Diablo 4 Season 1 best Sorcerer endgame builds | Ice Shards

While Sorcerer isn’t the best class in Diablo 4 Season 1, it is still an extremely fun class to play that truly isn’t horrible, especially when talking about the endgame build. Sorcerers struggle with Mana regeneration and survivability, but with this endgame build, you’ll delete everything on the field before they even get a chance to hit you. Here is the best endgame Sorcerer build in Diablo 4 Season 1.

Note: If you’re still in the leveling phase with your Sorcerer, check out the best Sorcerer leveling builds before attempting to make the best endgame Sorcerer build.

What is the best Sorcerer endgame build in Diablo 4 Season 1?

The best Sorcerer endgame build in Diablo 4 Season 1 is Ice Shards, just like in the launch version of Diablo 4. Of course, Ball Lightning and Firewall are excellent endgame Sorcerer builds as well, but I’ve found that this particular Ice Shards build is the best of the best.

Best Sorcerer endgame builds in Diablo 4 Season 1 tier list

1. Ice Shards
2. Ball Lightning
3. Firewall

The top three best endgame Sorcerer builds in Diablo 4 Season 1 are Ice Shards, Ball Lightning, and Firewall. While Ice Shards is, in my opinion, the best of the bunch, Ball Lightning is impressive as is Firewall, regardless of the Season 1 nerfs. While we’ll update this article in the future to reflect the meta Sorcerer endgame builds, for now, we’ll focus on Ice Shards.

Sorcerer Ice Shards endgame build

Screenshot: PC Invasion

The playstyle for this Sorcerer Ice Shards build is to use Ice Shards as a mini machine gun from long and short distances. For boss fights, you’ll want to keep your distance and chip away at their health, but in every other instance, you benefit greatly by playing up close and personal. We’ll use Frost Nova for AoE damage, Teleport to get in and out of combat, and Ice Shield and Flame Armor for defense.

With this Ice Shards Sorcerer build, you’ll deal very high single-target damage, have solid defense options, and be able to clear out enemies with impressive damage over time and AoE attacks.

Best Sorcerer Ice Shards endgame build skills

To create the best endgame Ice Shards Sorcerer build, I recommend speccing into these skills. While you should take advantage of low refund costs at early levels to experiment with different skills, I generally recommend sticking to this structure, in the end, to ensure the best endgame Ice Shards Sorcerer build.

Level 1-10

• Frost Bolt
• Fire Bolt
• Ice Shards
• Enhanced Ice Shards
• Destructive Ice Shards
• Ice Shards
• Teleport
• Frost Nova
• Flame Shield
• Ice Armor

From level one to 10, we’re gonna focus on unlocking all the basic skills that define this build. We start with Frost Bolt and Fire Bolt, neither of which will be our main DPS, but will come in handy, especially Fire Bolt for Fire and Burn damage. Ice Shards is, of course, the star of the show here and we want to unlock Destructive Ice Shards as soon as possible.

From there, we’ll unlock Teleport, Flame Shield, and Ice Armor for our main defense skills. Frost Nova acts as our AoE skill.

Level 11-20

• Enhanced Frost Nova
• Mystical Frost Nova
• Enhanced Ice Armor
• Enhanced Flame Shield
• Shimmering Flame Shield
• Enhanced Teleport
• Shimmering Teleport
• Devastation
• Elemental Dominance
• Elemental Dominance

While at levels 11 through 20, the objective is to upgrade our basic skills. Focus on Frost Nova first as that’ll help deal with big groups, then Ice Armor, Flame Shield, and Teleport to have each skill be more effective.

Devastation helps increase our maximum Mana, but it really gets us access to Elemental Dominance. Put points into Elemental Dominance to have your Ice Shards deal more damage.

Level 21-30

• Glass Cannon
• Glass Cannon
• Glass Cannon
• Align the Elements
• Deep Freeze
• Mana Shield
• Prime Deep Freeze
• Mana Shield
• Supreme Deep Freeze
• Mana Shield

During levels 21 through 30, we’ll unlock our ultimate and continue speccing into buffs. Glass Cannon makes us take more damage but dish out a lot more damage, Align the Elements grants us damage reduction from elites, and Mana Shield grants even more damage reduction after we spend Mana which will happen all the time.

Unlock Deep Freeze as soon as you can. Use Deep Freeze sparingly to reset your cooldowns and cleanse the battlefield.

Level 31-40

• Permafrost
• Inner Flames
• Permafrost
• Devouring Blaze
• Avalanche
• Devouring Blaze
• Permafrost
• Devouring Blaze
• Hoarfrost
• Hoarfrost

Levels 31 through 40 is where we start speccing into buffs that help us dish out a lot more damage. Permafrost, Inner Flames, Devouring Blaze, and Hoarfrost are all extremely good buffs for our Ice and Fire attacks. Avalanche is the key passive we’ll need to deal more damage and possibly save us Mana.

Level 41-50

• Hoarfrost
• Frigid Breeze
• Frigid Breeze
• Frigid Breeze
• Icy Touch
• Icy Touch
• Icy Touch
• Protection
• Protection
• Protection

Lastly, as you work through levels 41 through 50, we’ll finish off the best Ice Shards Sorcerer build with even more damage-boosting buffs. Frigid Breeze and Icy Touch grant you Mana regeneration and increased damage to Vulnerable enemies which there will be a lot of since we are using a lot of Ice Shards.

