Today we will be discussing Flamethrower Sorcerer I built for Diablo 4 Season 2 endgame.
Ever since Diablo 4 launched, I’ve been wanting to make a viable Incinerate Build that would allow players to farm Diablo 4 Gold and channel flames as they please. It wasn’t until some updates in Diablo 4 Season 2 that Flamethrower builds were possible.
What’s Changed?
First, the damage of Incinerate has been greatly increased, and the channeling cost has been greatly reduced. Two new Diablo 4 unique items, Flamescar and X’Fal’s Corroded Signet, allow us to scale this damage in the form of Flamescar.
This gives us direct damage while channel Incinerate and X’Fal’s Corroded Signet give us burst damage to amplify our already strong DPS.
In addition, we can also improve our damage output and damage reduction when channeling by investing more Diablo 4 Gold and Duriel Admission to optimize Vampiric Power Bathe in Blood.
How Does It Work?
Let’s walk through all the major moving parts so you can understand how Flamethrower Sorcerer builds works.
Your major goal is to channel Incinerate for as long as possible. Because this build has multiple aspects, its effectiveness will increase the longer you channel it. Incinerate damage increases the longer you channel it, up to 2 seconds. If your aspects effect has reached the maximum limit, Aspect of Inner Calm will increase the damage bonus for 3 seconds.
But you can only benefit from Flamescar if you channel Incinerate. We also need to have high uptime to trigger our Lucky Hit effects.
Our Firewall Enchantment gives us the opportunity to spawn 2 Firewalls in an X shape. This will apply more burn to any target in the area, and Sorcerer’s Firewall modifier will give us more mana regeneration.
How To Increase Burning Damage?
We have multiple forms of burning damage in this build.
- Incinerate: Burn damage as damage over time
- Inferno: As the ultimate skill, “Burning Over Time” is applied
- Firewall: Applies burning damage
- Flame Shield: Burns while active
- Fire Bolt: Applies burning damage and provides a scaling bonus to all burning damage
We can measure all this burning damage by adding Fire Damage Over Time and Damage Over Time stats to our gear and gems. Combustion Key Passive scales our burning damage. Aspect of Conflagration scales all burning damage when we channel Incinerate.
Obstacle
Now, in order to channel Incinerate infinitely, there are two major obstacles that need to be overcome.
Mana Cost
The first is mana cost. We have a lot of ways to fix this. Keep in mind that as gear improves, so will the mana issue. Therefore, spending Diablo 4 Gold to optimize our gear stats may be the quickest way we can solve the mana cost problem.
Since we’ve added more Lucky Hit Chance, we can add Lucky Hit Chance to restore the primary resource to Gloves, and optionally add to our Offhand.
You can also run Incendiary Aspect in the ring slot for a ton of extra mana before picking up X’Fal’s Corroded Signet.
Flamescar is our best weapon and also has mana cost reduction. We’ll also run this on our amulet.
Next, there’s the mana regeneration we get from the spawned Firewall and our ultimate Inferno, which reduces the mana cost to zero for its duration.
Finally, we get a massive amount of mana regeneration thanks to the latest unique leg item: Tibault’s Will. Whenever we get unstoppable, it gives us a damage bonus and 50 mana. By staggering Inferno, Ice Armor, and Flame Shield, we can sustain our mana indefinitely.
Survivability
The second obstacle is our survivability, as standing still in any ARPG is a risky proposition. Therefore, we need a lot of baseline defenses to survive.
We achieve this through Total Armor on Helm, Chest, and Amulet. We get damage reduction and close range damage reduction, as well as damage reduction from chest and offhand burning targets.
We also get a massive damage reduction when standing inside Bathe in Blood Vampiric circle, which should always be your goal.
Finally, we practice changing our defensive shields to keep ourselves alive. Remember, both Ice Armor and Flame it can activate Shield without interrupting our Incinerate channel.
Use Ice Armor as a barrier to be unstoppable and enhance your armor with Snowveiled Aspect. Use Flame Shield to deal massive damage and defend against dangerous attacks.
Aspect of the Unwavering lets us reset defensive skills periodically, and Accursed Touch releases stored damage every time we use a defensive skill. When the build is complete and optimized, you can maintain your mana and survivability indefinitely.
Alternatives
However, if you run into problems, here are some alternatives to consider. We use Accursed Touch and Prey on the Weak to get Vampiric Power so we can freely apply Vulnerable and propagate Vampiric Curse via channel Incinerate.
But you can also use Frost Nova to propagate Vulnerable. This opens up more Vampiric Powers to come into play to increase survivability, such as Rampart, Hemomancy, and Resilience.
It’s important to note that both burning damage and incinerate damage are treated as damage over time and will reduce this stat proportionally.
Conclusion
Overall, this Flamethrower Sorcerer Build is an interesting building. While it won’t surpass Lightning Ball, Incinerate is finally viable for all Pyromaniacs and will clear out all current content with ease. It’s capable of dealing massive AOE damage while covering the entire screen on fire.
It’s powerful early on, but doesn’t scale much later in the game. However, it can definitely beat all endgame content, whether its World Bosses or Nightmare Dungeons. It just takes some time.