The sorceress can be played as single, dual or tri-elementalist. With the synergies in 1.10, the single elementalist deals a lot of damage, but due to monster elemental immunities, she cannot play solo but has to party. The Meteorb and the Blizzard build are both very common, suitable for Magic Find (MF) and easy for the beginner to play. Please follow the links to the threads where the different builds are described in detail.
The Meteorb Sorc (1.10)
The Meteorb Sorc is one of the most powerful sorc builds, and she is the perfect beginner's build since she can solo the game at Hell difficulty. She is also the perfect MF character.
How to build a Meteorb Sorc The Fireball Sorc (1.10)
The Fireball Sorc is a build suitable for both PvM and PvP. For PvM, just use a combination of Meteor and Fireball. She is an extremly powerful and fast killer, but in PvM she must, like all single elementalists, play in a party or have a very good Merc to help out with fire immune monsters.
How to build a Fireball Sorc The Frozen Orb/Chain Lightning (FO/CL) Sorc (1.10)
The FO/CL Sorc is a strong build that suits players who like fast and frenzied playing style. She is as strong as the Meterorb build, but is more item dependent to be an equally quick killer. Like the Meteorb, she can solo the game and she is an excellent MF-character.
How to build a Frozen Orb/Chain Lightning Sorc Pure Blizzard sorceress in 1.10 by Dottie
A pure blizzard sorceress was one of the first builds I played in Diablo II. It is easy to play and quite powerful. You should be aware that since you only have one type of attack you will not make it through hell alone. You have to play with a friend who can deal with cold immune monsters.
Stat points
A blizzard sorc has a lot of stat points, so if you accidentaly place a few points to many in any stat don't worry, you will do nicely anyway.
Strength: Enough to wear you equipment, nothing more. If you don't know what equipment you will wear, and are perfectionist, it is easy to find rings and other items with strength to manage untill you have decided.
Dexterity: The best option here is to have enough dexterity for maximum block* with a good shield. You can also ignore dexterity and place the spared points in vitality, but that would be harder to play.
Vitality: All spare points. More life is always good.
Energy: Place as few points here as possible. Leave it at base if you like, but without good equipment that might be too painfull.
*Blocking: Every time you are hit by a melee or ranged attack you have a chance to block the attack with your shield. The chance depends on the type of shield, your level and your dexterity. The chance to block an attack can not be greater than 75% and is calculated by the following formula:
Blocking = Shields Block value * (Dexterity - 15) / (Character Level * 2)
This means that the higher your level the more you need in dexterity to maintain the same blocking %. Dont aim for 75% block with a lousy shield. Chances are you will find a better one sooner or later, and then you have wasted a lot of stat points. To be sure not to waste any points aim for a block value that is the same as your current shields block value. That way you are sure not to have wasted any stat points when you finally find a good shield. The finaly aim is to get 75% block though.
Skill points
20 in Blizzard.
17 in Cold mastery
including the bonuses from your equipment.
1 in Static field.
1 in Warmth.
1 in Teleport.
2 in the prerequisites Telekinesis and Frost nova.
All the rest in the three skills Ice Bolt, Ice Blast and Glacial Spike.
The order in wich you place your skill points doesn't matter much, but obviously you should max Blizzard first. Place one point in cold mastery early as that is the only synergy-skill that benefits from your +skill equipment. You can place more than 17 points in cold mastery if you want to, but there is a reason why you should not. Cold mastery gives a penalty to a monsters cold resistance, but the resistance may never be lower than -100%. 17 in Cold mastery gives a -100 modification to cold resists, so if you have more than 17 it will only help against monsters who have a cold resist greater than 0. Quite a lot of monsters in hell difficulty have high cold resist though, so dont cry if you have placed more points there.
Equipment
Finding equipment for a blizzard sorceress is rather easy. You only have to look for three things: + to skills, high resistances(75%) and some extra mana. If your equipment gives those three things you dont have to worry about much else. Faster cast rate is also convinent for teleporting around but your attack doesnt benefit much from it. If you want to use your sorc to look for good items you should have a lot of magic find.
Suggestions for the average player: Weapon: A rare sorceress Orb with +skills and some resists.
Shield: Visceratuant, A socketed shield with 3 perfect diamonds, Moser's Blessed Circle.
Armour: Skin of the vipermagi, Smoke.
Helm: Runeword Lore, Rare or magical circlet with + cold skills.
Belt: Look for resists and mana.
Boots: Look for faster run/walk and resists.
Gloves: Frostburn or anything that gives resists.
Amulet: Rare or magical amulet with + cold skills.
Rings: Look for +mana and resist.
Mercenary
A melee mercenary is more or less nessecary. You should put some effort into finding good equipment for him, he is important for your survival. Make sure your mercenary's level is close to your own, if he lags behind use static field to hurt monsters so that he can kill them. The best mercenary is either a defensive merc from act II normal(defiance aura), or an defensive merc from act II nightmare(Holy freeze aura).
Gameplay
Blizzard is an easy skill to use so there is not much to say here. Don't be afriad to use teleport to take you to safety if monsters come to close. If you meet cold immunes in Nighmare difficulty use static field and let you merc kill them. Just make sure to feed him with healing potions as soon as he needs them. When you encounter stygian dolls in nighmare and hell difficulty do not imidiatly cast blizzard. Instead you should teleport away a quite small distance. Your merc will be teleported with you and he will start to move towards the dolls. You take a step back, and the dolls will target him instead of you. This is very good as the explosion when they die does not hurt him. In this situation use blizzard. If you find it tricky to get to the point where you actually get blizzard you can place a few more points in Ice Blast. If duriel is a problem in normal difficulty you can go to the magic shop and by a staff with the Blaze skill. Cast blaze and run away from him in a straight line, so that he follows you in the fire. To kill him this way takes some time though.