Chain Lightning Sorcerer Abattoir of Zir Build (Season 2)

This is a Season 2 Chain Lightning Sorcerer Build that uses AOE attacks and burst damage to deal and spread vulnerable in Diablo 4 (Diablo IV). Read on to learn all the Gear, Skills, and Aspects you will need and how to play the build for Season 2 and Abattoir of Zir (AoZ).

Chain Lightning Strengths and Weaknesses

Chain Lightning Strengths

High Mobility

Thanks to the additional movement speed granted by the Flickerstep, you will be able to navigate the map much faster. Additionally, you can utilize your teleport to pass through walls or group up enemies with your Raiment of the Infinite.

AOE Crowd Control

With this build, you can consistently apply Vulnerable and Stun on enemies, making it much easier for you to efficiently clear large groups of mobs in high tier Abattoir of Zir dungeons while playing aggressively.

High Elemental Resistance

Stacking Intelligence can be easily accomplished by picking up the Intelligence Nodes on your Paragon Board and having an Intelligence affix on your two-handed weapon (Staff). The damage boost that you get from scaling your intelligence also improves your resistance to all elements, giving you additional defense.

Chain Lightning Weaknesses

Cooldown Dependent

Due to Sorcerers' low health and armor, surviving certain dungeon affixes, particularly in high-tier Nightmare Dungeons and Abattoir of Zir, can be challenging. To survive these attacks, it is essential to consistently apply Barriers using your defensive skills, and this can be achieved by stacking Cooldown Reduction.

Chain Lightning Build Overview

Build Summary

Jump to a Section!
Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Skills

Aspects & Uniques

Stats & Gems

Build Overview and Summary
Chain Lightning		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Build Overview and Summary
Chain Lightning		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Aspects and Uniques
Harlequin Crest Flickerstep Tibault's Will Raiment of the Infinite Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop Aspect of Disobedience (Amulet) Aspect of Control (Gloves) Aspect of the Unbroken Tether (Main Hand) Recharging Aspect (Ring)

Build Overview and Summary
Chain Lightning		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Stat Priorities			Recommended Gems
・Cooldown Reduction ・Critical Strike Damage ・Lightning Critical Strike Damage ・Damage Reduction ・Damage with Core ・Damage vs Crowd Controlled ・Attack Speed Bonus ・Total Armor			Sapphire (Weapon) Diamond (Armor) Skull (Jewelry)

The Chain Lightning Sorcerer Build excels in ranged combat, utilizing Chain Lightning to deal damage to multiple enemies while spreading the vulnerable with the Frozen Orb passive in the enchantment slot.

Offers Great Survivability and Mobility

With the Aspect of Disobedience and Harlequin Crest equipped, this build has great survivability without sacrificing damage. In fact, dealing as much damage as possible gives you extra armor to tank hits from enemies.

Flickerstep also gives you extra mobility paired with Teleport, giving you increased movement speed to reposition during a boss fight or escape groups of strong enemies.

Chain Lightning Build Breakdown

Skill Progression

Jump to a Section!
Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Active Skills

Skill		Upgrade Path
Fire Bolt (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Fire Bolt
Frozen Orb (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Frozen Orb	Greater Frozen Orb
Chain Lightning (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Chain Lightning	Greater Chain Lightning
Teleport (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Teleport	Shimmering Teleport
Ice Armor (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Ice Armor	Mystical Ice Armor
Flame Shield (1 Point)	→	None
Lightning Spear (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Lightning Spear	Invoked Lightning Spear
Ball Lightning (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Ball Lightning	Wizard's Ball Lightning
Unstable Currents (1 Point)	→	Prime Unstable Currents	Supreme Unstable Currents

Passive Skills

Chain Lightning Passives
Devastation (1 Point)	Elemental Dominance (3 Points)	Potent Warding (1 Point)
Elemental Attunement (1 Point)	Precision Magic (3 Points)	Align the Elements (1 Point)
Mana Shield (3 Points)	Protection (3 Points)	Electro cution (3 Points)
Conduction (3 Points)	Overflowing Energy (1 Point)	-

