Frozen Orb Sorcerer Leveling Guide

Season 7 is the Season of Witchcraft. It features two separate borrowed power mechanics in the forms of Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems. Both Seasonal mechanics are unlocked and improved by new NPCs found at the Tree of Whispers after collecting resources from Headhunt Zones, Seasonal areas similar to Helltide that appear across Sanctuary.

There are 25 Witchcraft Powers, 6 of which can be equipped at a time. Each Power belongs to one of four Schools (Eldritch, Growth & Decay, Psyche, and Lost), tags that promote synergies within themselves and with Occult Gems. Each School has a single Unique Witchcraft Power, only one of which can be equipped at a time. These Unique Powers max out and gain an additional effect at rank 5, while the other Powers max at rank 21 and gain their bonus effects at various levels. To unlock and improve Witchcraft Powers, defeat Headrotten or complete Whispers within the Headhunt Zones to collect Restless Rot. Lost Powers are an exception, requiring you to randomly encounter a Forgotten Altar in Dungeons to unlock them.

Best-in-Slot Witchcraft Powers

Alternate Witchcraft Powers

If using the recommended Occult Gems, it will be hard to replace any powers listed because you need three Eldritch and three Growth & Decay in order to use the Occult Gems.

• Doom Orb - This power doesn't have as much area coverage as The Cycle but is still a good source of damage while leveling.
• Piranhado - Must be found in Dungeons, this is good source of damage as well but less uptime until leveled.
• Aura of Misfortune - Minor movement speed increase when leveled up.
• Hex of Shattering - Damage reduction option for extra defense.
• Soul Harvest - This will increase your primary stat after using a cooldown for each nearby enemy and in turn increase your damage. Staying near enemies will maintain the duration on the bonus.

Rarely, Headrotten Bosses appear with a still-attached Fugitive Head stolen from the Tree of Whispers. Slay these enemies and return the Heads to Gelena to unlock and upgrade Occult Gems. These Gems are socketable in Jewelry and each provide +160 Armor and +8% Resistance to All Elements. More importantly, each Occult Gem grants a unique effect that synergizes with your equipped Witchcraft Powers to provide a variety of Offensive, Defensive, and Utility-based bonuses.

Best-in-Slot Occult Gems

• Killing Wind - Great source of movement speed and some extra critical strike chance, amazing for leveling.
• Friend of the Bog - Extra Core Stats provides additional damage, along with an increase to health, but even more it makes you Unhindered, allowing you to easily navigate by moving through your enemies.
• Dust Stone - This provides extra damage for each Hex or Aura an enemy is affected by but not very much, you can easily replace this with another option.

Alternate Occult Gems

• Toadling's Wish - You use a number of Growth & Decay Powers in this build so this becomes a good option.
• Wicked Pact - You use a number of Eldritch Powers in this build so this becomes a good option.
• Hungering Void - Pulling enemies together will help clear them faster.

Enchantments

At level 15, you unlock the Sorcerer Enchantments class mechanic. Finish this Priority Quest as soon as possible to get Fireball Enchantment. Any enemy that dies will explode with a Fireball, providing a chain reaction that destroys weaker enemies and sometimes elites if they are surrounded by weaker enemies. If you completed this quest on a previous character then your Enchantments will be unlocked, however you can still complete the quest for a Legendary cache.

Mastery Skills

You don't take any skills here but you will grab Shocking Impact, this will provide a large amount of damage from your Lightning Familiar. Grab ranks in Frozen Orb. Take a point in Glass Cannon near Defensive Skills to unlock Ultimate Skills.

Ultimate Skills

You don't take any ultimate skills for this build but you should prioritize getting the Warmth passive. This will heal you for each enemy burning around you and allows you to save Healing Potions for important moments. You also grab Glass Cannon in the Defensive Skills area along with Protection and Invoked Familiar in the Conjuration Skills. You can move on once you unlock your Key Passive.

Key Passive

Enlightenment is your key passive. This will give additional damage, Mana regeneration, and attack speed. It requires you to rotate between different elements to gain stacks until you become Enlightened. The buff will last 10 seconds, during this time you will do not need to rotate your elements and instead can focus on dealing as much damage as your Mana allows. Once the buff falls off, you should go back to rotating between different elements.

Priority Passives

After your Key Passive you pick up passives that will have a more direct impact. Take Permafrost, Icy Touch, Hoarfrost, and Evocation in the Ultimate Skills. Grab Icy Veil and Inner Flames from the Mastery Skills. Primordial Binding, Mana Shield, and final point in Protection in the Conjuration Skills.

Final Journey to 60

Your final passives will include Elemental Synergies from the Ultimate Skills, Elemental Dominance in the Core Skills, Elemental Attunement in the Defensive Skills, and another point in Align the Elements. You also take Shimmering Teleport for some extra damage reduction and Shimmering Ice Armor which will reduce the cooldown of Ice Armor by spending Mana while it is active. You can change your order of passives if you feel the desire to, focusing on all damage before grabbing extra defense.

