Fireball Stormweaver Leveling Guide
The Fireball Stormweaver Leveling Guide for the Sorceress Class teaches you how to build your character with step-by-step explanations.
Stormweaver is a master of the elements. Create Frost Walls to block your enemies. Detonate them with Fireball to cause a chain effect of massive explosions that freeze your enemies and a nova of projectiles that covers your entire screen. Still not enough? Freeze your enemies to cause a giant Comets fall down from the sky destroying everything they land on.
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Skills
Unfortunately you don't start the game with Fireball and Frost Wall. Throughout Act 1 and 2 use Spark in combination with Flame Wall.
The playstyle revolves around placing down Flame Wall in front of you and and shooting Sparks through it, greatly increasing damage they deal. Positioning is key, so make sure that Flame Wall is always between you and your target.
On bosses throw in Frost Bomb for an additional burst of damage and to freeze your target. Orb of Storms is a great way to apply shock debuff greatly increasing your damage output.
At the start of Act 3 or if you are lucky at the end of Act 2 obtain 2 Copies of Uncut Skill Gems Level 9 to engrave Fireball and Frost Wall. Replace Spark and Orb of Storms with your new Skills. From now on it is extremely important to use Frost Bomb on cooldown while fighting bosses to apply an Exposure debuff greatly reducing their cold resistance.
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Fireball and Frost Wall are a perfect match. Fireball after hitting an obstacle splits into multiple projectiles covering your entire screen while Frost Wall after getting hit explodes dealing massive amount of damage and freezing your enemies. This creates a perfect combo where you create Frost Walls and then you hit them with Fireballs causing an explosion and a nova of projectiles. Additionally cause devastating Comets automatically rain from the sky destroying your enemies thanks to the Cast on Freeze Meta Skill.
Fireball naturally deals fire damage, but thanks to Blueflame Bracers it gets converted to cold allowing you to scale the damage of both Fireball and Frost Wall with cold modifiers. This does not change the Fireball skill tag from fire to cold so make sure to equip a weapon with + To Level Of All Spell Skills rather than + To Level Of Cold Spell Skills. These gloves are NOT mandatory for this build to work, but are extremely powerful and cheap so make sure to save up a few Exalted Orbs and buy them as soon as possible.
Cold Skills have a high mana cost so it can be hard to sustain. Make sure to use the best Mana Flask possible at your level and craft % increased Amount Recovered prefix for better recovery. If you often run out of Mana Flask charges equip Attuned Wand in your 2nd Weapon Set and use Mana Drain.
Skill Rotation
Act 1-2 With Spark and Flame Wall
- Place down a Flame Wall and Orb of Storms in front of you.
- Place down a Frost Bomb under the enemy.
- Fire Spark.
- Maintain Flame Wall, Orb of Storms and use Frost Bomb on cooldown.
Act 3+ With Fireball and Frost Wall
- Place down a Frost Bomb and Flame Wall under the target.
- Cast Hypothermia.
- Place down Frost Wall on top of the target.
- Shoot Fireballs towards the Frost Wall.
- Maintain Flame Wall and exposure from Frost Bomb.
Skill Engraving Priority
Engrave Skill Gems in priority listed below:
Make sure to pick up the guaranteed Lesser Jeweller's Orb in the Sandswept Marsh that can be found in a chest in a small encampment at the edge of the layout. For more details check out our Permanent Stats From The Campaign Guide!
Passives
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Ascendancy
Learn how to complete the Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos to earn your first 2 Ascensions with our Ascension Guide!
- Pick Scouring Winds for your first ascendancy node. It doubles the effectiveness of Exposure applied by Frost Bomb which scales even further with the passive tree and Strip Away.
- Constant Gale for 10% more cast speed and 20% more mana regeneration rate. This build often struggles with mana so any additional mana regeneration is always welcome.
- Thirdly Strike Twice let's you apply two shock stacks to your enemies and in combination with Shaper of Storms your cold damage can apply shock. This unlocks a new way of scaling your damage by shocking and freezing enemies at the same time.
- Obtaining he fourth Ascendancy node is difficult but in case you obtain it allocate back Constant Gale.
Gearing
- By far the best way to get better gear in the campaign is to check the Vendor in Town each time you level up! As vendors change their offerings based on your level this is an excellent way to find extra upgrades.
- Prioritize +#% to Fire, Cold and Lightning Resistance as well as +# to Maximum Life on your gear.
- Most of the damage you take during the campaign outside of Boss/Rare encounters is Physical Damage. Small amount of strength allows you to equip some Armour based pieces of equipment for additional survivability. If you can afford it buy and equip Cloak of Flame for huge amount of Physical damage mitigation. Once you equip it make sure you have 75% Fire resistances!
