Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build Guide – Ice Barrage: In this Diablo 4 Beginner Sorcerer Build Guide, I’ll show you how to play an Ice Barrage Sorcerer, which is a burst DPS Diablo 4 Build that’s adept in crowd control and destroying enemies in one go. If you’ve been looking for a Diablo 4 Beginner Sorcerer Build that is aimed at World Tiers 1 & 2, and one that unleashes a barrage of ice shards at an unprecedented pace, then this Diablo 4 Build Guide is for you!
Diablo 4 Sorcerer Build Guide – Ice Barrage
The general strategy with this Diablo IV Beginner Build is to make use of Frost Skills to control the battlefield. You’ll usually start off by rallying enemies to you to then activate Frost Nova or Blizzard. What’s great about Frost Nova is that although it has a long cooldown, you’re able to not only deal massive damage, instantly making weaker foes explode, but also apply the Vulnerable effect to those who survive. This can be followed through with Ice Shards to finish them off or Blizzard to continually Chill and eventually Freeze them again.
The great thing about this Ice Barrage Beginner Sorcerer Build is you’ll rarely run out of Mana even if you use Ice Shards and Blizzard, both of which consume this resource. This is due to the Aspect of the Umbral and Aspect of Efficiency, thereby allowing you to regenerate Mana at a faster pace.
For Elites and Bosses, you’ll often trigger Ice Armor to conjure a Barrier and to be able to restore more Mana. So here, you’ll activate Frost Nova to make them Vulnerable, and then Blizzard over and over again until they’re Frozen. Once successful, you can simply melt them away in a matter of seconds with Ice Shards.
Diablo 4 Ice Barrage Beginner Sorcerer Build Guide – Skill Distribution
Each Diablo 4 Sorceress Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Sorceress Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Ice Barrage Sorcerer Diablo 4 Build. There are 26 points in total that you’ll get upon reaching Level 25. 2 points come from earning enough Renown in Fractured Peaks. So your Skill distribution should look something like this:
The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.
Diablo 4 Ice Barrage Beginner Sorcerer Build Guide – How to Handle Packs of Enemies
So there are really several different strategies to employ in this Diablo IV Build for the Ice Barrage Sorcerer, 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.
Frost Nova
Frost Nova is an extremely potent Defensive Skill of the Ice Barrage Sorceress D4 Build that lets you instantly Freeze mobs and Elites, but not Bosses. Even though you can’t spam it due to the relatively long cooldown, you’ll have enough time to destroy them with Ice Shards or Frost Bolt. As such, you’ll want to invest all 5 points into Frost Nova. Now thanks to the Enhanced Frost Nova upgrade, you’ll be able to reduce this Skill’s cooldown from 18 seconds to 14 seconds upon slaughtering weaker enemies, which will often be the case.
The other modifier you’ll want to take here is Mystical Frost Nova over Shimmering Frost Nova. It might be tempting to choose Shimmering Frost Nova to gain more Mana, especially at earlier levels if you don’t have the right aspects yet. However, Mystical Frost Nova instantly makes enemies Vulnerable. This means that they take increased 20% damage! What’s more, is that the Vulnerability duration for Bosses is longer at 6 seconds so you’ll definitely whittle down their HP much faster.
Ice Shards
Ice Shards is the bread and butter Core Skill of this Diablo IV Build for the Sorceress Class. It lets you launch several rapidly-moving icicles against targets from any distance. Ice Shards is made all the more effective against Frozen enemies, allowing you to deal increased damage, so it synergizes very well with Frost Nova and Blizzard. As such, remember to max out this Skill.
For upgrades, you’ll first choose Enhanced Ice Shards. This guarantees that the shards will always bounce off of other Frozen targets to continuously deal damage against them. Next, you’ll be going for Greater Ice Shards, which lets you treat any enemy as Frozen to constantly inflict increased damage. The only condition here is you’ll need to have an active Barrier. This can be conjured with Ice Armor or by attacking Elites and Bosses if you have the Aspect of the Protector. Aspect of the Protector can be obtained by finishing the Lost Archives Dungeon in Fractured Peaks.
To enhance the power of Ice Shards, you’ll want to use it in your Enchantment Slot. What this does is that upon cast, the shards will home in on Frozen enemies to kill them much faster. To gain access to this Enchantment Slot, you’ll need to complete the Legacy of the Magi Quest, which becomes available at Level 15.
Blizzard
Blizzard is another powerful Mastery and crowd control Skill that not only deals huge Cold Damage but also Chills enemies over time. This will help you kite them in conjunction with Ice Shards. What makes it shine are the Enhanced Blizzard and Wizard’s Blizzard upgrades. Enhanced Blizzard works like Ice Shards in the sense that you deal more damage against Frozen targets, which you’ll eventually inflict with the repeated use of this Skill or in combination with Frost Bolt and Frost Nova.
Once you gain more points, you should invest in Wizard’s Blizzard to lower the Mana cost of Ice Shards when Blizzard is active. This is a huge thing since spamming Ice Shards is what you’re aiming for to destroy impaired enemies quickly.
