Tag: frost nova

Hailstorm Sorcerer Build for Diablo IV [B Tier Grade]

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 )

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 )

(active) Fire Bolt – Hurl a flaming bolt, dealing 10.00% (X – ?) damage and Burning for 40.00% (X-?) over 8 seconds.
Lucky Hit Chance: 20% | Damage: Fire ; Tags: Basic, Pyromancy
Enchantment Effect Direct damage from Skills applies up to an additional 23% (X – ?) Burning damage over 8 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Fire Bolt – Fire Bolt pierces Burning enemies
- (2nd upgrade) Flickering Fire Bolt – Fire Bolt generates 2 Mana when hitting a Burning enemy.

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 30% chance to make all enemies hit Vulnerable for 2 seconds. Frozen Orb always makes Frozen enemies Vulnerable.
(passive) did not pick any 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
Enchantment Effect: Evade is replaced with a short range Teleport on a 17.0 second Cooldown.
- (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.

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Flame Shield – Engulf yourself in flames for 2 seconds, Burning nearby enemies for 23% (X) damage per second. While Flame Shield is active, you are Immune.
Lucky Hit Chance: 50%
Cooldown: 20 | Damage: Fire ; Tags: Defensive, Pyromancy
Enchantment Effect: Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage. Can only happen once every 120 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Flame Shield – Flame Shield grants 25% Movement Speed while active.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Shimmering Flame Shield – Flame Shield Heals you for 50% of your missing Life.
(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 ) Not Taking any Active summons

(active)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive – ONLY 1 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) Blizzard – Summon a frigid blizzard that deals 120% (X) damage and continually Chills enemies for 18% over 8 seconds.
Lucky Hit Chance: 35%
Mana Cost: 40 | Damage: Cold ; Tags: Mastery, Frost
Enchantment Effect Every 15 seconds, a Blizzard forms over you and follows you for 6 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blizzard – Blizzard deals 25% (multiplicative) increased damage to Frozen enemies.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mage’s Blizzard – When cast above 50 Mana, Blizzard’s duration is increased by 4 seconds.
(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) 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):

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

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.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/+5% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Amethyst (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Damage Over Time
• Armor: N% Damage Taken Over Time Reduction
• Jewelry: N% Shadow Resistance

+5%/+8.2%/+14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Topaz (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Basic Skill Damage
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Control Impaired
• Jewelry: N% Lightning Resistance

+16.7%/8.2%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

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

Higher Priority

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)

Lower Priority

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

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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)

Shatterer Sorcerer Build for Diablo IV [S Tier Grade]

Shatterer Sorcerer BUILD for Diablo IV [S Tier Grade]

(Freeze then Shatter your foes, along with their hopes, into an Elemental Explosion of Fire & Ice)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 now ready to start 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 Shatterer.

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 (Shatterer) 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) Glinting Frost Bolt – Frost Bolt generates 4 Mana when hitting Chilled or Frozen.

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

(active) Ice Shards – Launch 5 shards that deal 25% (X-?) damage each. Deals 25% (Multiplicative) increased damage to Frozen enemies.
Lucky Hit Chance: 25%
Mana Cost: 30 | Damage: Cold ; Tags: Core, Frost
Enchantment Effect: Ice Shards automatically conjure and fly towards Frozen enemies.
- (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) Destructive Frozen Orb – Frozen Orb’s explosion restores 5 Mana when hitting a Frozen enemy.
(passive) did not pick any 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
Enchantment Effect: Evade is replaced with a short range Teleport on a 17.0 second Cooldown.
- (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.

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Flame Shield – Engulf yourself in flames for 2 seconds, Burning nearby enemies for 23% (X) damage per second. While Flame Shield is active, you are Immune.
Lucky Hit Chance: 50%
Cooldown: 20 | Damage: Fire ; Tags: Defensive, Pyromancy
Enchantment Effect: Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage. Can only happen once every 120 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Flame Shield – Flame Shield grants 25% Movement Speed while active.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Shimmering Flame Shield – Flame Shield Heals you for 50% of your missing Life.
(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 ) Not Taking any Active summons

(active)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive – ONLY 1 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) Cold front – While you have a Barrier active, you apply 8%/16%/24% (multiplicative) more Chill.

