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Diablo 4 Build

Dance of Knives

presentationRogue
Verified
Dance of Knives
Season 11
Speed Farm
Infernal Hordes
End Game
Updated on Dec 14, 2025
Dec 14, 2025

Build Overview

The Dance of Knives Rogue Build Guide teaches you about Gear, Skills, Paragon, Playstyle & Seasonal Mechanics in Diablo 4.

Dance of Knives is the main driver of this build and is used as a Catalyst to proc the Lucky Hit Chance to spawn Poison Trap through Aspect of Bursting Venoms. It uses a strategy with Inner Sight to maximize damage, without needing to upkeep buffs frequently. This build is also extremely controller friendly.

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If you are not level 60 yet, make sure to check out the Dance of Knives Leveling Guide instead.

Strengths and Weaknesses

  • Right-Click Build
  • Controller Friendly
  • Easy Glyph Maxing
  • Not Death Trap
  • Not Hydra Sorc
  • Not Evade Spiritborn

Build Variants

Assigned Skills

Primary
1
1
Secondary
1
1
5
1
Specialization
  • This is the regular Variant for any content in the game that is not 7min+ Pit Pushes.
  • Drop Dash for Caltrops when Pit Pushing or fighting Bosses.

Aspect & Uniques

HelmHeir of Perdition
Chest armorScoundrel's Leathers
GlovesBands of Ichorous Rose
PantsUmbrous Aspect
BootsMangler's Aspect
AmuletAspect of Bursting Venoms
Ring 1Ring of Starless Skies
Ring 2Clandestine Aspect
Dual wield weapon 1Aspect of True Sight
Dual wield weapon 2Aspect of Star Shards
Ranged weaponAspect of Contamination

This build does not function without Aspect of Bursting Venoms.

Trap Arm Time Reduction Temper on Amulet is mandatory to spring Poison Trap immediately.

Scoundrel's Leathers Scoundrels Leathers is mandatory to activate the Core Skill Synergies for Poison Trap.

  • Mythic Priority:
  • Heir of Perdition > Ring of Starless Skies
    • If you do not have the required Mythic Uniques yet, refer to the Starter Variant for replacements.
  • Unique Priority:
  • Bands of Ichorous Rose and Scoundrel's Leathers are equally important.
  • Poison Trap Duration tempers directly increases your damage because of Bands of Ichorous Rose.

Sanctifications to chase:

Offensive Slots (Weapons, Rings, Amulet, Gloves):

  • S-Tier:
    • Any of the Aspects you have equipped anyway.
  • A-Tier:
    • Frostbitten Aspect, Conceited Aspect, Vehement Brawler's Aspect
  • B-Tier:
    • Accelerating Aspect (check Breakpoints), Aspect of Retribution, Aspect of Elemental Fate, Exploiter's Aspect (for pushing)
  • C-Tier:
    • +10%[x] Poison Damage
    • +% Dexterity
    • + Ranks to Ultimate / Core / All Skills

All other Slots:

  • S-Tier:
    • +10%[x] Poison Damage Damage
  • A-Tier:
    • +% Dexterity
    • + Dexterity
  • B-Tier:
    • Cooldown Reduction (Check Sheet)
    • Attack Speed (Check Breakpoints)
    • Defenses (if necessary)

If you are unfamiliar with Sanctification, check out our Season 11 Overview for more information.

Skill Tree

Available0 (0)
Spent59 (12)

Paragon Board

Points Spent0

No Glyphs Installed

Stats

  • Str:99
  • Int:99
  • Dex:99
  • Will:99
  • Divine Gifts

    Andariel
    CorruptedEssence of Anguish
    PurifiedEssence of Screams
    Azmodan
    CorruptedEssence of Hellfire
    PurifiedEssence of Sin
    Belial
    CorruptedEssence of Shadows
    PurifiedEssence of Lies
    Duriel
    CorruptedEssence of Pain
    PurifiedEssence of Squalor

    In Season 11 the Divine Gifts do not offer any player power increase. Instead they make some activities more challenging and increase their rewards in different ways. As there are only two choices per slot, we focus on maximizing the defensive bonuses.

