Sorceress players have felt a bit behind in Season 7, and Blizzard agrees. The team is aiming to improve quality of life and make sure mechanics work more smoothly together. This means better synergy for Crackling Energy, Meteor, Meteorites, and Chill-based abilities, along with buffs across multiple builds.
While Sorceress’s power levels in Season 7 were closer to being balanced, other classes were too strong. Season 8 looks to bring Sorceress slightly up while tuning other classes down, creating a balance between all classes.
Hail of Verglas + Shivering Aspect = A Deadly Ice Shards Combo
The new Hail of Verglas Unique Helm and Shivering Aspect are made to work together, giving Ice Shards builds a huge boost in power and consistency.
This helm powers up Ice Shards, making them spread out wider hitting more enemies, and increasing damage each time they hit.
Affixes:
- 7.5% Maximum Cold Resist
- 50% Cold Resistance
- +10.5-15% Intelligence
- +13-17.5% Maximum Life
- +10.5-15% Attack Speed
- +4-6 Ranks in Ice Shards
Unique Power:
- Ice Shards now spread out with 2 additional shards.
- You deal 1-2%[x] increased damage for each time Ice Shards damages an enemy over 5 seconds, stacking up to 50-75%[x] increased damage.
With more shards flying out, you hit more enemies more often, allowing you to stack the damage buff much faster.
Now, add in Shivering Aspect, and things get even more interesting.
- Enemies take up to 20-40%[x] increased damage based on how much they are Chilled or Staggering.
- You apply 15% more Chill.
Chill is a type of crowd-control that reduces the enemy’s movement speed. However, with the Shivering Aspect you turn this benefit into an increase in damage. It is also very interesting that this new aspect also applies with Stagger, which means the damage boost will apply in all fights, including bosses. It makes this a very versatile aspect.
Other Major Sorceress Changes in Season 8
Skills and Passives:
Greater Fireball - Now deals 10%[x] increased damage to Burning enemies.
- Instantly kills non-boss enemies below 25% HP when this effect triggers.
Blizzard 
Convulsions - Now grants 5/10/15%[x] increased damage while you have Crackling Energy.
- You now periodically pick up nearby Crackling Energy automatically.
- Crackling Energy &
Shocking Impact
Uniques and Aspects:
Fractured Winterglass - Now only spawns equipped Conjurations on your Action Bar.
Starfall Coronet - Meteor’s Cooldown reduced from 10-3 seconds to 5-2.5 seconds.
Aspect of Piercing Cold - Ice Shards now pierce 5 times instead of 10 times.
- Damage increased from 4-10%[x] per hit to 35-50%[x] base damage, plus an extra 10% per enemy hit.
- Aspect of Shattered Stars
- Meteorites now deal their own damage.
- Meteor’s bonus damage now applies to all Meteorites while this Aspect is equipped.
- Aspect of the Frozen Wake
- Ice Spikes now increase their own damage by 3% per activation, stacking up to 30 times.
The Hail of Verglas Unique Helm and Shivering Aspect are a big win for Ice Sorceress players. 
Ice Shards will spread wider, hit more enemies, and deal more stacking damage, in combination with using Chill in your build, Shivering Aspect makes sure all those hits do even more damage.
Beyond that, Fireball, Crackling Energy, and Blizzard all see solid buffs, improving Fire, Shock, and Cold builds across the board. Season 8 looks like a good opportunity for a strong Sorceress in a long time, making Ice builds much more viable while improving the class’s overall consistency.
Will these changes push Sorceress into top-tier territory? We cannot wait to see.
