Affixes

• + Frost Nova
• + Intelligence
• + Willpower
• + Stats

Unique Equipment (highly recommended)

Penitent Greaves: These greaves provide a massive boost to movement speed. On top of that, its unique power leaves a trail of frost behind you, chilling enemies. Enemies that are chilled will move and attack slower, and if they stand on top of the chill for too long, they’ll freeze. The boots have a built-in 10% damage to chilled enemies, which you will be doing often, so they are a very good match for this build.

Weapon: Two-Handed Staff

Legendary Aspect

Two-handed staves have “Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies” built-in and it is a huge boost for your build. Wands have Lucky Hit Chance, which is not very useful for our build. For this reason I recommend using the staff instead.

Aspect of Piercing Cold: Ice Shards pierce [7-9] times, dealing [13-10]% less damage per subsequent enemy hit. This is a very powerful aspect and it should be on your two-handed weapon to maximize its effect.

Affixes

• + Intelligence (You are looking to get a roll of 100+, which you will upgrade to ~170)
• + All Stats (You are looking to get a roll of 50+, which you will upgrade to ~75)
• + Core Skill Damage
• + Vulnerable Damage
• + Damage to Distant / Close Enemies depending on your preferred playstyle

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Control: You deal [x]% more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies. You can use this on a ring or on your amulet, based on what rolls you get for your other aspects. You MUST have this on your build somewhere though.

or

Aspect of Frozen Orbit: Frozen Orb stays in place after reaching its destination and explodes 2 additional times for 30-45% of its damage. You can use this on a ring or on your amulet, based on what rolls you get for your other aspects. You MUST have this on your build somewhere though.

Affixes

• + Icy Touch Passive
• + Permafrost Passive
• + Hoarfrost Passive
• + % Damage
• + Cooldown Reduction
• + Frost Skill Damage
• + % Stats
• +Rank all defensive skills

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Frozen Memories: The Avalanche Key Passive now applies to 1 additional cast. This means you’ll be getting 2 free casts of more powerful versions of your mana-hungry core skills often, because your spam of Frozen Orbs / Ice Shards / Blizzard will inevitably trigger Lucky Hits even if you haven’t gone out of your way to build for it.

Affixes

• + Vulnerable Damage
• + Damage
• + Cold damage
• + Critical Strike Chance
• + Damage to Chilled Enemies
• + Resource Regeneration
• + Damage to close/distant enemies depending on your playstyle

Second Ring

Use where whichever you did not pick for the Amulet. Make sure your build has: Two Frost Novas, Frozen Orb Explosion and Aspect of Control, plus the avalanche one.

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Saphire to increase your critical damage to crowd-controlled enemies.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your maximum life for your Barriers.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your defense value because resistances don’t work well and having flat armor is actually better.

Paragon and Glyphs for Endgame Fire Sorceress Build

When it comes to Paragon boards, we are mainly going to aim for rare nodes that increase our damage output, as well as glyphs that synergize with our build. Please note that the order in which I get the nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

On the first paragon board, you’ll want to first take the rare node on the right and then head up toward the Glyph socket. We will be completely ignoring any elemental resistance nodes as they are useless when compared to the flat % damage reduction ones available further up your boards. On the glyph socket, you’ll want to slot the “Control” glyph and eventually assign as much Dexterity as possible around it. The normal effect will boost damage to Crowd Controlled enemies per 5 dexterity invested, while the bonus effect will give you extra damage to chilled or Frozen enemies.

Continue up through the left of the board through the non-physical damage node, grab the ones around it too, and then unlock your second board.

Second Paragon Board – Icefall

On this board you’ll want to rotate until you have the “Frosts” and “Frigid” rare nodes and Glyph Slot on the bottom side as this will be the first nodes you’ll want to take before getting to the board’s legendary slot. Take the Damage to Chilled Enemies rare nodes then head right to grab damage reduction from chilled enemies.

For the Glyph Slot, we’ll use “Tactician” as it will boost the effects of the two rare nodes in range, increasing both your damage and defense against chilled enemies. You will need to select dexterity nodes within range to obtain the secondary boost, that will give you a 10% damage boost after you use Frost Nova or Ice Armor.

From here you’ll head up and left make a diversion to the left to grab the rare node “Polar Rime”, that increases your damage to Chilled enemies and non-physical damage. Its satellite nodes are also very good so grab them before heading up and toward the mastery glyph for the board: Icefall, that gives you 15% of your maximum life as a barrier for 5 seconds whenever you kill a frozen enemy, without any cooldowns!

Continue upward and left and unlock “Keeper of Winter” to improve your damage reduction vs chilled enemies, then head to the opposite side of the board and unlock “Cryomancy” to boost your Cold damage by 20-30% plus its satellites for Cold Damage. You probably don’t need the “Chill application” rare nodes so leave them untouched and go unlock your third board.

Third Paragon Board – Frigid Fate

You’ll want to rotate the board until you have the “Weakness” and “Oppressive” rare nodes and glyph slot on the bottom side. Head straight for Weakness and unlock it and its satellite Damage to Vulnerable Enemies nodes, and then obtain the glyph socket and assign “Unleash”, which will boost rare nodes within range, giving extra juice to the very valuable “vs Vulnerable” nodes. The secondary effect of Unleash will boost your damage by 6.7% and Mana Regeneration by 6.7% after one cast of a core skill, so it’s quite valuable.

From here, head right and down to unlock the “Oppressive” node to increase Vulnerable Damage and damage reduction from Vulnerable enemies, then get all the relevant rare nodes around it.

Return to Weakness and start making your way left toward “Guarded”, that will boost damage reduction from vulnerable enemies and improve your survivability. We won’t be taking the legendary node on this board, so head out the gate to the left onto your Fourth board.

Fourth Paragon Board – Enchantment Master

Enchantment Master should be rotated to get to “Ruinous” close to your gate, which gives + non-physical damage and damage to elites. Go there first, and then backtrack a little bit to go down toward the glyph socket.

You’ll want to assign “Exploit” here, and then take the dexterity nodes within its range to increase Vulnerable Damage. The added bonus of Exploit is a flat % increase to your damage whenever you have damaged a vulnerable enemy, which will play very well into the game’s damage calculations. If you max the range for this Glyph, you’ll be able to assign around 34 dexterity (+20%) or 39 dexterity if you reach for all nodes.

From the Glyph, unlock “Elemental Balance” and its satellite rare nodes including dexterity ones to maximize the use of this slot. Then head left and up to unlock a final node here: “Elementalist” that also gives you 20% non-physical damage and 4% max life, improving your barriers. Make sure you get the damage nodes around it before backtracking and heading down to the gate for your fifth board.

The Ceaseless Conduit board is next up, and the reason for picking this board is the “Hunter Killer” Rare node, that gives Movement Speed and increases damage vs Elites. There are also 3 other 8% damage to elites magic nodes here, so make sure to rotate the board so you can access these as soon as possible.

Final Tips

This is another successful sorceress build that does not use teleport, but has quite good run speed if you are using the unique boots.

Your playstyle should be focused on rounding up enemies to trigger satisfying mass-freeze-mass-explode-all-clear situations, so you will enjoy actually running into the middle of several packs of elites. All in all, you’ll get the benefits of one of the most powerful builds in the game without the downside of dreadfully boring “press one button” gameplay.

Using your freeze and barriers smartly is key when clearing higher level dungeons, but be mindful that the elements on the ground have a tendency to block out enemy or nightmare dungeon effects, so you may need emergency heals from explosions or the volcanic eruption affixes..

If you are struggling to get aspects and gear, remember that you can gamble for sacred and ancestral gear at the curiosities vendor, and you can run legions and helltide mystery chests with the help of randoms on the server. Overall, your drops seem to improve as you level so don’t worry if ancestrals are not coming in right away.

Remember to craft and drink Precision Elixirs, which increases both critical strike chance and critical strike damage, further boosting the build performance.

This build shines when you are facing large quantities of enemies, so try to run dungeons with tight corridors and big packs.

Lastly, whatever you do, NEVER run a nightmare dungeon that has -cold damage or -vulnerable duration!

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 LvL 70+ Perfected Permafrost Sorceress Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Meteor Sorcerer – Lvl 70 Fire Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Sorceress Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Lvl 70+ Fire Sorcerer. This is a thematic build focused on keeping your gameplay fun while still giving you quick clears of content and keeping you alive. If you are looking for a really fun build to both get you from the beginning of Tier IV up to the very late game, then this Diablo 4 Fireball Mage Build guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Perfected Pyromancer Build – Meteor & Fireball

I made this build because I love the fire effects of the game and I wanted to recreate the classic D2 Fireball build where possible. The result is a really fun and interactive build that gives you a lot of active gameplay, rather than relying on one skill mindlessly. You will feel powerful, you will clear endgame content with ease, but you’ll also be engaged and put on an amazing show while doing it.

This is an advanced version of our level 50 Pyromancer Sorcerer, with some key differences based mainly around the focus of your skill allocation and the optimization of the gear you should use. The advanced paragon boards bring in extra damage and survivavility that you really need.

Your gameplay will be rather simple: Summon your two hydras to start a fight, round up a large group of enemies, then use meteors until your mana runs out and if there are elites use Inferno to stick them in place and rain free meteors while your mana regenerates. Get out of tough spots using Flame Shield while leaving your enemies immobilized, burning and exploding behind, then calmly blow them up some more from afar.

And if you run into fast mobs that are moving out of your meteor: use the fireball skill to quickly take them down.

The Fire Sorcerer is an excellent option for those that want to clear a room quickly and with a bang, and it also plays very well with friends, as your fireball enchantment will apply to any enemy your party is facing and create explosions even when your friends get the kills.

The build is simple to set up, and has a wide variety of options to further improve it, making it a good choice for both players that are just starting with Tier IV, and those engaged in the endgame grind.

Diablo 4 Fire Sorcerer Build LvL 70+: Skill Distribution

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your build, and that starts with skills. Our skill choices are very similar to the Pyromancer level 50, with specific adjustments based on how the endgame actually plays. The most important part of skill selection is that this build, as all the builds I make, is FLEXIBLE. If you are just starting and can’t find specific gear and want to put a point into a shield, do it. You can swap it later. If you want to only put 3 points into Hydra and unlock teleport and ice armor with those points, you can do it too.

My objective was to create and demonstrate an exclusively fire sorc that was viable at this point in the game, so I have focused and redoubled on fire only, but the build will work even if you change small aspects.

And of course, keep in mind your skillpoints should also move if you don’t have all of them yet and have found equipment with the skill. For example if you’re trying to build this from the start of the game, or if you are missing reputation skillpoints, you can find a head piece with +Hydra – then you could not put extra points into hydra yet and up your meteor damage first, etc.

The skill allocation speaks for itself, you will be mostly using your hydras to nip away at enemies and lucky hit meteors, your meteors for heavy damage, and your fireball for small groups or fast moving targets. Whatever you do, don’t sleep on your Flame Shield. It’s an incredibly powerful CC breaker that we’ll take full advantage of to live through dungeons many levels above us.

Enchantments

The sorceress enchantment system is full of opportunity and can also be very tempting for opportunistic assignment. You may get a piece of gear with a free firewall that we did not put any points in, and it may slot beautifully into your build. The same can be said for Ice Armor, Frost Nova, Teleport, etc.

That said, you absolutely must put one of the enchantments as Fireball. This enchantment is very powerful and the key binding aspect behind the builds burst room-clearing capabilities. Fireball detonations on enemy death scale to the point of creating amazing chain reactions that can actually decimate multiple simultaneous groups of enemies. And it looks great.

For my second enchantment, if you want to stick to my recommendation, we’ll use Meteor. There’s an 8% chance of a meteor on a lucky hit, but it can be triggered by your 2 hydras that have fantastic attack speed, so it actually ends up being a lot more if you have invested into lucky hit where possible (you should, this is a good mechanic for the sorcerer)

Diablo 4 Perfected Pyromancer Sorc Build: Equipment, Gems and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any endgame build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long term goal. You won’t have all paragon boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

My current build is making use of zero unique items. There are some that can be used for good synergies, but in practice they can be very rare drops, bad rolls, or you may get a godtier item some other way.

As a general note, try to prioritize Mana Cost Reduction, Fire / Pyromancy / Conjuration Damage, and damage reduction from X.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an equipment piece with +100 Intelligence might unlock one or more node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helmet

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Protector: Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to [x] damage for [10] seconds. This effect can only happen once every [30] seconds. You want to have a high roll on this to maximize the usefulness of the barrier. You will engage elites all the time and 30 seconds is a quick cooldown, plus ten seconds is usually enough to decimate an elite group.

Affixes

• +Intelligence
• +Willpower
• +Dexterity
• Life on Kill
• Maximum Life
• + Hydra (3 will become 4 for Ancestral upgrades)
• + Total Armor

Chest

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Unwavering: Taking direct damage has a [2-6%] chance to reset the Cooldown of one of your Defensive Skills. This is INVALUABLE for this build, as any direct damage you take may reset your Flame Shield cooldown, giving you an immunity bubble, unstoppable, and +10% damage for 4 seconds.

Affixes

• + Damage
• + Conjuration Skill Damage
• + Pyromancy Damage
• + Fire Damage
• + Stats
• + Damage Reduction from X (anything)
• + Total Armor

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Three Curses: Meteor deals [X]% increased Critical Strike Damage against Healthy targets. This is a relatively situational aspect as its main impact will be the hit of your first meteor, as targets won’t be healthy for the second barrage. That said, it helps create a quicker death for weaker mobs, who will then explode for AoE damage, hopefully helping start your chain reaction of death.

Affixes

• + Critical Strike Chance
• + Fireball
• + Intelligence
• + Willpower
• + Dexterity
• + Attack Speed
• Lucky Hit Chance: Heals or Mana regeneration ones

Unique Equipment

Don’t use the Fireball Unique Gloves (Gloves of the Illuminator – Unique Effect: Fireball now bounces as it travels, exploding each time it hits the ground, but its explosion deals x% less damage) This bonus is SO bad it’s laughable. It will nerf your Fireball by a ridiculous amount, and creates an almost comical bouncing effect that is so terribly underwhelming our entire Twitch chat was rofl about super mario fireballs.

Waist

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Disobedience: You gain [0.25-0.50]%[x] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [25.00-50.00]%[x]. This is essentially a big boost to your survivability, but you want to get a high roll to really make it count. You’ll be dealing damage constantly and greatly benefit from it.

Affixes

• + Meteor
• + Damage Reduction (all types)
• + Stats

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Ghostwalker Aspect: While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain [10- 25%] increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies. This aspect greatly increases your movement speed everytime your flame shield pops. In addition, it will allow you to freely move through enemies, so you can use Flame Shield to break CC and this aspects will allow you to move away from the spot.

Alternatively, you can use Aspect of Binding Embers (Flame Shield lets you move unhindered through enemies. Enemies you move through while Flame Shield is active are Immobilized for [2.0-3.0] seconds. ) The immobilized can be very useful for making sure nothing chases you away from the group.

Affixes

• + Movement Speed (Only if you care about running fast, I don’t)
• + Flame Shield
• + Intelligence
• + Willpower
• + Stats

Unique Equipment (only if you’re willing to break the roleplay for some ice)

Penitent Greaves: These greaves provide a massive boost to movement speed. On top of that, its unique power leaves a trail of frost behind you, chilling enemies. Enemies that are chilled will move and attack slower, and if they stand on top of the chill for too long, they’ll freeze.

Weapon: Two-Handed Staff

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Armageddon: A hail of Meteorites falls during Inferno, dealing [X] Fire Damage on impact. Your Meteorites Immobilize enemies for 3 seconds.

or

Aspect of Shattered Stars: Meteorites fall around Meteor, dealing [X] Fire damage on impact. Your Meteorites additionally Burn enemies they hit for [X] damage over [X] seconds.

You need both aspects for this build so decide which goes on Amulet and which goes on your Weapon based on the ones you have rolled better. Your weapon is SUPER important for your damage output so make sure to look for something that has high DPS, and good rolls to:

Affixes

• + Intelligence (You are looking to get a roll of 100+, which you will upgrade to ~170)
• + All Stats (You are looking to get a roll of 50+, which you will upgrade to ~75)
• + Core Skill Damage
• + Damage to Distant / Close Enemies depending on your preferred playstyle

Unique Equipment

Staff of Endless Rage: This is a good but not good enough unique because, despite the nice fireball bonus, the fixed stats on the staff do nothing to boost your paragon, and the DPS rolls on the unique can be rather disappointing. You can use it as a placeholder but I would always prioritize a stat-heavy rolled rare that we customize. If you do opt for this staff, you’ll have to sacrifice one synergy aspect as the weapon slot is only shared with your gloves or jewelry.

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Armageddon: A hail of Meteorites falls during Inferno, dealing [X] Fire Damage on impact. Your Meteorites Immobilize enemies for 3 seconds.

or

Aspect of Shattered Stars: Meteorites fall around Meteor, dealing [X] Fire damage on impact. Your Meteorites additionally Burn enemies they hit for [X] damage over [X] seconds.

Affixes

• + Inner Flames Passive
• + Rank all conjuration skills
• + Rank all defensive skills
• + Pyromancy Skill Damage

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Serpentine Aspect: You may have [X] additional Hydra active, but Hydra’s duration is reduced by [X]%. Your Hydras are going to put in great work dealing passive damage and triggering lucky hit free meteors, so to maximize the use of your resources, make sure you get a good roll on this one to benefit their duration.

Affixes

• + Damage to Burning Enemies
• + Damage
• + Fire damage
• + Critical Strike Chance
• + Resource Regeneration
• + Damage to close/distant enemies depending on your playstyle

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Inner Calm: Deal [3.0-10.0]%[x] increased damage for each second you stand still, up to [30]% [x]. You want to roll 9 or 10% for this to be worth it, but this aspect adds 30% damage after 3 seconds of standing still, which is completely doable if you are managing your positioning and making good use of your barrier and Flame Shield. It will also pile onto the 10% damage increase we get after using flame shield, making your Inferno+Meteor shower combo truly deadly.

Or

Aspect of Ancient Flame: While both bonuses from the Esu’s Ferocity Key Passive are active, your Attack Speed is increased by [40-50]%. This is a more situational aspect, but you may want to use it here or on your gloves instead of Aspect of Three Curses. You can experiment with both or use the one you’ve gotten better rolls on.

Affixes

• + Damage to Burning Enemies
• + Damage
• + Fire damage
• + Critical Strike Chance
• + Fire Damage
• + Resource Regeneration
• + Damage to close/distant enemies depending on your playstyle

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Amethysts to increase your Damage over Time for your burning.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your maximum life for your Barriers.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your defense value because resistances don’t work well and having flat armor is actually better.

Paragon and Glyphs for Endgame Fire Sorceress Build

When it comes to Paragon boards, we are mainly going to aim for rare nodes that increase our damage output, as well as glyphs that synergize with our build. Please note that the order in which I get the nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

On the first paragon board, you’ll want to first take the rare node on the right and then head up toward the Glyph socket. We will be completely ignoring any elemental resistance nodes as they are useless when compared to the flat % damage reduction ones available further up your boards. On the glyph socket, you’ll want to slot the “Warding” glyph and eventually assign 25 willpower around it. The normal effect will boost the damage rare node above, while the bonus effect will give you extra damage reduction based on your mana. If you’re doing ok for survival, you can ignore the second bonus until you have points to spare.

Continue up through the left of the board through the non-physical damage node, grab the ones around it too, and then unlock your second board.

Second Paragon Board – Searing Heat

On this board you’ll want to rotate until you have the “Pyromancy” rare node on the bottom side as this will be the first node you’ll want to take before getting to the board’s legendary slot. Take the Fire Damage rare nodes then head up to the Searing Heat legendary node that increases your Fireball and Meteor critical strike chance.

From here you’ll head up and make a diversion to the left to grab the rare node “Keeper of Flames”, that reduces your damage taken from burning enemies. You will then go back a few slots and head right (the opposite way) to unlock “Combustion” and increase your fire damage and critical strike damage.

Continue upward toward the glyph slot, where we will use “Adept” to improve our mastery skill damage. You need to grab some intelligence slots around this area for it to get its full benefits, so do that before heading up toward the “Flame Touched” rare glyph that also boosts mastery and damage, and finally left toward the gate.

Third Paragon Board – Burning Instinct

You’ll want to rotate the board until you have the “Smoldering Embers” rare node and glyph slot on the bottom left side. Head straight for it and take it in combination with its damage magic nodes. From there, head upwards to the glyph slot and use “Tactician” and make sure that you add enough dexterity in range to use the glyph’s bonus, that gives you +10% damage for 4 seconds everytime you use a defensive skill. This is a great synergy for your Flame Shield, which should be coming off cooldown often, giving you very useful and consistent boosts.

