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As everyone knows by now, Diablo 4 has an innumerable number of build combinations that you can try to enhance your gameplay experience. Trying out various builds with your character is some of the biggest selling points of the action RPG. However, very few can qualify for being able to one-shot higher-level enemies, and the Sorcerer Ice Shards build can boast of crossing that benchmark.
After the 1.0.3 Patch, many skills from all the classes have been buffed significantly in Diablo 4. Hence, this build has become a whole new powerful Sorcerer option if you want to wipe the floor with your enemies in the action RPG, even on World Tier 4.
Best skills to unlock in the Sorceror Ice Shards build in Diablo 4
The starting base skills rarely matter as all they will have to do is replenish your Mana from time to time. However, pick up the most damaging one, which is Fire Bolt, and continue to the Core skills. Undoubtedly, you will have to pick up the Ice Shards skill and max it out to 5/5, and get the Destructive Ice Shards modifier.
Keep in mind that you will have to capitalize on increasing your damage, Critical Strike Chance, and Vulnerable Damage to capitalize on all the features of this build. Make sure to pick up the Devastation and Elemental Dominance passives while you are at it, and max them to their highest level in Diablo 4.
Make sure to pick up all the Defensive skills as a Sorcerer needs all the help it can get to maintain its meager Life on the battlefield. However, the most important ones in here are the Teleport and Frost Nova. Hence, make sure to max them out and pick up all the modifiers for these skills. Unlock the Glass Cannon and Elemental Attunement passives too while you are at it.
You do not have to pick any major skills in the Conjuration skill tree (no, not even the Hydra), except for the passives. Further, you can spend one point into the Align Elements passive, and max out on Mana Shield and Protection. You should also spend at least two points on the Precision Magic passive as it will increase your Lucky Hit chance in Diablo 4.
Surprisingly, this build employs the Meteor Skill instead of the Blizzard in its Mastery Node. Hence, pick up just one point in Meteor to unlock the other modifiers, and unlock the Wizard's Meteor to get the immobilizing bonus. Now, for the passives, you can invest a point into Inner Flames, and max out on the Devouring Blaze and Crippling Flames skills.
The most preposterous aspect of this build is that there are no Ultimate skills. Yes, you read it right. You will not unlock a single Ultimate skill and will instead need to invest those skill points in maxing out all the passives in the Ultimate skills node.
Finally, to conclude this build in Diablo 4, pick up the Avalanche Key Passive to receive a great Lucky Hit bonus of increased damage of your Ice Shards skill.
Paragon Board for this build in Diablo 4
Once you reach level 50 in Diablo 4, you will no longer receive points to upgrade your skills. Instead, you will receive Paragon Points to invest in your Paragon Board to become way stronger than you ever were.
As mentioned earlier, one of your prime targets in this build would be significantly increasing your damage output during combat in the game. Hence, the best start would be to use the Elementalist Glyph on your first Paragon Board and continue from there. So, make sure to increase your Intelligence diligently along its radius.
For the second board, the recommended Glyph is the Tactician, which is great for increasing your damage after casting a Defensive skill. As this build will be highly reliant on such skills as Teleport and Frost Nova, it is an essential Glyph to pick up in Diablo 4. This will be exceptionally important in higher World Tiers.
Best Aspects to use with this build in Diablo 4
Aside from imprinted Aspect, you can get some significantly better loot at World Tier 4, where you will get the Raiment of the Infinite chest armor. It is easily the best armor for Sorcerors that utilize the Teleport skill quite often.
The best Aspects that you can implement in this build are:
- Aspect of Frozen Memories: Avalanche Key Passive applies to 1.0 additional cast
- Aspect of Piercing Cold: Ice Shards pierce 4-3 times, dealing 20-25% less damage per subsequent enemy hit.
- Aspect of Control: You deal X% damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies.
- Accelerating Aspect: Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by +[20-40%] for 3 seconds.
- Prodigy's Aspect: Using a cooldown restores [15-25] Mana.
Best Gems to use with this build in Diablo 4
Gems are a neglected part of any build. However, these little stones can provide some great buffs to your character. The best picks for this build are:
- Ruby for Armor: Increase your Maximum Life by X%
- Skull for Jewelry: Increase your armor by X%
- Emerald for Weapons: Increase your Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable Enemies by X%
This was everything you needed to know regarding the most overpowered Ice Shards build for Sorcerers in Diablo 4. If you manage to give it a fair amount of time and keep leveling up, you will soon be killing bosses and enemies in no time.