Teleport
To be able to effectively traverse areas in the blink of an eye, you’re going to want to invest in Teleport. Doing so will let you deal a bit of damage and grant Unstoppable, which instantly strips you of crowd control effects you may have had before casting this Defensive Skill. It also makes you immune to them. Teleport provides you with the mobility you need to avoid getting stuck in dangerous situations.
In terms of the upgrades, you should prioritize unlocking Enhanced Teleport to reduce its cooldown based on the number of enemies you’ve hit. At higher levels, you can choose to invest in Shimmering Teleport to boost your damage reduction but it won’t be mandatory, especially if you already have the Aspect of the Protector.
Frost Bolt
Frost Bolt is a key Basic Skill for this Diablo IV Beginner Sorcerer Build that deals some damage while Chilling enemies to Slow them down. With the Enhanced Frost Bolt upgrade, there’s a small chance for the bolt to explode on affected targets, and a guarantee to explode on Frozen ones to deal additional damage.
But more than this, you’ll want to aim for Glinting Frost Bolt. As a result, you’ll be able to generate extra Mana when attacking Chilled and Frozen enemies.
Boss Fights
Boss fights are handled quite similarly in this Diablo 4 Ice Barrage Sorcerer Build, but there are some key differences. You can open with Blizzard or Frost Nova but your priority would be to trigger Ice Armor. On top of the Barrier you get in order to mitigate the damage you take, you’ll amplify the damage of Ice Shards upon activation since Bosses will be treated as Frozen. Remember to also use Frost Bolt from time to time to replenish your Mana.
Next, be sure to trigger Frost Nova for the primary reason of inflicting Vulnerable for 6 seconds rather than attempting to Freeze them. As such, the overall damage you’ll deal will be bigger. You should then activate Blizzard with Ice Shards over and over again until you Freeze the Boss. Afterward, you’ll be bombarding them with Ice Shards all the way.
Ice Armor & Glass Cannon
Ice Armor is the second Defensive Skill that you’ll be getting for this D4 Build. Aside from conjuring a Barrier to absorb damage, any damage you’ve dealt yourself will carry over to the Barrier’s strength. This means that you’ll be able to hold your ground better, making you survive longer in combat. The only upgrade you’ll need here is Enhanced Ice Armor to boost your Mana generation.
Glass Cannon is also a great passive to max out early on as it lets you deal greater damage even if you take more damage yourself. However, it can be mitigated with Ice Armor and Aspect of the Protector, and avoided using Teleport.
Final Tips
For this Diablo 4 Ice Barrage Sorcerer Build, you should be on the lookout for gear that gives bonuses to Intelligence to boost Skill damage, Willpower for the improved Mana regeneration, Core Skill Damage, Frost Skill Damage, Cold Damage, Damage to Chilled Enemies, Damage to Frozen Enemies, Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies, Mana Cost Reduction, and Rank of All Defensive Skills. Damage Reduction from Close and Distant Enemies are also good to have for improved survivability.
The passives you’ll want to invest in as you gather more Skill points are Icy Veil, Cold Front, Permafrost, Hoarfrost, Icy Touch, and Elemental Attunement. Icy Veil and Cold Front make it so that your Barrier remains active for a longer period and you’re able to apply Chill more effectively. Meanwhile, Permafrost, Hoarfrost, and Icy Touch focus on significantly amplifying your Cold Damage against Elites as well as crowd-controlled and Vulnerable targets. And finally, there’s Elemental Attunement, which grants a chance to cast Defensive Skills more frequently upon landing crits.
You’ll be swapping from one better gear to the next at a rapid pace to keep up with the types of enemies you face. So if you only have a single copy of the Legendary Aspects you acquire from Legendary Items, it’s best to save them when you reach Level 50. Note that once these are extracted from the Equipment and imprinted elsewhere, you won’t be able to reuse them in the future. So when it comes to these types of Legendary Aspects, you’ll want to keep the Everliving Aspect and Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect. The Everliving Aspect reduces the damage you take from impaired and Vulnerable targets so even with the Glass Cannon passive, you continue to remain resilient. Whereas the Runeworker’s Conduit Aspect improves your Movement Speed after triggering Teleport for enhanced mobility.
The other good Legendary Aspects to go for are the Aspect of Piercing Cold, Aspect of Biting Cold, and Aspect of Control. The Aspect of Piercing Cold lets your Ice Shards pierce numerous times to affect more enemies while the Aspect of Biting Cold grants a notable chance to make Frozen enemies Vulnerable. So this lets you apply Vulnerable using the other Frost Skills besides Frost Nova. You can acquire the Aspect of Piercing Cold from Dead Man’s Dredge Dungeon in Fractured Peaks and the Aspect of Biting Cold in Dry Steppes.
Lastly, the Aspect of Control, which should be slotted in a Two-Handed Weapon for best results, allows you to deal greater damage to Frozen enemies. This is obtained by finishing the Sunken Library Dungeon in Kehjistan.
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 in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
