Grenade – Rogue Build for Diablo 4 (Season 9)

Build Introduction

The Grenade Rogue is a specialized build focused on dropping Stun Grenades with the newly added Pitfighter’s Gull in Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred. The infinite casts of Smoke Grenade render enemies helpless to the multiple explosions. This build has high Area-of-Effect damage, perfect for pushing high tiers of The Pit!

This late endgame guide assumes your character is Level 60 and fulfills the Build Requirements. If you are not ready for this build, follow the Rogue Leveling Guide to find a starter build.

Check the build tier lists to see how this build compares to others on Icy Veins.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Quick Navigation

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Skill Bar Setup for the Grenade Rogue (order does not matter)

Smoke GrenadeHeartseekerShadow StepCaltropsDeath TrapDark Shroud

The Skill Tree above shows the full allocation of 71 Skill Points for the Grenadier Rogue build. Make sure you obtain the 12 Skill Points available from Renown.

Frigid Finesse is always active against Staggered Bosses.

Weapon Mastery does not work with Stun Grenades.

Wondering what comes after Level 60? Head to the Paragon Board section to power up the build even further. If you want to see how everything plays out in combat, check out the Rotation and Playstyle section for a quick breakdown.

Rogue Class Mechanic – Specialization

Preparation is the preferred specialization for the Grenade Rogue for 15% Damage Reduction and to reset Cooldowns. The bonuses are activated by casting Death Trap.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.

Legendary Aspects

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects for the Grenade Rogue build. Salvage Legendary Items with higher Aspect values to unlock them in the Codex of Power, and then imprint them onto Legendary Items with the preferred affixes. For the best results, combine these Aspects with the ideal Stat Priorities.

Gear Slot	Name	Effect
Ranged Weapon (+100% bonus effect)	Opportunist’s Aspect	When you enter or break Stealth, you drop a cluster of exploding Stun Grenades around you that deal [X] Physical damage and Stun enemies for 1 second. Your Stun Grenades deal [25 – 45%] more damage.
Amulet (+50 bonus effect)	Trickster’s Aspect	Caltrops and Smoke Grenade receive Stun Grenade benefits and throw Stun Grenades that deal [X] Physical damage and Stun enemies for 1 second. Your Stun Grenades deal [25 – 45%] increased damage.
Ring Slot #1	Pitfighter’s Gull	Casting Smoke Grenade increases your Critical Strike Damage by x33% for [3 – 6] seconds and leaves behind a cloud of shadows. While within the cloud, you gain Stealth once per second.
Dual-Wielded Weapons or Ring Slot #2	Aspect of Surprise	When you Evade or Shadow Step, you leave behind a cluster of exploding Stun Grenades that deal [X] total Physical damage and Stun enemies for 1 second. Your Grenade Skills deal [25 – 40%] more damage.
Dual-Wielded Weapons or Ring Slot #2	Aspect of Artful Initiative	When you spend 100 Energy you release a cluster of exploding Stun Grenades that deal [X] total Physical damage and Stun enemies for 1 second. Your Grenade Skills deal [25 – 45%] increased damage.
Dual-Wielded Weapons or Ring Slot #2	Frostbitten Aspect	Enemies hit by your Grenade Skills have a chance equal to your Critical Strike Chance to be Frozen for 2 seconds. You deal x [10 – 25%] increased Critical Strike Damage against Frozen or Stunned enemies.
Gloves (replaced by Fists of Fate)	Aspect of Retribution	Distant enemies have a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds when they hit you. You deal x [15 – 35%] increased damage to Stunned and Knocked Down enemies.
Helm (replaced by Heir of Perdition)	Umbrous Aspect	Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a [45 – 65%] chance to grant a free Dark Shroud shadow.
Chest (replaced by Shroud of Khanduras)	Cheat’s Aspect	You have [5 – 15%] increased Damage Reduction and +10% increased Movement Speed, doubled while below 50% Maximum Life.
Pants	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2 – 10] seconds.
Boots	Aspect of Concussive Strikes	Your Daze effects last [20 – 40%] longer. Dazing an enemy increases your Movement Speed by [20 – 40%] for 3 seconds.

