Sorceress Build Guide Diablo 2 Resurrected Fireball Sorceress. This is a Beginner Sorceress Build that will comfortably get you through Normal, which is the first difficulty of Diablo 2 Resurrected. If you are looking for a Beginner Sorceress Build, and aren’t sure where to begin, then this Diablo 2 Build Guide is for you. Check out our Diablo 2 Best Builds for more builds for all classes.

Fire Sorceress Build

• Class: Sorceress
• Skill Line Focus: Fire Spells
• Build Focus: DPS
• Main Attribute: Vitality
• Difficulty Level: Normal
• Level: 1-40

Sorceress Build Guide Diablo 2 Resurrected | Fireball Sorc

The Fireball Sorceress uses powerful Fire Balls to quickly annihilate both groups of enemies and individual targets. Using the Teleport skill allows you to quickly move through the map and stay safe during fights, while the Static Field Skill can be used to quickly get rid of Bosses.

This Sorceress Build is great for new players because it’s very easy to set up and use. You just need to assign the skills, aim into your enemies and spam the attack button. Additionally, the required equipment pieces are very easy to farm during early game, so you won’t have to worry about that either.

It’s important to note that this Sorceress Build is meant for the first difficulty level (Normal) and up to around Lvl 40. You can still play through Nightmare and Hell difficulties with it, but you’ll need to get better equipment which we won’t be covering during this guide.

If you are a new player I strongly recommend you save the respec that you get from completing the first mission Den of Evil. If you do, you’ll be able to talk to Akara and respect your character into a different build once you reach Nightmare difficulty.

Sorceress Build Guide Stats | Fireball Sorc

Most Builds in Diablo 2 Resurrected have a Stat distribution that focuses on assigning enough points into Strength to meet equipment requirements, enough Dexterity to reach max Block Chance, and then assigning everything else into Vitality to gain as much Life as possible. And while this is true for most Builds, it can be confusing to decide when you should assign these Attribute Points.

LEVEL 40 SORCERESS STATS
STRENGTH	60
DEXTERITY	25
VITALITY	140
ENERGY	50

 

Strength: Strength is a requirement for most equipment pieces of the game. During your first play through, you’ll want to have enough points to slot the best equipment for each act.

• Act I: 30 Strength
• Act II: 45 Strength
• Act III – V: 60 Strength

From here you should only assign points into Strength if you find an Item that is worth the investment. If not, just assign the points into Vitality.

Dexterity: For most Builds Dexterity is important to increase Block Chance when using a Shield. Since Block Chance is not that important at the beginning of the game, we won’t be assigning any points here.

Vitality: All remaining points should be spent here. Increasing Vitality will greatly increase your health pool, which is essential to stay alive against large groups of enemies. Vitality also increases your Stamina, allowing you to run much further without needing to rest.

Energy: While assigning points into Energy is not necessary, you can spend some points here if you feel like you are lacking Mana. If you do, taking energy to 50 should be more than enough.

Sorceress Build Guide Skills | Fireball Sorc

Many Fire Sorceress Builds use the Fire Bolt spell or a combination of both Fire Ball and Fire Bolt instead of focusing on Fire Ball. This is because the Fire Bolt spell Mana requirement doesn’t increase with level, allowing you to maximize Mana efficiency, while the Fire Ball spell is exactly the opposite.

However, while this is true, it also means that you won’t be able to deal with groups of enemies using Fire Bolt. Additionally, if you go for a combination of both, then it’ll take you much longer to kill enemies. For this reason, the Fireball Sorceress focuses on maximizing Fire Ball and uses Mana Potions, or assigning some points into Energy to compensate for the Mana consumption requirements.

Fire Bolt

Fire Bolt throws a flaming missile that deals moderate damage to a single enemy. It’s both a pre-requisite and a synergy to your Fire Ball spell, increasing the Fire Ball’s fire damage by +16% for each level. And as mentioned before, this spell’s Mana requirement doesn’t increase with level, meaning that each point assigned into it will mean more damage for the same Mana cost.

Fire Ball

Fire Ball creates an explosive sphere that does splash damage in a small AoE when it comes in contact with enemies or a structure. The damage will be the same for all enemies caught in the AoE, so you don’t have to worry about targeting individual enemies. This spell will be your main way of dealing damage, and while its Mana requirements increases with each level, it can deal up to 5x times the damage of a Fire Bolt with each cast which easily compensates for the increased Mana requirement.

Static Field

This skill reduces the current health of all enemies around you by 25% ignoring all types of Resistances. Since it takes into account enemies’ current health, you can cast it repeated times to drop enemy health to a very low percentage very fast.

This is especially useful against Bosses, allowing you drop them to 5% or 10% health and then finishing them off with a Fireball Spell. It’s important to note that it can’t take monster’s health below 33% during Nightmare Difficulty and 50% during Hell Difficulty, but even taking half health bar from a boss with only a couple of casts is very strong and a must have for all Sorceresses.

