[GameSpot] - Diablo 4 - Sorcerer Skills Overview

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The Sorcerer is one of the classes that you can choose in Diablo 4. Wielders of the arcane arts, these casters can call on the elements, each with particular effects, to strike down their foes. Here's our Diablo 4 Sorcerer skills overview guide to help you with various abilities that you can unlock.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer skills and spells

The Diablo 4 Sorcerer uses three different magic schools:

• Pyromancy/Fire - Causes enemies to burn and suffer damage-over-time (DoT) effects.
• Frost/Ice - Chills enemies and reduces their movement speed; will eventually freeze enemies.
• Shock/Lightning - Rapid hits that can reduce cooldowns or proc critical hits more often.

Additionally, the Diablo 4 Sorcerer has a unique mechanic called Enchantment. Basically, there are two Enchantment slots unlocked at levels 15 and 30, whereupon you can assign spells that will provide passive bonuses.

Moreover, the classes in the game use tiers/groupings for each skill and talent, unlocked once you've spent enough skill points. We list them down in the sections below, further subdividing them based on connected nodes/upgrades. Lastly, don't forget to take a look at the Sorcerer talents/perks.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Basic skills

Basic skills are always available to cast. They deal fairly low damage, but are your bread-and-butter abilities.

Spark - Launches a lightning bolt that shocks an enemy four times.

• Enhanced - Each Spark that hits a target has a 20% chance to hit three additional enemies; +20% damage to the primary target if no other enemies are around.
  • Flickering - Each Spark has a 3% chance to form Crackling Energy (periodic AoE damage when picked up).
  • Glinting - +2% increased crit chance for three seconds, up to 10%.

Frost Bolt - Throws a bolt of frost that deals damage and chills foes.

• Enhanced - +15% chance to explode on chilled enemies; 100% chance against frozen enemies.
  
  • Flickering - Makes frozen enemies vulnerable (i.e., take +20% increased damage) for three seconds.
  • Glinting - +4 mana when hitting chilled or frozen enemies.

Fire Bolt - Hurl a flaming bolt that deals damage and applies a burning DoT.

• Enhanced - Pierces through burning enemies.
  
  • Flickering - +2 mana when hitting a burning enemy.
  • Glinting - Fire Bolt critical strikes cause +20% burning damage.

Arc Lash - Generate arc lightning in front of you; every 10 swipes stuns enemies for two seconds.

• Enhanced - A critical causes another swipe.
  
  • Flickering - +6% movement speed for each enemy hit (up to 18%).
  • Glinting - Hitting a stunned enemy with Arc Lash reduces all cooldowns by 0.25 seconds.

Basic skills can be freely cast, making them viable in all situations.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Core skills

Core skills (and those in subsequent tiers/groupings) cost mana. They're fairly reliable in combat. You'll unlock them once you've spent at least two skill points.

Incinerate - Channel a beam of fire; damage per second (DPS) increases over time.

• Enhanced - Burn enemies for 15% of the DPS.
  
  • Destructive - Enemies deal 20% less damage while burning from Incinerate.
  • Greater - Immobilizes an enemy for one second for every four seconds that they're hit by Incinerate.

Fireball - Hurl an exploding ball of fire that does AoE damage.

• Enhanced - Increased AoE radius based on the projectile's distance traveled (up to 50%).
  • Destructive - +10% critical damage; each enemy it hits increases the bonus by 5% (up to 25% total).
  • Greater - 10% of burning damage is dealt as direct damage.

Frozen Orb - An orb that chills and shoots piercing shards; will then explode and chill enemies once more.

• Enhanced - +30% explosion damage when cast at 50 mana or more.
  • Destructive - +5 mana when the explosion hits a frozen enemy.
  • Greater - The explosion has a 25% chance to make enemies vulnerable; guaranteed against frozen enemies.

Ice Shards - Launch five shards; +25% increased damage versus frozen enemies.

• Enhanced - +15% chance to ricochet off enemies; guaranteed to proc against frozen enemies.
  • Destructive - The target becomes vulnerable if all five shards hit them.
  • Greater - If a barrier-type spell is active, Ice Shard procs will be as though enemies are frozen.

Chain Lightning - Chains between enemies (up to six times).

• Enhanced - +3% crit chance per bounce/chain.
  
  • Destructive - +25% chance to form Crackling Energy when you crit.
  • Greater - +25% damage if Chain Lightning bounces off your character.

Charged Bolts - Release five bolts of lightning along the ground.

• Enhanced - Hitting an enemy three times from the same cast unleashes a Lightning Nova that deals AoE damage.
  
  • Destructive - Reduces the damage dealt by enemies when hit by Charged Bolts.
  • Greater - +25% increased damage versus stunned enemies.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Defensive skills

Defensive skills are used to get out of a bind. They'll either keep you protected, or improve your movement/traversal. Spending at least six skill points will let you pick from these options.

Flame Shield - Activate to become immune (i.e., cannot be damaged and all negative effects are removed) for two seconds; burns surrounding enemies.

