Diablo 2 TIER LIST - Sorceress Skills

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[@oguzcanoguz5977]

Honestly, static needs its own tier just like teleport.

[@jawee6144]

Hard to see it moving now… ; )

[@richardjangles]

@@jawee6144 😂😂

[@redelfshotthefood8213]

I think Blaze was just imagined as a Duriel solution. You get it in normal just when you need it to take him out. Walk Like An Egyptian to get out of the desert.

[@TheInfinityMaster1]

This is the solution I came up with to beat Duriel the first time ever back in the day (after dying a *MILLION TIMES* to him, that is).

[@Tyrian3k]

Really a shame that Hydra is so weak. It's such a cool skill.

[@psycow3076]

Agreed

[@Azhureus]

I hate you dont get hydra build in D2. In D3 it was blast build.

[@Presearing]

When I was a kid, the first character I beat Act I with was an Inferno Sorceress, I took her as far as the middle of act III normal before the game got too hard for me. Good times.

[@dave4468]

That’s hilarious 😂 can relate

[@thorstend9603]

With the new look i really wana do a Inferno Sorc again ;)

[@mapron1]

Yeah, I think half of people did fell into 'Oh this skill looks sooo cool it should be the most powerful thing, right?' trap. I relate too ;)

[@rayvincyful1]

Me too. I thought the dps was insane

[@ibainesy]

Problem when I started playing and chose this skill, hearing Andariel had a -50% Fire res thought "This'd drop her so fast..." Only learning later that it was bugged and didn't actually apply the -res so My char died over and over again....

[@franciscodetonne4797]

Teleport is its own tier :D Frozen Orb is my favorite skill - cool graphic, high clear speed. Thunderstorm is so bad because it doesn't hit as often as it should.

[@kairionnefarian-eu6691]

I find it ironic - the sorceress got teleport to save herself from sticky situations - but its probably more often used to bring you INTO sticky situations :D However Telekinesis is in my oppinion not a good skill. Maybe C tier. Sure you don't "waste" a point getting it as you need to skill it for teleport anyway but the utility it provides is so miniscule. I get why it can't pick up items outside of pots anymore, as this was insanely abusable. Now all thats left is grabbing pots and saving yourself 0.5 seconds of runtime when using a waypoint or portal.

[@UnrivaledPiercer]

Llama, you really need to rethink your opinion on Hydra. I don't think you've given it a fair shot if you think it belongs in D tier. Hydra is an easy A or S tier skill when used tactically. It's not about it's damage directly, though it can get a good bit of damage ramp once you have 5 hydras out. It's sheet damage may not be high compared to other skills, but multiply it by 5, then consider the fact it's an automated "fire and forget" skill that while it's doing its thing, you can be doing something else entirely. Hydra really is a skill that is in a class of it's own when built around.

[@Lakrinir]

Hydra's damage is okay I guess, but it's dealt in a single target manner that can miss.

[@UnrivaledPiercer]

@@Lakrinir This is true, but spells like Blizzard often miss a lot of their projectiles too. The same goes for Frozen Orb since it's main source of damage is the shards at the start of the explosion. Hydra just requires good positioning to get the most out of it. The fact it can miss, or is single target is hardly a deal breaker when you compare to other abilities that have the same flaws. I've never had a problem using it and Frozen Orb together in my normal hybrid builds. I don't expect everyone to like or use Hydra, I just dont think it deserves a lot of the flak it gets. I definitely agree that it could use a little help to be even better. Hydra's shooting fireballs would be a great improvement. In fact, that's exactly what mods have changed and it really helps bring it up to Blizzard standards.

[@Oddigan]

If my understanding of the skills are correct, a level 20 blizzard only needs to be hitting 2 targets for it to match the DPS of 5 level 20 hydras. That's assuming all 4 seconds of each cast of Blizzard hits, all 120 projectiles of the hydras hit, and no synergies are taken--which is only advantageous to hydra. Blizzard can get up to 300% increased damage from synergies, Hydra can get 120%. Blizzard also chills, doesn't need 8 seconds to ramp up, and deals its full damage in less than half the time. The other skills in S are similarly strong. Hydra is a fun skill and can definitely be used to decent effect. It is by no means an easy A or S tier skill going by the criteria of this list. I'd say it's just barely a C at most. At least I feel it's more useful than thunderstorm, just by virtue of not blinding you at its whim.

