Diablo Class Listings .
Sorceress.
Overview: The Sorceress is the “Big Gun” when it comes to AoE magic damage in Diablo II.
She has three trees to pick from, each containing hideously destructive ranged magical assaults.

The Cold Tree features the lowest damage of the three

but compensates with innate Crowd Control in the form of Chilling and Freezing status effects.

The Lightning Tree offers the highest possible damage potential

but it also has the lowest possible damage, giving a very high degree of damage variance.

The Fire Tree runs the middle ground

with consistent high and low range damage, and some really impressive “fire and forget” magic like Firewall, Meteor, and Hydra.

While a Sorceress is something of a glass cannon

she is not nearly as fragile as the Amazon or Assassin, (thanks to energy shield and shield mechanics in general), and she’s largely gear-independent, meaning she makes for a good starting character.
The Sorceress’s primary weakness are the elemental immunities that start cropping up in Nightmare difficulty, and become a mandatory addition to every monster in Hell Mode.
Unless a sorceress has access to magical equipment capable of breaking immunities.

(Such as Lower Resistance charges or the Conviction Aura)

there is absolutely no way a sorceress can damage a monster immune to her chosen element.
Depending on the spec, monster immunities can be irritating or sometimes game-stopping.

(Certain Quest Bosses in the Chaos Sanctuary can spawn with multiple elemental immunities

rendering further forward progress by a Sorceress highly difficult).
Spell Recommendations :.
Cold Spells: • Frozen Orb • Blizzard • Glacial Spike • Cold Mastery • Frozen Armor Lightning Spells: • Teleport • Lightning • Chain Lightning • Lightning Mastery • Charged Bolt Fire Spells: • Fireball • Meteor • Warmth • Fire Mastery • Hydra Top Spells: Primary Stats: Primary: Vitality Secondary: Magic Tertiary: Dexterity Recommended Mercenary: Type: Nightmare Act 2 Aura: Holy Freeze (Defensive) Mercenary Armor: • Vampire Gaze (Um) • Leviathan (Cham) Mercenary Weapons: • Infinity Runeword • Insight Runeword • Doom Runeword • Crescent Moon Runeword Noteworthy Skills: Static Field: This spell reduces the hit points of all monsters in range by a percentage with each cast.
This spell is insanely valuable against stage bosses or in high player-count games, where the hell-spawn’s hit points have been ramped into the millions.
Teleport: The ability to instantly move from one location to another instantly is the game’s most insanely powerful movement skill.
A player good at teleporting can phase out of reach and pelt monsters with virtual impunity.
The skill is THAT good.

Frozen Orb: Not only is this spell a screen-filling AoE death-bomb

it chills enemies hit, and often times shatters their corpses, making it one of the best choices for any class of sorceress.
As an added bonus, Frozen Orb is not heavily dependent on synergies, making it a solid mainstay for a multi-element sorceress.
Equipment Suggestions : High cast speed is one priority for Sorceresses without “timer” spells.
Insanely large mana-pools, .

To fuel Energy Shield and expensive top-tier magic spam is also priceless to a sorceress

But above all, is + to skills equipment and anything that reduces elemental resistance/damage by a percentile.
Any spell’s power is driven by skills and percentile modifiers, and wands, staves, or runewords that boost those stats are the absolute priority.

Tip: The Infinity Runeword

or wands with charges of Lower Resist are very useful in hell Difficulty for breaking monster immunities.
Primary Gear Recommendations :.
Build Armor Helm Weapon Shield Meteorb Sorceress Chains of Honor Runeword Arch-Angel’s Circlet of the Magus Eschuta’s Temper Spirit Runeword Lightning Sorceress 4x Lightning Facet Armor Griffon’s Eye Eschuta’s Temper Spirit Runeword Blizzard Sorceress 4x Cold Facet Armor 3x Cold Facet Circlet Death’s Fathom 4x Cold Facet Shield.