Ice Shards Sorcerer Endgame Build for Diablo 4 (Season 1)

Shotgun Sorcerer with Ice Shards

The Ice Shards Sorcerer build releases a barrage of projectiles to shotgun enemies. It is designed to inflict substantial damage in both single target and Area of Effect (AoE) situations. The build revolves around the Enchantment effect to auto-cast Ice Shards at Frozen enemies. When used in combination with Aspect of Piercing Cold, enemies can be hit with multiple piercing Ice Shards at once.

The build can also be transformed into a speed farming powerhouse. With Teleport Enchantment and Raiment of the Infinite, the Sorcerer can zoom through dungeons for quick experience and loot. Check the Telestomp Variant Section for all the details. Alternatively, our Blizzard Sorcerer build guide clears a bit slower than Ice Shards, but is capable of higher DPS once ramped up.

This is our top performing endgame build guide for Sorcerer, but it is not a viable starting build. Level a new character with Arc Lash in the Sorcerer Leveling Guide. We recommend having all offensive Aspects and Sacred/Ancestral Rare Items with Cooldown Reduction and Mana Cost Reduction before making the switch. Check the Gear Section below for more details.

Video Guide

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

High Burst Damage
Fast Dungeon Clearing
Multiple Defensive Skills and Crowd Controls for Survivability

Weaknesses

Damage Reliant on Crowd Controlled Enemies or Staggered Bosses
Requires Proper Mana and Cooldown Management
Lacks Survivability When Defensive Skills or Crowd Controls Are Inactive

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Aspects

Ice Shards drains Mana quickly when spammed and requires specific gear to perform well without a Basic Attack. We recommend starting with our Chain Lightning Leveling Guide to begin a new Sorcerer character, then transitioning to the Chain Lightning Endgame Guide at Level 50. Collect the required items listed below before attempting to switch to this Ice Shard Sorcerer build.

A Focus with Mana Cost Reduction and Lucky Hit Chance to Restore Primary Resource
An Amulet with Mana Cost Reduction and Cooldown Reduction
A Helm with Maximum Mana and Cooldown Reduction
Boots with Mana Cost Reduction
Gloves with Lucky Hit Chance to Restore Primary Resource
Aspect of Piercing Cold

While these items are minimum requirements, being prepared with all the aspects and the priority affix gear listed in this build will make the switch easier.

Season of the Malignant

Season 1 Patch Updates

The following list details the changes in the Season 1 Patch Update that are specific to this build. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates.

Devouring Blaze bonus Critical Strike damage reduced from 10/20/30% to 7/14/21%.
Devouring Blaze bonus Critical Strike damage to Immobilized reduced from 25/50/75% to 10/20/30%.
Aspect of Retribution bonus damage to Stunned reduced from 20-40% to 10-20%.
Aspect of Disobedience maximum stacks reduced from 100 to 60, reducing maximum Bonus Armor % from 25%-50% to 15%-30%.
Protection Barrier duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
Supreme Deep Freeze Cooldown Reduction increased from 50% to 100%.
Mana Shield Damage Reduction increased from 5/10/15% to 7/14/21%.
Destruction Glyph now affects all damage instead of just Core Skills.
Fixed an issue where Aspect of Control was applying its damage bonus 3 times for Staggered bosses.

Ice Shards Sorcerer loses a considerable amount of damage output with the nerf to Devouring Blaze and fix to Aspect of Control. Without any buffs to offset the damage losses, besides the Malignant Hearts in Season 1, the Ice Shards Sorcerer falls behind in comparison to other builds/classes.

Best Malignant Hearts Tier List for Ice Shards Sorcerer

The Season 1 theme introduces Malignant Hearts that provide build-altering bonuses. The hearts are divided into 4 categories, each with a color that needs to be socketed in the corresponding colored Malignant Socket on equipped jewelry. Wrathful Hearts are a special case due to their rarity, and can be placed in any Socket.

Always socket Malignant Hearts instead of a Skull in Jewelry. Malignant Hearts provide an Armor bonus that scales with its Item Power.

Listed below is the Malignant Heart Tier List for this build, ranked by importance. Stats displayed reflect what a level 20 character would receive as a drop.

