Sorcerer Burning Ice Shards Endgame Build (Season 2 Updated)

This is a Season 2 Burning Ice Shards Sorcerer Build for PvE that takes advantage of the Burning and Frozen status effects applied on enemies to increase your Critical Strike Damage in Diablo 4 (Diablo IV). Read on to learn all the Gears, Skills, Aspects that you will need and how to play the build.

Burning Ice Shards Build Overview

Build Summary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Using the Fire Bolt Enchantment, you apply Burning status on all of the enemies that you hit using any of your skills. This allows Devouring Blaze's Critical Strike Damage multiplier to trigger every time you land a Critical Strike. Additionally, this makes gears with + Damage to Burning Enemies viable, giving you more flexibility with your Affixes.

The Ice Shards Enchantment allows you to fire additional Ice Shards when enemies are Frozen. Since you are using Enhanced Ice Shards and Greater Ice Shards, every Ice Shard that you land will bounce off to other nearby enemies. Because of this interaction, your burst is extremely powerful against large groups of enemies.

Burning Ice Shards Build Breakdown

Skill Progression

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Active Skills

Skill		Upgrade Path
Fire Bolt (2 Points)	→	None
Ice Shards (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Ice Shards	Greater Ice Shards
Teleport (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Teleport	Shimmering Teleport
Frost Nova (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Frost Nova	Mystical Frost Nova
Ice Armor (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Ice Armor
Deep Freeze (1 Point)	→	Prime Deep Freeze	Supreme Deep Freeze

Passive Skills

Burning Ice Shard Passives
Glass Cannon (3 Points)	Inner Flames (1 Point)	Devouring Blaze (3 Points)
Align the Elements (1 Point)	Protection (1 Point)	Devastation (3 Points)
Elemental Dominance (3 Points)	Elemental Attunement (3 Points)	Precision Magic (3 Points)
Permafrost (3 Points)	Hoarfrost (3 Points)	Frigid Breeze (3 Points)
Icy Touch (3 Points)	Avalanche (1 Point)	-

Skill Progression Breakdown

Recommended Skill Progression
Lv.2	Lv.3	Lv.4	Lv.5
Fire Bolt	Fire Bolt	Ice Shards	Enhanced Ice Shards
Lv.6	Lv.7	Lv.8	Lv.9
Greater Ice Shards	Ice Shards	Frost Nova	Enhanced Frost Nova
Lv.10	Lv.11	Lv.12	Lv.13
Mystical Frost Nova	Teleport	Enhanced Teleport	Shimmering Teleport
Lv.14	Lv.15	Lv.16	Lv.17
Ice Armor	Glass Cannon	Glass Cannon	Glass Cannon
Lv.18	Lv.19	Lv.20	Lv.21
Inner Flames	Devouring Blaze	Devouring Blaze	Devouring Blaze
Lv.22	Lv.23	Lv.24	Lv.25
Enhanced Ice Armor	Align the Elements	Protection	Deep Freeze
Lv.26	Lv.27	Lv.28	Lv.29
Prime Deep Freeze	Supreme Deep Freeze	Permafrost	Permafrost
Lv.30	Lv.31	Lv.32	Lv.33
Permafrost	Hoarfrost	Hoarfrost	Hoarfrost
Lv.34	Lv.35	Lv.36	Lv.37
Frigid Breeze	Avalanche	Frigid Breeze	Frigid Breeze
Lv.38	Lv.39	Lv.40	Lv.41
Icy Touch	Icy Touch	Icy Touch	Devastation
Lv.42	Lv.43	Lv.44	Lv.45
Elemental Dominance	Elemental Dominance	Elemental Dominance	Elemental Attunement
Lv.46	Lv.47	Lv.48	LV.49
Elemental Attunement	Elemental Attunement	Precision Magic	Precision Magic
Renown Skill Points (Lv50 Onwards)
R1	R2	R3	R4
Precision Magic	Ice Shards	Ice Shards	Ice Shards
R5	R6	R7	R8
Frost Nova	Frost Nova	Frost Nova	Frost Nova
R9		R10
Devastation		Devastation

Enchantment Slots

Burning Ice Shards Enchantment Slots
Ice Shards (Level 15)	Fire Bolt (Level 30)

Enchantment Slots Explained

Aspects and Affixes

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Best Weapons

Weapon	Aspects and Affixes
Main Hand	Conceited Aspect Deal (15-25)% increased damage while you have a Barrier active. ・X% Lucky Hit Chance (Inherent) ・X% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ・X% Core Skill Damage ・X% Critical Strike Damage ・X% Damage to Burning Enemies
Off-Hand	Aspect of Piercing Cold Ice Shards pierce (XX) times, dealing (50-100)% less damage per subsequent enemy hit. ・+X% Cooldown Reduction (Inherent) ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X% Critical Strike Chance ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Resource Cost Reduction

