Snowballer 2.0 Sorcerer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(Keep Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’ that big ol’ frozen ball o’ snow, & freeze your foes before dealin’ a final blow)

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Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is getting closer and it’s time to make some Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Sorcerer Class called Snowballer 2.0.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively, I’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Snowballer 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Minor Destruction / Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

• (active) Frost Bolt – Throw a bolt of frost at an enemy, dealing 35.00% (X- ?) damage and Chilling them for 15%. Lucky Hit Chance: 30% Damage: Cold ; Tags: Basic, Frost Enchantment Effect Direct damage from Skills applies up to 15% Chill.
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Frost Bolt – Frost Bolt has a 15% chance to explode on Chilled targets, hitting nearby enemies. Chance increased by 100% against Frozen targets.
  • (2nd upgrade) Flickering Frost Bolt – Frost Bolt makes Frozen enemies Vulnerable for 3 seconds.

Major Destruction / Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

• (active) Frozen Orb – Unleash an orb that Chills for 34% and expels piercing shards dealing a total of 32% (X- ?) damage. Upon expiration, Frozen Orb explodes, dealing 29% (X- ?) damage. and Chilling enemies for 9%. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Mana Cost: 40 Damage: Cold ; Tags: Core, Frost Enchantment Effect When you cast a Non-Basic Skill, you have a 20% chance to launch a Frozen Orb at a Nearby enemy.
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Frozen Orb – When cast above 50 Mana, Frozen Orb’s explosion damage is increased by 30% (multiplicative).
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Greater Frozen Orb – Frozen Orb’s explosion has a 25% chance to make all enemies hit Vulnerable for 2 seconds. Frozen Orb always makes Frozen enemies Vulnerable.
• (passive – ONLY put 1 point here) Devastation – Your Maximum Mana is increased by 3/6/9.
  • (upgrade) Elemental Dominance – Your Core Skills deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage when case above 50 Mana
• (passive) did not pick any other Core passives to save points

Defensive Skills (Required Points: 6 )

• (active – ONLY put 1 point here) Teleport – Transform into lightning becoming Unstoppable and surging to the target location dealing 25% (X -?) damage around you upon arrival. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Cooldown: 11 Damage: Lightning ; Tags: Defensive, Shock
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Teleport – Teleport’s cooldown is decreased by 0.5 seconds per enemy hit, up to 3 seconds.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Shimmering Teleport – After Teleporting, you gain 30% Damage Reduction for 5 seconds.

• (active – ONLY put 1 point here) Frost Nova – Unleash a torrent of frost, Freezing enemies around you for 2 seconds. Cooldown: 15 Tags: Defensive, Frost Enchantment Effect Lucky Hit: Your Conjuration Skills have a 30% chance to unleash a Frost Nova when hitting enemies.
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Frost Nova – Killing enemies Frozen by Frost Nova reduces its Cooldown by 2 seconds, up to 6 seconds per cast.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mystical Frost Nova – Frost Nova makes enemies Vulnerable for 4 seconds, increased to 8 seconds against Bosses.
• (passive) Elemental Attunement – Elemental Critical Strikes have a 5%/10%/15% chance to reset the Cooldown of one of your Defensive Skills. Can only happen once every 10 seconds.
• (passive) did not pick any other Defensive passives to save points

Conjuration Skills (Required Points: 11 )

• (active) Ice Blades – Conjure ice blades for 6.0 seconds that rapidly slashes enemies for 31% (X – ?) damage and has a 30% chance to make them Vulnerable for 2 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 71% Cooldown: 12 Damage: Cold ; Tags: Conjuration, Frost Enchantment Effect For every 20 seconds in Cooldowns you spend, you spawn an Ice Blades on a random enemy.
  • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Ice Blades – Ice Blades’s Cooldown is reduced by 1 second each time it hits a Vulnerable enemy.
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Summoned Ice Blades – 50% of Enhanced Ice Blades’s Cooldown reduction is applied to your other Skills.
• (passive – ONLY 2 point here) Align the Elements – You gain 5%/10%/15% Damage reduction against Elites for each second you don’t take damage from any of these sources, up to 50%.  
  • (1st upgrade) Mana Shield – did NOT take this one
  • (2nd upgrade – TOP TIER PASSIVE & MUST HAVE) Protection – Using a cooldown grants 10%/20%/30% of your maximum Life as a Barrier for 5 seconds.
• (passive) Precision Magic – Your Lucky Hit Effect Chance is increased by up to 5%/10%/15%.
• (passive) did not pick any more Conjuration passives to save points

Mastery Skills (Required Points: 16 ) Not taking an Active Mastery skill

• (active)
  • (1st upgrade)
  • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
• (passive) Ice Veil – Your Barriers have a +5%/+10%/+15% increased duration. (Barriers absorb damage from all sources up to a specified amount.)
  • (upgrade) Snap Freeze – Lucky Hit: Frost Skills have a 3%/6%/9% chance to instantly Freeze.
  • (upgrade – ONLY put 2 points here) Cold front – While you have a Barrier active, you apply 8%/16%/24% (multiplicative) more Chill.

