Inferno Sorcerer Endgame Guide
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Welcome to the Inferno Sorcerer Endgame Guide! This build is for those who want to set the world on fire.
This builds starts out as mostly a Firewall build, but in the late game it focuses more and more on Inferno and eventually uses Firewall only to reset Teleport Enchantment so you can evade through enemies with Flickerstep to rapidly cast Inferno. Familiar provides a damage bonus with Invoked Familiar, try to keep one Fire Familiar active.
Flame Shield makes you Immune for a few seconds along with providing Unstoppable, which breaks active crowd control. Ice Armor provides a large Barrier, a damage increase thanks to Storm Swell, and Unstoppable with Snowveiled.
Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop is a large part of your gameplay, requiring you to stack your three different elements to gain a large damage bonus and then rotate two to maintain it. Ice Armor provides your Frost Skill, Teleport is your Shock Skill and main rotation with your Pyromancy Skill Firewall.
- Check the Build Variants if you aren't ready for the Mythic setup. Click the picture of the Sorcerer on any gear setup to bring up a planner with a drop down to all variants.
This build guide assumes you have a Level 60 Character and unlocked Torment 1. To get there, level up with one of our Sorcerer Leveling Guides. See how this Build compares against others with our various Build Tier Lists.
Season Theme
The Season 9 theme is the Sins of the Horadrim. This season allows you to craft unique Horadric Spells using three different components: a Catalyst, an Infusion, and three Arcana. You earn Catalysts and Infusions through the Seasonal Questline, and Arcana can be found while exploring Nightmare Dungeons. You choose a Skill as the trigger for your Horadric Spell. Once in Torment I or higher, Horadric Jewels can be crafted, which replace the Gems in your Jewelry, adding additional power to your build.
Endgame Horadric Spell
Catalyst
Disintegrate provides a large amount of burning damage along with a consistent way to activate your Arcana.
Infusion
Smoldering Ember allows your Catalyst to benefit from your Burning multipliers.
Arcana
- Fractured Core deactivates Champion damage reduction auras to prevent being slowed down.
- Potent Alloy removes Barriers to prevent being slowed down.
- Bloody Charm executes enemies to speed up clearing your way to the Bosses. Replace this if you are specifically farming Lair Bosses.
Alternative Arcana
- Tranquil Stone - Unstoppable source before you have enough cooldown reduction to maintain Ice Armor with Snowveiled.
- Sapping Crux - Vulnerable application until you have enough cooldown reduction or the Ceh Rune.
- Shifting Powder - Additional movement speed early game before your evade resets often.
- Invigorating Helix - This provides a good amount of defense with Fortify and healing.
Best-in-Slot Horadric Jewels
- Idol From Below - Extra damage and Unhindered along with the potential for faster Pit progression.
- Scornful Light - Extra damage at the cost of taking some extra damage yourself.
- Tyrant Bane - Extra damage that stacks over time.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Firewall is your primary skill to cast while Inferno is not available. This creates a line of burning damage on the ground. You can stack these and lure enemies into them, enemies continue to take damage for a few seconds after leaving the burning area thanks to Mage's Firewall.
- Fire Bolt provides an additional burning damage bonus with Glinting Fire Bolt and also give a minor damage bonus with Elemental Synergies. It also has a better animation for faster Teleport reset over Firewall.
- Teleport isn't on the Action Bar but is used as an Enchantment. This version doesn't provide Unstoppable.
- Familiar provides a damage bonus if used after a Pyromancy Skill with Invoked Familiar, try to keep one active.
- Flame Shield makes you Immune for a few seconds, a mechanic to avoid any damage and also provides Unstoppable to break crowd control, you can use this to avoid dangerous stacks from Pit bosses. This version of the build is the Mythic variant and gets ranks to this skill from Harlequin Crest. Check the Build Variants for earlier progression skill trees such as Starter or Ancestral.
- Ice Armor provides a large Barrier along with damage bonuses from Storm Swell and Mystical Ice Armor, it can also make you Unstoppable with Snowveiled. You can use Shimmering Ice Armor for better uptime on Snowveiled until you have enough Cooldown Reduction.
- Inferno is your primary damage source. It pulls enemies together to group them, removes the Mana cost of your Pyromancy skills, and also provide a large damage bonus while active. Cast this as often as possible.
Skill Rotation
- Cast Firewall and Teleport through enemies to rapidly reset Inferno with Flickerstep.
- Use Inferno as a priority, in packs of enemies you can focus on rotating only Inferno with Teleport while maintaining one Firewall but against single targets you still need to cast Firewall to reset Teleport.
- Use Fire Bolt in rotation with Firewall on single target or as a faster animation to Teleport with.
- Use Ice Armor when available for Unstoppable.
- Use Familiar when available, keep one Fire version out.
- Use Flame Shield as needed to survive.
- The simple version is to hold Firewall and cast all of your other Skills as fast as possible while you Teleport face first into your enemies.
Sorcerer Enchantments
Incinerate is our first Enchantment. This gives you extra damage with Conflagration.
