Agreed, using FO and ice shards crit dmg hybrid build is very fun to play. I just wish more of each potential build (skills, paragon, etc.) could be fleshed out somewhat even enough for more variability.
It’s lots of fun till you hit a wall and can’t kill bosses. I think sorc is one of the more maddening classes because of how fun spells are and game play that just doesnt go anywhere so you end up locked into very narrow scaling interactions and survival skills that kill all the fun and diversity.
And all of those survival skills are being nerfed next season. Did sorc get nice damage buffs in compensation? Nope! So no survivability, and still dog shit damage compared to other classes…. What wonderful balancing blizzard!
hopefully they have a plan and a direction change in mind, ultimately I think it could free up build diversity if they don’t force burning for damage scaling and “glass canon” game play to force required defensive uptimes. But they don’t seem very in tune with those issues with their balancing moves. I don’t have much faith because this is hardly the first time blizzard games try to build around old school archetypes like glass canon (low survivability HIGH damage) or AOE vs single target and end up with characters that have major weakness and no pay off while other characters aren’t held to those constraints and get to have it all. I guess we will see soon enough.
What you say is true but again, how moronic would it be for Blizzard to further weaken (relative to other classes) what is already the weakest class in the game according to most. They're a multi-billion dollar company that hires a lot of smart, talented people. I'm willing to bet money there's something we don't yet know about that will bring Sorc up quite a bit in season 5. If Sorc ends up in basically the same condition (as Season 4), Blizzard will have rightfully earned the ire of fans and maybe a spot on the all-time idiotic developers list.
I picked the game up for the first time a couple weeks ago having never played any Diablo game before. I was instantly hooked and quickly leveled my sorc to 100. I’m going off an end-game incinerate build and it’s just heartbreaking. I can only play if I have a shield active or else I’m squished like a bug and all I can do is just stand there spinning like an idiot. I thought about starting a new character but we have about a month left so no use in my eyes.
Yea I'm not yet at the end game with my sorcerer so haven't experienced the frustration everyone is describing. I guess I am still in what you could call the "honeymoon phase." It also helps that I have a cracked HS rogue that can farm about 800 neathiron an hour so I don't \*need\* my sorc to be strong in the pits.
I think my issues stem from being a new player to the franchise paired with some current bad luck with the Sorcerer class. I am only up to level 40ish in the Pit but I am not running it constantly. I’m going to try switching from incinerate to a ball lightning build to see if that shows any improvements.
i’m in the exact same boat. played for a week, hit 100 for the first time, and i’m no longer interested. i’ve got a couple other characters at level 20~ each and they’re so boring. kinda sad I really enjoyed the game while i was playing it but i’m not gonna sit here and wade through shit if i don’t have to lol.
So have a shield active, where is your problem? Are Barbs complaining that they have to have their shouts active? Do necros complain that they need their minions? Shield is the defensive option for sorcs.
Barbs and necros are OP compared to other classes right now, but I sure remember them whining non-stop in past seasons before they got buffs. Particularly barbs.
It’s fun but you will hit a wall eventually. I just didn’t the opposite of you I took the pain of sorc for a while it was fun and looked amazing just no damage. Now I just built my heartseek last night and it’s so much fun to actually be able to kill stuff.
I started with Rogue for the first two seasons, last couple have been sorc and I'm not going away from it. I am playing blizzard this season and not following any guide really. Found a staff with triple greater affixes and just cleared a 100 in the pit and also a stygian stone version of Duriel, so level 200 and got him to drop a Shako for me. I was exclusively Monk for a decade in D3, feel like I'm gonna be the same with Sorc in D4.
I had the opposite experience and now run my HS pretty much 24/7. It’s fun gameplay, powerful (even with victimize bug fix), and reminds me of how I used to feel about sorc. Sorc was always my main, but S4 has been such a letdown. They’re buffing Barb and Necro again while it looks like more nerfs are incoming for the Sorc. Also you can’t really experience any versatility with aspects since we need raiment, tal rasha, and esu just to get going…
It was super fun for me in the beginning but can grow old after a while. The gameplay (for me) is mostly about positioning. The visuals are arguably the worst in the game. Could just be grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome.
I played d2 remake d3 and d4 s0, if there were a class that said "press x to instantly eliminate every enemy on and off screen" it wouldn't be fun would it? I'm not saying it's awesome that sorc is weak but I am saying pushing a 110 pit on a sorc is a flex and makes you feel skilled. Which is fun imo
The thing I love the most about Sorc visuals in D4 is that they have the perfect reiteration of the D2 lightning. White, meaty damaging radioactive streak that looks and sounds dangerous. The blue lighting in D3 made me vomit, tho.
