Welcome to our Diablo 4 Ice Shards Sorcerer build for Endgame. This build converts your sorcerer into an icy mini-gun. It is capable of excellent single target damage and respectable mobility, this build can be taken into any content and find success. In this article we will give you the info needed to re-create this build! This guide will cover the Skill Tree, Aspects, Paragon Board, Glyphs and everything you need to run the Ice Shards Sorcerer build!
Pros
- High burst damage.
- Mobile.
- Great for speed farming all types of content.
Cons
- Mana hungry.
- Requires enemies to be crowd controlled to do meaningful damage.
- Squishy. Very squishy.
Skill Tree and Paragon Board
Board Order and Glyphs
- 1.) Starting Board – Flamefeeder: Consistent damage increase as it will allow for more overall damage when Burning is applied to targets.
- 2.) Elemental Summoner – Elementalist: This will be a moderate damage increase. It will not be prioritized over other runes.
- 3.) Frigid Fate – Tactician: Enables Defensive abilities to act as pseudo-offensive cooldowns by providing a flat damage bonus when these abilities are used.
- 4.) Burning Instinct – Destruction: Amplifies Core abilities by providing Critical Strike damage amplifiers. This drastically improves Ice Shards damage.
- 5.) Ceaseless Conduit – Control: Most important rune that we have. This will increase the damage we deal to crowd-controlled enemies. This will allow our entire build to deal more overall damage thanks to the wide array of crowd-control abilities in our arsenal.
- 6.) Searing Heat – Exploit: Great source of extra damage. It will further amplify the damage dealt to Vulnerable targets.
Glyph Leveling Priority
Below you will find the important Rare Glyphs for the Whirlwind Barbarian. Make note, you should upgrade each Glyph to level 15 first, and then push them to max.
- 1.) Control
- 2.) Destruction
- 3.) Tactician
- 4.) Exploit
- 5.) Flamefeeder
- 6.) Elementalist
Enchantment Slots
Sorcerer’s unique class mechanic grants us the ability to slot two Non-Ultimate Skills into Enchantment Slots where they gain potent passive bonuses.
Slot Ice Shards into the first Enchantment Slot. This will significantly boost our AoE damage through the use of Frost Nova, as Ice Shards will now automatically cast at Frozen enemies.
Slot Fire Bolt into the second Enchantment Slot. This will apply Burning to enemies, which enables the use of the Devouring Blaze passive, as well as other Burning related Affixes and Paragon nodes.
Season One: Malignant Hearts
The Seasonal Affix tied to Season One will add a huge boost to all builds in Diablo 4. This will provide you essentially bonus gem slots that will add unique effects which may provide massive damage, defensive, or utility boosts. For more information on this, please refer to our Season 1 Malignant Hearts Guide
Below you will find the suggested Malignant Hearts for this build:
Recommended
- Tal’Rasha (Vicious, Offensive): For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7%-12% increased damage for 2-8 seconds.
- Revenge (Brutal, Defensive): 10-20% of incoming damage is instead supressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360 – 2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies.
- The Barber (Wrathful, Super): Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0 – 4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.
Optional
- Tempting Fate (Vicious, Offensive): You gain 45%-65% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20%-25% less damage.
- Malignant Pack (Wrathful, Super): Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills:
- Gain 20% Attack Speed
- Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource
- Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85 – 102 damage
- Dark Dance (Vicious, Offensive): Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost 51 – 68 Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10% – 20% increased damage.
- Spellbreaking (Brutal, Defensive): After taking Elemental damage, gain 20%-40% Resistance to that element for 5 seconds.
- Spite (Devious, Utility): When you are afflicted with a Crowd Control effect, there is a 20%-40% chance that the same enemy and enemies around you are also afflicted with the same effect for 3 seconds.
Legendary Aspects & Gearing
Below is a list of Aspects we use and recommend for this build. The Aspects are in order starting from the most to least important.
Required
These Aspects act as the core of the build and allow it to function. These will ALWAYS be needed.
- Aspect of Piercing Cold (Offensive)
Recommended
These Aspects are suggested for improving damage output or overall defensiveness. Some of these may be interchanged with other preferences or in the case of obtaining a Unique drop.
