Best early game Sorcerer build in Diablo 4

Some of the most fun you can have in Diablo 4 is when you choose to be a Sorcerer. Not only do you get a plethora of unique spells, but you can choose to focus on certain elements, such as Fire, Ice or Lightning. There is so much versatility when it comes to building a Sorcerer. This is especially true when it comes to using the right combination of elemental spells. If you’re someone who’s just getting into Diablo 4 and wants to know the best early game Sorcerer build, keep on reading.

Diablo 4: Best early game build for Sorcerers

After building a Sorcerer in the Beta, and having re-built a similar one during Early Access, I can highly recommend a Lightning Sorcerer build. While you can certainly use spells that don’t use Lightning, I focused on using Lightning skills most. I’ll explain later why I chose this over Fire or Ice builds, but let’s get into the pros and cons of this specific early game build.

• Pros
  • Great AoE attacks
  • Lots of mobility
  • Decent crowd control
• Cons
  • Lengthy cooldowns
  • High mana usage
  • Focus on Basic Skills

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Lightning Sorcerer playstyle, explained

As someone who is new to the Diablo series, I found this build to be very useful. Not only can spells like Chain Lightning give AoE attacks without having to aim at every enemy, but Arc Lash can clear and stun enemies up close. You can fight enemies far away, alongside dealing with ones up close. And if there is too much of a crowd, I enjoy using Teleport to whisk myself away in a second.

Another neat thing that this build does is create Crackling Energy. Once you start leveling up your Lightning skills, they will start creating balls of energy. Sadly, you have to walk right over them to pick them up, which can be a hassle when you don’t feel like running around the battlefield scooping up energy. But whenever you’re near an enemy while holding Crackling Energy, you will passively hit them, until they’re used up.

This build doesn’t just focus on Lightning Skills, though. I got Ice Armor as early as I could, and found it just as useful as Teleport. Many of these spells are unfortunately blocked by Cooldowns, or they cost a lot of Mana. But on the bright side, when I found myself waiting for Mana or Cooldowns, I could still control the battlefield with Basic Skills.

Best early game Sorcerer abilities

If you’re interested in a build like this, you’ll want to unlock the abilities on the skill tree below. I’ll start with the Basic Skills, and work my way down the skill tree.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

• Basic Skills
  • Spark: Launches a bolt of lightning that shocks an enemy 4 times.
    • Enhanced Spark, Flickering Spark: Raises chance of Spark hitting multiple enemies, and raises chance of producing Crackling Energy.
  • Arc Lash: A melee lightning arc, and every 10 slashes will stun enemies.
    • Enhanced Arc Lash, Flickering Arc Lash: Swipes a second time on a crit, and gives you a movement boost when enemy is hit.
• Core Skills
  • Chain Lightning: A stream of lightning that bounces off multiple enemies.
    • Enhanced Chain Lightning, Greater Chain Lightning: Gains crit strike chance per bounce, and will increase damage if it bounces off of you.
  • Ice Shards: Launches 5 shards of ice.
    • Enhanced Ice Shards, Greater Ice Shards: Have a greater chance of ricocheting off enemies, and will treat enemies as if they’re frozen if a Barrier is active.
• Defensive Skills
  • Teleport: Become Unstoppable lightning and appear somewhere else.
    • Enhanced Teleport, Mystical Teleport: Cooldown decreases per enemy hit, and Crackling Energy hits additional enemies after teleporting.
  • Ice Armor: Barrier of ice surrounds you and absorbs hits.
    • Enhanced Ice Armor, Shimmering Ice Armor: Mana regeneration increases when active, and enemies that hit you with a Barrier up have the chance to freeze.
• Conjuration Skills
  • Hydra: Summons a three-headed Hydra.
    • Enhanced Hydra, Summoned Hydra: Will gain an extra head if you’re healthy, and will Burn enemies further.
• Ultimate Skills
  • Unstable Currents: For 10 seconds, a random Core, Conjuration or Mastery Shock Skill casts whenever you cast a Shock skill.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Early game Sorcerer abilities, explained

I know that’s a lot to take in, but let’s start with the Basic, Core, and Defensive Skills. These Skills made up my main hotbar of attacks. I designated Basic Skills that required no Mana to my left and right mouse buttons. Then, I had Chain Lightning at number one spot. I used this spell the most if I had Mana available. Luckily, it requires no Cooldown, just like Ice Shards.