Skill Distribution

For the Skill distribution you’ll want to focus on your Fire Ball spell first, and then unlock the utility spells such as Teleport, Static Field or Fire Mastery as soon as they become available. Once you max out Fire Ball, you can then focus on Fire Bolt to further increase its damage and also use it as a single target spell to save some Mana if you want.

LEVEL 40 SORCERESS SKILLS
Level	Points Spent	Skill
2-9 +Den of Evil Point	9	Fire Bolt
10	1	Static Field
11	1	Warmth
12-17	6	Fire Ball
Radament’s Lair Point	1	Telekinesis
18	1	Teleport
19-29 + The Fallen Angel 2 Points	13	Fire Ball
30	1	Fire Mastery
31	1	Fire Ball
32-40	9	Fire Bolt

 

The idea here is that we use Fire Bolt until we acquire Fire Ball and then swap to that. We take a couple detours for Teleport and Static Field, but the main goal is maximizing Fire Ball damage. Boosting Fire Bolt later on allows us to use it if we wish, but also improves Fire Ball damage further.

Sorceress Build Guide Faster Cast Rate | Fireball Sorc

The Fireball Sorceress Build deals a lot of damage on its own, so you’ll be looking for equipment that increases your survival chances. But, if you do want to further increase your damage you’ll want to increase your Faster Cast Rate (FCR).

The time that your character takes to cast a Skill depends on the Class. In the case of Sorceress, casting each fire spell without any FCR equipment will require 13 frames. When you equip something that provides Faster Cast Rate (FCR), the cast animation time is reduced by a percentage, but unless you are able to reduce the amount of frames required to finish the animation it won’t have a real effect on gameplay.

This means that when trying to reduce your cast time, you’ll need to find the FCR percentage breakpoints for each frame drop. As you can see in the following table, the Sorceress FCR Frame breakpoints are at 9% – 20% – 37% – 63% – 105% – 200% meaning that at 200% FCR your casting animation will only require 7 frames to complete and start a new cast.

Even if it doesn’t appear to be that relevant, each frame reduced will greatly increase the total amount of spells that you can cast each second. Reaching the 20%, 37% or 67% FCR breakpoints should not be that hard and will improve your damage output.

Frames	13	12	11	10	9	8	7
FCR	0%	9%	20%	37%	63%	105%	200%

 

Sorceress Build Guide Runewords | Fireball Sorc

Runes are a special type of socketed item that will not only provide unique properties, but that can also be combined with other Runes to create what’s called a Runeword. Runewords can be formed by inserting Runes in a specific order inside certain types of equipment. The Item must be Normal Rarity, able to support the Runeword, and it needs to have the same amount of sockets as Runes are required. Note that some magical items have sockets on them, but even if you put the Runes in the right order the Runeword will not be created and you’ll essentially lose your Runes, so be sure to use Normal Rarity items only.

While Runewords are often referred to as End Game equipment, some of them can be crafted very early into Diablo 2 Resurrected, and should not be so hard to come by. If you are lacking a base, you can check with the merchants as they often sell socketed items, but make sure that they are Normal in rarity.

Runewords are the most reliable way to gear up your character while you advance through the game, so I strongly suggest that you take a look at the complete list on our Wiki and periodically check the runes that you have and the Runewords that you can craft.

Runes can be farmed by doing Countess Runs. The Countess is a Super Unique Monster that can be found inside the Forgotten Tower in Act I. Each time you kill her she will always drop between 1 and 3 Runes and their level will depend on the difficulty setting.

What Equipment To Use

Elemental Resistances are key when trying to survive in Diablo 2 Resurrected. Most enemies deal elemental damage and having high resistances will mitigate a great percentage of this damage. For this reason, I strongly recommend that you focus on equipment pieces that provide +Resistances during the Normal difficulty of the game.

You can check your current resistances by opening the Stat menu and looking at the bottom of the menu. Resistances cap at +75%, and ideally you’ll want to max all of them when you are reaching the end of Normal difficulty. Make sure to periodically check your equipment to balance them out and get them as high as possible.

Since loot is random, you won’t have control over the equipment that you get during early and even mid-stage gameplay other than creating Runewords. Having said that, there are some general guidelines on the Stats that you should be looking for on your items to make sure that your character scales up with the increasing difficulty.

Helmet

Nadir (Runeword): Nef–Tir Runes – Lvl 13. This Helmet provides a good amount of defense as well as +5 strength, allowing us to save some Stats during early stages.

Lore (Runeword): Ort–Sol Runes – Lvl 27. If you happen to come across a Sol rune then you can use it to craft this helmet which provides +1 to all Skills as well as +30% lightning resistance.

Weapon

Leaf (Runeword): Tir–Ral Runes – Lvl 19. This is the best weapon for this build, as it provides +3 to Fire Skills, greatly increasing your output damage. It also provides a good amount of defense, as well as +33% cold resistance.
The runes required can be farmed from the Normal Difficulty Countess, so you should make a couple of runs until you get a Tir and Ral runes. Once you do, make sure to talk to Akara to buy a 2 socket Staff to create the runeword.

