Chain Lightning Sorcerer Leveling Guide

Diablo 4 Season 1 introduces a new questline to hunt Malignant Monsters across Sanctuary. Defeating them drops Caged Hearts that are placed in Jewelry infested sockets to gain build-altering powers. Check out the full Season 1 The Malignant guide from Chewingnom to learn more!

With this in mind, let's look at the top 3 best Caged Hearts (and alternatives) for this leveling build:

After investing 6 Skill Points, we gain access to Defensive Skill cluster. Here we instantly pick up Teleport, Ice Armor, and Frost Nova. These are our main utility spells and they will stay with us until the very end. We also max out our two damaging skills: Chain Lightning and Arc Lash.

For the 1st Enchantment Slot we take Chain Lightning Enchantment, which gives us a free cast every three times we throw it. This helps us on boss fights, which are the only things that can really survive our damage at this point.

Now we pick up some bells and whistles for our Defensive Skills. We pick up Mystical Frost Nova to gain Vulnerable and Shimmering Teleport for the Damage Reduction. Enhanced Ice Armor provides much needed Mana regeneration. Align the Elements provides a large amount of Damage Reduction versus Elites.

At Skill Point 24, we gain our Ultimate which gives us a very nice damage boost on Bosses and Elites. We get Prime Unstable Currents for Attack Speed but ignore Supreme Unstable Currents because Crackling Energy does not deal any significant damage.

From Points 26-30, we want to prep our 2nd Enchantment Slot by maxing out Fireball. At Level 30, we take all powerful Fireball Enchantment. This makes each of our Chain Lightning bounces trigger a fiery AoE explosion, which is particularly devastating against high mob density. Since you typically want to power level in Dungeons and/or Strongholds, there is nothing more perfect. We follow this up by taking Enhanced Fireball and Destructive Fireball to make Fireball Enchantment as impactful as possible.

A couple levels later you reach the bottom of the Skill Tree and pick up Vyr's Mastery. This passive works perfectly with our build, providing both damage and defense.

There are a number of highly effective Passives you are going to want to prioritize at this point. Both Glass Cannon and Elemental Dominance provide sizable damage boosts. Electrocution, Protection, and Mana Shield greatly contribute to your survivability.

You get 10 Skill Points by completing Renown objectives, so don't forget to do your Side Quests! At this point our build is largely complete, so we max out Frost Nova so that it is off cooldown as much as possible. Also, we pick up a few extra Passives for further boosts to our damage and survivability.

The Enchantment Slots allow Sorcerers to select up to two spells and receive powerful passive effects from them. You must have at least one rank in a skill to put it into Enchantment Slot but it doesn't have to be on your Skillbar.

Once you hit Level 15, you automatically start the "Legacy of the Magi" Priority Quest. Complete it to unlock your first Enchantment Slot. The second Slot unlocks on it's own when you reach Level 30.

Enchantments are extremely important to any Sorcerer build. In fact, the moment you hit Level 15, you should drop whatever you were doing and go unlock your Enchantment Slots!

Slot 1 - Enchant Chain Lightning. This gives us a free cast for every three times we throw it. This helps us on boss fights, which are the only things that can survive our damage at this point.

Slot 2 - Enchant Fireball. Significantly increases your Area of Effect (AoE) damage, which is especially effective in high density areas such as dungeons.

Leveling up in Diablo 4 is similar to most other ARPGs and MMOs - we're at the mercy of what drops. For the most part this means replacing Rares with better Rares all the way up to 50. If you're lucky enough to find some Legendaries, they can provide a significant power boost (discussed in the next sections). Assuming you don't find any of those, let's look at some key stats to look for along the way:

Hint: Press SHIFT over an item to compare it to what you're wearing!

Early on, you generally want to use a 2-H Weapon (Staff) simply because it deals much more damage than the 1-H Weapon and Focus combo, despite being slower. Also, a low item power Focus does not yet provide high enough supporting stats to typically be worth. No matter what loadout you choose to go with, always go for higher DPS over the rest of a Weapon or Focus' stats during leveling. The useful stats to look out for on a Weapon and Focus are:

Only upgrade Weapons 1 or 2 times at the Blacksmith and socket them with Topazes.

Socket Armor with Rubies and Jewelry with Skulls.

The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary. For leveling there are a few aspects that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them:

Here are all helpful Legendary Aspects for the leveling Chain Lightning Sorcerer that can either be found in the Codex of Power or Extracted from an item drop. Note that all Legendary Aspects can be found from item drops, and that these can roll better and often significantly better than ones sourced from the Codex of Power.

Before we end this leveling guide, let's look at some general tips and tricks to remember for all classes and specs!

Compare your Items... Literally. Press Shift over an item in your inventory to compare it to what you're wearing. This makes it easy to determine what is and isn't an upgrade.

Renown is your Friend. While exploring the different zones, take time to gather Renown along the way. It has long-term benefits for your entire account, including more Skill/Paragon points and Potion charges. Renown is gained by activating Waypoints, finding Altars of Lilith, completing Side Quests/Dungeons and rescuing Strongholds.

Be Careful with Gold. A lot of endgame processes, like extracting and imprinting Legendary Aspects, are extremely expensive for a brand-new character. Don't spend all of your Gold along the way!

Don't Imprint Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly. This makes imprinting a Legendary Aspect on it a waste of resources. Instead, put your best offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.

Written by DarkHumility
Original Post by Raxxanterax
Reviewed by Northwar