• Enhanced - +25% movement speed while active.
  
  • Mystical - +25% mana cost reduction while active.
  • Shimmering - Heals you for 50% of your missing HP.

Teleport - Transform into lightning and surge to the target location to deal damage; become unstoppable when cast (i.e., remove all control impairing effects).

• Enhanced - 0.5-second Teleport cooldown reduction for each enemy you hit.
  • Mystical - Crackling Energy hits two extra enemies for four seconds after you Teleport.
  • Shimmering - +30% damage reduction for five seconds after Teleporting.

Ice Armor - This barrier-type effect lasts for six seconds, absorbing 30% of your base HP; 10% of your damage dealt is added to this barrier.

• Enhanced - +25% mana regeneration while active.
  • Mystical - Damaging vulnerable enemies contributes 100% more to the barrier.
  • Shimmering - Enemies that hit you while this is active have a 15% chance to be frozen for three seconds.

Frost Nova - Freeze enemies around you for two seconds.

• Enhanced - Reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova when you kill enemies that were frozen by this spell.
  • Mystical - Makes enemies vulnerable for four seconds; bosses become vulnerable for eight seconds.
  • Shimmering - +4 mana per enemy hit.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Conjuration skills

Conjuration skills, as expected, are those that will cause the Sorcerer to summon or spawn creations made of energy. These become available once you've spent 11 skill points.

Hydra - Summon a three-headed Hydra that spits fire; maximum of one Hydra active at any given time.

• Enhanced - The Hydra gains an additional head as long as you're healthy (i.e., 80% HP or more).
  
  • Invoked - Critical hits cause the Hydra to gain +30% crit chance.
  • Summoned - Burns enemies for an additional 12% of the damage dealt.

Ice Blades - Conjure blades to slash enemies; 30% chance to make them vulnerable.

• Enhanced - Reduces the cooldown by one second whenever you hit a vulnerable enemy.
  • Invoked - +10% attack speed for each active Ice Blade.
  • Summoned - 50% of the cooldown reduction is also applied to other Sorcerer skills.

Lightning Spear - Create a spear of lightning that tracks opponents.

• Enhanced - A critical hit adds a +5% stacking crit chance to the Lightning Spear's duration.
  • Invoked - Stuns enemies for two seconds if it crits.
  • Summoned - Collecting Crackling Energy adds +20% Lightning Spear damage (up to 100%).

The Diablo 4 Sorcerer can burn enemies into a crisp, freeze them in place, or zap them with electricity.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Mastery skills

Mastery skills are devastating spells that can help turn the tide of each battle. These can be selected once you've spent 16 skill points.

Blizzard - Cause a Blizzard in an area, dealing damage while continuously chilling enemies.

• Enhanced - +25% damage versus frozen enemies.
  
  • Mage's - +4 seconds to the duration when cast at 50 mana or more.
  • Wizard's - Core spells cost 10% less mana when Blizzard is active.

Meteor - Strike a wide area and burn the target location.

• Enhanced - 30% chance that an additional Meteor falls on the same location if you hit three or more enemies.
  • Mage's - Meteors fall 30% faster.
  • Wizard's - Meteors immobilize enemies for two seconds.

Firewall - Create a wall of flame that burns enemies for eight seconds.

• Enhanced - Enemies take +25% burning damage when standing in a Firewall.
  • Mage's - Enemies burn for +3 seconds after leaving a Firewall.
  • Wizard's - +5% mana regeneration for each active Firewall.

Ball Lightning - This orb slowly moves forward while zapping foes.

• Enhanced - Damage tick rate is increased by 200% of your attack speed bonus.
  • Mage's - Once Ball Lightning hits close enemies 50 times, its next cast stuns hostiles for one second.
  • Wizard's - If Ball Lightning hits the same enemy four times, a Crackling Energy is formed.

Diablo 4 Sorcerer Ultimate skills

In Diablo 4, Ultimate skills are those that truly make a difference, causing tremendous damage or enhanced effects. You may choose only one Ultimate skill after spending at least 23 skill points.

Deep Freeze - Become immune for four seconds while encased in ice; continually deal damage and chill enemies; deal extra damage when the effect expires.

• Prime - Gain 10% of your base life as a barrier effect for six seconds for each enemy that you froze.
  
  • Supreme - Once Deep Freeze ends, all non-Ultimate spells have 50% of their cooldowns reduced.

Inferno - Spawn a fiery serpent that burns enemies in an area for eight seconds.

• Prime - Continuously pulls enemies toward its center.
  • Supreme - While active, all Pyromancy/Fire spells cost no mana.

Unstable Currents - For 10 seconds, any Shock spell you cast will also activate a random Core, Conjuration, or Mastery Shock skill.

• Prime - +25% attack speed while active.
  • Supreme - While active, Crackling Energy pulses and consumes no charges.

Diablo 4 is currently in its beta stage. As such, some of the information here may change as we get closer to the game's official launch on June 6. We'll update this guide accordingly. For now, you may visit our class hub.

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