Path Of Exile 2: Best Endgame Sorceress Build Guide
Sorceress, along with Witch, is one of two entirely magic-focused classes in Path of Exile 2.It's distinct from Witch in that, where Witch focuses on necromancy and summoning minions, Sorceress is all about elemental damage, with access to a varied arsenal of powerful spells. The tradeoff is their generally low defense and HP, which means positioning, dodging, and healing are important elements to playing a successful sorceress.
But things get a little more difficult around Path of Exile 2's endgame. You'll face tougher enemies than ever before, on maps with more complicated mechanics and more brutal defeat conditions. You'll need a top-of-the-line Sorceress build to keep pace with all these endgame challenges, and knowing which skills, passives, and gear to take along with you is half the battle. If you're struggling with your endgame Sorceress build, here's a little advice to guide you in making the right choices.
Best Equipment For An Endgame Sorceress Build In PoE 2
Best Weapons & Armor For An Endgame Sorceress
Whenever you're shopping for Sorceress gear, you naturally want to look for pieces that boost your character's natural strengths. Anything with bonuses to mana, spell damage, spell critical hit chance, cast speed, and/or Intelligence is a must. Sorceresses can wield staves and wands, along with foci for energy shield defense. If you can find one, the Enezun's Charge Volatile Wand is an excellent wand that can carry you through the endgame. It'll increase your spell damage, with extra crit chance for spells, and let you absorb a little bit of mana each time you kill an enemy.
Follow the same general rules for picking armor, looking for things that boost your most relevant stats. Pair that with any high-energy shield focus, like the Expert Plumed Focus, and you'll be all set for endgame Sorceress gear.
Best Skill Gems For An Endgame Sorceress Build In PoE 2
Flameblast
We'll get into all the cool synergies later - to start with, how about an ultra-powerful fire magic bomb? Once you've hit level 52, 119 Intelligence, and can spare a level 13 Uncut Skill Gem, take Flameblast for one of the most powerful offensive spells you'll be able to learn. Flameblast is a channeled spell that creates a ring of destructive energy around your character or a Solar Orb. The longer you keep channeling it, the bigger the eventual explosion will be, and the more damage it'll do. Make sure to watch your positioning here so you don't get interrupted.
Eye of Winter is an excellent Cold damage equivalent to Flameblast, while Lightning Conduit works for Lightning damage.
Temporal Chains
If you're planning on using lots of status effects as a Sorceress (and you probably should), you can use Temporal Chains to boost their efficacy. This skill requires a level 13 Gem, a level 52 character, and 119 intelligence. It creates an AoE that curses all the enemies caught within it, and causes any status effects on them to deplete more slowly. With its ability to slow enemies, too, Temporal Chains can also be a pretty valuable defensive tool.
Firestorm
For a little more crowd control, you should take on Firestorm after level 41. You'll need 95 Int and a level 11 Gem to learn it. This is an AoE skill that causes fire to fall from the sky, eventually Igniting enemies caught within it. If an enemy dies inside the Firestorm, the skill instantly becomes more powerful.
Best Passive Skills For An Endgame Sorceress Build In PoE 2
Path Of Flame/Path Of Winter/Path Of Storms
Every class in PoE 2 shares a passive skill tree, which they're permitted to progress along each time they level up. As a Sorceress, you'll want to stick to skills found on the top half of the skill tree, as that's where most of the ones revolving around Intelligence (and by extension, spellcasting) are located. In general, look for skills that boost your elemental damage, status effect infliction, mana, and Intelligence. For a specific target, start with either Path of Flame, Path of Storms, or Path of Winter. These skills boost your elemental damage and related status effect buildup, and are clustered with a ton of similar effects.
Cremation/Glaciation/Electrical Amplification
Eventually, you'll want to choose which type of elemental damage you want to specialize in. If you choose Fire, head for Cremation, at the very top of the skill tree. This grants you the ability to penetrate 18% of the enemy's Fire Resistance, which means you won't get stuck on enemies who are resistant to your primary element. Glaciation is the Cold damage version, and Electrical Amplification is the Lightning damage version.
Inescapable Cold
If you're sticking with a Cold damage build, make sure you take Inescapable Cold, too. It gives you an extra 40% Freeze buildup and 20% Freeze duration, plain and simple.
Best Spirit Gem For An Endgame Sorceress Build In PoE 2
Raging Spirits
As you gather Uncut Spirit Gems in PoE 2, you'll cut them into various support skills and slot them into your active skills in order to make them more powerful. If you're doing a Fire damage build, Raging Spirits should be a top priority. This gem allows you to summon tiny fire minions every time you cast a fire spell, which will then spread out and attack other enemies. This is a must-have for fire builds, which generally suffer from a lack of crowd control options.
Mana Remnants
Mana Remnants will sometimes spawn zombies when you kill Shocked enemies. It's a tier 4 Gem that requires 25 Int, and should be considered a must for Lightning Sorceress builds as it can help offset their poor defense.
Ascendancies For An Endgame Sorceress Build In PoE 2
Chronomancer
After completing the Trial of the Sekhemas, you'll unlock an Ascendancy (subclass) for your Sorceress character. The first option here is Chronomancer, a time magic ascendancy. This has some cool options: Ultimate Command allows you to freeze time for a moment, Footprints in the Sand lets you rewind after a big attack, and Unbound Encore lets you reset all your skill cooldowns.
But while Chronomancer can be a lot of fun to play, its endgame utility is greatly overshadowed by the other Sorceress Ascendancy, Stormweaver. Chronomancer mainly gives you opportunities to reverse your mistakes, which can come in handy, but ultimately limits its versatility.
Stormweaver
The other Sorceress subclass, and the better choice for your endgame build, is Stormweaver. This Ascendancy is entirely focused on elemental damage - in other words, buffing the skills you've been learning and using throughout the entire game. You'll want Tempest Caller for a chance to activate an Elemental Storm when you crit with a spell. You should also take Constant Gale to gain an Arcane Surge that triggers faster mana restoration when you cast several spells in succession. Heart of the Storm protects you from elemental damage, restoring 40% of it as energy shield charge.
As a result, you should always focus on elemental damage and the Stormweaver Ascendancy when making a Sorceress. Feel free to diverge from this build and try experimenting; use whatever makes the most sense for you in Path of Exile 2.
Path of Exile II
- Released
- 2024-12
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Nudity, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Grinding Gear Games
- Publisher(s)
- Grinding Gear Games
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Franchise
- Path of Exile
- Early Access Release
- December 6, 2024
The expansion follow-up/sequel to the original action RPG, Path of Exile 2 starts a brand new campaign storyline where players will choose from several different classes as they battle against the corruption that envelops Wraeclast.
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