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Inferno – Summon a fiery serpent that continually constricts the target area, Burning enemies for 295% damage over 8 seconds.
Lucky Hit Chance: 38%
Cooldown: 45 | Damage: Fire ; Tags: Ultimate, Pyromancy
- (1st upgrade) Prime Inferno – Inferno repeatedly Pulls enemies to its center.
- (2nd upgrade) NOT TAKING THIS AS IT’S USELESS TO US!!!
(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.
(passive) did not pick any more Ultimate passives

Key Passive (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Shatter – After Freeze expires, enemies explode for 25% of the damage you dealt to them while Frozen.

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
- Fireball – When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage. (my ideal 1st pick @ lvl 15) 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 this so no need to worry about downgrading anything.
- Ice Shards – Ice Shards automatically conjure and fly toward Frozen enemies. (my ideal 2nd pick @ lvl 30)
Good to use For Bosses:
- Flame Shield – Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage, Can only happen once every 120 Seconds.
- Frozen Orb – Whenever you cast a non-basic skill, you have a 20% chance to launch a Frozen Orb at a nearby enemy.
- Frost Bolt – Direct Damage from Skills applies up to an additional 15% Chill.

Unique Items

In Diablo IV apparently (I have multiple sources that confirmed this) 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 Unique inherited from the Mythical gear they supposedly replaced was scrapped even before the closed beta tests. My top pick will be the following two but check the notes under the Aspects list for more picks:

Iceheart Brais (Pants)

While Injured, Your Potion Also Restores [30%] Resource Enemies that die while Frozen have a [11 – 20]% chance to unleash a Frost Nova.

[28 – 42] Intelligence
+[7 – 14]% Damage to Frozen Enemies
+[21 – 35]% Damage to Injured Enemies
+[7 – 14]% Freeze Duration

The mad artisan saw his fingers turn black from frostbite as he worked the cloth, but refused to stay the needle and thread for even a moment.

Frostburn (Gloves)

Lucky Hit: Up to a [15 – 25]% chance to Freeze enemies for 2 seconds.

+[3 – 8]% Critical Strike Chance
+[0.07 – 0.14] Cold Damage
+[7 – 14]% Freeze Duration
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +[14 – 28]% Primary Resource

A touch so frigid it stops the heart and chills the very soul.

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

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/+5% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/+39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Topaz (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Basic Skill Damage
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Control Impaired
• Jewelry: N% Lightning Resistance

+16.7%/8.2%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

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

Helm: Exploiter’s Aspect / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Unwavering Aspect
Chest: Frostblitz Aspect
Pants: Aspect of the Protector Until the Iceheart Brais Unique goes here (see notes below)
Gloves: Conceited Aspect / Frostburn (see notes below)
Boots: Aspect of Fortune
Ring 1: Aspect of Control / Ring of Starless Skies (see notes below)
Ring 2: Prodigy’s Aspect (not a must have but surely will help with spamming/bursting)
1H Weapon: Aspect of Piercing Cold
Off-hand: Shattered Aspect
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): I don’t recommend using a 2h weapon as the final setup with all 3 uniques as you’ll have to loose 1 more aspect slot + the CRUCIAL cooldown reduction an off-hand Focus gives and the little bit of extra dps + 100% efficiency of the aspect you put there won’t make up for it.

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

- Aspect of the Protector stays in the Pants slot ONLY until you get the Iceheart Brais Unique Pants.  For after that just discard it from the build. 
- For Frostburn (Gloves): Conceited Aspect gets removed from the Gloves slot to make room for the Unique Gloves
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Exploiter’s Aspect gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Ring of Starless Skies (Ring): Aspect of Control gets removed from the Ring 1 slot to make room for the Unique Ring. ALTERNATIVE: Prodigy's Aspect from the Ring 2 slot could be the one getting replaced and you could keep Aspect of Control + Ring of Starless Skies.

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 92 with 184 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 on paragon points but i did leave the last 12 up to you to spend on MAYBE the Icefall Legendary Node.