[@delsere7095]

I wish hydra was buffed just enough to be niche/viable. When compared to other abilities like lightning/death sentry, its damage really falls short and it does have a slow cast time as others mentioned.

[@newerest1]

When I make a new ladder character and we have a group, I make a tele/static sorc. I put basically anywhere from 10-16 points in static and melt all through normal. respec I can change to any other build for nightmare. casting static and the whole screen is getting hit is pretty badass.

[@Ashleymaul]

I guess I would also disagree on Hydra, I know it's not very meta, but point for point, it's not the worst fire skill to dual-spec, I prefer it over wall. Unlike fire ball/meteor it does not need much synergy.

[@jansecj9472]

I think teleport SHOULD have a cooldown at the very least, it's OP asf. It should be a mobility skill, not an easy "travel everywhere" skill.

[@newerest1]

telekinesis is really useful when a single boss has immunities to you. even lightning immune super uniques can get stun locked by it if you cast fast enough. the trick in the chaos sanc is to tk them into a wall for your merc to finish up while they can't move

[@Evan_242]

It stun?? Never really use this comp. Might as well start to use it!

[@Ashleymaul]

The only one I would move up is the 'Chain Lightning' - on average I use it a lot more often than lightning because you don't need a direct line of attack.

[@rayvincyful1]

Ligtning can hit more enemies if positioned well and has much higher dps

[@NeroRedfield]

Maul: Same

[@JungleScene]

remember in 1.09 when almost every sorc ran energy shield and thunderstorm? man how times have changed...

[@WorldsHealthiestPerson]

Why was thunderstorm more useful back then? Did they nerf it?

[@qweqwe1324]

@@WorldsHealthiestPerson Na we just didn't know better, every sorc was with a lidless too.

[@expandeux]

I still wait for that Inferno Sorc guided Playthrough . As you said so many times the game is so balanced and all skills are good.

[@redelfshotthefood8213]

I think you should add the skills needed from items to complete solo self found speed runs for each class. Like lower res wands. Or teleport staves for non-sorceresses. Because a solo player should know at the outset the glaring holes in the character class... that are there to promote multiplayer. And allow all the players to contribute... instead of the sorc just massacreing everything on her own.

[@NavidErde]

There's S tier and there's teleport... I laught so hard on this :D

[@pragmat1k]

Use to play a nova sorc back in the day. Was very disappointed when I got to Nightmare and was doing like no damage since it didn't have synergies. lol

[@cn0ck520]

Yeah Nova Sorc was meta at one point but they nerfed it

[@aliebrubaker7473]

Really, they buffed everything else including monster health so nova doesn't keep up with the competition. Even back in the day you needed absurd fcr and energy to make it work. Nowadays with insight it probably wouldn't suck but very niche telestomp skill compared to things like blizz, fb, meteor, frorb, fw, light, etc...

[@pragmat1k]

@@aliebrubaker7473 Yeah, was mostly just fun rushing people through Normal with it.

[@Parasmunt]

Novasorc is one of the fastest killers now in certain areas (it is no 1 in Arcane Sanctuary and is excellent for the Pit) It is viable there even without Infinity.

[@kweskab]

Kinda agree on almoust all here :D Think Nova is a bit higher in my mind :D Wanna make a list of what char/builds can do ubers ssf aswell?

[@lepakage2]

When leveling through normal and later into nightmare I respec from fire or lightning and into frost. It’s not massive but at the respec I put most of my synergy points into frost bolt first because it’s a synergy for both frozen orb and blizzard. Blizzard is obviously massive output but having that one point in orb can be very handy and you already have all the prereqs to get it anyways so it’s literally just one point

[@silverarrows5065]

Shiver Armor chills and slows enemies in the act of attacking you. So it slow them BEFORE they hit you. Whereas Frozen Armor only freezes after they have already hit you. That mechanic combined with Shivor Armor’s higher defense bonuses make it superior to Frozen Armor.

