Glass cannon. You’ll hear it a lot about the Sorceress, and it’s well earned. Having turned her back on the mage clans of the East, she commands fire, lightning and cold directly, and at the higher levels nothing in the game clears a screen of demons faster. The catch is that she starts with the lowest Life of any class, so the trick to playing her is never letting anything get close enough to find out.
Her skills are split into three trees: Fire, Lightning and Cold. Like the Assassin and the Druid, she does best with one main element and a second one to fall back on. That second element isn’t optional. In Hell difficulty you’ll meet monsters immune to fire, to cold or to lightning, and a single-element Sorceress will find herself running past whole packs she simply can’t hurt.
Stat-wise, resist the urge to pour everything into Energy. Put enough into Strength to wear your armour and carry a shield, leave Dexterity alone, and give the rest to Vitality. Items with Mana and Mana regeneration will look after your casting far better than raw Energy will, and a few extra hit points are the difference between a close call and a corpse run.
A handful of skills are worth points whatever your element. Warmth speeds up your Mana regeneration and costs nothing to keep. Frozen Armor freezes anything that hits you in melee, buying precious seconds. Static Field, available from level 6, takes a quarter of the current Life off everything around you, and against the big bosses in Nightmare and Hell it’s the best opening move you have. Then there’s Teleport. At level 18 the Sorceress learns to blink across the screen, and it changes everything: dodging, scouting, escaping, and racing through a dungeon straight to the boss.
For your main attack, the Cold tree offers Blizzard and, at level 30, the Frozen Orb, which sprays ice bolts in every direction and pairs beautifully with Cold Mastery. Fire brings Meteor and Hydra, backed up by Fire Mastery. Lightning has Chain Lightning, Nova and Thunder Storm. Plenty of players run Frozen Orb with Meteor so that nothing in Hell is immune to both. Energy Shield, which lets your Mana soak up damage meant for your Life, is worth a look once your Mana pool is large.
The Sorceress has no minions to hide behind, so a hireling helps enormously. An Act 2 mercenary with an aura will keep monsters busy while you get your spells off.
Played carefully, she is the fastest and most devastating character in Lord of Destruction. Played carelessly, she’s the first to die. Keep your distance, keep moving, and let the elements do the work.
For a full build, read the Sorceress Strategy.
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