LVL 92 Paragons (184/223 points): Click THIS LINK
MAX LEVEL Paragons (last 12 points unspent): Click THIS LINK

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

I’ve shortlisted 42 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

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Frost/Cold Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Ultimate/Basic/Defensive Skills
Damage with Core/Ultimate/Basic/Defensive Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ Ranks to Core/Ultimate/Basic/Defensive Skills
+ Ranks to Ice Shards/Frost Nova/Flame Shield/Teleport Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Frost/Cold Damage
Frost/Cold Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Frost/Cold Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Chill Application
+ % Frost/Cold Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Frost/Cold Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage while Healthy
Barrier Generation
Chance When Struck to Gain N Life as Barrier for X Seconds
Lucky Hit Chance while You Have a Barrier
Damage Reduction while You Have a Barrier
Life as Barrier On Kill
Critical Strike Chance Against Chilled/Frozen Enemies
Damage to Chilled/Frozen Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Mana Generation / Regeneration/ On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower 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

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Shatterer 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)

Scorcher Diablo IV Sorcerer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Scorcher Sorcerer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(Set the World on fire and watch it BURN as you listen to the agonizing screams of your scorched foes)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 almost upon us and it’s time for 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 Scorcher.

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

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

(active) Fire Bolt – Hurl a flaming bolt, dealing 10.00% (X – ?) damage and Burning for 40.00% (X-?) over 8 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Damage: Fire ; Tags: Basic, Pyromancy Enchantment Effect Direct damage from Skills applies up to an additional 23% (X – ?) Burning damage over 8 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Fire Bolt – Fire Bolt pierces Burning enemies
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Glinting Fire Bolt – Critical Strikes with Fire Bolt increase the burning damage you deal to the enemy by 20% (multiplicative) for 4 seconds

Major Destruction / Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 ) Use Fireball ONLY until you get Firewall BUT keep the 1+1+1 points in it to boost the enchantment

(active – only use this until Firewall unlocks) Fireball – Hurl an exploding ball of fire, dealing 60% (X- ?) damage to surrounding enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 33% Mana Cost: 40 Damage: Fire ; Tags: Core, Pyromancy Enchantment Effect When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Fireball – Fireball’s radius is increased based on distance traveled, up to 50%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Greater Fireball – Fireball deals 10% of the Burning damage you’ve applied to enemies as additional direct damage.
(passive) did not pick any 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.

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Flame Shield – Engulf yourself in flames for 2 seconds, Burning nearby enemies for 23% (X) damage per second. While Flame Shield is active, you are Immune. Lucky Hit Chance: 50% Cooldown: 20 Damage: Fire ; Tags: Defensive, Pyromancy Enchantment Effect Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage. Can only happen once every 120 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Flame Shield – Flame Shield grants 25% Movement Speed while active.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Shimmering Flame Shield – Flame Shield Heals you for 50% of your missing Life.
(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 ) Not Taking any Active summons

(active)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) 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) Firewall – Create a wall of flames that Burns enemies for 160% (X) over 8 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Mana Cost: 30 Damage: Fire ; Tags: Mastery, Pyromancy Enchantment Effect Each time an enemy takes Burning damage, there’s a 5% (pre-launch patch: this % will be increased) chance to spawn 2 Firewalls underneath them for 3 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Firewall – Enemies take 25% (multiplicative) increased Burning damage from you while standing in Firewall.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mage’s Firewall – Enemies continue Burning for 3 seconds after leaving Firewall.
(passive) Inner Flames – Your Pyromancy Skills deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) increased damage while you are Healthy.
- (upgrade) Crippling Flames – Lucky Hit: Your Pyromancy Skills have a 5%/10%/15% chance to Immobilize enemies for 2 seconds. This chance is doubled while you are Healthy.
- (upgrade) Devouring Blaze – You deal 10%/20%/30% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage against Burning enemies. If they are also Immobilized, this bonus is increased to 25%/50%/75% (multiplicative).
(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 – did NOT take this one
- (upgrade) Cold front – did NOT take this one