Spirit (Runeword): Tal–Thul–Ort–Amn Runes – Lvl 25. This Runeword can be crafted on both Weapons and Shields. It increases both your damage, thanks to its +2 To All Skills and +25-35% FCR, as well as increasing your defense, thanks to Faster Hit Recovery, Vitality and Life Stolen Per hit.

Finding a 4 socketed weapon can be a little tricky, but stay on the lookout for Crystal Swords, Longswords and Broadswords. If you happen to play the Secret Cow Level, if you find any unsocketed of these types of Weapons, you can get a guaranteed 4 sockets from Larzuk by completing the Siege on Harrogath quest.

Staves and Orbs (Magical and Rare): Staves and Orbs weapons usually come with +Sorceress Skills on them. If you come across one of these that provide +Skills and good stats then it’s a perfect fit for this build.

Shield

Ancient’s Pledge (Runeword): Ral–Ort–Tal Runes – Lvl 21. This shield provides a huge boost to resistances. If you can’t find an Ort Rune you can make one by combining 3 Ral Runes inside the Horadric Cube.

Spirit (Runeword): Tal–Thul–Ort–Amn Runes – Lvl 25. If you find the Runes and four slot Shield then Spirit is a great option as well. This shield provides +2 to all skills and +25-35% FCR greatly increasing your damage, and provides many defensive stats such as Elemental Resistances, Faster Hit Recovery and Vitality.

Armor

Stealth (Runeword): Tal–Eth Runes – Lvl 17. This is by far the best armor that you can get early on. The 25% Faster Cast Rate greatly increases your damage, while the poison resistance and Faster Hit Recovery (FHR), which allows you to recover control of your character sooner after each hit, provides us with more survivability. The FHR is very important, as it usually helps you avoid stun locks when surrounded by enemies.

Gloves

When it comes to gloves you’ll want to focus on defensive stats such as Life and Resistances.

Belt

Make sure to swap your belt as soon as you reach Act 2 for the maximum amount of potions. Regarding stats, you’ll want to focus on Life and Resistances. Some merchants might offer magical belts with a lot of life on them, which are a great option.

Boots

You’ll want to search for Faster Run/Walk speed on your boots as well as Resistances and Life. Run/Walk speed is important to quickly navigate through the map so make sure to get it.

Rings

You’ll want to search for rings that provide Faster Cast rate. Other than that, you’ll want to focus on life and resistances.

Amulet

Similar to rings, you’ll want to find an amulet that provides Faster Cast Rate, but any amulet that provides Life and resistances will be great as well.

Charms

You’ll find many Charms as you advance through the game. While having these in your inventory is great, they can easily occupy a lot of space limiting the amount of loot you pick up. Try to focus on +Life, +Resistances and +Magic Find as these are the more important ones for your build.

What Mercenary to Select & Gear to Use

Act 2 Mercenaries are the best choice for all Builds due to their Paladin Auras and the ability to equip Polearm Weapons. Being able to use Polearms is very important, because many powerful Runewords can be created on them providing various buffs or debuffing enemies. You can recruit this Mercenary from Greiz in Lut Gholein.

When it comes to selecting an Aura, you’ll want to select the Prayer Mercenary found on Normal difficulty. The Prayer Aura provides heal regeneration allowing you to survive longer without using Potions. Once you reach Nightmare difficulty, you can hire a Holy Freeze Aura Mercenary, which slows enemies around you providing great crowd control.

You won’t have a lot of spare equipment during the beginning of Diablo 2 Resurrected, but you can equip him with any extra equipment you have or buy him a Polearm from a merchant. If you happen to spare some Runes, make sure to craft an Insight (Runeword) on a Polearm, as this Weapon provides you with the Meditation Aura greatly increasing your mana regeneration, as well as increasing your Mercenaries’ combat capabilities.

Final Tips

Doing a couple of Countess Runs will give you a lot of Runes that will not only be useful for this Build, but for any other character that you might make. Make sure to save all Runes that you find inside your Stash.

If you are having trouble finding a base for your Runewords, make sure to periodically check on merchants as they usually have good bases.

You can assign your Fireball attack to the normal attack slot, allowing you to only swap between utility skills. You can attack from your current position by holding shift on PC. If you’re using controller, this will not be an issue for you, however.

The Fireball skill deals damage in a small AoE, so you can aim for walls or columns and still hit your enemies. This can be useful at choke points such as doors or small rooms.

If you happen to find a good Unique or Set item that you like don’t hesitate to swap it with your current gear. I excluded all unique and Set items from this guide because there’s no reliable way of acquiring them early on.

I personally like to run my belt with 2x Healing Potions columns and 2x Mana Potion columns, but you can also add Antidote Potions or Thawing Potions. Using these potions will not only cure their respective status effect, but also provide a +50 resistance to their corresponding elemental resistance.

Once you equip an Insight Runeword on your Mercenary he will be your main way to recover Mana, so make sure to keep him alive by using potions on him. To do this, press and hold shift and then right click on the potion you wish to use. If you’re playing on controller, hold down the left trigger and press the appropriate button on the D-Pad.

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Stay tuned for more Diablo 2 Build Guides, and be sure to check out our Diablo 2 Resurrected Wiki for more information about the game!