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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for Grenade Rogues, ranked by importance. Affixes on the same line have equal value, so attempt to obtain all affixes in each line before moving on to the next. Yellow affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades, while blue affixes are secondary options. For more details, check the Tempering and Masterworking guides.

A Crossbow is selected for a higher damage per hit for Stun Grenades. Daggers are equipped for a faster cast of Shadow Step and the Damage to Close enemies implicit stat to scale Close Quarters Combat.

Prioritize capping Armor at 1,000 and all Resistances at 75%. Be aware of the increasing penalties to Armor and Resistances as you progress through Torment difficulties.

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Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Weapons	1. Maximum Life, Dexterity, Vulnerable Damage	1. Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Close Enemies 2. Trap Augments (Weapon): Caltrops Duration or Caltrops Size
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity	1. Daze Control (Utility): Smoke Grenade Cooldown Reduction 2. Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Dodge Chance
Chest	1. Ranks to Dark Shroud 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity	1. Daze Control (Utility): Smoke Grenade Cooldown Reduction 2. Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Dodge Chance
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Vulnerable Damage	1. Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Close Enemies 2. Daze Control (Utility): Smoke Grenade Cooldown Reduction
Pants	1. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 2. Maximum Life, Dexterity	1. Rogue Innovation (Utility): Stun Grenade Size 2. Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Dodge Chance
Boots	Implicit Stat: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown 1. Movement Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity	1. Rogue Innovation (Utility): Stun Grenade Size 2. Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed
Amulet	1. Ranks to Frigid Finesse, Unstable Elixirs, Malice, or Exploit 2. Critical Strike Chance, Cooldown Reduction, Attack Speed	1. Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Close Enemies 2. Subterfuge Efficiency (Resource): Subterfuge Cooldown Reduction
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Dexterity, Vulnerable Damage	1. Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Close Enemies 2. Subterfuge Efficiency (Resource): Subterfuge Cooldown Reduction

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Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Listed below are the required, recommended, and optional Unique and Mythic Unique Items for the Stealth Grenade Rogue build. Each item description includes the most important affix to target for Masterworking upgrades. Check the Mythic Unique Items Guide for information on target-farming them.

• Pitfighter’s Gull (required) grants Stealth to activate Opportunist’s Aspect.
  • Masterworking Priority: Critical Strike Chance
• Fists of Fate (recommended) increases overall damage by 50% with a 300% value on the unique effect. The downside is the drastic damage range of the unique effect can cause an inconsistency in the hits required to kill enemies.
  • Masterworking Priority: Critical Strike Chance
• Heir of Perdition (highly recommended) is the best option for damage output, if you can find this Mythic Unique Item.
  • Masterworking Priority: Critical Strike Chance
• Shroud of Khanduras (recommended) groups enemies together for efficient clearing with Stun Grenades.
  • Masterworking Priority: Ranks to Dark Shroud
• Shroud of False Death (optional) provides the highest damage increase in the slot due to the +1 Ranks to All Passives inherent affix.
  • Masterworking Priority: All Stats or Maximum Life
• Cowl of the Nameless (optional) provides a high damage output when properly Masterworked.
  • Masterworking Priority: Ranks to Unstable Elixirs or Trick Attacks
• Godslayer Crown (optional) groups up Elites to allow grenades to hit an entire group of enemies, while also providing a high burst damage buff.
  • Masterworking Priority: Cooldown Reduction

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Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the recommended Gems and Runewords to socket into your gear.

Gems

Equip the corresponding Gems into your Weapon, Armor, and Jewelry slots. If you are playing in Season 9, replace the Jewelry Gems with Horadric Jewels.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Diamond for increased Ultimate Damage to scale No Witnesses.	Grand Emerald for Dexterity.	Any Resistance Gems needed or Grand Skull for Armor (up to the 1,000 Armor cap).