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Inferno – Summon a fiery serpent that continually constricts the target area, Burning enemies for 295% damage over 8 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 38% Cooldown: 45 Damage: Fire ; Tags: Ultimate, Pyromancy
- (1st upgrade) Prime Inferno – Inferno repeatedly Pulls enemies to its center.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Inferno – While Inferno is active, your Pyromancy Skills cost no Mana.
(passive) Fiery Surge – Killing a Burning enemy increases your Mana Regeneration by +10%/+20%/+30% for 3 seconds.
- (upgrade) Soulfire – did NOT take this one
- (upgrade) Endless Pyre – You deal increased Burning damage to enemies for each second they remain Burning, up to 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) after 5 seconds.
- (upgrade – ONLY put 2 points here) Warmth – Every 1 second, you Heal for 0.3%/0.6%/0.9% of your Maximum Life for each Nearby Burning enemy. Healing increased to 0.6%/1.2%/1.8% from Bosses.

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Combustion – Your Burning effects deal 2% (multiplicative) increased damage per unique source of Burning you have applied to the enemy. If the enemy is Burning from 3 or more sources, this bonus is doubled.

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
- Fireball – When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage. NOTE that you’ll need to either remove a point from a passive or get +X Ranks to Fireball from an item. (my 1st pick)
- Fire Bolt – Direct Damage from Skills applies up to an additional 99 burning damage over 8 seconds.(my ideal 2nd pick)
- Meteor – Lucky Hit: 8% chance for a Meteor to fall on enemies. (my alternative 2nd pick) NOTE that you’ll need to either remove a point from a passive or get +X Ranks to Meteor from an item.
- Flame Shield – Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage, Can only happen once every 120 Seconds.
- Hydra – After spending 300 mana, a 5-headed Hydra appears for 5 seconds.
Still good to try
- 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 either remove a point from a passive or get +X Ranks to Frozen Orb and if you wanna make the most out of it you’ll actually spend 2 more points to get Greater Frozen Orb.

Unique Items

In Diablo IV apparently (I have multiple sources that confirmed this) 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 Unique 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 the notes under the Aspects list for some additional picks:

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

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/+5% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/+39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Amethyst (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Damage Over Time
• Armor: N% Damage Taken Over Time Reduction
• Jewelry: N% Shadow Resistance

+5%/+8.2%/+14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

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

Helm: Aspect of The Protector / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Exploiter’s Aspect / Melted Heart of Selig (see notes below)
Chest: Frostblitz Aspect
Pants: Aspect of The Unwavering / Iceheart Brais (see notes below)
Gloves: Accelerating Aspect / Exploiter’s Aspect (see notes below)
Boots: Aspect of Fortune / Esu’s Heirloom (see notes below)
Ring 1: Prodigy’s Aspect
Ring 2: Incendiary Aspect / Accelerating Aspect (see notes below)
1H Weapon: Elementalist’s Aspect
Off-hand: Aspect of Engulfing Flames
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Elementalist’s Aspect

NOTE 1: Incendiary Aspect stays in the Ring 2 slot ONLY until you get the Melted Heart of Selig Unique Amulet. After that discard it & put Accelerating Aspect in the, now empty, Ring 2 slot, then put Exploiter's Aspect in the, now empty, Gloves slot to make room for the Unique Amulet.
There are three other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Esu's Heirloom (Boots), Harlequin Crest (Helm), & Iceheart Brais (Pants)
See the other other notes below:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques (I made it as painless as possible):
- For Esu's Heirloom (Boots): Aspect of Fortune gets removed from the Gloves slot to make room for the Unique Boots
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Aspect of The Protector gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Iceheart Brais (Pants): Aspect of The Unwavering gets removed from the Pants slot to make room for the Unique Pants.

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 87 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 87 & 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 42 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

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Pyromancy/Fire Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Mastery/Ultimate/Core/Basic/Defensive Skills
Damage with Mastery/Ultimate/Core/Basic/Defensive Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ Ranks to Mastery/Ultimate/Core/Basic/Defensive Skills
+ Ranks to Firewall/Frost Nova/Fire Bolt/Fireball/Flame Shield/Teleport
Lucky Hit Chance with Fire/Burning Damage
Fire/Burning Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Fire/Burning Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Chill Application
+ % Fire/Burning Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Fire/Burning Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage while Healthy
Barrier Generation
Chance When Struck to Gain N Life as Barrier for X Seconds
Lucky Hit Chance while You Have a Barrier
Damage Reduction while You Have a Barrier
Life as Barrier On Kill
Critical Strike Chance Against Burning/DoT affected Enemies
Damage to Burning/DoT affected Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Mana Generation / Regeneration/ On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower 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

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Scorcher 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)

Iceplosion 2.0 Diablo IV Sorcerer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

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

(Chill then Freeze your foes only to Shatter them & their hopes into an Icy Explosion)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 Iceplosion 2.0.

