Rogue Class Overview in Diablo 4

The Rogue is a martial damage dealer who can attack from a distance or in melee range. This class has a fast and agile combat style that can be combined with tricks and traps. Rogues can also use Ice, Poison, or Shadow Imbuements to make their weapons stronger.

Although the upcoming Diablo 4 Open Beta will be limited to level 25, we are using this opportunity to showcase our best early-game Barbarian leveling builds and tips in preparation for the full launch of the game.

We will also feature some theoretical late-game build ideas to fill in the lull between the Beta and the launch. Stay tuned.

The Rogue is an adaptable, agile warrior who can specialize in ranged or close quarters combat. They can best any foe with their Imbued weapons, perform powerful combo attacks, and can augment their arsenal with deadly poisons and shadow magic to slay demons with impunity.

Rogues rely on Energy as their resource in order to use their most powerful skills. Energy regenerates slowly on its own, but the regeneration rate can be increased by certain effects tied to skills, talents, and gear.

The Rogue has a unique mechanic that is appropriate to the class. It is simply called Specializations. Players will get access to the Specializations after reaching level 15 and finishing a Rogue-exclusive questline.

The Rogues class mechanic offers three different Specializations, each of which opens a distinct playstyle and setup.

Rogues can swap their specialization at any time, even during combat!

The first Specialization Rogues can pick is Combo Points. This causes any of the Basic Skills to generate Combo Points. Certain skills can then consume those Combo Points for additional effects.

The skills that are affected by the Combo Points Specialization are:

• Barrage: Increased damage and number of arrows fired;
• Rapid Fire: Increased damage and number of arrows fired;
• Penetrating Shot: Increased damage and a chance to Knock Down;
• Flurry: Increased damage and Attack Speed bonus;
• Twisting Blades: Increased damage and Movement Speed.

The second Rogue Specialization is called Inner Sight and is unlocked at level 20. This Specialization allows Rogues to mark their enemies and places an Inner Sight gauge next to their Energy gauge. Attacking marked enemies fills the Inner Sight gauge; once it is full, it grants unlimited Energy for 4 seconds.

Enemies marked by Inner Sight are identified by a purple eye icon. If the marked enemy is not killed within 10 seconds, the mark switches to another target. As long as marked enemies are being attacked by the Rogue, the Inner Sight gauge will fill up. Stronger hits fill the gauge faster.

For the time being, little is known about Preparation, the third Specialization. However, it becomes available at level 30.

This section covers the small differences that make the class special and goes into some of the mechanics that are unique to the Rogue.

Rogues have the option to play in a very discreet and stealthy manner. In certain situations, it may be more efficient to hide within the shadows to then strike the enemy unaware. Stealth can be activated through specific Rogue skills. Characters who are Stealthed cannot be attacked by enemies. However, Stealth is lost when attacking or being damaged by an enemy.

Rogues can be entirely built around Subterfuges. This includes Traps. Various skills consist of setting up different Traps. This playstyle, however, forces Rogues to be aware of their positioning as well as the placement of their Traps. Some of these Traps inflict Cold, Poison, or Shadow damage. Traps are triggered when an enemy moves within their range.

Rogues are the only class that is able to Imbue their weapons with different elements: Cold, Poison, and Shadow. Through the use of these elemental Imbuements, Rogues can cripple their targets them with Shadow damage, inflict Poison damage over time, and even Freeze them completely.

Rogues can equip two One-Handed Weapons, which can be either One-Handed Swords or Daggers, and one ranged weapon such as the Bow or Crossbow. Depending on the skill that is used, Rogues automatically swap to the appropriate weapon type.

Note that certain skills require the use of two Daggers; One-Handed Swords do not work for all skills.

This section provides an overview of the main skill categories for the Rogue class.

For a more detailed and in-depth list of all Rogue skills and talents, refer to the appropriate pages below.

All classes have Basic and Core Skills as well as Ultimates. Additionally, Rogues have Agility, Subterfuge, and Imbuement Skills.

Basic Skills are spammable skills that only deal a small amount of damage and are used to apply debuffs or to recover Energy. Furthermore, Basic Skills are the only way to generate Combo Points for that Specialization.

