Sorceress Arc Leveling Build

Build Introduction

With the sweeping balance changes to every system coming in Patch 0.2, it is nearly impossible for us to have confidence in existing, well tested guides. While we will do our best to get these updated as soon as possible, their current state may leave them unusable. Make sure to regularly check back to see if any changes have been made.

Get ready to electrify Wraeclast with the Sorceress Arc Leveler, a build that powers you from Act I to maps with relentless energy! Built around the Arc skill, it chains lightning across enemy packs for devastating clear speed, while Detonate Dead triggers explosive corpse detonations to finish the job. It’s ascendancy-flexible, letting you hold off on choosing between the Stormweaver’s raw power or the Chronomancer’s time-twisting tricks until you’re ready. With mana that flows like a river, controller-friendly, and a knack for wiping out mobs, this build is your fast track to domination. See more information about it in the video below!

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Video Guide

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Ascendency

At the end of Act II, you can select your first Ascendancy. We generally recommend you ascend around level 20 or 30. However, this build went through the campaign and into mid-tier maps with no ascendancy so that it can be used for either the Stormweaver or the Chronomancer. Electing to take either ascendancy will enhance the leveling process. If you struggle to ascend on either your first or second ascendancy, complete more of the campaign and return to it once you have leveled some or acquired better gear. At this point in the Early Access, this choice is permanent and should be made with your endgame build in mind! However, it is worth noting that you can choose to respec the nodes within that specific ascendency if you want to alter it later. If you need information about ascending, you can see PatrickHatTrick’s helpful guide here.

Stormweaver

The Stormweaver is an incredibly powerful spellcaster. With versatility between Lightning and Cold damage and the effects thereof, she can shatter or disintegrate her enemies with both. This build was tested without an active ascendency; therefore, it can be used for any Sorceress ascendency. This allows you to choose later if you wish, or if you have made up your mind, the leveling process becomes more fluid, as both ascendancies can take advantage of the Arc Leveler. If choosing the Stormweaver, the following nodes are recommended in the order presented.

1. Constant Gale — Taking this skill causes you to gain Arcane Surge passively. This subskill grants you 10% more cast speed and 20% more mana regeneration.
2. Force of Will — This skill amplifies Constant Gale by buffing the effects of Arcane Surge by 1% per 15 of your Maximum Mana (not total mana from Mana Remnant).

In the tool, the yellow nodes located at the top represent your ascendancy selections. Mouse over the white dots at the top to see their allotted order. All additional points beyond these are allocated to Weapon Swap 1 and 2. Please be aware that the assignment follows a specific sequence: the 19 nodes for Weapon Swap 2 are prioritized and assigned first, followed by the 19 nodes for Weapon Swap 1, proceeding in a left-to-right order. Note: Electric Amplification should be the final Weapon Swap 1 node taken; it is not highlighted in the tree; this is an error.

Chronomancer

The Chronomancer bends time to her will, altering time and space to decimate her foes or reset to a previous time to revert her life, mana, and energy shield from the past. It makes her almost unkillable with the proper timing of cooldowns. This build was tested without an active ascendency; therefore, it can be used for any Sorceress ascendancy. This allows you to choose later if you wish, or if you have made up your mind, the leveling process becomes more fluid, as both ascendancies can take advantage of the Arc Leveler. If choosing the Chronomancer, the following nodes are recommended in the order presented.

1. Quicksand Hourglass—With this passive subskill, you will gain 50% more cast speed for 4 seconds, allowing you to blast down your foes quickly in this time frame.
2. Footprints in the Sand—This incredibly powerful active and passive subskill (Temporal Rift)will allow you to revert to your previous health, mana, and energy shield from 4 seconds before. This has an active component, as several images will be left in your wake, with only the oldest being used. Be wary, as all too often, new players to Chronomancer will sometimes revert themselves to less health, mana, and energy shield.

