Path of Exile 2 provides players with an incredible range of build options and opportunities to embrace a true power fantasy. Although it requires some grinding to reach that exhilarating sense of power, the journey to get there is well worth the effort.
The Sorceress stands out as one of the most formidable classes in the game, capable of effortlessly defeating both mobs and bosses. Let’s explore her abilities, ascendancies, and the best build for her in PoE 2.
Sorceress Overview PoE2
The Sorceress excels in wielding control over elemental forces in the game, drawing power from three key elements: Fire, Ice, and Lightning. You have the option to blend spells from these elements or specialise in one for greater focus.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of playing the Sorceress is that she never feels underpowered, even in the early stages of the game. Her damage output is impressive, allowing you to easily overcome bosses and mobs throughout the campaign. As you progress, your power grows, and by the time you reach the endgame, the Sorceress becomes an unstoppable force.
The Sorceress’ Weaknesses
One of the main challenges when playing the Sorceress is her fragility. She can be taken down in one or two hits, so it’s crucial to be cautious of a boss’s attacks while clearing content. Additionally, in the early game, you may encounter mana issues if you overuse your spells.
The Sorceress also relies heavily on quality gear with stats that enhance spell damage, restore health, mana, and shields. These are essential for both performance and survivability. To optimise your gear, you’ll need to make use of crafting orbs and check vendors regularly for valuable items as you level up.
The Sorceress’ Ascendancy
There are various ascendancies that function as subclasses, allowing you to tailor your Sorceress build to your playstyle. For the Sorceress, these include:
- The Stormweaver: Master the elements, gaining the ability to cast more quickly, deal greater damage, and chill or shock enemies in large groups. The Stormweaver can even summon powerful Elemental Storms.
- The Chronomancer: Harness potent temporal magic, capable of resetting cooldowns, slowing enemies within her vicinity, and even freezing time itself.
Best Sorceress Build in PoE2
The Sorceress is a formidable class, offering significant power despite her fragility. She excels in providing utility, especially when facing enemies with high resistance to specific elemental types. With more area-of-effect abilities than many other classes, she also has a range of potent single-target and buff skills that complement her passive abilities.
Best Skills
- Fireball: Serves as your primary attack in this build, though you’ll typically cast it after setting up your Frost Walls. The goal is to create multiple Fireball projectiles that bounce off the Frost Walls, allowing them to hit everything around you. Refer to the support gems below for tips on splitting your main Fireball into several smaller projectiles.
- Frost Wall: Consider Frost Wall as the foundation for your Fireball strategy. It’s not only useful for dealing damage but also for controlling enemy movement. Make sure to pick Shattered Crystal in the Passive Skill Tree for a 60% reduction in Ice Crystal life, making it easier for your Fireballs to destroy the Frost Wall’s icicles and cause them to bounce effectively.
- Flame Wall: Flame Wall creates a vertical barrier of fire that can trap enemies and serve as a backup when Frost Wall is on cooldown. While its usefulness decreases as you progress through the build, it’s a great early-game option. Casting Flame Wall over enemies and following up with Fireball is an effective combo, as any projectiles passing through the Flame Wall gain extra damage.
- Frost Bomb: Frost Bomb conjures a frost orb that explodes, dealing cold damage and applying cold exposure to nearby enemies. Similar to Flame Wall, treat Frost Bomb as a supplementary attack to enhance your Fireball and Frost Wall combo.
- Blink: Blink is a helpful skill for the Sorceress, compensating for her general fragility and lack of Dexterity. It allows her to teleport 4.6 meters in a chosen direction, though there is a brief cooldown. Given that the Sorceress struggles with mobility, this skill provides a valuable escape or positioning tool, offering extra safety in combat.
Vital Support Gems
Support gems are crucial for enhancing this build, particularly when it comes to splitting your Fireball blasts into multiple projectiles. Consider using the following support gems:
Scattershot: Scattershot is a key addition to Fireball, increasing the number of flame projectiles you launch. While it reduces attack and cast speed by 20%, the extra projectiles more than compensate for the speed loss.
Arcane Tempo: Along with Scattershot, Arcane Tempo helps maintain high DPS by boosting your casting speed by 25%. Compared to other options, Arcane Tempo is a more mana-efficient choice.
Unleash: If you’re willing to sacrifice some mana efficiency, Unleash takes Fireball to the next level. It causes the spell to repeat itself multiple times, greatly enhancing damage. However, keep an eye on your blue mana pool to avoid running out.
Wildshards: Wildshards is a must-have support gem, providing a 20% chance to fire 8 additional projectiles in a circular pattern. When it triggers, it creates a beautiful explosion of Fireballs, enhancing your area damage.
Spell Cascade: Use Spell Cascade with Frost Wall to increase the size and range of the icicles it creates. The larger the Frost Wall, the greater the chances of your Fireballs bouncing off them, increasing your coverage.
Concentrated Effect: Boosts the damage of any AoE skill, though it slightly reduces the area of effect. Pairing this with Spell Cascade on Frost Wall improves both range and damage, and the drawbacks are minimal.
Magnified Effect: For Frost Bomb, Magnified Effect is ideal as it increases the area of effect by 40%. This helps make the bomb more impactful, hitting more enemies.
Cold Mastery: A valuable support gem that adds +1 to the level of any cold spell. You can apply this to either Frost Wall or Frost Bomb, depending on your preference.
Strip Away: This increases the effectiveness of exposure. For Frost Bomb, this ensures that enemies hit by the cold explosion suffer even more from the chilling effects, further enhancing your damage output.
Best Passive Skills
There are numerous Passive skill nodes to choose from, making it difficult to cover them all. However, for the Fireball and Frost Wall build, as well as a general progression path, you can focus on the following Passive skill nodes to guide your development.
- Path of Winter: Grants 18% increased Cold Damage and 30% increased Freeze Buildup.
- Overexposure: Provides 30% increased Cold, Fire, and Lightning Exposure Effect.
- Climate Change: Grants 20% increased Freeze Buildup and converts 25% of Cold Damage into Extra Fire Damage against Frozen Enemies.
- Inescapable Cold: Provides 40% increased Freeze Buildup and 20% increased Freeze Duration on Enemies.
- Illuminated Crown: Grants 20% increased Light Radius and 70% increased Energy Shield from your equipped Helmet.
These are the key nodes for this build. Once you activate one, focus on progressing towards the next in the path.
Best Ascendancy
The Chronomancer Ascendancy surpasses the Stormweaver due to the defensive utility of the Time Freeze ability. This ability lets you escape dangerous situations or charge up Flameblast for devastating damage. It also provides Temporal Rift, which resets your life and mana to their state before teleporting to a previous location.
Tips To Play Sorceress Build in PoE2
- Begin by using the Gelid Staff to cast Freezing Shards, freezing enemies.
- Follow up with Hypothermia and Frost Bomb to deal massive damage.
- Deploy Frost Wall and start spamming Fireball.
- Fireball will collide with Frost Wall, splitting into smaller projectiles that ricochet across the area, causing devastating damage.
- Cast on Freeze will occasionally trigger, summoning Comets from the sky to deal significant damage.
- Despite being nerfed, the Comet procs still occur occasionally and should remain part of the build.