Teleport is your second Enchantment to reset your Inferno with Flickerstep. This replaces your evade with a shorter range Teleport than doesn't make you Unstoppable.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Sorcerer Class Overview.
Paragon & Glyphs
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 at level 15 and from 4 to 5 at level 46. Some of them cannot be activated before reaching these thresholds! Progress through The Pit to rank up your Glyphs.
Use the slider to see the 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.
Inferno Sorcerer Endgame Paragon
Some Glyph position swaps, board changes and other pathing adjustments may occur as you unlock your full potential. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build before spending additional points that do not significantly impact your character's power.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Flamefeeder
- Pyromaniac
- Tactician
- Elementalist
- Eliminator
To Level 46
- Flamefeeder
- Eliminator
- Pyromaniac
- Tactician
- Elementalist
Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.
Runes
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 Inferno Sorcerer Endgame build focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- CemThul freezes enemies for Hoarfrost along with gives bonus damage from Mystical Frost Nova.
- ZanQax provides a large damage bonus every third ultimate based on how much Mana you have, your ring temper restores your Mana for you.
Alternative choices
- Ceh provides Vulnerable, freeze, and stacks of Primordial Binding. This is useful until you have plenty of Cooldown Reduction or Flickerstep.
- Cir, Igni, and Lith are good Ritual Runes.
- Ohm, Vex, Kry, Zec, and Mot are good Invocation Runes.
- Grand Topaz provides additional damage if you don't have access to Runes.
Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.
Mercenaries
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 on your map, this is great quality of life. Grab Molotov along with Scorched Earth to boost your damage over time. Next you pick Snipe along with Incendiary Bolt to trigger the Scorched Earth as well.
- Raheir is a great alternative if you don't mind dropping the maphack, Valiance prevents damage from large hits and makes 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 gives some extra attack speed and you can set it to activate on any skill in combat.
- Raheir is a good choice to maximize defense. Bastion gives a large amount of Damage Reduction and you can set it to activate on any skill in combat.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Inferno Sorcerer build to perform optimally, hunt for these stats on your gear with good rolls and aim to Temper ⚒️ & Masterwork Crit ↑ them accordingly. The green arrow ↑ indicates which affix is most impactful to Masterwork Crit, and it does not indicate how many Masterwork Crits you need on that particular affix. Keep in mind that certain stats, such as Armor, Resistances, Extra Size Tempers, Attack Speed, and more, have caps that may affect your priorities according to the items and Paragon points available at that moment.
Recommended Endgame Stat Thresholds
- Scale Damage over Time on gear for Combustion.
- Scale Flamefeeder for Combustion.
- Inferno Cooldown Reduction Tempers
- 30%+ Cooldown Reduction
- 30%+ Attack Speed
- 40%+ Pyromancy Attack Speed
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 75%+
- 5,000+ Life
- Damage Reduction Sources
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Inferno Sorcerer, take a look at this overview of the items used in the build. See below for further details about the different progression steps and variants. Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. Keep in mind that while we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Build Variants
This section is designed to guide your Inferno Sorcerer from a fresh level 60 into the very late endgame using the three variants Starter, Ancestral and Mythic. At the final step, you should be fully decked out with a great all-rounder build. From there, follow the other min/max variants if you want to optimize around certain activities such as Pit Pushing, Speedfarming and more.
If you are fresh in Torment 1 coming from a leveling guide, this is where you begin. Since only some Aspects can be guaranteed from Dungeon unlocks for the Codex of Power, focus on acquiring the additional aspects via gambling with Murmuring Obols.
Gear & Skills
- Early on in your progression, focus on Armor & Resistances to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a penalty of -250 Armor and -25% all Res and it's recommended to keep both capped (1000 Armor, 70+ Res) at all times. As you unlock higher power gear, masterworking levels and more Paragon points, you naturally scale your character into the higher difficulties and can start replacing some of these rolls with offensive or utility stats.
- Scale Flamefeeder for Combustion.
- Prioritize Damage over Time on gear and getting Inferno Cooldown Reduction tempers.
The goal here is to progress through the Torment difficulties as you unlock Ancestrals, Paragon points, all Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and the most important Uniques to pilot this build. Some Legendary Aspects are used temporarily to fill slots that may be replaced with more Unique items later on.
Gear & Skills
- As you upgrade your gear to Ancestrals with more masterworking levels and reach higher paragon, you can focus more and more on replacing Armor & Resistance rolls with better stats, but ensure to stay capped at 1000 Armor and 70%+ Resistances for the difficulty you're currently in.
- Flickerstep quickly reduces your Teleport Enchantment cooldown and helps reset your Inferno.
- Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop will require casting your Ice Armor for your Frost stack at the beginning of combat and then rotating Shock and Fire to maintain it.
- Raiment of the Infinite pulls enemies near your Teleport location, making it easier to group them. Beware of being trapped in the enemies. If you actively move away from the direction enemies are mainly being pulled from then you can avoid the trap.
This is the final version of the build's progression, including all regular Unique items, Mythic Uniques, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking, leaving you with a great all-rounder build for all content in the game. Additional variants use this as a baseline to optimize around certain activities.
