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Path of Exile 2 Best Sorceress build, how to play, best skills and best equipment

Fireball is an easy win.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing the skill tree illustration of a Sorceress
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

Elemental magic in Path of Exile 2 is capable of quickly handling waves of enemies, making using the best Sorceress build the easiest way to become an unstoppable force.

Each class in Path of Exile 2 comes with its strengths and weaknesses. One class might exceed where others falter, but there is no perfect class. By finding the right build for your character, you make sure to use all of its potential while compensating for its inherent shortcomings.

To assist in the mission of preparing your characters to face the dangers in this game, we've prepared this guide covering the best Path of Exile 2 Sorceress build. Here, you find an explanation on how to play Sorceress, the best skills, passive skills and equipment to run.

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How to play Sorceress in Path of Exile 2

Sorceress is the typical long-distance class that causes lots of damage and can't take a few hits without dying. You use spells of three different elements to fight and the damage caused by them depends on how much you invest in pieces of equipment and passive skills that increase a determined type of elemental damage. You can't maximize all of them as you level up, so learning to prioritize is key. We recommend using Fire and Electric spells for damage, while Ice spells are for crowd control.

When playing Sorceress, you want to be always casting spells and mixing elements. For example, in between Firebolts, cast Spark, so enemies are hit by two different types of damage. Sorceress also has great area-of-effect abilities like Flame Wall, Ice Nova, and Frost Wall. These are not only great tools to keep enemies distant or damage them as they come at you, but they become deadly weapons when mixed with other skills. You can do so from the very start of the game by placing Flame Walls around the arena and using Sparks which are imbued with Fire damaged.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing a Sorceress character placing Flame Walls on a boss arena
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

As a Sorceress using this build, your goal is to cast long-rage spells like Firebolt/Lightning Bolt or Arc to poke an enemy from afar. Using area-of-effect spells is great but only do so when you have time to cast them. There are some skills with longer cast times, which means their animation is longer than a simple Firebolt and creates a small window for enemies to hit you. Do not forget to kite enemies and cast spells like Spark or Fireball while walking since there is a lower chance to miss hits with them.

When facing packs of enemies, abuse the fact you can place more than one Flame Wall/Frost Wall on the field and keep spamming Spark, Arc, and Fireballs. If you see yourself trapped by a mob, freeze them and run for your life!

Best Sorceress skills in Path of Exile 2

Sorceress comes with a fun kit to play with and find interesting combinations of skills. However, since you depend on uncut skill gems to unlock them, we should prioritize the most useful ones for this build. This selection does not take into consideration a specific Ascendancy class.

From the Level 1 skills, you should get Flame Wall and Ice Nova. The tutorial will already unlock Spark for you, which will work as your main damage-dealing skill alongside a Firebolt/Lightning Bolt from the staff you end up using. Both Flame Wall and Ice Nova are great utility skills. The former puts fire on the ground which will damage enemies as they walk over it and the latter creates an ice explosion around the character, a great defensive skill when surrounded by too many enemies.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing the Ice Nova skill, one of the Sorceress's skills
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

Once you have access to Level 5 spells, take Incinerate and Arc. The first is a strong frontal cone attack that works well against single or multiple enemies. By upgrading it with a support gem, you can decrease the enemy's Fire resistance while they are hit by the spell. The range of this skill is not great, so you will have to learn when is the most favorable moment to use it. On the other hand, Arc is a great long-distance poke spell that can bounce from one enemy to another.

Lastly, you want, among the Level 9 skills, to use Fireball and Frost Wall. Different from Firebolt, Fireballs explode and shoot smaller projectiles, giving them the potential to hit multiple enemies and freeing you from the need to aim. Just spam Fireballs and they will give something! Frost Wall comes as a good alternative for Flame Wall when dealing with enemies resistant to fire or when you need more crowd control. Since you can hit the wall to hit enemies with ice, Frost Wall allows a couple of fun combos.

Best Sorceress passive skills in Path of Exile 2

Choosing passive skills in Path of Exile 2 sounds as daunting as it was in the first version of the game due to the massive skill tree every class has access to. For this build, in order to prevent new players from feeling overwhelmed, we came up with a list of the nodes you should prioritize. At the same time, remember that you can respec your character and refund passive skills. So, as you unlock these nodes, you are free to experiment and select different ones that seem interesting or more useful for a specific encounter.