In the tool, the yellow nodes located at the top represent your ascendancy selections. Mouse over the white dots at the top to see their allotted order. All additional points beyond these are allocated to Weapon Swap 1 and 2. Please be aware that the assignment follows a specific sequence: the 19 nodes for Weapon Swap 2 are prioritized and assigned first, followed by the 19 nodes for Weapon Swap 1, proceeding in a left-to-right order. Note: Electric Amplification should be the final Weapon Swap 1 node taken; it is not highlighted in the tree; this is an error.

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General Advice for Leveling

Path of Exile II’s campaign is not for the faint of heart. Remembering interactions with monsters and their skills will take you a long way, and persistence is one of the most valuable traits you can have in this game. Check vendors when you level, as they will restock when you do, to possibly find upgrades to your gear. If you elect to trade, hold onto some Exalted and Divine Orbs, as they are the trade currency standard. If you are new to crafting, visit the Crafting and Currency Overview here.

Looting and selling items is a great way to farm gold. Try always to have a full stash when returning to town. Even if it’s a gear you won’t use, try identifying rare items (yellow) and look at the stats. You may run into something valuable on the trade market, or if not, sell it in town. The more affixes on an item, the more gold it will be worth. Regarding trading, playing and seeing the market is the only way to learn what is valuable. You’ll be flipping Divines in no time!

Do not skip the side quests on your map! They do drop loot or skill/support gems, which you will need to progress through the campaign.

Do not be afraid to be over-leveled for an area, but be aware that if you are too high or too low, an XP penalty will be assessed until you move onto an area level, also referred to as the Monster Level, typically within +/- 4 levels of your current character’s level. The area level can be seen in the campaign, on your area map, or on the objectives map (“U” Key). It can also be seen in the top right of your HUD throughout the game’s entirety. If you do not see it on the top right, open your on-screen minimap using “Tab” on your PC or the default button on your console.

This game can and will be punishing at times. The area will reset upon death, and new (non-unique) monsters will respawn. See this as an opportunity to collect more XP and a lesson learned.

NOTE: If you are not Solo Self-Found (SSF), you can elect to trade for an upgrade in your gear. Please remember to look for something with your proper level requirements. Far too many players spend their hard-earned Exalted Orbs in trade for something they cannot even equip yet!

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Gear Progression and Stat Priority

Your priorities for weapons and armour gear when upgrading should be as follows.

Damage scaling is directly tied to the level of our Skill Gems; adding levels to them should be our top priority. Listed is a target order to aim for, with 1 being the top priority. This gear assumes you are/will use the Ghostwrithe.

NOTE: Gloves have a Body Rune; everything else should have Iron Runes. However, other runes can be used to help fix resistances. Runes are replaceable and can be changed later.

• Wand: Here is a standard wand that can help us through. This is still a good time to look for your endgame variant wand.
  • Prefix:
    1. +# to Maximum Mana.
    2. #% Increased Spell Damage.
    3. Gain #% of Damage as Extra Lightning Damage.
    
    Suffix:
    1. +# to Level of all Lightning Spell Skills.
    2. #% increased Cast Speed.
    3. +# Intelligence.

• Chiming Staff (Weapon Slot 2): Ideally, we would like a chiming staff to take advantage of Sigil of Power, but any staff will do to empower our curses.
  • Prefix:
    1. +# to Maximum Mana.
    
    Suffix:
    1. +# to Level of all Lightning Skills (Empowers curses).
    2. #% increased Cast Speed.
    3. #% increased Mana Regeneration Rate.

• Off-Hand/Focus: Finding Experts or Advanced focuses is nice, but the base focus will work fine if you have at least one or two of both suffixes and prefixes.
  • Prefix:
    1. +# to Maximum Mana.
    2. #% Increased Spell Damage.
    3. Gain #% of Damage as Extra Lightning Damage.
    
    Suffix:
    1. +# to Level of all Spell Skills.
    2. #% increased Cast Speed.
    3. +# Intelligence.

• Helm: Opt for an Energy Shield Base; every bit matters.
  • 1. +# to Maximum Maximum Life.
    2. #% increased Energy Shield/+# to Maximum Life.
    3. +# to Maximum Energy Shield.
    