Caged Heart of The Barber (Wrathful, Super-World Tier III): Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second. – Fixed in Patch 1.1.1 to work with “on hit” effects and Lucky Hit chance.
Caged Heart of Tal’Rasha (Vicious, Offensive): For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds. – Fixed in Patch 1.1.2 to be correctly calculated as multiplicative instead of additive.
Caged Heart of Tempting Fate (Vicious, Offensive-World Tier III): You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.
Caged Heart of Revenge (Brutal, Defensive-World Tier III): 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies.
Caged Heart of Spellbreaking (Brutal, Defensive): Upon taking Elemental Damage, gain 10-20% Damage Reduction for 5 seconds. – Buffed in Patch 1.1.1 to reduce all damage taken, instead of providing resistances to individual elements.
Caged Heart of the Dark Dance (Vicious, Offensive-World Tier III): Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost 68-51 Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10-20% increased damage.
Caged Heart of the Picana (Vicious, Offensive): Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for 0.75-2.50 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing 68-136 Lightning damage.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

The following tables show the full allocation of Skill Points for the Ice Shards Sorcerer build. The first table has the most important 51 points to start the build. The second table has the remaining 7 points that are allocated once you obtain all Skill Points from Renown.

Priority Skills	Cluster
Fire Bolt Level 2 (not on Skill Bar, only for Enchantment Slot)	Basic Skill
Ice Shards Level 5, Enhanced Ice Shards, Greater Ice Shards (Switch to Destructive Ice Shards once you have more than 100% Vulnerable Damage) Devastation Level 1, Elemental Dominance Level 3	Core Skill
Teleport Level 1, Enhanced Teleport, Shimmering Teleport Frost Nova Level 1, Enhanced Frost Nova, Mystical Frost Nova Ice Armor Level 1, Enhanced Ice Armor, Shimmering Ice Armor Flame Shield Level 1, Enhanced Flame Shield, Mystical Flame Shield Glass Cannon Level 3 Elemental Attunement Level 1	Defensive Skill
Align the Elements Level 1, Mana Shield Level 3, Protection Level 2	Conjuration Skill
Deep Freeze, Prime Deep Freeze, Supreme Deep Freeze Permafrost Level 3, Hoarfrost Level 3, Icy Touch Level 3, Frigid Breeze Level 3	Ultimate Skill
Avalanche	Key Passives

Remaining Renown Points	Cluster
Inner Flames Level 1, Devouring Blaze Level 3	Mastery Skill
Precision Magic Level 3	Conjuration Skill

Alternative Skills

Deep Freeze is useful as a panic button in emergencies or as another source of Freeze when Frost Nova is on Cooldown. The Cooldown Reduction on Supreme Deep Freeze also synergizes well with the 4 Defensive Skills.

The default Skill Tree is our best setup for general farming activities. Alternatively, Deep Freeze can be replaced with the following Skills.

Glinting Frost Bolt can be used to generate Mana if you run into resource problems. Proper Mana Cost Reduction and Maximum Mana should be enough resource management, so Frost Bolt should only be used as a temporary solution.
Inferno has a vortex pull that can be helpful for grouping enemies, especially if you are lacking Raiment of the Infinite.
Blizzard can be used to eventually Freeze enemies after a 5 second duration. This becomes an unnecessary cast if you have enough damage to kill enemies quickly.
Meteor can apply Immobilize with Wizard’s Meteor to gain more damage from Aspect of Control and Devouring Blaze. The vortex pull from Raiment of the Infinite makes it easier to land Meteor on an entire pack of enemies. While this setup is capable of dealing higher DPS, it is not needed unless you are pushing Nightmare Tiers well above your own level. For general farming purposes, Meteor is an unnecessary extra step in the rotation.

Enchantment Slots

Non-Ultimate Skills can be equipped in two available Enchantment Slots. However, 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 Ice Shards in the first Enchantment Slot for automatic casts at Frozen enemies.

Slot Fire Bolt in the second Enchantment Slot. This applies Burning to enemies for Devouring Blaze and Burning effect bonuses from Paragon. Do not equip Fire Bolt on the Skill Bar.