Runewords

Insert the following 2 Runewords, each consisting of a Rune of Offering and a Rune of Invocation, into any equipped Helm, Chest, or Pants item. Add sockets to your equipment at the Jeweler if necessary. Check the Runewords Guide for more details.

Runewords	Effects
Yul Tun	Gain: 50 Offering — Cast a Skill with a Cooldown. Requires: 100 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Rogue’s Stun Grenades, Stunning and dealing damage to enemies.
Lith Gar	Gain: 150 Offering — Stand still for 0.3 seconds. Requires: 25 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%.

If you already have 100% Critical Strike Chance without Gar, use Ohm instead.

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Paragon Board

Use the following Paragon Boards, Legendary Nodes, and Glyphs for the Grenade Rogue.

The Paragon setup displayed above focuses on quickly unlocking the essential Glyph sockets and Legendary Nodes at a moderate Paragon Level. Once the base setup is complete, allocate the remaining Paragon points in the following order.

1. Obtain any remaining nodes providing a damage increase within the radius of Glyph sockets.
2. Path to the remaining Rare and Magic nodes. Prioritize obtaining damage reduction, any needed Resistances/Armor, and damage increases.
3. Any remaining points can be spent on Dexterity nodes within the radius of Headhunter.

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Horadric Spell and Jewels (Season 9)

Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim offers seasonal powers that can be utilized to enhance this build. Access Horadic Spells from the Powers tab in the character sheet, and place Horadic Jewels into Jewelry slots.

Horadric Spell

The Horadric Catalyst is the base power of your spell, attached to a Skill slot on the Skill bar and triggered when the Skill is cast. The Catalyst is combined with one Infusion that modifies the damage type, and three Arcana that enhance the baseline power of the spell.

Type	Power	Effect
Catalyst	Astral Pillar (equipped on Shadow Step)	Cooldown: 7 seconds Lucky Hit: 12% Shape an Ethereal Column that Taunts for 4.9 seconds. Piercing waves flow from it and deal 1127% damage, until you create another one or move too far away. Rank 10: The Taunted enemies become Vulnerable and move faster.
Infusion	Nebulous Extract	Your Spell Catalyst now deals Shadow and or Corrupting damage. Enemies hit by it deal 10% reduced damage for 7 seconds. While equipped, your Shadow Damage Bonus is equal to that of your highest Damage Type Bonus. Rank 5: Deactivates monster Summoner effects for 8 seconds.
Arcana	Bloody Charm	Your Catalyst gains a specialized Execute effect for non-Boss enemies with 20% or less Life. Astral Pillar: Will launch additional waves towards Executable non-Boss enemies to Execute them.
Arcana	Potent Alloy	Your Catalyst destroys enemy Barriers and Knocks them Down for 5 seconds after the removal.
Arcana	Fractured Core	Your Catalyst deactivates monster Damage Resistance Aura effects for 5 seconds, but you take 10% more stacking damage for the same time.

Horadric Jewels

Insert the following Horadric Jewels into Jewelry slots to enhance the Horadric Spell.

Jewel	Effect
Idol From Below	You gain x6% primary stat, x6% Maximum Life and you are always Unhindered. However, you will be hunted in Sanctuary’s darkest places by Jewel Guardians who were entombed to protect this relic.
Willbreaker	Physical damage you deal shatters enemies’ spirits, causing them to take 40%[x] more Physical damage for 6 seconds. This effect applies when first damaging a Boss or Elite, or when they are affected by Crowd Control.
Luminate Eye	Your Catalytic Skill gains 25%[+] Cooldown Reduction.

Mercenaries

Once the Den is unlocked during the main questline in the Vessel of Hatred expansion for Diablo 4, complete Mercenary key quests to acquire them. Hire a Mercenary and enlist a Reinforcement in the following setup.

