The Blizzard Sorceress is a Sorceress build that focuses on use of the Blizzard spell. Blizzard is the most damaging of all Cold Spells, with a large area of effect. Since it deals damage over time that is longer than its Casting Delay, it can be stacked on itself: however, Blizzard does not deal all its damage immediately, and therefore is an inferior "panic button" compared to spells such as Chain Lightning or Glacial Spike. Although it can certainly handle crowds, it takes practice to aim properly, and when completely surrounded a Blizzard Sorceress may find it easier to use Glacial Spike to escape.
Blizzard Sorceresses deal hell-viable cold damage, and is one of the highest cold-damage builds in the game. However, she is quite frail, relying on careful positioning or teammates to stay alive. In hell difficulty, cold immunes are nearly invulnerable to her: due to the large amounts of synergies blizzard has, this build cannot diversify her damage without losing a significant amount of potential cold damage. She works best with a diverse party, or when twinked with a Cold Rupture sundering charm in Diablo II: Resurrected.
Stats[]
- Strength: Enough strength to wear all the gear. 156 strength is needed for a Spirit Rune Word Monarch
- Dexterity: None
- Energy: None
- Vitality: Everything else
Skills[]
Main skills:
- 20 in Blizzard
Synergies and prerequisites:
- 20 in Ice Bolt
- 20 in Ice Blast
- 20 in Glacial Spike
- 17-36 soft points in Cold Mastery
Utility skills:
- 1 in Teleport
- 1 in Static Field
- 1 in Warmth
- Remainder in Frozen Armor
The Blizzard Sorceress usually maxes out Blizzard. However, she also has three other synergies: Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, and Glacial Spike, all of which give a rather large +5% bonus to Blizzard. They also benefit each other with synergies, so maxing them out makes all of them effective in battle. Due to the casting delay of blizzard, the sorceress can "weave" casts of Glacial Spike or Ice Blast between casts of blizzard to maximize damage. Glacial Spike deals area-of-effect damage that guarantees freezing on non-immunes, while ice blast deals higher single target damage.
A Blizzard Sorceress has several options:
- Max out Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Glacial Spike, Blizzard, and Cold Mastery. Although her Blizzard, Glacial Spike, and Ice Blast Spells would be immensely powerful, she would be completely reliant on a Hireling or teammates against Cold Immune enemies, who are often present in Hell mode.
- Max out three of these spells (e.g. Ice Blast, Glacial Spike, and Blizzard), and then max out another spell of a different element (and its corresponding Mastery) that requires less synergies (e.g. Fire Wall or Thunder Storm).
Either way, a Blizzard Sorceress will benefit from equipment that gives +Cold Skill damage like Death's Fathom or +Blizzard Skills like Snowclash, or reduces enemy Cold Resist.
Gear[]
Gear is listed from best to budget options.
Helmet:
- Nightwing's Veil socketed with a cold Rainbow Facet
- Harlequin Crest
- Rockstopper, Tarnhelm, or a rare/magical circlet with +skills, stats, and/or resistances
- Lore Rune Word
Weapon:
- Death's Fathom socketed with a cold Rainbow Facet
- Oculus
- Spirit Rune Word
- Staff or orb with + to Blizzard, teleport, or other utility/damage skills
Body Armor:
- Chains of Honor Rune Word
- Ormus' Robes with +3 to Blizzard
- Skin of the Vipermagi, Que-Hegan's Wisdom
- Stealth Rune Word
Shield:
Wearing either the full or partial Tal Rasha's Wrappings is also effective for this set, particularly for magic finding.
Party Play[]
Blizzard Sorceresses benefit tremendously from Paladins running Conviction aura, such as Avengers and Fist of the Heavens, to maximize their cold damage and lessen their dependence on Cold Mastery.
The Blizzard Sorceress is often the bane of Summonmancers; it is generally not a good idea for them to be on the same team, since a Blizzard Sorceress will ultimately shatter a majority of her enemy's bodies, destroying them before a Summonmancer can revive or use Corpse Explosion on them.