Paragon

The Paragon progression system unlocks after reaching Level 50, and offers a considerable boost to character power. Within the Paragon Board, there are many different bonuses, ranging from minor stat enhancements on Magic Nodes to more significant gains with Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes.

When progressing towards Glyph Sockets and Legendary Nodes, we recommend prioritizing attributes such as Attack Speed, Non-Physical Damage, Intelligence, Resistance, and Life for Normal and Magic Nodes. As you level up Glyphs, their effects expand in radius. Therefore, if you are unable to meet Additional Bonus requirements early on, it might be better to skip allocating extra nodes for now.

Below, we have compiled a list of the most beneficial nodes for the Ice Shards Sorcerer build, sorted in the order obtained in Paragon.

Name	Effect
Elementalist	• Paragon nodes within range gain + [72%] bonus to their Non-physical damage and damage reduction modifiers. • Additional Bonus (requires 40 Intelligence purchased in radius range): Dealing Fire, Cold, or Lightning damage to an enemy increases all damage you deal to them by 5% for 10 seconds, stacking once per element.
Frigid Fate	Dealing Cold damage to Vulnerable enemies increases your Lucky Hit Chance by +1% for 5 seconds, up to 15%.
Tactician	• Grants + [120%] bonus to all Rare nodes within range. • Additional Bonus (requires 25 Dexterity purchased in radius range): You deal x10% increased damage for 4 seconds after casting a Defensive Skill.
Elemental Summoner	Your Conjuration Skills have a 5% reduced Cooldown or Mana cost per Conjuration Skill you have equipped. (Legendary Node not used)
Flamefeeder	• For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [9.6%] increased damage to Burning targets. • Additional Bonus (requires 25 Dexterity purchased in radius range): You deal x10% increased direct damage to Burning enemies.
Burning Instinct	Your Burning damage is increased by 40% of your Critical Strike Damage, further increased by 5% for every 20 Intelligence you have. (Legendary Node not used)
Destruction	• For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [19.2%] increased Critical Strike Damage. • Additional Bonus (requires 25 Dexterity purchased in radius range): Critical Strikes increase all damage the enemy takes from you by x2% for 10 seconds, up to x12%.
Ceaseless Conduit	Crackling Energy has a 25% chance to not consume a Charge when triggered. Crackling Energy’s damage is increased by 2% per 20 total Intelligence you have. (Legendary Node not used)
Exploit	• For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [3.85%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. • Additional Bonus (requires 25 Dexterity purchased in radius range): Dealing damage to a Vulnerable enemy increases your damage by x1% for 6 seconds, up to x10%.
Searing Heat	Casting Fireball or Meteor increases the Critical Strike Chance of further casts of that Skill by +5% for 5 seconds, up to +15%. Additional stacks do not refresh this timer. (Legendary Node not used)
Control	• For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [14.4%] increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets. • Additional Bonus (requires 25 Dexterity purchased in radius range): You deal x10% increased damage to Slowed or Chilled enemies or, instead, x20% increased damage to Stunned or Frozen enemies.

Starting Board

Path right and up to Elementalist. Purchase all 4 surrounding Magic Nodes.
Continue up to the Glyph Socket. Insert Elementalist and purchase 40 Intelligence from nodes in radius range.
Obtain Elemental Balance nearby and 3 Magic Nodes providing Non-Physical Damage.
Continue down to Resilience and purchase 2 Magic Nodes providing Maximum Life.
Continue up the left side to the first Board Attachment Gate. Attach Frigid Fate after rotating the board clockwise 1 time. The Glyph Socket should be located in the bottom left quadrant.

Frigid Fate (2nd Board)

Path left and then up to Oppressive. Purchase all 5 surrounding Magic Nodes.
Continue up and then right to the Glyph Socket. Insert Tactician and purchase 25 Dexterity from nodes in radius range. This Glyph needs the increased radius range at Level 15 to fulfill the additional bonus. Skip this step or use Enchanter until Tactician is at least Level 15.
Obtain Weakness nearby and purchase 3 Magic Nodes providing Vulnerable Damage.
Continue right to Restorative. Purchase 2 Magic Nodes providing Maximum Life.
From the route between the Glyph Socket and Restorative, up and then left to Frigid Fate.
Path back right and up to Advantage. Purchase 2 Magic Nodes providing Lucky Hit Chance.
Take the shortest route to the Board Attachment Gate on the right side. Attach Elemental Summoner without any rotations to the board. The Glyph Socket should be located on the top side.

