Rogues are one of the most complex classes in Diablo 4. With three unique specializations and the ability to fight from any range, putting together a Rogue build is extremely complex. That’s where we come in, with our suggestions of the best Rogue builds for Diablo 4 season 4.
Rogues have three weapons on them at all times: a bow and two knives. With these tools, the Rogue can quickly swap between stabbing an enemy at close range and shooting an arrow across the screen.
In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ve gathered and simplified the best Diablo 4 Rogue builds for season 4. If you need even more information on item affixes or other more complex ideas, we’ve been sure to link out to the more detailed versions of these builds, as well as where to find their original creators.
Best Rogue leveling build in Diablo 4 season 4
This build is based off Lexyu’s Rogue leveling guide at IcyVeins, and is purely for leveling: i.e., allocating your 58 skill points between levels 1 and 50. If you want more detailed information about the item affixes you want to look for on your gear, or which other Legendary powers are great for your build, check out the original IcyVeins guide.
Best skills for leveling
Rogues specialize in both ranged and melee, but this leveling build focuses entirely on knife skills. This build specifically utilizes Twisting Blades as your primary skill. In this build, you’ll also use Puncture, Dash, Shadow Step, Concealment, and Shadow Imbuement.
Here are the best skills for a Rogue leveling build, organized by the exact order you should purchase them in — bearing in mind that some skills require you to allocate a number of skill points in the tree in order to unlock them. As such, you’ll need to unlock new skills before enhancing existing ones:
- Puncture / Enhanced Puncture
- Twisting Blades
- Fundamental Puncture
- Enhanced Twisting Blades / Improved Twisting Blades
- Dash
- Shadow Step
- Twisting Blades (rank 2-4)
- Concealment / Enhanced Stealth / Countering Stealth
- Twisting Blades (rank 5)
- Enhanced Shadow Step
- Shadow Imbuement / Enhanced Shadow Imbuement / Mixed Shadow Imbuement
- Shadow Crash
- Consuming Shadows (rank 1-3)
- Methodical Shadow Step
- Adrenaline Rush
- Haste (1-3)
- Concussive
- Trick Attacks (rank 1-3)
- Concussive (rank 2)
- Close Quarters Combat
- Concussive (rank 3)
- Sutter Step (rank 1-3)
- Exploit (rank 1-3)
- Malice (rank 1-3)
- Agile (rank 1-3)
- Sturdy (rank 1-3)
- Siphoning Strikes (rank 1-3)
- Precision Imbuement (rank 1-3)
- Impetus (rank 1-2)
Best Specialization setup for leveling
Once you unlock your first Specialization at level 15 — Combo Points — you’ll stick with it through the leveling process. The only exception here is that, if you know you’re going up against a big boss, you can swap to Inner Sight to help increase your damage.
Best Legendary Aspects for Rogues leveling build
When you first start your new character, complete these three dungeons first in order to collect their Aspects. Then place them on a piece of gear (ideally jewelry, when possible). Just keep in mind that you should replace these Legendaries with new versions using the imprint system every few levels.
- Bladedancer’s Aspect (Jalal’s Virgil in Scosglen) — Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing 10-15% of Twisting Blades’ return damage per hit. Based on the distance the blades returned, the orbit damage increases up to 20-30% of the return damage.
- Edgemaster’s Aspect (Oldstones dungeon in Scosglen) — Skills deal X% increased damage based on Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource
- Aspect of the Expectant (Underroot dungeon in Scosglen) — Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by X% up to X%
Best Rogue endgame build for season 4 — Shadow Step
This build is based off of M1PY’s Shadow Step Rogue endgame guide at MaxRoll.gg, and is a general endgame guide capable of finding success in all activities. This guide assumes that you’re over level 50, have access to all 58 skill points, and are making progress on your Paragon Boards. If you want more detailed information about the item affixes you want to look for on your gear, or why these Legendary powers are great for your build, check out the original MaxRoll guide.
Best skill points for Shadow Step build for endgame
This build utilizes Shadow Step as its core skill. It also uses Puncture, Smoke Grenade, Death Trap, Caltrops, Dark Shroud, and Cold Imbuement.
