Season 1 Blizzard Ice Shards Endgame Build

This is a Season 1 Blizzard Ice Shards endgame build for Sorcerer in Diablo 4 (D4) that maximizes the potential of Frost Skills through the use of Ice Shards and Blizzard. This build can consistently freeze enemies while delivering high burst damage with The Barber Malignant Heart. Read on to learn all the Gears, Skills, Aspects that you will need and how to play the build for Season 1 (Version 1.1).

Blizzard Ice Shards Build Overview

Build Summary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Best Aspects
Gems and Hearts			Paragon

This an endgame build that primarily utilizes Ice Shards and Blizzard to consistently freeze enemies and deal destructive burst damage to them. Ice Shards will be the highlight of the build due to its ability to deliver consistent single target and AoE damage if combined with its Enchantment,the Aspect of Piercing Cold, and The Barber Malignant Heart.

Blizzard will be skill that further solidifies the synergies present in the build through substantial amount of damage, crowd control, and Mana sustainability through its passives and the Glacial Aspect.

You will find this build consistent and easy to use due the presence of the Aspect of Frozen Memories and Frigid Breeze Skill Passive which, when built with a lot of Lucky Hit Chance, can deliver reliable results. To compliment the consistency with damage, you will have the Aspect of Control and Elementalist's Aspect which great for amplifying damage to Crowd Controlled enemies and Critical Strike Damage.

This build also has great survivability because aside from Preventing enemies from moving, you will be able to use 4 Defensive Skills. These Defensive Skills, coupled with the Raiment of the Infinite, Iceheart Brais Unique, Conceited Aspect, and Aspect of Binding Embers will provide not ensure your survival, but will also provide you with great offense and utility.

Blizzard Ice Shards Build Breakdown

Skill Progression

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Summary		Skill Progression		Best Aspects
Gems and Hearts			Paragon

Active Skills

Skill		Upgrade Path
Ice Shards (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Ice Shards	Destructive Ice Shards
Blizzard (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Blizzard	Wizard's Blizzard
Teleport (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Teleport	Shimmering Teleport
Frost Nova (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Frost Nova	Mystical Frost Nova
Flame Shield (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Flame Shield	Shimmering Flame Shield
Ice Armor (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Ice Armor	-

Passive Skills

Blizzard Ice Shards Passives
Devastation (1 Point)	Elemental Dominance (3 Points)	Glass Cannon (3 Points)
Elemental Attunement (1 Point)	Precision Magic (3 Points)	Align the Elements (1 Point)
Protection (2 Points)	Icy Veil (1 Point)	Snap Freeze (3 Points)
Inner Flames (1 Point)	Devouring Blaze (3 Points)	Permafrost (3 Points)
Hoarfrost (3 Points)	Icy Touch (3 Points)	Frigid Breeze (3 Points)
Avalanche (1 Point)

Skill Progression Breakdown

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

Enchantment Slots

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

Fire Bolt Enchantment becomes more valuable than ever before because of its synergy with the Tal’Rasha Malignant Heart. This Enchantment makes all of your damaging skills deal Burning damage thus giving you consistent access to Fire element for an additional damage bonus. Furthermore, this gives you consistent activation of the Devouring Blaze Skill Passive which will increase your Critical Strike Damage!

Ice Shards is your next Enchantment as the build will highly benefit from the additional shards that will hit Frozen enemies. This guarantees that every Frozen enemy will be utterly destroyed by your Ice Shards!

Enchantment Slots Explained

Aspects and Affixes

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Summary		Skill Progression		Best Aspects
Gems and Hearts			Paragon

Best Weapons

Weapon	Aspects and Affixes
Wand	Conceited Aspect Deal (15-25)% increased damage while you have a Barrier active. ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance (Inherent) ・+X% Vulnerable Damage ・+X% Critical Strike Damage ・+X% Core Skill Damage ・+X Intelligence
Focus	Aspect of Frozen Memories The Avalanche Key Passive now applies to 1 additional cast. ・+X% Cooldown Reduction (Inherent) ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X% Critical Strike Chance ・+X% Mana Cost Reduction

Best Armor

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Helmet	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% Cooldown Reduction ・+X Maximum Mana ・+X Intelligence ・+X% Total Armor
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 Rank to Glass Cannon Passive
Gloves	Aspect of Piercing Cold Ice Shards pierce (XX) times, dealing (50-100)% less damage per subsequent enemy hit. ・+X Rank to Ice Shards ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Critical Strike Chance ・+X% Attack Speed
Pants	Iceheart Brais Enemies that die while Frozen, have a (11-20)% chance to unleash a Frost Nova. ・While Injured, Your Potion Also Restores (XX)% Resource (Inherent) ・+X Intelligence ・+X% Damage to Frozen Enemies ・+X% Damage to Injured Enemies ・+X% Freeze Duration
Boots	Aspect of Binding Embers Flame Shield lets you move unhindered through enemies. Enemies you move through while Flame Shield is active are Immobilized for (XX) seconds. ・+X Max Evade Charge (Inherent) ・+X% Movement Speed ・+X Ranks to Frost Nova ・+X Ranks to Teleport ・+X Ranks to Flame Shield

