While Diablo 3 featured the Wizard, Diablo 2 brought us the Sorceress and in Diablo 4 the class makes a return.
The Diablo 4 Sorceress was revealed at BlizzCon 2019 and is Diablo 4’s true mage class. This latest incarnation of the class, like other returning classes, will likely follow in the same mould as the original which was described by Blizzard as:
A rebellious woman who has wrested the secrets of magic use from the male dominated Mage-Clans of the East, the Sorceress is an expert in mystical creation ex nihilo. Though somewhat lacking in the skills of hand-to-hand combat, she compensates for this weakness with fierce combative magic for both offense and defense. Solitary and reclusive, the Sorceress acts based on motives and ethics inscrutable to most, and sometimes seems capricious and even spiteful. In reality, she understands the struggle between Order and Chaos all too clearly, as well as her role as a warrior in this battle.
The Sorceress’s main abilities in Diablo 2 focused around cold, fire, and lightning. In development, Diablo 4 remains faithful to the elemental tour de force again focusing on the three main magical elements cold, fire, and lightning.
Sorcerer Starting Stats
- 10 Intelligence
- 8 Willpower
- 7 Strength
- Dexterity
| Diablo 4 Class | |
|---|---|
| The Sorceress | |
| Skills: | Sorceress Skills |
| Resources: | Mana |
| Damage Types: | Fire / Lightning / Cold |
|
| |
| Origin: | Sanctuary |
| Affiliation: | Zann Esu |
Diablo 4 Sorcerer Skills
- Minor Destruction Skills – Zero cost mana & mana generator skills dealing all types of elemental damage
- Major Destruction Skills – Higher cost mana skills dealing all types of elemental damage
- Defensive Skills – Skills to remove the sorceress from danger or envelope her in protective elements or destructive barriers
- Conjuring Skills – Direct and Area of Effect elemental damage
- Mastery Skills – High damage at a high mana cost
- Ultimate Skills – Offering immunity on very long cooldowns
Sorcerer Skill Notes
A new mechanic added to the Sorceress cold skills is chill. When a cold spell is used, it has a chilling effect which makes their movement speed slower and slower until they are frozen.
Sorcerer Talents
Certain Talents can affect an entire category of skills, for example points in Align the Elements talent reduces the cost of all Mastery spells.
Skill Trees
Sorcerer Enchantment System - Class Mechanic
Revealed on 29 September 2020, the Enchantment System hooks into the skill slots the players use for every class. However, with the Sorceress, skills can also be placed into an Enchantment slot. If you place a skill in the Enchantment slot, you can no longer use it as an active skill, but your character instead gains a secondary bonus power.
A skill can now be placed into the empty slot giving the following result.
Below is an example of this system using the Meteor skill. Meteor allows you to call a fiery chunk of rock from the sky. If you choose to slot it as an Enchantment, you won’t be able to control your Meteors, but they’ll fall onto enemies periodically. This skill is still under development and may be different in the final game.
Strengths and Weaknesses
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Plenty of AOE skills | Heavy on mana usage. |
| Defensive skills such as Flame Shield, Frost Nova, and Ice Armor. | Most suited to ranged combat only. |
| Teleport to get out of sticky situations. | A more limited arsenal to pick from. Daggers, Wands, Staves, and Focuses |
| Conjuration skills such as Hydra, Ice Blades, and Lightning Spear luring enemies to their death. |
Sorcerer Skill-driven Deaths
This system allows you to decapitate, bisect, freeze, shatter, eviscerate, and burn your enemies depending on skills used. The Sorceress' are as follows:
- Freeze/Shatter - Break frozen monsters into pieces
- Char - Singe the corpse of a monster with lightning
- Burn – Scorch the monster’s flesh, leaving the remains of a charred skeleton
Sorcerer / Sorceress History
The female mage clan of Zann Esu is one of the oldest of the ancient clans, although little is actually known about them. Centuries ago, the fourteen powerful covens of Esu witches convened for the first time in generations. What they discussed is not known, but the witches left behind their former lives and, as a group, disappeared into the Eastern Jungles.
The exact location of their community is a mystery. Until recently, their only contact with the outside world occurred during the recruitment missions. Once every seven years, the Zann Esu visited certain families across Sanctuary. These families had one thing in common — they each had a seven-year-old daughter. Always good-natured and polite, the Zann Esu visitors would meet the girls, ask a few questions, and then leave. A select few of the girls were visited a second time and offered apprenticeships. The families of those chosen enjoyed good fortune for many years after.
The Zann Esu, or Sorceresses as they are generally known, are on a quest for purity, the pursuit of the perfect magic. They feel the other disciplines of magic are haphazard and have instead chosen to focus strictly upon elemental magic. They mold the base elements into whatever magical forms they need — threatening all other magic disciplines with obsolescence. In order to achieve perfection in these elemental transmutations, they choose only those daughters of Sanctuary with the highest level of attunement to the magical elements.
The Sorceresses believe that it is through the search for perfection that they will attain ultimate purity and ascend to their destined role as the most powerful mages in Sanctuary. For centuries they have studied in secret, perfecting their art and bidding their time until the Emergence of Evil. Then, they will face their greatest challenge, either proving the purity of their magic or fading from existence.
The Zann Esu oracles have decreed that the time of the Emergence is at hand. The destruction of the Prime Evils is to be the great test of their clan. Recently, Sorceresses have appeared mysteriously throughout Sanctuary to do battle with the minions of evil wherever they are found. – Compiled by Flux
Changes Archive
Archive updated 29 September 2020
Prior to the September 29 2020 developer update, the Diablo 4 Sorceress skills and passive trees were presented to the player in a typical Diablo style. When looking at the tree further, Blizzard decided to change the tree to include both skills and passives in a single tree (see above). Blizzard did not discuss the skills themselves or skills that would be removed or added at that time. Below is the original tree designs prior to that developer update.
Diablo 4 Sorcerer Skill Tree
On 29 December 2020, Blizzard revealed a major change to the way in which skills and passives would be presented to the player. Blizzard showed a revamped Sorceress skill and passives tree which can be seen below.
- The square skills are where players add skill points.
- The round nodes can be activated to augment the skills players have unlocked
- Along the branches are also passive nodes which can be activated.
- At the bottom of the tree in the root system, there are nodes that can be activated to provide “powerful effects”.
- Blizzard has stated that players will not be able to acquire every Skill Tree node. By end-game, only 30-40% will be filled.
