Sorcerer Crackling Chain Lightning Endgame Build

The Crackling Chain Lightning Sorcerer is a PvE Build that revolves around collecting Crackling Energy to deal AOE and burst damage with Spark. This build uses Esadora's Overflowing Cameo for a 10% chance to release a lightning nova when collecting Crackling Energy. Read on to learn all the Gears, Skills, Aspects that you will need and how to play the build.

Crackling Chain Lightning Build Overview

Build Summary

Jump to a Section!
Summary	Skills	Aspects	Paragon

The Chain Lightning Sorcerer Build is a full Lightning build utilizing Spark and Chain Lightning as its main moves, and excels in mid to ranged combat.

Great AOE Damage with Crackling Energy

This build revolves around generating and dealing AOE Shock damage with Crackling Energy, making it a great build for clearing trash mobs and dealing burst damage against elites and bosses!

What is Crackling Energy?

Requires Esadora's Overflowing Cameo

Equipment	Effect and Affixes
Esadora's Overflowing Cameo (Amulet)	Effect: Upon collecting Crackling Energy, there's a 15% chance to release a lightning nova, dealing (XX) Lightning Damage. Item Affixes: ・Resistance to All Elements ・Cooldown Reduction ・Crackling Energy Damage ・Ranks to Shocking Impact ・Movement Speed

This build requires Esadora's Overflowing Cameo since this Unique has a 10% chance to release lightning nova and significantly increases your overall damage output.

It's still possible to use this build with a different Legendary Aspect though, such as the Aspect of Overwhelming Currents, while you grind for this hard to get Unique Equipment!

List of Sorcerer Unique Items

Crackling Chain Lightning Build Breakdown

Skill Progression

Jump to a Section!
Summary	Skills	Aspects	Paragon

Active Skills

Skill		Upgrade Path
Spark (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Spark	Flickering Spark
Chain Lightning (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Chain Lightning	Destructive Chain Lightning
Teleport (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Teleport	Shimmering Teleport
Ice Armor (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Ice Armor
Frost Nova (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Frost Nova	Mystical Frost Nova
Lightning Spear (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Lightning Spear	Invoked Lightning Spear
Unstable Currents (1 Point)	→	Prime Unstable Currents	Supreme Unstable Currents

Since this build also generates Lightning Spear when casting Unstable Currents, adding points to Enhanced and Invoked Lightning Spear improves your burst damage during your Ultimate.

Passive Skills

Chain Lightning Passives
Devastation (1 Point)	Elemental Dominance (3 Points)	Elemental Attunement (1 Point)
Glass Cannon (3 Points)	Align the Elements (1 Point)	Protection (1 Point)
Static Discharge (3 Points)	Invigorating Conduit (3 Points)	Coursing Currents (3 Points)
Conduction (3 Points)	Electro cution (3 Points)	Overflowing Energy (1 Point)

Enchantment Slots

Chain Lightning Enchantment Slots
Spark (Level 15)	Chain Lightning (Level 30)

Slotting Spark gives the build a 10% chance to generate Crackling Energy whenever you kill an enemy with this skill, which synergizes well with Esadora's Overflowing Cameo.

Chain Lightning is on the second slot so that you cast an additional Chain Lighting whenever you spend 100 Manafor more AOE damage.

Skill Progression Breakdown

Recommended Skill Progression
Lv.2	Lv.3	Lv.4	Lv.5
Spark	Enhanced Spark	Chain Lightning	Flickering Spark
Lv.6	Lv.7	Lv.8	Lv.9
Enhanced Chain Lightning	Destructive Chain Lightning	Devastation	Ice Armor
Lv.10	Lv.11	Lv.12	Lv.13
Teleport	Frost Nova	Enhanced Ice Armor	Enhanced Teleport
Lv.14	Lv.15	Lv.16	Lv.17
Enhanced Frost Nova	Elemental Attunement	Align the Elements	Protection
Lv.18	Lv.19	Lv.20	Lv.21
Spark	Spark	Spark	Spark
Lv.22	Lv.23	Lv.24	Lv.25
Glass Cannon	Glass Cannon	Glass Cannon	Unstable Currents
Lv.26	Lv.27	Lv.28	Lv.29
Prime Unstable Currents	Supreme Unstable Currents	Static Discharge	Invigorating Conduit
Lv.30	Lv.31	Lv.32	Lv.33
Invigorating Conduit	Invigorating Conduit	Static Discharge	Static Discharge
Lv.34	Lv.35	Lv.36	Lv.37
Chain Lightning	Overflowing Energy	Chain Lightning	Chain Lightning
Lv.38	Lv.39	Lv.40	Lv.41
Chain Lightning	Coursing Currents	Coursing Currents	Coursing Currents /td>
Lv.42	Lv.43	Lv.44	Lv.45
Electro cution	Electro cution	Electro cution	Conduction
Lv.46	Lv.47	Lv.48	Lv.49
Conduction	Conduction	Elemental Dominance	Elemental Dominance
Renown Skill Points (Lv50 Onwards)
R1	R2	R3	R4
Elemental Dominance	Shimmering Teleport	Lightning Spear	Enhanced Lightning Spear
R5	R6	R7	R8
Invoked Lightning Spear	Teleport	Teleport	Teleport
R9	R10
Teleport	Mystical Frost Nova

Aspects and Affixes

Jump to a Section!
Summary	Skills	Aspects	Paragon

Best Weapons

Weapon	Aspects and Affixes
Main Hand	Elementalist's Aspect Core or Mastery Skills cast at or above 100 Mana gain a (20.0-40.0)% increased Critical Strike Chance. ・+ X% Damage to Crowd Crontrolled Enemies (Inherent) ・+ X% Lightning Critical Strike Damage ・+ X% Ultimate Skill Damage ・+ X% Core Skill Damage ・+ X% Critical Strike Damage