For the first nodes, you want to prioritize skills that increase spell damage in general or specific ones like Path of Storms and Path of Flame, which increase Lightning and Fire damage. You will hardly find yourself out of mana in the first levels, so leave the Mana Regeneration nodes for later.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing some of the best passive skills for the Sorceress build
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

Practice Signs is right after damage-increasing skills in terms of priority. This passive increases the Cast Speed of your skills, which reduces the amount of time you're locked in the skill animation to place a Flame Wall while increasing your damage output since it allows you to cast more Fireballs.

For attribute nodes, you want to focus on Intelligence and Dexterity. You need these attributes to meet the attribute requirements of pieces of equipment and weapons. Some items, like rings and amulets, or affixes in your general gear, can give you Intelligence and Dexterity points too. Because of that, you can always refund the skill points already used and change to the attribute you lack.

Still thinking about the basic needs of this build, you want to unlock a couple of Life Recoup nodes. These skills allow you to receive health based on the damage taken. Despite your efforts to stay safe, enemies are going to land their attacks on you. With this passive, your survivability increases. You must not spend too many points in Life Recoup instead of others that will allow you to cause more damage.

Once you have unlocked the Weapon Set passive skill points, you must unlock the nodes based on the weapons you have. Focus on getting passives that will increase the elemental damage of based on the staves you have equipped. With these skills unlocked, you can now customize your build according to your needs.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing some of the passive skills for the Sorceress
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

Best Sorceress weapon in Path of Exile 2

In Path of Exile 2, you can find strong unique weapons that can make a build singular and extremely powerful. However, dropping these items is not common, so we would rather base our build on more easily found weapons and upgrade them with runes. For Sorcerers, picking a staff also determines the kind of basic spell you have access to. In addition, looking for the stat bonuses it offers and other suffixes is also important.

When it comes to which staff you should run for this build, you must have a Ashen Staff, which comes with the Firebolt spell, and a Voltaic Staff, with its Lightning Bolt spell, equipped. You can carry two staves and swap them during battle, which means you can always go from throwing Firebolts to invoking Lightning Bolts whenever it is needed.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing a Sorceress with two staves
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

In terms of prefixes and suffixes, you want staves that come with at least Increased Spell Damage and Maximum Mana. These are basic but extremely important stats for a weapon to justify its usage. Other secondary options which are also quite good are Mana Regeneration Rate and Intelligence/Dexterity. By carrying weapons with these stats, you have the chance to spend passive skill points in damage-focused nodes.

Runes should be put in your weapons as soon as possible. They are an easy method to quickly increase your elemental damage without having to constantly look for new weapons. The Desert Rune will increase Fire damage when put in a weapon, while the Storm Rune pumps your Lightning damage.

Best Sorceress armor in Path of Exile 2

Choosing which armor pieces to use in Path of Exile 2 follows a similar logic to weapons. There are ridiculously strong unique pieces in the game, but focusing only on them makes our lives too difficult when putting an effective build together. For this Sorceress build, we want to look for equipment that will increase our attributes, and resistances, and add some stats to our character to make them hit even harder or survive longer.

Your main goal is to look for body armour with the highest Energy Shield value but with important prefixes and suffixes. The ones that allow you to recover life and mana by killing enemies are great. They not only keep you alive but make it almost impossible for you to run out of mana.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing a Glacial Rune, one of the items players can equip to an armor
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

Keeping more than one piece of body armour in your stash is a good idea if they increase your resistance to different elements. The priority in terms of elemental resistance changes depending on the region and enemies you're facing. For example, in the final boss of Act I, it's great if you use armor that increases Cold Resistance. Because it is situational, it's important to have more than one option.

Runes are quite useful for armor too. For this build, we can go for a more general rune, like the Iron Rune, which increases your Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield. It's a defensive rune that covers most situations. In case you don't have a piece of equipment that comes with elemental resistance, you can look for Glacial, Storm or Desert runes to add these stats to your gear.

Best Sorceress accessories in Path of Exile 2

While you don't need specific accessories for this build, they are pretty useful. We recommend something like the Crinsom Amulet of Talent, which increases regeneration per second and cast speed. Any amulet you find that can increase attributes, mana or life regeneration, and cast speed is a good option. These stats just cover the needs of this build in general, making them a good choice in most scenarios.

Investing in a good belt is quite important for every build in the game. Besides the stats belts come with, they also determine how many charms you can use. Charms are defensive items that can protect you from certain types of damage, making them quite situational when you have only one slot available. But, with better belts, you can equip more of these and prepare yourself for any encounter.

A Path of Exile 2 screenshot showing an amulet
Image credit: Grinding Gear Games/Eurogamer

Enjoy the power of elemental magic to save the world of Path of Exile 2!

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