This is the Sorcerer Chain Lightning endgame build and guide for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred (D4). Read on to learn more about the Chain Lightning Sorcerer build, including its skills, gear, gems, runes, mercenaries, and paragon boards, as well as how to play the build for Season 6.

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Chain Lightning Build Guide

Chain Lightning Build Summary

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Skills and Class Mechanic				Aspects and Affixes				Gems and Runewords
Mercenary				Paragon				Playstyle

Build Summary
Fireball Endgame Build
	Focus: AoE DPS, Endgame Dungeons
High Poison Damage Fast Mob Clearing Excellent Damage Reduction for Survivability Requires Multiple Mythic Uniques Mana Hungry

This Sorcerer Endgame Build utilizes the Axial Conduit to modify your Chain Lightning, causing it to explode on enemies and easily clear large groups. Paired with Andariel's Visage, you'll apply a Poison DoT while maintaining high health due to the Life on Hit effects, all while dealing massive damage.

With this build, you will stack multiple Damage Reduction effects and max out Elemental Resistance for survivability. Combined with the Barriers from your defensive skills, this setup makes you extremely durable, even as a Sorcerer.

Chain Lightning Build Skills and Class Mechanic

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Chain Lightning Build Skills and Passives

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Active Skills
Basic Skill Tree ┗ Fire Bolt (2/5)
Core Skill Tree ┗ Chain Lightning (5/5) 　┗ Enhanced Chain Lightning 　　┗ Greater Chain Lightning ┗ Elemental Dominance (3/3) ┗ Potent Warding (3/3)
Defensive Skill Tree ┗ Teleport (1/5) ┗ Flame Shield (1/5) ┗ Ice Armor (1/5) ┗ Glass Cannon (3/3) ┗ Elemental Attunement (3/3) ┗ Energy Focus (3/3) 　┗ Dampen Layer (3/3)
Conjuration Skill Tree ┗ Lightning Spear (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Lightning Spear ┗ Ice Blades (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Ice Blades 　　┗ Invoked Ice Blades ┗ Familiar (1/5) 　┗ Enhanced Familiar 　　┗ Invoked Familiar ┗ Align the Elements (3/3) 　┗ Protection (3/3) ┗ Precision Magic (3/3) ┗ Mana Shield (3/3) ┗ Conjuration Mastery (3/3)
Mastery Skill Tree ┗ Inner Flames (1/3) 　┗ Devouring Blaze (3/3)
Ultimate Skill Tree ┗ Unstable Currents (5/5) 　┗ Prime Unstable Currents ┗ Coursing Currents (1/3) 　┗ Electrocution (3/3) ┗ Evocation (3/3)
Key Passive ┗ Enlightenment

Chain Lightning Build Enchantment

Fireball Enchantment Slots
Fire Bolt (Level 15)	Ice Blades (Level 30)

For your first enchantment, choose Fire Bolt to apply burning to enemies. This will activate the effects of the Devouring Blaze and provide more options with the Paragon Board and Glyphs later on.

Your second enchantment should be Ice Blades. You will want this to maximize the number of active Conjuration stacks and fully utilize the effects of Conjuration Mastery. This will not only provide a massive damage boost, but it will also give you additional movement speed and much needed mana regeneration.

Enchantment Slots Explained

Chain Lightning Build Aspects and Affixes

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Mercenaries				Paragon				Playstyle
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Masterwork Priority	Affixes marked with ★ are the ones you should aim to upgrade when masterworking.

※ More gear Aspects can be seen by scrolling vertically.

