As Diablo 4 Season 9 progresses into the mid-to-late stages, some classes and builds' special advantages from the beginning of the season are becoming less pronounced, giving you a wider range of options if you're looking to play a new character.
For example, at the start of Season 9, Sorcerer's strongest build is undoubtedly Hydra Build. This is because the enhanced Hydra skill, combined with the new unique item, Ophidian Iris, boosts both resistance and damage output.
However, if you're looking for more versatile Sorcerer builds, that's entirely possible. In fact, with the right combination, the classic Ice Shards Sorcerer Build remains powerful in Season 9.
Below, we'll provide some tips for crafting and utilizing this build in Diablo 4 Season 9.
Choosing The Right Skills
Although the names might seem contradictory, Flame Shield is indeed the first skill that makes sense for this build. This skill, by engulfing you, deals 40% burning damage per second to nearby enemies, granting you immunity.
The second skill to introduce is undoubtedly the core skill, Ice Shards. It fires five shards, each dealing 36% damage to enemies and an additional 25% damage to frozen enemies. If you enchant it, the ice shards will automatically fly towards frozen enemies.
These two skills, when used in conjunction with Teleport, further increase the overall build's mobility and activate the effects of the ring Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop:
- + [12.5]% Resistance to All Elements
- + [5.0]% Resistance to All Elements
- + [57.0 - 75.0]% Non-Physical Damage
- + [7.0 - 8.0]% Lucky Hit Chance
- + [2 - 3] to Potent Warding
- [8.1 - 8.8]% Cooldown Reduction
If you're interested, you can also replace these two skills with other ice skills, such as Frost Nova or Ice Blades. In fact, every ice skill in your skill list will help you gain damage bonuses from your passive skills.
However, if you want to build this build with the lightning skill Unstable Currents, you must ensure you have sufficient rare gear and consume materials such as Diablo 4 gold, Veiled Crystal, and Obducites to upgrade their affixes through Masterworking.
Overall, if you're looking for a more scalable build, a Flame Shield + Ice Shards + other ice skills combination is enough to complete an Ice Shards Sorcerer build. With a well-defined skill rotation, you can achieve adequate resistance and a decent damage multiplier.
In addition, with this build, aside from Ice Shards skill, you don't need to worry about enchantments; you can mix and match any ice skills. However, if you use a defensive ice skill, you'll need to activate it more frequently.
As for passive skills, you can unlock them according to the following recommendations if you have enough skill points:
- Devastation (1/3) - Core
- Elemental Dominance (3/3) - Core
- Glass Cannon (3/3) - Defensive
- Precision Magic (3/3) - Conjuration
- Align the Elements (3/3) - Conjuration
- Mana Shield (3/3) - Conjuration
- Protection (1/3) - Conjuration
- Inner Flames (1/3) - Mastery
- Devouring Blaze (3/3) - Mastery
- Permafrost (1/3) - Ultimate
- Hoarfrost (3/3) - Ultimate
- Icy Touch (3/3) - Ultimate
- Frigid Breeze (3/3) - Ultimate
- Avalanche (3/3) - Key Passive
How To Choose Gear?
In addition to the already mentioned Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop, other essential gear for this build includes Helm Hail of Verglas, Shroud of False Death, and Fist of Fate, providing the following benefits:
Helm Hail of Verglas:
- +7.5% Maximum Cold Resistance
- +50.0% Cold Resistance
- + [4 - 6] to Ice Shards
- + [10.5 - 15.0]% Intelligence
- + [10.5 - 15.0]% Attack Speed
- [8.1 - 8.8]% Cooldown Reduction
Chest Armor Shroud of False Death:
- 224 Armor
- Inherent: +1 to All Passives
- +160 All Stats
- +333.0% Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth
- +800 Maximum Life
- 11.1% Resource Generation
Gloves Fists of Fate:
- + [0.1 - 8.7]% Attack Speed
- + [0.1 - 8.7]% Critical Strike Chance
- + [1.0 - 51.8]% Lucky Hit Chance
Among the benefits of these three items, in addition to the various stat-boosting, resistances and the unique buff to Ice Shards, the lucky hit chance bonus is worth mentioning. It allows you to freeze enemies more frequently in combat, boosting the damage of your core abilities.
For two-handed weapons, Aspect of Piercing Cold is probably the best choice. While it reduces the damage of Ice Shards, it allows you to simultaneously attack and pierce multiple enemies, increasing the damage of your entire build through more flexible control.
Other gear worth acquiring includes:
- Conceited Focus
- Azurewrath
- Iceheart Brais
- Boots of the Bounding Conduit
- Ring of Starless Skies
- Amulet of Shredding Blades
Horadric Spells Worth Adding
As a Season 9 power, no Season 9 build should miss out on the new buffs Horadric Spells offer. For Ice Shards Sorcerer builds, the following Horadric Spells are particularly useful:
- Arcana - Bottled Wind: Summon a Catalyst to grant you a barrier equal to 50% of your maximum health for 4 seconds.
- Arcana - Tranquil Stone: Summon a Catalyst to grant you Unstoppable effect for 5 seconds.
- Horadric Jewel - Seal of Power: Increases armor by 120 points and resistance to all elements by 6%.
Of course, to obtain Horadric spells, you'll need to diligently farm Horadric dungeons and earn Horadric Phials by playing other regular Diablo 4 events, upgrading these spells to become more powerful.
In short, if you're looking to explore build possibilities beyond Hydra as a Sorcerer in Season 9, Ice Shards are a great option! Have fun!
