Hailstorm Sorcerer BUILD for Diablo IV [B Tier Grade]

(Call forth a Hailstorm and cover the battlefield with Glacial Icicles, let your foes feel the power of Cold )

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Diablo IV launched on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation) and I’ve had my fair share of playing and testing done. I’m already making full Builds/Theorycrafts that work for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I’ll evolve & keep them updated when we get major rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Sorcerer Class called Hailstorm.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for my 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 when needed.

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 (Hailstorm) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

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

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

Defensive Skills (Required Points: 6 )

Conjuration Skills (Required Points: 11 ) Not Taking any Active summons

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

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

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):

• My MUST HAVE Picks
  • Frozen Orb – Whenever you cast a non-basic skill, you have a 20% chance to launch a Frozen Orb at a nearby enemy. NOTE that you’ll need to invest 3 points into it and its first & second Upgrades to get the most out of this. Ideally getting some extra ranks from gear will help too but is not as important. The skill points allocation has accounted for this so no need to worry about downgrading anything. This is my ideal pick for Slot 1 @ lvl 15
  • Blizzard – Every 15 seconds, a Blizzard forms over you and follows you for 6 seconds. This is my ideal pick for Slot 2 @ lvl 30

• Good to use For Mobbing AoE & DPS:
  • Fireball – When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage. NOTE that you’ll need to invest 2 points into it and its first Upgrade to get the most out of this. Ideally getting some extra ranks from gear will help too but is not as important. The skill points allocation has accounted for 3 points (1+1+1) into Frozen Orb & its upgrades so no need to worry about downgrading other things just use those points… UNLESS you decide to use two core skill enchantments. Very good to use for leveling in the early first 30-40 levels.
    • Ice Shards – Ice Shards automatically conjure and fly toward Frozen enemies. NOTE that you’ll need to invest 3 points into it and its first & second Upgrades to get the most out of this. Ideally getting some extra ranks from gear will help too but is not as important. The skill points allocation has accounted for 3 points (1+1+1) into Frozen Orb & its upgrades so no need to worry about downgrading other things just use those points… UNLESS you decide to use two core skill enchantments. Very good to use for leveling in the early first 30-40 levels.

Unique Items

In Diablo IV we can equip more than one unique item at the same time (not so ‘unique’ if we can get decked out in full uniques I guess). It seems that the one unique per build idea that Uniques inherited from the Mythical gear they supposedly replaced was scrapped even before the closed beta tests. My top pick will be the following one but check below it & the notes under the Aspects list for more info:

Top Pick Unique for the Build

Harlequin Crest (Helm)

Gain [5-8%] Damage Reduction. In addition, gain +[2-4] Ranks to All Skills.

[0.245 – 0.455] Maximum Life
X% Cooldown Reduction
+[42 – 70]% Crafting Material Drop Rate
[14 – 28] All Stats

“This headdress was once worn by an assassin disguised as a court mage. Her treachery was unveiled, but not before she used its magic to curse the king’s entire lineage.” – The Fall of House Aston

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: Amethyst is what this build needs more because DoT (Blizzard is DoT) doesn’t crit or overpwoer
Armor: Ruby or Topaz (dmg reduction is very needed in high tier NM dungeons).
Jewelry: Skull for Armor until they rework resistances. After the rework: 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 (Hailstorm) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

• Helm: Aspect of The Protector / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
• Amulet: Aspect of The Unwavering
• Chest: Frostblitz Aspect
• Pants: Snowguard’s Aspect
• Gloves: Aspect of Frozen Memories
• Boots: Aspect of Fortune
• Ring 1: Prodigy’s Aspect
• Ring 2: Aspect of Frozen Orbit
• Main Hand Weapon: Glacial Aspect
• Off-hand Focus: Aspect of the Frozen Tundra
• 2-H Weapon: I do NOT recommend using a 2h weapon as it would mean loosing a precious aspect and cooldown reduction + the wand’s lucky hit chance which helps with both dps and survivability for this build by procing defensive skill resets (which in turn also = mana generation). But if you use a 2hander then the one aspect to sacrifice from the build would be Aspect of Frozen Orbit. I’d also keep the Glacial Aspect imprinted on the 2h slot

NOTES: How to re-arrange if using any of the Uniques:

- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Aspect of The Protector gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.

