In thisPath of Exile 2article, we will be taking a look at how to put togetherthe Arcane Sorceressbuild for you to use to get into the late-game or end-game of the game.Path of Exilehas become notorious for the sheer amount of skills and build possibilities available in the game, and the sequel follows suit with an extensive skill tree and multitude of skill gems. This guide is here to help you get through all that and lay out a path for you to follow as you reach the end of the campaign and prepare you for your Cruel playthroughs or endgame.
Introduction
The Arcane Sorceressis a spell-casting build that will enable you to decimate your enemies using all the elements. With this build, we will be trying to maximize the effectiveness of our spells, allowing us to deal with any kind of enemies regardless of their innate resistances.
Starter Class
For this build, we will be starting withtheSorceressclass, which is one of the seven available for now. At the time and on the expansive skill tree, similar to the Witch, the Sorceress class will start on the northern side.
This side of the skill tree consists mainly of passives related to spell damage, spell casting, energy shield, and mana, which we will be taking advantage of to maximize our effectiveness with this build.
Passive Skill Tree
For our passive skill tree, we will be focusing on maximizing our damage using all the various types of spells available to us, mastering the elements.
Going for the more offensive route among the two main paths available, we will be taking the nodes that increase our spell damage and going through theRaw Destructionnode.
Afterwards, we will be taking the three nodes that increase our cast speed with thePracticed Signsnode.
From here, we’ll go north along the axis of the skill tree and take all five nodes including theCritical Overloadnode.
These nodes will increase our spell damage along with the critical hit chance when using our spells, with the Critical Overload skill node increasing our damage even further after a critical hit.
Following this, we will take the nodes to the west at the intersection and invest in all three branches of passive skill nodes that will increase our elemental damage penetration, alongwith a +10 to all three attributesby going for all nodes of each sub-branch of the passive skill group.
We will go to the opposite side and put our points into a skill branch that will increase our spell damage.
We will not be going for thePotent Incantationsnode because, while the passive will increase our spell damage, it will reduce our cast speed, making casting each spell longer, so it is more detrimental to invest in this point early.
Also, we will be investing our points in the opposite branch towards theRoilpassive skill node.
These passive nodes will increase the area of effect of our spells, making it easier to deal damage to a larger area, helping with clearing out mobs of enemies, but at the downside of reduced area spell damage.
Afterwards, we will be going for the passive skill node group that is close to our Roil branch and aim towards theRuinpassive node.
This branch will increase our spell area damage while reducing our area of effect. Although it may look likethe Roil and Ruinbranches are canceling out each other, investing in both of these branches of passive skills will result in a net positive in both area damage and area of effect of your spells.
Following these two branches, we will be investing in two big passive skill groups that are on each side of the central northern axis leading to the outer ring.
The first of these is theClimate Changenode.
This group of passive skills mainly deals with our fire and ice damage, but it mainly amplifies our ice spells by increasing the damage, while also increasing the damage our fire spells deal to frozen enemies—helping our overall damage output with different types of spells.
AfterClimate Change, we will be investing in the other side of the axis and investing our points in the whole circle of the passive skill group.
This group increases our elemental damage while also increasing the duration of ailments such as shock, ignite, and chill that we can inflict with our spell.
The node at the center of the circle,Overexposure, increases the exposure effect, lowering the resistance of the enemies by up to 30%.
These passive skill groups form the core of our build and will allow us to deal consistent damage with all of our elemental spells. After investing in these skill nodes, we can either invest all our points into a specific type of element to maximize the damage with those spells or go for a more generalized approach by focusing on nodes that increase our spell damage, spell critical hit chance, and spell damage.
Ascendancy
For our Ascendancy for this build, we will be taking theStormweaverclass for our Sorceress. From this class, we will be taking theTempest CallerandRain Dancernodes.
TheTempest Callerenables us to summonElemental Stormswith our spells, dealing specific types of elemental damage over time.
TheRain Dancernode increases the frequency at which we can summon our DoT Elemental Storms, making it an extremely useful passive to have, especially when fighting against bosses.
TheScouring Windsnode will increase your damage output by increasing the exposure you can inflict with your spell, andHeart of the Stormnode will increase your survivability by increasing your elemental resistance and enabling you to recoup 40% of elemental damage taken.
Active Skill Setup
For our spells, we will be using a combination of spells of multiple elemental types, and the first one is theSparkspell.
This spell fires off discharges of lightning that travel erratically along the ground, damaging enemies.