Gear	Aspect and Affixes
Head	Snowveiled Aspect Stats: ・Armor ・Intelligence ★★★ ・Cooldown Reduction Temper: ・Defensive - Worldly Endurance 　┗ X Total Armor ・Utility - Natural Schemes 　┗ X Barrier Generation Note: Once you acquire Andariel's Visage, you can replace this aspect, as the damage reduction will no longer be necessary thanks to the Life on Hit effect from the unique item. Additionally, you will be able to apply Poison Nova, providing a significant boost to your damage.
Chest	Aspect of Disobedience Stats: ・Armor ・Intelligence ★★★ ・Ranks to Defensive Skills Temper: ・Defensive - Worldly Endurance 　┗ X Total Armor ・Utility - Natural Schemes 　┗ X Barrier Generation
Gloves	Aspect of the Orange Herald Stats: ・Lucky Hit: Up to a X% Chance to Restore Primary Resource ・Critical Strike Damage ★★★ ・Critical Strike Chance Temper: ・Utility - Worldly Fortune 　┗ Lucky Hit: Up to a X Chance to Stun for 2 Seconds ・Offensive - Natural Finesse 　┗ X Damage
Pants	Axial Conduit Stats: ・Resource Generation and Maximum Resource ・Chance for Chain Lightning to Hit Twice ★★★ ・Damage Reduction ・Ranks to Chain Lightning
Boots	Flickerstep Stats: ・Movement Speed ・Lightning Resistance ・Damage Reduction from Close Enemies ★★★ ・Ultimate Damage
Amulet	Recharging Aspect Stats: ・Damage ★★★ ・Total Armor ・Ranks to Conjuration Mastery Temper: ・Resource - Ultimate Efficiency 　┗ X Unstable Currents Cooldown Reduction ・Offensive - Shock Finesse 　┗ X Shock Critical Strike Damage
Ring	Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop Stats: ・Non-Physical Damage ★★★ ・Cooldown Reduction ・Lucky Hit Chance ・Ranks to Potent Warding
Ring	Aspect of Elemental Acuity Stats: ・Critical Strike Chance ・Critical Strike Damage ★★★ ・Vulnerable Damage Temper: ・Resource - Ultimate Efficiency 　┗ X Unstable Currents Cooldown Reduction ・Offensive - Natural Finesse 　┗ X Damage Note:The Ring of Starless Skies is the best in slot option for your second ring. It provides a significant resource cost reduction and increases the ranks of your Core Skills, making it an ideal choice for Chain Lightning.
Weapon (Wand)	Aspect of the Unbroken Tether Stats: ・Damage ★★★ ・Critical Strike Damage ・Lucky Hit: Up to a X% Chance to Restore Primary Resource Temper: ・Offensive - Shock Finesse 　┗ X Shock Critical Strike Damage ・Weapons - Shock Augments 　┗ X Chance for Chain Lightning Projectiles to Cast Twice
Off-Hand (Focus)	Lightning Rod Aspect Stats: ・Critical Strike Chance ・Resource Cost Reduction ★★★ ・Lucky Hit: Up to a X% Chance to Restore Primary Resource Temper: ・Offensive - Shock Finesse 　┗ X Shock Critical Strike Damage ・Weapons - Shock Augments 　┗ X Chance for Chain Lightning Projectiles to Cast Twice

Chain Lightning Build Gems and Runewords

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Mercenaries				Paragon				Playstyle
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Chain Lightning Build Gems

Armor	Weapons	Jewelry
Amethyst	Emerald	Skull

For your gems, choose Diamond gems for your Armor slots to boost your stats. It can be difficult to meet the stat requirements for the rare nodes on your Paragon Board if you don't have max rolls on your equipment, but this will help you reach the necessary stat points. Next, use Emerald gems in your Weapon slots for additional critical damage, and Skull gems in your Jewelry slots for extra defense.

Chain Lightning Build Runewords

Runeword 1	Runeword 2
Tam Ohm	Noc Lac

Since you will primarily be using Chain Lightning, a non channeled Core Skill, you can consistently trigger the Barbarian's Challenging Shout to enhance your survivability. Pair this with Tam and Vex to further increase your damage output with each hit of Chain Lightning, making you more efficient in how many Chain Lightnings you cast.

List of All Runewords

Chain Lightning Build Mercenaries

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Mercenary	Reinforcement
Raheir	Aldkin

Raheir has several Crowd Control abilities that are highly effective for clearing large groups of enemies. With Raheir as your main mercenary, his damage mitigation and additional damage reduction abilities allow you to adopt a more aggressive playstyle.

You wil be pairing Raheir with Aldkin and autocast the skill called Terrify. This ability will be your main source of Vulnerable which is one of the best status effect to apply on enemies especially when dealing against bosses.

List of All Mercenaries

Chain Lightning Build Paragon Boards

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Paragon Boards
1. Starting Board (Destruction)
Static Surge (Enchanter)
Ceaseless Conduit (Exploit)
Fundamental Release (Torch)
Burning Instinct (Flamefeeder)

On your Paragon Board, prioritize picking up rare and magic nodes that provide mana cost reduction, as this is the build's main weakness. Additionally, focus on increasing Elemental Resistance, Damage Reduction, and boosting HP and Defense for extra survivability in case all of your defensive skills are on cooldown.

For the remaining points, invest in nodes that increase damage output, such as Critical Damage boosts and Lightning Damage increase. With the Fire Bolt Enchantment, you can also pick up nodes and Glyphs that enhance Damage to Burning Enemies for an additional DPS boost.

Chain Lightning Build Playstyle and Tips

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The effects of the Axial Conduit unique change how your Chain Lightning works. Chain Lightning will now drain your mana if you continue casting it, and it will expire when your mana pool is empty. You need to constantly monitor your mana pool while casting your skills to ensure you have enough mana to maintain the active Chain Lightning and trigger the explosion at the end of its duration.

1. Cast Flame Shield or Ice Armor to negate any incoming damage.
2. Spam Chain Lightning 3-5 times, depending on your mana pool capacity.
3. Run around and kite enemies to avoid damage while waiting for Chain Lightning to clear the area.
4. Use Teleport as a panic button if enemies get too close.
5. Cast Unstable Currents and spam abilities to summon more familiars, giving a massive damage boost due to Conjuration Mastery.

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