Skill Progression Breakdown

Recommended Skill Progression
Lv.2	Lv.3	Lv.4	Lv.5
Fire Bolt	Fire Bolt	Frozen Orb	Frozen Orb
Lv.6	Lv.7	Lv.8	Lv.9
Frozen Orb	Frozen Orb	Frozen Orb	Enhanced Frozen Orb
Lv.10	Lv.11	Lv.12	Lv.13
Greater Frozen Orb	Devastation	Elemental Dominance	Elemental Dominance
Lv.14	Lv.15	Lv.16	Lv.17
Elemental Dominance	Chain Lightning	Chain Lightning	Chain Lightning
Lv.18	Lv.19	Lv.20	Lv.21
Chain Lightning	Chain Lightning	Enhanced Chain Lightning	Greater Chain Lightning
Lv.22	Lv.23	Lv.24	Lv.25
Potent Warding	Flame Shield	Teleport	Enhanced Teleport
Lv.26	Lv.27	Lv.28	Lv.29
Shimmering Teleport	Ice Armor	Elemental Attunement	Precision Magic
Lv.30	Lv.31	Lv.32	Lv.33
Precision Magic	Precision Magic	Lightning Spear	Enhanced Lightning Spear
Lv.34	Lv.35	Lv.36	Lv.37
Invoked Lightning Spear	Align the Elements	Mana Shield	Mana Shield
Lv.38	Lv.39	Lv.40	Lv.41
Mana Shield	Protection	Protection	Protection
Lv.42	Lv.43	Lv.44	Lv.45
Ball Lightning	Ball Lightning	Ball Lightning	Ball Lightning
Lv.46	Lv.47	Lv.48	Lv.49
Ball Lightning	Enhanced Ball Lightning	Wizard's Ball Lightning	Unstable Currents
Renown Skill Points (Lv50 Onwards)
R1	R2	R3	R4
Prime Unstable Currents	Supreme Unstable Currents	Coursing Currents	Electro cution
R5	R6	R7	R8
Electro cution	Electro cution	Conduction	Conduction
R9		R10
Conduction		Overflowing Energy

Enchantment Slots

Chain Lightning Enchantment Slots
Ball Lightning (Level 15)	Frozen Orb (Level 30)

Slotting Ball Lightning allows your Critical Strikes to randomly spawn a static Ball Lightning, assisting in clearing out nearby and approaching enemies. Additionally, the Frozen Orb Enchantment has a chance to automatically cast a free Frozen Orb when using your Chain Lightning or casting defensive skills.

Enchantment Slots Explained

Best Vampiric Powers

Jump to a Section!
Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Vampiric Power Cost	Effect Explanation
Metamorphosis 2 2 2	When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. Metamorphosis makes you unstoppable for 4 seconds. This means that you can trigger the unique effect of Tibault's Will every time you evade, giving you a massive damage increase.
Prey on the Weak 2 0 0	You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers. This Vampiric Power causes enemies affected by Vampiric Curse to become Vulnerable and it increases your damage by 16%.
Infection 1 0 0	Hitting enemies with direct damage infects them with Pox. Inflicting Pox 8 times on an enemy expunges their infection, dealing 70% Poison damage. This allows you to inflict Pox (Poison Damage) on enemies and activates the effect of your Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop, giving you an additional 15% increased damage.
Domination 1 0 0	You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen, or Feared. If they're also Injured and not an Elite, they're instantly killed. Domination further increases your damage against Stunned and Frozen enemies, enabling faster clearing.
Undying 0 0 1	Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life. Provides additional survivability in addition to the Barriers from your Defensive Skills.
Total Pacts Required 6 | 2 | 3

Aspects and Affixes

Jump to a Section!
Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Best Weapons

Weapon	Aspects and Affixes
Main Hand	Aspect of the Unbroken Tether Chain Lightning has a (30-40)% chance to chain 2 additional times. ・+ X% Damage to Crowd Crontrolled Enemies (Inherent) ・+ X% Intelligence ・+ X% Damage To Crowd Controlled Enemies ・+ X% Core Skill Damage ・+ X% Critical Strike Damage

Best Armor

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Helmet	Harlequin Crest Gain (10.0-20.0)% Damage Reduction. In addition, gain +4 Ranks to all Skills. ・+ X Maximum Life ・+ X% Cooldown Reduction ・+ X% Resource Generation ・+ X All Stats
Chest	Raiment of the Infinite After using Teleport, Close enemies are Pulled to you and Stunned for (XX) seconds, but Teleport's cooldown is increased by 20%. ・+ X Intelligence ・+ X% Damage to Stunned Enemies ・+ X% Damage to Close Enemies ・+ X Rank of the Glass Cannon Passive
Gloves	Aspect of Control You deal (25-35)% more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies. ・+ X% Critical Strike Chance ・+ X% Ranks Of Chain Lightning ・+ X% Attack Speed ・+ X% Lucky Hit Chance
Pants	Tibault's Will You deal 20-40% increased damage while Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource. ・While Injured, Your Potion Also Restores 20% Resource (Inherent) ・+X% Damage Reduction from Close Enemies ・+X Potion Capacity ・+X% Damage ・+X Maximum Resource
Boots	Flickerstep Each enemy you Evade through reduces your active Ultimate Cooldown by 2-4 seconds, up to 10 seconds. ・+X Attacks Reduce Evade's Cooldown by 0.8 seconds. (Inherent) ・+X All Stats ・+X% Movement Speed ・+X% Ultimate Skill Damage ・+X% Damage Reduction from Close Enemies