From here, head left and obtain the “Cinders” slot, that increases your damage to burning enemies and your intelligence. These bonuses can be greatly boosted by upgrading Tactician!

There are now two rare nodes we want and they are in different directions. You can head to one and then to the other, and optimize your path based on what stat slots you prefer to use and whether you plan to exit to the next board through the left (like we will). Your first target is “Kindling”, which gives damage to burning enemies and, more importantly, damage vs elites! Take the other damage nodes around it as these are quite important. Your second target is “Safeguard”, which gives you damage reduction vs elites, greatly improving your survivability in high level dungeons.

Now onto the legendary node, go through “Keeper of Flames” to further improve your damage reduction vs burning enemies, then grab Burning Instinct legendary node to improve your burning damage based on your intelligence (this is why getting those big intelligence rolls on the staff can be super important!)

Fourth Paragon Board – Enchantment Master or Elementalist

These boards are not currently used on the build footage as they are beyond the level that I am at. However, this is a build meant to keep growing, so my guidance is to pick one of the two based on your preferences and feel of how your build is coming together.

Enchantment Master should be rotated to get to “Ruinous”, which gives + non-physical damage and damage to elites. The legendary bonus on this board is not very impactful, it gives you +20% enchantment effect. Taking this node would boost your fireball enchantment damage from 50% to 60%, and your chance to trigger a meteor from 8% to 10%. Not a huge change for either so you can opt out of this and continue on to another board.

The other good nodes in enchantment master are “Suffused Resilience” because it reduces the damage over time you take, and “Elementalist” because it increases your non-physical damage and 4% of your max life.

The Elemental Summoner board is next up, and it can be quite good for making your Hydras work harder for you. The legendary node here is really underwhelming, so you would rotate the board to get “Reservoir” and “Conjurer” near your gate. Reservoir gives you extra mana and 4% maximum life, while Conjurer will increase your conjuration damage and intelligence.

Another great node on this board is “Swift Conjurer” as it also increases attack speed in addition to giving more conjuration damage.

The remaining useful nodes are “Keeper of the Elements” and “Fleeting”, but they are far away and you may be better served by using points to improve socket nodes that you like.

Final Tips

Setting out to play a sorceress that’s not focused on movement speed and has no teleport is probably a strange idea for many veteran players, but it really does work. Your boots can give you many evades (I currently have four), which work quite as good as a teleport and don’t eat your resources.

Your playstyle should be focused on rounding up enemies to trigger satisfying chain reactions as the weaker ones die and take out the larger ones with them, while you calmly stand and cast.

Make sure not to overdo your movements: your mana cost reduction and damage boosts are counting on you standing still for a few seconds. So summon your hydras, drop your meteors, then inferno elites into place and shower down more deadly meteors on them from the safety of your flame shield.

If you are struggling to get aspects and gear, remember that you can gamble for sacred and ancestral gear at the curiosities vendor, and you can run legions and helltide mystery chests with the help of randoms on the server. Overall, your drops seem to improve as you level so don’t worry if ancestrals are not coming in right away.

Remember to craft and drink Precision Elixirs, which increases both critical strike chance and critical strike damage, further boosting the build performance.

This build shines when you are facing large quantities of enemies, so try to run dungeons with tight corridors and big packs.

Lastly, whatever you do, NEVER run a nightmare dungeon that has -fire damage or -burning!

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 LvL 70+ Perfected Pyromancer Sorceress Build Guide appeared first on Fextralife.

This Diablo 4 Fire Sorceress Build dominates Tier III helltides, events and dungeons with overwhelming burst DPS. This build is an advanced midgame build that speeds up clears of Nightmare Dungeons, and Tier 3 farming of Whispers, Helltides and more.

If you are looking for the best meteor sorc build or want to delve in the fire and burning effects, this build will suit you perfectly! If you need help with finding aspects make sure to use our Diablo 4 interactive map, or access the complete skill and item database on the D4 wiki.

Diablo 4 Level 50 Sorcerer Build Guide: Pyromancer

This build is for when you have reached level 50 and are ready to spend some time farming for your specific requirements. This D4 meteor build is not a highly survivable build, although you have heals and regen to help you make it through tough spots.

The highlight of this build is its incredible burst DPS, achieved by maximizing the use of all fire skills and further boosting it with gear and the paragon system. You will have two Hydra summons at your disposal, while also enjoying frequent Flame Shields, and an ultimate every 45 seconds or less that lets you chain-cast triple meteors, essentially melting most elites and even Dungeon bosses.

Pyromancer Sorceress Build: Stats & Skills

Your main gameplay rotation will be to summon your Hydras to start an encounter, then position yourself wisely so enemies can be rounded up. You will cast meteor or Fireball and kill most small enemies quickly. If there are elites in the group, you will use Inferno to tie them together, and thanks to the passive Supreme Inferno, you now have 8 seconds to summon as many meteors as you can spam.

You have passives stacking bonuses such as more damage to burning or immobilized enemies from your Meteor, so fighting against large groups is your specialty.

Why do we have Fireball AND Meteor? Because Meteor takes a long time to cast down, so you will use fireball to deal with most trash enemy groups, and reserve your meteor hits for your mana-free casts (and the enchantment if you so desire)

For point allocation, please keep in mind this table is meant to be FLEXIBLE and you can adapt your allocated points based on gear bonuses you get. If you feel you’re dying too much add some survivability or resistances, and if you feel you’re not doing enough damage double down on DPS skills.

For example, I feel I’m not dying much because of good armor bonuses, so I may move some points from “Mana Shield” and “Protection” to instead increase my lucky hit chance and put more points into DPS skills and use the Meteor Enchantment.

Inferno Meteor Sorcerer Build: The Skill Selection Process & Gameplay Rotation

This builds incredible DPS is further boosted by the smart use of enchantments: We will double-dip Fireball to also obtain it’s enchantment effect, that makes all enemies explode in a fireball for 50% of its damage. To double down on our AoE capabilities, we’ll assign Firewall as the second enchantment (get it for free from gear with +firewall), giving all our burning damage a 5% chance to spawn two Firewalls under the enemy group. You can also use the Meteor enchantment, but you’ll have to move points from defensive skills to Lucky Hit chance in order to proc it reliably.

The key synergies that make a difference to your survivability and rotation come from passives:

• Elemental Attunement: 15% chance to reset your Flame Shield, which is invaluable in battle as it will deal damage while also healing you. Being able to stand in place with Flame Shield can be very convenient when doing the meteor combo.
• Align the Elements: Up to 40% less damage from Elites, which is very helpful when dealing with Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons as elites are everywhere.
• Mana Shield: 15% damage reduction every 100 Mana spent, so essentially every third fireball you cast, you’ll get 5 seconds of taking less damage.
• Protection: Using a cooldown grants you 20% of your life as a barrier (so your flame shield and inferno give you an extra shield)
• Inner Flames: You deal extra 9% damage when Healthy: this is why your shields are important. Make sure your health is topped up!
• Devouring Blaze: 30% increased critical against burning enemies, up to 75% if they are immobilized (which your meteor does) If you want to tinker with immobilize more, you can move a point from something you feel is underperforming for you into the “Crippling Flames” passive, that give your lucky hits 5-10% chance to immobilize enemies for 2 seconds.
• Fiery Surge: Increases your mana regen by 30% from killing burning enemies (so all of them!)
• Endless Pyre: You deal up to 15% more burning damage to enemies based on the time they’ve been burning. This can be quite impactful on bosses in particular.
• Warmth: Heal per second based on burning enemies around you: this is meant to help you stay topped up as you take on big groups of enemies. Your damage is boosted by things dying and exploding into a fireball!
• Soulfire: 10% mana cost reduction for standing still 1.5 seconds, letting you cast more of those wonderful meteors as you pop your shields.
• Esu’s Ferocity : Increases fire critical Strike by up to 30% based on enemy health and critical kills.

The interconnection of these passives and the gear we selected gives you incredible DPS, which will make going through Dungeons and Helltides a fast and fun affair.

Pyromancer Sorc Build Equipment, Gems, & Aspects

Equipment is a critical part of any lvl 50+ build as this is where the actual itemization begins to take shape in the game. This is not an easy build to level up with, as it needs specific bonuses and some of them are unlikely to drop until later in the game, such as the meteor boosts. It’s also common to get gear with different skilllines such as Frost and Shock, so you should be ready to farm some equipment.

For this Sorcerer LvL 50 build, we are looking to get gear with specific bonuses to our main damage dealer skills, but also want to focus on boosting Pyromancy skill damage, Burning and Fire damage, all damage and attack speed. You should also look to increase your stats with +stat bonuses on gear for Willpower (regen & overpower), Intelligence (Skill Damage & elemental resistance) and Dexterity (Critical Strike).

Make sure you get +fireball, +flame shield, +meteor and +hydra in your gear if you can. (In addition to the rare +passive nodes!). I used the +skill gear to distribute my points evenly and achieve better survivability, but you will either be a lot squisher or do a lot less damage if you have to opt for one or the other.

I have kept Damage Type resistances (Poison, shadow, etc) buffs on armor as it can be troublesome to deal with elemental packs. With this setup, our out-of-combat buffs rest over 45% against all damage types, and we can increase those when using our in-combat skills and obtaining additional buffs from Elixirs.

Jewelry bonuses you can benefit from are + 1 Rank of all Mastery skills, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, Lucky Hit Chance. You can also find pyromancy skill damage and damage to burning enemies to further boost your base DPS. You can also use cooldown reduction, as it will impact how often you can hit Inferno.

If you are extremely lucky, I found a unique staff that casts two extra fireballs every 3rd fireball you cast – this is a massive free damage boost very often. I didn’t add it to the video so you can get an idea of performance with realistic gear for when you start out.

Another unique to consider is the Gloves of the Illuminator, which has attack speed, fireball ranks and the bonus: “Fireball now bounces as it travels, exploding each time it hits the ground, but its explosion deals [75 – 65%] less damage.” If you get a good roll you can create some crazy fireball effects.

In general, you’ll be in the situation where the items you are picking up are only 50% or 70% of what you want. To make this build work optimally you really need specific good equipment so you should focus on doing wishes and helltides to obtain more legendaries that you can deconstruct. The “Mystery” chest on the helltide is the single best source for legendaries (can give up to 4 in one pop), but staying alive with your 170 Hellfire Crystals can be a challenge.

The legendary Aspects I am using are:

1. Serpentine Aspect: You may have [X] additional Hydra active, but Hydra’s duration is reduced by [X]%
2. Aspect of Shattered Stars: Meteorites fall around Meteor, dealing [X] Fire damage on impact. Your Meteorites additionally Burn enemies they hit for [X] damage over [X] seconds.
3. Aspect of Inner Calm: (use on your weapon!) Deal [3.0-10.0]%[x] increased damage for each second you stand still, up to [30]% [x]. 
4. Aspect of the Three Curses: Meteor deals [X]% increased Critical Strike Damage against Healthy targets.
5. Protecting Aspect: When hit while not Healthy, a magical bubble is summoned around you for [3.0-5.0] seconds. While standing in the bubble players are Immune. Can only occur once every [90] seconds.
6. Aspect of the Protector: Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to [135-270] damage for [10] seconds. This effect can only happen once every [30] seconds.
7. Gain X of your Primary resource for every 25% of your Life that you heal
8. Mother’s Embrace (Unique Ring): If a Core Skill hits 5 or more enemies, x% of the resource cost is refunded

A VERY important and easily neglected aspect of equipment is the “enchant” and “upgrade” options. By this point in the game you should have sufficient materials to upgrade your equipment 3 times or so. This actually does make a difference so make sure to do so. For enchanting, you may find the cost can be high – you’ll have to do helltides to obtain the materials. But being able to remove an unwanted bonus can be very impactful in your overall build.

Gems are also an important part of the game, as you can create slots in equipment and you can swap them in and out at no cost. To improve survivability, I have focused on Rubies for Armor (+% max life), Diamond for Jewelry (+% Elemental Resistance) and Amethyst (+ DOT) or Topaz on Weapon (+% Basic Skill damage)

D4 Sorceress DPS Meteor Build: Paragon Levels

From level 50 onwards you don’t obtain any more skillpoints, and instead gain 4 Paragon points per level. Paragon points are used to unlock nodes in a separate tree, and each node can give a minimum of +5 to any stat, +% damage reduction, or significant boosts to your damage output.

As you level paragon, you will put points into willpower and intelligence, but you’ll want to take the Tactician Glyph on your slot as it’s the most balanced for DPS and resistances.

You’ll have to assign 25 points of dexterity around it. Once you do this, you will get a very nice boost to the rare nodes higher on your tree, that boost your non-physical damage by 16% (so all your damage!). Additionally, this glyph gives you 10% increase damage for 4 seconds after casting a defensive skill so you’ll be able to maximize the use of your Flame Shield. The default radius will also catch the other Rare node to give you +16 intelligence and +6.4 resistance to all elements.

Another good node to use if you’re looking to simply up your damage, is Flamefeeder, that gives you +16% damage to burning targets and +10% increased direct damage to burning enemies – so any enemy you’re attacking.

Lastly if you’re struggling with mana consumption, there’s a glyph called Unleash that increases your damage and mana regeneration for 3 seconds every 50 mana you spend (so roughly 1 fireball). It can be useful but the DPS boost is not as significant as the other glyphs.

D4 Sorc Pyromancer: Final Tips

This Pyromancer Build is a lot of fun to play beyond level 50, and can complete content quickly even on high tier Nightmare Dungeons. Your main weaknesses are your limited heals and survivability, and your mana consumption. You can make adjustments to your gear to include more mana cost reduction and regen on paragon points.

Personally, I found this build to be the most balanced of the endgame sorceror variations. The lightning build is fast and exciting but it’s also very gear-dependent and you’ll be completely stuck without some of the specials. The Permafrost Sorcerer is powerful versus groups, but you really need to learn to nail the timing to take on bosses, or you’ll be missing Ice Barrage.

Use this build to progress through your level 50s and beyond, begin finding uniques, and quickly reach the peaks of endgame content.

The post Diablo 4 LvL 50 Sorcerer Build Guide: Pyromancer appeared first on Fextralife.

This Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build calmly controls the battlefield and speedruns Tier III helltides, events and dungeons with AoE damage and crowd control. This build is an advanced midgame build that speeds up clears of Nightmare Dungeons, and Tier 3 farming of Whispers, Helltides and more.

If you are looking for the best frozen orb sorc build or want to delve in the chill and freeze effects, this build will suit you perfectly! If you need help with finding aspects make sure to use our Diablo 4 interactive map, or access the complete skill and item database on the D4 wiki.

Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build – Permafrost

This build is best suited for when you have reached level 50 and are ready to spend some time farming for your specific requirements. You can get here from our previous Frozen Orb sorceress build, but some items and legendaries may not be easily available early on. This D4 frozen orb build has decent survivability but will require that you pay attention to where you’re standing.

The highlight of this build is its incredible crowd control and AOE DPS, achieved by maximizing the use of all freeze skills and further boosting it with gear and the paragon system. You will have two Frozen Nova casts at your disposal, while also enjoying frequent Ice Armor, powerful dual casts of Frozen Orb and an ultimate every 60 seconds or less that gives you damage immunity while you can heal, and deals aoe damage to the entire screen.

Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build – Stats & Skills

Your main gameplay rotation will be to cast Blizzard to start an encounter, then drop Frozen Orb in the enemy’s direction. Position yourself wisely so enemies can be rounded up and cast Frost Nova, then spam Frozen Orb some more. If there are elites in the group, you can still freeze them with your skills, so you only need to use your ultimate ability if you feel you need a little extra boost or are running low on resources or health.

This Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build has passives stacking bonuses such as more damage to freezing or chilled enemies, but it’s important to keep in mind bosses can be “staggered” by filling out a posture meter under their health bar. After that, they count as under the effects of your freeze, so you will deal +60% or more damage to them during this time. Easy enough to kill them quickly then!

Frozen Orb Frost Nova Sorcerer Build: The Skill Selection Process & Gameplay Rotation

This Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build’s crowd control DPS combo is achieved by the smart use of enchantments: We will use Ice Shards as an enchantment so that it will automatically cast and target frozen enemies. To double down on our AoE capabilities, we’ll assign Frozen Orb as the second enchantment, giving all our non-basic skills a 20% chance to cast a frozen orb when used.

The key synergies that make a difference to your survivability and rotation come from passives:

• Elemental Attunement: 15% chance to reset your Frost Nova and Ice Barrier, which is invaluable in battle as they will freeze enemies around you, keep you alive, and let you do more damage.
• Align the Elements: Up to 40% less damage from Elites
• Mana Shield: 10% damage reduction every 100 Mana spent
• Protection: Using a cooldown grants you 20% of your life as a barrier (so your Frost Nova and Ice Armor give you an extra shield)
• Snap Freeze: 9% chance to instantly freeze enemies on lucky hit
• Cold Front: 24% more Chill applied when you have a barrier active.
• Wizard’s Blizzard: Your skills cost less 10% less mana when Blizzard is active
• Permafrost: Frost Skills deal 15% increased damage to elites
• Hoarfrost: Your deal 9% more damage to chilled enemies and 18% more damage to Frozen enemies.
• Avalanche: On lucky hit, your frost skils have up to a 10% chance to make your next cast of frozen orb or blizzard consume no mana and deal 40% increased damage.

The interconnection of these passives and the gear we selected gives you fantastic DPS, which will make going through Dungeons and Helltides easy and fast.

Tier 3 Frozen Orb Sorc Build Equipment, Gems, & Aspects

Equipment is a critical part of any lvl 50+ build as this is where the actual itemization begins to take shape in the game. For this Sorcerer LvL 50 build, we are looking to get gear with specific bonuses to our main damage dealer skills, but also want to focus on boosting Frost skill damage, Chilled and Frozen damage, all damage and crowd control duration. You should also look to increase your stats with +stat bonuses on gear for Willpower (regen & overpower), Intelligence (Skill Damage & elemental resistance) and Dexterity (Critical Strike).

I have kept Damage Type resistances (Poison, shadow, etc) buffs on armor as it can be troublesome to deal with elemental packs. With this setup, our out-of-combat buffs rest over 45% against all damage types, and we can increase those when using our in-combat skills and obtaining additional buffs from Elixirs.

Jewelry bonuses this Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build can benefit from are + 1 Rank of all Defensive skills, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, Lucky Hit Chance. You can also find Frost skill damage and damage to frozen or chilled enemies to further boost your base DPS for this Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build.

In general, you’ll be in the situation where the items you are picking up are only 50% or 70% of what you want. To make this build work optimally you really need specific good equipment so you should focus on doing whispers and helltides to obtain more legendaries that you can deconstruct. The “Mystery” chest on the helltide is the single best source for legendaries (can give up to 4 in one pop), but staying alive with your 170 Hellfire Crystals can be a challenge.

The legendary Aspects I am using are:

1. Frostblitz Aspect: Frost Nova gains an additional Charge but the Cooldown per Charge is increased by 30-40%.
2. Aspect of Control: use on your staff! You deal [60-80]% more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies.
3. Aspect of Inner Calm: Deal [3.0-10.0]%[x] increased damage for each second you stand still, up to [30]% [x]. 
4. Aspect of Frozen Orbit: Frozen Orb stays in place after reaching its destination and explodes [??] additional times for 30-45% of its damage.
5. Aspect of the Umbral: Restore [1-4] resource when you Crowd Control an enemy.
6. Protecting Aspect: When hit while not Healthy, a magical bubble is summoned around you for [3.0-5.0] seconds. While standing in the bubble players are Immune. Can only occur once every [90] seconds.
7. Aspect of the Protector: Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to [135-270] damage for [10] seconds. This effect can only happen once every [30] seconds.
8. Aspect of Fortune: Your Lucky Hit Chance is increased by [15]%[+] while you have a Barrier active. [10-20]%[+]
9. Mother’s Embrace (Unique Ring): If a Core Skill hits 5 or more enemies, x% of the resource cost is refunded

A VERY important and easily neglected aspect of equipment is the “enchant” and “upgrade” options. By this point in the game you should have sufficient materials to upgrade your equipment 3 times or so. This actually does make a difference so make sure to do so. For enchanting, you may find the cost can be high – you’ll have to do helltides to obtain the materials. But being able to remove an unwanted bonus can be very impactful in your overall build.

Gems are also an important part of this Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build, as you can create slots in equipment and you can swap them in and out at no cost. To improve survivability, I have focused on Rubies for Armor (+% max life), Diamond for Jewelry (+% Elemental Resistance) and Topaz on Weapon (+% Basic Skill damage)

D4 Sorceress DPS Frozen Orb Build: Paragon Levels

From level 50 onwards you don’t obtain any more skillpoints, and instead gain 4 Paragon points per level. Paragon points are used to unlock nodes in a separate tree, and each node can give a minimum of +5 to any stat, +% damage reduction, or significant boosts to your damage output.