    Mercenary

    How it Plays

    1. Dash towards the enemies and traverse the map quickly.
    2. Group enemies with Death Trap
    3. Cast Concealment
    4. Imbue yourself with Poison Imbuement
    5. Spin2Win with Dance of Knives.
    • Dance of Knives will automatically deploy Poison Trap via Aspect of Bursting Venoms.
    • Dance of Knives will score Lucky Hits to proc Umbrous Aspect generating Dark Shroud.
    • You will retain the bonus from Poison Imbuement until you start a new spin.
    • Exposure will increase your damage per stack and reset your Death Trap Cooldown significantly.

    How it Works

    How to get enough Movement Speed to not run out of Charges

    Your Skill Tree provides you with enough Movement through various passives and bonuses.

    • Dance of Knives itself provides you with +20% while spinning
    • Stutter Step is another +15% after scoring a critical hit
    • Dark Shroud gives you +5% per shroud, so +25% total
    • Haste grants you another +15%
    • Momentum (in the starter variant) grants you +30% at maximum stack
    • Concealment gives you a +30% movement speed boost when you cast it.
      • Countering Concealment gives another +60% for a short time.
    • As you can see, even without Concealment and no Movement Speed on boots, you are already at 205% Movement Speed, which is even 5% more than the cap of 200% would allow. Additional sources of Movement Speed in the guide are simply there to make up the lack of them during earlier stages of the leveling process.

    FAQ

    Which Elixirs and Incense should I use?

    • For Elixirs you want to use Elixir of Advantage and later Elixir of Advantage II for Lucky Hit Chance and Attack Speed.
    • For Incenses we use Spiral Morning for Dexterity, Song of the Mountain for Armor and Soothing Spices for All Resistances and more Armor.

    Why are we playing Inner Sight?

    Inner Sight allows you to have more Critical Strike Chance and is generally quite useful to refresh your Dance of Knives Charges if you happen to have to re-cast it often.

    How far is 34 Meters to regain DoK Charges?

    34 Meters is approximately one and a half screen worth of distance.

    Why do we stack +Core Skill Ranks and Synergies?

    Poison Trap becomes a Core Skill with Scoundrel's Leathers and is our main damage dealer in this build.

    Leveling

    If you have not reached Level 60 and Torment 1 yet, stick to the Leveling Build instead.

    Dance of Knives Attack Speed Scaling

    • Attack Speed does not increase the rate at which Knives are thrown.
    • Instead, Attack Speed scales the Base Damage of Dance of Knives linearly.
    • If Dance of Knives Base Damage is 100% Weapon Damage, adding 50% Attack Speed increases it to 150%. This results in a relative increase of 50%.
    • If Dance of Knives Base Damage is 200% Weapon Damage, adding 50% Attack Speed increases it to 300%. So, a relative increase of 50% again.
    • To conclude, Attack Speed is its own separate multiplier for Dance of Knives.

    Dark Shroud Damage Reduction Scaling

    Dark Shroud

    Dark Shroud is used passively through the Umbrous Aspect and therefore does not need to be placed on our Skill Bar. Dark Shroud is an insanely powerful defensive skill because of its parabolic scaling. This means that it gets stronger the more we invest in it.

    • Level 1 Dark Shroud provides 40% DR at 5 stacks.
    • Level 5 Dark Shroud provides 48% DR at 5 stacks. 1 - (1-48%)/(1-40%) = 13.33% effective DR increase.
    • Level 15 Dark Shroud provides 68% DR at 5 stacks. 1 - (1-68%)/(1-48%) = 39.5% effective DR increase.
    • Level 19 Dark Shroud provides 76% DR at 5 stacks. 1 - (1-76%)/(1-68%) = 25% effective DR increase.

    Changelog

    14th of December 2025

    • Fixed Amulet Temper (Trap arm time reduction => Dark Shroud Damage)

    11th of December 2025

    • Updated for Patch 2.5.0

    7th of October 2025

    • Updated for Patch 2.4.1

    28th of September 2025

    • Added Speedfarm variant to go extra fast

    23rd of September 2025

    • Guide updated for Season 10 - Infernal Chaos

    1st of July

    • Build published for Patch 2.3 Season 9 Sins of the Horadrim

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