Since you need all 58 points for this build, the order you select these skills in doesn’t matter as long as you have the pre-requisite points in the earlier skill tree tiers. Here is how you should spend your skill points for this build:
- Puncture / Enhanced Puncture / Fundamental Puncture
- Sturdy (rank 1-3)
- Siphoning Strikes (rank 1-2)
- Shadow Step (rank 1-5) / Enhanced Shadow Step / Disciplined Shadow Step
- Caltrops / Enhanced Caltrops / Disciplined Caltrops
- Weapon Mastery (rank 1-3)
- Dark Shroud (rank 1-5) / Enhanced Dark Shroud / Subverting Dark Shroud
- Smoke Grenade / Enhanced Smoke Grenade / Countering Smoke Grenade
- Agile (rank 1-3)
- Exploit (rank 1-3)
- Malice (rank 1-3)
- Cold Imbuement / Enhanced Cold Imbuement / Mixed Cold Imbuement
- Frigid Finesse (rank 1-3)
- Death Trap / Prime Death Trap / Supreme Death Trap
- Innervation
- Alchemist’s Fortune (rank 1-3)
- Adrenaline Rush
- Haste (rank 1-3)
- Victimize
Rogue Specialization for Shadow Step build
For this build, you’ll want to take the Preparation Rogue Specialization.
Legendary Powers and Uniques for Shadow Step build
To make this build work, you’re going to need powerful Legendary Powers and Unique items to augment your build.
M1PY recommends these Aspects:
- Helm: Aspect of Might (dungeon drop)
- Chest: Frostbitten Aspect
- Gloves: Aspect of Retribution (dungeon drop)
- Pants: Umbrous Aspect
- Boots: Aspect of Concussive Strikes
- Crossbow: Aspect of Synergy
- Melee 1: Edgemaster’s Aspect (dungeon drop)
- Melee 2: Aspect of Elements
- Amulet: Ravager’s Aspect
- Ring 1: Rapid Aspect (dungeon drop)
- Ring 2: Aspect of Inner Calm (dungeon drop)
If you want to get into the nitty gritty of stat priorities, refer to M1PY’s original guide.
Paragon Boards for Rogue Shadow Step build
The Paragon Board system is very complex, and you’ll want to carefully pair your Glyphs with specific boards for your class:
- Starter Board / Exploit Glyph
- Exploit Weakness / Turf Glyph
- Tricks of the Trade / Closer Glyph
- No Witnesses / Versatility Glyph
- Cheap Shot / Control Glyph
- Deadly Ambush / Ambush
- Eldritch Bounty
You should level your Glyphs to 21 in this specific order:
- Ambush
- Closer
- Control
- Exploit
- Turf
- Versatility
You can path your own way through the Paragon Boards following these basic guidelines. However, for the best results, follow M1PY’s path exactly.
How to make a great Rogue build
Rogues are the classic bow-wielders in Diablo 4. But they’re also much more than that. Instead of just slinging arrows, they also utilize stealth, traps, and knives. This makes them one of Diablo 4’s most versatile classes, and also gives them several different build paths to take:
- Momentum
- Melee
- Precision
- Vulnerable
- Trap
Melee-specific builds have a few options. They can use the Momentum Key Passive to deal additional damage and gain bonus effects when backstabbing enemies or attacking those impacted by certain crowd control effects, like Stunned Dazed, or Frozen. Similarly, the Close Quarters Combat Key Passive gives you bonuses for using certain skills on enemies that are nearby.
For ranged builds, Precision is your best bet. Hitting a critical hit on an enemy with Marksman skills increases your crit chance drastically over time.
Then there are Rogue’s status builds. The Victimize Key Passive causes hits on Vulnerable enemies to create an explosion. The Exposure Key Passive gives a small chance for some massive buffs when the Rogue deals damage with a trap.
The important thing to remember when building your own Rogue build is that mobility and versatility are your friends. The Key Passives here aren’t entire identities on their own the way some other classes are. Instead, they’re huge bonuses that can fit into multiple playstyles. While making your Rogue, figure out which skills you want to use and which Specializations you want to use first, then pick out your Key Passive once you reach the end.
Looking for other Diablo 4 builds? We have explainers on the Sorcerer, Barbarian, Druid, and Necromancer classes.
The post The best Rogue builds and skills in Diablo 4 appeared first on Polygon.
