Welcome to the Fire Bolt Sorcerer Specialized Build Guide! This build uses Flameweaver to turn Fire Bolt into a real damage skill. Unfortunately the way this item works makes the build quite clunky: first you have to place down Firewall, then shoot enemies with Fire Bolt and then you have to wait for them to die because you deal damage over time. On top of that, the damage only gets really high if you hit the same enemy with all 3 Fire Bolts right after they split. Effectively that means that this build is very single target oriented even if Fire Bolts can technically hit multiple enemies. This build is most suited for Bossing and slow push in high tier Pit. Speedfarming can be done thanks to Frosty Strides but because we invest a lot into Damage Over Time and don't build any Crit, it's not very strong.
Our Specialized Builds are lategame builds with specific requirements and purposes. In order to play them, you are expected to have a level 100 character and all of the listed items available. To get there, we recommend you use one of our existing lvl 50-100 Endgame Build Guides.
Paragon
Look below for the selected Paragon Boards, Paragon point allocation, and the correct Glyphs you should use for the Fire Bolt Sorcerer. Note: The Paragon Boards below are the final setup with no steps.
Level 21 Glyphs required: Elementalist, Destruction, Pyromaniac, Charged, Tactician, Exploit.
Season 4 - Loot Reborn
In Season 4, the Season Theme revolves around helping out the Iron Wolves. Compared to past themes, this one does not offer any borrowed power as the entire game has been redesigned with new itemization and crafting options, increasing player power substantially across the board. Instead, you can gather reputation similar to the Vampire Bounty Board from Season 2 to unlock rewards that supercharge your leveling journey to 100 with extra items, crafting materials and eventually even a Resplendent Spark to craft an uber unique.
We recommend to follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 4 guide for more information.
Gameplay
As you may have noticed, this build has less active skills than usual. That happens because we use Hectic and we want it to reduce the cooldown of our Flame Shield as often as possible. Adding any other cooldown skills to the empty slots doesn't improve our build enough to justify the increased Flame Shield cooldown. With only 4 buttons to worry about our gameplay is quite simple:
- Before you start playing the build go out of town and let some mobs damage you until you fall below 50% HP to activate Frosty Strides. Do not heal after that, it's even recommended to unbind your Potion so that you don't heal accidentally. If you go to full HP in the middle of a Pit run it's borderline impossible to get injured without dying.
- Spam Flame Shield at all times. You're supposed to have it up permanently, otherwise the build doesn't work.
- Use Evade Teleport to move. We still have our normal Teleport on the bar but it's only used when travelling. In combat you should never use it because it can steal a Hectic proc.
- Generally just spamming Evade Teleport is enough to kill small enemies with Frosty Strides. As long as you don't cast Firewall it shouldn't disrupt your Flame Shield resets because Teleport animation is very short.
- Against big enemies, place a Firewall and spam Fire Bolt. For optimal results, put your Firewall slightly in front of the Boss. If you put it directly on top, your Fire Bolts might go through the boss before splitting and your damage will be reduced by 80%. But at the same time your Firewall still needs to touch the Boss to activate Enhanced Firewall. If the Boss moves, you have to reposition or cast a new Firewall. Be careful to not spam too many Firewalls because when everything is on fire, your Fire Bolts will split immediately after you shoot them, and then you have to worry about being exactly right distance away from the Boss.
- Use your Firewall very sparingly. Its animation is almost twice as long as Fire Bolt, so your Flame Shield reset will fail if you use it too often.
Gear and Stat Requirements
Fire Bolt Sorcerer requires specific Aspects, Uniques, and Affixes on your gear to perform their primary function. Only deviate from the list below after you have fully learned the intended gameplay style and strategies.
- Legendary Aspects:
- Adaptability
- Moonrise
- Rapid
- Frosty Strides
- Concussive Strikes
- Hectic
- Exploiter's
- Uniques:
- Flameweaver
- Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop
- Harlequin Crest (or Fortune)
Recommended Stat Thresholds
- 2,000+ Intelligence
- 76.1% Attack Speed
- 100% Chance to Cast Fire Bolt Twice
- Chance to Stun/Slow/Freeze (one of each)
- 20+ Total Ranks of Fire Bolt
- 30%+ Chance to make Enemy Vulnerable
- 40%+ Cooldown Reduction
- 5s+ total Flame Shield Duration
CDR and Flame Shield Duration thresholds outlined above ARE NOT OPTIONAL. The build will not work if you don't have at least that much!
Optimized Late Game Setup
When your CDR goes above 50%, you can move Hectic from the Amulet to your Boots, put Moonrise on the Amulet and add Storm Swell.
With even more CDR and Flame Shield duration you can also replace Rapid with Inner Calm for even more damage. Same principle applies to Fire Damage Over Time vs Pyromancy Attack Speed tempers: the former provides more DPS whereas the latter is helps you with Flame Shield resets when your CDR is not fully optimized.
You can also replace Chance to Make Vulnerable on the Ring with a damage roll. You can apply Vulnerable with Frosty Strides Frosty Strides so it's not strictly necessary. However, if you happen to heal or die you will suffer way more.
FAQ & Mechanics
Because Fire Bolt Sorcerer is a Specialized build, the obvious Mechanics or build interactions may not be clear to most first time players. Search below for the answers you need or come check me out live via the link at the top of the article for more information!
Mechanics
Learn about the mechanical details that make the Fire Bolt Sorcerer work.
Credits
Written by Northwar
Reviewed by wudijo
Shoutout to Mekuna for helping optimize the build