Best Armor

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Helmet	Godslayer Crown When you Stun, Freeze, or Immobilize an Elite enemy, or damage a Boss, it pulls in nearby enemies. You deal 30-60% increased damage to them for 3 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 12 seconds. ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X% Crowd Control Duration ・+X Maximum Life ・+X% Damage
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 Close Enemies ・+X% Damage to Stunned Enemies ・+X Ranks to Glass Cannon
Gloves	Aspect of Fortune Your Lucky Hit Chance is increased by (10-20)% while you have a Barrier active. ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X Main Stat ・+X Ranks to Ice Shards ・+X% Critical Strike Chance
Pants	Iceheart Brais Enemies that die while Frozen, have a (21-30)% chance to unleash a Frost Nova. ・While Injured, Your Potion Also Restores 30% Resource (Inherent) ・Intelligence ・Damage to Frozen Enemies ・Damage to Injured Enemies ・Freeze Duration
Boots	Esu's Heirloom Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by (20-30)% of your Movement Speed bonus. ・Evade Grants (XX)% Movement Speed for 1 Second (Inherent) ・+X% Movement Speed ・+X% Movement Speed for 4 seconds on Elite Kill ・+X% Shrine Buff Duration ・+X% Critical Strike Damage

Best Jewelry

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Necklace	Elementalist's Aspect Core or Mastery Skills cast at or above 100 Mana gain a (20.0-40.0)% increased Critical Strike Chance. ・+X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+X Ranks to Devouring Blaze ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance While You Have a Barrier ・+X% Cooldown Reduction
Ring	Aspect of Frozen Memories The Avalanche Key Passive now applies to 1 additional cast. ・+X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+X% Element Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Critical Strike Damage ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Critical Strike Chance
Ring	Aspect of Control You deal (25-35)% more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies. ・+X% Resist All (Inherent) ・+X% Element Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Critical Strike Damage ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Critical Strike Chance

Best Gems

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Item Type	Effect Explanation
Royal Sapphire (Weapon)	+12.0% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies Increases your overall damage when landing Critical Strikes against Chilled and Frozen enemies.
Royal Ruby (Armor)	4.0% Maximum Life Increases your maximum Life for additional survivability.
Royal Diamond (Jewelry)	5.0% Resistance to All Elements Increases your resistance to all elements helping you survive attacks.

Best Vampiric Powers

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Vampiric Power Cost	Effect Explanation
Undying 0 0 1	Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life. Provides additional survivability in addition to your Barriers by simply using your skills.
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. You can benefit from the Vampiric Powers effect, as you'll be able to Freeze enemies by using either Frost Nova or Ice Shards.
Accursed Touch 0 6 0	Lucky Hit: Up to a 44% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Accursed Souls deal 200% increased damage. Allows you to consistently apply Vampiric Curse to make enemies Vulnerable through Prey on the Weak.
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. Use this to apply Vulnerability to enemies affected by Vampiric Curse from Accursed Touch.
Ravenous 3 0 0	Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds. Offers additional attack speed, enabling you to spam Ice Shards even faster.
Total Pacts Required 6 | 6 | 1

Paragon Board Setup

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Burning Ice Shards Playstyle

Burning Ice Shard Build Tips
Recommended Openers and Skill Rotations Spam Teleport and Frost Nova for Barriers Keep Your Mana Over 100 Focus on Killing High HP Enemies Use Potions During Deep Freeze

Recommended Openers and Skill Rotations

Trash Mob Skill Rotation

Because of the Iceheart Brais' effect, killing enemies can potentially cast additional Frost Novas that can Freeze other nearby enemies that are outside of your range. Since Frost Nova is also a Cooldown if you kill an enemy using this, it can also provide you a barrier by triggering your Protection passive.

Elites and Bosses Skill Rotation

If your skills are on Cooldown, you can use Deep Freeze to buy some time. This will not only provide you Cooldowns, but it will also give you a Barrier that lasts for 6 seconds.

Spam Teleport and Frost Nova for Barriers

Since the Teleport and Frost Nova's enhanced passives provides Cooldowns, you will be able to trigger the Protection passive to generate free Barriers. With this, enemies that you hit will always be considered Frozen because of the Greater Ice Shards.

You Can Teleport to an Adjacent Area

You can use your Teleport to get over cliffs, or different rooms as long as you can see it on your screen. Use this to your advantage to be as mobile as you can to move around the map much faster.

Keep Your Mana Over 100

Ideally, it is best that you have at least 128 Mana to cast two Ice Shards in a row without deactivating your passives. Since Elemental Dominance and Elementalist's Aspect provide additional damage and Critical Strike Chance, you want to have them up as much as possible.

Lucky Hit Provides Free Cast

If your Lucky Hit is high enough, you will constantly trigger the Avalanche Skill which solves the Mana issue with this build. This also further increases your damage output on Vulnerable enemies.

Focus on Killing High HP Enemies

Since your Ice Shards will automatically shoot nearby enemies, the adds around you will automatically die and casts a free Frost Nova. You only need to worry about Elites and Bosses if they have enough HP to survive your combo.

Use Potions During Deep Freeze

While you are using Deep Freeze, you will not be able to move or attack until it is finished or canceled. You can use Potions during this state and it acts as your panic button if you are being overwhelmed.

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