Elemental Summoner (3rd Board)

The Legendary Node on this board is not used.

Path right and then down to Reservoir and purchase all 5 Magic Nodes.
Continue right and then down to Swift Conjurer. Purchase 3 Magic Nodes providing Attack Speed.
Path back up to the Glyph Socket. Insert Flamefeeder and purchase all Dexterity nodes in radius range. This Glyph needs the increased radius range at Level 15 to fulfill the additional bonus. Skip this step until Flamefeeder is at least Level 15.
Take the shortest route to the Board Attachment Gate on the bottom side. Attach Burning Instinct after rotating the board clockwise 2 times. The Glyph Socket should be located in the top right quadrant.

Burning Instinct (4th Board)

The Legendary Node on this board is not used.

Path down and then right to the Glyph Socket. Insert Destruction and purchase all Dexterity nodes in radius range.
Obtain Smoldering Embers nearby and purchase 3 Magic Nodes providing Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Burning.
Obtain Cinders nearby and purchase 3 Magic Nodes providing Damage to Burning Enemies.

Ceaseless Conduit (5th Board)

The Legendary Node on this board is not used.

From the Frigid Fate board, take the shortest route to the Board Attachment Gate of the left side. Attach Ceaseless Conduit after rotating the board clockwise 3 times. The Glyph Socket should be located in the bottom right quadrant.
Path left and then down to the Glyph Socket. Insert Exploit and purchase all Dexterity nodes in radius range.
Take the shortest route to the Board Attachment Gate on the bottom side. Attach Searing Heat without any rotations to the board. The Glyph Socket should be located in the top right quadrant.

Searing Heat (6th Board)

The Legendary Node on this board is not used.

Path right and then down to the Glyph Socket. Insert Control and purchase all Dexterity nodes in radius range.
Continue down and left to Combustion. Purchase 2 Magic Nodes providing Critical Strike Damage.

The remaining 2 Paragon points can be put in Potion Healing. Click this link and check the Paragon page on the planner for a visual of the entire tree.

Mechanics and Playstyle

The Ice Shards Sorcerer requires careful management of resource and multiple cooldowns. Ice Shards deliver powerful single target damage and can pierce through multiple enemies with Aspect of Piercing Cold.

Casting Frost Nova to freeze an entire pack of enemies automatically casts Ice Shards at them with the Enhancement effect. This barrage of piercing projectiles shotguns tougher enemies, hitting them multiple times at once! Mystical Frost Nova applies Vulnerable in case you are not using Destructive Ice Shards.

Greater Ice Shards provides the 25% increased damage to Frozen enemies when you have Barrier, even against bosses that are immune to Freeze. Multiple sources of Barrier are used, including Ice Armor, Protection and Prime Deep Freeze. Rotate your cooldowns to keep Barrier active as often as possible.

Avalanche is the preferred Key Passives since this build needs more single target damage for tough elites and bosses. Alternatively, Shatter can be used to clear groups of enemies faster.

Use Deep Freeze as a last resort Freeze.

Damage Rotation

Use the following rotation to optimize damage.

(Optional) Use Teleport to close the gap and position yourself next to any elites.
Cast Frost Nova to Freeze the entire pack of enemies.
Activate Flame Shield for 25% Mana Cost Reduction.
Spam Ice Shards at the toughest enemy.
Activate Ice Armor for 25% Mana Regen.
(Optional) Cast Deep Freeze during difficult fights to become Immune and reset Cooldowns.
Repeat the rotation, making sure to allow Mana to fill completely before using Frost Nova.

Gear Choice and Stats

While farming with your Ice Shards Sorceress, make sure to pick up all Rare Item drops that may be upgrades. Additionally, save Legendary Items that have useful aspects in your stash to be used later, or for extracting and imprinting onto well rolled Rare Items.

