The Best Sorcerer Leveling Build for Season 5 of Diablo 4

Diablo 4’s Season of the Infernal Hordes is now live, leading many players to try and figure out the fastest leveling builds in their chosen class. Sorcerers have a fair bit of variety this season in both viable leveling builds and endgame builds. However, there is an undeniable tier list. The best leveling build for Sorcerer is determined based on its clear speed, how easily it transitions into a late game build, and how flexible the itemization is.

In these metrics, the Chain Lightning Sorcerer is second to none. Keep reading for tips on playing the Chain Lightning Sorcerer, how to build it, and which endgame builds Chain Lightning Sorcerers best transition into.

Why The Best Build For Leveling In Season 5 Is Chain Lightning Sorcerer

Chain Lightning Sorcerers are the best bang for your buck when it comes to leveling for several reasons. This build combines an early power spike with flexible itemization to make the early game a breeze, although players will need to invest in mana regeneration quite heavily in order to make it work. Key to the build’s success in the current patch is the high enemy density found along Season 5’s Infernal Hordes Mode – all builds with AoE are exceeding expectations this season – along with several of the new Seasonal Aspects mitigating the build’s mana issues.

Pros and Cons of the Chain Lightning Sorcerer

Skill Tree Choices For The Chain Lightning Sorcerer

The Chain Lightning Sorcerer’s Skill Tree is quite straightforward, except for taking Fireball without putting it on the Skill Bar. This skill is taken exclusively for its enchantment, although players can assign it to the Hotbar until Unstable Currents is unlocked.

Basic Skill Node

Chain Lightning Sorcerers should start by investing three points in the Basic Skill node.

• Arc Lash (1/5)
  • Enhanced Arc Lash
  • Flickering Arc Lash

While it is true that the cooldown reduction provided by Glittering Arc Lash is usually superior, this build cannot make use of it due to a lack of CC. Instead, Flickering Arc Lash will provide some additional mana.

Core Skill Node

Here, players will unlock the most important damage tool in the build – Chain Lightning – along with Fireball. Unlock Chain Lightning first, as Fireball won’t be useful until after unlocking Enchantments anyway.

• Chain Lightning (5/5)
  • Enhanced Chain Lightning
  • Greater Chain Lightning
• Fireball (5/5)

• Potent Warding (3/3)

Defensive Skills Node

Due to the Sorcerer’s overall glass cannon nature, Defensive skills are very important to most any viable build. In this build players should take Teleport and Ice Armor to provide mobility and Barrier generation.

• Teleport (5/5)
  • Enhanced Teleport
  • Shimmering Teleport
• Ice Armor (1/5)

• Elemental Attunement (1/3)
• Glass Cannon (3/3)

Conjuration Skills Node

In this node players should take primarily passives, although points are also being allocated to the Hydra ability for its burning damage synergy with Fiery Surge.

• Fire Hydra (5/5)
  • Enhanced Hydra
  • Summoned Hydra
• Align the Elements (1/3)
• Mana Shield (3/3)
• Protection (3/3)
• Conjuration Mastery (3/3)

Mastery Skills Node

This build doesn’t want anything on this skill node, and luckily enough points were invested earlier in the tree to skip it entirely.

Ultimate Skills Node

Here is where this build picks up its main burst ability – Unstable Currents. However, this ability won’t be fully upgraded, as players won’t need the Crackling Energy generated by the pinnacle ability.

• Unstable Currents

• Fiery Surge (3/3)
• Coursing Currents 1/3)
• Electrocution (1/3)
• Conduction (2/3)

While Fiery Surge may initially seem out of place in this lightning themed build, using it in combination with the Hydra will continuously generate mana – something this build desperately needs.

Key Passives Node

Here, players should take Vyr’s Mastery, as it will help add survivability to the build as well as being infinitely more useful than the Crackling Energy effects of the other Lightning Passive.

Best Enchantments For The Chain Lightning Sorcerer

The best enchantments for the Chain Lightning Sorcerer are:

• Chain Lightning – Chain Lightning forms automatically after spending 100 mana.
• Fireball – When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its’ damage.

This combination gives the player free casts of their primary skill after every third cast, something that will significantly improve this build’s boss performance. In addition, the Fireball enchantment adds generalized AoE to the build, offsetting the at times unpredictable target selection of Chain Lightning.

Itemization For The Chain Lightning Sorcerer

In the Chain Lightning Leveling Build, Sorcerers will want to focus on these three stats above all:

• Intelligence
• Resource Cost Reduction
• Cooldown Reduction

While Intelligence is a raw damage boost, reducing the Mana costs of skills and lowering the cooldown of the ultimate skill, Unstable Currents, will result in a noticeable gameplay difference. Of a lower but still important priority are:

• Ranks of Chain Lightning
• Movement Speed
• Mana per Second
• Mana on Kill

Players are most likely to find ranks of Chain Lightning on Gloves, while Movement Speed and Mana increases are most likely to show up on Boots or Jewelry.

Useful Aspects For The Chain Lightning Sorcerer

As for imprinting their gear with Legendary Aspects, players should focus on the following Aspects:

** Lightning Rod’s introduction this season is what moves this build from mid-tier to high tier, so prioritizing it whenever available is suggested.

It is very important in the Chain Lightning Build to pump Intelligence as high as possible. As a result, players will swap their weapons frequently during leveling. It is advised not to imprint aspects on weapon gear pieces until the late game.

Useful Unique Items For Chain Lightning Sorcerer

While no unique items are necessary for this build, you may stumble across some helpful ones as you play in World Tier 3+. Uniques that are good to equip in this build include: