There are ways to build static, I used to think it was pretty useless until I came across the builds that use it to cast lightning blast, I have also seen a build that goes in a different direction with it generating static about 110 charges in a second and spaming (edit: link Crit Static Orb Sorcerer Build Guide (0.8.1h) Lootfilter included!).
Static as is does not passively do damage unless modified by tree to zap or lightning blast.