Starting Gear Requirements

Collect the required gear before you make the switch to Ice Shards Sorcerer. Wait until you have at least Sacred Items from World Tier 3 with all the possible Cooldown Reduction and Mana Cost Reduction mods.

A Wand and Focus are preferred over a Staff for the extra Cooldown Reduction rolls. A Focus has a Cooldown Reduction implicit, as well as a possible affix mod. Get at least 25% Cooldown Reduction before starting the build. There are 2 Cooldown Reduction rolls on a Focus, in addition to a roll on Helm and Amulet.

Mana Cost Reduction is also an important stat to spam more Ice Shards. It can be found on a Focus, Amulet, and Boots. Get at least 25% Mana Cost Reduction before starting the build. In addition, Maximum Mana on Rings and Helm allows for more casts above 100 Mana for Elementalist’s Aspect. Lucky Hit Chance to Restore Primary Resource on Focus and Gloves is another way to generate Mana along with Frigid Breeze.

Higher Item Level gear provides higher stat values. Replace outdated gear often, and upgrade new gear at the Blacksmith to increase Item Levels further.

Stat Priority List

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for Ice Shards Sorcerers. Each line of affixes are listed in order of importance. Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important, since their exact values differ for each character. All stats have an effect that is dependent on how much is already stacked. Bolded stats are the most important and sometimes vital for the build to function properly.

Gear Slot	Important Affixes
Wand	+ DPS value, Critical Strike Damage, Vulnerable Damage + Damage to Close Enemies, Core Skill Damage, Intelligence + Damage to Burning, Stunned or Crowd Controlled Enemies
Focus	+ DPS value, Cooldown Reduction, Mana Cost Reduction, Lucky Hit Chance to Restore Primary Resource, Critical Strike Chance + Lucky Hit Chance, LHC while You Have a Barrier + Crowd Control Duration + Damage Reduction from Burning Enemies + Intelligence + Resource Generation + Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
Helm	+ Cooldown Reduction, Maximum Mana, Armor + Maximum Life, Crowd Control Duration + Lucky Hit Chance while you Have a Barrier, Intelligence + Barrier Generation
Chest	+ Armor, Damage Reduction, DR from Close Enemies, DR from Distant Enemies, DR from Burning Enemies + Maximum Life, Intelligence + Barrier Generation + Cold and Frost Skill Damage
Gloves	+ Ranks of Ice Shards, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, Lucky Hit Chance to Restore Primary Resource + Lucky Hit Chance, Intelligence + Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies + Damage to Injured Enemies
Pants	+ Armor, Damage Reduction, DR from Close Enemies, DR from Distant Enemies, DR from Burning Enemies + Maximum Life, Intelligence + Dodge Chance, DC Against Close Enemies
Boots	+ Mana Cost Reduction + Ranks of Frost Nova, Ranks of Teleport (if using Raiment of the Infinite) + Movement Speed, Intelligence + Dodge Chance and DC Against Distant Enemies + Damage Reduction while Injured
Amulet	+ Cooldown Reduction, Mana Cost Reduction, Ranks of the Devouring Blaze Passive + Ranks of All Defensive Skills + Ranks of Glass Cannon, Elemental Dominance, Hoarfrost, Permafrost or Icy Touch Passive + Movement Speed + Armor, Damage Reduction, DR from Burning Enemies, DR from Distant Enemies, DR from Close Enemies + Lucky Hit Chance while You Have a Barrier + % Intelligence + Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies + Crowd Control Duration + Frost Skill Damage
Rings	+ Critical Strike Chance and Damage, Vulnerable Damage + Maximum Life, Lucky Hit Chance, Maximum Mana + Damage to Close Enemies + Damage to Burning, Stunned, Injured or Crowd Controlled Enemies, Cold Damage + Resource Generation + Barrier Generation

Legendary Aspects and Codex of Power

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for the Ice Shards Sorcerer build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary Items and imprint them onto better Rare Items with preferred stats.

Aspect of Piercing Cold is a core part of the Ice Shards Sorcerer build, as it enables Ice Shards to shotgun enemies with multiple projectiles. You can find this Aspect in the Dead Man’s Dredge dungeon, located in the Fractured Peaks.

