Diablo 4 Chain Lightning Sorcerer build and best skills

Learn how to make our Chain Lightning Sorcerer build in Diablo 4

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Want the best Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build? If you’ve heard about those Sorcerer nerfs in Diablo 4 Season 1, you might be unsure whether it’s worth running right now. Thankfully, there are Sorcerer buffs due in the coming weeks that should right any wrongs of Patch 1.1.0 , and even now it is performing very well in the race to reach level 100 in Season 1.

If you want to Chain Lightning packs of enemies and turn them to ash, then you’re in the right place! In this guide, we break down how to make the best Lightning Sorcerer build in Diablo 4 , covering the Skills, Paragon Boards and Glyphs, Enchantments, Aspects, Stats, Gems, and Malignant Hearts that you’ll need. It’s fully updated to reflect the changes from Season 1, but we’ll continue to add any changes from future patches and hotfixes.

For more Diablo 4 Sorcerer builds , take a look at our Diablo 4 Ice Sorcerer build and Diablo 4 Fire Sorcerer build guides.

What is the best class in Diablo 4? Watch this video to find out.Watch on YouTube

Best Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build

Our Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build focuses on using Shock spells to do huge damage, inflict enemies with debuffs, guarantee Critical Strikes, and keep yourself alive with recharging Barriers.

Of course, the main damage dealer in this Lightning Sorcerer build is Chain Lightning, a spell that needs no introduction. Chain Lightning bounces between you and your enemies, and with the Greater Chain Lightning upgrade, it’ll deal 10% extra damage each time it bounces off of you. Whether you’re battling a big group of enemies or facing off against a big boss, this’ll absolutely destroy anything in your path.

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build skills

Below, you’ll find a full list of the skills that you should acquire for our Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build, in order:

Arc Lash

Arc Lash is a basic attack that you can use when out of mana, and it’s incredibly powerful as a quick melee attack.

Even better, the base ability allows you to Stun enemies, and the Glinting Arc Lash upgrade then reduces your Cooldowns by 0.15 seconds when you hit a Stunned enemy with Arc Lash.

Chain Lightning

Chain Lightning sends out a bolt of lightning that deals 42% damage and chains between up to 6 nearby enemies and your character. That’s incredibly powerful at even the base level, giving you an effective method of clearing enemy mobs, but the real strength comes from Greater Chain Lightning.

Greater Chain Lightning raises the damage of the next hit by 10% each time it bounces off of your character. This can buff Chain Lightning significantly, and when paired with passives such as Elemental Dominance, Glass Cannon, and Vyr’s Mastery, you’ll find this skill absolutely melts any enemies in your path, including bosses.

Teleport

Teleport does exactly what you’d expect, allowing you to teleport a short distance so you can quickly reposition in a fight. It also provides Unstoppable, allowing you to break any crowd control effects that are currently inflicted on your character.

That’s a useful skill for survivability, of course, but Shimmering Teleport really helps it synergise with this Sorcerer build by granting 30% Damage Reduction for 3 seconds. Since you’ll often Teleport towards crowds of enemies so that you can Chain Lightning at closer-range, that Damage Reduction will be important for surviving those incoming hits.

Ice Armor

Ice Armor is your main protection Cooldown ability, granting you a Barrier for 30% of your base Life. However, while it’s active, 5% of your damage dealt is added to the Barrier, helping you keep it up by blasting Chain Lightning at those baddies.

Enhanced Ice Armor is a must-have ability, as it also increases your Mana Regeneration by 25% while Ice Armor is active. However, it’s Mystical Ice Armor that’ll really come in handy for keeping yourself alive, as it makes any damage against Vulnerable enemies add 50% more to Ice Armor’s Barrier.

Frost Nova

Frost Nova unleashes a torrent of frost that freezes nearby enemies for 3 seconds. That’ll prove crucial for staying alive in the thick of combat, but it also has some handy upgrades that synergise with other abilities.

Enhanced Frost Nova is a simple one, reducing your Cooldown by 1 second for each Frozen enemy you kill up to a max of four seconds per cast.

However, it’s Mystical Frost Nova that really shines here, as it makes enemies hit by Frost Nova Vulnerable for 4 seconds (or 6 seconds for bosses) and allows it to synergise with Ice Armor for more defense.

