Rogue Overview Guide
Early on the Rogue might seem pretty average and the kit at its disposal won’t be particularly notable but as you level up they’ll be among the strongest Class in the game, suggested Basic skills to use are Blade Shift if you are choosing a melee setup for their movement speed buff and selecting the +15% non-physical Resistances and -20% control impairing reduction effects, Forceful Arrow for ranged builds instead as it is a reliable source of Vulnerable and optional knockback upgrade is also useful.
Moving on to Core skills these are your Energy spenders, dealing higher damage and further empowered by your desired Specialization.
Flurry is probably the best choice for melee builds and Barrage for Ranged builds, when dealing with packs of enemies, resulting particularly good to spread Imbuements, while Rapid Fire will be your multi-hit Ranged boss killer skill, specially when paired with Vulnerable and other damage multipliers to create powerful “burst windows”
Best passives from the Core skills are Sturdy in endgame for melee builds, Stutter Step once you have high critical chance, Siphoning Strike is pretty niche but can be used once you have high critical chance.
From the Agility section of the skill tree Dash is the most popular or Caltrops for trap based builds to kite enemies, while Weapon mastery is a great passive to max generally. From Subterfuge skills Dark Shroud is a very powerful defensive tool for any Rogue build who can keep the stacks count high and can grant increased movement speed too, Smoke Grenade can have its useful niche uses too as a 1 point wonder by really wanting it in dangerous situations and as a debuff for powerful enemies, while the Poison Trap is only useful when investing in a full trap builds synergized with Poison Imbuements. Notable passives from this sections are Exploit, which greatly increase your damage and Malice.
Imbuement skills are among the strongest in the Rogue kit, Poison Imbuement enables strong DoT builds and synergized with Trap builds and kiting playstyles, Cold Imbuement can be used for crowd control but the most powerful skill here is easily Shadow Imbuement which makes enemies afflicted with it explode like a Corpse Explosion and deal massive area damage. This skill can be really overpowered when you build your Rogue around Imbuements damage and buffs, it will allow for fast screen clearing by targeting a weak minion with your Forceful Arrow to proc Vulnerable status and unleash a Shadow Imbued Barrage, Rapid Fire or Flurry to start a “domino” chain reaction effect, I personally suggest the Imbuement Rogue indeed as the best starter build you can possibly make on this Class.
Consuming Shadows passive combined with the latter skill will refill your resource bar to full easily with some strategic gameplay, Deadly Venom is good for Imbuements builds and Poison focused builds, Debilitating Toxins in team play can be useful later on when enemies will hit very hard, Potency will be a must for Imbuement builds as well as Rapid Imbuement passive to reduce all their cooldowns and finally Trick Attacks can also be very nice to have, but not strictly necessary.
Rogue Ultimate skills are Shadow Clone which is very powerful for most Rogue builds, Rain Of Arrows which synergizes well with Ranged Imbuements builds and the reduced cooldown per energy spent Specialization, Death Trap for a massive Ultimate trap for trap builds. Notable passives from this skill tree section are maxed Aftermath to recover resources upon using an Ultimate skill, Haste is very useful and adds a bit of rotational playstyle based on how much Energy you have giving +15% movement speed above 50% max energy or +15% attack speed when having less than 50% Energy, Impetus is also decent for builds with burst windows farming in large areas but otherwise outshined by other better options and finally Innervation helps with Resource management since will recover 8 Energy with a 10-30% chance upon executing a Lucky Hit.
Ultimate passives are found at the bottom of the skill tree and you can only select one of them since they are very powerful, Precision can be decent for Ranged builds but Victimize providing a sort of “area damage” will be better in most circumstances, while Exposure is the best choice for trap builds.
Class Specializations differentiate your playstyle quite a bit, Combo Points are better for boss killers and builds having a “burst window” aligning all damage bonuses and procs to be used during a Vulnerable window to unleash a devastating Rapid Fire, Flurry or Barrage, Inner Sight instead makes you able to have unlimited Energy if you can fill up completely the relative gauge bar by attacking marked targets, while the third specialization will work well on builds who benefit from casting Ultimate as often as possible.
While leveling your Rogue then you can prioritize the aforementioned skills based on the type of build that you wanna play.
Best Class specific Codex of Power Aspects:
- Enshrouding, Uncanny Resilience and Ravenous will be great possible Aspects to support and make your Rogue tankier
- Arrow Storm, Branching Volley’s, Vengeful are good for Ranged builds
- Encircling Blades, Vengeful, Volatile Blades, Siphoned Protection, Cheat’s are best on a melee build
- Corruption, Sleeting Imbuements, Unstable Imbuements are designed with Imbuement builds in mind
- Blast-Trapper’s, Explosive Verve and Trickster’s for Trap focused builds
Note: All the informations in this guide are taken from Diablo 4 Beta and might be subject to changes for the official release