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 89 with 179 paragon points (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100). The other link is what the boards will look like when fully maxed out (I left the last 1 point unspent) on paragon points.

• 179/223 Paragon Pts. (~LVL 89 with renown & altar pts): Click THIS LINK
• MAX LEVEL & (MAX – 1) Paragon points spent (222/223): Click THIS LINK

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

I’ve shortlisted 36 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. NOTE: I’ve added a new “Top Priority per Slot” list but left the old unsorted list below it.

This is the Sorted by Slot list of Top Priority Affixes/Rolls:

• Helm:
  • Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction
  • Priority 2: Maximum Life
  • Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Maximum Mana
  • Priority 4: Total Armor
• Amulet:
  • Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction, +X Ranks of Mastery Skills, Movement Speed
  • Priority 2: Maximum Life, +X Ranks of a Passive you like, +X% Frost Skills Damage
  • Priority 3: +X% Damage, Damage Reduction from Close or Distant Enemies/While Injured,
  • Priority 4: Mana Cost Reduction
• Chest:
  • Priority 1: Damage Reduction from Close/Distant Enemies
  • Priority 2: Maximum Life, + X% Damage
  • Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Total Armor
  • Priority 4: Cold Damage, Frost Skill Damage
• Pants:
  • Priority 1: +X Ranks of Blizzard, Damage Reduction from Close/Distant Enemies
  • Priority 2: Maximum Life, Damage Reduction while Injured
  • Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Total Armor
  • Priority 4: Damage Reduction
• Gloves:
  • Priority 1: + X ranks of Frozen Orb
  • Priority 2: Damage to Injured Enemies, Attack Speed
  • Priority 3: Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +X% Primary Resource, Lucky Hit Chance
  • Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Heal +X Life
• Boots:
  • Priority 1: Movement Speed, +4 Ranks of Frost Nova, Mana Cost Reduction
  • Priority 2: Damage Reduction while Injured
  • Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats)
  • Priority 4: Dodge Chance Against Distant Enemies
• Rings:
  • Priority 1: Damage to Injured Enemies, Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Close Enemies
  • Priority 2: Maximum Life, Damage Over Time
  • Priority 3: Cold Damage, Damage to Burning Enemies, Lucky Hit Chance
  • Priority 4: Damage to Frozen/Crowd Controlled Enemies
• Main Hand Weapon: Apparently, weapons can NOT roll two types of Damage mods!!!
  • Priority 1: Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Close Enemies
  • Priority 2: Damage to Injured Enemies
  • Priority 3: Damage to Frozen/Crowd Controlled Enemies
  • Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats)
• Off-hand Focus:
  • Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction, Mana Cost Reduction
  • Priority 2: Lucky Hit Chance
  • Priority 3: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +[7 – 14]% Primary Resource
  • Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Wil, All Stats), Damage Reduction from Enemies that are Burning
• 2-H Weapon: See the 1H Weapon Rolls List

This is the UNsorted by list of useful Affixes/Rolls:

+ X% Damage

Damage with Frost Skills

Damage with Mastery Skills (from paragons only)

Lucky Hit Chance

+ X Ranks to Mastery Skills

+ X Ranks to Blizzard/Frozen Orb/Frost Nova

+ Willpower, + Dexterity, + Strength

+ All Stats

+ Maximum Life

Mana Generation / Regeneration / On Kill

Resource/Mana Cost Reduction

Cooldown Reduction

Attack Speed

Cold Damage Bonus

Lucky Hit Chance with Cold Damage

Resistance to All Elements

Damage to Burning Enemies

+ % Cold Damage to Elites

+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite

Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite

Damage Reduction from Elites

Damage Against Close Enemies

Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies

Vulnerable Damage

Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies

Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Restore +X% Primary Resource

Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Heal +X Life

Damage while Healthy

Barrier Generation

Lucky Hit Chance while you have a Barrier

Movement Speed

Damage vs Injured Enemies

Lucky Hit: Up to a +X% Chance to Execute Injured Non-Elites

Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies

Damage vs Healthy Enemies

Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

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

For my Diablo IV 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 Hailstorm 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