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.

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

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)

XBOX

PlayStation

Official Website