Blaze Sorceress Guide

Blaze* is your Primary Damage Skill. When activated, it leaves a trail of Fire behind your Character wherever you run or walk. This trail of Fire persists over a long duration, dealing Fire Damage every frame to enemies caught in its path. This Skill also increases your Run/Walk Speed.

Fire Wall* is primarily used against Single Targets such as Bosses. It creates a discrete wall of Fire at your cursor's position that deals Fire Damage every frame to enemies caught in its path. Note: This Skill has a 1.4 second Cooldown/Cast Delay, during which other Skills can be used. Faster Cast Rate only improves the Skill's cast speed; it does not shorten the interval between casts.

Inferno* is effective against Single Targets and tightly clustered enemies. You can use it to kill stragglers and monsters that don't walk into your Blaze. Channeling this Skill emits a continuous stream of Fire from your Character in the direction of your cursor, while rooting your Character in place.

Static Field* is great to use against Bosses and densely-packed high Life monsters (such as Hell Bovines). Each cast uses Lightning Damage to lower nearby monster Life by 25% of their remaining Life. This Skill can reduce monsters' Life to 1 in Normal, 33% of total Life in Nightmare, and 50% in Hell.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Cooldown Skills

Teleport* is an essential Sorceress Skill used for mobility. It repositions your Character to your cursor's position. Repeatedly cast it to cover long distances. Blaze persists after casting Teleport.

Energy Shield* is a temporary buff that redirects damage to your Mana pool instead of your Life. While active, a percentage (based on this Skill's Level) of all received Damage (except Poison) results in a loss of Mana. Resistances do not apply to damage taken on Energy Shield. If you have 0 Mana in your Mana pool and receive additional damage, this buff expires and needs to be recast.

Telekinesis* allows you to use a Waypoint, enter a Portal, or pick up utility items (Potions, Scrolls, or Gold) from a distance. It also applies Knockback to non-Boss monsters, which can be used to push a target into your Blaze.

Frozen Armor* increases your Defense rating and briefly Freezes enemies that strike your Sorceress. It doesn't work against ranged attacks.

Warmth* provides you with passive Mana Regeneration based on its Skill Level.

Fire Mastery* passively boosts Fire Skill Damage.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS

While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.

Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.

The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to Immunities, bad layouts, or monster pathing.

Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter Variant.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 5

A Mercenary is detrimental to the Standard Blaze Sorceress since it prevents monsters from pathing into Blaze's Fire. The Inferno Build Variant (see Build Variants below) uses an alternative playstyle that requires a Mercenary.

General

• Cast Telekinesis on Waypoints to activate them, on Town Portals to get in or out of town, and on Red Portals to go through them. This allows you to travel through the game faster. You can also use Telekinesis to knock stubborn monsters into your Blaze's path, which is especially effective against ranged attackers. You can use Telekinesis to open chests and pop other clickables for loot as well.
• If you have Harmony equipped on Weapon-Swap, use it to travel faster through town and to escape encroaching monsters while using Blaze.
• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, cast Frozen Armor and Energy Shield once each on whichever weapon loadout has the most + to Skills. Refresh these buffs as soon as they expire.
• Use Teleport to travel to your Farming Spot and to reposition when necessary. Blaze persists after casting Teleport.
• Lead monsters into the Fire created by Blaze using the Zig-Zag Technique: After casting Blaze, run back and forth in place or diagonally directly in front of a pack of monsters, inching away from them as they move towards you. Try to match the width of the monster pack as you run. Melee monsters programmed to chase you are most easily killed using this approach.

For Single Targets/Ranged Enemies:

• Fire Wall and Inferno are often more effective than Blaze against Single Targets such as Bosses and troublesome ranged enemies that that are difficult to lure. That being said, Blaze is incredibly effective against Andariel and Mephisto. While Andariel runs straight towards you, Mephisto doesn't move until you are at the edge of the screen. He runs in the direction of your Character and passes it when he travels, so pulling him across the screen multiple times maximizes burn upkeep and minimizes the time he spends casting ranged spells.
• You can also weave in-between ranged enemies with Blaze before moving away from them in a straight line to have them follow you, increasing their likelihood of pathing into it.

For High Player Count:

• When encountering high mob density with high Life (such as Hell Bovines with 5-8 Players in the Game or /Players5-8 on Single Player) first cast Static Field 1-3 times at close range, and then finish them off with Blaze.

Immunities

• Flame Rift sets all Immune to Fire monsters to 95% Fire Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Fire Resistance to take effect (including Conviction Aura from Infinity at 1/5th effectiveness).
• You can break several Fire Immunes using a Lower Resist Charge Wand on Weapon-Swap before obtaining Flame Rift and/or Infinity.
• Skip unbreakable Fire Immunes unless you are using the Inferno Build Variant (see "Build Variants" below). In this case, you can "Telestomp" them with your Mercenary to kill them with his Physical Damage Jab attack.
• Always skip Unique monsters that are both highly Fire and Physical Resistant or Immune.

Late-Game

• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, first cast Battle Command 2 times and then Battle Orders once using Call to Arms. Refresh these buffs as soon as they expire (approx. every 2-3 minutes).
• Wield Infinity for the massive amount of -x% to Enemy Fire Resistance its Conviction Aura provides. Its Faster Run/Walk, Magic Find, and Cyclone Armor Charges are also incredible stats for this build.

Optimal Loot/Experience Farming Strategies

• The Secret Cow Level with any number of Players in the Game - The Blaze Sorceress was born to make ground beef. The Hell Bovines move at an ideal pace and path directly into Blaze. After gathering as many "Cows" as possible, use the Zig-Zag Technique described above for optimal killing speed!

Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rate (FCR)

Faster Cast Rate is not required for this build, but Breakpoints up to 105% FCR can be utilized for Teleport casting speed. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery is not required for this build's survivability, but Breakpoints up to 86% FHR can be utilized.

For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.

The Blaze Sorceress is not Hardcore viable and/or would require drastic changes to the overall design to become viable. This build has a treacherous playstyle; it is not recommended for Hardcore gameplay.