Build Introduction
The 
Penetrating Shot Rogue leveling build blasts through even the toughest foes. This is your guide to building a character for leveling in Diablo 4, with the optimal setup for Skills, Rotation, and Gear.
Penetrating Shot always pierces, dealing massive hit damage to any enemies in the way. This ranged build is perfect for players who want a safe playstyle that easily clears groups of enemies. Line them up with the Penetrating Shot Rogue!
Once your Rogue character reaches Level 50 or enters World Tier 3, switch to the endgame guide for Penetrating Shot to continue this build.
While Penetrating Shot Rogue is not the most optimal build for leveling a new Rogue character, it is an alternative option for players who prefer a ranged playstyle. The Dual Core Rapid Fire Flurry or Twisting Blades Rogue builds are our top recommendations for leveling. Check out the Rogue leveling page for an overview of all our builds and general tips for leveling.
Season 3 Update (Patch 1.3.0): With 
Precision buffed and 
Close Quarters Combat nerfed, pure ranged playstyles are finally viable. Watch the video below for the full details.
Season of the Construct
Season 3 Patch Updates
The following list details the changes in the Season 3 Update (Patch 1.3.0) that may pertain to leveling a Penetrating Shot Rogue.
Enhanced Penetrating Shot - Previous: Penetrating Shot deals 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it pierces.
- Now: Penetrating Shot has a 10%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance. If Penetrating Shot damages at least 3 enemies, gain 10%[+] Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds.
- Improved Penetrating Shot
- Previous: If Penetrating Shot damage at least 3 enemies, your next Penetrating Shot has 20%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance.
- New: Penetrating Shot deals an additional 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it hits.
Close Quarters Combat - Amount of Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus conversion percent reduced from 40% to 10%.
- Attack Speed per stack increased from 10% to 15%.
- Precision
- Previous: Critical Strike with Marksman Skills grant you Precision. You gain 4%[x] Critical Strike Damage per stack of Precision, up to a maximum of 20%[x]. When you reach maximum Precision, your next Marksman Skill is guaranteed to Critically Strike, and deals 40%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage, then consumes all stacks of Precision.
- New: Each Marksman skill cast grants 1 stack of Precision, or 2 if it has Critically Struck. When you reach 6 stacks, your next Marksman Core or Ultimate Skill is a guaranteed Critical Strike that deals x50% increased Critical Strike Damage, consuming all stacks of Precision. This damage is further increased by an amount equal to x15% of your Critical Strike Damage bonus.
Concussive - Previous: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance against them for 4 seconds.
- New: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds.
Aspect of the Expectant: Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.
Seneschal Construct Companion Powers
The Season 3 theme introduces a Seneschal Construct Companion that can deal damage or provide support to complement your character. Equip the Seneschal with two Governing Stones to activate their abilities, and then link them to three Tuning Stones each to augment the abilities. There are 12 different Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones that can be found in Vaults scattered across Sanctuary. Fuse together duplicate stones to level them up, increasing the potency of Governing Stones or adding augments to Tuning Stones.
Listed below is the best Seneschal Construct Companion setup for Penetrating Shot Rogues. The first 2 Governing Stone setups are equipped for the construct to support the player. The 3rd setup is equipped for the construct to deal high damage on its own. Although only 3 Tuning Stones can be linked to each Governing Stone, alternative options are provided and sorted in order of importance.
- Flash of Adrenaline: Administers a quick flash of adrenaline into the player, granting bonus damage for a duration.
- Genesis: Increase the effectiveness of the supported Skill.
- Tactical Support: Decrease the cooldown of the supported Skill.
- Duration Support: Supported Skills have their durations increased.
- Fortify Support: When the Seneschal Construct uses the supported Skill, you gain Fortify. Skills with slower attack speeds or skills with cooldowns will increase the amount of Fortify granted.
- Tempest: Electrically charge an enemy causing it to deal damage to themselves and additional enemies each second over time. If the enemy is killed, Tempest spreads to another enemy gaining additional time and bonus damage. These bonuses are also applied if Tempest is reapplied onto the same enemy. — This attack setup is used for a supportive construct, buffing the player to deal more damage.
- Evernight: The supported Skill grants you +4 to all Skills when used.
- Resource Support: Player gains an amount of Primary Resource when the supporting Skill first deals damage.
- Efficiency Support: When the supporting skill deals damage, you gain Critical Strike Chance to the same targets hit.
- Safeguard Support: When used, the supported Skill grants Damage Reduction to you.
- Firefly: Deploy a small construct that lands on the target and explodes 3 times, dealing damage. — Replace the Tempest setup to enable more damage output from the construct.
- Multishot Support: Supported Projectile skills launch additional projectiles.
- Piercing Support: The supported Projectile Skill will pierce multiple enemies.
- Seeking Support: The supported Projectile Skill will auto-seek enemies for a limited duration.
Skill Tree Points
The following table shows the order in which to allocate your Skill Points for the Penetrating Rogue leveling build. You gain 48 points at Level 50 and 2 points from completing Renown in each Act zone, for a total of 58.
Penetrating Shot Rogue Specialization
Combo Points is the preferred Rogue Specialization for general farming due to it providing bonus Lucky Hit Chance for Penetrating Shot, in addition to increased damage.
Mechanics and Playstyle
The Penetrating Shot Rogue build is fairly simple to play, but has some complex mechanics to learn. Penetrating Shot has a focused Area of Effect (AoE) in a straight line that can be hard to utilize. Trickshot Aspect helps overcome this downside by adding more arrows to increase coverage and help clear packs of enemies.
Damage is increased further with 
Concussive, 
Weapon Mastery, 
Exploit 
Malice and 
Impetus.
Smoke Grenade prevents enemies from attacking you, greatly increasing survivability.
Finally, 
Stutter Step, 
Haste, and 
Dash speed up movement for faster farming.
Shadow Imbuement is used to help clear packs of enemies and generate Energy with 
Consuming Shadows.
Lucky Hit
Penetrating Shot has a high Lucky Hit Chance of 80% when used with 3 Combo Points, and it has a chance of proccing on every enemy hit by the piercing arrows. Therefore, Countering Smoke Grenade and 
Innervation are used for Lucky Hit Effects.
Puncture can also be used to proc Lucky Hits with 35% chance per blade thrown. This works extremely well with increased Basic Attack Speed and 3 blades thrown per cast on Fundamental Puncture.
Status Effects
The Penetrating Shot Rogue utilizes multiple status effects to render enemies helpless. Advanced Penetrating Shot Slows enemies and Knocks Down elites when cast at full Energy.
Fundamental Puncture easily applies Vulnerable to a target with a single Basic attack. In group play, apply this debuff to Elites and Bosses so your teammates deal 20% more damage!
Smoke Grenade is another powerful Crowd Control (CC) in our trapper arsenal. This Skill can be used often to Daze groups of enemies with Countering Smoke Grenade. Dash also drops an automatic Smoke Grenade with 
Aspect of Quickening Fog. Critical Strikes against Dazed enemies knock them down with 
Trick Attacks, activating Concussive for increased Critical Strike Chance.
Advanced Penetrating Shot and Disciplined Dash both apply Slow to restore Energy with 
Aspect of the Umbral.
Stack Damage to Poisoned, Vulnerable, Dazed, Slowed and Controlled Enemies on gear and the Paragon Board to scale your damage further.
Damage Rotation
Use the following rotation to optimize DPS.
- Use Smoke Grenade or Dash with Aspect of Quickening Fog to Daze enemies.
- Against large groups of enemies, activate Shadow Imbuement for AoE explosions and Energy generation.
- Cast Puncture 3 times to build Combo Points. Try to stay close enough to shotgun elites and bosses to apply Vulnerable and proc Lucky Hit.
- Line enemies up to piece through them with Penetrating Shot.
- Repeat the rotation. Try to cast Penetrating Shot while you have full Energy to activate Advanced Penetrating Shot and Edgemaster’s Aspect.
Gear Choice and Stat Priority while Leveling
Make sure to pick up all Rare Item drops that may be upgrades while you are leveling a Penetrating Shot Rogue. Save Legendary Items with useful aspects in your stash to be used later for extraction and imprinting onto well rolled Rare Items.
When comparing weapons with similar item levels, Crossbows are preferred over Bows for the Vulnerable Damage implicit affix. The DPS value on Dual Wielded Weapons doesn’t matter as much, because they are only used for Puncture. Therefore, other beneficial affix mods on Dual Wielded Weapons can be prioritized instead.
Stat Priority List
Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear during early leveling of a Penetrating Shot Rogue. Each line of affixes are listed in order of importance. Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important, but their benefits may vary depending on how much is stacked or other character stats. Bolded stats are the most important and sometimes vital for the build to function properly.
The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow. Maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.