Frostblitz Aspect seems like it has a bad tradeoff of increasing the Cooldown on Frost Nova, but it has an unexpected interaction (possible bug) with Enhanced Frost Nova. The Cooldown effect double dips when you have 2 maximum charges, reducing Cooldown by 2 seconds for every kill, up to 8 seconds total. This interaction makes Frostblitz Aspect worth using when it normally would not be used.

Aspect of Frozen Memories is decent for reducing mana consumption, but it doesn’t increase overall DPS as much as other Offensive Aspects with separate damage multipliers. The total damage increase of Aspect of Frozen Memories is around 10%. Use Aspect of Retribution instead once you have Raiment of the Infinite (see Telestomp Variant Section).

Aspect of Binding Embers provides Immobilize to activate more damage from Aspect of Control and Devouring Blaze. In addition, the unhindered movement helps if you get stuck on monsters with the Telestomp Variant.

Prodigy’s Aspect can be used on a Ring instead of Conceited Aspect if you are struggling with Mana sustain. You lose out on a 25% separate damage multiplier with this setup, so it is more ideal to get the necessary Mana Cost Reduction and Maximum Mana instead.

Accelerating Aspect provides Attack Speed for more DPS, but the increase becomes diminished with other sources of stacking Attack Speed from Gear, Paragon, and Elixir. Mana is also drained faster with Attack Speed. Use Offensive Aspects with separate damage multipliers instead, such as Conceited Aspect and Storm Swell Aspect.

Gear Slot	Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power
Amulet (+50% bonus effect)	Aspect of Control	You deal [25 – 35%] more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies.
Wand, Focus, Gloves or Rings	Aspect of Piercing Cold	Ice Shards pierce 3-4 times, dealing 25% less damage per subsequent enemy hit.
Wand, Focus, Gloves or Rings	Elementalist’s Aspect	Core or Mastery Skills cast at or above 100 Mana gain a [20.0 – 40.0%] increased Critical Strike Chance.
Wand, Focus, Gloves or Rings	Aspect of Frozen Memories	The Avalanche Key Passive now applies to 1 additional cast.
Wand, Focus, Gloves or Rings	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.
Wand, Focus, Gloves or Rings	Conceited Aspect	Deal [15 – 25%] increased damage while you have a Barrier active.
Chest (gets replaced by Raiment of the Infinite)	Aspect of Fortune	Your Lucky Hit Chance is increased by [10 – 20%] while you have a Barrier active.
Helm or Pants	Aspect of Disobedience	You gain [0.25 – 0.50%] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [15.00 – 30.00%].
Helm or Pants	Frostblitz Aspect	Frost Nova gains an additional Charge but the Cooldown per Charge is increased by [40 – 30%].
Boots	Aspect of Binding Embers	Flame Shield lets you move unhindered through enemies. Enemies you move through while Flame Shield is active are Immobilized for [2.0 – 3.0] seconds.

Weapon Swapping Technique

Quickly changing equipment for a specific task is called Gear Swapping. Ice Shards Sorcerers are dependent on applying Crowd Controls to deal most of their damage, and Staggered bosses count as being affected by all Crowd Control effects. Therefore, staggering bosses quickly makes them much easier to defeat. Follow the strategy below for faster boss kills:

Before starting a boss fight, swap to a Staff with Smiting Aspect for more Stagger with Increased Crowd Control Duration. The previously equipped Wand and Focus should have Aspect of Piercing Cold and Elementalist’s Aspect for this weapon swapping strategy. Increased Crowd Control Duration can also be found on a Helm.
Use Frost Nova, Teleport with Raiment of the Infinite, Flame Shield with Aspect of Binding Embers and Deep Freeze to apply Stagger to the boss. If you have multiple charges of Frost Nova or Teleport, space their casts out for the duration of the Crowd Control to avoid a penalty to Stagger amount.
Once the boss is Staggered or close to being Staggered, swap to a Staff with Aspect of Control. An Amulet with Elementalist’s Aspect can also be swapped in for more DPS. Finish off the boss with all Crowd Control bonuses activated.

Watch the video on Weapon Swapping for gameplay and more details.

