Over 20 years after it was initially released, Diablo II has made its return. This has, of course, led to an influx of players interested in rekindling their love for finding the best synergies and techniques to make in their quest to defeat Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo himself. In the list below, we cover some of the best builds for the Sorceress, the only build that focuses primarily on Energy as its primary stat.

Best Sorceress Builds

Sorceress is a unique class that very rarely has players invest in any kind of Melee skills. With the Sorceress, you’ll need to hold a lot more mana than health potions, which is different than all the other classes. The Sorceress also trades off defense for extremely high-powered ranged magical attacks, making her capable of dealing some of the highest damage in the game if built correctly.

Equipment

One important thing to note about equipment is that choosing the right kind almost always depends on the player’s methods rather than the build itself. Since loot is randomly generated when you slay enemies, it is always best to equip gear that best suits your needs rather than searching for specific items. However, we listed the items below that best suit the Sorceress class overall. If a different gear is recommended for a particular build, it will be mentioned in the Additional Notes for that build.

  • Helm: DreamArmor: Chains of HonorGloves: Laying of Hands or FrostburnBelt: Arachnid Mesh or Verdungo’s Hearty CordBoots: Sandstorm Treke or SilkweaveShield: DreamAmulet: Highlord’s Wrath Rings: Passion or Call to Arms

Fireball

Fireball is commonly used as the bread-and-butter for a Sorceress. Most new players who don’t know which way to build their sorceress go with a Fireball Sorceress since she is easy to build and proves to be quite essential from early game to end game. The biggest downside to this build is that there are quite a few Fire-immune monsters on Hell difficulty. However, you can counter this by investing in the right alternative skills and equipment.

  • Skill PointsFire Ball: 20Fire Mastery: 20Fire Bolt: 20Meteor: 20Blizzard: 20Stat PointsStrength: Enough to wear equipment.Dexterity: Enough to wear equipment.Energy: Enough to comfortably cast spells without waiting.Vitality: Dump almost all points into Vitality.Added NotesThis build is a great starter build but can be considered lacking when it comes time to take on Hell difficulty. However, until then, this is the best build to get your character up to higher levels. After that, you can reset your skill points to re-invest them.GearTry to find gear that boosts fire damage more than any of the default options mentioned above. If you plan to take this character into Hell difficulty, finding equipment that lowers Fire Resist will be essential to your survival.

Chain Lightning Sorceress

A Chain Lightning Sorceress focuses on quantity over quality. Lightning damage spells themselves do not do a lot of damage but if you invest in the synergies for Chain Lightning, you can boost the skill up enough to deal massive damage to multiple enemies at once. All for a mana cost that is nowhere near as high as Fire and Blizzard spells.

  • Skill PointsNon-Hell DifficultyChain Lightning: 20Charged Bolt: 20Lightning: 20Nova: 20Lightning Mastery: 20Hell DifficultyChain Lightning: 20Lightning: 20Lightning Mastery: 20Nova or Charged Bolt: 20Frozen Orb or Fire Wall: 20Cold Mastery or Fire Mastery: 20Stat PointsStrength: Enough to wear equipment.Dexterity: Enough to wear equipment.Energy: Enough to comfortably cast spells without waiting. Lightning spells are low mana spells, but you’ll be casting them very frequently with this build, so you’ll need plenty of mana.Vitality: Level this up regularly to keep your survivability high.Added NotesGearTry to find gear that boosts lightning damage (like Eschuta’s Temper) or faster cast rate more than any of the default options mentioned above. If you plan to take this character into Hell difficulty, finding equipment that lowers Lightning Resist will be essential to your survival.Hire a mercenary that uses a Polearm infused with Infinity. This will give the mercenary the Conviction aura, which almost always breaks monster immunity when it reaches higher levels.

Blizzard

Blizzard Sorceresses are skilled and well-timed spellcasters. Since it mostly focuses on cold damage after a delay, players have to plan ahead to herd enemies and destroy them collectively, rather than taking out one or two at a time. The Blizzard sorceress can be detrimental to teams that focus heavily on summoning from corpses but can be an essential asset to teams that focus heavily on physical damage.