Sorcerer Enchantments

Unlocking Enchantments

Once you reach level 15, you will have to complete a short quest line starting west of Nevesk, Fractured Peaks. A Priority Quest leads you there to seek out Mordarin. You will enter a dungeon to find a quest item and then finish a short encounter in a nearby shack. If you completed this quest on a previous character then your Enchantments will be unlocked, however you can still complete the quest for a Legendary cache.

To get started with the Frozen Orb Sorcerer Leveling build, always use your highest DPS Staff available for more damage. You can use one hand and offhand if they both have higher item power than your current Staff but will be less likely to find consistent upgrades for two items instead of one. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you acquire the right ones. For example, % Damage, Damage to Close, Vulnerable Damage, etc. all work as long as you activate their conditions. Likewise, you can temper multiple defensive options such as Resistances, Life, Armor to fill gaps in your survivability. Tempering low level gear is relatively cheap and the results can be very impactful.

Tip: For the early game, Elemental Surge Weapon Tempers are very powerful due to their high base damage, especially if you already have the better versions. If you find these, you may want to keep imprinting them on your weapons for an easy time.

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 or salvaging items with these powers. Check out our Map Tool to locate these Dungeons.

For leveling, there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them. In addition, keep an eye out for powerful Unique items you may find for this or other builds.

First Season Journey Cache

• The Season Journey will provide caches with legendary aspects. It is currently unknown what aspects are provided in Season 7.

Must-have Dungeon unlocks

1. You don't need any aspects to get started with the Frozen Orb Sorcerer Leveling build.

Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Control
2. Disobedience
3. Snowveiled

Great Uniques for this build

1. Fractured Winterglass
2. Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop
3. Esu's Heirloom

Jackpot Drops

As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can massively amplify your power and speed up the leveling by switching to another build. Keep in mind that there are many more Aspects and Uniques that can be useful to multiple builds; this just lists some of the most impactful ones. While we usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 60, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:

Build-defining Aspects

• Glacial / Frozen Tundra (enables Blizzard Endgame)

Build-defining Uniques

1. Fractured Winterglass (enables Frozen Orb Endgame)
2. Blue Rose (enables Blizzard Endgame)
3. Gloves of the Illuminator (enables Fireball Endgame)
4. Axial Conduit (enables Chain Lightning Endgame)

You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Frozen Orb Sorcerer Leveling build focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

• Cem + Qua for high mobility, increasing your movement speed with each evade and stacking up, this will help you navigate the game much faster.
• Cir + Tec for massive damage, with this you will create an earthquake after casting 5 skills then have a short cooldown before being able to trigger it again.

Alternative choices

As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:

• Ceh will provide additional summons.
• Yax and Poc are good options for common Ritual Runes.
• Ton, Gar, and Lum are good options for Invocation Runes.
• Cir + Thul will provide a consistent Frost Nova to increase your damage.
• Igni + Jah is a lot of mobility if you have access to Legendary runes. This will give you a Teleport for your evade every 3 seconds after casting a non-basic skill.

Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees and abilities. You can have one hired (permanent) mercenary during solo play and a reinforcement who assists you from time to time in certain situations.

Hired: Subo

• Subo is a great choice for casual gameplay thanks to his passive Seeker that reveals enemies and objects, this is a nice quality of life addition and also gives some Mana sustain. Grab Wire Trap along with Ready At Hand for some mobility. Next you pick Cover Fire with the damage increase from Opening Fire.
• Raheir is a great alternative if you don't mind dropping the maphack, Valiance is an amazing defensive tool that will prevent damage from large hits along with give you Unstoppable. Take Ground Slam and grab Raheir's Aegis for extra defense. Next you want Bastion with Inspiration. Valiance is a very powerful mechanic for pushing more difficult content or playing on Hardcore.

Reinforcement: Varyana

• Varyana is a good choice to maximize offense. Bloodthirst will give some extra attack speed and you can set it to activate on any skill in combat.
• Raheir will potentially save your character with his reinforcement Bastion. Setting this to trigger on Injured can keep you going in difficult encounters.

In Diablo 4, you can level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, clearing Strongholds, fighting in the Undercity of Kurast or interacting with the Seasonal Mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are equal.

Paragon & Glyphs

Use the slider to see progression steps. At around Paragon 200, leveling slows down significantly and all important Rare clusters, Legendary nodes and Glyph sockets should be unlocked. Afterwards, you can min/max your build with minor tweaks and by picking up additional smaller nodes.

Glyph Leveling Priorities

Coming soon.

The Frozen Orb Sorcerer Leveling Build is balanced and fun to play while only getting better in the Endgame.

• Sling Frozen Orb at anything that moves and ask questions later.
• Use Conjurations for support and don't forget to stack Enlightenment by rotating different elemental skills.
• Crowd control enemies and use your Defensive Skills and cooldowns to stay alive thanks to Protection.

Written by pandaglassjaw