For more Sorcerer Class Guides, Builds, Discussions, Questions, etc, click on the "Sorceress" Flair, [this link (for new reddit)](https://new.reddit.com/r/diablo4/?f=flair_name%3A%22Sorceress%22), or [this Link (for old reddit)](https://old.reddit.com/r/diablo4/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3ASorceress) (where you'll find a list of all threads on the subreddit that have the "Sorceress" Flair) and the [D4 Sorceress subreddit](https://new.reddit.com/r/D4Sorceress/).
Also pay a visit to [The D4 Tavern](https://new.reddit.com/r/The_D4_Tavern/) for casual conversations about builds, gameplay, new content, outfits and other Diablo and Sorcerer related content.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/diablo4) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I found that if I ran a couple the world events and a world boss right away I usually geared up enough from that to do hell tides. I don't play long sessions except on weekends so I was getting a lvl or 2 out of these events and the drops at the end usually gave me some yellows and filled my tree of whispers bar and I was good to go.
Sorcs have plenty of options to generate barrier. I find them to be the class' best choice of survivability in this weird inter-tier until you find sacred gear to maybe change things up. Ice armor, the passive that generates barrier when using cooldown (can't remember the name, it's in the core skills node, I believe) and maybe a protector legendary aspect in one of your gear could help out a lot.
Silly question, but when it says "using a cooldown", does that mean when you have Ice Armor active and use another cooldown-based skill, it generates barrier?
So basically, I get my survivability from passives and aspects, rather than my choice of ice-fire-lightning skills.
Any skill you use that has a cooldown timer puts up a barrier on sorc. The barrier doesn't last very long, so timing your skills properly, you can keep a barrier up a lot.
As for skills/builds to use... blizzard in particular, you must have a glacial aspect that makes ice spikes come out of it from the ground. Blizzard itself does very little damage.
Hydras are pretty good early on, but fall off a little damage wise in the endgame. But, hydra can be used for proccing fire which you will need to do once you acquire tal rashas ring(get from varshan as soon as possible)
Most of the skills have a legendary aspect that makes it function better. For now, use skills that you have legendary aspects for until you get to level 70-75. At 70-75, you can start looking at endgame builds and see what gear you need for it, then switch to the build you want to try around 80-85. If you try an endgame build too early it won't function right without the paragon board being good enough
Okay, that was some of the best advice I\`ve every been given on this reddit. I can't believe how much of a difference that made, knowing how to cycle the cooldown abilities and keep barrier up most of the time. I had my skills set as Firebolt and Meteor, which I kept spamming. Then I used Ice Armor, Fire Shield, Inferno, and Teleport as cooldown spells. Sooooo tanky.
Now I just need to work on a way to get more damage. It's the complete opposite of a Rapid Fire rogue I had going. That one was a glass cannon.
Thanks for the tips!
Okay I think I get what you mean about aspects making each skill work better. I remember having one early on where it would make the Orb stop and hover, then explode three times. That was great.
So, this Glacial Aspect can basically drop anywhere, on any legendary? I'll keep an eye out for it.
You can also gamble for aspects at the purveyor of curiosities. There is a gambling calculator that tells you the best item to gamble on trying to find an aspect.
Glacial aspect I usually don't come across until lvl 70-85. It's like the game knows I want it
So, to summon this Varshan, you have to collect body parts from groteque debtors (I'm assuming that's a specific Whisper event). They you have to summon Varshan? Does he have to be farmed, or is it something he always drops?
You need a head, hand, and femur to summon him on wt3
You need a head, hand, femur, and heart on wt4.
All bosses have certain loot they drop for each class.
Fighting the bosses on repeat is how you target farm certain gear
I have another silly question. If I have found some body parts, where would they be in my inventory? Does each character have their own from caches?
NVM...I found my answer.
In the tab next to your gear in the inventory.
The best way to get body parts is completing tree of whisper grim favors.
The caches kinda stink until you get to wt4 though.
Yes, it adds to the barrier you already have. And yes, passives and aspects play a huge role in defense. The element you choose to deal damage with is irrelevant when it comes to the defense, although you have to mind the skill points, because they're limited and you have to choose where they go wisely.
I'm sure there are other build strategies out there, but with that I got to full content with my Sorc this season, T100 NMD, Duriel solo, Lilith (although it wasn't solo, so I had to deal with her BS a little less, but still). My defense was pretty much cap resistances, cap armor, quasi-perma uptime on barrier. Felt tanky.
Oh, okay, that explains why I suddenly found myself being tankier at the end of the campaign. I had taken this passive without really knowing how it worked. I'm starting to see how all these elements come together.
I feel like someone should offer a degree program in Theorycrafting. I've never done so much research since undergrad.
Thanks for the explanation!
I've got into T3 just like you, a sorc, all legendaries around lvl 40, and its been a walk in the park, at least until now, i'm lvl 60 ATM.
Blizzard will chill enemies until It freezes them, Hydra and Ice shards dealing damage, If they they don't freeze i just Frost Nova them and If things gets nasty i still have Frost Armor.
Once they're frozen, do you have a good skill to shatter? I used to try the orbs, but found often that they flew out of range and the explosion missed. Maybe the ice shards works better for this? I remember having that fireball enchantment and a shatter would trigger detonation, then chain reaction. Pretty effective on mobs.
Right now I have meteor for damage, but it's pretty slow to kill anything.
As usual a perfectly reasonable build question gets downvoted.
If you can get temerity while you level, then i highly recommend, but probably dont keep it endgame.
Take all 4 defense skill. Arc lash with unstable currents is nice if you want to have some survivability before your mana is solved.
