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Build Introduction

The Blizz Sorc is the most popular sorceress build, and for several reasons. It has the best survivability amongst any sorceress build, deals a huge amount of area damage, is efficient against bigger mobs and bosses as well, can teleport with lightning fast speed, and can have magic find gear that reaches up to 1000% MF. The downside of the build is that it’s inefficient against cold immune monsters. However you can still deal with them by relying on your mercenary. 

Gameplay

Attacking skills: 

Your primary attacking skill is Blizzard. Against cold immune monsters, you can use Static Field to reduce their life, and have your mercenary kill them. Teleporting on monsters can speed up this process. Static field is also useful against Bosses, as it reduces their life by 25% with each cast. 

Movement: Outside of the town use walking instead of running to preserve your block chance. Teleport is the obvious choice for movement, and having % faster cast rate on your gear can greatly improve your teleport speed. The  breakpoints we aim for are 63% FCR (9 frame), 105 FCR (8 frame) and 200 FCR (7 frame).

Survivability: The Blizz Sorc has decent survivability compared to other sorceress builds, however on hardcore you still have to be very careful. Always have Shiver Armor and Energy Shield casted to boost your defense and damage absorption. Having to Arms as your switch weapon, and casting Battle Orders can almost double your life and mana. On hardcore you should have 50% physical damage reduction, the best options for that are Stormshield+Verdungo. 75% all resistance is a must have on Hell difficulty, and you can further boost your resists to 90% with a Guardian Angel armor. You should also wear a Raven Frost ring as it makes you immune to be frozen. To further boost your survivability you should rely on your charms.

Party and Solo play: The build is great for Boss farming, and can clear many areas in single player, but you will have problems with cold immune monsters, so if you want to do Chaos or Baal runs you should do that in a party. Uber Tristram is also a problematic area where you should rely on party members. Blizzard has one of the biggest area damages amongst any skill and class, so your party can heavily rely on you dealing with most of the enemy monsters, and your fast teleportation speed can also come handy when getting quickly to a boss is the goal.

Magic Find: The Blizzard Sorc is one of the greatest MF builds! You can quickly solo most of the bosses, and also clear non-cold immune areas with blazing speed. You can reach up to 1000% magic find in MF gear which is the highest amongst any build, and still maintain decent damage output and survivability.

Stats

Strength: Put just enough points on it to be able to wear your gear.

Dexterity: Put just enough points on it to be able to wear your gear.

Vitality: Put all remaining points on it.

Energy: Don’t put any points on it.

Skills

• 20 points on Blizzard + 1 point on prerequisite skills

• 20 points on Ice Blast

• 20 points on Glacial Spike

• 20 point on Cold Mastery

• 1 point on Warmth

• 1 point on Static Field

• 1 point on Teleport +1 point on prerequisites

• 1 point on Energy Shield

• 1 point on Chilling Armor

• 1 point on Shiver Armor

• Put the remaining points on Ice Bolt

Items, Gearing

The listed items are organized by slots. 

• The usefulness rating of an item is based on how good it is for farming. 

• The price rating reflects the cost of the item (cheaper ones are available after ladder starts as budget options), higher price ratings reflect exponentially higher cost for an item.

• Magic Find ratings are added to items that are good options for MFing.

Adding sockets and improving your items

• If you complete the act5 quest Siege on Harrogath, Larzuk will grant extra socket/sockets to your items. Use the quest to add sockets to your gear and put useful jewels, runes or gems in your item sockets.

• You can also upgrade your unique items from normal to exceptional quality and from exceptional to elite by using Horadric Cube recipes. After upgrading, your armor pieces will have more defense, and your weapon pieces will have more damage. The downside of upgrading is the increased strength/dexterity requirements.

• To increase your cold damage, put +5/-5 Cold Rainbow Facets in your item sockets.

Helm

• Lore runeword runeword -usefulness 4/10, price 1/10

• Peasant Crown unique helm - usefulness 5/10, price 2/10

• Tal Rasha’s set helm - usefulness 7/10, price 2/10

• Harlequin Crest Shako unique helm - Usefulness 8/10, price 6/10, Magic Find 10/10

• Nightwing's Veil unique helm - Usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

Amulet

• Any amulet with +1-2 to sorceress skills or + % faster cast rate - usefulness 4/10, price 1/10

• Tal Rasha’s set amulet - usefulness 7/10, price 6/10

• Mara's Kaleidoscope unique amulet - usefulness 10/10, price 7/10

• Magic amulet with 40-50% to magic find - price 5/10, Magic Find 10/10

Weapon

• Spirit Crystal Sword -usefulness 6/10, price 2/10

• Wizardspike unique weapon - usefulness 6/10, price 4/10

• Tal Rasha’s set weapon - usefulness 6/10, price 3/10

• The Oculus unique weapon - usefulness 8/10, price 5/10

• Heart of the Oak runeword - usefulness 9/10, price 6/10

• Death's Fathom unique weapon - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

