Build Introduction
The Firewall Sorceress is an endgame build designed for those who enjoy harnessing the burning power of fire. This build offers high Mana Generation and deals significant Burning Damage Over Time.
By incorporating multiple unique sources of Burning damage, Combustion adds a significant separate damage multiplier. Additionally, the Sorceress can use Flame Shield and Frost Nova for self-defense when necessary.
If your character has not reached Level 60, follow the Sorcerer Leveling Guide.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- High sustained damage
- Simple playstyle
- Multiple Defensive Skills and Crowd Controls for survivability
- Damage needs to ramp up
- Limited Area of Effect
- Lacks survivability when Defensive Skills or Crowd Controls are inactive
Check the build tier lists to see how this build compares to others on Icy Veins.
Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar
The Skill Tree above shows the full allocation of 71 Skill Points for the Firewall Sorceress build. Make sure you obtain the 12 Skill Points available from Renown.
Enchantment Slots
Non-Ultimate Skills can be equipped in two available Enchantment Slots. A skill must have at least one skill point allocated to it in order to be used in the Enchantment Slot. Skill points that have been granted through gear work as well.
Slot Firewall in the first Enchantment Slot, as it will have a chance to trigger two additional Firewalls underneath enemies when they take burning damage.
Slot Fireball in the second Enchantment Slot for explosions to help against groups of enemies.
Alternative options include Meteor for the Meteor hybrid build variant and Teleport for the Telestomp build variant.
Paragon Board
After Character Level 60, experience gains are applied to Paragon up to Level 300. A maximum of 228 Paragon Points can be obtained through Paragon Levels, Renown, and Altars of Lilith. Follow the Paragon setup designed for the Firewall Sorcerer to gain a considerable amount of progression for your character.
Glyphs are inserted into sockets on each Paragon board and can be found during various activities in Diablo 4. Level up the Glyphs included in the Paragon setup by completing The Pit. Clearing higher tiers of The Pit allows Glyphs to reach higher levels.
Important Notes:
- Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the proper orientation.
- Attach Legendary Boards in the order shown, as bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order.
- Prioritize leveling each of your equipped Glyphs to 15 to gain the increased radius, which can be required to meet additional bonus requirements.
1. Starting Board (Exploit)
2. Fundamental Release (Unleash)
3. Frigid Fate (Pyromaniac)
4. Burning Instinct (Control)
5. Enchantment Master (Elementalist)
Paragon boards courtesy of d4builds. Click here for the planner.
Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats
The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.
Legendary Aspects
Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects for the Firewall Sorcerer build. Salvage Legendary Items with higher Aspect values to unlock them in the Codex of Power, and then imprint them onto Legendary Items with the preferred affixes.
Gear Slot | Aspect Name | Legendary Aspect Power |
---|---|---|
Amulet (+50% bonus effect) | Aspect of Engulfing Flames | You deal x6% increased Burning damage to enemies for each second they remain Burning, up to x30% after 5 seconds. Additionally, you deal x [10 – 30%] increased Burning damage to enemies that are not Healthy. |
Ring Slot #1 (replaced by Ring of Starless Skies | Conceited Aspect | Deal [15 – 25%] increased damage while you have a Barrier active. |
Ring Slot #2 (replaced by Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop) | Aspect of Inner Calm | Deal x [5 – 13%] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds. |
One-Handed Weapon or Focus | Aspect of Shredding Blades | Ice Blades’ chance to apply Vulnerable is increased by +20% and the Vulnerable duration is increased by 4 seconds. You gain x [15 – 35%] Vulnerable Damage. Note: Ice Blades are not required to gain the Vulnerable Damage. |
One-Handed Weapon or Focus | Storm Swell Aspect | You deal x [15 – 35%] increased damage while Ice Armor is active. This amount is increased by another 15% against Frozen enemies. |
Gloves (replaced by Fists of Fate) | Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to [10 – 20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource. |
Chest (replaced by Raiment of the Infinite) | Aspect of Disobedience | You gain [0.4 – 0.7%] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [25 – 40%]. |
Helm (replaced by Heir of Perdition) | Snowveiled Aspect | Ice armor makes you unstoppable and grants you 25% Damage Reduction for [3.5 – 5.0] seconds. |
Pants (optional replacement with Tibault’s Will) | Everliving Aspect | You take [20 – 25%] less damage from Crowd Controlled or Vulnerable enemies. |
Boots (replaced byFlickerstep) | Flamewalker’s Aspect | Coming in contact with your Firewall grants you [15 – 25%] Movement Speed for 4 seconds. |
Gems and Runewords
Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each item type.
Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
---|---|---|
Grand Amethyst for increased Damage Over Time. | Grand Topaz for Intelligence or Grand Amethyst for increased Barrier Generation. | Any Resistance Gems needed or Skull for Armor (up to the 1,000 Armor cap). |
Runes are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and then start dropping during various activities. A Rune of Offering and a Rune of Invocation can be combined by inserting them into equipment with two available sockets, creating a Runeword. A limit of two Runewords can be equipped.
Insert one of the following Runewords, consisting of a Rune of Offering and a Rune of Invocation, into your equipped Staff. The other Runeword can be inserted into any equipped Helm, Chest, or Pants item. Add sockets to your equipment at the Jeweler if necessary.
Runewords | Effects |
---|---|
Xol Ohm | Gain: 150 Offering — Evoke power from another Class. Requires: 600 Offering, Cooldown: 2 Seconds — Evoke the Barbarian’s Enhanced War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt. |
Lith Wat | Gain: 25 Offering — Stand still for 0.3 seconds. Requires: 100 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them. |
If you prefer to stutter-step (move in between attacks), replace Lith with Moni.
Elixirs
Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs, or find Elixirs by killing enemies or opening chests during various activities in Diablo 4. Listed below are the best Elixirs to consume for the Firewall Sorcerer, ranked by importance.
- Elixir of Advantage increases damage output, if not already capped at 100% Attack Speed bonus from gear and Paragon.
- Elixir of Resource helps with Mana issues, if you do not already have the appropriate Mana gear. This elixir is highly recommended for starting characters to maintain constant casts of Firewall.
- Elixir of Fortitude is the best general-purpose option for survivability. Increased Maximum Life grants larger Barriers from Protection and Ice Armor.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for Firewall Sorcerers. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important, but their benefits may vary depending on how much is stacked or other character stats. Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades.
When comparing weapons of similar item levels, One-Handed Weapons are preferred over Two-Handed Weapons, as a Focus provides more beneficial utility affixes. A Wand or a Dagger is selected for the useful implicit stats.
Critical Strike Damage is beneficial due to it increasing the bonus multiplier on Burning Instinct.
The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow. Maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.
Armor is only needed until capped at 1,000.
If you are using a speed setup with Teleport Enchantment, temper the Evade Cooldown Reduction affix from the Natural Motion Manual onto your Boots and Amulet. Otherwise, temper the Movement Speed or Teleport Cooldown Reduction affixes.
Check the Tempering and Masterworking section for more details on Blacksmith upgrading.
Slot | Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
---|---|---|
One-Handed Weapon | 1. Maximum Life, Intelligence, Damage Over Time | Pyromancy Augments — Fiery (Weapon): Chance for Firewall to do Double Damage up to 100% cap Pyromancy Finesse (Offensive): Mastery Damage |
Focus | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Resource Cost Reduction 3. Maximum Life, Intelligence | Pyromancy Augments — Fiery (Weapon): Chance for Firewall to do Double Damage up to 100% cap Pyromancy Finesse (Offensive): Mastery Damage |
Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Lucky Hit Chance, Maximum Life, Intelligence | Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Frost Cage: Ice Armor Duration |
Chest | 1. Ranks to Defensive Skills 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Intelligence | Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Frost Cage: Ice Armor Duration |
Gloves | 1. Attack Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Resource Cost Reduction, Maximum Life, Intelligence | Pyromancy Finesse (Offensive): Mastery Damage Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration |
Pants | 1. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 2. Maximum Life, Intelligence | Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Frost Cage: Ice Armor Duration Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration |
Boots | Implicit Stat: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown 1. Ranks to Firewall, Movement Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Intelligence | Natural Motion (Mobility): Evade Cooldown Reduction Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration |
Amulet | 1. Ranks to Endless Pyre, Glass Cannon, or Elemental Dominance 2. Cooldown Reduction 2. Attack Speed, Movement Speed | Natural Motion (Mobility): Evade Cooldown Reduction Pyromancy Finesse (Offensive): Mastery Damage |
Rings | 1. Attack Speed 2. Lucky Hit Chance, Maximum Life, Intelligence 3. Resource Cost Reduction, Damage Over Time | Worldly Stability (Resource): Resource Generation or Resource Cost Reduction Pyromancy Finesse (Offensive): Mastery Damage |
Rotation and Playstyle
Optimize DPS with the following rotation.
- If you have Raiment of the Infinite, teleport on enemies to group and stun them.
- Cast Firewall under enemies.
- Cast Frost Nova to Freeze enemies and apply Vulnerable.
- If needed, use Inferno to group enemies up and freely spam Firewall.
- Cast Flame Shield or Ice Armor for protection and Unstoppable when needed.
Unique and Mythic Items
Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for the Firewall Meteor Sorcerer build. Each item description includes the most important affix to target for Masterworking upgrades. Check the Mythic Unique Farming guide for information on target-farming them.
- Raiment of the Infinite (highly recommended) enables the Telestomp playstyle to group and Stun enemies.