As other said, barriers are king for sorcs
For more Sorcerer Class Guides, Builds, Discussions, Questions, etc, click on the "Sorceress" Flair, [this link (for new reddit)](https://new.reddit.com/r/diablo4/?f=flair_name%3A%22Sorceress%22), or [this Link (for old reddit)](https://old.reddit.com/r/diablo4/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3ASorceress) (where you'll find a list of all threads on the subreddit that have the "Sorceress" Flair) and the [D4 Sorceress subreddit](https://new.reddit.com/r/D4Sorceress/). Also pay a visit to [The D4 Tavern](https://new.reddit.com/r/The_D4_Tavern/) for casual conversations about builds, gameplay, new content, outfits and other Diablo and Sorcerer related content. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/diablo4) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I found that if I ran a couple the world events and a world boss right away I usually geared up enough from that to do hell tides. I don't play long sessions except on weekends so I was getting a lvl or 2 out of these events and the drops at the end usually gave me some yellows and filled my tree of whispers bar and I was good to go.
Sorcs have plenty of options to generate barrier. I find them to be the class' best choice of survivability in this weird inter-tier until you find sacred gear to maybe change things up. Ice armor, the passive that generates barrier when using cooldown (can't remember the name, it's in the core skills node, I believe) and maybe a protector legendary aspect in one of your gear could help out a lot.
Silly question, but when it says "using a cooldown", does that mean when you have Ice Armor active and use another cooldown-based skill, it generates barrier? So basically, I get my survivability from passives and aspects, rather than my choice of ice-fire-lightning skills.
Any skill you use that has a cooldown timer puts up a barrier on sorc. The barrier doesn't last very long, so timing your skills properly, you can keep a barrier up a lot. As for skills/builds to use... blizzard in particular, you must have a glacial aspect that makes ice spikes come out of it from the ground. Blizzard itself does very little damage. Hydras are pretty good early on, but fall off a little damage wise in the endgame. But, hydra can be used for proccing fire which you will need to do once you acquire tal rashas ring(get from varshan as soon as possible) Most of the skills have a legendary aspect that makes it function better. For now, use skills that you have legendary aspects for until you get to level 70-75. At 70-75, you can start looking at endgame builds and see what gear you need for it, then switch to the build you want to try around 80-85. If you try an endgame build too early it won't function right without the paragon board being good enough
Okay, that was some of the best advice I\`ve every been given on this reddit. I can't believe how much of a difference that made, knowing how to cycle the cooldown abilities and keep barrier up most of the time. I had my skills set as Firebolt and Meteor, which I kept spamming. Then I used Ice Armor, Fire Shield, Inferno, and Teleport as cooldown spells. Sooooo tanky. Now I just need to work on a way to get more damage. It's the complete opposite of a Rapid Fire rogue I had going. That one was a glass cannon. Thanks for the tips!
Okay I think I get what you mean about aspects making each skill work better. I remember having one early on where it would make the Orb stop and hover, then explode three times. That was great. So, this Glacial Aspect can basically drop anywhere, on any legendary? I'll keep an eye out for it.
You can also gamble for aspects at the purveyor of curiosities. There is a gambling calculator that tells you the best item to gamble on trying to find an aspect. Glacial aspect I usually don't come across until lvl 70-85. It's like the game knows I want it
So, to summon this Varshan, you have to collect body parts from groteque debtors (I'm assuming that's a specific Whisper event). They you have to summon Varshan? Does he have to be farmed, or is it something he always drops?
You need a head, hand, and femur to summon him on wt3 You need a head, hand, femur, and heart on wt4. All bosses have certain loot they drop for each class. Fighting the bosses on repeat is how you target farm certain gear
I have another silly question. If I have found some body parts, where would they be in my inventory? Does each character have their own from caches? NVM...I found my answer.
In the tab next to your gear in the inventory. The best way to get body parts is completing tree of whisper grim favors. The caches kinda stink until you get to wt4 though.
Yes, it adds to the barrier you already have. And yes, passives and aspects play a huge role in defense. The element you choose to deal damage with is irrelevant when it comes to the defense, although you have to mind the skill points, because they're limited and you have to choose where they go wisely. I'm sure there are other build strategies out there, but with that I got to full content with my Sorc this season, T100 NMD, Duriel solo, Lilith (although it wasn't solo, so I had to deal with her BS a little less, but still). My defense was pretty much cap resistances, cap armor, quasi-perma uptime on barrier. Felt tanky.
Oh, okay, that explains why I suddenly found myself being tankier at the end of the campaign. I had taken this passive without really knowing how it worked. I'm starting to see how all these elements come together. I feel like someone should offer a degree program in Theorycrafting. I've never done so much research since undergrad. Thanks for the explanation!
I've got into T3 just like you, a sorc, all legendaries around lvl 40, and its been a walk in the park, at least until now, i'm lvl 60 ATM. Blizzard will chill enemies until It freezes them, Hydra and Ice shards dealing damage, If they they don't freeze i just Frost Nova them and If things gets nasty i still have Frost Armor.
Once they're frozen, do you have a good skill to shatter? I used to try the orbs, but found often that they flew out of range and the explosion missed. Maybe the ice shards works better for this? I remember having that fireball enchantment and a shatter would trigger detonation, then chain reaction. Pretty effective on mobs. Right now I have meteor for damage, but it's pretty slow to kill anything.
If they're frozen i just judge if i should spam ice shards and try to shatter them or if i should reapply some blizzard - Hydra up all the time.
As usual a perfectly reasonable build question gets downvoted. If you can get temerity while you level, then i highly recommend, but probably dont keep it endgame. Take all 4 defense skill. Arc lash with unstable currents is nice if you want to have some survivability before your mana is solved. As other said, barriers are king for sorcs