[@chadcharest9891]

Hydra and Thunderstorm need major overhauls if they do some balancing. They should not suck that bad. The only use I ever found for Thunderstorm was in pvp. With fast cast you just teleport sweep past them and let it do the work without putting yourself in too much danger.

[@Saphyrose]

I personnaly really like Hydra in HC for some ice immune monsters. I can put an Hydra and just run to dodge his attacks / spells It should be in B or C tier in my opinion and they're cute UwU

[@yobiyup]

I agree with they're so cute UwU lol

[@CBCB8282]

Stares daggers "Stay in your lane" - Trapsin

[@TheInfinityMaster1]

While I agree with you on all other character skill guides, I will have to DISAGREE with you on this one as I think that both *Chain Lightning/Hydra* can be good if used correctly (I remember killing Ba'al *WITHOUT EVEN SEEING HIM* in his chamber by casting Hydra from afar and standing in a safe corner and just sitting there watching his health deplete to zero lol).

[@kasper1241]

Frozen orb is really good because it doesn't require you to invest a lot of skill points to do good damage, which will allow you to make hybrid builds. Fire wall can do really massive damage and the synergies allow you to put some points in Warmth which is nice.

[@mattweber2512]

Yeah Frozen Orb is one of the few skills left that only costs 20 points and is effective throughout the game.

[@charlieprince8671]

This list is the perfect example of why I'm so against nerfing skills. Nearly all the sorceresses skills are good and useful and that allows a bunch of build varieties. Sorc had more end game viable builds imo than any other class Nerfing other skills like Thorns or Blood Golem took away play styles funneling players into these narrow bands of play. Would've been better imo to raise weaker skills to be more useful and open more styles of play up.

[@sirdiealott]

I would take issue with your list, warmth should be up with teleport. Both are one skill wonders. Just because one is a passive, doesn't mean you not getting a great value.

[@Dragrun1]

Mana potions exist

[@sirdiealott]

@@Dragrun1 so do health potions. Therefore life leech is worthless? Same for mana leech? The bonus this adds with plus skills is easily worth a single point. Just like teleport is not worth multiple investments but is well worth the 2 points to get it.

[@Dragrun1]

@@sirdiealott Warmth only sees relevance with Enchant, because ultimately it by itself isn't doing enough

[@eternalmaggot7246]

I need to disagree with your placements of Ice Bolt and Ice Blast. In terms of mana, Ice bolt not only is more efficient but does more damage in the longhaul since you'll most likely be using it since the start of the game until you can get Blizzard and Frozen Orb, which benefit even more from it being leveled in the early and mid. Ice blast, not being a static cost, is quickly overshadowed by the first few points you use between 2 and 6 that you put into Ice bolt. If you are running a pure cold build, Ice bolt is the better skill to pour into. The only thing Blast has over Bolt is the freeze, but that is quickly overshadowed by the time you get Glacial Spike since it has the AoE effect and is worth its cost.

[@brothergrok]

I love that teleport is in the teleport tier. TOP TIER, BABY

[@sandro5535]

Should not lightning mastery be ranked higher because it adds more damage? I get that lightning skills are either 1 base damage so only max damage is affected or increases with the lowest and lightning mastery gives the true damage boost but still.. 50/12 way surpass 30/7% boost of damage.

[@CalgarGTX]

I always found fireball very underwhelming, frozen orb on the other hand clears entire screens..

[@lawsonbutcher]

Warmth should be Tier S right below Static Field. Do you ever *not* put 1 point in Warmth? Ever? Exactly. MrLlamaSC says "Insights" but what about when you get Infinity? Exactly.

[@coletrain5667]

I find it so annoying that Cold Mastery is worded as "pierce", because it does lower resistances other than not breaking immunities. I would have assumed pierce means it can't bring monsters below 0. The wording would make more sense if the lower bound for resistances was 0, rather than -100, and default resistance was 100 which meant they took no extra damage (just like 0 works now).

[@randmtsk7512]

We need some buffs to Hydra, Flame Wall, and Blaze!

[@KVPMD]

Not flame wall. This one is already strong for the right place and I see no angle to change it without getting OP. Blaze is problematic by design. But I agree on hydra, this is doable and would be nice.

