The Sorcerer is Diablo 4’s classic elemental spell-weaving caster. Here’s the best Sorcerer build to use in Season 9 and how to put it together.
Every good ARPG needs a traditional caster class to blast enemies with elemental magic like fire, ice, and lightning. In Diablo 4, the Sorcerer is a glass cannon that does the majority of their damage from a distance, but is weaker than other classes in close combat.
The Sorcerer has been a class in Diablo since the very first game, and while they were replaced by the very similar Wizard class in Diablo 3 and Immortal, they return in Diablo 4 to show all other casters how it’s done. But with Horadric Powers now appearing in Sanctuary, you’ll need the best build if you’re going to survive.
Here’s everything you need to know to assemble the best Sorcerer build in Diablo 4 Season 9.
What is The Best Sorcerer Build in Season 9?
The Sorcerer is incredibly high in the meta in Season 9 of Diablo 4, having three S-tier builds to choose from, but the very best one this season is unquestionably the Chain Lightning Sorcerer.
As the build suggests, this is one that’s all focused on zapping demons with waves of Chain Lightning, among other skills. While this build is mainly focused on endgame and Pit pushing, you can also use it to level through the campaign or shred other players in PVP.
What Are The Best Skills to Use For This Build?
While Chain Lightning will be our go-to skill for this build, we’ll also be dabbling in some fire and ice magic with skills like Fire Bolt and Teleport.
So, it’s important to point out that this build isn’t strictly comprised of only lightning-based skills. With that in mind, pick the following skills as you level:
Active Skills
Select the following Active Skills with the below number of points and upgrades:
| Skill | Points | Upgrades |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Bolt | 1 | – |
| Chain Lightning | 4 | Enhanced, Destructive |
| Flame Shield | 1 | – |
| Teleport | 1 | Enhanced, Shimmering |
| Ice Armor | 1 | Enhanced, Shimmering |
| Ice Blades | 1 | Enhanced, Invoked |
| Familiar | 1 | Enhanced, Invoked |
| Lightning Spear | 1 | Enhanced, Invoked |
| Unstable Currents | 4 | Prime, Supreme |
Passive Skills
Select the following Passive Skills with the below number of points and upgrades:
| Skill | Points |
|---|---|
| Glass Cannon | 3 |
| Precision Magic | 3 |
| Align the Elements | 1 |
| Protection | 3 |
| Primordial Binding | 3 |
| Mana Shield | 3 |
| Inner Flames | 3 |
| Permafrost | 3 |
| Hoarfrost | 3 |
| Icy Touch | 3 |
| Elemental Synergies | 3 |
| Evocation | 3 |
| Conduction | 1 |
| Convulsions | 3 |
| Vyr’s Mastery | (Key Passive) |
Enchantment Slots
The Sorcerer’s unique class skill involves adding powerful passive boosts to your skills by enchanting them. You can only enchant two spells at once, and whichever ones you choose can greatly impact your build.
So, for the Chain Lightning Sorcerer, pick the following two:
- Teleport Enchantment: This will replace your standard evade with teleport, making you more mobile.
- Chain Lightning Enchantment: Create a bigger damage bonus from your main skill.
Remember, you can tailor this to your liking, but this setup will work wonders for this build.
Paragon Board
Once you reach level 60, skill-based leveling will stop, and you’ll be thrown into the Paragon Board, which works very differently. From here, you’ll need to navigate a grid, selecting small boosts to your stats as you go.
As you do, you’ll come across some more ornate nodes called Glyphs. These represent boosts to your main skills and are the things that allow you to continue to craft your build even after leveling has stopped.
So, for the Chain Lightning Sorcerer, prioritize the following Glyphs when you can:
- Destruction
- Tactician
- Unleash
- Elementalist
- Exploit
While all Glyphs are useful, selecting any of the above Glyphs will buff your damage output, making your build more powerful.
You may find you’re not always able to select the above Glyphs, that’s okay, just steadily work towards the next one, activating nodes as you go. As you do, prioritize the intelligence stat to keep boosting your magic power.
What Are The Best Mercenaries to Choose in Diablo 4?
Added in the Vessel of Hatred expansion, mercenaries offer different advantages in battle, and a caster like the Sorcerer can benefit from some additional firepower and someone to defend them.
For the Chain Lightning Sorcerer, we recommend hiring the following mercenaries:
Hired: Subo
The main reason to hire Subo is that his passive Seeker ability provides more visibility of enemies, which is very useful when it comes to zapping demons with lightning from a distance. He’ll also provide back-up fire and AOE damage to mobs, increasing the pressure and making it easier for us to pick them off.
Set his active skills to Wire Trap and Cover Fire, as this combination will slow, stun, and damage enemies, leaving them open to our spells. As for his passive skills, select Piercing Arrows and Opening Fire to buff your damage output and critical hit chance.
Reinforcement: Raheir
Take Raheir as your reinforcement mercenary, as his defensive abilities will help keep you safe from harm. Select Bastion as his skill, as this will see Raheir shield you from damage every few attacks, making you much harder to kill.
What Are The Best Horadric Powers to Use?
Season 9 of Diablo 4 introduces Horadric Powers, which have replaced Boss Powers this season. So for the Sorcerer, try and find and quip the following Horadric Powers:
- Catalyst: Astral Pillar
- Infusion: Glacial Nimbus
- Arcana: Potent Alloy, Bloody Charm, Fractured Core
It may take a while to find them all, but these are the Horadric Powers to hunt down.
What Are The Best Items to Equip?
The items are the final piece of this build, and while you can begin crafting it without them, the gear below boosts its power significantly.
Some items need to be tracked down as they are, such as unique items, but others will need to be fused with a certain Aspect for them to fully unlock their power – and therefore their usefulness for this build.
So below, we’ll reveal which items you need as well as which Legendary / Mythic Aspects, and where to find/farm them if such a location is available.
Remember, you won’t be able to unlock these items until endgame, so make do with the gear you find until you’re in a position to hunt down these items:
| Item | Aspect | Item type | How to get | Sockets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heir of Perdition | Heir of Perdition | Helm | Grind bosses | PocThul Runeword |
| Shroud of False Death | – | Armor | Grind bosses | 2x Grand Topaz |
| Fists of Fate | – | Gloves | Farm The Beast in the Ice bosses | – |
| Axial Conduit | – | Pants | Farm Grigoire | NaguOhm Runeword |
| Runic Cleats of the Orange Herald | Orange Herald | Boots | Both boots and Aspect are random drops | – |
| Azurewrath | – | Weapon | Farm Duriel or Andariel | Grand Emerald |
| – | – | Offhand | – | – |
| Ocelot’s Eye of Shreding Blades | Shredding Blades | Amulet | Both amulet and Aspect are random drops | Perfect Skull |
| Ring of Starless Skies | Ring of Starless Skies | Ring | Random drop | Perfect Skull |
| Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop | Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop | Ring | Farm the Echo of Varshan boss | Perfect Skull |
Once you start killing bosses, reach level 60, and are engaging in endgame content, then you’ll be ready for these items.
Looking forward to zapping some demons with the Chain Lightning Sorcerer build in Season 9? Let us know via the Insider Gaming forum, where you can start up some hot Diablo 4 discussions.
You can also find out the best builds in Season 9 for the Spiritborn, Druid, Barbarian, Rogue, and Necromancer classes while you’re here.
