Diablo 4 Rogue Leveling Guide

Diablo 4: Rogue Leveling Guide

In this Diablo 4 Rogue leveling guide, will take you through a build that will help you succeed in the early game without needing high-level requirements or special aspects.

Blizzard has revamped the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3 and the original Rogue from Diablo 1 to create this version of the class.

Are you excited to play as the Rogue in Diablo 4?

Quick tip: you can always check out the best leveling builds for Rogue at Mobalytics regardless of the current season!

• Is the Rogue a good class in Diablo 4?
  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses
• Key Features
• How to play the Build
  • Basic Skill
  • Core Skill
  • Agility Skill
  • Subterfuge Skill
  • Imbuement Skill
  • Ultimate
• Gearing the Rogue
  • Early Game Gear
  • Stat Prioritization
• Codex of Power

Is Rogue a Good Class in Diablo 4? Understanding the Playstyle

The Rogue class in Diablo 4 is an excellent choice for players seeking a versatile and powerful character. This class excels in solo play and offers a unique play style that combines speed, damage, and ‘’trickiness’’.

However, it also has some weaknesses that players should be aware of. Let’s dive into the details.

The newest expansion, Vessel of Hatred, introduced a new class to the game. Make sure you check out our fun and powerful Spiritborn builds for Diablo 4.

Rogue Class Strengths

The Rogue class boasts several strengths that make it a top-tier choice for Diablo 4 players:

• Best Solo Class: The Rogue is considered one of the best solo classes in the game.
• Great for Softcore: Although it may not be the best choice for Hardcore as a melee class, the Rogue shines in Softcore play.
• Massive AOE Damage: The Rogue deals impressive area-of-effect damage to multiple enemies at once.
• High Single Target Damage: This class also excels at dealing significant damage to individual targets.
• Crowd Control Break: The Rogue has several abilities to break out of crowd control effects.
• Best Movement Speed: Enjoy unmatched mobility and speed while playing as a Rogue.
• Decent Boss Killer: This class is also a competent boss killer, making it versatile in various situations.
• Style and Swag: Embrace the Rogue’s unique flair and stylish gameplay as you dominate the battlefield jumping around like you are a character from Naruto.

Rogue Class Weaknesses

Despite its numerous strengths, the Rogue class has some weaknesses that players should be aware of:

• Squishy Melee: The Rogue is primarily a squishy class, which might not suit all playstyles.
• Vulnerable to Burst Damage: The class can be susceptible to high burst damage from enemies. The Rogue is not particularly tanky, so survivability may be an issue.
• Dependent on Player Skill: The Rogue relies heavily on the player’s skill to survive, which might be challenging for some.

Key Features of the Rogue Build

Get familiar with the main features of the Rogue build:

• Cooldown Reduction: The build emphasises the Rogue’s ability to reset its cooldowns with Twisting Blades. This skill impales the first enemy hit and returns to you after 1.5 seconds, hitting anyone it passes through. The talent “Advanced Twisting Blades” reduces the cooldowns of all your actives by 1 second per enemy hit, up to 3 seconds in total.
• Concealment: This skill stealths you up, returns 40 energy with the talent “Enhanced Stealth,” and guarantees your first skill will be a critical strike. This is especially useful because the Rogue doesn’t have a basic skill that generates energy.
• No Big Level Requirements or Aspects: The build is designed to be effective even at low levels, so you won’t need to grind or gather specific items to make it work. It’s also effective with any gear you have available.
• End Game Viability: The evolution of this build is considered the best end-game build for Rogue at the moment. However, it will need further tweaks and aspects. Stay tuned for the complete end-game guide.
• Speed: Playing with not one but two movement skills will make you speed through the world of Sanctuary faster than anyone else. Mobile and dynamic combat like no other class.

To understand how Rogue performs in the current meta, head out to our Diablo 4 tier list.