As you level paragon, you will put points into willpower and intelligence, but you’ll want to take the Tactician Glyph on your slot as it’s the most balanced for DPS and resistances.

You’ll have to assign 25 points of dexterity around it. Once you do this, you will get a very nice boost to the rare nodes higher on your tree, that boost your non-physical damage by 16% (so all your damage!). Additionally, this glyph gives you 10% increase damage for 4 seconds after casting a defensive skill so you’ll be able to maximize the use of your Ice Armor. The default radius will also catch the other Rare node to give you +16 intelligence and +6.4 resistance to all elements.

If you’re struggling with mana consumption, there’s a glyph called Unleash that increases your damage and mana regeneration for 3 seconds every 50 mana you spend (so roughly 1 Frozen Orb). It can be useful but the DPS boost is not as significant as the other glyphs.

D4 Sorc Frost Guide: Final Tips

This Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build is a lot of fun to play beyond level 50, and can complete content quickly even on Tier 5-10 Nightmare Dungeons. Your main weaknesses is mana consumption. You can make adjustments to your gear to include more mana cost reduction and regen on paragon points.

When facing dungeon bosses, you will find you begin them very slow, but as soon as they are “stunned” they count as frozen and you will deal massive extra damage to them, allowing you to finish them off in seconds.

Use this build to progress through your level 50s and beyond, begin finding uniques, and quickly reach the peaks of endgame content.

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Ice Sorceress Build – Permafrost appeared first on Fextralife.

This Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build – Eternal Battlemage build puts players in control of the battlefield with incredible survivability. Become a melee Battlemage and don’t be afraid to be in the thick of battle!

This build is a beginner-friendly midgame build that makes your first steps into Tier 3 farming of Whispers, Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons a lot less stressful. If you need help with finding aspects make sure to use our Diablo 4 interactive map, or access the complete skill and item database on the D4 wiki.

If you are looking for a powerful sorc build but don’t want to keep dying, give the Eternal Battlemage a try!

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build – Eternal Battlemage

This Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build – Eternal Battlemage assumes you are approaching level 50. If you are progressing into this from another build, the Elementalist is the simplest starting point, but any build can successfully merge in. You may have to realocate some points, and in general you’ll want to be flexible with your point choices to adapt to your exact style, but the mantra of this build is: Resistances, Barriers and Cooldowns.

The jump from Tier 1 / 2 to Tier 3 can be very painful for players, as monsters will gain affixes and elemental damage that you are probably not ready to take on. There is also a special “Helltide” event that takes over a region, during which you gather currency that must be spent within the hour of the event. If you die, you lose 50% of your carried currency, making death a really sucky thing to happen as you get locked out of valuable rewards.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build – Eternal Battlemage Stats & Skills

If you are coming into this from our elementalist build, you’ll find the skills have remained pretty much the same. However we are using them a bit different and have put more of a focus on passives and extra boosts.

Your main gameplay rotation will be to round up enemies and go to the middle of them, summon your Hydra for passive damage, cast frost nova, then spam fireball until you don’t have mana, and use arc lash to build it back up and stun enemies. You will use Fire Shield and Frost Armor as your bubbles, and both can give survivability and damage.

Crowd control is an essential part of staying alive and dealing damage, but since we are creating a multi-element build we’ll be able to freeze and burn enemies as well.

The Skill Selection Process & Gameplay Rotation

Our approach to combat will be to get into the middle of a group of enemies, crowd control them, and blast them away with powerful Fireball, then rebuild our mana with Arc Lash. For this purpose, We’ll use Fire Bolt as an enchantment, so all our direct damage applies burning. This means your AOE Arc Lash will be doing both lightning and burning damage whenever you hit close enemies.

Because you’re standing in the middle of a group, you need to be able to survive pools dropped under you. The synergies for this multi-element setup come from:

• Potent Warding: gives you an extra 2% elemental resistances plus 1% of your fire / ice elements),
• Elemental Attunement: 10% chance to reset your defensive skills aka Frost Nova, Ice Armor and Flame Shield
• Align the Elements: Up to 40% less damage from Elites
• Mana Shield: 10% damage reduction every 100 Mana spent
• Protection: Using a cooldown grants you 20% of your life as a barrier (so your flame shield, nova and ice armor all give you an extra shield)
• Warmth: Heal per second based on burning enemies around you
• Vyr’s Mastery: -20% damage from close enemies.

The interconnection of these passives and the gear we selected gives you incredible survivability, allowing you to stand still and tank elite groups and bosses if you’d like.

You will be using Blizzard as an Enchantment as well, so it casts itself periodically over you every 15 seconds. This is very useful as it follows you around, so you won’t have cast it somewhere enemies moved away from. Your blizzard, Ice Armor and nova will chill and freeze enemies, your arc lash, flame shield and nova will burn them as well. This means they’ll be well-controlled and you can stop their attacks entirely while you blast away with fireball and thin their numbers. Just make sure to ALWAYS target the purple glowing enemies that give others elemental resistances.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build – Eternal Battlemage Equipment, Gems, & Aspects

Equipment is a critical part of any lvl 50+ build as this is where the actual itemization begins to take shape in the game. For this Sorcerer LvL 50 build, we are looking to get gear with specific bonuses to our main damage dealer skills, but also want to focus on boosting Pyromancy and Frost Skill lines, elemental damage for Fire & Shock, damage to crowd control or close enemies, and attack speed. You should also look to increase your stats with +stat bonuses on gear.

I have kept Damage Type resistances (Poison, shadow, etc) buffs on gear as it can be troublesome to deal with elemental packs. With this setup, our out-of-combat buffs rest over 50% against all damage types, and we can increase those when using our in-combat skills and obtaining additional buffs.

In general, you’ll be in the situation where the items you are picking up are only 50% or 70% of what you want. You will be lacking materials to transform rares into legendaries since you’re just starting this phase. To counter this you should focus on doing wishes and helltides to obtain more legendaries that you can deconstruct. The “Mystery” chest on the helltide is the single best source for legendaries (can give up to 4 in one pop), but staying alive with your 170 Hellfire Crystals can be a challenge.

The legendary Aspects I am using are:

1. Aspect of the Crowded Sage: You heal for x Life per second for each close enemy, up to 121 life per second
2. Protecting Aspect: When hit while not Healthy, a magical bubble is summoned around you for [3.0-5.0] seconds. While standing in the bubble players are Immune. Can only occur once every [90] seconds.
3. Storm Swell Aspect: You deal [x]% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies while you have a Barrier.
4. Frostblitz Aspect: Frost Nova gains an additional Charge but the Cooldown per Charge is increased by [??]%.
5. Aspect of Fortune: Your Lucky Hit Chance is increased by [15]%[+] while you have a Barrier active. [10-20]%[+]
6. Aspect of the Frozen Wake: While Ice Armor is active, you leave behind exploding Ice Spikes that deal [88-132] damage. Your Ice Spikes Chill enemies for [10]%. 
7. Aspect of the Protector: Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to [135-270] damage for [10] seconds. This effect can only happen once every [30] seconds.
8. Gain X of your Primary resource for every 25% of your Life that you heal
9. Mother’s Embrace (Unique Ring): If a Core Skill hits 5 or more enemies, x% of the resource cost is refunded
10. Aspect of the Inner Calm (Optional): Deal [3.0-10.0]%[x] increased damage for each second you stand still, up to [30]% [x]. If you feel confident you won’t “fidget”, you can boost your DPS by using this aspect. I personally move and dash too much, but this build is a good synergy for it.

A VERY important and easily neglected aspect of this Diablo 4 Sorceress Build – Eternal Battlemage is the “enchant” and “upgrade” options. By this point in the game you should have sufficient materials to upgrade your equipment 3 times or so. This actually does make a difference so make sure to do so. For enchanting, you may find the cost can be high – you’ll have to do helltides to obtain the materials. But being able to remove an unwanted bonus can be very impactful in your overall build.

Gems are also an important part of the game, as you can create slots in equipment and you can swap them in and out at no cost. Since this is a tanky sorceress build, I have focused on Rubies for Armor (+% max life), Diamond for Jewelry (+% Elemental Resistance) and Topaz on Weapon (+% Basic Skill damage)

D4 Sorcerer Tank Battlemage Build: Paragon Levels

From level 50 onwards you don’t obtain any more skillpoints, and instead gain 4 Paragon points per level. Paragon points are used to unlock nodes in a separate tree, and each node can give a minimum of +5 to any stat, +% damage reduction, or significant boosts to your damage output.

As you level paragon, you will put points into willpower and intelligence, but you’ll want to take the Tactician Glyph on your slot. So you’ll have to assign 25 points of dexterity around it. Once you do this, you will get a very nice boost to the rare nodes higher on your tree, that boost your non-physical damage (so all your damage!). Additionally, this glyph gives you 10% increase damage for 4 seconds after casting a defensive skills. Nova, Ice Armor and Flame Shield are all defensive skills so they’ll all trigger this effect. If you’re feeling nostalgic for our starter multielement build, the Elementalist Glyph gives you extra damage to all elements, which works great with this build as well.

D4 Sorc Tank: Final Tips

I created this build because I wanted a no-stress easy and chill run through dungeons and content when playing on my own. Its damage output is not top tier but it gets the job done, and the survivability makes you highly resilient to nasty surprises such as server lagspikes or teleporting elites.

Since Helltide farming is such a big part of this portion of the game, not dying is crucial and you’ll be happy you took 20 seconds longer to complete an objective when it doesn’t cost you 20 minutes of farming in currency loss to an unpredictable death.

Use this build to grind the harder aspects of the endgame transition, and get ready for our powerful endgame builds that can truly set the tone for consistent endgame performance.

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build – Eternal Battlemage appeared first on Fextralife.

This Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build is made for speed, with extremely fast clears for Tier III helltides, events and nightmare dungeons via a great balance of single DPS, AoE damage and crowd control. This build is an advanced midgame and endgame Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build that speeds up clears of Nightmare Dungeons, and Tier 3 farming of Whispers, Helltides and more.

If you are looking for the best ball lightning shock sorc build or want to delve in the fast attack and movement speed optimizations, this build will suit you perfectly! If you need help with finding aspects make sure to use our Diablo 4 interactive map, or access the complete skill and item database on the D4 wiki.