Best Sorcerer Ice Shards endgame build Aspects and how to get them

Screenshot by PC Invasion

• Storm Swell Aspect – Deal 10-20% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies while you have a Barrier.
  • Location – Onyx Hold Dungeon found in the Onyx Watchtower region in Dry Steppes.
• Aspect of Piercing Cold – Ice Shards pierce 3-4 times, dealing 20-25% less damage per subsequent enemy hit.
  • Location – Dead Man’s Dredge Dungeon found in the Gale Valley region in Fractured Peaks.
• Aspect of Shared Misery – When you hit a Crowd Controlled enemy, there is up to a 30-50% chance for that Crowd Control effect to spread to another unaffected enemy.
  • Location – Oblivion Dungeon found in the Eriman’s Pyre region in Hawezar.
• Aspect of Control – You deal 25-35% more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, and Frozen enemies.
  • Location – Sunken Library Dungeon found in the Amber Sands region in Kehjistan.
• Prodigy’s Aspect – Using a Cooldown restores 15-25 Mana.
  • Location – Witchwater Dungeon found in the Blightmarsh region in Hawezar.

The best Legendary Aspects for the best Sorcerer Ice Shards endgame build are Aspect of Piercing Cold and Aspect of Control. After you’ve gotten those, Aspect of Sharder Misery, Storm Swell Aspect, and Prodigy’s Aspect will make your endgame build even better. On top of that, you should check out which Caged Hearts are best for this Ice Shards Sorcerer.

Note: If you want to learn about the best Sorcerer Caged Hearts, which is essential for the best Diablo 4 Season 1 builds, you need to check out our guide.

Best Sorcerer Ice Shards endgame build weapons, armor, and gear

• Raiment of the Infinite

Honestly, the only essential item for the best Ice Shards Sorcerer endgame build is Raiment of the Infinite. This Unique item is chest armor that pulls close enemies to you and Stuns them for three seconds after you Teleport, but Teleport has a 20% increased cooldown. With this build, the most Stuns, the better.

Other than that Unique item, the rest of the items you’ll want to look for are Ancestral Legendary gear that has high health, Ice Shard ranks, damage reduction, mana regeneration, and increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. You can find the best items on higher World Tiers, in Nightmare Dungeons, and by defeating World Bosses.

Best Sorcerers Ice Shards endgame build Enchantments

• Ice Shards Enchantment
• Fire Bolt Enchantment

Unsurprisingly, the two Enchantments you need to make the best Ice Shards Sorcerer endgame build are Ice Shards Enchantment and Fire Bolt Enchantment. With Ice Shards Enchantment, Frost Nova allows us to cast Frost Nova and automatically launch Ice Shards all around us. Fire Bolt Enchantment allows us to cast Burning damage which deals lots of damage thanks to Devouring Blaze and Inner Flames.

Best Sorcerer Ice Shards endgame build Paragon boards and Glyphs

Screenshot: PC Invasion

Once you hit level 50 in Diablo 4, you get a Paragon board and can start farming Glyphs. For the Sorcerer Ice Shards build, here is the best Paragon board order and the best Glyph order.

Best Paragon boards for Sorcerer Ice Shards

1. Start
2. Elemental Summoner
3. Frigid Fate
4. Burning Instinct
5. Ceaseless Conduit
6. Searing Heat

On the starter board, take the Elementalist Rare Node and the Elemental Balance Rare Node as they will give you a big boost to non-physical damage resistance which is essential for Sorcerers. On the Elemental Summoner board, get the Reservoir Rare Node and the Conjurer Rare Node when going left. These Nodes will focus on damage and your max Mana.

Next is the Frigid Fate board where you’ll want to go toward the center and southwest, but return to the top for your next board. Get the Advantage, Chilling, Weakness, and Oppressive Rare Nodes which add a lot of buffs to Cold Resistance and Vulnerable damage. Also, get the Frigid Fate Legendary Note as you always deal Cold damage as an Ice Shard Sorcerer and this will increase your Lucky Hit chance.

Going north onto the Burning Instinct board, you’ll want to go southwest and then west onto a new board and north onto a new board. Here, you’ll want to get the Smoldering Embers, Cinders, Kindling, and Safeguard Rare Nodes for increased Burning damage and damage reduction. Go north onto the Ceaseless Conduit board and get the Hunter Killer and Galvanic Catalyst. As an Ice Shards Sorcerer, we don’t use much Lightning, so you don’t need to spend too much time on the Ceasless Conduit board.

Left of the Burning Instinct board, you’ll start the Searing Heat board. Here, you’ll work your way up and toward the center to get the Ashes and Combustion Rare Nodes. These Nodes give you even more Fire damage and damage resistance which is great as you’ll be slinging Fire skills every moment you aren’t using your Ice skills.

Best Glyphs for Sorcerer Ice Shards

1. Elementalist
2. Flamefeeder
3. Tactician
4. Destruction
5. Control
6. Exploit

As you work your way through your six Paragon boards, you’ll want to slot in the Elementalist, Flamefeeder, Tactician, Destruction, Control, and Exploit Glyphs. Glyphs are what make you extremely powerful, and you’ll want to meet the extra requirements for each Glyph to receive maximum bonuses.

We start with Elementalist because it gives us a big non-physical damage reduction bonus and a big elemental damage bonus if we meet the requirement. Next, Flamefeeder helps a lot to make our Burning skills deal way more damage — 65% more damage. Tactician is next and it allows us to deal 12.5% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies, which there will be a lot of with the Ice Shards Sorcerer build.

Destruction is the next Glyph and it gives us an almost 100% increase to Critical Strike damage, which makes us extremely powerful. In the Ceasless Conduit board, we’ll use Control to give us a huge damage bonus to Slowed, Chilled, and Frozen enemies, which works great for the Sorcerer Ice Shards build. Lastly, we’ll slot in Exploit to deal even more damage to Vulnerable enemies. Thanks to Ice Shards and Frost Nova, your enemies will always be Vulnerable and Crowd Controlled, which thanks to these Glyphs, makes your skills do insane amounts of damage.