    Suffix:
    1. Needed Resistance or +# Intelligence.
    2. Needed Resistance or #% Increased Rarity.
    3. Needed Resistance.

• Body Armour: The unique Ghostwrithe is an incredibly powerful and standard piece of leveling gear for casters. Until you find or buy one, opt for the following Energy Shield base body armour.
  • Prefix:
    1. +# to Maximum Energy Shield
    2. +# to Maximum Energy Shield / #% increased Energy Shield
    3. #% increased Energy Shield
    
    Suffix:
    1. Needed Resistance
    2. Needed Resistance
    3. Needed Resistance

• Rings: Peal Rings or Lazuli Rings are the best choice but opt for the corresponding base ring if you need the resistances.
  • 1. #% increased Lightning Damage.
    2. +# Maximum Mana.
    3. +# Maximum Life.
    
    Suffix:
    1. % increased Cast Speed.
    2. #% increased Mana Regeneration Rate.
    3. Needed Resistance.

• Amulet: We will need a Solar Amulet with high rolls into Spirit. Late in the campaign or Maps, you may elect to anoint your amulet; the recommended and cheap anointment would be Dispatch Foes (Envy, Envy, Paranoia). This gives us a massive boost to our critical strike chance between packs.
  • 1. +# to Spirit.
    2. +# Maximum Life.
    3. +# Maximum Mana.
    
    Suffix:
    1. +# to Level of all Spell Skills.
    2. #% increased Mana Regeneration Rate.
    3. Needed Resistance.

• Boots: Opt for an Energy Shield base. Movement Speed is king; it should be seen as a survivability stat. If you find a good pair, regardless of base type, you should use it until you find something with better stats and equivalent or better movement speed.
  • Prefix:
    1. #% increased Movement Speed.
    2. +# Maximum Life.
    3. +# to Maximum Energy Shield.
    
    Suffix:
    1. Needed Resistance or +# Intelligence.
    2. Needed Resistance or #% Increased Rarity.
    3. Needed Resistance.

• Gloves: Opt for an Energy Shield base.
  • Prefix:
    1. +# to Maximum Maximum Life.
    2. #% increased Energy Shield/+# to Maximum Life.
    3. +# to Maximum Energy Shield.
    
    Suffix:
    1. Needed Resistance or +# Intelligence.
    2. Needed Resistance or #% Increased Rarity.
    3. Needed Resistance.

• Belt: A Utility Belt is best for us, but any belt will do if it has these basic stats.
  • Prefix:
    1. +# Maximum Life.
    2. +# Maximum Mana.
    3. +% increased Flask Life Recovery Rate.
    
    Suffix:
    1. +# Charm Slots
    2. Needed Resistance
    3. Needed Resistance

• Jewels: Looking for Sapphires- You will eventually have 4 or 5 Jewel sockets on your passive tree. You should get your first around Act 3, so there’s no rush to find or buy them. These mods on a single Jewel are likely more expensive, but they should be extremely cheap individually. Again, the order listed is the order of importance.
  • Defensive Sapphire
    • Prefix:
      1. #% increased Maximum Energy Shield.
      2. #% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge.
      
      Suffix:
      1. #% increased Mana Regeneration Rate.
      2. #% increased Critical Spell Damage Bonus.
  • Offensive Sapphire
    • Prefix:
      1. #% increased Magnitude of Shock you inflict.
      2. #% increased Spell Damage.
      
      Suffix:
      1. #% increased critical Spell Damage Bonus.
      2. #% increased Critical Hit Chance for Spells.

Note: Several Suffixes are available. If you’ve covered your resistances (75%), use those slots to increase your Critical Chance, Attributes, or Rarity to fill any gaps. DO NOT SKIP ON RESISTANCES!

