Patch 0.4 has me hooked in a way I didn't expect, and Goratha's Entangle Sorceress is the main reason. I went in thinking it'd be another "cast thing, screen explodes" setup, but it's got a rhythm you actually feel in your hands. If you're also tweaking gear and juggling trades for PoE 2 Currency, this build's progression curve makes a lot more sense once you've played it for a few sessions and stopped fighting the rotation.
The loop that makes it clickHere's what you notice fast: you're not spamming, you're setting a trap. Entangle goes down first to paint the ground with vines, then Thunderstorm sits on top like you're "watering" the area. When Accelerated Growth kicks in, the whole patch of vines starts chain-popping through Thrashing Vines, and the damage lands in chunky physical bursts. It's messy, loud, and honestly kind of hilarious. The best part is how much positioning matters. Drop the storm too far off, and you'll feel it. Land it right, and packs vanish before your brain finishes registering what spawned.
Early pain points people don't warn you aboutLeveling isn't free. Mana can be rough, and it's not the cute kind of rough where you just slap on one flask and forget it. If you don't grab intelligence where it makes sense or find mana regen on rings, you'll stall out mid-fight and hate your life. Cast speed is the other big one. Without it, the setup feels slow, like you're always one step behind the monsters. Once you start stacking +skill levels on wands and pick up enough speed to smooth the cadence, it stops feeling like chores and starts feeling like control.
Why the damage scales so hardThe nasty part is how many angles it hits from. You're leaning physical, but you're also layering impale and shock so bosses don't get to "solve" your damage with a single defensive stat. Big targets get shredded because you're repeatedly forcing burst windows instead of waiting for one giant crit. And since you're actively placing zones, you can keep pressure up while moving. That matters in PoE 2, where standing still is basically signing a waiver.
Staying alive and not griefing yourselfFor a caster, it's sturdier than it looks. The Djinn summons do a ton of practical work, not just padding DPS, because they body-block at the exact moments you'd otherwise eat a charge or a projectile fan. The vines help too, since the slow buys you that tiny beat to sidestep mechanics. Just don't get cocky with map mods. Physical reflect is the classic self-own here, and if you miss it once, you'll remember. If you want a build that rewards clean placement, smart swapping for shocks, and actually managing your "garden," it's a blast, and grabbing upgrades through u4gm poe2 can help you hit that smooth, fast-casting breakpoint sooner.