Dual Core Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogue Abattoir of Zir (AoZ) Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 2)

This build guide is specifically designed for Season 2 of Diablo 4, and may not be effective for use after the season ends.

Build Introduction

The Abattoir of Zir (AoZ) variant builds for Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogues are late endgame setups, focused on performance in the most difficult content in Season 2 of Diablo 4. This guide includes setups for both speed farming to obtain Sigil Powder and Glyph Experience for leveling Tears of Blood, as well as pushing up the AoZ Tiers. This is the best Rogue build for AoZ content in Diablo 4. For more information on this endgame activity, check out our Abattoir of Zir Guide.

Climbing up high tiers of Abattoir of Zir requires enough Damage Per Second (DPS) to clear enemies before the timer runs out, as well as enough defense to survive highly damaging enemy attacks. In order to achieve these requirements, the best Legendary and Unique Items are needed from the original Dual Core Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogue Guide.

The major differences between the speed farm and push variant builds are listed below.

• For speed farming, run an AoZ Tier that you can complete in 3 to 4 minutes to quickly gain Sigil Powder and Glyph Experience. Cold Imbuement is utilized to quickly Freeze elite enemies and activate increased damage bonuses for burst.
• For pushing AoZ Tiers, Poison Imbuement is utilized to build up consistent damage against enemies with high Life.

This Abattoir of Zir build guide assumes your character is Level 100. Check the Rogue Leveling Guide if you are starting a new character from Level 1-50, and then the Dual Core Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogue Endgame Guide from Level 50-100.

Tibault’s Will is currently bugged. The Maximum Resource affix on these Unique Pants increases maximum Combo Points for Rogues, instead of Maximum Energy. Each added Combo Point increases base damage when used with a Core Skill, as well as the unique bonus of each Core Skill, such as additional arrows for Rapid Fire. Up to 22 Combo Points can be obtained to fire 27 arrows in one cast of Rapid Fire with a huge base damage increase! Enhance this bug with Condemnation for a 30% to max out Combo Points. The tooltip for Condemnation is wrong, as it completely fills all Combo Points instead of generating only three Combo Points.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Overview Video and Gameplay Footage

Season of Blood

Best Vampiric Powers for Dual Core Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogue in Abattoir of Zir

The Season 2 theme introduces Vampiric Powers that provide build-altering bonuses. Spend Potent Blood, acquired from vampiric enemies, to unlock and upgrade Vampiric Powers. Make sure your equipped Chest Armor, Pants, Gloves, Boots, and Helm contain the appropriate Pacts (Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity) that match the activation costs listed on the powers.

A Vampiric Curse status effect has been added to complement the new powers: Killing an enemy affected by your Vampiric Curse stores their soul. Casting a Defensive, Macabre, or Agility Skill will unleash stored souls to attack nearby enemies. You can hold up to 8 souls.

Listed below is the Vampiric Powers for Dual Core Rapid Fire Flurry Rogues in Abattoir of Zir, ranked by importance. Stat values displayed reflect maximum Level 3 Vampiric Powers.

1. Ravenous (3 Ferocity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds.
2. Metamorphosis (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.
3. Prey on the Weak (2 Ferocity): You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.
4. Accursed Touch (6 Divinity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 44% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Accursed Souls deal 200% increased damage.
5. The final Vampiric Power can be selected depending on your personal preference/need.
   • Domination (1 Ferocity): You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen, or Feared. If they’re also Injured and not an Elite, they’re instantly killed.
   • Resilience (2 Eternity): You gain 1% Damage Reduction for each 2% Life you are missing.
   • Undying (1 Eternity): Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Skill Bar Setup for Dual Core Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogue (order does not matter)

Rapid Fire Penetrating Shot Puncture Cold Imbuement Dash Smoke Grenade

The following table shows the full allocation of Skill Points for the Rapid Fire Penetrating Shot Rogues speed farming Abattoir of Zir. A Level 100 character should obtain 10 Skill Points from Renown, in addition to 48 points from leveling.