Unstable Currents

Unstable Currents is the ultimate ability for our Lightning Sorcerer, and it’s incredibly powerful. When activated, you will cast a random core, conjuration, or mastery Shock skill whenever you cast any Shock skill for the next ten seconds.

That essentially doubles up your firepower, delivering an extra spell each time you cast any of the shock skills in this build. As mentioned above, it’s an incredibly powerful skill, but that means it also has a long cooldown of 70 seconds. Hopefully the various ways to reduce your Cooldowns mentioned above should help you use it more often.

If you’re not sure how to use these skills effectively, follow the attack pattern below:

1. Approach a crowd of enemies and use Frost Nova to Freeze them.
2. Activate Ice Armor after Freezing your enemies.
3. Cast Chain Lightning until all of the enemies are dead, or switch to Arc Lash to finish them off when you run out of Mana.
4. Teleport away from the crowd if you are almost dead.
5. Heal up and repeat.

Image credit:Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build: Best Paragon Boards and Glyphs

Diablo 4’s Paragon system unlocks at level 50, allowing you to spend Paragon Points to earn passive bonuses and effects that can substantially improve your build. Boards grant both a Glyph slot, into which you can insert a Glyph that’ll usually buff a certain stat or damage type, and a Legendary node with a more unique effect. For this build, we really want to take advantage of those Glyph slots.

Below, we break down the best Paragon Boards and Glyphs that you should take for this build, mapping out your journey from level 50-100. For a clearer view of how we’ve spent each and every Paragon Point, check out our Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer page on the Lothrik build calculator .

Starting Board

On the starting board, take the right path up to the Glyph socket, heading through the rare Elementalist node. Then, insert the Destruction Glyph, scoop up any surrounding Dexterity nodes, and then get both the rare nodes nearby. Finally, path up to the Board Attachment Gate at the top.

In total, the Starting Board should use 30 Paragon Points .

Enchantment Master

Rotate the Enchantment Master board so that the Glyph socket is in the lower left and the Legendary node is at the top-right corner. Take the path up to the left and insert the Elementalist Glyph. Then, scoop up at least 40 points of Intelligence, and also grab the rare Elemental Balance node and the surrounding non-physical damage nodes.

Then, dart right from the Glyph socket and grab the rare Ruinous node and any surrounding magic nodes. Then, head back to the Glyph socket and move up to get the rare Elementalist node and any surrounding magic nodes. Continue up, head right to get the rare Suffused Resilience node, and then continue to grab the Legendary node from the corner.

Head through the Board Attachment Gate at the top and attach the Static Surge board.

In total, the Enchantment Master board should use 64 Paragon Points .

Static Surge

Rotate the Static Surge board so that the Legendary node is near the entrance. Then, head up to the left, through the rare Overwhelming node, and grab the Legendary node. Continue up to the Glyph socket and insert the Exploit Glyph, scooping up as many Dexterity nodes that are nearby as possible. Make sure to also grab the damage to Stunned enemies nodes.

Head right from the Glyph socket and through the rare Paralyzing node to reach the Board Attachment Gate, where you should connect the Ceaseless Conduit board.

In total, the Static Surge board should use 51 Paragon Points .

Ceaseless Conduit

Rotate the Ceaseless Conduit board so that the Glyph socket is just above the Board Attachment Gate. Then, start by using a few points to move down and grab the rare Hunter Killer node and any surrounding magic nodes.

Then, head up to the Glyph socket and insert Imbiber. Then, grab as many Willpower nodes as possible from nearby, and then path up to the Board Attachment Gate. You should also use a few points to move down and grab the rare Conduit node and any Lightning damage nodes nearby. Finally, attach the Frigid Fate board.

In total, the Ceaseless Conduit board should use 46 Paragon Points .

Frigid Fate

Rotate the Frigid Fate board so that the Glyph socket is in the center. Then, move directly up, grab the rare Weakness node and any surrounding damage to Vulnerable enemies nodes, and then insert the Enchanter Glyph. Then, move up and get the rare Chilling node, while also scooping up any other Intelligence nodes that are within range.

Finally, use your last few points to move down from the Glyph and head over to get the rare Oppressive node, along with any surrounding magic nodes.

In total, the Frigid Fate board should use 34 Paragon Points .

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build: Best Enchantments

The Sorcerer class also has access to a unique Enchantment system that allows you to place spells into Enchantment slots on your hotbar. When spells are equipped as an Enchantment, rather than an active skill, they will grant a passive bonus. However, this means that they can no longer be cast as an active skill.