How to Play the Build

• Initiate with Twisting Blades: Use Twisting Blades once or twice on the first enemy.
• Positioning: Jump behind the entire pack of enemies using one of your movement skills.
• Utilize Concealment: Be sure to use “Concealment” before the blades return so you can recover energy and the cooldowns of “Concealment” And the movement skills.
• Manage Energy with Puncture: If you run out of energy, use Puncture as a source of energy generation.
• Use Shadow Imbuement: Start using “Shadow Imbuement” whenever you can get it.
• Break Crowd Control (CC): Your movement skills and “Concealment” will break CC, so be cautious and keep one for big packs.
• Transition to Ultimate Ability: Remove Puncture after obtaining your ultimate ability and the shadow talents to recover energy.

Rogue Leveling Build for Diablo 4

Doing well with the Rogue in Diablo 4 is not that hard, the class is kinda broken. Here’s a guide to a strong Rogue build that focuses on AOE and speed clearing.

Basic Skill: Puncture

In the early stages, use Puncture as your basic skill since it generates a bit of energy. As you progress and unlock more abilities in the skill tree, you’ll eventually replace this skill with the ultimate.

Core Skill: Twisting Blades

Twisting Blades is the backbone of this build, providing significant AOE damage for a moderate cost. Be sure to invest in the cooldown reduction perks to maximize its effectiveness.

Agility: Shadow Step and Dash

For increased mobility, choose two abilities from the Agility tree:

1. Shadow Step: Provides quick on-target Jump ability to bypass enemies and clear CC on yourself.
2. Dash: Offers additional speed and maneuverability.
   These abilities complement Twisting Blades, allowing you to reset their cooldowns more quickly.

Subterfuge: Concealment

In the Subterfuge tree, focus on:

Concealment: Stealth up, guaranteed crit on first ability, survivability (they can’t see you), energy regeneration. Pretty much plays the game for you.

Imbuement: Shadow Imbuement

Choose Shadow Imbuement for its AOE damage and passive energy regeneration from the passive ‘’Consuming Shadow’’. This Imbuement will enable you to clear trash much more quickly, but it’s not as good on bosses.

Ultimate: Shadow Clone

For your ultimate ability, the always-powerful Shadow Clone is a solid choice. Be sure to invest in both of its passives for maximum effectiveness. Don’t forget to pick up additional passives in the “Ultimate” section as well. I really like ‘’Haste’’ to speed up even more.

Gearing the Rogue in Diablo 4

Equipping your Rogue character effectively is crucial for success in Diablo 4. In the early game, focus on wearing any available gear, gradually upgrading as you progress.

Use whatever Weapon has the highest base Damage and Ignore stats. For Gear Prioritize damage-dealing stats and learn how each attribute benefits your class. Follow this guide to gear up your Rogue for optimal performance.

Early Game Gear

In the early stages of the game, equip any gear you can find. As you progress:

1. Upgrade to Yellows: Swap out Blue items for Yellow ones to improve your stats.
2. Equip Legendaries: Whenever you obtain a decent Legendary item or weapon, be sure to equip it, especially if it has higher base damage.

Stat Prioritization

Focus on damage-dealing stats when gearing your Rogue. While Dexterity may not be as useful in the early game, it becomes more valuable as you level up and its scaling improves. Keep in mind that all stats are essential for every class in Diablo 4, as Intelligence, Willpower, and Dexterity all have primary attributes. Here are some top stats to prioritize:

1. Dexterity: Increases skill damage, but requires 40-50 levels to scale effectively with gear.
2. Damage to Close Enemies: Enhances your damage output when engaging enemies up close.
3. Core Skill levels: More Twisting Blade levels.
4. Core Skill Damage: Twisting Blades upgrade, never bad.
5. Critical Strike Damage: Remember you have guaranteed crit.
6. Flat HP: I like not dying.
7. Resistances: I really like not dying, it slows you down from leveling, don’t be greedy build res especially when you switch world tiers.

Best Codex of Power Aspects

Codex of Powers aspects are the baseline version of specific legendary aspects (but not all legendary aspects have a codex). They are unlocked by completing specific dungeons for the first time.

Bladedancer’s Aspect

Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing xx% of Twisting Blades’ return damage per hit. Based on the distance the blades returned, the orbit damage increases up to xx% of the return damage.

Where to find it: Scosglen, inside a dungeon. You can check the location of the said dungeon using our Diablo 4 interactive map.

This is the most important Aspect, and the only one that can change how your Twisting Blades work, for other aspects, just equip whatever you can get.