The Basic Skills for the Rogue are:

• Puncture, Heartseeker, Forceful Arrow, Invigorating Strike, and Blade Shift

These are be the most important skills for the Rogue. Despite costing a lot of Energy, Core Skills do much more damage than Basic Skills and typically offer more AoE (area of effect). These skills become especially powerful in combination with the Combo Points Specialization.

All ranged Skills require a ranged weapon, and all melee skills require dual-wielded weapons.

The Core Skills for the Rogue are:

• Barrage, Rapid Fire, Penetrating Shot, Flurry, and Twisting Blades

Agility Skills allow Rogues to move around the battlefield faster in order to reposition or engage enemies on the move. Dash is especially useful for fast-paced combat, and should be included in almost every Rogue build.

The Agility Skills for the Rogue are:

• Shadow Step, Dash, and Caltrops

Subterfuge Skills massively add to the class identity of the Rogue by providing multiple tricks to choose from, either offensive, defensive, or both. Subterfuge Skills are a great addition to any build.

The Subterfuge Skills for the Rogue are:

• Dark Shroud, Smoke Grenade, Poison Trap, and Concealment

Through the use of these skills, Rogues are able to Imbue their next two weapon attacks with extra effects. Imbuement Skills have a fairly long cooldown, however. Skills that can be imbued are: all Core Skills, Dash, Shadow Step, and Rain of Arrows.

The Imbuement Skills for the Rogue are:

• Poison Imbuement, Shadow Imbuement, and Cold Imbuement

Ultimate Skills are powerful skills that have a particularly long cooldown. Ultimate Skills must be built around in order to be effective, and only one Ultimate Skill can be chosen at a time.

The Ultimate Skills for the Rogue are:

• Shadow Clone, Rain of Arrows, and Death Trap

In addition to the categories discussed in the sections above, each Rogue skill also has at least one of the following tags: Ranged, Physical, Melee, Shadow, Trap, Grenade, Imbuements.

It is presumed that tags will also be used by other systems, such as items and Legendary Aspects, to improve specific subsets of skills and promote specialised builds.

While mounted, the Rogue has access to a unique Dismount Skill which causes them to leap off the mount and cast Rain of Arrows while midair. Players that are struck by an enemy are automatically dismounted and are unable to use their Dismount Skill.

There are four primary attributes in Diablo 4, and every stat has additional effects depending on the class. For Rogues, the primary attribute is Dexterity, which multiplies their damage dealt. Strength and Intelligence also have useful secondary effects, while Willpower only has minimal value to the Rogue.

Furthermore, it is important to note that the secondary, defensive effects of each attribute are the same for most classes.

Strength increases Armor by 1 and Resource Regeneration by 0.1% per point. Armor is an important defensive attribute that reduces damage taken.

Each point of Intelligence increases the Critical Strike Chance by 0.02%, and All Resistances by 0.05% per point.

Overpower Damage is increased by 0.25% per 1 Willpower (25% per 100) Healing Received is increased by 0.1% per 1 Willpower (10% per 100).

Dexterity is the primary attribute of the Rogue and multiplies the damage dealt by 0.1% per point. The Chance to Dodge attacks is also increased by 0.025% per point of Dexterity (2.5% per 100).

Legendary Aspects stand for Legendary Powers that can be imprinted onto items to enhance them with strong and distinctive effects. While certain Legendary Aspects are exclusive to a single class, some are available to all classes.

Legendary Aspects can be imprinted on Rare and Legendary items at the Occultist. After imprinting:

• Rare (yellow) items turn into Legendaries with the affixes (stats) that were previously on that item, plus the newly added Legendary Power.
• If the item was already Legendary, their existing Legendary Power is simply overwritten by the new one.

Applied Codex of Power Aspects remain in the Codex indefinitely, and extracted Legendary Aspects are consumed when they are imprinted onto an item.

The following section lists the known Legendary Aspects that are specific to the Rogue, arranged by category.