You will get access to a total of two Enchantment slots as a Sorcerer in Diablo 4. Below, we’ll list the two best Enchantments that we’d recommend using in our Lightning Sorcerer build:

• Fireball : When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage.
• Flame Shield : Flame Shield automatically activates when you take fatal damage. Can only happen once every 120 seconds.

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build: Best Aspects

As you find Legendary Gear or complete Side Dungeons, you will unlock Aspects in your Codex of Power. These are Legendary effects that you can apply onto Gear, granting it the Legendary effect so that you can tweak things to fit your build.

Below, we’ll break down the best Aspects for our Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build:

• Aspect of Overwhelming Currents (random Legendary drop): Unstable Currents has a 10-20% chance to cast an additional Shock skill.
• Conceited Aspect (random Legendary drop): Deal 15-25% increased damage while you have a Barrier active.
• Aspect of the Unbroken Tether (random Legendary drop): Chain Lightning has a 25-35% chance to chain 2 additional times.
• Stable Aspect (random Legendary drop): While Unstable Currents is not active, your Shock skills have a 5-10% chance to trigger a free cast from it.
• Prodigy’s Aspect (Witchwater - Hawezar): Using a Cooldown restores 15-25 Mana.
• Recharging Aspect (Zenith - Fractured Peaks): Each time Chain Lightning bounces off you, gain 4-6 Mana.

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build: Best Stats

We aren’t quite in a position to break down the best pieces of Unique Gear for the Sorcerer just yet, but targeting specific Attributes should help you know which pieces of Gear to prioritise throughout your journey from level 1 to level 50 and beyond.

When playing as the Lightning Sorcerer, you should look for gear with high Intelligence and Willpower.

Intelligence affects your damage as a Sorcerer, with each Intelligence point offering an extra 0.1% damage. That might seem tiny, but it adds up and can have a significant impact in the late game.

Willpower ties into Mana Generation, with each point giving you an extra 0.1%. Again, it’s a meagre amount in the early game, but even slight boosts to your Mana Generation will help you cast Chain Lightning more often.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build: Best Gems

Gear in Diablo 4 has Gem sockets. These allow you to insert Gems into your Gear, offering extra bonuses, similar to those offered by Attributes. Gems will have different effects depending on whether they’re placed into a weapon or armor.

For the Lightning Sorcerer, we’d recommend using Emeralds in Weapon Gem sockets. When placed in Weapons, Emeralds offer increased Critical Strike damage against Vulnerable enemies. Since we can guarantee Critical Strikes with this build, and easily make enemies Vulnerable using Frost Nova, this gives you an easy way to increase your damage output.

In Armor Gem Sockets, we’d use Rubies to get up to +5% extra Life. We’ve mentioned that the Sorcerer is a glass cannon class, and of course we use the aptly-named Glass Cannon skill to increase damage dealt and received, making this particular build even more susceptible. Fortunately, the extra Life that you can gain from Rubies will add some much-needed survivability, ensuring that you don’t drop in every fight.

Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build: Best Malignant Hearts

Malignant Hearts are the new Seasonal mechanic for the Season of the Malignant. These items offer powerful bonuses when inserted into Infested Sockets on your Rings and Amulets, and some of the more defensive options are essential if you want to push through higher-level content as the Lightning Sorcerer build in Season 1.

Below, we’ll list the best Malignant Hearts for the Lightning Sorcerer:

• Omnipower : Core Skills that launch a projectile consume all of your Mana. For every 45-35 extra Mana consumed, you launch an additional projectile, and the damage is increased by 3.0-5.0%.
• Prudent Heart : You become Immune for 2-4 seconds after you lose more than 20% Life in a single hit. This effect can only occur once every 110 seconds.
• Tal’Rasha : For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds.

That wraps up our Diablo 4 Lightning Sorcerer build guide. If you want to try out other classes, make sure to check out our powerful Diablo 4 Barbarian builds , Rogue builds , Necromancer builds , and Druid builds .

Activision Blizzard are currently the subject of a number of legal actions , labour disputes and allegations of workplace harassment . Rock Paper Shotgun will continue to write about these issues, as well as covering Activision Blizzard games as part of our commitment to cover subjects of interest to our readers. The latest news can always be found under our Activision Blizzard tag.

Diablo IV

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.