Season 5 has brought many new items to Diablo 4, making many builds stronger or even playable for the first time. One of them is the Axial Connection for Sorcerers, a pair of pants that catapults a formerly poor build to the top.
What kind of item is this?
- The Axial Connection is one of the new uniques in Season 5 for Sorcerers.
- After the pants were quite bad on the PTR, they received an overhaul and now enable one of the best builds in the game.
- The unique drops from Grigoire. In our guide, we explain how to summon and defeat Grigoire.
This is what makes the Axial Connection so strong: The item strengthens the spell Chain Lightning by adding a chance to double the skill’s effect and grants ranks. Additionally, the Axial Connection increases resource generation.
The real strength, however, lies in the legendary effect of the pants. It states that Chain Lightning alternates between two variants: it circles around you or seeks up to 3 enemies. Upon returning, it drains your mana.
When enough mana has been consumed, the lightning explodes for a large amount of lightning damage. The spell lasts as long as you have enough mana to maintain it.
The Chain Lightning build is one of the strongest in the Tier List of Season 5 and is in Tier S. In Season 4, the build was considered one of the worst in the game; it is now so strong only because of the Axial Connection.
In our overview, you can find all info about Season 5; we’ve included the trailer here for you:
Axial Connection for the Chain Lightning Sorcerer – How to play the build
The whole build is more or less based on critical hits. In addition to the Axial Connection, you wear the Fists of Fate, which randomly set your damage between 1% and up to 300%. You best farm the item at the Beast in the Ice.
The challenge is managing mana. For this, you need the Charging Aspect, which grants you mana for each jump of Chain Lightning. Additionally, you can benefit from:
- the passive skill Summoning Art
- the passive skills Static Discharge and Vital Connection in combination, also together with the central passive Vyr’s Mastery
- alternatively or additionally to the Charging Aspect: the Miracle Child Aspect
- Improved Ice Armor for mana regeneration
You make enemies vulnerable with Ice Blades and thus multiply your damage. The blades also help to activate Tal Rasha’s Gleaming Ring. You can find the unique at Varshan.
The remaining multipliers come from the Fire Bolt enchant in combination with the corresponding passives. You can find the build with all skills and Paragon boards on maxroll.gg.
Then the playstyle is quite straightforward: you summon Ice Blades and let your Chain Lightning do the rest. Against particularly tough enemies, you activate Unstable Current. You protect yourself with Ice Armor and Flame Shield and escape dire situations with Teleport.
If you want to upgrade the build even more, you should acquire the Mythic Unique Andariel’s Visage. You can get it from Andariel or Duriel. The helm has a chance to create a Poison Nova, allowing you to gain even more damage with Tal Rasha’s.
The build can be somewhat sluggish, especially at lower levels and without the right gear. The further you progress, the stronger you become, especially through Paragon. If you want to reach the endgame quickly, you’ll find here the best tips for leveling in Diablo 4 to quickly reach level 100.