Honestly, I wasn’t planning on having Ice Shards until I had a piece or jewelry that enhanced its attack, and armor that gave me the Skill. Ice Shards goes Chain Lightning, it doesn’t cost much Mana, but deals serious damage. If you don’t have any items that boost Ice Shards, I would replace it with something else, but it worked great for me.

Defensive Skills are some of the best Skills, besides the Cooldowns. I would delegate Teleport for when I was stuck in a crowd, and didn’t have any Dodges left. It lets you Teleport away in dangerous situations, making it highly useful for any Sorcerer build. Also, Ice Armor is extremely helpful if you’re someone who loses health fast. Its Cooldown isn’t terrible, and it’s great when other enemies try to hit me and become frozen instead.

I only listed the Hydra Conjuration Skill because it became useful for when I unlocked Enchantments. At level 15, and again at level 30, Sorcerers can delegate Skills to be Enchantments, with special effects. They provide passive abilities, and the Hydra became my first Enchantment. For every 300 Mana I spent, the Hydra would appear. This was great for tense fights that required some backup. The second slot, when unlocked, I gave to Ice Armor, which had a small chance of occurring upon getting hit.

Finally, if you have the chance early on in Diablo 4, you can always unlock the Ultimate Skill called Unstable Currents. This ability has a major pro, but also a major con. Like explained, it will cast random Shock Skills for a temporary amount of time whenever you cast a Shock Skill. This was great during some boss fights, but the fact that it has a 70-second Cooldown makes it a rarely-used ability.

It’s also annoying when I used it, and wanted to replace that slot with another spell while it was on Cooldown. This tactic doesn’t work. Whatever Skill I replace it with is locked by that same Cooldown. I’m not sure if this is purposeful, or a glitch, but only use Unstable Currents if you’re desperate.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Other early game Diablo 4 Sorcerer build options

Although I will highly recommend that you choose to focus on a Lightning build, there are other interesting options. There are numerous Fire and Ice abilities to choose from, making building your early game Sorcerer quite difficult in Diablo 4. Even though I’ll explain these two other options, I’ll also tell you why they may not be as good.

Fire Sorcerer

Some of the most damaging spells in Diablo 4 come from the Fire abilities. Spells such as Fireball, Firewall, and Hydra are powerful, dealing lots of AoE damage. There are some downsides to this build, as many of these Skills take awhile to deal their damage.

These abilities won’t be fast, but will slowly burn your enemies. Also, it requires lots of Mana. If you’re fighting enemies that move around a lot, getting them in the right place for your Fire spells is difficult. This is why I prefer the Lightning Sorcerer build for an early game playthrough.

Ice Sorcerer

The other type of build you can make is an Ice Sorcerer. This include Ice Shards, Ice Armor, and Frost Nova. These are great abilities to be a Tank, low-Mana spending Sorcerer. Although, the trade-off is having to wait 20 seconds for both Ice Armor and Frost Nova to Cooldown. Usually in this build, you’d have to include other abilities, such as Fire or Lightning spells. That way, when you’re waiting for those Cooldowns, you can still keep the fight going.

The unfortunate thing about this build is when you compare it to the Lightning build. Not many of the early game Ice spells deal AoE attacks. And like I said, the Cooldowns are pretty long. This is why I prefer to add a few Ice Skills into the Lightning build for a perfect early game Sorcerer build in Diablo 4.

Diablo 4 is available on Battle.net.