Best Jewelry

Jewelry	Aspects and Affixes
Amulet	Elementalist's Aspect Core or Mastery Skills cast at or above 100 Mana gain a (20.0-40.0)% increased Critical Strike Chance. ・+X% Resistance to All (Inherent) ・+X% Ranks to All Defensive Skill ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X Ranks to Devouring Blaze Passive ・+X% Damage Reduction
Ring	Aspect of Control You deal (25-35)% more damage to Immobilized, Stunned, or Frozen enemies. ・+X% Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Vulnerable Damage ・+X% Critical Strike Damage ・+X% Critical Strike Chance
Ring	Glacial Aspect When you cast Blizzard it will periodically spawn exploding Ice Spikes that deal (0.25-0.35) damage. Your Ice Spikes deal (15)% increased damage to Frozen enemies. ・+X% Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Resistance (Inherent) ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Vulnerable Damage ・+X% Critical Strike Damage ・+X% Critical Strike Chance

Best Gems and Malignant Hearts

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Summary		Skill Progression		Best Aspects
Gems and Hearts			Paragon

Item Type	Effect
Royal Sapphire (Weapon)	+12.0% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Royal Ruby (Armor)	4.0% Maximum Life
The Barber	Type: Wrathful Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.
Tal’Rasha	Type: Vicious For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds.
Tempting Fate	Type: Vicious You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.

For the Gems section of the build, you would want to get Sapphire for a consistent additional to Critical Strike Damage since you will always Crowd Control enemies through Chill and Frozen. This works even on bosses, as staggering them will allow Crowd Control to take effect.

Ruby, on the other hand, is extremely valuable as Sorcerers have relatively low health. Having additional maximum HP is especially good for survivability!

For the Malignant Hearts, Tal'Rasha will provide you with huge damage boost due to the build's access to Fire, Ice, and Lightning Elements. Partner this with one of the best hearts in the game, The Barber, and not only do you boost your burst damage significantly, you get an additional stack due to its procs being considered as Shadow Damage.

Lastly, place in Tempting Fate to add more Critical Strike Damage to compliment the build's extremely high Critical Strike chance. Complete this synergy and you've got yourself a powerhouse set ready to take on any enemy in the game!

Paragon Board Setup

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Summary		Skill Progression		Best Aspects
Gems and Hearts			Paragon

The board, glyphs, and nodes taken are for the improvement of Frost Skills and their effects. Control and Frostbite directly boosts these skills which are great to have. Flamefeeder also gives an excellent damage boost since you'll apply burning most of the time through the Fire Bolt Enchantment.

Add Exploit and Destruction to boost Vulnerable Damage and Critical Strike Damage, respectively. Lastly, pick Elementalist which compliments greatly with Tal’Rasha heart effect.

For the nodes, prioritize maximizing Glyph effects by getting stats within the radius, as well as getting Intelligence, damage increases, and damage reductions.

Blizzard Ice Shards Playstyle

Blizzard Ice Shards Build Tips
Recommended Openers and Rotations Ice Shards is Your Main Source of Damage Always Have an Active Blizzard Before Using Ice Shards Use Your Defensive Skills Offensively

Recommended Openers and Rotations

Trash Mob Opener and Skill Rotation

Boss Opener

Ice Shards is Your Main Source of Damage

Most of the build's damage will come from Ice Shards so make sure to cast it as often as possible. One of the weaknesses of this skill is its small hitbox and that it fires in a straight line, so you need to practice properly positioning yourself to damage as many enemies as you can. The Barber is great to cover this weakness with its damage stacking effects and explosive radius!

Proper positioning also includes proper distance against enemies, as being too close has a tendency to make your Ice Shards miss. As much as possible, take advantage of the skill's range to safely deal with enemies from a distance!

Always Cast Blizzard Before Using Ice Shards

This build heavily benefits from dealing damage to Chilled and Frozen enemies. To make sure that these Crowd Control effects are always applied on the enemy, cast Blizzard on them as often as you can.

Casting Blizzard also guarantees that you always have the Critical Strike Chance coming from the Elementalist's Aspect due to the activation of Wizard's Blizzard which reduces the cost of using Ice Shards.

In addition, the Ice Spikes coming from the Glacial Aspect is great in staggering bosses. Make sure to cast this skill in every fight!

Use Your Defensive Skills Offensively

In this build, you would use half of your Defensive Skills, namely Teleport and Frost Nova, in an offensive manner. As mentioned, these two skills are frequently used as openers to make sure that enemies are properly crowd controlled, so you can do as much damage as you can in a pack of enemies.

The only Defensive Skills that serve only as a tool for survivability would be the Flame Shield and Ice Armor. You can use Ice Armor to gain a Barrier which is great to absorb in coming attacks and boost your damage through the Conceited Aspect.

Flame Shield is the primary skill you want to save when you're about to get hit by a hard-hitting skill or about to be surrounded by mobs, as you can easily get out of those situations due to the Immunity it can provide. Plus, the activation of the Aspect of Binding Embers will allow you to pass through enemies while Immobilizing them.

Diablo 4 Related Guides

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