Diablo 4 Season 11 Mage Builds Should Avoid Skills Like the Plague

Drew Swanson is a features editor for the U.S. Pacific Northwest. He is a lifelong gamer with a passion for a variety of genres. A connoisseur of everything from JRPGs and Soulslikes to niche indie titles and horror games, he finds enjoyment in popular games like Persona 5 Royal, Pokemon, Elden Ring, and more. In addition to professional writing, Drew is also an avid artist and creates fan art about his favorite games on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

That doesn't happen often. Diablo 4 Most players don't want to use certain skills because they have their place in a particular build. however Diablo 4 The best Sorcerer build in Season 11 is probably better spent on skill points elsewhere as you head towards level 60. These skills aren't necessarily bad, but they really aren't. Sorcerers will have access to a much more powerful setup in Season 11 without this skill.

The overall power level of the build is Diablo 4 Season 11 will likely be lower without Chaos Armor and Chaos Perks, and several builds can still thrive thanks to this season's fantastic new uniques. Spiritborn and Rogue are positioned to be the best classes. Diablo 4 It may be Season 11, but players shouldn't sleep on the Sorcerer either. The new Orsivane Unique Mace seems like a must-have weapon for many sorcerer builds, but players will need to avoid defensive skills to get the most out of this unique feature.

Diablo 4 Season 11 Wizards Must Keep Defense Skills in Action Bar

flame shield
frost nova
ice armor
teleport

There are four defensive skills in the Sorcerer's skill tree. Diablo 4Most builds tend to have at least one in their combat rotation. Because wizards tend to be one of the following: Diablo 4As a weaker class, defensive skills are an important part of the build's survivability. With Orsibane, Diablo 4 Sorcerers can still benefit from the enchantments of these defensive skills, but can reap much greater rewards by removing them from their action bar.

The Wizard's new Orsivane unique mace automatically grants the Defensive skill enchantment.

Orsivane Unique Mace
- +133 Intelligence
- +457 maximum lifespan
- +75.0% Non-Physical Damage
- Core skills +4
- Unique Affix: Deals 20-40% damage for each defensive skill not in your action bar.[x] Increases damage and gains associated enchantments.

It has a total of 4 defense skills, Diablo 4 Sorcerers without an action bar can use Orsibane's unique affix to gain a total damage increase of 160%. Additionally, you will still have access to the enchantment effects of all four of these defensive skills unless they appear in your action bar. These enchantment techniques include:

defense skills	Enchantment Effect
flame shield	Fire Shield automatically activates when you take lethal damage. It can only happen once every 120 seconds.
frost nova	Lucky Hit: Summoning skills have a 30% chance to release a Frost Nova when attacking an enemy.
ice armor	When hit, there is a 5% chance that ice armor will be applied.
teleport	Dodge is replaced by short-range teleport with a cooldown of 17.0 (14.0 at rank 5) seconds.

This mage build can get the most out of Orsivane in Diablo 4 Season 11.

ball lightning wizard
Crackling Energy Wizard
Ice Shard Wizard

Because Orsivane is a one-handed mace, a build that uses a one-handed weapon in the Sorcerer's main hand and Focus in the off-hand will be most successful. Ball Lightning Sorcerers will get the most out of Orsivane. That's because they can use Unique Focus Okun's catalyst together for an AoE Ball Lightning that surrounds the Sorcerer and damages nearby enemies. Crackling Energy and Ice Shards Sorcerers don't have as strong synergy with Orsivane, but they can still be used effectively.

Typically, these builds require multiple defensive skills in your action bar to be effective. However, removing the action bar in Season 11 increases the build's overall damage and instead opens the door to using more offensive skills, giving the class more damage bonuses from the Sorcerer's elemental synergy passive. Additionally, free use of the enchantment effects of these skills can compensate for the inability to use the base effects in the action bar.