Shield

• Moser’s Blessed Circle unique shield - usefulness 4/10, price 2/10

• Lidless Wall - usefulness 5/10, price 2/10

• Stormshield - usefulness 8/10, price 4/10

• Spirit Monarch runeword - usefulness 8/10, price 2/10

Switch Weapon

• Call to Arms Runeword - usefulness 10/10, price 7/10

• 6*Ist crystal sword - magic find -10/10, switch when killing boss

Switch Shield

• Spirit Monarch - usefulness 10/10, price 2/10 

• 4*Ist monarch - magic find 10/10, switch when killing boss

Body Armor

• Stealth runeword - usefulness 5/10, price 2/10

• Skin of the Vipermagi unique armor - usefulness 7/10, price 5/10

• Tal Rasha’s set armor - usefulness 6/10, price 6/10

• Ormus’s robe unique armor - usefulness 10/10, price 5/10

• Chains of Honor runeword - usefulness 10/10, price 8/10

• Skullder's Ire - usefulness 6/10, price 5/10, magic find 10/10

Belt

• Rare belt with +resistances and +life - usefulness 3/10, price 2/10

• Nightsmoke unique belt - usefulness 4/10, price 2/10

• Tal Rasha’s set belt - usefulness 6/10, price 3/10

• Snowclash unique belt - usefulness 9/10, price 4/10

• Arachnid Mesh unique belt - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

• Goldwrap unique belt - magic find 10/10, price 3/10

Rings

• Rare ring with +resistances and/or +life - usefulness 3/10, price 1/10

• Raven Frost unique ring - usefulness 8/10, price 4/10

• Bul Katho's Wedding Band - usefulness 8/10, price 6/10

• Stone of Jordan unique ring - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

• Nagelring - magic find 9/10, price 3/10

• Magic rings with 40% MF - magic find 10/10, price 6/10

Gloves

• Magefist unique gloves - usefulness 10/10, price 3/10

• Trang Oul’s set gloves - usefulness 8/10, price 3/10

• Frostburn unique gloves - usefulness 8/10, price 3/10

• Chance Guards unique gloves - magic find 10/10, price 3/10

Boots

• Rare boots with 30% faster run and walk, % to faster hit recovery - usefulness 5/10, price 2/10

• Sandstorm Trek unique boots - usefulness 7/10, price 4/10

• Waterwalk unique boots - usefulness 8/10, price 4/10

• War Traveler unique boots - usefulness 6/10, price 5/10, magic find 10/10

Charms

• Any charm with +skill, life, faster hit recovery or faster run and walk - usefulness 4/10, price 1/10

• Annihilus unique charm - usefulness 10/10, price 8/10

• Hellfire Torch unique charm - usefulness 10/10, price 6/10

• +1 Cold Skill Grand Charm - usefulness 7/10, price 4/10

• Magic grand charms with +1 to cold skills and +life, +faster hit recovery or +faster run and walk - usefulness 8-10/10, price 5-10/10

• Magic small charms with resistances and life - usefulness 8-10/10, price 6-9/10

• 7% to magic find magic small charms - magic find 10/10, price 3/10

• Gheed’s fortune unique charm - magic find 10/10, price 4/10

Mercenary

Have a Normal Act2 Combat or Defensive Mercenary (Prayer or Defiance aura) to provide you with mana and life regeneration, or additional defense.  

Ethereal items don’t lose durability if your mercenary wears them, so having ethereal item bases for each gear slot is preferred due to their increased defense on armor items and increased damage on weapons. In many instances ethereal items that are great for mercenaries will be much more expensive than non-ethereal ones.

Mercenary gear:
Helm - 

• Any 3 socketed helm with 3 perfect diamond to increase mercenary resistances and survivability - usefulness 5/10, price 1/10

• Tal Rasha’s set helm - usefulness 6/10, price 3/10

• Vampire Gaze unique helm - usefulness 7/10, price 4/10

• Guillame’s face set helm - usefulness 8/10, price 4/10

• Andariel’s Visage unique helm - usefulness 10/10, price 5/10

Weapon - 

• Insight runeword to provide you with meditation aura so you never run out of mana - preferably in elite base - usefulness 7/10, price 4/10

• Bonehew unique weapon - usefulness 5/10, price 4/10

• Tomb Reaver unique weapon - usefulness 6/10, price 5/10

• Reaper’s Toll unique weapon - usefulness 8/10, price 6/10

• Infinity runeword - usefulness 7/10, price 8/10

Body Armor-

• Treachery runeword - usefulness 9/10, price 4/10

• Fortitude - usefulness 10/10, price 7/10

Article Source: Blizzard Sorc Build - From budget to best gear