I’ve played the Sorcerer as my first character in Diablo IV and it was also my first level 100 character. I did it all on my own and I leveled her through the most legitimate way as possible and I have spent so many hours trying out different set ups to min-max my Arc Lash build. Was it worth it? Absolutely! I was having fun during the process, but I also realized some of the flaws of the class itself. Keep in mind, this was all done before patch 1.1.
Without a doubt, Diablo IV’s latest patch has definitely hurt my favorite class, and it has affected my overall enjoyment towards the game. This article will tell you how flawed the Sorcerer was before the patch 1.1, and this patch has simply made this character not worth playing over the other four classes. It’s a sad time for us Sorcerer mains, but this patch has basically made the Sorcerer nonexistent especially so many of the generalized mechanical changes hurt the class itself.
From the Beta to the Full Game
The Sorcerer won me over in the beta because I enjoyed many of the Sorcerer spells. The Sorceress from Diablo II is actually my second favorite class behind the Paladin. It was obvious that in Diablo IV I wanted to main the Sorcerer when the full game was finally released. Arc Lash won me over in the beta because it reminded me so much of the Crusader’s Roland Sweep Attack from Diablo III which was my favorite build to play in that game. I’m also a big melee and caster type of guy, so this build felt right at home.
The Sorcerer was considered to be the best class back in the beta. We were all wrong.
The 1 to 50 leveling process was smooth and it definitely made the Sorcerer a blast to play. I also did spend some time playing a Barbarian and the Sorcerer 1 to 50 leveling journey was significantly better than the Barbarian’s. I felt powerful and it was also a good learning experience to understand how to build my Arc Lash Chain Lightning hybrid set up I was using for that time.
Unfortunately, the 1 to 50 leveling journey gives you a fake sense of security thinking your character will be powerful for the later stages of Diablo IV’s endgame. The 50 to 100 leveling journey is where you will see your Sorcerer showing its flaws. You’ll realize you’re forced to have a certain set up or the game is going to feel like a chore. Don’t get me wrong, the Sorcerer was still playable. You can still play most of the endgame content without any issues. It’s just that you’re heavily reliant on using the game’s crowd control mechanics.
The Endgame Sorcerer Experience
If you aren’t familiar of what the typical endgame Sorcerer set up is like, well, it’s fairly simple to explain. Every endgame Sorcerer is always using these four abilities: Flame Shield, Ice Armor, Frost Nova, and Teleport. The rest of the two abilities are available for your choice. We have to use these abilities for both offensive and defensive capabilities.
Both Flame Shield and Ice Armor are great for maintaining our survivability during hectic fights, and if you’re using the Tactician glyph, you get additional damage for using defensive abilities. Frost Nova is important for crowd control and allowing us to do massive damage because it provides Invulnerability. Teleport gives us mobility and it can provide us 30% more damage reduction. It’s also important for a certain chest piece that is heavily desirable for most Sorcerer players.
Keep that Ice Armor up for sticky situations…
We are also forced to pick Firebolt for our Enchantment Slots because of Devouring Blaze in our skill tree. There are also nodes within our Paragon boards which increases the damage towards burning targets or allowing us to have damage reduction. This also means we only have one free slot of choice for our Enchantments.
Our biggest source of damage is when we apply any sort of crowd control on large groups of enemies. There is a Unique item called Raiment of the Infinite and it’s a fantastic piece of equipment because of its aspect. It allows you to Teleport on top of enemies and it does allow you to group up a decent amount of mobs near you. Most importantly, it stuns them which mean you can do extra damage because of the Aspect of Control.
The Patch 1.1 Effect
Before patch 1.1, this aspect used to be able to allow players to stack damage on top of them. It was popular to cast Frost Nova after using Teleport. This was certainly nice because it helped us able to clear large packs of threatening elite packs with ease. Unfortunately, patch 1.1 removed the mechanic to stack multiple types of damage for the Aspect of Control, and I’ve noticed how much slower my clear speed is when it comes to finishing Nightmare Dungeons.
Doing Nightmare Dungeons on the “new and improved” Sorcerer is unsatisfying. Although, the additional rewards are cool.
Not only that, I definitely don’t feel as confident when I fight large packs of elite mobs. My overall damage is so much weaker because of the latest changes. To further explain how bad my damage is, I actually struggled fighting the Butcher that was 3 levels under me! That would’ve never happened if patch 1.1 didn’t exist. Also, when you cannot Frost Nova or Teleport on top of enemies, you are forced to kite away from the fight until you get those abilities back.
This makes fight feel clunky and its more frequent on the current patch. Recently, the developers announced in their Campfire Chat that they will be increasing the density for Nightmare Dungeons. This concerns me as a Sorcerer player because I think runs are going to feel so slow if the Sorcerer doesn’t get their damage back like they did in the previous patch. The chances of death will certainly be higher too.
(Nightmare Dungeon) Blind Burrows were always fun to play for this build.
On top of that, Sorcerers are squishy. Yes, there is the Flame Shield Enchantment Slot which does help out with their survivability especially for those that play the game on Hardcore mode. But it’s so frustrating how every now and then; I would get one tapped by a random Skeleton Corpse Bow or just take massive amount of damage in milliseconds before my Aspect of Disobedience can apply. These moments were relevant before patch 1.1, and the Sorcerer’s survivability is simply much weaker than ever.
I’ve tried so many different set ups to find a way to keep my Arc Lash build as tanky as possible, but it’s just not possible. Every now and then, you will take massive amount of damage and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Some Balance Suggestions & Conclusion
According to the developers, they promise a new balance patch to be announced for next week. This gave me an idea of what kind of balancing suggestions to improve the Sorcerer playing experience. The first and most important thing is everything simply needs to be reverted. The Sorcerer was still weak back then, but it was objectively stronger than it is now. Without a doubt, Potent Warding needs a rework because resistances are currently broken. I’d like this passive skill to give me additional armor, at least 75% more armor on its first rank.
We need more ways to activate Invulnerable Damage. Frost Nova is by far the most consistent way to activate that type of damage if you’re not using an Ice Shards build. Ice Blades is almost an option, but it’s just simply not good enough versus Frost Nova. You either try to add the Invulnerable Damage mechanic for the less used abilities or rework our Exploit glyph to be similar to the Barbarian’s.
I don’t think I want to go for another level 100 on a Sorcerer on this patch.
As an Arc Lash main, I get so annoyed when I get crowd controlled by certain things during a hectic fight. I believe Unstable Currents needs to have Unstoppable. It’s not fun when you’re dealing with large hordes of monsters and one of them is an elite pack with the Terrirfying affix. They would cast a random terror curse on the ground you’re standing on and you’re forced to use Flame Shield to counter it. The Unstoppable on Unstable Currents will definitely make Arc Lash builds a lot more enjoyable to play and for my final suggestion is giving us another Enchantment Slot. I don’t mind being forced to use the Firebolt and Devouring Blaze set up because it’s just too good, but having one more Enchantment Slot would definitely help players to be more expressive with their build creativity within the Sorcerer’s skill tree.
Overall, the Sorcerer was simply weak before patch 1.1, but it was still fun to play. Nowadays, it feels like a chore to play the Sorcerer when the other classes are just much better and doesn’t feel as handicapped. I honestly wouldn’t recommend anybody to make a Sorcerer if you’ve never made one until they finally addressed the poor balancing behind this beloved class. I hope to see the Sorcerer finally reach its fullest potential in the future. It’ll be great if we can actually be stronger than the pre patch 1.1 Sorcerer.