[@vivianth.myhobbies]

Thank you for your review I just downloaded diablo 2 this week.

[@themanhands5599]

I'd personally drop frozen orb and meteor to A and bump telekinesis up to S. I also think fireball is A; tt's the best fire skill, but the splash range just doesn't compete with blizzard or the pierce of lightning.

[@roccohitch7316]

Chilling armor. There is a bug which will eat some ranged attacks and u wont take dmg.

[@Parasmunt]

Frozen orb is definitely not S, have you ever tried it on 8 player?

[@jahlim]

would the D2R damage per tick changes make firewall S tier ? since it will tick a lot more in the same duration compared to D2

[@ghostlightx9005]

Noob here, levelling a Lightning Sorc. I am puzzled by your placing of Lightning at tier S. I just got this skill and I can't kill anything with it. Just entering the end of Act 1 and this spell is already feeling useless. Will this change later or am I doing it wrong. How can it be an S tier??

[@joshuawells4023]

Lighting has a massive range of damage. It could do basically nothing or you could one-shot everything if you get lucky. The potential dps is huge but obviously there's also the possibility of multiple low damage hits in a row, which is possibly what you are encountering. Enemies have resistances too, which will also affect the damage you can deal. Charged bolt, chain lighting and nova all synergise with with it which will raise its damage if you put points in those. Lightning mastery offers a tremendous damage boost as well. Even still, sometimes you just get unlucky.

[@Daventry85]

Back when I was playing i never heard of anyone running blizzard we all did orb. How much better is blizzard? What do you do if you encounter cold resist?

[@rayvincyful1]

Same question applies to orb

[@MichaelPohoreski]

Blizzard MF got popular when synergies were introduced. Before that FO was almost always picked for sheer convenience.

[@olav947]

Yup Orb is still used but mainly in a build that can't get all the synergies

[@kuksio92]

it seems from my perspective, that skills should be divided on offensive / support / utility to start with, and then tiered.

[@rayvincyful1]

True

[@sixmillionsilencedaccounts3517]

In classic, Warmth is S tier. ;D

[@MrLlamaSC]

Especially 1.0

[@procow2274]

I dont think meteor should be that high i would swap it with charge bolt or nova. Outside speedrunning telekinesis probably shouldn't be that high either. And why is inferno F D:

[@aliebrubaker7473]

Damage per point of mana inferno is a complete joke. Otherwise it does plenty of damage and melts stuff that is stupid enough to get near you. Personally if they gave us a 1.15 patch down the line, I'd love to see an inferno that doesn't grow in range but instead does more damage the closer the target is... or something.

[@procow2274]

@@aliebrubaker7473 with tapping you can fire bursts of it with no mana used.

[@attq3980]

I wish frost nova got more damage buff

[@yobiyup]

It can be realized maybe in D2R

[@GSweet2Regret666]

Frost Nova is more like a CC not AoE. And Warmth IMO should definitely be ranked 1 up higher instead of B tier.

[@akungfustudent79]

Are they going to fix Inferno bug, and would that change its ranking?

[@rayvincyful1]

What's the bug?

[@akungfustudent79]

@@rayvincyful1 through all of the D2 patches Sorc's Inferno and Druid's Arctic Blast did 1/3 the stated damage, rendering the skills useless.

[@yobiyup]

@@akungfustudent79 I didn't know about that bug. thank you for sharing.

[@AwesomeVideosReddit]

Can't wait to play then this month

[@maximos905]

Hydra is now A tier if not S tier. I think blaze would be more appreciated if teleport didnt exist

[@manuelcornelio4348]

Imagine firewall with vector target like in dota 2

[@sadas3190]

Blaze should be B just for the fact you can cheese Duriel with it, to the tune of Benny Hill

[@Pavideus]

Frozen Orb in the hands of a skilled player will do a heck of a lot more damage than Blizzard. Landing the Orb inside the enemy hitbox when it bursts will cause all 16 bolts to hit the target. With optimal builds for both Blizzard and Frozen Orb, this single technique alone will do 1.5x more damage than Blizzard's best case DPS scenario. This is without factoring in the 30 spiraling bolts leading up to the Orb burst, which with each strike does roughly 10% the amount of damage that Blizzard will do in 1 second under optimal conditions. So each strike before a well landed Orb burst just extends the damage lead by a significant chunk. TL;DR Frozen Orb only needs to strike with 12 bolts to beat Blizzard.