• Hired Mercenary: Varyana
  • Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust
• Reinforcement: Raheir
  • Skill: Bastion
  • Opportunity: Cast when the player becomes Injured

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Build Mechanics

The Grenade Rogue utilizes the new Pitfighter’s Gull, added in the Vessel of Hatred expansion for Diablo 4. The cloud of shadows left behind from casting Smoke Grenade stacks multiple times to rapidly grant Stealth, enabling this build to quickly drop Stun Grenades from Opportunist’s Aspect.

Stun Grenades inherit the weapon damage of the last weapon used to attack with, so cast Heartseeker before dropping grenades to apply the weapon damage of your Crossbow to them.

Trickster’s Aspect also drops Stun Grenades when casting Smoke Grenade to deal supplemental damage. The Smoke Grenade itself deals a much smaller portion of the total damage.

The damage bonus of Close Quarters Combat is activated after casting a Cutthroat Skill, Shadow Step, and a Marksman Skill, Heartseeker.

Death Trap activates Preparation and No Witnesses.

Caltrops increase the damage enemies take from you by 45% with Enhanced Caltrops. A Caltrops Duration temper and a Caltrops Size temper helps prevent the effect from falling off during Boss fights.

Despite the use of stealth in this build, the Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth affix is not worthwhile. The bonus is consumed by Smoke Grenade, which contributes insignificant damage compared to Stun Grenades.

Rotation and Playstyle

Use the following general rotation to quickly kill normal enemies.

1. Activate Dark Shroud to prepare for battle.
2. If Shroud of Khanduras is equipped, Evade to group enemies together.
3. Cast Caltrops against tough elites and bosses.
4. Cast Shadow Step on the toughest target to activate the Cutthroat portion of Close Quarters Combat.
5. Cast Heartseeker to activate the Marksman portion of Close Quarters Combat and apply the base damage of your Ranged Weapon to Stun Grenades.
6. Use a Potion to activate the damage buff from Unstable Elixirs.
7. Cast Death Trap to activate Preparation and No Witnesses.
8. Rapidly spam Smoke Grenade to drop Opportunist Grenades.

Elixirs and Incenses

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs, or find Elixirs by killing enemies or opening chests during various activities in Diablo 4. Listed below are the best Elixirs to consume for the Stealth Grenade Rogue, ranked by importance.

1. Elixir of Precision provides the highest damage output increase, if not already capped at 100% Critical Strike Chance.
2. Elixir of Advantage increases damage output, if not already capped at 100% Attack Speed bonus from gear and Paragon.
3. Elixir of Fortitude is the best general-purpose option for survivability.

Incense can also be crafted at the Alchemist. Queen’s Supreme (Core Stat), Song of the Mountain (Defensive), and Soothing Spices (Resistance) are recommended. These Incenses are categorized into three separate groups and can be active simultaneously. The added Armor and Resistances are especially helpful to reach their caps.

Season 9 Updates

A brief summary of the seasonal changes is provided below. For a complete overview of Season 9, take a look at the comprehensive season guide.

• Close Quarters Combat
  • % of Damage to Close reduced from 25% to 10%.
  • Damage bonus is capped at 90%.
• Cheat’s Aspect
  • Previously: You take 10-30% less damage from Crowd Controlled enemies. Whenever a Crowd Controlled enemy deals direct damage to you, gain 15% Movement Speed for 2 seconds.
  • Now: You have 5-15% increased Damage Reduction and 10% increased Movement Speed, doubled while below 50% Maximum Life.
• Tricks of the Trade
  • Previously: Your Marksman Skills grant your Cutthroat Skills 25%[x] increased damage for 8 seconds. Your Cutthroat Skills grant your Marksman Skills 25%[x] increased damage for 8 seconds.
  • Now: Enemies damaged by your Marksman Skills take 30% increased damage from your Cutthroat Skills, and vice versa.

Changelog

• June 27, 2025: Guide updated for Season 9 (Patch 2.3.0)
• April 26, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8 (Patch 2.2.0)
• January 21, 2025: Guide updated for Season 7 (Patch 2.1.0).
• October 4, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6 (Patch 2.0.2).
• August 6, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5 (Patch 1.5.0).
• May 29, 2024: Guide created.