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 (Iceplosion 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) Glinting Frost Bolt – Frost Bolt generates 4 Mana when hitting Chilled or Frozen.

Major Destruction / Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 ) Use Frozen Orb ONLY until you get Blizzard

(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) Destructive Frozen Orb – Frozen Orb’s explosion restores 5 Mana when hitting a Frozen enemy.
(passive) did not pick any 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.

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Flame Shield – Engulf yourself in flames for 2 seconds, Burning nearby enemies for 23% (X) damage per second. While Flame Shield is active, you are Immune. Lucky Hit Chance: 50% Cooldown: 20 Damage: Fire ; Tags: Defensive, Pyromancy Enchantment Effect Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage. Can only happen once every 120 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Flame Shield – Flame Shield grants 25% Movement Speed while active.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Shimmering Flame Shield – Flame Shield Heals you for 50% of your missing Life.
(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 ) Not Taking any Active summons

(active)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(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) Blizzard – Summon a frigid blizzard that deals 120% (X) damage and continually Chills enemies for 18% over 8 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 35% Mana Cost: 40 Damage: Cold ; Tags: Mastery, Frost Enchantment Effect Every 15 seconds, a Blizzard forms over you and follows you for 6 seconds.
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blizzard – Blizzard deals 25% (multiplicative) increased damage to Frozen enemies.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mage’s Blizzard – When cast above 50 Mana, Blizzard’s duration is increased by 4 seconds.
(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) 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) Shatter – After Freeze expires, enemies explode for 25% of the damage you dealt to them while Frozen.

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
- Blizzard – Every 15 seconds, a Blizzard forms over you and follows you for 6 seconds. (my 1st pick)
- Fireball – When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage. (my ideal 2nd pick) NOTE that you’ll need to either remove a point from a passive or get +X Ranks to Fireball from an item.
- Frozen Orb – Whenever you cast a non-basic skill, you have a 20% chance to launch a Frozen Orb at a nearby enemy. (my alternative 2nd pick) NOTE that you’ll need to either remove a point from a passive or get +X Ranks to Fireball from an item.
- 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.

Unique Item

In Diablo IV apparently (I have multiple sources that confirmed this) 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 Unique 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 the notes under the Aspects list for some additional picks:

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

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/+5% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/+39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

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 (Iceplosion 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Encased Aspect / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Exploiter’s Aspect
Chest: Frostblitz Aspect
Pants: Snowguard’s Aspect Until the Iceheart Brais Unique goes here (see notes below)
Gloves: Aspect of Biting Cold / Frostburn (see notes below)
Boots: Aspect of Fortune
Ring 1: Aspect of Control
Ring 2: Prodigy’s Aspect / Ring of Starless Skies (see notes below)
1H Weapon: Glacial Aspect
Off-hand: Aspect of the Frozen Tundra
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Glacial Aspect

NOTE 1: Snowguard's Aspect stays in the Pants slot ONLY until you get the Iceheart Brais Unique Pants. For after that see notes below:
There are three other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Frostburn (Gloves), Harlequin Crest (Helm), & Ring of Starless Skies (Ring)
See the other other notes below:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Frostburn (Gloves): Aspect of Biting Cold gets removed from the Gloves slot to make room for the Unique Gloves
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Encased Aspect gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Ring of Starless Skies (Ring): Prodigy's Aspect gets removed from the Ring 2 slot to make room for the Unique Ring. (This one's only truly going to shine if you don't use Blizzard but rather pick Frozen Orb or Ice Shards which will make a lot of other things needing reworks and might cost you a lot of coins in terms of respecs and re-rolls)

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 84 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 84 & 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 42 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