Season 3 Update (Patch 1.3.0): Critical Strike Damage priority increased due to Precision change.
| Gear Slot | Important Affixes |
|---|---|
| Weapons | + Dexterity, All Stats, Critical Strike Damage + Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Close Enemies, Core Skill Damage |
| Helm | + Armor, Resistances + Basic Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, Maximum Life + Crowd Control Duration, Dexterity, Maximum Energy |
| Chest | + Armor, Damage Reduction, DR from Close Enemies, Resistances + DR from Distant Enemies, Maximum Life |
| Gloves | + Ranks of Penetrating Shot, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, Lucky Hit Chance to Restore Primary Resource + Lucky Hit Chance, Dexterity |
| Pants | + Armor, Damage Reduction, DR from Close Enemies, Resistances + DR from Distant Enemies, Maximum Life |
| Boots | + Resistances, Movement Speed + Energy Cost Reduction, Ranks of Dash |
| Amulet | + Armor + Ranks of Malice, Exploit or Weapon Mastery Passive + Cooldown Reduction, Movement Speed + Energy Cost Reduction, Damage Reduction, DR from Close Enemies |
| Rings | + Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage + Maximum Life, Resource Generation, Maximum Energy, Lucky Hit Chance |
Legendary Aspects and Codex of Power
To unlock Aspects in the Codex of Power, you must complete the corresponding Dungeon where the specific Aspect drops. Trickshot Aspect can be unlocked in the Codex of Power by completing the Bastion of Faith in Hawezar. Visit the Occultist to imprint this Aspect onto an item. Imprint this on an Amulet for +50% bonus effect.
Aspects found on dropped Legendary Items have stronger effects than those applied from the Codex of Power. Additionally, it is important to know that certain Aspects can only be obtained by finding them on a legendary item, and are not accessible through the Codex of Power. Extract Aspects from unusable Legendary Items to imprint them onto well-rolled Rare Items. Avoid imprinting valuable extracted Aspects onto weapons, because weapons they get replaced often while leveling.
We have a dedicated in-depth Aspect and Codex of Power guide that you can check out for more information.
Listed below are all the Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Penetrating Shot Rogue leveling build. They are listed in order of priority. The best-in-slot Aspects List is in the Endgame Guide for Penetrating Shot Rogue.
| Aspect Name | Legendary Aspect Power | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Trickshot Aspect | Whenever Penetrating Shot damages an enemy, 2 additional arrows split off to either side. These side arrows deal [10 – 25%] of Penetrating Shot’s Base damage and do not split. | Bastion of Faith, Hawezar |
| Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to [10 – 20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource. | Oldstones, Scosglen |
| Aspect of the Expectant | Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by [5 – 10%], up to 30%. | Underroot, Scosglen |
| Aspect of the Umbral | Restore [1 – 4] of your Primary Resource when you Crowd Control an enemy. | Champion’s Demise, Dry Steppes |
 Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2 – 6] seconds | Dark Ravine, Dry Steppes |
| Rapid Aspect | Basic Skills gain [15 – 30%] Attack Speed. | Buried Halls, Dry Steppes |
| Accelerating Aspect | Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [15 – 25%] for 3 seconds. | Random Drop Only |
| Exploiter’s Aspect | You have 20% increased Crowd Control Duration. While enemies are Unstoppable, you deal [20 – 50%] increased damage to them. | Random Drop Only |
| Aspect of Quickening Fog | You automatically drop a Smoke Grenade at the end of Dash. Dash’s Cooldown is reduced by [0.25 – 0.35] seconds for each enemy Dazed this way, up to [0.75 – 1.05] seconds. | Random Drop Only |
| Aspect of Explosive Verve | Your Grenade Skills count as Trap Skills. Whenever you arm a Trap or drop Grenades, you gain [10 – 18%] increased Movement speed for 3 seconds. | Derelict Lodge, Fractured Peaks |
| Cheat’s Aspect | You take [15 – 25%] less damage from Crowd Controlled enemies. Whenever a Crowd Controlled enemy deals direct damage to you, gain 15% Movement Speed for 2 seconds. | Luban’s Rest, Scosglen |
 Wind Striker Aspect | Critical Strikes grant [8.0 – 16.0%] Movement Speed for 1 second, up to 6 seconds. | Shivta Ruins, Kehjistan |
| Vengeful Aspect | Lucky Hit: Making an enemy Vulnerable has up to a [30 – 50%] chance to grant 3% increased Critical Strike Chance for 3 seconds, up to 9%. | Inferno, Kehjistan |
Gems
Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each slot type for Rogue leveling.
- Weapon:
Emerald for Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies. - Armor:
Ruby for Maximum Life. - Jewelry:
Royal Skull for Armor.
Elixirs and Health Potions
Visit the Alchemist to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Craft the highest quality 
Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed.
Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.
Changelog
- February 5th, 2024: Seneschal Construct Companion Powers section updated with an optional setup for construct damage.
- January 28th, 2024: Seneschal Construct Companion Powers section updated.
- January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 (Patch 1.3.0).
- October 17th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 (Patch 1.2.0).
- July 18th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.
