While Sorcerer may not be many people’s first choice when it comes to classes in Diablo 4, I couldn’t skip the chance to use the powers of lightning on some hellspawn. While my initial lightning Sorcerer build wasn’t based on this mystical item called Crackling Energy, it was one of the tempting options, and I had to try it out with my secondary character.

If you’re just starting with your own Sorcerer build and keep seeing Crackling Energy everywhere in the skill tree, don’t get confused. We explain everything there is to know about what Crackling Energy is and how it’s used in this handy guide.

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What Is Crackling Energy in Diablo 4?

This mystical energy manifests itself as little balls of lightning dropping on the ground after you use specific skills. Crackling Energy in Diablo 4 is actually a Sorcerer-specific offensive buff that you can pick up and use to deal Shock damage to enemies close to you.

To work with Crackling Energy, you will need to invest your initial skill points into the Spark basic ability and move on to Enhanced and then Flickering Spark, which is a passive that gives you a 3% chance to create Crackling Energy every time your Spark skill hits an enemy.

Upon collecting Crackling Energy orbs, you will see the counter above your action bar with multiple slots for these energy balls. As you move around, they will automatically trigger when enemies approach you and deal damage.

As you progress through the skill tree, you can invest in more abilities that help you create or increase the damage dealt by Crackling Energy. For example, if you unlock the Destructive Chain Lightning, you will have a 25% chance of creating Crackling Energy when the Chain Lightning skill critically strikes. Later on, the Invigorating Conduit passive allows you to generate Mana when consuming Crackling Energy, which is pretty useful.

Crackling Energy also offers some interesting possibilities in Enchantment effects (which you unlock at Levels 15 and 30). If you equip Spark in one of the Enchantment slots, you will increase your chances of creating Crackling Energy orbs significantly. However, this mechanic truly shines with the Lightning Spear skill.

If equipped in the Enchantment slot, you will have a 10% chance to automatically create a Lightning Spear when absorbing Crackling Energy. Considering that the Lightning Spear is quite powerful yet a skill with a long cooldown, this synergy can be quite useful.

We hope we clarified what Crackling Energy in Diablo 4 is. You can experiment with it and create some pretty powerful lightning-based builds. And if you need more help with this RPG, make sure to explore the rest of our dedicated Diablo 4 section here on TouchTapPlay!