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Frost/Cold Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Mastery/Ultimate/Basic/Defensive Skills
Damage with Mastery/Ultimate/Basic/Defensive Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ Ranks to Mastery/Ultimate/Basic/Defensive Skills
+ Ranks to Blizzard/Frost Nova/Frost Bolt/Flame Shield/Teleport Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Frost/Cold Damage
Frost/Cold Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Frost/Cold Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Chill Application
+ % Frost/Cold Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Frost/Cold Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
Critical Chance / Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage while Healthy
Barrier Generation
Chance When Struck to Gain N Life as Barrier for X Seconds
Lucky Hit Chance while You Have a Barrier
Damage Reduction while You Have a Barrier
Life as Barrier On Kill
Critical Strike Chance Against Chilled/Frozen Enemies
Damage to Chilled/Frozen Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Mana Generation / Regeneration/ On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower 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

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Iceplosion 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)

Snowballer 2.0 Diablo IV Sorcerer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

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)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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).

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.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

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

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Frost/Cold Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Defensive/Conjuration/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Defensive/Conjuration/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
Damage with Core/Defensive/Conjuration/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Frost/Cold Damage
Frost/Cold Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Frost/Cold Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Chill Application
+ % Frost/Cold Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Frost/Cold Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Close Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Vulnerable Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage while Healthy
Barrier Generation
Chance When Struck to Gain N Life as Barrier for X Seconds
Lucky Hit Chance while You Have a Barrier
Damage Reduction while You Have a Barrier
Life as Barrier On Kill
Critical Strike Chance Against Chilled/Frozen Enemies
Damage to Chilled/Frozen Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Mana Generation / Regeneration/ On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower 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

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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)

Iceplosion Diablo IV Sorcerer Build

Iceplosion Sorcerer BUILD for Diablo IV

(chill then freeze your enemies to shatter their frozen selves into an icy explosion)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 Open Beta Tests are almost here and I felt motivated to make some Pre-Launch theorycrafted semi-builds that should be good for ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters when the game launches. I also plan to evolve them into FULL builds when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Sorcerer Class called Iceplosion.

The Beta tests will only let us reach lvl 25 and only let us play in the first Act/Zone (Fractured Peaks) so those builds will be more useful for the actual game launch and ideally for characters around lvl 50+ or 60+. I’ve used 50+ and 60+ skill points when making the builds instead of the full 100 so that they can be used to jumpstart a player’s post-story endgame grind.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect that work well with the build so one can spend the extra skill points on the way to lvl 100 into those other skills.

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have actual 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 on the way to lvl 100 + alternative skill options, you can check my pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Iceplosion) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Some of the skill icon images you see could be outdated & different from what is seen in the Full release version. I plan to replace them once the Beta ends or after the full launch.

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

(active) Frost Bolt – Throw a bolt of frost at an enemy, dealing 39.00% (X- ?) damage and Chilling them for 13%. Damage: Cold Tags: Basic, Frost
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Frost Bolt – Frost Bolt has a 10% chance to explode on Chilled targets, hitting nearby enemies. Chance increased by 100% against Frozen targets.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Glinting Frost Bolt – Frost Bolt generates 4 Mana when hitting Chilled or Frozen.

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

(active) Ice Shards – Launch 5 shards that deal 25.00% (X-?) damage each. Deals 25% (Multiplicative) increased damage to Frozen enemies. Mana Cost: 30 Damage: Cold Tags: Core, Frost
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Ice Shards – Ice Shards have 15% chance to ricochet to another enemy.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Greater Ice Shards – While you have a Barrier active, Ice Shards treats enemies as if they were Frozen.
(passive) Potent Warding – Your non-Physical Damage and Resistances are increased by 2%.
(passive) did not pick other Core passives to save points

Defensive Skills (Required Points: 6 ) I picked two Defensive skills for this build

(active) Frost Nova – Unleash a torrent of frost, Freezing enemies around you for 2 seconds. Cooldown: 14.7 Tags: Defensive, Frost
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Frost Nova – Frost Nova’s radius is increased by 25%.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Shimmering Frost Nova – Frost Nova generates 4 Mana per enemy hit.
(passive) did not pick any Defensive passives to save points