Unique Items

Raiment of the Infinite

Raiment of the Infinite – After using Teleport, Close enemies are Pulled to you and Stunned for [2 – 3] seconds, but Teleport’s cooldown is increased by 20%.

This Unique Chest Armor synergizes well with this build to group and Stun enemies, activating Aspect of Control and Static Surge. Check the Telestomp Variant section for more details.

Not Recommended Unique items

Listed below are the Unique Items not recommended for this build and the reasons they are not worthwhile.

The Oculus – The random Teleport location is a major downside. The unique affix, Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown, can be obtained as an implicit affix on Legendary Boots instead. The Telestomp Variant is a better setup that already allows for permanent stun-locking and non-random Teleport locations. In addition, a Legendary Weapon provides much more DPS with damage affixes and an Offensive Aspect.
Fists of Fate – A perfect 300% value on the unique effect increases overall damage by 50%. Unfortunately, you still lose total DPS compared to well-rolled Legendary Gloves with +4 Ranks to Ice Shards, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance and an Offensive Aspect.
Frostburn – Not recommended for the same reason as Fists of Fate, except the DPS loss is even greater.
Iceheart Brais – The occasional Frost Nova on enemy death should not be needed, and it does not help while moving from pack to pack. Legendary Pants provide more important Damage Reduction affixes and a Defensive Aspect.

Gems

Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each slot type.

Weapon: Royal Emerald for Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies.
Armor: Royal Ruby for Maximum Life or Royal Topaz to prevent deaths from chain Crowd Controls.
Jewelry: Malignant Hearts if playing Season 1. Otherwise, Royal Skull for Armor.

Elixirs and Health Potions

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Craft a Precision Elixir for Critical Strike Chance and Damage, or an Assault Elixir for Attack Speed.

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer Build Variant

Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer is a Stun variant build created by Lexyu. It is designed to speed farm Normal or Nightmare Dungeons even faster for more experience and loot. Telestomping is the act of using Teleport offensively right on top of enemies to vortex and Stun them.

This version of the build requires the Unique Chest Armor, Raiment of the Infinite. It can drop globally in World Tier 3 or 4 with an extremely low chance, so keep farming with the original version of the build until you find it.

Evade is transformed into another Teleport with an Enchantment. Both Teleports Stun enemies with Raiment of the Infinite to gain Mana from Static Surge, allowing you to move quickly through dungeons while unleashing endless Ice Shards!

Skill Tree Points for Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer

With Raiment of the Infinite, Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer makes changes to the Skill Tree Points for a faster speed farming setup. Non-essential enhanced nodes are removed from Ice Armor, Flame Shield and Deep Freeze to put more Skill Points into Teleport and Frost Nova for lower Cooldowns. If you run into Mana problems, you might need to keep Mystical Flame Shield and Enhanced Ice Armor.

Priority Skills	Cluster
Fire Bolt Level 2 (not on Skill Bar, only for Enchantment Slot 1)	Basic Skill
Ice Shards Level 5, Enhanced Ice Shards, Greater Ice Shards (Switch to Destructive Ice Shards once you have more than 100% Vulnerable Damage) Devastation Level 1, Elemental Dominance Level 3	Core Skill
Teleport Level 1, Enhanced Teleport, Shimmering Teleport Frost Nova Level 1, Enhanced Frost Nova, Mystical Frost Nova Ice Armor Level 1 Flame Shield Level 1 Glass Cannon Level 3 Elemental Attunement Level 1	Defensive Skill
Align the Elements Level 1, Mana Shield Level 3, Protection Level 2 Precision Magic Level 3	Conjuration Skill
Inner Flames Level 1, Devouring Blaze Level 3	Mastery Skill
Deep Freeze Permafrost Level 3, Hoarfrost Level 3, Icy Touch Level 3, Frigid Breeze Level 3	Ultimate Skill
Avalanche	Key Passives

Remaining Renown Points	Cluster
Teleport +4 Levels Frost Nova +2 Levels	Defensive Skill

Enchantment Slots for Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer

Ice Shards is replaced by Teleport in the Enchantment Slots to make use of the Stun on Raiment of the Infinite. Auto-casted Ice Shards are no longer necessary when Damage Per Second (DPS) is high enough. The extra Teleport that replaces Evade also benefits from additional Ranks to Teleport, Cooldown Reduction and Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown implicit effect on Boots.

