Path of Exile 2 best Sorceress build

Looking for the best Sorceress build in Path of Exile 2? The Sorceress is the strongest spellcaster in Path of Exile 2, emphasising elemental magic that sparks, sizzles, and freezes enemies. While relatively vulnerable at the onset of the game, with a little bit of time and care, the Sorceress has the potential to fill the screen with explosive spells of truly magnificent scale.

Builds for the Sorceress are highly dependent on which form of elemental magic that you prefer - lightning, fire, or ice. Chances are you'll either focus purely on one of these or mix and match two of them. In this guide we'll give an explanation of the best Witch build for Path of Exile 2's Early Access, with an eye towards figuring out the right elemental blend to keep you alive, especially in the game's early Acts.

Best Sorceress build in Path of Exile 2

The best Sorceress build in Path of Exile 2 is what we'll call the Fireball Frost Wall build, which relies on the synergy between spamming Fireballs and watching as they propel off of Frost Walls, spiraling into enemies over and over again. Fire and ice, in other words! This is a very simple but effective build that's picked up the slack after Comet, a fan favourite Sorceress skill that also worked well with Frost Wall, received an unfortunate nerf shortly after Early Access kicked off. Until Fireball also gets hit with a nerf, this remains one of the best ways to deal damage as the Sorceress.

The simplicity of this build means that you have a fair bit of freedom to tweak it as you see fit, and it can work with both the Stormweaver and Chronomancer Sorceress Ascendancies. I prefer the Chronomancer a bit more myself, as it provides some nice time-altering effects like the ability to reset skill cooldowns, which can be useful with this build. (Now and Again, which gives you a 33% chance to not have to deal with skill cooldowns, and Quicksand Hourglass, which gives you 50% more cast speed for 4 seconds every 12 seconds, are especially nice nodes to take on the Chronomancer Passive Skill Tree.) Whichever Ascendancy you select, just be sure to keep your Intelligence high with the gear you equip, as it's the Sorceress' most important Attribute.

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Sorceress build: Best skills

This is a build that relies on just a handful of skills. The following five are the ones I've experimented with the most, but you could honestly strip everything down to just Fireball and Frost Wall, since those are the two abilities that make this build worthwhile.

Fireball

Fireball will be your main means of attack with this build, though you'll normally unleash it after setting up your Frost Walls first. Ideally, you want to create multiple Fireball projectiles that bounce off of your Frost Walls and then barricade onto everything around you. Check out our support gems below for advice on splitting your main Fireball off into several smaller ones.

Frost Wall

Think of Frost Wall as the fence that supports Fireball. This is a great skill not only for doing damage but for controlling the movements of enemies. Be sure to take Shattered Crystal in the Passive Skill Tree for 60% reduced Ice Crystal life - this will make it easier for your fireballs to destroy your Frost Wall icicles and barricade off of them.

Flame Wall

Fire Wall summons a vertical wall of flame that's useful for entrapping enemies and serving as a backup if Frost Wall is on cooldown. I like this skill as an early game option, though its usefulness in this build becomes limited the more you level up. Still, it's fun to cast Flame Wall atop enemies and then follow up with Fireball. Any projectiles that pass through Flame Wall will deal a little extra damage, so this is a natural combo.

Frost Bomb

Frost Bomb makes an orb of frost that explodes, dealing cold damage to everyone in the area and putting cold exposure on nearby enemies. Like Flame Wall, consider Frost Bomb a backup method of attack that can supplement your main Fireball + Frost Wall combination.

Blink

Blink is a useful skill that I really like for the Sorceress to help subvert her general squishiness and lack of Dexterity. It allows her to teleport 4.6 metres in the direction of your choice, though there is a little cooldown that you've got to contend with. Still, for a class that isn't great at rolling or moving fast in general, it's a safe add-on in my eyes.

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Fireball Frost Wall build: Best support gems

Support gems are pretty vital for this build in order to split your Fireball blasts into multiple projectiles that propel all over the place. Try the following out:

Scattershot

Scattershot is an essential add-on for Fireball to increase the number of flame projectiles you'll be tossing. This support gem also lowers attack and cast speed by 20%, but the additional projectiles make up for the loss in my book.

Arcane Tempo

Aside from Scattershot, Arcane Tempo is another way of ensuring your DPS stays high by letting you cast spells faster - in this case, Fireball, with 25% more speed. Arcane Tempo is a more mana-conserving option when compared to our next support gem...

Unleash

To go full-out, mana conservation be damned, you can use Unleash to really up the Fireball ante. This gem affects any spell you cast yourself, making its effect reoccur to a staggering degree. The damage is better than Arcane Tempo, but you'd best monitor your blue mana pool.

Wildshards

Wildshards is a necessary support gem that gives spells a 20% chance to fire 8 additional projectiles in a circle. This means a spiraling octet of new Fireballs splitting off from your central Fireball. It's good stuff when it activates, and offers a truly beautiful pyrotechnic kaleidoscope.

Spell Cascade

Insert Spell Cascade into Frost Wall to increase the size and range of the icicles that you manifest. You want your Frost Walls to take up as much space on the screen as possible, so the likelihood of your Fireballs bouncing off of them is greater.

Concentrated Effect

Concentrated effect supports any AoE skill, causing its area to be slightly smaller in favour of more damage. Putting this and Spell Cascade on Frost Wall is a good way to bump up your range and damage at the same time. Any negatives are negligible and will cancel each other out.

Magnified Effect

While we might want to concentrate our Frost Wall, when it comes to our Frost Bomb, all we really need is to make it larger. Magnified does just that, giving our bombs 40% more AoE.

Cold Mastery

Cold Mastery is a worthy support gem that offers +1 to the level of any of your cold spells. You can place this on Frost Wall or Frost Bomb, whichever you prefer.

Strip Away

Strip Away increases the effect of any exposure. For our purposes, we want this on Frost Bomb to ensure that all enemies affected by its explosive cold exposure feel that chilling ice deep in their veins.

Ingenuity

Any skill with a cooldown can use Ingenuity as a support gem for a very handy 30% increased cooldown recovery rate. Put this on Blink to ensure that you'll be able to dash in and out of enemy proximity without suffering the normal three second wait.

With this info in hand, you should be more than ready to burn and freeze everything in your path as the Sorceress. For more on the mechanics that power Grinding Gear Games' epic ARPG, see our guides to the Passive Skill Tree, Attributes, and crafting. We've also got a look at the best character class for beginners, as well as a list of what to do first if you're just getting started with Path of Exile 2's early game. And if you'd like to learn how to take your class to greater heights, see our guide on how to Ascend via the Trial of the Sekhemas.