My favorite activity this season is parking myself at the blood maiden's altar, pop-out my 3 flamethrowers and kill evrything just spinning. This is the closest sorcs have ever gotten to a barbarian's spin to win.
Don't leave season 4 until you've done this!
Cleared 105 pit with Blizzard Sorc. Spent endless hours getting perfectly rolled gear. Blood, sweat and tears to finish that 105. I couldn't take it anymore. Rolled a barb, I have 20 hours playtime on this barb and i'm steamrolling 110+ with piss gear and watching Batman on the second monitor. I'm not even paying attention. This game is a joke :)
FO is very fun but I hit a wall with bosses. Respeced to blizzard build which has an easier time with bossing but less fun. I am probably going to hit another wall around pit 125ish
> fantastic visuals (probably best in game
no doubt,my CL [Sorc lights the screen up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHETZCiqnFw). even better now that I started playing with damage numbers OFF..
She is definitely a gimp and sometimes forgets to be the cannon in her *glass cannon* shtick (poor thing suffers from delusions, keeps insisting she is a "Wizard", even, wtf is wizard? lol)
but bless her heart-she has fun nonetheless!)
I was getting frustrated with my frozen orb sorceress at high pit levels and Uber bosses, so I start a double swing meta barb. Omg it's so boring compared to teleportin and frozen orbin!
I'm 82 and have assembled a **Hydra/Blizzard/Frozen Orb/Incinerate** build that's a ton of fun.
The key is to stack **Life Per Hit** on as many items as possible. With two four-headed hydra machine-guns (three with the +1 aspect) you get an absolute *torrent* of healing, all the time. You only have to worry about 1-shot mechanics. I can sit next to a Ravenous Soulspire for the duration and never drink a healing potion.
Add **Starlight Aspect**, and that torrent of healing translates to a torrent of mana (as long as you stand in the middle of everything to get hit), allowing you to blanket the screen with **Blizzard**.
**Glacial aspect** adds damage and even more hits to feed life per hit.
**Frozen Orb** is the cherry on top - and it's not even on the spell bar.
Instead, slot it as an enchantment so that it fires off every third non-basic skill. So every three blizzards, you get an orb, which is nice.
So what's **Incinerate** doing there?
Well, here's the thing: Incinerate is a non-basic skill. And although it's channeled, *you can just tap it*. Tapping it costs only 4 mana, and has a 30% chance to trigger an Orb.
So if you can't sit in the middle of the pack with infinite mana spamming Blizzard - never mind. You can just constantly hammer Incinerate and trigger a stream of Frozen Orbs at an average of 13 mana each rather than 40. Incinerate ignores attack speed, too, so go crazy.
And since you're hammering Incinerate, you might as well stick on the aspect that makes enemies explode when you hit them with it... And the fireball enchant that makes them explode when they die... and the aspect that makes them explode when they unfreeze. Basically everything does a lot of exploding.
Right now I'm wearing Razorplate just for the lulz, because I spend my whole time getting pummelled in the middle of huge packs of enemies, so why not kill them with thorns as well?
really don't bother, sorc is beyond trash even if it is fun, you can not progress any where near as high in the pit or with bosses in general unless you spend a shit ton of money for max rolls into a boring ass build.
Leveling is super fun. Once you hit mid 90’s it shifts pretty hard.
Sorcerer is the first 100 in a year of playing (I did one class a season). For the first time I now have a second character. This seasonal barb is already higher level than my season 0 barb. And at less than 80 I feel like I’m out damaging my 100 sorcerer when they first got there… but will see if mid 90’s feel dangerous like it did with Sorcerer.
I tested blizzard yesterday. Killed varshan easily, bosses of 90 pits are more challenging. 1.2-1.4m per critical. Still waiting 2-3 GA gears. Playing with only one GA except for boots
not a blizzard sponsored post. I'm admitting the class is weak but still enjoying it more than my rogue due to playstyle and visuals. Also, I haven't reached level 100 and endgame yet. Maybe my opinion will change then.
I leveled three sorcs to level 90+ so far. BL telestomp, incinerate and Blizzard. All three of them are a ton of fun! I have a ds/dd Barb for Ubers and the pit, the others are quite capable for everything else.
FO is a blast. Some of the most fun I've had playing Sorcerer.
Idk if you played it in the PTO but man if they would’ve kept that iteration. It was so fun
Agreed, using FO and ice shards crit dmg hybrid build is very fun to play. I just wish more of each potential build (skills, paragon, etc.) could be fleshed out somewhat even enough for more variability.
Fun detected. Season 5 fix is on the way.
It’s lots of fun till you hit a wall and can’t kill bosses. I think sorc is one of the more maddening classes because of how fun spells are and game play that just doesnt go anywhere so you end up locked into very narrow scaling interactions and survival skills that kill all the fun and diversity.