Charms and Flasks

Throughout leveling, you will frequently find various charms and flasks. Make sure to swap them out for better options whenever you find upgrades. Regarding their stats, here is what to aim for:

• Health Flask: Prioritize those with the “Seething” affix. This applies the heal instantly, albeit a lesser amount.
• Mana Flask: Maximum recovery over the shortest duration.
• Charm: If you get lucky with a Stone Charm or Thawing Charm, use them to counter Stun and Freeze effects, which can be annoying. Otherwise, choose charms based on your current needs or the Boss/enemies you are up against. If you notice poison is problematic, use an Antidote Charm.

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Act I

In Act I, we won’t have access to anything near our mid/end campaign setup until we see level 13 skill gems and level 14 Spirit Gems. When you can get level 14 Spirit Gems, it almost doubles your damage output. Our goal is to play the long game and make it there. For now, these setups will suffice.

As you get deeper into Act 1, the gems will shift. I will label them appropriately.

The Gem Setup you should be trying to reach is the following, in order of priority:

Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2
Spark	Arcane Tempo	Controlled Destruction
Flame Wall	–	–
Enfeeble	Heightened Curse	Magnified Effect
Grim Feast	–	–
Orb of Storms	Chain	–

Early in the Act, you will mainly spam your Spark through your Flame Wall and let them do the work. You will curse larger enemies with Enfeeble to make them do less damage to us. Later in the act, we will access Grim Feast and Orb of Storms.

Bossing will require patience and a Thawing charm. Two (2) Act One bosses have a lot of cold damage and will almost always freeze you during an attack phase. This is made evident by the icy look of his and her attacks. Use obvious openings, and only use Spark if you are safe. We mostly look to our Sparks to bounce to and from the enemies from walls and objects. There is no shame in casting behind safety and letting the bounces do the work.

By the end of Act 1, you should be anywhere from Level 12 to 18, depending on how much of the map you cleared.

For help with bosses in Act 1, visit our bossing walkthrough here.

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Act II

We get access toDetonate Dead and some other gems, which we will take advantage of. Our goal is to start a chain reaction. We try to burst a single enemy down, then detonate the corpse, starting this reaction of corpse explosions. Detonate Dead is a good damage dealer when used on high HP corpses. We also now get access to Arc, which will do much of our heavy lifting. Conductivity will now replace our enfeeble, as this adds a significant portion of our damage.

Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2
Detonate Dead	Concentrated Effect	Brutality
Arc	Chain (from Orb of Storms)	Arcane Tempo (from Spark)
Conductivity	Heightened Curse (from Enfeeble)	Magnified Effect (from Enfeeble)
Grim Feast	–	–
Orb of Storms	–	–

Our approach has no significant mechanical change, as Arc changes where we aim, not what we do. Get used to putting an Orb of Storms between you and your enemies, as this will become imperative once we have more access to support gems. Only rares and bosses need a functional “rotation” of skills in Conductivity, Orb of Storms, and Arc. The majority of our clear happens on the first death of an enemy, followed up with a cast of Detonate Dead.

This is also around the time you will be getting comfortable with your timing and damage output. You may run into ludicrously rolled rare monsters with highly toxic mods. EX: Hasted and Mana Degeneration Aura. Try to fight it out, but understand this does happen.

By the end of Act 2, you should be around Level 30 to 35.

For help with bosses in Act 2, visit our bossing walkthrough here.

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Act III

Skills will not change much, but we will add more spirit, particularly Mana Remnants. You will also see Level 2 Support Gems; with that, there will be more damage output. Anything besides Arc with a listed third Support Gem is only for added benefit; it is not required but will make leveling easier.

Since this is a leveling build, we’ve minimized the need for Jeweler Orbs early to keep costs low. This build, however, will require you to have a four-socket Arc gem or, at the very least, a three-socket.

You won’t encounter Level 3 Support Gems until the monsters are at least level 53. Defeating the Bog Witch is a significant milestone, granting us an additional 30 Spirit to utilize. Support Gem 3 is a bonus; the build will work with just 2, ignoring Arc.

Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3
Detonate Dead	Concentrated Effect	Spell Echo (new)	Brutality (new)
Arc	Chain	Arcane Tempo	Considered Casting (new)
Conductivity	Ritualistic Curse (new)	Heightened Curse	–
Orb of Storms	Magnified Effect (from Conductivity)	–	–
Grim Feast	–	–	–
Mana Remnants	–	–	–

With Grim Feast, collecting the “souls” you find on the ground after a minion or an enemy dies is essential. These will spawn upon death regularly and should be seen as a defensive layer. This skill will allow you to collect Energy Shield that “overflows”, giving you twice the standard maximum Energy Shield you can typically have. The same goes for our Mana Remnants, as some of our mana is used to protect life. This similar effect allows us to have twice the expected maximum mana.

The only significant change is our new defensive layer from Mana Remnants. Detonate Dead and Arc will still do much of the damage we put out. Patient bossing and tactical placement of our character will win many fights. Knowing the fights beforehand is also helpful, which you can read here on the site.

Please also note the weapon swap usage; the only skill in Weapon Swap 2 is Conductivity. Arc, Orb of Storms, and Detonate Dead are all on Weapons Swap 1 only. Grim Feast and Mana Remnants must be on both 1 and 2.

By the end of Act 3, you should be around Level 45 to 50.

For help with bosses in Act 3, visit our bossing walkthrough here.

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Act I – III Cruel Skill Gems

After Act 3, we start dropping Level 3 Support Gems. With that, we can begin finalizing our skill gem setup system. We begin to gem cut only once we access Level 14 Spirit Gems. The final chart will show you the setup for which to aim.

NOTE: Once you complete Act 3 “Bog Witch”, you will have 60 Spirit. Once you complete act 6, “Bog Witch”, you will have 100; this is the most you can gain from the campaign. If Spirit is sparse, and you can’t seem to find enough, you can elect to drop Clarity, as the additive regen is just that, additive. However, dropping Grim Feast or Mana Remnants is a non-starting issue. You must keep this gem to avoid getting folded.

For help with bosses in Acts 4,5 and 6, visit the previous guides for 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

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Rotation

You have been practicing the same rotation with few changes by this time in the build. This should be the breakdown of the final rotation of skills, as it should start to be finalized by now, minus a jeweler or two.

In dangerous situations, prep the doorway, hall, or chokepoint with Orb of Storms and force move to a safer area, ensuring your curse hits the enemy. Once you kill one, Detonate Dead will do the rest.

Be aware of your surroundings! You may need to backtrack if a rare or magic mob comes at you with some wild mods on them. Find choke points and use them to your advantage.

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Act 4 (Act 1 Cruel)

Arc should be your priority when it comes to gem quality! Grim Feast is another good quality defensive setup for quality, as it recovers an additional 20 Energy Shield per soul. Archmage is another strong-quality gem to prioritize offensively.

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Act 5 (Act 2 Cruel)

This is when our critical strike damage begins to be very useful, as our Arc gem base damage grows, even more so with a very cheap amulet anointment of Dispatch Foes (Envy, Envy, Paranoia).

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Act 6 (Act 3 Cruel)

We push to maximize our curses and add more chains to our Arc. This is important because it will gain more damage with each remaining chain that Arc did not travel.

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Progressing into Endgame

This guide aims to help you navigate early white maps, but doesn’t cover Atlas passives. Once you hit around Level 75-80 or when mapping feels challenging, you can easily transition into your endgame variant. If you follow this guide without ascending, you now have the freedom to choose from any available ascendancy! I managed to reach Level 79 before I decided to stop. You can find the skill tree attached below.

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Passive Tree Respec

Now, you will want to respec as many nodes as possible into Intelligence, which gives us mana into a partial mana shield.

Weapon Swap Set Setup

When setting up your skill gems, assigning each one individually to a specific weapon is imperative, as listed in the Gem Setup below. For your convenience, a quick reference is provided below the demo image. NOTE: Detonate Dead is on both in case you need quick damage while swapping to weapon 2, but weapon swap 1 will be immensely more powerful.

All 4 Support Gems for Arc are required for optimal performance. If only 3 can be had, then Considered Casting may be dropped. The rest are filled out to 3, but they only need 2 Support Gems. If you use Archmage, do not use Brutality on your Detonate Dead, as we will lose lots of additive damage.