Skill Setup for Speed Farming AoZ	Cluster
Puncture Level 1, Enhanced Puncture, Fundamental Puncture	Basic Skill
Penetrating Sot Level 5, Enhanced Penetrating Shot, Advanced Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Level 5, Enhanced Rapid Fire, Advanced Rapid Fire Sturdy Level 3	Core Skill
Dash Level 1, Enhanced Dash, Disciplined Dash Weapon Mastery Level 3 Concussive Level 2, Trick Attacks Level 1	Agility Skill
Smoke Grenade Level 1, Enhanced Smoke Grenade, Countering Smoke Grenade Dark Shroud Level 1 (not equipped on Skill Bar), Enhanced Dark Shroud, Countering Dark Shroud Exploit Level 3, Malice Level 3 Agile Level 3	Subterfuge Skill
Cold Imbuement Level 1, Enhanced Cold Imbuement, Mixed Cold Imbuement Frigid Finesse Level 3	Imbuement Skill
Innervation Level 3 Adrenaline Rush Level 1, Haste Level 3	Ultimate Skill
Close Quarters Combat	Key Passives

Alternatively, the second table shows the Skill Points for pushing Tiers of Abattoir of Zir. Poison Imbuement replaces Cold Imbuement, and Death Trap replaces Smoke Grenade on the Skill Bar.

Skill Setup for Pushing AoZ	Cluster
Puncture Level 1, Enhanced Puncture, Fundamental Puncture	Basic Skill
Penetrating Sot Level 5, Enhanced Penetrating Shot, Advanced Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Level 5, Enhanced Rapid Fire, Advanced Rapid Fire Sturdy Level 3	Core Skill
Dash Level 1, Enhanced Dash, Disciplined Dash Weapon Mastery Level 3	Agility Skill
Smoke Grenade Level 1, Enhanced Smoke Grenade Dark Shroud Level 1, Enhanced Dark Shroud, Countering Dark Shroud Exploit Level 3, Malice Level 3 Agile Level 3	Subterfuge Skill
Poison Imbuement Level 1, Enhanced Poison Imbuement, Mixed Poison Imbuement Deadly Venom Level 1, Alchemical Advantage Level 1, Debilitating Toxins Level 3	Imbuement Skill
Death Trap, Prime Death Trap Innervation Level 3 Adrenaline Rush Level 1, Haste Level 3	Ultimate Skill
Close Quarters Combat	Key Passives

Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogue Specialization

Combo Points is the preferred Rogue Specialization for general farming due to the burst damage playstyle of Rapid Fire Rogue. Build Combo Points with Puncture to unleash additional damage and arrows for Rapid Fire. Combo Points can also be used to gain additional damage and Lucky Hit Chance with Penetrating Shot.

Paragon

The Paragon progression system unlocks after reaching Level 50, and offers a considerable boost to character power. Within the Paragon Board, there are many different bonuses, ranging from minor stat enhancements on Magic Nodes to more significant gains with Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes.

Important Notes:

• Additional Bonus requirements on Rare Glyphs may not be obtainable until they gain increased radius range at Level 15.
• Attach Legendary Boards in the correct order. Bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order.
• Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the correct orientation before attachment.

Season 2 Update (Patch 1.2.0) – The priority of Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage are lower due to them becoming additive with other damage bonuses. Separate damage multipliers from Additional Bonuses on Rare Glyphs, along with Damage Reduction nodes, remain highly valuable. Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies is a high priority affix due to Close Quarters Combat being changed to provide a separate damage multiplier equal to 40% of your Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus.

The list below contains the most beneficial Glyphs and Boards for the Penetrating Shot Rapid Fire Rogue build, sorted in the order obtained in the final Level 100 Paragon Tree. The images that follow provide a visual of each Paragon Board setup.

