Diablo 4 Arc Lash Sorcerer Endgame Build

The Sorcerer class in Diablo 4 can be home to some overpowered builds. While there are tons of endgame builds to check out, one common trait among them all is that they use Arc Lash as a Basic Skill. 

Despite the buff it got when the game launched, the ShockSkill Tree of the Sorcerer is still pretty formidable in Diablo 4 Season 1. If you want more firepower and an extra shock to your step as a Sorcerer, then this Arc Lash-focused endgame build might just be for you.

Master this build and you’ll be stopping groups of enemies in an instant.

The Electric Whip Build

Despite its short range, Arc Lash is one of the best Basic Skills of a Sorcerer because of its crowd-control capacity and its damage once you get to ramp up your character’s attack speed. To make this build work, you’re going to need to complement it with the right set of passives and supplemental skills.

Since it has a short range, Arc Lash is going to make your Sorcerer more prone to damage, which exposes the squishy nature of the class even more. Worry not though as this guide will teach you how to make one of the most dangerous caster’s Sanctuary has ever seen.

To begin, let’s talk about the perfect Caged Hearts for this build first since this is a Diablo 4 Season 1 exclusive build.

Caged Hearts

1. Caged Heart of Tal’Rasha

Effect: For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal [7.0 - 12.0]%[x] increased damage for [2 - 8] seconds. 

This Caged Heart is always perfect for any Sorcerer build. Keep in mind that Sorcerer’s can inflict three elements with their kit. Not utilizing Tal’Rasha is a huge missed opportunity for dealing increased damage to groups of enemies.

2. Caged Heart of the Barber

Effect: Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within [2.0 - 4.0] seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 11%[x] per second.

With the release of Season 1, squishy classes like the Sorcerer finally have a better chance at surviving because of this Caged Heart. It’s one of the most versatile Caged Hearts out there and it’s perfect for this build that puts you right at the heart of the action.

3. Caged Heart of Tempting Fate

Effect: You gain [45 - 65]%[+] Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal [20 - 25]%[x] less damage.

One of the best things about Arc Lash is that it gives you a ton of opportunities for critical hits. As such, using Caged Heart of Tempting Fate, considering the trade-off is going to be worth it. With the attack speed boost you’re getting and the critical rate of your attacks.

Enchantments

1. Fireball

Effect: When you kill an enemy, they explode in a Fireball for 50% of its damage.

The Fireball Enchantment gives you an extra boost in your AoE damaging capabilities. With the addition of the Tal’Rasha Caged Heart, you’re able to inflict another elemental damage, even if you’re using Shock Skills purely. The effect of this enchantment is also one of the best counters against dense mobs.

2. Ball Lightning

Effect: Critical Strikes have up to a 25% chance to spawn a static Ball Lightning.

Again, this build is heavy on Critical Strikes. Before you know it, you’ll be conjuring up Ball Lightning consistently with this build. Arc Lash always works well when it comes to Lucky Hit mechanics and this Enchantment makes full use of that.

Skill Allocation

Now comes the fun part, building your skills for the Electric Whip kit. While following this Skill allocation is a must, you can still make a few adjustments depending on your current equipment and Caged Hearts.

1. Arc Lash - 7 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Arc Lash, Glinting Arc Lash

As said, the start of this show is the Arc Lash. Aside from dealing the most damage out of all the Basic Skills, Arc Lash has a guaranteed stun on the 10th use of the Skill. Take note, we said “use” and not “hit” as you can charge up your stacks before engaging the enemy to open up with a stun.

The Glinting Arc Lash mechanic will help a lot when it comes to resetting your cooldowns. Since you’ll be stunning enemies consistently, this will help you manage your skills better.

2. Fireball - 1 Skill Point

Fireball is only necessary for the Enchantment it has.

3. Charged Bolts - 3 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Charged Bolts, 

You won’t be using Charged Bolts much. However, it will be very useful once you activate Unstable Currents. The Destructive Charged Bolts upgrade will make sure that your enemies are going to deal a lot less damage as long as your Ultimate Skill is active.

4. Teleport - 3 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Teleport, Shimmering Teleport

As with most Sorcerer builds, you’re going to want a mobility skill that will be helpful in many situations. In this case, you definitely should get Shimmering Teleport. Aside from getting you out of trouble, you’re also going to get a little damage reduction boost after you activate this skill too.

5. Ice Armor - 4 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Ice Armor, Shimmering Ice Armor

Ice Armor will give you that extra survivability just in case things get too rough on your end. Using the Shimmering Ice Armor upgrade will give you another means to crowd control enemies outside of just stunning them too. In most cases, you should only use this skill defensively.

6. Frost Nova - 7 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Frost Nova, Mystical Frost Nova

This skill will be great for both offensive and defensive purposes. Arc Lash puts you at the forefront of most of the mobs that you’re going to go up against. Frost Nova helps you thin out the herd a bit. With the Fireball Enchantment, you can easily take out small mobs.

7. Glass Cannon - 3 Skill Points

This is the go-to passive skill for nearly all damage-focused builds for the Sorcerer. This is a double-edged sword as it makes you more squishy at the expense of dealing more damage. With the right approach to this build, you won’t have to worry about the damage you get caused by Glass Canon though.