Best Armor

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Helmet	Aspect of Might Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for (XX) seconds. ・+ X% Cooldown Reduction (Inherent) ・+ X% Basic Skill Attack Speed ・+ X% Core Skill DMG ・+ X% Barrier Generation ・+ X Maximum Resource
Chest	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% Barrier Generation (Inherent) ・+ X% Core Skill DMG ・+ X% Ultimate Skill Damage ・+ X% Damage ・+ X% Element Damage
Gloves	Aspect of Abundant Energy Crackling Energy has a (30-40)% chance to chain to an additional enemy. ・+ X% Attack Speed(Inherent) ・+ X% Critical Strike Chance ・+ X% Core Skill DMG ・+ X% Critical Strike Damage ・+ X% Lightning Critical Strike Damage
Pants	Snowveiled Aspect Casting Ice Armor makes you Unstoppable for (XX) seconds. ・+ While Injured, Potion Grants X% Max Life as Barrier (Inherent) ・+ X% Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies ・+ X% Core Skill DMG ・+ X% Damage Reduction ・+ X% Dodge Chance Against Close Enemies
Boots	Esu's Heirloom Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by (20-30)% of your Movement Speed bonus. ・Evade Gramts (XX)% Movement Speed for 1 Second (Inherent) ・+ Movement Speed ・+ Movement Speed for 4 Seconds on Elite Kill ・+ Shrine Buff Duration ・+ Slow Duration Reduction Effect: Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by (XX%) of your Movement Speed bonus.

The Esu's Heirloom Unique increases this build's survivability thanks to the great Movement Speed bonus and Slow Duration Reduction affixes it has.

It also increases your overall damage output since its unique effect increases your Critical Strike Chance proportionate to your movement speed which you can easily achieve by just evading!

Aspect of the Bounding Conduit is a Good Alternative

Boots

Aspect of the Bounding Conduit Gain (20-25)% Movement Speed for 3 seconds after Teleporting. ・+ Attacks reduce evade cooldown by X seconds (Inherent) ・+ X% Resource Cost Reduction ・+ X% Core Skill DMG ・+ X Main Stat ・+ X% Resource Cost Reduction

Boots with the Aspect of the Bounding Conduit is a good alternative if you don't have the unique yet since it provides similar survivability when you constantly attack.

It's very effective when casting Unstable Currents and allows you to quickly evade large groups of enemies and preventing you from getting boxed in.

Best Jewelry

Jewelry	Aspects and Affixes
Amulet	Esadora's Overflowing Cameo Upon collecting Crackling Energy, there's a 15% chance to release a lightning nova, dealing (XX) Lightning Damage. Upon collecting Crackling Energy, there's a 10% chance to release a lightning nova, dealing (XX) Lightning Damage. + Resistance to All Elements (Inherent) + Non-Physical Damage + Crackling Energy Damage + Ranks to Shocking Impact + Movement Speed
Ring	Aspect of the Unbroken Tether Chain Lightning has a (30-40)% chance to chain 2 additional times. + X% Resistance (Inherent) + X% Resistance (Inherent) + X% Resource Generation + X% Critical Strike Chance + X% Critical Strike Damage + X Maximum Resource
Ring	Stable Aspect While Unstable Currents is not active, your Shock Skills have a (7-12)% chance to trigger a free cast from it. + X% Resistance (Inherent) + X% Resistance (Inherent) + X% Resource Generation + X% Critical Strike Chance + X% Critical Strike Damage + X Maximum Resource

Alternative Jewelry Aspect

Jewelry	Aspects and Affixes
Ring	Aspect of Overwhelming Currents Currents has a (10-20)% chance to cast an additional Shock Skill. + X% Resist All Elements (Inherent) + X% Crowd Control Duration + X Maximum Resource + X% Cooldown Reduction + X% Ultimate Skill Damage

If you don't have Esadora's Overflowing Cameo yet, Aspect of Overwhelming Currents is a good alternative since it gives Unstable Currents an increased chance to cast an additional shock skill.

Best Gems

Item Type	Effect Explanation
Topaz (Weapon)	+ Basic Skill Damage Provides additional damage for your Basic Attacks.
Ruby (Armor)	+ 4% Maximum Life Increases your overall health pool for more survivability.
Skull (Jewelry)	+ Armor Provides a flat armor increase to help reduce the damage received from attacks.

Paragon Board Setup

Jump to a Section!
Summary	Skills	Aspects	Paragon

Crackling Chain Lightning Playstyle

Chain Lightning Build Tips
Recommended Openers and Rotations Use Spark to Finish Off Enemies Save Frost Nova for Larger Groups and Bosses

Recommended Openers and Rotations

Trash Mob Opener and Skill Rotation

Keeping mobile is important during trash mob encounters since you'll need to collect as much Crackling Energy as possible to maintain your high DPS.

Boss Opener

In addition to the steps above, make sure to keep an eye on Frost Nova's cooldown as this is your only way to apply vulnerability.

Timing your Frost Nova so that you can immediately follow up with Unstable Currents allows you to deal as much damage as possible.

Use Spark to Finish Off Enemies

Make sure to finish off enemies with Spark for a 10% chance to generate Crackling Energy and to ensure good uptime on the extra AOE damage and lightning nova from Esadora's Overflowing Cameo.

Save Frost Nova for Larger Groups and Bosses

Frost Nova is this build's only way to apply vulnerability and has a long cooldown. To get as much damage as possible with your build, save Frost Nova for larger groups of enemies, elites, and bosses and immediately follow up with your attacks.

Diablo 4 Related Guides

Build Guides and Tier List

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)