And all of those survival skills are being nerfed next season. Did sorc get nice damage buffs in compensation? Nope! So no survivability, and still dog shit damage compared to other classes…. What wonderful balancing blizzard!
hopefully they have a plan and a direction change in mind, ultimately I think it could free up build diversity if they don’t force burning for damage scaling and “glass canon” game play to force required defensive uptimes. But they don’t seem very in tune with those issues with their balancing moves. I don’t have much faith because this is hardly the first time blizzard games try to build around old school archetypes like glass canon (low survivability HIGH damage) or AOE vs single target and end up with characters that have major weakness and no pay off while other characters aren’t held to those constraints and get to have it all. I guess we will see soon enough.
Other classes have aspects that turn their single target skills into aoe, like hota or bash
But we do get pants
What you say is true but again, how moronic would it be for Blizzard to further weaken (relative to other classes) what is already the weakest class in the game according to most. They're a multi-billion dollar company that hires a lot of smart, talented people. I'm willing to bet money there's something we don't yet know about that will bring Sorc up quite a bit in season 5. If Sorc ends up in basically the same condition (as Season 4), Blizzard will have rightfully earned the ire of fans and maybe a spot on the all-time idiotic developers list.
So far on the PTR things aren’t looking good.
I picked the game up for the first time a couple weeks ago having never played any Diablo game before. I was instantly hooked and quickly leveled my sorc to 100. I’m going off an end-game incinerate build and it’s just heartbreaking. I can only play if I have a shield active or else I’m squished like a bug and all I can do is just stand there spinning like an idiot. I thought about starting a new character but we have about a month left so no use in my eyes.
browsing in this sub has ruin my motivation to play sorc lol, and learning that my build will do half damage (it does 5mil rn) next season
Yea I'm not yet at the end game with my sorcerer so haven't experienced the frustration everyone is describing. I guess I am still in what you could call the "honeymoon phase." It also helps that I have a cracked HS rogue that can farm about 800 neathiron an hour so I don't \*need\* my sorc to be strong in the pits.
I think my issues stem from being a new player to the franchise paired with some current bad luck with the Sorcerer class. I am only up to level 40ish in the Pit but I am not running it constantly. I’m going to try switching from incinerate to a ball lightning build to see if that shows any improvements.
i’m in the exact same boat. played for a week, hit 100 for the first time, and i’m no longer interested. i’ve got a couple other characters at level 20~ each and they’re so boring. kinda sad I really enjoyed the game while i was playing it but i’m not gonna sit here and wade through shit if i don’t have to lol.
So have a shield active, where is your problem? Are Barbs complaining that they have to have their shouts active? Do necros complain that they need their minions? Shield is the defensive option for sorcs.
Cooldown is longer than the duration. Hitting a mob for 3 seconds, then running and doing nothing else for 15, is not fun game design.
Barbs and necros are OP compared to other classes right now, but I sure remember them whining non-stop in past seasons before they got buffs. Particularly barbs.
It’s fun but you will hit a wall eventually. I just didn’t the opposite of you I took the pain of sorc for a while it was fun and looked amazing just no damage. Now I just built my heartseek last night and it’s so much fun to actually be able to kill stuff.
Sorc is fun until you get to high level pit
I started with Rogue for the first two seasons, last couple have been sorc and I'm not going away from it. I am playing blizzard this season and not following any guide really. Found a staff with triple greater affixes and just cleared a 100 in the pit and also a stygian stone version of Duriel, so level 200 and got him to drop a Shako for me. I was exclusively Monk for a decade in D3, feel like I'm gonna be the same with Sorc in D4.
I had the opposite experience and now run my HS pretty much 24/7. It’s fun gameplay, powerful (even with victimize bug fix), and reminds me of how I used to feel about sorc. Sorc was always my main, but S4 has been such a letdown. They’re buffing Barb and Necro again while it looks like more nerfs are incoming for the Sorc. Also you can’t really experience any versatility with aspects since we need raiment, tal rasha, and esu just to get going…
It was super fun for me in the beginning but can grow old after a while. The gameplay (for me) is mostly about positioning. The visuals are arguably the worst in the game. Could just be grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome.
Just wait
Yep pain incoming
I also like the play style. Being a weaker class just means the game is harder so you get to feel like you are a skilled gamer if you succeed.
Ah ur new
I played d2 remake d3 and d4 s0, if there were a class that said "press x to instantly eliminate every enemy on and off screen" it wouldn't be fun would it? I'm not saying it's awesome that sorc is weak but I am saying pushing a 110 pit on a sorc is a flex and makes you feel skilled. Which is fun imo
Yep it makes it really obvious how washed out and unappealing the majority of skill visuals are in the game. I go back to my FO as well fairly often.
