The Sorcerer class in Diablo 4 might just have the most powerful Basic Skill build in the game. This category of abilities is often overlooked by other classes and sometimes, players outright ignore these skills in favor of other more powerful options. Sorcerers, on the other hand, can build around one specific Basic Skill that can absolutely tear monsters up in the endgame.
Arc Lash is a melee skill that's as strong as it is risky. While Sorcerers typically want to avoid getting close to enemies, this playstyle will force players to be a bit more aggressive than usual. The following is an Arc Lash build that works great on the early stretches of Diablo 4's endgame. Nothing here is final, and players have plenty of room to reiterate this setup based on their own preferences.
Diablo 4: Arc Lash Sorcerer Build Main Skills
Skills | Total Points |
Glinting Arc Lash | 7 |
Shimmering Flame Shield | 3 |
Shimmering Teleport | 3 |
Ice Armor | 1 |
Mystical Frost Nova | 7 |
Wizard's Ball Lightning | 7 |
Supreme Unstable Current | 3 |
Enchantments | |
Arc Lash | |
Ball Lightning | |
Arc Lash deals decent damage on its own, but its true value is in its ability to lower the cooldowns of abilities while spawning static Ball Lightning orbs on top of enemies with Lucky Critical Hits. Teleport into the middle of a monster pack, freeze them with Frost Nova, and slap them around with Arc Lash until veritable balls of lightning spawn out of thin air.
Pop Unstable Current in every fight; its cooldown will be reduced to about 15–20 seconds if players manage to trigger all of their cooldown reduction effects, so there's no need to worry about being conservative with it.
As with almost every Sorcerer build, all four Defensive skills are needed here to keep players from getting killed in one hit. Shimmering Teleport is particularly useful since it gives damage reduction for a short duration. Use Flame Shield to bust out of tight situations and activate Ice Armor whenever enemies start moving again after getting Stunned or Frozen.
Arc Lash's Enchantment gives every other ability in the player's toolbar a mini-stun that's perfect for triggering the Glinting Arc Lash upgrade's cooldown reduction effect.
Passive Skills
Skill | Points |
Devastation | 1 |
Elemental Dominance | 3 |
Elemental Attunement | 1 |
Glass Cannon | 3 |
Align the Elements | 1 |
Protection | 3 |
Statis Discharge | 1 |
Shocking Impact | 3 |
Coursing Currents | 1 |
Electrocution | 3 |
Convulsions | 3 |
Conduction | 3 |
Vyr's Mastery | 1 |
This setup features commonly-used nodes like Protector, Precision Magic, and Glass Cannon to strike a good balance between power and survivability. The main difference this build has from others is its heavy reliance on Lightning-related nodes.
The cluster of Lightning nodes in the Ultimate skill tree is required to make this build shine. Convulsion gives players another source of Stun outside of Arc Lash Enchantment while Electrocution buffs the Sorcerer's defenses against all incoming damage. Coursing Currents loses its value once players reach at least 30% Critical Strike Chance, so one point here is often enough.
Vyr's Mastery offers solid offensive and defensive buffs, but players who want even shorter cooldowns may want to pick Overflowing Energy instead—just make sure to allot more points to Static Discharge. It's unclear if Crackling Energy is capable of triggering Lucky Hit effects, so it's best to not count on it until solid information is discovered.
Gear And Aspects
Offense | Defense | Utility |
Rapid (Wand) | Might (Helm) | Shared Misery (Gloves) |
Control (Focus) | Disobedience (Chest) | Fortune (Boots) |
Retribution(Ring) | Protector (Pants) | |
Conceited(Ring) | Unwavering (Amulet) |
Attack speed is going to play a big factor in this build, but the lack of Core Skills here means players won't be able to use Accelerating Aspect. Rapid Aspect with the Prime Unstable Current's buff is usually enough to solve this issue, though.
Control, Shared Misery, and Retribution further emphasize this build's power against Stunned enemies, while Conceited and Fortune make players even stronger whenever they have a Barrier up from Ice Armor or Protector. Raiment of the Infinite is highly recommended since it turns Teleport into an on-demand Stun skill. The build will still work without it, though.
As for items, prioritize the following stats:
- Cooldown Reduction
- Critical Strike Chance
- Critical Strike Damage
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Basic Skill Damage
- Lightning Damage
- Mastery Skill Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
- Intelligence
- Armor
Paragon Board
Players will want to get more damage and survivability from the Glyphs and Nodes available in the Sorcerer's Paragon Boards. The following are good options to start with:
- Starting board - Control Glyph
- Static Surge - Electrocute Glyph (Lvl. 15+ only)
- Ceaseless Conduit - Destruction Glyph
- Enchantment Master - Imbiber Glyph
Static Surge's Legendary Node is useless here because players won't be spending any Mana. However, it has a number of nodes that increase damage against Elites and Stunned enemies, making it a great board choice nonetheless. Its Glyph Socket is suitable for any Dexterity-based Glyph that's at least level 15.
Ceaseless Conduit's Legendary Node isn't as useless, but it is still not as valuable as one would like. Crackling Energy doesn't deal that much damage even when buffed, though this node can be good if players find themselves with too many Crackling Energy stacks during and after a fight. The board has Hunter Killer for dealing with Elites and three nodes that increase Lightning damage.
Enchantment Master is a good all-around board that boosts non-Physical damage while making Enchantment effects stronger. it's good for almost every Sorcerer build, and this one is no exception.
Diablo 4 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.