Everything we know about the Diablo 4 Sorceress

Diablo 4’s Sorceress class draws inspiration straight from Diablo 2. It’s a ranged class that wields fire, lightning, and ice magic to damage and control foes. From what was available in the BlizzCon 2019 demo, the Sorceress clearly has similarities to Diablo 3’s Wizard, but also brings in the customization and progression system that the previous game had. But what else do we know?

Their story is one of perfection and tradition

We don’t know a whole lot about the Sorceress’ story. At least, we don’t know the specifics for sure yet. The name is ripped from the lore we already know. It tells us that the female mage clan of Zann Esu seek to use the primal elements to defeat the evils of the world. They are all about perfection, and that’s why they carefully choose young girls from Sanctuary to recruit into their ranks. Their entire goal is to become the most powerful mages around by doing things the way they’ve done things for centuries — which might cause some issues for those that want something new. We also know that the ancient city of Kehjistan is one of the places we’ll be visiting in the new game. Kehjistan is where magic is taught and where the mage clans originated from. Surely there will be things to discover there for both our likely villain Lilith and the player’s Sorceress.

Sorceress skills in Diablo 4

When it comes to playing the Sorceress, it’s best to break their style into three sections: Fire, Cold, and Lightning. These are three types of damage that they can deal, and each one offers a basic effect on enemies. Fire does damage over time, Cold will freeze enemies on reapplication, and Lightning will deal AOE damage. This is the foundation of how to think about the Sorceress’s abilities, especially as you start adding spells and talents on top of it.

In Diablo 4, every class will have several abilities broken up into six categories. For Sorceress that’s Minor Destruction, Major Destruction, Defensive, Conjuration, Mastery, and Ultimate. Minor Destruction abilities include spells from the three base elements that don’t cost any mana — the Sorceress’s resource. These are your bread and butter spells for filling the space between the stronger abilities. Major Destruction abilities do more damage and cost mana. These are things like the ability to send out several bolts of lightning with Charged Bolts, and to channel a beam of fire with Incinerate. Defensive abilities keep you alive by both protecting you and crowd-controlling enemies around you. For example, Flame Shield covers you in flames for damage immunity and also burns enemies around you for 15 seconds.

Conjuration abilities are more unique. As a Sorceress, you’ll be able to summon up a Frost Nova that freezes all enemies in place, or you can make a big Lightning Spear that homes in on enemies for six seconds. These abilities appear to be flashy ways to deal massive damage at the cost of longer cooldowns.

When your mana is topped off, you’ll have the chance to cast a Mastery ability. These seem to deal incredible amounts of damage, but can’t be used very often. Mastery abilities include spells like Firewall, which creates a wall of flames that deals damage to enemies, and a Meteor that drops down for damage and leaves a section of the ground burning.

Ultimates are what the name implies: strong abilities that you’ll use pretty rarely compared to the rest of your arsenal. These not only look striking, but they seem to be the kind of things you’ll launch at the toughest foes. Deep Freeze covers you in ice — making you immune — and freezes enemies around you for longer than normal. I’d assume you’ll be able to pop out of this and combo it with one of your other AOE abilities. Conduit is another Ultimate that transforms you into an immune form that continually deals damage around you while you teleport around the area. This might be something useful in hard difficulties when you’re low on health or in a tough spot.

Sorceress talents in Diablo 4

The Sorceress has the largest talent tree of the classes we’ve seen so far. It gives the class a lot of flexibility and a ton of options for how you want to play. Like the other classes, it has your general talents that increase your critical strike chance and damage, but once you get deeper into the branches that tie directly into each element of magic, you start to see how the class comes together.

Highlights include Soulfire, which increases your fire damage when you’re not moving, and Devouring Flames, which increases your fire damage the longer your burning DOTs are on enemies. You can see how you’ll be able to built out a Fire tree that emphasizes playing a certain way for maximum damage. On the Cold side of things, there’s Chill to the Bone. This talent increases your damage against frozen enemies — a must for anyone looking to go down this route. There’s also a way to make your next Cold spells deal more damage after casting your AOE Blizzard with Hoarfrost. And lastly for Lightning, you can increase the damage of your base AOE with Shocking Strikes, and make it so you deal 40 percent more damage to enemies within melee range — a wild, but potentially exciting talent.

This is just an overview of what we know so far, though. If you want to see a full list of what was available at BlizzCon, check out Wowhead’s guide. And be sure to keep an eye on this space for more Diablo 4 info as it becomes available.