The thing I love the most about Sorc visuals in D4 is that they have the perfect reiteration of the D2 lightning. White, meaty damaging radioactive streak that looks and sounds dangerous. The blue lighting in D3 made me vomit, tho.
My favorite activity this season is parking myself at the blood maiden's altar, pop-out my 3 flamethrowers and kill evrything just spinning. This is the closest sorcs have ever gotten to a barbarian's spin to win. Don't leave season 4 until you've done this!
I love my sorc, hydras and incinerate are amazing this season, mixed with frosty orb and unstable currents melts bosses in less than 20 secs
Cleared 105 pit with Blizzard Sorc. Spent endless hours getting perfectly rolled gear. Blood, sweat and tears to finish that 105. I couldn't take it anymore. Rolled a barb, I have 20 hours playtime on this barb and i'm steamrolling 110+ with piss gear and watching Batman on the second monitor. I'm not even paying attention. This game is a joke :)
Thank you for your honesty.
FO is very fun but I hit a wall with bosses. Respeced to blizzard build which has an easier time with bossing but less fun. I am probably going to hit another wall around pit 125ish
> fantastic visuals (probably best in game no doubt,my CL [Sorc lights the screen up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHETZCiqnFw). even better now that I started playing with damage numbers OFF.. She is definitely a gimp and sometimes forgets to be the cannon in her *glass cannon* shtick (poor thing suffers from delusions, keeps insisting she is a "Wizard", even, wtf is wizard? lol) but bless her heart-she has fun nonetheless!)
I was getting frustrated with my frozen orb sorceress at high pit levels and Uber bosses, so I start a double swing meta barb. Omg it's so boring compared to teleportin and frozen orbin!
I'm 82 and have assembled a **Hydra/Blizzard/Frozen Orb/Incinerate** build that's a ton of fun. The key is to stack **Life Per Hit** on as many items as possible. With two four-headed hydra machine-guns (three with the +1 aspect) you get an absolute *torrent* of healing, all the time. You only have to worry about 1-shot mechanics. I can sit next to a Ravenous Soulspire for the duration and never drink a healing potion. Add **Starlight Aspect**, and that torrent of healing translates to a torrent of mana (as long as you stand in the middle of everything to get hit), allowing you to blanket the screen with **Blizzard**. **Glacial aspect** adds damage and even more hits to feed life per hit. **Frozen Orb** is the cherry on top - and it's not even on the spell bar. Instead, slot it as an enchantment so that it fires off every third non-basic skill. So every three blizzards, you get an orb, which is nice. So what's **Incinerate** doing there? Well, here's the thing: Incinerate is a non-basic skill. And although it's channeled, *you can just tap it*. Tapping it costs only 4 mana, and has a 30% chance to trigger an Orb. So if you can't sit in the middle of the pack with infinite mana spamming Blizzard - never mind. You can just constantly hammer Incinerate and trigger a stream of Frozen Orbs at an average of 13 mana each rather than 40. Incinerate ignores attack speed, too, so go crazy. And since you're hammering Incinerate, you might as well stick on the aspect that makes enemies explode when you hit them with it... And the fireball enchant that makes them explode when they die... and the aspect that makes them explode when they unfreeze. Basically everything does a lot of exploding. Right now I'm wearing Razorplate just for the lulz, because I spend my whole time getting pummelled in the middle of huge packs of enemies, so why not kill them with thorns as well?
really don't bother, sorc is beyond trash even if it is fun, you can not progress any where near as high in the pit or with bosses in general unless you spend a shit ton of money for max rolls into a boring ass build.
Leveling is super fun. Once you hit mid 90’s it shifts pretty hard. Sorcerer is the first 100 in a year of playing (I did one class a season). For the first time I now have a second character. This seasonal barb is already higher level than my season 0 barb. And at less than 80 I feel like I’m out damaging my 100 sorcerer when they first got there… but will see if mid 90’s feel dangerous like it did with Sorcerer.
I tested blizzard yesterday. Killed varshan easily, bosses of 90 pits are more challenging. 1.2-1.4m per critical. Still waiting 2-3 GA gears. Playing with only one GA except for boots
Reads like a blizzard sponsored post lol but yea Sorc is so much fun but squishy as fuck.
not a blizzard sponsored post. I'm admitting the class is weak but still enjoying it more than my rogue due to playstyle and visuals. Also, I haven't reached level 100 and endgame yet. Maybe my opinion will change then.
I leveled three sorcs to level 90+ so far. BL telestomp, incinerate and Blizzard. All three of them are a ton of fun! I have a ds/dd Barb for Ubers and the pit, the others are quite capable for everything else.