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build – Lightning Speed

This build is best suited for when you have reached level 50 and are ready to spend some time farming for your specific requirements. You can get here from our previous Immortal Lightning sorceress build, but some items and legendaries may not be easily available early on. This D4 shock build has decent survivability but will require that you keep on the move to maximize your damage.

The highlight of this Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build is its great speed, achieved by using teleport, + attack speed and + movement speed bonuses. You will also be maximizing the use of all shock skills and further boosting them with gear and the paragon system. You will fantastic AOE damage, while also enjoying good single target melts and an ultimate every 60 seconds or less that can kill a nightmare dungeon boss in under 30 seconds.

Endgame Chain Lightning Sorceress Build: Stats & Skills

Your main gameplay rotation will be to cast Ball Lightning to start an encounter, then teleport yourself into the enemy group to damage them just as you arrive. You will cast Charged Bolts to quickly kill everything around you. If there are elites in the group, you will use Arc Lash to stun them, then use Chain Lightning to deal massive damage. For big groups we’ll also use our ultimate Unstable Currents which will increase your attack speed by 25% and cast a random shock skill for every shock skill you use.

You have passives stacking bonuses such as more damage to stunned enemies, so you can take on large groups without issues.

The Skill Selection Process & Gameplay Rotation

This Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build’s DPS is further boosted by the smart use of enchantments: We will double-dip Ball Lightning to also obtain it’s enchantment effect, that gives lucky hits a 25% chance to spawn a static Ball of Lightning. To double down on our AoE damage, we’ll assign Charged Bolts as the second enchantment, giving every stun a 40% chance to spawn 3 Charged Bolts within the enemy group.

The key synergies that make a difference to your survivability and rotation come from passives:

• Elemental Attunement: 15% chance to reset your Teleport, which is invaluable in battle as it will deal damage while also moving you from danger.
• Align the Elements: Up to 40% less damage from Elites
• Mana Shield: 10% damage reduction every 100 Mana spent
• Protection: Using a cooldown grants you 20% of your life as a barrier (this allows you to stand in the same spot to unleash all your skills when you cast your ultimate)
• Coursing Currents: All your shock skills will generate +3% chance to critical strike
• Conduction: All your crits will give you a movement speed boost
• Convulsions: On lucky hit, your skills have a chance to stun enemies.
• Shocking Impact: Every time you stun an enemy, you deal extra lightning damage
• Prime Unstable Currents: Increase your attack speed by 25% when your ultimate is active
• Vyr’s Mastery: Close enemies take 10% increased damage, and deal 20% less damage.

The interconnection of these passives and the gear we selected gives you incredible AOE DPS, attack speed and movement speed which will make going through nightmare Dungeons and Helltides a very fast matter.

Equipment, Gems, & Aspects

Equipment is a critical part of any lvl 50+ Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build as this is where the actual itemization begins to take shape in the game. For this Sorcerer LvL 50 build, we are looking to get gear with specific bonuses to our main damage dealer skills, but also want to focus on boosting Attack Speed, Movement Speed, Shock skill damage, Lightning and damage vs Stunned enemies, all damage and attack speed. You should also look to increase your stats with +stat bonuses on gear for Willpower (regen & overpower), Intelligence (Skill Damage & elemental resistance) and Dexterity (Critical Strike).

I have kept Damage Type resistances (Poison, shadow, etc) buffs on armor as it can be troublesome to deal with elemental packs. With this setup, our out-of-combat buffs rest over 45% against all damage types, and we can increase those when using our in-combat skills and obtaining additional buffs from Elixirs.

Jewelry bonuses you can benefit from are Cooldown reduction, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, Lucky Hit Chance and damage to crowd controlled or stunned enemies.

If you are extremely lucky, I found unique boots called “Esu’s Heirloom” that increase Critical Strike Chance by 16% of your movement speed bonus. I have 132% movement speed right now, so it’s giving me a decent amount of critical.

In general, you’ll be in the situation where the items you are picking up are only 50% or 70% of what you want. To make this build work optimally you really need specific good equipment so you should focus on doing whispers and helltides to obtain more legendaries that you can harvest for aspects. The “Mystery” chest on the helltide is the single best source for legendaries (can give up to 4 in one pop), but staying alive with your 170 Hellfire Crystals can be a challenge.

The legendary Aspects I am using are:

1. Stable Aspect: While Unstable Currents is not active, your Shock Skills have an 8~15% chance to trigger a free cast from it.
2. Gravitational Aspect: Ball Lightning orbits around you, but its damage is decreased by 10-20%.
3. Aspect of Static Cling: Your casts of Charged Bolts have a [15.0-25.0]% chance to be attracted to enemies and and last [300]% longer.  
4. Aspect of the Unbroken Tether: Chain Lightning has a X% chance to chain X additional times.
5. Protecting Aspect: When hit while not Healthy, a magical bubble is summoned around you for [3.0-5.0] seconds. While standing in the bubble players are Immune. Can only occur once every [90] seconds.
6. Aspect of the Protector: Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to [135-270] damage for [10] seconds. This effect can only happen once every [30] seconds.
7. Aspect of Might: Basic Skills grant [25]% Damage Reduction for [4.0-8.0] seconds. 
8. Mother’s Embrace (Unique Ring): If a Core Skill hits 5 or more enemies, x% of the resource cost is refunded
9. Aspect of Retribution: Distant enemies have a 8% chance to be Stunned for [2] seconds when they hit you. You deal 40-80% increased damage to Stunned enemies.

A VERY important and easily neglected aspect of equipment is the “enchant” and “upgrade” options. By this point in the game you should have sufficient materials to upgrade your equipment 3 times or so. This actually does make a difference so make sure to do so, particularly if you have +skill gear as it can level it up to have +3 instead of +2. For enchanting, you may find the cost can be high – you’ll have to do helltides to obtain the materials. But being able to remove an unwanted bonus can be very impactful in your overall Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build.

Gems are also an important part of the game, as you can create slots in equipment and you can swap them in and out at no cost. To improve survivability, I have focused on Rubies for Armor (+% max life), Diamond for Jewelry (+% Elemental Resistance) and Topaz on Weapon (+% Basic Skill damage)

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build – Paragon Levels

From level 50 onwards you don’t obtain any more skillpoints, and instead gain 4 Paragon points per level. Paragon points are used to unlock nodes in a separate tree, and each node can give a minimum of +5 to any stat, +% damage reduction, or significant boosts to your damage output.

As you level paragon, you will put points into willpower and intelligence, but you’ll want to take the Tactician Glyph on your slot as it’s the most balanced for DPS and resistances.

You’ll have to assign 25 points of dexterity around it. Once you do this, you will get a very nice boost to the rare nodes higher on your tree, that boost your non-physical damage by 16% (so all your damage!). Additionally, this glyph gives you 10% increase damage for 4 seconds after casting a defensive skill so you’ll be able to maximize the use of your Teleport. The default radius will also catch the other Rare node to give you +16 intelligence and +6.4 resistance to all elements.

Another good node to use if you’re looking to simply up your damage is Territorial, that increases your damage dealt to close enemies based on the dexterity you have in range of the slot. If you meet the 25 requirement, you’ll also get -10% incoming damage from close enemies

Lastly if you’re struggling with mana consumption with this Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build, there’s a glyph called Unleash that increases your damage and mana regeneration for 3 seconds every 50 mana you spend (so roughly 1 lightning ball). It can be useful but the DPS boost is not as significant as the other glyphs.

Once you have made it to the top gate, you can select the second paragon tree. Pick the Lightning tree that is focused on damage to stunned enemies, and start making your way to the +30% damage to stunned enemies slots. This will greatly aid your DPS as you should be stunning enemies very often.

D4 Sorc Shock Lightning Guide: Final Tips

This Lightning Sorc Build is perfect to complete content quickly even on Tier 10+ Nightmare Dungeons. Your main weaknesses are your limited heals and survivability, and your mana consumption. You can make adjustments to your gear to include more mana cost reduction and regen on paragon points.

Your movement speed and teleports should be sufficient to get you out of any sticky situation, and should make running through content a lot faster than with most other builds.

Use this build to progress through your level 50s and beyond, begin finding uniques, and quickly reach the peaks of endgame content.

The post Diablo 4 Lightning Sorceress Build – Lightning Speed appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build Guide: Elementalist – The D4 Elementalist is a Beginner Diablo 4 Sorc Build for new players looking to maximize their fun while dominating the battlefield in World Tiers 1 & 2. If you want to get everything the Sorcerer Skill Tree has to offer, this Sorcerer build will give you mastery over fire, ice and lightning, while also providing excellent survivability, AOE damage, and burst DPS. Sounds too good to be true? Read on to learn how to make what is possible the most fun, if not the best sorceress build.

This is the first in a series of Sorcerer Builds for Diablo 4: Make sure to check out our Level 50 Eternal Battlemage build and other endgame builds for all classes. If you need help with finding aspects make sure to use our Diablo 4 interactive map, or access the complete skill and item database on the D4 wiki.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build Guide – Elementalist

The general objective of this Sorc Diablo 4 Build is to make your gameplay FUN. This means you’ll have a varied arsenal at your disposal, with burst DPS from Fireball, some passive damage coming from Hydra, and crowd control from slowing and freezing enemies. You will have a simple rotation to engage in large fights: Summon Hydra, Cast Blizzard, Frost Nova from middle of enemy group then Fire Ball to deal explosive damage. Pop your Flame Shield for a burning damage boost then rebuild your mana with Arc Lash to soon blow your cooldowns again.

When fighting smaller groups of enemies, a simple combo of hydra and fireball may be all you need, and when fighting bosses you’ll want to be versatile in how you approach your rotation to make sure you maximize the use of your cooldowns to hit the add spawns.

This is a pretty mana-hungry build, and it has mostly DPS skills, so there are some gear recommendations that you can aim for to quickly improve your sustain and survivability.

This build can easily be evolved into any of our Sorceress Builds, so you can start from this point and explore what kind of skill or element suits you most, with a look to focus on those aspects as you move beyond level 30. 

D4 Sorcerer Elementalist Build – Fire, Frost & Lightning – Skill Distribution

Your skill selection for this class can be very fluid, as you will find that the game gives you plenty of equipment with +1 to skills, allowing you to unlock and use many skills way earlier than you’d be able to if just applying skillpoints. For this reason, the guidance for this build will be to focus on your character progression while spotting specific gear that gives you the skills you want, and put your points into the ones you’re missing and passives. The Elementalist Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build should have a Skill distribution should look something like this:

From your Gear, find at least:

+1 Flame Shield

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but you can alter this based on what you are finding and how your gameplay is going. This build is less about skill points and more about smartly picking the right equipment and legendary aspects, so let’s get to that right away.

