Rogue is one of the fastest classes in Diablo 4 and allows players to use various high-damage builds for early-game leveling as well as end-game decimation. We have been playing the game for close to a month now, trying out different builds, but we settled on two Rogue builds for players that enjoy a fast gameplay experience. So if you wanted to enjoy some Rogue action, you are at the right place.
In this article, we cover two specific Rogue builds in Diablo 4 that not only give a distinct playstyle but utilize most of the tools this class has in its arsenal. That said, let’s dive in and look at these builds.
Rogue Flurry Build in Diablo 4
The flurry build for Rogue in Diablo 4 utilizes the speed and dexterity of this character class. This build is designed for close combat and allows Rogue to stab and puncture their way out of the way. Naturally, players require Rogue to equip a double-handed weapon for this build.
The advantage of this build is that players that want a simple playstyle can create this build and enjoy their time with the game. Moreover, the Flurry build clears enemies without any hassle, and I ran this during the beta tests too. Hence, I can vouch that this is a great build to start playing Rogue in Diablo 4.
Basic Skill
- Skill to unlock: Puncture
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Enhanced Puncture and Fundamental Puncture
The first skill we will unlock is called Puncture. This skill not only damages enemies from a distance by throwing daggers at them, but the 3rd cast also slows them down for two seconds. Slowdowns are always good for creating distance between you and the enemies in this game.
To make the skill better, grab Enhanced Puncture and Fundamental Puncture. Enhanced Puncture damages crowd-controlled enemies, while Fundamental Puncture throws an additional blade, making it three blades in total and increasing the base damage to 35%.
Core Skill
- Skill to unlock: Flurry
- Points to allot: Five
- Supporting skills: Enhanced Flurry and Improved Flurry
Possibly one of my favorite skills in this build, Flurry makes Rogue stab an enemy four times, dealing 84% damage to each. This skill is particularly great against a group of enemies and can decimate them immediately if the build supports it.
To make Flurry better, grab Enhanced Flurry and Improved Flurry. Enhanced Flurry heals you for 1% each time a vulnerable enemy gets attacked. Similarly, Improved Flurry makes other nearby enemies vulnerable if an enemy getting hit by Flurry is already in a vulnerable state.
Agility Skill
- Skill to unlock: Dash and Shadow Step
- Points to allot: One for Dash and Shadow Step
- Supporting skills: Enhanced Dash, Discipled Dash, Enhanced Shadow Step, Discipled Shadow Step
Dash does exactly what it says. It makes Rogue dash toward an enemy, slashing them for 37% damage in the process. The best way to utilize this is to dash into an enemy and use Flurry on them. Pick Enhanced Dash and Discipled Dash. Enhanced Dash ensures that enemies take an x20% increased critical strike for five seconds. Similarly, Discipled Dash will slow hits from enemies by 30%, and an already slowed enemy will further get slowed for two seconds.
Shadow Step helps Rogue backstab enemies for 72% damage. Additionally, it provides a +50% increased movement speed for two seconds. As a bonus, grab the Enhanced Shadow Step and Methodical Shadow Step to make the skill even better.
Subterfuge Skill
- Skill to unlock: Poison Trap
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Enhanced Poison Trap and Countering Poison Trap
The next skill to unlock for this Rogue build in Diablo 4 is Poison Trap. Another great AOE attack that is great to damage a hoard of enemies, Rogue places up to four Poison Traps around the map and triggers when enemies are around its vicinity. This results in 344% poison damage for nine seconds.
As usual, to make the skill better, grab Enhanced Poison Trap and Countering Poison Trap.
Imbuement Skill
- Skill to unlock: Poison Imbuement
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Enhanced Poison Imbuement, Blended Poison Imbuement
The next skill to use is the one that applies poison to your weapons. Poison Imbuement applies the weapon with lethal poison, which in turn deals poison damage to the enemies. Great to pair up with poison traps. As always, pick Enhanced Poison Imbuement, and Blended Poison Imbuement.
Key Passive
- Skill to unlock: Close Quarter
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Nil
Finally, since we will be fighting enemies at a closer range, we will pick Close Quarters Combat as our key passive. This skill grants us a +10% attack speed bonus for 8 seconds when we damage a close enemy. This damage doubles to x20% against crowd-controlled enemies.
Passives
- Skills to unlock: Sturdy, Siphoning Strikes, Stutter Steps under Core Skill, Exploit, Malice, Agile under Subterfuge Skills, Deadly Venom and Debilitating Toxin under Imbuement skills, Adrenaline Rush, and Haste under Ultimate.
- Points to allot: One point for Deadly Venom and Adrenaline Rush, and the rest three points go to each of them.
- Supporting skills: Nil
It is worth mentioning that Rogue in Diablo 4 does not have an impressive health pool, and this build tries to fix that. The passives we select across the skill tree will ensure that the character retains their dexterity and health.
We will start by choosing the Sturdy, Siphoning Strike, and Stutter step. These three skills give Rogue movement speed, health regeneration, and resiliency for a short duration.