Name	Effect
Devious	• Grants + [144%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. • Additional Bonus (requires 40 Dexterity purchased in radius range): When you hit an enemy with an attack that applies a Crowd Control effect, they take x2%, up to x10%, increased damage from you for 20 seconds.
Tricks of the Trade	Your Marksman Skills grant your next Cutthroat Skill 25% increased damage. Your Cutthroat Skills grant your next Marksman Skill 25% increased damage.
Turf	• For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [9.6%] increased damage to Close targets. • Additional Bonus (requires 25 Strength purchased in radius range): You gain 15% Damage Reduction against Close enemies.
Cheap Shot	You deal x5% increased damage for each Nearby enemy that is Crowd Controlled, up to x25%.
Tears of Blood	• For every 5 Core Stats purchased within range, you gain x [2%] increased damage. • Grants + [2%] bonus to all Rare nodes within range. Bonus increases by 10% every 10 levels.
Exploit Weakness	Grants + [144%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. • Additional Bonus (requires 40 Dexterity purchased in radius range): When you hit an enemy with an attack that applies a Crowd Control effect, they take x2%, up to x10%, increased damage from you for 20 seconds.
Control	For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal + [14.21%] increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets. • Additional Bonus (requires 25 Intelligence purchased in radius range): You deal x10% increased damage to Slowed or Chilled enemies or, instead, x20% increased damage to Stunned or Frozen enemies.

Starting Board (Devious)

Tricks of the Trade (Turf)

Cheap Shot (Tears of Blood)

Exploit Weakness (Control)

Paragon Board images courtesy of d4builds.gg. Click this link for the Paragon planner.

Mechanics and Playstyle for Abattoir of Zir

Penetrating Shot excels at clearing high density activities, such as Nightmare Dungeons and the Abattoir of Zir. Line up enemies to hit them with the piercing arrow while Trickshot Aspect splits off additional side arrows for more area coverage. The piercing effect of the main arrow also applies to the side arrows.

When fired at full energy, Advanced Penetrating Shot applies a Slow to normal enemies and Elites will get knocked down, activating Concussive for Increased Critical Strike Chance. Penetrating Shot gains a high amount of Lucky Hit Chance with Combo Points, so Innervation is utilized to keep Energy full.

Penetrating Shot can lack single target damage against Elites and Bosses, so Rapid Fire is used to snipe individual enemies. Learn when to use either Penetrating Shot or Rapid Fire in every situation to master this Dual Core Build.

This build is mostly a ranged build with Penetrating Shot, Rapid Fire and Puncture allowing attacks from a distance. Although, Close Quarters Combat is by far the strongest Key Passive Skill and requires the player to occasionally be in Close range to active. Dash is a Cutthroat Skill used offensively to land on top of an enemy every 8 seconds for the Close Quarters Combat damage buff. Casting a Cutthroat Skill also increases the damage of your next Marksman Skill (Penetrating Shot or Rapid Fire) with Tricks of the Trade.

Cold Imbuement and Smoke Grenade Crowd Controls

Cold Imbuement is utilized for Crowd Control (CC) and multiple damage increases during Abattoir of Zir (AoZ) speed farming. The 25% Chill applies to every hit from Rapid Fire or Penetrating Shot, meaning enemies can become Frozen after just one cast. These multi-hit Core Skills easily activate the additional bonuses on Mixed Cold Imbuement and Frigid Finesse for some insane damage multipliers.

Elites are easy to kill after being Frozen, but Bosses are initially immune to Crowd Controls. Cold Imbuement and Smoke Grenade can still be used against Bosses to eventually Stagger them. After fully Staggering a Boss, they are considered affected by all Crowd Control types for the Staggered duration.

The final and most powerful source of Crowd Control comes from Smoke Grenade. Throw a well-placed Smoke Grenade to render an entire group of elites helpless with Daze, while activating 25% increased damage from Enhanced Smoke Grenade. Dazed enemies can then be Knocked Down with Trick Attacks to activate increased Critical Strike Chance from Concussive.