Fire Bolt stays in the other Enchantment Slot, due to the strong benefits of Devouring Blaze and Burning Effects from Paragon. Ice Shards could be kept instead, but would require more changes in the Skill Tree and Paragon.

Paragon for Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer

Stun effects in Paragon are utilized once Raiment of the Infinite is obtained. Replace Ceaseless Conduit with Static Surge. The Legendary Node restores 10 Mana on Stunning Close Enemies and is capable of filling an entire Mana pool with a single telestomp on a large group of enemies. Drop Lucky Hit Chance from the Frigid Fate board to free up points for Static Surge.

Click this link and check the Paragon page on the planner for a visual of the entire tree.

Mechanics and Playstyle for Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer

Stun provides an alternative way to Crowd Control (CC) enemies, reducing the dependency on Frost Nova for Freezing. Most enemies can be killed with 1 or 2 casts of Ice Shards after telestomping them (teleporting on top of enemies to vortex them and stun). Reserve Frost Nova for tougher elites and larger groups of enemies.

Use the Evade Teleport foremost and often, as the Cooldown is easily reduced with the Boots implicit effect, Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown by 1.2 Seconds. Make sure to upgrade the Boots 5 times to get the highest effect possible. Use the normal Teleport on the Skill Bar as a backup whenever Evade Teleport is unavailable. Get into a rhythm of telestomping a group of enemies from a distance to engage, spamming Ice Shards, and then moving on to the next pack to repeat.

Gear Choices for Telestomp Ice Shards Sorcerer

Most of the stat priorities stay the same for the Telestomp version of Ice Shards Sorcerer. The major differences are listed below.

Boots with the implicit effect, Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown by 1.2 Seconds, are required.
+4 Ranks to Teleport is preferred in addition to +4 Ranks to Frost Nova on Boots.
+3 Ranks to All Defensive Skills on the Amulet is more important than before.
Aspect of Frozen Memories is replaced by Aspect of Retribution for more damage to Stunned enemies.
Use Aspect of Binding Embers on Boots for unhindered movement if you get stuck on monsters after telestomping.
A Staff with Smiting Aspect can be swapped to in order to stagger Bosses quickly.

Changelog

September 18th, 2023: Build Requirements section added.
August 20th, 2023: Not Recommended Unique Items section redone. Added The Oculus to the list.
August 15th, 2023: Caged Heart of Tal’Rasha fixed in Patch 1.1.2 to be correctly calculated as multiplicative instead of additive. Malignant Heart Tier List adjusted accordingly.
August 9th, 2023: Malignant Heart rankings reevaluated for Patch 1.1.1 changes.
- Caged Heart of The Barber no longer prevents “on hit” effects and Lucky Hit chance from working.
- Caged Heart of Spellbreaking now reduces all damage taken, instead of providing resistances to individual elements.
- Caged Heart of Tal’Rasha bonus was found to be additive with other damage increases, instead of separate multiplier.
July 18th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.
July 14th, 2023: Stat Priority List reevaluated.
July 9th, 2023: Weapon Swapping section added.
July 3rd, 2023: Paragon optimized with Elementalist replacing Imbiber for more damage with a 15% separate multiplier.
June 29th, 2023: Aspect of Binding Embers added as an option on Boots.
June 28th, 2023: New video guide added.
June 27th, 2023: New Paragon video covering the entire setup added.
June 25th, 2023: Paragon for both versions of the build optimized further. Frigid Fate moved to the
2nd board position to make the bonus requirement for Rare Nodes providing Vulnerable damage easier to fulfill.
June 21st, 2023: Made several updates.
- Frostblitz Aspect added after discovering Enhanced Frost Nova reduces Cooldowns twice as much while having 2 maximum stacks.
- Mana Shield Level 3 included in Skill Tree for more survivability.
- Frost Nova reduced by 2 Levels and Protection reduced by 1 Level.
- The Telestomp variant has been created and added to the bottom of the page.