Among the five character classes in Diablo II, the sorceress is supposedly the very worst when it comes to physical combat. She has little strength and few hit points, and she can wield only the lightest of weapons. Her way of dealing with trouble is more spectacular than swinging an ax around and, from our experience, more effective.

　　The sorceress has three sets of spells she can learn: cold, lightning, and fire. All of them provide some powerful offensive abilities, while a few abilities in the cold set offer protection. In the fire-spell set, the sorceress begins with the ability to learn either firebolt or warmth. Firebolt is a fire attack that travels in a straight line and hits a single target. It is more powerful than either cold bolt or charged bolt, but both of those have secondary effects. The warmth skill is a passive effect that lets the sorceress regenerate mana faster. At first-skill level, you regenerate mana about 30 percent faster, and each skill point added makes the regeneration even faster. Later levels of spells include inferno, a holdover from Diablo that is a blowtorch for continuous fire damage; blaze, which sets a trail of fire behind you to burn pursuers; and fireball, which is a much more powerful fire attack that causes damage in a given area of effect.. Currently, inferno seems to be less than effective, as you have to be within melee range to hurt someone, and the damage isn't immediate but rather takes place over time.

　　The lightning spells seem to be the most spectacular at this point. The first level charged bolt is like the Diablo spell, firing off a triplet of bolts for light damage. Increased skill levels result in more bolts per attack and greater damage. Other lightning spells include static field, which shocks all enemies in a nearby radius and deprives them of 33 percent of their hit points; nova, a ring of lightning that damages all enemies in a radius; and lightning, which fires a column of lightning for massive damage. Interestingly, the pure magic spells, like telekinesis, also reside in the lightning set. All the lightning spells seem incredibly useful. Static field is great, as you can cast that two or three times to bring down the hit points of all nearby enemies (the radius increases with each skill level, but damage does not) and then follow up with a frost nova or regular nova to finish them off. Charged bolt is also a very useful spell: low in mana cost and able to hit multiple enemies at once.

　　The cold spells are equally nice, and they include protective enchantments. The two first-level spells available to you are cold bolt, which does a little damage but slows the victim and frozen armor, which gives you a defense bonus and freezes your attacker. The great thing about frozen armor is you can ready it, cast it, and then switch your secondary attack to a damage spell, as the armor has a long duration. You don't have to have the frozen armor readied at all times to enjoy its benefits. The later spells in the cold set are frost nova, which is a cold version of the nova spell that does less damage; ice blast, which is a much stronger ice attack; and shiver armor, which deals damage to your attacker in addition to providing a defense bonus.

　　The sorceress really does have a wide range of powerful and useful spells, and every time you level up you will be presented with so many good choices as to what spells or areas to specialize in. Using a combination of spells, such as static field and frost nova, the sorceress can clear a huge mass of enemies in a very short time even at low levels. She does deplete her mana rapidly, but as long as you put two or three skill points into the warmth skill, you need not worry too much about your mana situation, as you'll regenerate it quickly.

　　The only problem with the sorceress is that she won't last long in a fight, but with her myriad attack spells, she needn't ever get into a melee situation. The only trouble she has at this juncture is facing boss monsters with magic resistance, which proves to be slightly more difficult.