Equipment for the D4 Elementalist Sorcerer Build

Most beginner builds would bypass the equipment section because you never know what you get, but for this build there are some specific things that you should be aiming for. Namely, you want to get Flame Shield for free since it’s a “nice to have”, and you want to obtain some other specific pieces and aspects.

Other bonuses that you want to get in your gear are:

• + Frost Nova
• + Hydra
• + Blizzard

You can easily swap your skill points around if you find gear with one thing and not the other, so be flexible and adapt to your leveling needs.

For specific things to target, you will want to create two Legendary Items as soon as possible: The first one you will do at level 16 when you do the Sorcerer Quest “Legacy of the Magi” which unlocks the Enchantment System. It’s located in the Lost Archives dungeon near the area where you first began the game.

As soon as you do this, set your Fire Bolt as your enchantment passive, which will give all of your direct damage skills (significantly Arc Lash) a burning effect. Later on, killing enemies that are burning will return you 20%+ manage regen, making it very useful for your sustain. When you reach level 30, you can use Frost Nova on your second enchantment slot (while also having it as an active skill), to make your Hydra trigger automatic Novas now and then.

On the same dungeon as your class quest, you can pick up the Legendary Aspect: Defensive Aspect of the Protector. This can be used by any class, but it will be particularly useful to your Sorcerer because you have few defensive skills and are in the thick of battle with Arc Lash. I combined this with a rare amulet that granted +1 to all Mastery Skills and +1 to all Defensive skills, to give myself a potent leveling legendary that does not need replacing for a long time.

The other piece of equipment you’ll want to get is a specific staff from a rare boss, Cortin Hulle, who drops the “Staff of Elemental Command”. This is a rare spawn located in the Fractured Peaks Seats of the Heavens area (see its location on the Diablo 4 Map). This staff is very good for our build because it gives +4-9% to each elemental damage type: Fire, Frost and Shock. If you can’t find the boss or the item, you can use any staff or wand / dagger that you find alongside a good offhand to boost your WILLPOWER and INTELLIGENCE as much as you can.

If you get the staff or a good weapon you’re happy with, the next step is to obtain another Legendary Aspect. This time it’s the Rapid Aspect found in the Buried Halls Dungeon in the Dry Steppes (Jaka Basin region – see it on the D4 Interactive Map). This aspect will give you +15% Attack Speed to your BASIC skills. Note that two-handed weapons will double the value of a Legendary Aspect, so getting Rapid Aspect on your staff is ideal.

You can add a gem slot to this item and slot a topaz to further boost your basic skill damage by 12%+, making your Arc Lash a damage dealer and not just filler.

If you are struggling and want to find legendaries ASAP, make sure to progress the main story so you can get some from the main quest drops.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build Guide: Frost, Fire & Shock

So there are really several different strategies to employ in this Diablo IV Sorceress Build, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Summon your Hydra

The hydra should be summoned as soon as you start fighting, as it has a decent duration and it will start chipping away at enemies with passive damage. Keep an eye on the “1” on your bar to know when it has vanished, and so that you can recast it at the right time. We selected Enhanced Hydra, that gives your conjuration +1 head when you’re over 80% health (Healthy), so make sure to top up your health often. Our Arc Lash also has critical built-in, so we oped to give the Hydra a +30% chance to crit for 3 seconds everytime we crit.

Cast a Blizzard

Your next step in this Diablo 4 Sorceress Build, is to cast Blizzard and start slowing and freezing enemies. Our blizzard is set up to deal increased damage to frozen and chilled enemies, and we also have a potent +30% boost to our Core Skills (Fireball!) when the storm is running.

Frost Nova Time

Now that enemies are sluggish, run into the pack and use your Frost Nova to freeze them all! Hitting enemies with this will give you 4 mana back thanks to the shimmering enhancement, and killing these enemies while they are frozen will reduce the cooldown of Frost Nova by 1 second per enemy.

Fireball Away

Now that you 1-2-3 setup is done, you can simply blast a Fireball on the frozen enemies to quickly dispatch them, then begin a weave of Fireball & Arc Lash as you wait for your cooldowns to come back.

Elementalist Sorceress Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled quite similarly with this Diablo 4 Sorceress Build, but there are some key differences. Your initial rotation will be the same as with a large group, however after this you will have to learn and time your attacks to use them at the best possible time. You want to use your powerful Frost Nova AOE when adds spawn and just as they surround you, and you want to make good use for your Flame Shield as both a CC and burning damage when you can.

But wait, I have no Teleport!

As a Sorcerer in Diablo IV, you may be used to relying on teleport to stay mobile. I have found that the evade from the game is quite sufficient, and you can increase the amount of evades you have via gear bonuses as well. My tactic is to rely on shields and evade only the big, telegraphed hits. I generally want to stay close to the enemy to ensure I am hitting with Arc Lash and to make my summons and AoE stick around.

Pay close attention to the little markers on boss health, they are indicators of when it’ll pop some health orbs. These don’t disappear so don’t panic-chug before you need to – and always pick them up so you’re full. Avoid panic-evading as well so you have it to get out of a CC or incoming Crit. And of course, be very mindful that the last 25% of any boss is usually faster and deadlier than the entire rest of its healthbar.

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Sorceress Build, you should be on the lookout for gear that gives bonuses to Intelligence, Willpower, Cold, Fire and Shock Damage, Cooldown Reduction, Maximum Mana, and Mana Regeneration. Many other bonuses are useful, as you’ll get Vulnerable status from the frost, and can get Damage Reduction from Close Enemies, etc.

There are many other legendary aspects and specific loot that you could be targeting, but in general the objective of this build is to help you get going fast, so I listed the easiest to access.

This Sorceress Build keeps you actively engaged with your skills and will let you have a buffet of exposure to the elements, while acting as a great springboard for mid-game and endgame optimization. Don’t be scared to try new combinations and swap some things out if you feel you prefer a more ranged approach.

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build Guide: Elementalist appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Diablo 4 Review, we’ll tell you all about the latest installment of the Blizzard Franchise, having played for over 120 hours, reached endgame with all classes, and explored every last corner of Sanctuary.

If you are wondering if Diablo 4 is worth the price, how performance and connectivity work, how the classes develop and if there is longevity, this Diablo 4 Review will answer all your Questions. If you decide to play the game, make sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki, the Interactive Map we have completely filled out, and the many, many builds for all classes that we are releasing starting June 2nd!.

Diablo 4 Review – The Best Diablo Yet

Developed by: Activision Blizzard
Published by: Activision Blizzard
Release date: June 2nd 2023 (early access), June 6th 2023 (regular)
Platforms: PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X (reviewed on PC, code provided by Activision Blizzard)
Price: USD 59.99 ~ 89.99

Diablo 4 Review – Story and Setting Impressions

The setting of the world of Diablo is actually well crafted and interesting. As a franchise started in 1997 and with releases spanning several decades, there has been plenty of time to add nuance and intrigue to the worldbuilding of Diablo, and the latest installment does an excellent job at bringing it together.

The story of the game follows the legend of the origins of Sanctuary, where the Demon Lilith and Angel Inarius created a “Sanctuary” world to escape the eternal heaven vs hell conflict. Angel and Demon eventually drifted apart, but their offspring, humanity, populated the world.

Something is now amiss, and you quickly discover that Lilith has been re-summoned into Sanctuary, and has nefarious plans that will likely mean the end of humanity. Thus you seek out allies to find the knowledge of the Horardrim order and counter the evil propagating through the world.

The main story of Diablo 4 is told through optional NPC dialogues and cutscenes, that follow the now familiar act-based storytelling. Your quest takes you to unexpected places and brings surprising findings, which can keep you entertained and engaged into what is happening. Lilith, the main villain, is exceptionally well acted and her story well presented, so she does not seem like an empty “evil” from the previous games.

Similarly, other characters and supporting cast have backstories and personal development that adds depth to your progression beyond what is typical of the older games, and flavor text and special appearances of Unique enemies also hint at a deeper correlation between lore, world and gameplay.

Unfortunately, despite the excellent worldbuilding and a good tempo for the main story and its crescendo, the actual plot is rather stale and predictable, and your character has no personality or development, remaining a pre-made hero stereotype.

Most people don’t play these games for depth of character or excellence of narrative so the shortcomings in this regard were expected, however it does seem like a wasted opportunity to truly take on the excellent setting and worldbuilding and bring it to life. In that sense, the world of Diablo features a very well crafted mythos, but I think you’ll do better to explore those via external content such as our D4 Lore Shorts than within the game.

In addition, I feel like some of the “feel” that I had for the story and world came from the unexpected benefit of playing during the press review period, meaning my world was actually completely empty of other players. This made the open world feel very diablo-like: I was alone, it was grim, and there were no distractions. I feel like regular players will never be able to experience that Diablo 4 that I just played, because they will be forced to constantly watch “skippy232” running by with his fancy cosmetics and a multitude of other players crowding quest NPCs and vendors. This will surely detract from the wonderfully crafted atmosphere that i got to enjoy.

Overall, the story of Diablo 4 will keep you entertained as you progress through the main campaign, and you will come to appreciate the characters you meet along the way. But there will be no reason for you to relive it a second time, and you’ll likely use the “skip campaign” button for your second character.

Diablo 4 Review – Gameplay

When I set out to play for this Diablo 4 review, I was concerned that I may not be able to experience the ‘true’ game as it would require an incredible commitment of hours within the short review period. As it turns out, the gameplay of Diablo 4 is so addictive, that we ended up leveling all characters to Over 50+, tried out all the activities on offer, and even created multiple builds per class. Let’s talk about how this comes about

Diablo 4 Review: Exploration

A frequent struggle I have with Diablo games is the Fog of War of the randomly generated maps of the games. I am an explorer and completionist by nature, so I felt compelled to try and clear every black spot on the map everytime I ran into a zone. This of course became frustratingly pointless eventually, but it always felt like I was missing out if I did not. I am thus really happy that the new open world Diablo approach allows me to keep the map cleared after I have done it, even if dungeons re-fog after exit.

Traversing and exploring the world of Sanctuary is interesting and rewarding, with a great amount of cellars, dungeons and events to find, and sprinkled with Altars of Lilith to act as milestones to your progress by giving you small boosts as you find them.

The regional renown mechanic and the significant amount of sidequests made the game feel vast and engaging, rewarding me for going into nook and crannies and not running past all enemy groups to my pinned objective. I very much enjoyed discovering each unique location, meeting its inhabitants and learning about their customs and troubles.