[@acctsys]

I never got to finish hell, but I found frozen orb easy, safe, and reliable compared to blizzard. I wonder if only a few see it as a skill shot.

[@steakcrust558]

I pretty much had trash builds for every class. But thats half the fun lol

[@marcusalves8011]

Nwo do the same, but with no mana potions....

[@wrestler8409]

Could Firewall be S tier in D2R now that the .09 bug where the fire "per second" skills hit less than intended is fixed?

[@MrLlamaSC]

Nah the stationary aspect still hurts it too much overall

[@Stoxify]

I'd put it in S just for how much fun I had with it. My first D2 char that finished the game relatively easily was a firewall/glacial spike sorc. Freezing groups of mobs and firewalling under them multiple times just melted anything on screen in seconds. Then with teleport, I would grind Mephisto as soon as I got to him on each difficulty to get gear to set you up for a good while. Teleport to aggro him then pop to the other side of the bloody-river-canal thingy and just pop firewall horizontally until he's dead. He'll come up right to the edge and just stay in your multiple FW's too far away to even touch you. If you get it down to a T you can kill him once every 1 or 2 minutes or so with a bunch of MF gear and take 0 dmg. Bigtime skill for both efficacy and general funzies.

[@Dodgyboy43]

you overvalue static field imo, it's cool to save a couple seconds but if you NEED it to damage a monster that you couldn't kill from 100%, how are you gonna kill it from 50%?

[@ThirdEyeThriving]

You really don't know the importance of static field.

[@Dodgyboy43]

@@ThirdEyeThriving mm well let me know cause i've used it, i always take it on a sorc, but it's totally ignorable imo. you still have to finish the mob off after 50%. and if you can kill it from 50%, you can kill it from 100%, so why bother with static? unless your dps really sucks i guess? does it work on ubers?

[@ThirdEyeThriving]

@@Dodgyboy43 For bosses.

[@acctsys]

% dmg scales

[@Azhureus]

In teleport tier is teleport. Thanks dood, good to know ;-)

[@Teknorg]

The cold sorceress with the cold mastery will be OP in D2R! You should put the cold mastery above S tier if it's about D2R.

[@NeroRedfield]

Fireball better than chain lightning? Ehm... NO.

[@Deejaylal]

Nova is fastest killing speed ever for Runes, kills cows players 8 fasssst

[@MapHKid]

In the teleport tier is teleport. I died.

[@Kristalya]

Ice Bolt and Frost Nova are better than Thunder Storm and Blaze? No way 😆

[@sicilianmammalian]

you put fireball in s tier and enchant in a but enchant does same dmg for 20 less points

[@JirkaGasik]

One day, I will solo hell with inferno...one day.

[@rayvincyful1]

Fire wall and inferno icons look animals to me. They have eyes. 😆

[@illusion-]

Porcupines / hedgehogs?

[@gakiyarou]

love the sorceress -- absolutely hate Static Field. It feels like total cheese move and you have to get close to use it- no thanks

[@MichaelPohoreski]

SF It is the magic equivalent version of CB. You don't get close if you dump points into it. At max level it will cover most of the screen.

[@tylertylerbills]

Meteor over Frozen Orb? Get outta town lol.

[@rage6154]

I love her

[@vekicro87]

Good luck playing hell with lightning sorc. Frozen orb is the way to go clear mobs and farm. With right positioning you can basically 1 shot uniques/bosses. With merc act 2 infinity polearm runeward aura (conviction) you basically have almost no cold immune enemies in game. Just forget about lightning if you plan on playing sorc.

[@alwayssorry346]

Fw is only good in PVP vrs bads.. I Built it, waste of time compared to my charger. Which was 99.9% unkillable especially to any sorc

[@vopall]

... I guess I'll be the 667th like

[@timabel280]

If teleport was top teir then people would like occy more lol

[@illusion-]

I agree with this list. Pointless video though given the fact that synergies exist and builds varies