Dash also drops a Smoke Grenade with Aspect of Quickening Fog. A synergetic gameplay loop is created with Smoke Grenades reducing Dash cooldown, and Countering Smoke Grenade reducing Smoke Grenade cooldown. These effects apply to Smoke Grenades manually casted from the Skill Bar and dropped automatically at the end of Dash to constantly reduce both cooldowns.

Being able to Dash more often is incredibly important due to it being the only Cutthroat skill used in the build to activate Close Quarters Combat and Tricks of the Trade. Use dash offensively to land on top of enemies with a Smoke Grenade and gain massive damage increases.

Vulnerable

Fundamental Puncture easily applies Vulnerable to a target with a single Basic attack. Aim Puncture at the toughest enemies in a pack. In group play, apply this debuff to Elites and Bosses so your teammates deal 20% more damage.

Animation Cancel Technique

An Evade can be used immediately after using Rapid Fire or Penetrating Shot to cancel their casting animations. This technique is important to quickly dodge incoming attacks while activating Advanced Rapid Fire. Boots with the implicit effect, attacks reduce Evade’s cooldown by 1.2 seconds, allow for an animation cancel after using three Basic Attacks and a Core Skill. Practice hitting Evade after every Core Skill to build muscle memory.

AoE Damage Rotation

Explode groups of mobs with the following rotation.

1. Cast Puncture three times at a distance to build up Combo Points.
2. Dash on top of the group of enemies to drop Smoke Grenade from Aspect of Quickening Fog on them, while automatically activating Close Quarters Combat and Tricks of the Trade. Prioritize landing on Elites to apply Enhanced Dash. Alternatively, cast Smoke Grenade from the Skill Bar instead of Dash.
3. (Optional) Activate Cold Imbuement against tough opponents to increase damage and apply Chill/Freeze.
4. Cast Penetrating Shot into the group or aimed at the toughest Elites.
5. Immediately animation cancel Penetrating Shot with an Evade to avoid damage or gain some distance.
6. Restart the rotation. Dash only needs to be casted every 8 seconds to keep the damage buff from Close Quarters Combat active.

You lose all Crowd Control damage bonuses against Unstoppable Elites, making them much harder to defeat. Quickly kill any Elites within a group of enemies with the Single Target Damage Rotation (section directly below) before they become Unstoppable. Attempt to single them out or get next to them for Rapid Fire to hit. Otherwise, clear out some enemies with the AoE Rotation to create a line of sight.

Single Target Damage Rotation

Use the following rotation against Elites and Bosses for high single target Damage Per Second (DPS).

1. Use Evade to activate Advanced Rapid Fire.
2. Build three Combo Points with Puncture. Make sure you are close enough for Fundamental Puncture to apply Vulnerable.
3. Dash on top of the toughest Elite to Daze them, while automatically activating Close Quarters Combat and Tricks of the Trade. Prioritize landing on Elites or Bosses to apply Enhanced Dash. Alternatively, cast Smoke Grenade from the Skill Bar instead of Dash.
4. Activate Cold Imbuement for damage increases from Mixed Cold Imbuement and Frigid Finesse.
5. Cast Rapid Fire at the target.
6. Immediately animation cancel Rapid Fire with an Evade to restart the rotation. Dash only needs to be casted every 8 seconds to keep the damage buff from Close Quarters Combat active.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority in the Endgame

Make sure to pick up all Rare Item drops that may be upgrades while you are farming with Double Core Penetrating Shot and Rapid Fire 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, Daggers are preferred over Swords for the Damage to Close Enemies implicit. Bows are preferred over Crossbows for the Weapon Mastery bonus.

Make sure you have Boots with the implicit effect, attacks reduce Evade’s cooldown by 1.2 seconds. The implicit effect is required for constant Evades to keep activating Advanced Rapid Fire. Upgrade Boots with at least 700 Item Power at the Blacksmith to get the max cooldown reduction value.

Stat Priority List

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for Dual Core Rapid Fire Penetrating Shot Rogues. 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 how much is stacked or other character stats. Bolded stats are the most important and sometimes vital for the build to function properly.