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

• (active) Deep Freeze – Encase yourself in ice, becoming Immune for 4 seconds, continually dealing 13% damage, and Chilling enemies for 20%. When Deep Freeze expires, it deals an additional 100% damage. Casting Deep Freeze again ends the effect early. Lucky Hit Chance: 5% Cooldown: 60 Damage: Cold ; Tags: Ultimate, Frost
  • (1st upgrade) Prime Deep Freeze – When Deep Freeze ends, gain 10% of your Base Life as a Barrier for 6 seconds for each enemy you Froze while it was active.
  • (2nd upgrade) Supreme Deep Freeze – When Deep Freeze ends, your Non-Ultimate Cooldowns are reduced by 50%.
• (passive) Permafrost – Frost Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage to Elites.
  • (upgrade) Icy Touch – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies.
  • (upgrade) Hoarfrost – You deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) increased damage to Chilled enemies, and 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased damage to Frozen enemies.
  • (upgrade) Frigid Breeze – Lucky Hit: Cold Damage against Vulnerable enemies has a 20%/40%/60% chance to generate 5 Mana.

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

• (passive) Avalanche – Lucky Hit: Your Frost Skills have up to a 10% chance to make your next Ice Shards, Frozen Orb, or Blizzard consume no Mana and deal 40% (multiplicative) increased damage. Chance is doubled against Vulnerable enemies.

Enchantment (Class Mechanic):

I’d recommend mix-and matching two of the following Enchantments (you’ll need at least 1 point invested or from gear in the skills):

• Obvious Synergies
  • Frost Nova – Lucky Hit: Your Conjuration Skills have a 30% chance to unleash a Frost Nova when hitting enemies. (my pick)
  • Frozen Orb – Whenever you cast a non-basic skill, you have a 20% chance to launch a Frozen Orb at a nearby enemy. (my pick)
  • Ice Shards – Ice Shards automatically conjure and fly toward Frozen enemies.
  • Ice Blades – For every 20 seconds in cooldowns you spend, you spawn an Ice Blades on a Random enemy.
  • Frost Bolt – Direct Damage from Skills applies up to an additional 15% Chill.
• Still good to try
  • Flame Shield – Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage, Can only happen once every 120 Seconds.
  • Fireball – When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage.
  • Hydra – After spending 300 mana, a five-headed Hydra appears for 5 seconds.

Unique Item

In Diablo IV we can only equip one unique item at the same time. My pick will be the following one:

Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet)

[4 – 25]% Resistance to All Elements

Gain +100% Maximum Resource. In addition, when you take damage, drain [3 – 6] Resource for every 1% of Life you would have lost instead.

[10 – 18] All Stats
+[12.5 – 19.5]% Core Skill Damage
+[16.5 – 23.5]% Damage while Healthy
[7 – 14]% X Generation (Struck’s note: I’m 100% sure X here stands for each class’ Primary Recource: Mana, Essence, Spirit, Energy, Fury)

“Do not allow your passions to become obsessions. Fuel the fire that burns within you, but it is madness to allow yourself to become ash to please an uncaring universe.”
– Last words of Master Selig

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Diamond, Saphire, Skull, or Emerald.
Armor: Diamond, Skull, or Ruby.
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Snowballer 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

• Helm: Exploiter’s Aspect
• Amulet: *Aspect of Control Until The Unique goes here (see notes below)
• Chest: Frostblitz Aspect
• Pants: Encased Aspect
• Gloves: Aspect of Frozen Memories
• Boots: Aspect of Fortune
• Ring 1: Aspect of the Frozen Tundra
• Ring 2: Prodigy’s Aspect
• 1H Weapon: Aspect of Frozen Orbit
• Off-hand: Aspect of Biting Cold
• 2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Aspect of Frozen Orbit

NOTE 1: Prodigy's Aspect goes in the 2nd Ring slot ONLY until you get the Melted Heart of Selig Amulet. For after that see notes below:
There are two other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Frostburn (Gloves) & Harlequin Crest (Helm)
See the other other notes below:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange the aspects when you get the Melted Heart of Selig Unique Amulet:
- Prodigy's Aspect gets discarded & removed from the 2nd Ring slot and Aspect of Control goes in the now empty 2nd Ring slot. This makes room for the Unique to go in the Amulet slot.

NOTE 3: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Frostburn (Gloves): Prodigy's Aspect gets removed from the 2nd Ring slot and Aspect of Frozen Memories goes in the now empty 2nd Ring slot to make room for the Unique to go in the Gloves slot
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Frostblitz Aspect gets removed from the Chest slot and Exploiter’s Aspect goes in the now empty Chest slot to make room for the Unique to go in the Helmet slot.

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes i’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 91 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown). The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

• LVL 91 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
• MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 43 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

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This concludes the Snowballer 2.0 Sorcerer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

XBOX

PlayStation

Official Website