- Masterworking Priority: Ranks of the Glass Cannon Passive
- Tyrael’s Might (optional) is the best defensive option for a Chest Armor, although this Mythic Unique Item can be difficult to obtain. The divine barrage does not contribute a significant portion of the total damage in this build.
- Masterworking Priority: Damage Reduction
- Flickerstep (recommended) synergies well with the Telestomp setup, as the unique effect works with the Evade Teleport to provide more casts of Inferno. The Evade Cooldown reduction in the implicit effect has a higher 2.5 second value than the 1.5 second value available on Legendary Boots.
- Masterworking Priority: Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
- Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop (recommended) provides up to a 75% damage multiplier with 3 elemental stacks.
- Masterworking Priority: Cooldown Reduction
- Ring of Starless Skies (recommended) is the best Mythic Unique Item for the Firewall Sorcerer. The unique effect provides a 1.5x damage multiplier and solves any Mana issues.
- Masterworking Priority: Ranks to Core Skills
- Heir of Perdition (highly recommended) grants the highest damage increase for the slot.
- Masterworking Priority: Ranks to Core Skills
- Harlequin Crest (optional) is helpful for additional Ranks to Firewall, 20% Damage Reduction, and a boosted Cooldown Reduction affix.
- Masterworking Priority: Cooldown Reduction
- Tibault’s Will (optional) can be utilized if additional Mana generation is needed. Alternate activations of the unique effect with Teleport, Flame Shield, and Ice Armor (with Snowveiled Aspect).
- Masterworking Priority: Maximum Life, Maximum Resource, or Damage Reduction while Unstoppable
- Fists of Fate (recommended) increases overall damage by 50% with a perfect 300% value on the unique effect.
- Masterworking Priority: Attack Speed
Mercenaries
Once the Den is unlocked during the main questline in the Vessel of Hatred expansion for Diablo 4, complete Mercenary key quests to acquire them. Hire a Mercenary and enlist a Reinforcement in the following setup.
- Hired Mercenary: Varyana
- Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust
- Reinforcement: Raheir
- Skill: Bastion
- Opportunity: Cast when the player becomes Injured
Advanced Information
Additional details are provided in the following sections for a more in-depth explanation of the Firewall Sorcerer. Read this advanced information after understanding the basic overview of the build in the previous sections.
Build Mechanics
This Fire build is focused around powerful Damage Over Time (DoT) from Firewall. Its damage is enhanced with Combustion by applying other Burning sources from Flame Shield and Inferno.
Critical Strike Damage is applied to Burning Damage with Burning Instinct from Paragon. This allows us to benefit from Critical Strike Damage on gear.
Firewall Meteor Sorcerer Build Variant
Supplement Firewall by dumping highly damaging Meteor showers with Starfall Coronet. This Unique Helm powers drops additional Meteors and applies a Cooldown to the Skill. Starfall Coronet is required for this build variant, so farm the Beast in Ice Uber Boss until it drops!
The Firewall Meteor Sorcerer makes the following changes to the original build in this guide.
- Equip Starfall Coronet, replacing Frostblitz Aspect or Aspect of Might.
- Remove all Skill Points in Fireball and Inferno, including their modifier nodes.
- Remove 1 Skill Point from Icy Veil.
- Allocate Meteor Level 1, Enhanced Meteor, and Wizard’s Meteor.
- Allocate Precision Magic Level 3.
- Replace Inferno with Meteor on the Skill Bar.
- Change the Enchantment Slots to equip both Meteor and Firewall. These Lucky Hit Effects create a gameplay loop, activating each other.
- Equip a Wand for the Lucky Hit Chance implicit stat.
Telestomp with Raiment of the Infinite
Raiment of the Infinite allows the Firewall Sorcerer to use 2 sources of Teleport offensively. Teleporting on top of enemies to Stun and group them up is called “Telestomping”. This playstyle can quickly clear groups of enemies and keep them Crowd Controlled (CC) for safety, perfect for speed-farming Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, and The Pit!
Use the following setup for the Telestomp Sorcerer.
- Equip Raiment of the Infinite to enable Telestomps. Target-farm Raiment of the Infinite from Varshan or Lord Zir for the best chances of it dropping.
- Slot Teleport into an Enchantment Slot.
- Remove 3 Skill Points invested into Fireball Level 1, Enhanced Fireball and Greater Fireball and put them into Frost Nova and/or Teleport.
- Equip Boots with the implicit effect, Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown, which work with the Evade Teleport.
Obol Gambling
Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Use Obols on your target equipment for a chance to receive Greater Affixes. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.
Obol Gambling Optimization ToolChangelog
- October 4th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6 (Patch 2.0.2).
- August 6th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5 (Patch 1.5.0).
- May 14th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 4 (Patch 1.4.0)
- January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 (Patch 1.3.0).
- October 17th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 (Patch 1.2.0).
- July 18th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.