- Look for a Staff or Wand with + Levels of All Spell Skills. You increase your DPS by looking for the following stats, sorted by order of importance:
- + Levels of All Spell Skills
- Gain % of Damage As Extra Cold Damage
- Gain % of Damage As Extra Lightning or Fire Damage
- %# increased Spell
- % increased Freeze Buildup
- % increased Critical Hit Chance For Spells
- A great source is checking vendors occasionally for promising bases to craft on with Orbs of Transmutation, Orbs of Augmentation, Regal Orbs, Exalted Orbs, Chaos Orbs and Essences.
- To finish off your item use one or two Artificer's Orb and socket defensive Runes like Body Rune or Glacial Rune.
- If you are still struggling check out our Survival Guide for additional useful information!
- + Levels of All Spell Skills
- Gain % of Damage As Extra Cold Damage
- Gain % of Damage As Extra Lightning or Fire Damage
- % increased Spell Damage
- % increased Cast Speed
- % increased Freeze Buildup
- % increased Critical Hit Chance For Spells
- + Levels of All Spell Skills
- % increased Spell Damage
- % increased Cast Speed
- +# to maximum Energy Shield
- % increased Energy Shield
- +# to Intelligence
- +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos ResistanceÂ
- +# to Maximum Life
- +# to Intelligence, +# to all Attributes and other attributes you may need
- +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos ResistanceÂ
- % increased Cast Speed
- +# to Maximum Mana
- % increased Mana Regeneration
- #% increased Rarity of Items found (Luxury stat, do not prioritize)
- +# to Intelligence, +# to all Attributes and other attributes you may need
- +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos ResistanceÂ
- + to Energy Shield
- +# to Maximum Mana
- +# to Spirit
- #% increased Rarity of Items found (Luxury stat, do not prioritize)
- +# to Maximum Life
- +# to Strength, +# to all Attributes and other attributes you may need
- +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos ResistanceÂ
- +# to Maximum Mana
- +# to Maximum Life
- #% increased Energy Shield and +# to Energy Shield
- +# to Strength, +# to all Attributes and other attributes you may need
- +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos ResistanceÂ
- +# to Maximum Mana
- +#% to Movement Speed
- +# to Intelligence
- +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos ResistanceÂ
- +# to Maximum Life
- #% increased Energy Shield and +# to Energy Shield
- #% increased Rarity of Items found (Luxury stat, do not prioritize)
- +# to Maximum Life
- % increased Energy Shield and +# to Energy Shield
- +# to Intelligence
- +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos ResistanceÂ
- % increased Rarity of Items found (Luxury stat, do not prioritize)
FAQ
Towards the end of Act 2 or at the beginning of Act 3 once you find 2 level 9 Uncut Skill Gems, allocate Endless Blizzard and Inescapable Cold. Complete your first Trial of Ascendancy and pick Scouring Winds. At this point equip Fireball and Frost Wall and you are good to go!
If you follow the build guide the attribute you need the most for your skills is intelligence. Pick it on your passive tree while traveling though the highway nodes and this should be enough to use all of you skills. If you want to equip some equipment that requires small amounts of strength or dexterity respec some of the attribute points. Make sure to still keep enough to be able to use all of your abilities. Using items with very high strength and dexterity is not recommended. If you wish to use Leap Slam in your second Weapon Set make sure to find some gear with +Strength or +Intelligence and swap some skill points into strength. Ingenuity provides 25 Intelligence and solves intelligence pressure on your build.
On normal difficulty there are not that many defensive options for sorceress. Your best friend is scaling life and resistances. With some investment into strength you can use some armor bases for additional physical damage mitigation, or use Cloak of Flame. On Cruel difficulty start focusing on high energy shield equipment and invest into energy shield nodes on the passive skill tree
Patch 0.1.0d changed how Trigger Skills generate energy. Every time you freeze an enemy Cast on Freeze generates energy dependent on power of the frozen enemy. Normal monsters generate 10 energy, magic 20, rare 50 and unique 200. A single cast of Comet costs 300 energy so it requires multiple frozen enemies, especially normal ones.
Most of the bonuses are helpful and are a personal choice but I recommend 15% increased Mana Recovery from Flasks in Act 2, 25% increased Mana Regeneration Rate in Act 3. In the same Acts on Cruel difficulty you get offered different choices so I recommend taking 15% increased Life Recovery from Flasks in Act 2 Cruel and +5 to All Attributes in Act 3 Cruel.
Summary
- Flame Wall, Spark and Frost Bomb are a great combo to get you through Act 1 and 2!
- Once you acquire 2 copies of Uncut Skill Gems Level IX swap to Fireball and Frost Wall.
- For highest single target damage start with casting Frost Bomb to apply Exposure, then create Flame Wall around the enemy to increase damage of Fireballs passing through it. Once this setup is done create Frost Walls on top of the enemy and detonate them with a Fireball.
- Cast on Freeze Comet provides an additional burst of damage especially against rare enemies and bosses.