Up next, the next three skills, Agile, Exploit, and Malice, further increase damage and evasion in special scenarios like damage on vulnerable enemies, or increased dodge chances.
Finally, since we did not have a suitable ultimate that goes well with this build for Rogue in Diablo 4, we decided on opting for passives. Adrenaline Rush and Haste will help with energy regeneration, evasion, and attack speed.
Rogue Penetrating Shot Build in Diablo 4
While part of the first Rogue build was the one I used during the Diablo 4 beta, one thing I failed to experience was Rogue’s ability to zone their opponents. Much like every other class in this game, Rogue can have a different playstyle based on what the player wants.
Thankfully, the Penetrating Shot build utilizes Rogue’s adept arrow skills, while also utilizing the poison traps Rogue has access to. This is a ranged build that players who want to keep a distance away from the enemy can utilize.
Basic Skill
- Skill to unlock: Puncture
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Enhanced and Fundamental Puncture
Puncture from the previous build makes a comeback for this one, which is a natural choice. Since we are creating a build that will help us keep our distance away from the enemies, Puncture achieves that. Rogue will throw blades at a short distance, dealing 21% damage, and slowing down enemies by 20% with the third attack.
To improve Puncture, grab Enhanced Puncture and Fundamental Puncture, which help in improving energy replenishment and damage.
Core Skill
- Skill to unlock: Penetrating Shot
- Points to allot: Five
- Supporting skills: Enhanced and Advanced Penetrating Shot
The next skill we will pick for Rogue to make this build in Diablo 4 is Penetrating Shot. In it, Rogue will fire an arrow in a straight line, dealing damage. Since this is our core skill, we will max out its levels.
To improve it, grab Enhanced Penetrating Shot and Advanced Penetrating Shot. These two skills increase the damage and also help to slow down enemies. In certain cases, Advanced Penetrating Shot will knock down elites.
Agility Skill
- Skill to unlock: Dash
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Enhanced and Disciplined Dash
One thing we won’t compromise is the agility of the Rogue. Hence, we are bringing back Dash for this build. As previously mentioned, Dash helps not only in evading, it also acts as an attack, if dashed into a group of enemies.
As an added measure, grab Enhanced Dash and Disciplined Dash. Both of these skills help Dash to deal critical strike damage and also slow down enemies respectively.
Subterfuge Skills
- Skill to unlock: Smoke Grenade and Poison Trap
- Points to allot: One each
- Supporting skills: Enhanced and Countering Smoke Grenades, Enhanced and Countering Poison Trap
As previously mentioned, we will take advantage of Rogue’s toolkit to make the build optimal. That is where Smoke Grenade and Poison Trap come into play.
Smoke Grenade helps in stunning enemies, stopping or slowing them for a short time. To enhance its effects, grab Enhanced Smoke Grenade and Countering Smoke Grenade. Both of these skills help us to make the enemies vulnerable to attacks.
The second skill we will grab is the Poison Trap. We have previously mentioned the effects of this skill. To keep it short, Rogue can place up to four poison traps around the map, which trigger when an enemy is in the range of it. To improve the effects, grab Enhanced Poison Trap and Countering Poison Trap.
Imbuement Skills
- Skill to unlock: Poison Imbuement
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Enhanced and Blended Poison Imbuement
Poison Imbuement is another skill we will pick that helps in dealing additional damage through the arrows. This skill applies poison to the arrows, effectively dealing poisoning damage on contact.
As an added measure, grab Enhanced Poison Imbuement and Blended Poison Imbuement, which increases the intensity of the skill.
Key Passive
- Skill to unlock: Exposure
- Points to allot: One
- Supporting skills: Nil
For passive, we will take advantage of the poison trap to ensure we can further damage the enemies. That is why we will pick Exposure. This passive helps us to directly damage an enemy affected by any trap skill, giving us a 25% chance to reduce the active cooldown for the traps and drop a cluster of stun grenades that deal 40% total physical damage.
Passives
- Skills to unlock: Shutter Step under Core Skills, Agile, Exploit, Malice under Subterfuge skills, Deadly Venom and Debilitating Toxins under Imbuement skills, Innervation, Second Wind, Adrenaline Rush, and Haste under Ultimate.
- Points to allot: One point to Deadly Venom and Adrenaline Rush, three for the rest of them.
- Supporting skills: Nil
Finally, to improve Rogue’s resistance and damage output, we will be picking some passives across the skill trees. To start off, at the core skills, pick up Stutter Step. This will grant us additional movement speed after critically striking the enemies.
Then, we move on to the Subterfuge skills to pick up Agile, Exploit, and Malice. These three skills will further improve the damage output, and dodge chances. We then move to the Imbuement skills to pick up Deadly Venom and Debilitating Toxins. These two skills improve the poison intensity.
Finally, under the Ultimate Skills, we will pick four of them, namely Adrenaline Rush, Innervation, Second Wind, and Haste. These four skills will improve our luck chances and energy regeneration.
