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Diablo IV

Best Diablo 4 Rogue Builds for Release

By
Craig Robinson

The Rogue is the most agile, explosive class in the game, and one that is likely to dominate the Diablo 4 ladder for many seasons. If you want that agile, bursty, yet creative action, then the Rogue is certainly a class for you. However, which build you go, range,d or melee, perhaps there’s a specific skill you want to use? Well, check below for the best Diablo 4 Rogue builds for the Server Slam Weekend.

Here is a look at the best Diblo 4 Rogue Builds on the current patch. Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

Best Diablo 4 Rogue Builds for Release

The Rogue is one of the strongest classes in the open beta, however, that resulted in some minor nerfs for the Server slam and launch window. The main thing you need to know is that the best Diablo 4 Rogue builds we are going to recommend are still great, it’s just one part of them all are nerfed. So, it’s not much to worry too much about. In addition, all of these playstyles typically work fine by themselves, not needing legendaries, as the playstyle is very much all about the skill upgrade within the skill tree. So, that’s some great news for those of you taking on dungeons, world bosses, and going for those Server Slam rewards like defeating Ashava.

  1. Twisted Blades: The Twisted Blades build revolves around the use of Vulnerable and Imbuement skills to deal massive damage to packs and bosses. The build also heavily relies on mobility, with "Twisting Blades" iconTwisting Blades reducing cooldowns on movement skills such as Shadow Step and Dash, which provide crit buffs. This makes the build highly effective at clearing enemies quickly and dealing high damage. There’s some nuance to to getting most out of your Twisting Blades returning to you, destroying enemies in a line, but, you have enough tools with Shadow Step resets to make that happen after some practice. This is by far the best melee rogue build in Diablo 4, and one we recommend giving a go at least once to see how fun and strong it is. Also, this build generally edges out the ranged builds, as the movement and general burst can act as single target, and AOE at the same time. You also get a lot of good legendaries, such as Bursting Venom posion imbuement pools legendary proc, Shadow Clone legendaries that apply your Imbuements, and other poison and "Bladedancer's Aspect" iconBladedancer’s Aspect for some really incredible burst damage. There’s also a unique that good for this build, with "Asheara's Khanjar" iconAsheara’s Khanjar, a Lucky Hit and attack sped boosting unique dagger helping to proc those juicy poison imbue legendary effects from Bursting Venoms and the Rein of Arrows legendary if you use that for Puncture procs. The only downside is that this build will require really good rogue players to push the hardest tier Nightmare dungeons, as this class is very squishy, so, those pushing as high as they can will more than likely need to master this build to reach the heights it can go. We have a dedicated Twisted Blades build going in a lot more detail if you’re interested.
  2. Penetrating Shot: The Puncture playstyle is similar to "Rapid Fire" iconRapid Fire but excels in mobbing. By using Puncture, Vuln, and Crit stacks, the player can deal significant burst damage with "Penetrating Shot" iconPenetrating Shot. The legendary that allows Puncturing Shot to duplicate makes lining up enemies even better, especially when combined with Shadow Imbuement. However, this build lacks single target damage, but using Poison or Cold Imbuement can improve its map boss speeds early on. When you get to end game, there’s a unique that drops called "Condemnation" iconCondemnation, which grants you core skills bonus damage when you spend three combo points on a skill. Your basic skills that use the weapon have a chance to grant 3 combo points immediately, though, you don’t need to worry about that part of the power. You also want "Edgemaster's Aspect" iconEdgemaster’s Aspect, "Aspect of the Expectant" iconAspect of the Expectant to further enhance the power and burst this has, even on single target, never mind AOE. Overall, this is likely to become the cleanest and safest end game build, but, its slightly awkward getting it setup thanks to its reliance on position, stats, and legendary and unique effects. There’s also a unique bow called Sky hunter, that scales with crits and the Precision Capstone option for ranged builds, adding some extra energy regen for a bursty and energy hungry build.
  3. Trap Master: The Trap build is an interesting playstyle, offering players opportunities to have a cooldown reset heavy build. You can run either "Flurry" iconFlurry for max pack imbuement and poison spread, or Twisting Blades for its cooldown reduction. From there, you want the Preparation spec, and the Trap Master themed capstone and passives. This allows you to essentially reset your ulty efficiently, while your Specialization allows you to Poison Trap, Death Trap, and Poison Trap again for some high AOE pack destruction, and large poison applications on bosses. You also want the passives that grants energy return when you ult, allowing you dump more energy, to get those cooldown resets thanks to your spec and trap themed capstone. When things go your way, you will have cooldown resets all the time. You can also run this with Shadow and Cold Imbue, or Shadow and Poison imbue, taking advantage of the legendaries with Alchemist in the name, as that grants further echo damage, and AOE damage. It also has decent Vuln spread through "Blast-Trapper's Aspect" iconBlast-Trapper’s Aspect, or through Puncture or one of the melee basic attacks, with potential vuln spread via Flurry if you go that route. It’s also possible to use the Bursting Venom legendary if you opt for the Posion build to better spc your build for bossing. If you’re wondering if there’s a unique for this build, there is. A unique called "Eyes in the Dark" iconEyes in the Dark allows the Death Trap to reset until it kills an enemy, but, its cooldown is slightly longer. If you roll the item to a point its cooldown is only less than ten seconds longer, its a net game thanks to the Death Trap’s perk that lowers it CD by ten seconds when it kills an enemy. However, it doesn’t reset on bosses, and still has a higher cooldown because of the unique, so it’s something to think about if you want to use it or not. Either way, the result is this build is great build for destroying AOE and Elites in end game content, but, it single target does cause it to suffer somewhat, and it is still as squishy as the Twisting Blades build above. So, it falls down our list slightly, but, it’s still very good and a fun playstyle if you want to use it?
  4. "Barrage" iconBarrage: the Barrage ranged skill is a solid skill, allowing you to do decent AOE, and if you get close enough, solid single target. The addition of the "Aspect of Branching Volleys" iconAspect of Branching Volleys, makes this build better, with Ricochet adding more AOE damage via arrow splits. Despite this, Barrage does seem much weaker and harder to set up properly for success, thanks to the arrows going in awkward to damage directions. So, this build does fall off compared to Penetrating Shot’s more reliable sniping potential, or Twisting Blades easier to use AOE and single target close range benefits.

Lastly, it’s important to remember the Rogue uses a Specialization post level 15. The Rogue specializations in Diablo 4 do impact how you generate and spend your energy and cooldowns, which can make some of these builds better or worse. Feel free to play around with them, and see which ones work best for you personally, or for the more min maxy side of these builds. Ether are acceptable.

This concludes the best Diablo 4 Rogue builds. As you can see, what makes the Rogue good is not necessarily the legendary or gear, rather that the kit is well designed, and offers the gameplay the rogue needs to do what it does best, damage. When you get legendaries, they certainly help shape the playstyle, but, it’s no where near as dramatic, as lets say Barbarian or Druid. Rogue is certainly a safe class to main thanks to several high damage Diablo 4 Rogue builds available at launch, and its generally one of the best classes in our Diablo 4 tier list for that matter.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Blizzard Entertainment
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, PS5, XB One, XB X|S
  • Genre
    Action RPG
  • Guide Release
    15 March 2023
  • Last Updated
    11 November 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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Diablo IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. This guide for Diablo 4 currently contains the following:

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