Best Jewelry

Jewelry	Aspects and Affixes
Amulet	Aspect of Disobedience You gain (0.25-0.50)% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to (66)%. ・+ X% Resist All Elements (Inherent) ・+ X% Total Armor ・+ X% Damage ・+ X% Damage Reduction ・+ X% Cooldown Reduction
Ring	Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop For each type of Elemental damage you deal, gain 10.0-15.0% increased damage for 4 seconds. Dealing Elemental damage refreshes all bonuses. ・+X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+X% Element Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Non-Physical Damage ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Resource Generation ・+X% Cooldown Reduction
Ring	Recharging Aspect Each time Chain Lightning bounces off you, gain (XX) Mana. ・+ X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+ X% Element Resistance (Inherent) ・+ X Maximum Life ・+ X% Lightning Damage ・+ X% Critical Strike Chance ・+ X% Critical Strike Damage

Best Gems

Jump to a Section!
Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Gem Type	Effect Explanation
Royal Sapphire (Weapon)	+12.0% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies Increases the effectiveness of the Barriers that you generate with your skills.
Royal Ruby (Armor)	4.0% Maximum Life Increases your maximum Life for additional survivability.
Royal Skull (Jewelry)	+250 Armor Provides a flat armor increase to help reduce the damage received from attacks.

Paragon Board Setup

Jump to a Section!
Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Starting Board (Destruction)

The starting board provides a combination of offensive and defensive stats, contributing to the overall performance improvement of the build.

• Destruction (Glyph): Provides an increase in Critical Strike damage which is a must have for the Ball Lightning build.
• Resilience and Erudite: Provides an increase percentage on All Elemental Resistance which increases your survivability.
• Elemental Balance and Elementalist: Provides damage boost on your Non-Physical Damage attacks.

Static Surge (Control)

This board allows you to apply vulnerabile for additional crowd control and free mana, making your Chain Lightning a lot more effective.

• Control: Increases your overall damage against enemies that are crowd controlled which you can easily apply using this build.
• Incapacitate and Overwhelming: Raw damage boosts against Elite and Stunned enemies which you can easily apply with the lightning element.
• Electro: Increased Lightning Resistance for extra defense.

Frigid Fate (Tears of Blood)

Using Tears of Blood on the Frigid Fate board allows you to maximize the effect of powerful rare nodes. On top of that, this board contains numerous stat nodes that can significant boost to your damage with the Tears of Blood.

• Tears of Blood (Glyph): Provides a massive boost on your Non-Phyiscal Damage attacks and additional Elemental Resistance based on the Enchantment Skills equipped.
• Weakness: Increases your damage against vulnerable enemies.
• Chilling: Increased Cold Resistance for extra defense.

Enchantment Master (Enchanter)

The magic and rare nodes on this board boost your Non-Physical Damage attacks and provide additional resistance to all elements.

• Enchanter: Provides a massive boost on your Non-Phyiscal Damage attacks and additional Elemental Resistance based on the Enchantment Skills equipped.
• Elemental Balance and Elementalist: Provides damage boost on your Non-Physical Damage attacks.
• Suffused Resilience and Erudite: Increases all elemental resistance for extra defense and survivability.

Ice Fall

The Ice Fall board is best chosen last, as the dexterity nodes on this board are grouped together, allowing them to be easily acquired with minimal points required.

• Exploit: Increases your overall damage against vulnerable enemies for every dexterity node purchased within its range.
• Frigid: Provides additional damage reduction against enemies that are chilled which you can easily apply using your Frozen Orb.

Chain Lightning Playstyle

Chain Lightning Build Tips
Recommended Openers and Rotations Play Aggressively Bounce Chain Lightning for Better Sustain

Recommended Openers and Rotations

Trash Mob Opener and Skill Rotation

Boss Opener

In addition to the steps above, make sure to keep an eye on Frozen Orb as this is your only way to apply vulnerability. Make sure that you immediately follow up with Unstable Currents to deal as much damage as possible.

Play Aggressively

Make sure that you are attacking enemies consistently to gain the increased armor benefit from the Aspect of Disobedience, which will help you survive incoming damage.

Bounce Chain Lightning for Better Sustain

This build's sustain comes from bouncing Chain Lightning between yourself and enemies to proc Recharging Aspect. This is easier to do against groups of enemies, but requires careful positioning when facing Elites, Bosses, and World Bosses.

Diablo 4 Related Guides

Build Guides and Tier List

All Season 3 Leveling Builds

All Class Builds

All Classes
Barbarian		Druid		Sorcerer
Rogue		Necromancer		Uber Lilith Builds

All Sorcerer Builds

List of Builds
Arc Lash Charged Bolts (PVE)	Ball Lightning (PVE)	Blizzard (PVE)
Chain Lightning (PVE)	Fireball (PVE)	Fireball Meteor (PVE)
Sorcerer Leveling (Leveling)