Season 2 Update (Patch 1.2.0) – The priority of Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage are lower due to them becoming additive with other damage bonuses. Separate damage multipliers from Additional Bonuses on Rare Glyphs, along with Damage Reduction nodes, remain highly valuable. Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies is a high priority affix due to Close Quarters Combat being changed to provide a separate damage multiplier equal to 40% of your Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus.

Resistances have been reworked to be more effective in Patch 1.2.0, and they are now included in the Stat Priority List. 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.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items for Abattoir of Zir

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Legendary Aspects and Unique Items for Penetrating Shot Rogues in Abattoir of Zir (AoZ).

Resource Aspects, such as Aspect of the Umbral and Ravenous Aspect, help with Energy management early on. Unfortunately, they are limited to Ring slots and replace Offensive Aspects. Innervation can be solely relied on to solve Energy issues with enough Lucky Hit Chance.

Aspect of Disobedience is no longer needed once you reach the Armor cap (13200 for Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons, 13750 for Tier 25 Abattoir of Zir) without it. This is possible with 925 Item Power Equipment, three Royal Skull in Jewelry, Armor nodes in Paragon, and finally +% Armor affixes on Helm, Chest and Amulet.

Harlequin Crest is not recommended against the high level enemies in AoZ due to it not having an Armor affix.

Tibault’s Will is currently bugged. The Maximum Resource affix on these Unique Pants increases maximum Combo Points for Rogues, instead of Maximum Energy. Each added Combo Point increases base damage when used with a Core Skill, as well as the unique bonus of each Core Skill, such as additional arrows for Rapid Fire. Up to 22 Combo Points can be obtained to fire 27 arrows in one cast of Rapid Fire with a huge base damage increase! Enhance this bug with Condemnation for a 30% to max out Combo Points. The tooltip for Condemnation is wrong, as it completely fills all Combo Points instead of generating only three Combo Points.

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect or Unique Item
Ranged Weapon (+100% bonus effect)	Edgemaster’s Aspect
Amulet	Cheat’s Aspect
Dual-Wielded Weapon Slot #1	Condemnation
Gloves	Fists of Fate
Dual-Wielded Weapon Slot #1 or Rings	Aspect of the Expectant
Dual-Wielded Weapon Slot #1 or Rings	Accelerating Aspect or Aspect of Bursting Venoms if using Poison Imbuement
Dual-Wielded Weapon Slot #1 or Rings	Trickshot Aspect
Helm or Chest	Aspect of Might
Helm or Chest	Umbrous Aspect
Pants	Tibault’s Will
Boots	Aspect of Quickening Fog

Gems

Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each slot type for the Rapid Fire and Flurry Rogue build.

• Weapon: Royal Emerald for Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies.
• Armor: Royal Ruby for Maximum Life or Royal Topaz to prevent deaths from chain Crowd Controls.
• Jewelry: Royal Skull to cap Armor (13200 for Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons, 13750 for Tier 25 Abattoir of Zir) or Individual Resistance Gems for Resistances that are not already capped at 70%. The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow.

Elixirs

Listed below are the best Elixirs to consume for Abattoir of Zir (AoZ), ranked by importance. Elixirs that are not available at the Alchemist can only be found as drops. Open Splitting Steel and Mystery Chests in Helltides to farm non-craftable Elixirs.

1. Iron Skin Elixir (non-craftable): Use if Armor is not capped (13750 in Tier 25 AoZ). Alternatively, Heady Iron Barb Elixir can be crafted at the Alchemist.
2. Heady Assault Elixir (craftable): Attack Speed increases Damage Per Second (DPS).
3. Elixir of Fortitude (non-craftable): Maximum Life greatly improves survivability in AoZ.
4. Elixir of Cruelty (non-craftable): Provides the highest source of Critical Strike Chance from an Elixir. Alternatively, Heady Precision Elixir can be crafted at the Alchemist.

Changelog

• December 28th, 2023: Article created.