This spell by itself does not feel very powerful, but when combined with other skills that we will be talking about later on, it becomes one of the main tools to quickly clear out mobs of enemies.
The second spell that we will be relying on a lot with this build is theIce Novaspell.
This conjures up a wave of ice in all directions around you, knocking enemies back and dealing cold damage while freezing them.
It is a great tool for damaging and crowd-controlling all the enemies that are trying to surround you.
The third skill is the first of our orb skills, and that is theOrb of Storms.
This summons an electrical orb that will shoot lightning bolts at nearby targets periodically by itself.
But when you cast other lightning-based spells—such as the Spark spell—within the vicinity of the orb, you can fire additional lightning chains, quickly damaging whole mobs of enemies.
The next spell, which is going to be our main damaging spell against bosses, is theEmber Fusilladespell.
This spell allows us to conjure multiple fire projectiles that hover above us before firing at your target, with each successive ember dealing more damage.
The amount of projectiles you can conjure at a time will increase as you level up the skill, and a fully conjured fusillade can deal massive amounts of damage that can easily melt rare enemies and bosses.
The next spell is our main tool for inflicting flame exposure, and this is theIncineratespell.
This spell lets us throw out a stream of flame like a flamethrower and will deal continuous damage as you continue to spray your enemies with fire, melting them.
The flame stream has multiple stages, with each stage increasing the damage dealt, and the max stage also exposing your targets to fire damage, additionally increasing your damage output.
This skill is extremely effective at burning through mobs of enemies—especially when combined with other skills such asSolar Orb, if you are inclined to use fire spells instead of lightning spells for clearing mobs.
Solar Orbis the next skill we will be using quite often when mapping.
This skill puts down a ball of fire that releases fire pulses that repeatedly damage nearby enemies as well as igniting them.
For our next spell, we will be using theCold Snap.
This is a spell that will allow us to explode frozen enemies by shattering them while consuming the freeze status ailment.
This is a great tool for eliminating enemies that are frozen by your Ice Nova quickly and also helps with mapping.
Our next spell is a buffing spell that will allow us to add lightning damage to all of our spells.
Mana Tempestwill create a storm around you that will constantly drain mana, with the cost increasing with each empowered spell you cast.
The mana storm will disappear when you leave the storm or run out of mana and is really great for dealing massive amounts of damage within a short amount of time.
Next spell is an ice spell that is great for dealing huge amounts of damage but also has a higher mana cost.
This istheCometspell, which will call down an ice meteor that will deal damage in a huge area, making it a great tool for dealing with mobs during mapping or when you want to deal ice damage against bosses.
With our Ascendancy path andTempest Callernode, we will also receive theElemental Stormskill.
This skill allows us to conjure up a storm of either elemental type depending on the spell we used, and this storm will deal elemental damage over time while slowing them down.
We will not be using any spirit gems with this build because we will be slotting in all our skill gem slots with active spells and rotate through them depending on the enemies' resistances and situation.
Support Gems
For our support gems, we will be trying to maximize the effectiveness of our spells to allow us to deal with any kind of enemies that we may run across.
For ourSparkskill, we will be using theConduction Supportgem and thePiercesupport gem.
TheConductionsupport gem will make it so that our sparks will have a 100% chance to shock our enemies, adding to the effectiveness of our sparks.
For ourIce Novaskill, we will be using theGlaciationandFrost Nexussupport gems.
TheGlaciationsupport gem increases the freeze buildup of our Ice Nova by 50%, whileFrost Nexuswill make it so that there will be chilled ground whenever you freeze an enemy, slowing down any non-frozen enemy.
WithOrb of Storms, we will be slotting in thePersistenceand theOverabundancesupport gems.
ThePersistencegem will make it so that the orb lasts 40% longer and will also offset the 20% reduction in duration from theOverabundancegem, which increases the number of orbs we can put down at the cost of lesser duration.
For theEmber Fusilladespell, we will be using theArcane Tempoand theControlled Destructionsupport gems.
TheArcane Temposkill will increase the cast speed of our skill, making it easier to conjure the maximum number of projectiles and, in turn, maximize our damage output.
Controlled Destructionwill increase the damage of each projectile by 25% but will take away the spell’s ability to critically hit.
This might seem like a major downside, but the progressive increase in damage with each projectile of Fusillade means that the guaranteed increase in damage leads to a more consistent damage output compared to relying on critical hits.
With ourIncinerateskill, we will be slotting in theEternal Flameand theFire Infusionsupport gems.