- Frostblitz Aspect (Defensive)
- Aspect of Fortune (Utility)
- Elementalist’s Aspect (Offensive)
- Aspect of Control (Offensive)
- Aspect of Binding Embers (Utility)
- Conceited Aspect (Offensive)
- Aspect of Frozen Memories (Offensive)
- Aspect of Disobedience (Defensive)
Optional
- Storm Swell Aspect (Offensive) – Only use if you have stacked enough CDR and Mana Cost Reduction.
- Aspect of Retribution (Offensive)
- Prodigy’s Aspect (Resource)
Aspect Slots
Note that Aspects are limited to specific gear slots. Use the list below to decide where to put your aspects. This build does not restrict you, but note some unique items may require you to adjust accordingly:
- Offensive – Amulets, Gloves, Ring, Weapons
- Defensive – Amulets, Chest, Helm, Legs
- Mobility – Amulets, Boots
- Resource – Rings
- Utility – Amulets, Boots, Chest, Gloves, Helm
Suggested Aspect Slots
| Item Slot | Aspect |
| Helm | Frostblitz |
| Chest | Fortune (Swap to Raiment of the Infinite Unique when found) |
| Gloves | Conceited (Optional – Fists of Fate) |
| Pants | Disobedience |
| Boots | Binding Embers |
| Wand | Piercing Cold |
| Focus | Control |
| Amulet | Elementalist’s |
| Ring #1 | Storm Swell |
| Ring #2 | Prodigy’s |
Unique Items
This build really only requires one Unique Item.
- Chest: Raiment of the Infinite Unique Effect (Required): After using Teleport, Close enemies are Pulled to you and Stunned for [2.0-3.0] seconds, but Teleport’s Cooldown is increased by 20%.
- Gloves: Fists of Fate (Optional): Your attacks randomly deal 1% to [200-300]% of their normal damage.
Stat Priority and Gems
| Item | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Helm | Cooldown Reduction | Maximum Mana | Armor | Maximum Life | Lucky Hit Chance |
| Chest | Armor | Damage Reduction from Burning enemies | Damage Reduction from Close enemies | Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies | Maximum Life |
| Gloves | + Ranks to Ice Shards | Critical Strike Chance | Lucky Hit Chance | Attack Speed | Lucky Hit: Chance to Restore Resource |
| Pants | Armor | Damage Reduction from Burning enemies | Damage Reduction from Close enemies | Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies | Maximum Life |
| Boots | + Ranks of Frost Nova | Mana Cost Reduction | Movement Speed | + Ranks of Teleport | Movement Speed |
| Amulet | Cooldown Reduction | Mana Cost Reduction | + Ranks to Devouring Blaze | + Ranks to Defensive Skills | Damage Reduction |
| Ring x 2 | Critical Strike Damage | Critical Strike Chance | Vulnerable Damage | Maximum Mana | Resource Generation |
| Wand | Weapon Damage | Vulnerable Damage | Critical Strike Damage | +Damage to Close Enemies | +Core Skill Damage |
| Focus | Weapon Damage | Cooldown Reduction | Mana Cost Reduction | Critical Strike Chance | Lucky Hit: Chance to Restore Resource |
How To Play Ice Shards Sorcerer
- This Ice Shards Sorcerer build is incredibly resource dependent, as well as requiring micro management of numerous cooldowns. That said, the actual rotation is straightforward, and is very easy to learn.
General
- Initiate by using Teleport to position yourself in the middle of a pack. If you do not have Raiment of the Infinite cast Inferno to help group enemies.
- Cast Frost Nova to Freeze all enemies in range.
- Cast Ice Shards at any Elites present or enemies who are still alive.
- Ice Armor can be used whenever you are in need of protection, or as 25% Mana Regeneration tool when not in danger.
- Flame Shield is your get out of jail card. Save as a panic button or for when hit by Crowd Control abilities.
Bosses
- As an Ice Shards Sorcerer, it is challenging to do any noticeable damage when an enemy is not under a Crowd Control effect. For this reason it is important to Stagger the boss as quickly as possible for a big burst window.
Conclusion
This concludes our Diablo 4 Ice Shards Sorcerer build! For more information on Diablo 4, including Class Builds and Guides, be sure to check out our Diablo 4 home page!