Weapon Swap Assignment	Skill	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3	Support Gem 4
Weapons Swap 1	Arc	Chain	Arcane Tempo	Inspiration	Considered Casting
Weapons Swap 1	Detonate Dead	Spell Echo	Concentrated Effect	Shock Siphon	–
Weapons Swap 1	Orb of Storms	Lightning Exposure	Strip Away	Overcharge	–
Weapons Swap 1	Archmage	Lightning Mastery	–	–	–
Weapons Swap 1 & 2	Grim Feast	Clarity	–	–	–
Weapons Swap 1 & 2	Mana Remnants	–	–	–	–
Weapons Swap 2	Conductivity	Heightened Curse	Ritualistic Curse	Magnified Effect	–
Weapons Swap 2	Blink	Ingenuity	Second Wind	–	–
–	Sigil of Power	Persistence	–	–	–

The only significant “Required three sockets” is our Arc, but it is best with 4. The others are recommended for ease of leveling or if you want to take the build past 79. We could complete the campaign and into maps with no ascension and mediocre gear.

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Rotation

By now, you should have acquired or crafted the essential items listed in the Items section. If you haven’t, there is still a good chance that you are being successful due to the power of Archmage. You may be able to transition directly from here to my Spark Archmage Build, which requires more gear but not astronomically higher gear.

Bossing Rotation:

• Sigil of Power
• Conductivity
• Orb of Storms
• Arc
• Arc

Repeat this until the curse expires or Orb of Storms is no longer positioned correctly. Skip any of these to dodge boss mechanics.

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Path of Building Fork

There are two trees you can look at for leveling. There is one specifically for Stormweaver or Chronomancer, and they are almost identical, besides small changes in the tree. Both work with PoB. For more information, visit here. Path of Building is a program Path of Exile players use to track, decipher, prepare, and sort builds. You can choose between them in the bottom left drop-down of Path of Building.

https://poe2db.tw/pob/HM8zfqVg6W

https://poe2.ninja/pob/11a3

https://pobb.in/LMuK0Tx2YVPx

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Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I scale the damage?
  • We scale our skill gems for damage. Adding levels to our gems is the best way to add damage. We also do more damage based on our entire Mana pool. After adding levels to our gem, adding mana is the next best thing we can do.
• I feel like I don’t do enough damage!
  • This could be for a few reasons: 1) Your skill gems are low level, or you don’t have any gear that boosts these levels (Wand, Focus, Staff, Amulet). 2) You may be very early in the build and are getting unlucky. This is possible but should be resolved within a few gem levels. 3) You have not reached a level to have hit enough of the increased damage nodes we need on the tree, like Arcane Intensity. You should also get a large amount from your Wand. 4) You may not have access to the support gem, Considered Casting. This skill gem offers MORE damage, not increased, and pushes the damage relatively high. We also get more damage from “Remaining Chains” on our Arc Skill.
• I keep dying!
  • If using the setup as listed in the build, there could be a few different issues. Adding life is still practical, as 50% is converted to energy shield, which should have ample increases. You should also avoid trying to shake hands with the enemy, as you are not expected to be too tanky with this setup. You must be able to dodge the standard mechanics. Check your resistances; you may have missed something and are getting decimated by a single type of element. Did you enable your Grim Feast gem? Ensure you update your gear as you progress, as gear from Act 2 will likely get you killed in Act 5.
• I can’t seem to drop any gear, and I seem to miss every craft!
  • Welcome to Path Of Exile! You are now part of an elite group of players who seem to miss 99% of almost everything we do! Seriously though, I know this is frustrating! However, there isn’t much I can do besides point you to trade or tell you to continue to craft. Perhaps try another crafting technique. Visit our crafting page here for help.
• Where can I go if I have more specific questions?
  • You are always welcome to ask questions in our ARPGVault Discord or visit my Twitch stream!

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Changelog

March 28th, 2025: Guide created for Path of Exile II, Early Access