So Im trying to decide which class and spec to play next, can anyone thats played an ice shard sorc 60+ tell me how satisfying they are to play endgame, mostly in NM dungeons?
Are they powerful?
Is the use of skills satisfying?
Etc etc
I know its going to be somewhat subjective but id like to hear peoples thoughts.
Thanks 
My ice shard build was lvl 55 and still going strong. I’m going to take a long break though because I’m just not having that much fun. It’s not the class, just the game in general.
But I’ve heard all sorcs fall of in the late endgame, like lvl 90+. Right now druids, barbs and rogues are dominating the late endgame.
Its pretty powerful so far in Nightmare. Not sure about the perfect glyphs right now, but im breezing through nm.
Im a level 100 frost sorc and i honestly can say that if nothing is done soon it’s going to be a dead class tbh, i’ve had a blast lvling it up, but atm im on a endgame lvl 100 nightmare clearing build with all the necessary items and runes, i got 4/6 runes to 21 and the other 2 are 15 currently and im at a loss, i’ve mained sorc from d2 through d3 and now into d4 and im just sad lol.
I can easily clear a lvl 70 dungeon but as soon as i get farted on by a fallen im dead, even through my ice shield, the survivability is at a all time low for sorcs.
I’ve tried all the builds there are currently (well most of them atleast) but if i want to clear a lvl 90 ice shards is the build, but you will have to have the mob pack at the end of your screen and kite them like god himself was playing lol, it’s a non stop rolercoaster of bad experiences.
And as i mentioned before i’ve mained sorc from d2 up untill now and i never felt like switching and maining another class untill now.
So to awnser your questinos yes they are powerfull but at the same time very weak, spells looks really good tho but yeah, you are a paper bag in a chicken race against a tank basicly.
Its… well…
Blizzard is patiance… can take several minutes for enemy, a dungeon takes an hour.
Ice Shard… lets say you see skeleton captain - the one with shield. So you cast 6 ice shards at him to kill, 5 if you get alot of crits. Or you are lucky and your Snap Freeze - 9% to freeze enemies with cold spells - activates, than you kill it with a single cast.
You see 3 elites, next to them is damage resistance trash. You teleport in with your unique cest, pull them in, stun them, you pop frost nova and… you may not even get to cast ice shards before they dead.
And generally its like this. You Freeze enemies - instant map clear, you dont get freeze, your running in circles for a minute for mana to regenerate.
And worst of all, you are instantly killed by anything. You dont use Frost Shield for survivability, you use it to activate +10% damage from Tactician glyph.
Bears, Treeman, Skeletal Balista, Ravenant, charging bloated corpse, Goatman Mauler, Those Snake things - those are enemies that will instantly kill you, regardless of how much barrier you have.
I wouldnt call it fun, id call it… viable sorceress build for end game.
it’s interesting to see how Frost sorc complains. Considering your dps and survival and working aspects, unlike other specializations, with a broken paragon, aspects and rare nodes. And that for a whole month the developers did not deign to fix absolutely nothing
My biggest issue with Frost is that i cant play Chain Lightning above tier 3 while Incinirate becaomse extremely weak back in Tier 2.
As for Frost, damage is there, but dying to a fart is another thing.
Why would i not complain? The fucking main stat does not work lol, 35% resistence to all and it does like 0.001% damage reduction, how is that not worthy of complaining abought?
And what do you mean with other specializations?
Does not matter if you are lightning or frost or fire, intellect is still your main stat and that shit is busted deluxe.
Yes, I’ve already lost full interest, I’m sitting playing dota
At lvl 92 here.
The sorceress is very squishy in the endgame, as all seem to agree on.
That said, the endgame is far less developed than it was in the later incarnations of D3. Not much to do, if you want some other goals than relaxing monster slaying.
I guess you can explore the sweet spot between a build with defense priority and one with high damage? Unfortunate, the main defense stat (resist) is defunct at the moment.
Cumbersome. Ice, LVL88, focus on Frost Nova and Ice Shards, paird with Hydra and Inferno. 150 Mana. 30 % Cooldown Reduction. Allways lacking Mana. Not supported by any useful Unique - except the Freeze-Tu-Tu that does never drop, while I have like 4 Penitents and 3 of the Lam Staff nobody needs. Ergo: If you got good nerves, Sorc can be fun. But for endgame, except you being a genious or NOT blindly copy builds from the internet, it’s pure frustration. And - the male Sorc looks ugly too at endgame.
You should try the blizzard build instead if you die constantly. much more cc with chilled/frozen effects plus with your frost nova ontop of that.
Sure ice shard build is way more bursty and feels better but blizzard build is more effective in my opinion.
if you want to close high keys, play as other characters
there are critical hits for 18-21 million damage
Well it is not easy mode like some other classes make it appear, but if you like a challenge, this is it.
Yes there are bad things, like opening a door and getting one-shotted by a skeleton or other archer type… and yes we are glass canons, but once it starts rolling with the freeze it is satisfying to see the screen explode while you just stand there.
Sure you need to be very careful, sometimes wait for cooldowns and try to attack enemies right on the edge of the screen and usually kite like hell to get cooldowns back and survive round 2, 3, 4 or 5.
Early on you need to solve your mana problems with mana cost reduction etc…
Cooldown reduction so your defensives are back up is key as well.
I invested heavily in lucky hit and it works for me (87% bonus with shield) so a lot of fun things proc. It helps your mana and on bosses and harder content I use Fists of Fate and Temerity for more fun.
And no I can’t do bosses once I start pushing too hard so need to check the dungeon to see if I can actually do it.
It takes a lot of items and the right gear and specing in defensives is key. End 80s I was a little stuck, getting one-shotted a lot, until I got the IceFall legendary and then things got rolling again. I also upgraded my boots and amulet to boost defensives.
So to summarize, I like it, it works but it takes a lot of work and I understand people are envious of the other classes and yes there are things we can’t do.
Also the one-shot from across the screen is super annoying and high level Butcher is a dead sentence for me.