Defensive Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Helm, Chest Armor, Pants, and Amulet.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Cheat's Aspect	You take 15.0% less damage from Crowd Controlled enemies. Whenever a Crowd Controlled enemy deals direct damage to you, gain +15% Movement Speed for 2 seconds.	Scosglen
Enshrouding Aspect	Gain a Dark Shroud shadow every 3 seconds when standing still. Each Dark Shroud shadow grants 2.0% increased Damage Reduction.	Hawezar
Aspect of Siphoned Victuals	Lucky Hit: Damaging a Vulnerable enemy with a Core Skill has up to a 10% chance to drop a Healing Potion.	Leviathan's Maw, Hawezar
Aspect of Uncanny Treachery	Dealing direct damage to Dazed Enemy with an Agility Skill grants Stealth for 4 seconds. Breaking Stealth with an attack grants you 15% Control Impaired Duration Reduction for 4 seconds.	Scosglen
Aspect of Uncanny Resilience	Whenever you trigger a Lucky Hit, gain x5% increased Damage Reduction for 5 seconds, up to a maximum of x15%.	Scosglen

Offensive Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types:Gloves, Ring, Amulet, and Weapon.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Aspect of Arrow Storms	Lucky Hit: Your Marksman Skills have up to a 10% chance to create an arrow storm at the enemy's location, dealing 454 Physical damage over 3 seconds. You can have up to 5 active arrow storms.	Scosglen
Blast-Trapper's Aspect	Lucky Hit: Dealing direct damage to enemies affected by your Trap Skills has up to a 30% chance to make them Vulnerable for 3 seconds.	Fractured Peaks
Bladedancer's Aspect	Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing 10% of Twisting Blades' return damage per hit. Based on the distance the blades returned, the orbit damage increases up to 20% of the return damage.	Scosglen
Aspect of Branching Volleys	Barrage arrows have a 15% chance to split into 2 arrows whenever they ricochet.	Hawezar
Aspect of Corruption	Your Imbuements Skill effects have x20% increased potency against Vulnerable enemies.	Kehjistan
Aspect of Encircling Blades	Flurry damages enemies in a circle around you and deals x8% increased damage.	Hallowed Ossuary, Fractured Peaks
Opportunist's Aspect	When you break Stealth with an attack, you drop a cluster of exploding Stun Grenades around your location that deal 114 total Physical damage and Stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.	Kehjistan
Shadowslicer Aspect	Dash Spawns a Shadow Clone at your location that also casts Dash, dealing 25% of the base damage.	Scosglen
Aspect of Sleeting Imbuements	Your Rain of Arrows is always affected by all Imbuements Skills at once.	Hawezar
Trickster's Aspect	Caltrops also throw a cluster of Stun Grenades that explode and deal Physical damage and Stunning enemies for 0.25 seconds.	Dry Steppes
Trickshot Aspect	Whenever Penetrating Shot damages an enemy, 2 additional arrows split off to either side. These side arrows deal 30% of Penetrating Shot's Base Damage and do not split.	Bastion of Faith, Hawezar
Aspect of Unstable Imbuements	Casting a Skill that is Imbued creates an explosion around you, dealing damage of the same type.	Dry Steppes
Vengeful Aspect	Lucky Hit: Making an enemy Vulnerable has up to a 30% chance to grant +3% increased Critical Strike Chance for 3 seconds, up to +9%.	Kehjistan
Aspect of Volatile Blades	Twisting Blades cause an explosion when they return to you, dealing damage and more additional damage based on the distance the blades travel, up to 5 meters.	Scosglen
Aspect of Volatile Shadows	When a Dark Shroud shadow would be removed it explodes, dealing Shadow damage around you.	Dry Steppes

Resource Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Helm, Ring, and Amulet.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Energizing Aspect	Damaging an Elite enemy with a Basic Skill generates 5 Energy.	Sanguine Chapel, Fractured Peaks
Ravenous Aspect	Killing a Vulnerable enemy grants you x50% increased Energy Regeneration for 4 seconds.	Dry Steppes

Utility Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Helm, Chest Armor, Boots, Gloves, and Amulet.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Aspect of Explosive Verve	Your Grenades Skills count as Trap Skills. Whenever you arm a Trap or drop Grenades, you gain +10% increased Movement Speed for 3 seconds.	Derelict Lodge, Fractured Peaks

Mobility Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Boots and Amulet.

At this time the Codex does not include any Rogue-specific Aspects for Mobility.

Unique items are the highest tier of items that can be found in Diablo 4. They are very rare and therefore harder to get, but will most likely be part of the best-in-slot gear for each class.

As of yet however, there are no known Uniques for the Rogue class. This guide will be updated once they are discovered.