Gear & Skills
- Shroud of False Death provides damage and a good amount of defense thanks to it's bonus to Passive Skills.
- Harlequin Crest provides massive Cooldown Reduction and Damage Reduction.
This Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
Gear & Skills
- No changes needed.
This setup optimizes the build to push the highest possible Tiers in The Pit after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
Gear & Skills
- Mystical Teleport for Crackling Energy which enables Convulsions.
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
The Skill Tree featured may gain Skill Ranks from different sources such as Harlequin Crest. Check the Build Variants for the correct setup for each step of your journey. Click the picture of the Sorcerer on gear setups to pull up the full planner and scroll through the variants with a drop down menu.
The build works really well when you decimate everything in seconds, but may get overwhelmed if fights are long against high level monsters. There are several adjustments you can make when you have trouble with more difficult content:
- Check if your Armor & Resists are capped.
- Use defensive consumables.
- Roll Maximum Life instead of offensive stats on as many pieces as possible.
- Kite enemies when they become Unstoppable.
Sorcerers have two primary sources of Unstoppable with Teleport and Flame Shield. You can also use the Snowveiled aspect to add it to Ice Armor. Teleport Enchantment does not make you Unstoppable.
Generally hardcore and softcore share the same builds. Outside of being more prudent in your gameplay, you can also tweak the setup slightly to raise your defenses:
- Focus more on Armor & Resists, making sure that they are always capped especially as you transition into higher torment difficulties.
- Focus more on maximum life rolls, for example replacing DPS stats like main attributes, attack speed, critical strike chance and additive increased damage rolls. Also masterwork life more than normal if no other crucial stats have priority.
- Focus on adding defensive skills, passives and paragon nodes first as you level up.
- Play on a slightly lower difficulty than normal, don't push into difficult territory. As long as you can deal with all enemies swiftly, they can't retaliate.
- Save a source of Unstoppable if possible to get out of crowd controls.
- Use defensive elixirs and incenses instead of offensive ones.
Permafrost's is currently visually bugged. It increases the damage of all your skills, not just Frost ones.
There are two benefits to Shredding Blades that are separated by a period. The second benefit gives you a multiplier to all damage dealt to Vulnerable enemies even if you don't use Ice Blades.
Mechanics
- Deals damage 2 times per second for a total of 16 ticks over the 8 second duration.
- When an enemy leaves a Firewall, the DoT from Mage's Firewall starts ticking for up to another 6 ticks of damage.
- Firewall snapshots all damage buffs and debuffs on an enemy when it's applied (when Firewall is cast or when an enemy enters an existing Firewall).
- Same applies to the Mage's Firewall's DoT. The damage is snapshotted when an enemy leaves the Firewall or when it expires.
- Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop provides a stacking damage increase for each of our elemental skills. After casting all three elements you only need to cast two different elements within 8 seconds to maintain all three stacks.
- While all the exact mechanics are much more nuanced, there are two separate Attack Speed Bonus caps of +100% that apply to all builds for a total potential of +200%. For Sorcerers, these two caps are distributed in the following way:
Cap 1
- Moonrise
- Elixir of Advantage II
- Attack Speed (Gear Affix)
- Andariel's Visage
- Culler
- Swift Conjurer
- Ancient Flame
- Artillery Shrine (100% AS)
Cap 2
- Accelerating
- Rapid
- Prime Unstable Currents
- Basic Attack Speed (Gear Affix)
- Gloves of the Illuminator
- Pyromancy Attack Speed (Tempering)
Read up more on Attack Speed in our dedicated guide by Ava.
Bosses are immune to Crowd Control (CC) effects and instead take Stagger Damage when hit by one. The amount of stagger damage dealt depends on the type of CC and is proportional to its duration. After being hit by a CC effect, the Boss temporarily takes less Stagger Damage from a CC of the same type.
Effectively, this means that when you're just spamming one type of CC you don't need to spam any more of it than what you need to keep a normal enemy permanently CC-d. To stagger the Boss quickly you need to use as many different types of CC as possible. After the Boss is staggered it gains a certain amount of stacking Stagger Damage Reduction for the rest of the fight:
- After 1st Stagger: 20%
- After 2nd Stagger: 40%
- After 3rd Stagger: 60%
- After 4th Stagger: 90%
Bosses naturally regain 1% of their Stagger HP every second and when that regen is combined with 90% Stagger Damage Reduction it becomes borderline impossible to Stagger the Boss again unless you bring a serious amount of crowd controls.
Summary
The Inferno Sorcerer has great visuals and can keep up in speed with other builds. Inferno's Fire Snake looks amazing and it's thriving due to an undocumented change in patch 2.2.1.
- Set the world on fire, lots of fire.
- Maintain your Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop stacks easily with Teleport. Make sure to Teleport through enemies to quickly reset Inferno.
- Stay Unstoppable with Ice Armor thanks to enough Cooldown Reduction and Snowveiled.
Credits
Written by pandaglassjaw