8. Elemental Attunement - 1 Skill Point

Since you’re squishy, you’re going to need Ice Armor and Teleport ready for most of the time you’re on the field. Even 1 level of Elemental Attunement is enough to make sure that your skills are likely to be prepared whenever you need them most.

9. Align The Elements - 1 Skill Point

Only needed to get to the next set of passive abilities.

10. Mana Shield - 3 Skill Points

Frost Nova and the rest of your active abilities are pretty easy to spam, once you have Unstable Currents activated. Mana Shield guarantees that you have enough durability to stay on the field just as when you’re dishing out heavy damage.

11. Protection - 3 Skill Points

As we’ve said earlier, there will be a lot of opportunities to use cooldowns on your Skills. That makes Protection an excellent means to get even more protection as a reward for your aggressiveness during fights.

12. Ball Lightning - 7 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Ball Lightning, Wizard’s Ball Lightning

With this build, you’ll find yourself facing huge hordes right in front of you. Ball Lightning will be an excellent skill to use then as it can deal heavy damage to enemies in a huge cluster. The Wizard’s Ball Lightning upgrade also gives you lots of opportunities to create Crackling Energy to deal even more damage to your enemies.

13. Static Discharge - 3 Skill Points

Another great source of Crackling Energy will be Static Discharge. You’re going to consistently deal Critical Strikes once you use Unstable Currents and begin spamming Arc Lash. Once you do start the barrage, you’ll see the field littered with Crackling Energy almost immediately.

14. Unstable Currents - 3 Skill Points

Upgrades: Prime Unstable Currents, Supreme Unstable Currents

Your Ultimate Ability for this build will help you deal maximum damage, help you cool down your Skills thanks to your passive setups, and lastly, it will also help you gain a TON of Crackling Energy.

The best upgrade here is the Prime Unstable Currents which increases your attack speed by 25%. Along with other attack speed bonuses from your gear, you can deal a ton of damage with your Arc Lash.

15. Permafrost - 1 Skill Point

Only needed to gain access to the next passive.

16. Hoarfrost - 3 Skill Points

With Frost Nova and your Ice Armor, you have a ton of opportunities to Chill and Freeze enemies. Hoarfrost guarantees that you’re able to get the most out of your other Skills just in case you manage to crowd-control enemies. 

17. Coursing Currents - 1 Skill Point

Only needed to gain access to the next passive. Although it’s at level 1, it’s still an amazing passive skill to have as it will help increase your Critical Strike chance significantly.

18. Electrocution - 3 Skill Points

Electrocution makes you a lot more durable in the field. Thanks to its damage reduction bonus per Critical Strike that you make, you can greatly reduce the amount of damage you can take even in tough battles. With this passive, your aggressiveness will be greatly rewarded.

19. Vyr’s Mastery - 1 Skill Point

Your Key Passive will help you become more formidable even at close range. Vyr’s Mastery and Arc Lash are a deadly combination to have. It’s great that Critical Strikes add more to this bonus as well. Vyr’s Mastery is going to round up the deadliness of this build.

Gameplay

The keyword here is aggressiveness. Many Sorcerer builds will ask you to keep a safe distance from the enemies and deal damage to them using long-range skills. Since you’re using Arc Lash, you have no choice but to stick close to them.

It might seem counterintuitive as the Sorcerer is known as a squishy class but the trade-off for being aggressive is well worth it. Arc Lash, Frost Nova, and Unstable Currents will help you deal constantly high damage to your enemies. 

When you’re getting low on health, you can always use either Teleport or Ice Armor for that extra jolt of survivability. Of course, you’ll need to know how to manage your Potions properly as well. Hordes in the endgame can drain your life pretty quickly so make sure that you’re always ready to get in and out when needed.

Mana management can be a bit tough with this build but luckily, Arc Lash can deal enough damage to keep you safe while you’re waiting for your mana to fill up. Don’t worry too much about cooldowns because you have a lot of opportunities to reset yours thanks to your passives.

Aspects

For this build, look for the following Aspects:

• ‍Rapid Aspect in Buried Halls (Dry Steppes)

• ‍Might Aspect  in Dark Ravine (Dry Steppes)

• ‍Control Aspect in Sunken Library (Kehjistan)

• ‍Retribution Aspect in Abandoned Mineworks (Kehjistan)

• ‍Disobedience Aspect in Halls of the Damned (Kehjistan)

• ‍Ghostwalker Aspect in Broken Bulwark (Scosglen)

Aside from these, make sure that your gear is primarily focused on giving you attack speed and Critical Strike bonuses. This will help you get the most out of your damaged output. If you’re struggling with this build, look for gear that can help increase your damage reduction and practice with that first.

Once you’ve mastered the strategy for this build, go for gear that increases damage output next. If you want to do even more damage, focus farm Raiment of the Infinite. This helps you pull in enemies after you Teleport. That will be a prime opportunity to reset your cooldown and mana by dealing damage to enemies in a cluster. 

Whip Sanctuary Into Shape

This build is a high-risk, high-reward build that can help you deal a staggering amount of damage to groups of enemies, bosses, and to Elites. If you’ve been used to a safe playstyle for Sorcerers, this build might take some getting used to. Once you get the gameplay of this build perfected, you’ll be plowing through the endgame in no time.