TheEternal Flamesupport gem increases the duration of ignite inflicted by our skill at the cost of reduced chance to ignite—but since Incinerate deals fire damage consistently, the reduction is negligible and we will still be igniting enemies reliably for a longer duration.
TheFire Infusionsupport gem increases the fire damage of the skill, thus compounding the damage from the skill itself and the damage over time from ignite, helping with the overall damage output.
For ourSolar Orb, we will be using theIgnitionsupport gem and theClaritysupport gem.
TheIgnitiongem will make it easier for us to set enemies on fire with a 100% chance to ignite with each burst, increasing our DoT output.
TheClaritygem will help us with our mana as it will increase mana regeneration whenever there is a Solar Orb on the field.
Regarding ourCold Snap, we will be using theCold InfusionandExecutesupport gems.
TheCold Infusionsupport gem will give our spell an additional 25% cold damage, andExecutewill allow us to deal more damage against enemies who are already on low life—boosting our damage output against frozen enemies, especially when mapping.
For ourMana Tempestskill, we will be using theInspirationsupport gem and theVitalitysupport gem.
TheInspirationsupport gem will reduce the mana cost of the Tempest by 30%, making it possible to sustain the storm for a longer duration, whileVitalitywill allow us to recover 1% of our maximum life per second while the storm is active, adding to our survivability.
With our high-damageCometskill, we will be using theIce BiteandSpell Cascadesupport gems.
TheIce Bitesupport gem will allow us to gain 35% more cold damage whenever we freeze an enemy using the Ice Comet, making it a good tool to finish off any stragglers that are left after your first Comet.
TheSpell Cascadesupport gem allows the Comet spell to call down additional comets along a random axis at the cost of area damage and area size, but the overall damage area is higher due to the additional cascade of spells.
Lastly, for ourElemental Storm, we will be using theMagnified Effectsupport gem andtheEncumbrancesupport gem.
TheMagnified Effectgem will increase the size of the storm we create, allowing it to deal damage over a wider area, whileEncumbrancewill increase the magnitude of hindrance afflicted by the elemental storm, increasing the slow effect.
Gear and Equipment
The Arcane Mage build is designed to make use of all the different elemental types and does not require any specific Unique gear to function. It can perform well with gear and equipment ofyellow rarity.
For our weapon slot, we will be using thewand and focus comboto take full advantage of the multiple buffs we can gain from two gears.
We will be looking for gear that offersbonuses to spell damageandadditional levels to our fire spells, helping to increase our overall damage output.
And since we did not invest in any defensive passive nodes, this build will also benefit from gear withincreases to energy shield.
Leveling Guide
The build has little trouble while leveling because of thevariety of area-of-effect spellsavailable, making it highly efficient at dealing with mobs of enemies.
And with access toall elemental damage types, you can easily deal with bosses during your initial playthrough of the campaign.
As you level up, it is beneficial to have at least2–3 nodes in Strengthattribute andDexterityattribute to prevent limitations with the support gems available to us, since we will be using support gems related toall three attributes.
Mapping and Bossing
This build is efficient at bothmapping and bossing, and its performance is greatly enhanced by utilizing the different spells to deal with mobs quickly while using theTempest Storm.
When fighting bosses,laying down Storm Orb and Solar Orbswill allow you to deal consistent damage, whileEmber Fusilladewill take out chunks of the boss’s health with each salvo.
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Cometwill allow you to deal massive damage against bosses that are weak tocold damage, andTempest Stormwill make it possible to deal withlightning-susceptible bossesusing your other spells—enabling you to take care of every boss in the game.
Endgame Scaling and Optimization
Endgame scaling is enhanced throughcluster jewelsthat increaseMovement Speed,Cast Speed, andSpell Damage.
The build has great options to scale by investing into eitherpure spell damageor a moredefensive routeby investing inenergy shieldnodes ormaximum healthnodes after getting the core nodes on the passive skill tree.
This build can perform well inSSF and Hardcore, but I wouldnot recommend it for newer players.
The spellcasting class is already a more vulnerable class due to lower health points, and since the build really focuses on the more offensive aspects, you are susceptible to getting one-shotted and can easily die from a single mistake during the later stages of the game—so this build isrisky to use in a Hardcore run.
So, this wraps up my article for theArcane Sorceress build guideforPath of Exile 2.
I hope you found this guide helpful, and if you have any suggestions or tips, feel free to leave them in the comment section.