(active) Teleport – Transform into lightning becoming Unstoppable and surging to the target location dealing 25.00% (X -?) damage around you upon arrival. Cooldown: 10.8 Damage: Lightning Tags: Defensive, Shock
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Teleport – After Teleporting, take 30% less damage for 5 seconds.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Shimmering Teleport – Teleport’s cooldown is decreased by 0.5 seconds per enemy hit, up to 3 seconds.
(passive) did not pick any Defensive passives to save points

Conjuration Skills (Required Points: 11 ) I DID NOT pick a Conjuration skill but you can remove 1 of the defensive skills and add Ice Blades

(active) Ice Blades – Conjure ice blades for 6.0 seconds that rapidly slashes enemies for 30.67% (X – ?) damage and has a 20% chance to make them Vulnerable for 2 seconds. Cooldown: 11.8 Damage: Cold Tags: Conjuration, Frost
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Ice Blades – Ice Blades has a 10% increased chance to make enemies Vulnerable.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Summoned Ice Blades – Every time Ice Blades hits a Vulnerable enemy, it gains 25% Attack Speed, up to 100%.
(passive) Align the Elements – You gain 5% Damage reduction against Elites for each second you don’t take damage from any of these sources, up to 50%.
- (1st upgrade) Mana Shield – Every time you spend 100 Mana, you gain 5% Damage Reduction for 5 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade) Protection Using a skill with cooldown grants 10% of your maximum Life as a Barrier for 5 seconds.
(passive) did not pick any more Conjuration passives to save points

Mastery Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active) Blizzard – Summon a frigid blizzard that deals 120.00% (X) damage and continually Chills enemies for 18% over 5 seconds. Mana Cost: 40 Damage: Cold Tags: Mastery, Frost
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Blizzard – Blizzard’s duration is increased by 2 seconds.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mage’s Blizzard – Every second an enemy is in Blizzard, they take 2.5% (multiplicative) increased damage from you, up to 20% (multiplicative).
(passive I ONLY invested ONE point hereto unlock the upgrade ) Ice Veil – Your Barriers have a 5% increased duration. Barriers absorb damage from all sourced up to a specified amount.
- (upgrade 1) Hoarfrost – You deal more damage to enemies the more Chilled they are, up 6% (multiplicative) while they are Frozen.
- (upgrade 2 – did get this to save points) Cold Front – While you have a Barrier active, you apply 8% more Chill.

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Deep Freeze – Encase yourself in ice, becoming Immune for 4 seconds, continually Chilling enemies for 20%. When Deep Freeze ends, Frozen enemies shatter for 200.00% (X- ?). Casting Deep Freeze again ends the effect early. Cooldown: 58.8 Damage: Cold Tags: Ultimate, Frost
(1st upgrade) Prime Deep Freeze – Gain 5% of your Life as a Barrier for 6 seconds for each enemy shattered by Deep Freeze.
(2nd upgrade) Supreme Deep Freeze – When Deep Freeze ends, your active cooldowns are reduced by 50%.
(passive) Frostbite – You deal 3% (multiplicative) more damage to Frozen or Vulnerable enemies, and 6% (multiplicative) more damage to enemies who are both Frozen and Vulnerable.
- (upgrade) Icy Touch – You deal 4% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies.
- (upgrade) Permafrost – Frost Skills deal 5% (multiplicative) increased damage to Elites.
- (upgrade) Snap Freeze – Lucky Hit: Frost Skills have up to a 3% chance to instantly Freeze.

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Shatter – After Freeze expires, enemies explode for 25% of the damage you dealt to them while Frozen.

Class Mechanic:

I don’t have much info regarding sacrificing skills as “Enchantments” and if it even is still a part of the game so I’ll leave this empty for now.

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 pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Iceplosion) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Aspect of The Umbral
Amulet: Aspect of Control
Chest: Aspect of Might
Pants: Snowguard’s Aspect
Gloves: Aspect of Biting Cold
Boots: Aspect of Shared Misery
Ring 1: Aspect of Retribution
Ring 2: Prodigy’s Aspect
1H Weapon: Aspect of Pummeling
Off-hand: Aspect of Piercing Cold
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Aspect of Pummeling

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

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

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

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This concludes the Iceplosion 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)