D4 Review Impressions: Combat & Customization

As an action RPG, Diablo 4’s most important aspect is without doubt its combat and the depth of character customization and progression. The fun of these games rides mainly in giving you plenty of options for fun and unique builds that feel interesting and fresh, and that can be applied to your game farming and be satisfying.

I personally had a fantastic amount of fun leveling up the Sorceress, and felt like there was a significant reward for getting to higher levels and tiers and unlocking more of the endgame progression. I ended up getting that sorceress to level 62 or so in the few days we had for a review just because I could not stop playing and making builds, with each legendary and unique I found giving me new ideas for ways to try to play.

Diablo 4 Review: Side & Post Game Content

There are really many activities to undertake in Diablo 4. Besides your normal main quest progression, there are 120+ quests and dungeons that certainly add a lot to do, but they can also feel quite cliched or copy-pasted at times, so temper your expectations if you plan on doing them all.

You can also find Unique enemies that drop powerful rare items with unique affix mixes, take on World Bosses with a group, and participate in many events that reward gambling materials. Most of this is best ignored for your main quest progression time, as you’ll want it to feel fresh when you get to the core of the game’s brilliance: Endgame.

During the beta, we had concerns that things felt very “samey” when doing dungeons, and there was a feeling that legendaries weren’t adding enough uniqueness to really shape a build. I am happy to report that the endgame in Tier 3 and beyond blossoms your character and build in subtle and smart ways, ensuring that you have consistent progression and creating plenty of incentives to re-run the content.

There are certain endgame modes that I quickly became addicted to:

Helltides: These are special, timed zone-wide events where an entire area is overrun by demons. These enemies drop special currency that you accumulate as you play. Unique reward chests spawn within the zone with the promise of hidden legendaries within, with one chest per armor slot, one for jewelry, and two for weapon types (one handed or two-handed). Your objective is to gather enough currency to open as many chests as possible, but there’s a catch: If you die, you lose half your currency. Helltides have level 72 bosses and many mini-bosses roaming around them, and additional hazards such as random meteors, so you are kept on your toes as you try to quickly kill everything while staying alive. Events last between 30 minutes and an hour, and come by every few hours of play.

Nightmare Dungeons: These are special dungeons that you create with Sigils, obtained from high level content. The sigils apply a special effect and Tier to a dungeon, elevating the difficulty by introducing new mechanics and buffing enemies, while also improving the in-dungeon loot. The real motivation to make the most out of this dungeons, however, is to gain experience for your Paragon system special slots. The paragon system doesn’t just let you select buffs from a skill tree, but it allows you to collect “glyphs” that can be slotted at specific nodes in the paragon board. Those glyphs have powerful effects such as giving +x% boost to rare nodes in range, making your existing points count for much more than what they are. Running nightmare dungeons allows you to allocate XP to your glyphs, that become more powerful and expand their range as they level up.

Bounties for a special NPC: There is a special quest type that also unlocks after main story completion. This allows you to undertake specific tasks just as killing enemies in an area, clearing a specific dugeon, or finding a specific enemy to kill. Doing those bounties earns you points and every 10 points received you can return to the bounty NPC for a chest with an almost guaranteed legendary inside.

All these activities combine with other aspects such as zone events and World Bosses to create a varied landscape for farming, and this is without considering social activities such as group clears on dungeons, clans, or the PvP zones of the game.

In short: the main story and your initial playthrough will take you through Sanctuary in a discovery tour, but even then you will have not done all of the possible content types, and you will find renewed interest in exploring and completing objectives from the many rewards that become available as you level up.

Design, Audio and Visual

Diablo 4 is a visually beautiful game with a unique aesthetic that makes the game feel like a classical painting. The design is well thought out and coherent through the world, and in everything from the town appearances to your extensive and unique wardrobe choices. Magical effects are beautifully thought out and walk the difficult and fine line of being flashy while also functional, making each spell cast, effect and chain reaction satisfying to trigger.

Equally, the audio track for the game is excellently put together. The main themes and tunes for towns and zones are suitable matches for the visual design, creating a harmony that delivers a properly grim but adventurous atmosphere. Boss battles and main quests have their own unique scores and have been realized beautifully. Plus, the voice acting of the game is really well done, even if you end up hearing the same person doing lines for many different NPCs.

If there is a flaw in Audio/Visual it’s actually on its performance, and may have nothing to do with the design itself. Server lag is a thing and I experienced it heavily while playing to put together this Diablo 4 Review, which had a very limited amount of participants. I must disclaim that Blizzard warned us they would “intermittently conduct stress tests and this may generate rubber-banding and invisible walls” so it may have been the cause, however I feel I must mention this for the review to have full disclosure: I checked in with people playing in different regions of the world, including N. America, Europe and Asia, and everyone said they had extreme rubber banding and other such issues come and go. This is concerning, and my beta and server slam experience had not had these big spikes, so I’m unsure if it’s simply a smaller server for press test, their own stress testing, or if we are in for a launch where nobody can log in.

Optimization-wise the game actually runs very well but you should be ready and upgrade your graphic drivers as it will conduct a check and not let you launch with old drivers. I had no game performance issues outside of server lag, and I did not encounter any of the “known issues” that were warned on the press preview. Overall the game is well-polished and the only serious issue I encountered was a persistent crash and error after killing a specific boss for a main quest. I redid the boss 3 times before I was able to proceed, and I’m unsure as to what was causing the crash on kill.

D4 Review – Playtime, Replayability & Longevity

As an open world game, Diablo 4 would normally categorize as content available rather than replayability, however the nature of the game actually merges the best of both worlds.

Your main story and first run, if experienced without skips, can be enjoyed over the course of 25-30 hours. I personally took my time and reached level 50 in about 60 hours (you can do this A LOT faster), then spent over 60 hours playing endgame builds. This means that my extreme D4 marathon got me to level 62 and a reasonable amount of world completion (renown max of most zones, found altars of lilith, etc) in about 120 hours of inexperienced / chill gameplay. Fellow team members on Fextralife played a lot faster with skips, and leveled several classes to 50 and created multiple beginner and engame builds in the same time, so your own mileage will vary.

With the vast amount of open world content to complete and the availability of endgame special runs in the form of helltides, bounties and nightmare dungeons, players can expect to get a lot out of the game. In addition, the game offers fantastic replayability in the form of build variety for each class and class distinctiveness, which really made it a joy to do a Diablo 4 Review.

Making an alt and skipping the main story allows you to quickly get your second character to an endgame farming stage, and since each class plays in its own unique way this adds a fantastic amount of variety. Your loot is mostly for the class you’re playing, so you won’t be doing much farming on one class to give to another, but I found that all classes can be excellent endgame performers and learning how they tick is very rewarding and fun.

Now you may be thinking that it will get boring or stale to redo the same content type just to get new or better loot, or level up your paragon tree. This is true, however I played A LOT and I did not feel burnt out in the slightest, and this is even when playing uniquely solo. The availability of multiplayer adds a whole new dimension of fun: helping your friends find gear on the dungeons they have to do, taking on world bosses, or even farming world events and helltides in a group can give a lot of freshness to the content.

If this wasn’t enough, Blizzard has also revealed that they have planned for frequent content updates, with a post-launch plan spanning years. Diablo 4 will have seasons, with each one adding a gameplay feature and questlines, similar to what Path of Exile leagues have been doing. There will also be free “Season Journeys”, for players to get time-limited rewards that escale with completion progress, with the best one locked behind a challenging boss encounter.

Diablo 4 Review – Pricepoint

An important factor in all games is the pricepoint, but moreso when a game has the now-so-dreaded ingame shop. Unfortunately, the review period did not include the shop so we have no way to see the actual cost of items or verify what is available, but we have limited information from Blizzard regarding what to expect. I’m quote verbatim what we have been told:

The Shop is an optional experience that allows players to purchase cosmetics for Premium Currency in addition to collecting the hundreds of transmogs unlocked from in-game drops. Shop cosmetics include things like character armor sets that can be mixed and matched with other in-game armor drops and mount cosmetics to alter the appearance of your horse.

The goal of the Shop is to give players even more options to customize the visual appearance of their characters, and nothing offered grants a direct or indirect gameplay advantage.

Diablo 4 Press Review Guide

TL;DR Blizzard claims the shop will offer only cosmetics, so if you can resist the urge to look a specific way or have a specific mount skin, you should never feel the need to spend more than the cost of the base game. In addition, they claim the battle pass has a free tier that is unlocked just by playing and leveling:

• The Battle Pass awards cosmetics, premium currency, and free Season Boosts.
• Players can purchase Tiers-but they won’t speed up getting Season Boosts.
• The Season Journey accelerates Battle Pass progression.

Since I cannot verify how this all works in practice, I’ll instead focus on what matters to me which is: what do I get for what I paid for? In this regard, I feel Diablo 4 actually delivers an excellent value for money, and I can see myself playing this game for years to come.

I managed to cram 120 hours into the press review event, and I felt like I could play for at least three times that before considering I may need a one day break. The game’s content scope is fantastic, the combat is engaging and addictive, and the production values deliver polish consistent with the pricepoint of the game. Personally, I feel few games give you as much bang for your buck as Diablo 4 will, so even if the store ends up tempting me into buying cosmetics, that will end up being my personal choice and since at no point during my gameplay I felt I was missing something from not having a shop, I can conclude that it’s entirely possible to play and enjoy the game while completely ignoring the store.

D4 Impressions – Final Thoughts

My time spent for this Diablo 4 review was actually incredibly fun, surprising even me of how much I was enjoying each small aspect of the game. Having played the game in essentially “solo mode”, I may have had a different story experience than what many players will encounter, but I also missed out on the fun and engaging aspects of the cross-platform cross-play at offer.

Few games allow you to play with your friends across platform lines, and to carry your progress from one console to another, and the novelty of that flexiblity is very appealing.

Giving us a complete and satisfying experience with an effectively limitless level of replayability, Diablo 4 has become my favorite game this year, and I wonder what any of the many upcoming RPGs could do to try and win me back from its addictive clutches.

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Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and Best Class to Play Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

9.3

Brilliant

Story & Setting 8

Gameplay 10

Design, Visual & Audio 8.5

Replayability & Multiplayer 10

Pricepoint 10

Summary

Diablo 4 is an excellent game and a fantastic next step for the ARPG genre. Smartly melding Open World and Online elements with traditional dungeon crawling and loot farming, this game will become the favorite time-sink of millions for years to come.

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