  • Skill PointsNon-Hell DifficultyIce Bolt: 20Ice Blast: 20Glacial Spike: 20Blizzard: 20Cold Mastery: 20Hell DifficultyBlizzard: 20Ice Bolt or Glacial Spike: 20Ice Blast or Cold Mastery: 20Frozen Orb or Fire Wall: 20Stat PointsStrength: Enough to wear equipment.Dexterity: Enough to wear equipment.Energy: Enough to comfortably cast spells without waiting.Vitality: Level this up regularly to keep your survivability high.Added NotesMost people who run this build opt to start exclusively building up their character with the cold spells, then reset their skill points to run Cold and Fire/Lightning for Hell mode to counter resistances. However, if you have the right gear and mercenaries, you can break Cold Immunity and focus entirely on Cold spells.GearTry to find gear that boosts cold damage (like Death’s Fathom) and Blizzard Skills (Snowclash) or reduces enemy Cold Resist. You can use a mercenary with the right buffs to red or faster cast rate more than any of the default options mentioned above. If you plan to take this character into Hell difficulty, finding equipment that lowers Cold Resist will be essential to your survival.

Meteorb

The Meteor Sorceress focuses heavily on her Meteor and Frozen Orb spells. This build is one of the best builds to run solo since you can counter Cold or Fire Immunities. The biggest downside to the build is that it heavily relies on skill and proper timing, so the ability to plan ahead and respond quickly is an absolute necessity.

  • Skill PointsFrozen Orb: 20Meteor: 20Fire Ball: 20Fire Mastery: 10-15+Cold Mastery: 10-15+Fire Bolt: 1+All other prerequisites: 1Stat PointsStrength: Enough to wear equipment (Spirit Monarch is the ideal shield and requires 156 strength).Dexterity: Enough to achieve ~70% block rate with shield/blocking.Energy: Base. This build does not rely on Energy Shield, so high energy is not a wise investment for this build.Vitality: Dump almost every point into Vitality.Added NotesThis build can be difficult in the early game because it drains your mana. It is essential to keep mana potions on you at all times for this build, otherwise you’ll be useless in the early game. However, this gets much better around mid-game and poses almost zero problems in the late game. Gear This is a specialized build for the Summoner, so it’s best to use the equipment that your skills and cast rate, or lowers enemy fire resistance. However, the absolute best gear to get is the full set of Tal Rasha’s Wrappings since it increases cold damage and reduces fire resistance.

Enchantress

The Enchantress focuses on maxing out her Enchant ability, which boosts a weapon to deal fire damage. The synergies for this skill are just as crucial as the skill itself. This is an extremely versatile build and allows for a wide selection of other skills to accommodate for her or the team’s needs.

  • This is a specialized build for the Summoner, so it’s best to use the equipment that your skills and cast rate, or lowers enemy fire resistance. However, the absolute best gear to get is the full set of Tal Rasha’s Wrappings since it increases cold damage and reduces fire resistance.

  • Skill PointsEnchant: 20Warmth: 20Fire Mastery: 20Energy Shield: 20Stat PointsStrength: Enough for equipment, but it’s not recommended to go above 130.Dexterity: Enough to boost attack rating and get 50% chance to block.Energy: Dump almost all your stat points into Energy.Vitality: BaseAdditional NotesThe appeal of this build is its versatility. If you are a solo player or want to play with a melee sorceress, you can point additional skill points into defensive spells and synergies. If you are playing as support for your team, you can put additional skill points into other elemental spells and their respective mastery.

Ultimately, the best build for you depends on your play style. However, the builds above are tried and tested by many players with experience in the game. If you have any builds that you think should be mentioned, tell us in the comments below!

Be sure to check out our Diablo 2 Homepage for all the latest news, guides, and information about this classic game!