Best Builds for Rogues in Diablo 4

The Rogue class in Diablo 4 is more than just the quintessential archer class. Players can make ranged, melee, and even hybrid builds using this class’ myriad of tools, and when set up properly every Rogue build can be just as competent as the ones for every other class in the game.

Of course, since we’re talking builds and all, picking the one that fits your playstyle can be a bit daunting, especially if you’re new to Diablo 4. In this guide, we’ll be covering four of our favorite Rogue builds to help you find one that’s worth rocking with.

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Ranged Heartseeker Rogue Build

This build focuses on turning the Heartseeker Basic Skill into a veritable demon slayer of an ability. It’s not the fastest or strongest Rogue build in Diablo 4, but it’s great fun to play, especially if you want to use a basic attack build. The setup above does the following:

• Spreads Heartseeker’s damage through Paingorger’s Gauntlets
• Chills and applies Vulnerable to enemies
• Increases damage against Chilled and Vulnerable enemies
• Heartseeker always Chills (albeit at 50% potency)
• Shadow Imbuement Chills and deals Cold damage on Lucky Hit

To play the build, just throw your Caltrops or dash through enemies then use Shadow Imbuement before pelting them with Heartseeker. Paingorger’s Gauntlets, Shadow Imbuement explosions, and ricocheting Heartseeker hits will delete entire hordes of enemies in the blink of an eye. Use Shadow Clone liberally against bosses or anything that’s too tough.

Penetrating Shot Build

This is based off our previous Penetrating Shot Rogue build that’s been modified to make use of the Coldclip as well as Apogeic Furor and Vehement Brawler Aspects. This results in a build that:

• Chills and deals plenty of AoE Cold damage
• Can freely spam Shadow Clone while gaining massive damage buffs after doing so
• Randomly spawns Shadow Clones upon casting Marksman Skills

Use Dash and Concealment to get out of tough spots, then spam Penetrating Shot and Forceful Arrow. You’ll be able to use Shadow Clone a lot more freely with this build too, as the Preparation Specialization reduces your Ultimate’s cooldown whenever you spend 75 Energy while resetting your other cooldowns.

Resource management will be a bit rough here, though. To compensate, get gear that restores or grants more Energy. The Mother’s Embrace Ring is great for this, but if you don’t have one of those, consider using Starlight Aspect with Life on Hit/Kill effects from items.

Death Trap Rogue Build

If you want to fight up close and personal, then Flurry is a solid skill to start with. However, this build is actually split into two parts, so bear with us for a moment.

The core of this build relies on getting into the enemy’s face, throwing a bucketload of Stun Grenades at them, then using Flurry to finish them off. You can use Poison Trap for added Poison damage and Crowd Control, and Death Trap to slice everything within an area into ribbons. This is what your gameplay loop will look like before you get Scoundrel’s Leathers and Beastfall Boots.

Now, once you do get those two Uniques, things start to get extra spicy. You can completely remove Invigorating Strike and Flurry in favor of Caltrops and Concealment. Both of these will amplify the damage you deal with Stun Grenades and the rest of your abilities. Then, your gameplay loop turns into something like this:

• Cast Death Trap
• Use Poison Trap to lay down another Death Trap
• Use Caltrops and Smoke Grenade when needed to amplify damage
• Use Concealment to vanish from sight, drop Stun grenades, and gain Unstoppable

This build will only work once you stack enough Cooldown Reduction to reduce Death Trap’s cooldown to below 10 seconds. Scoundrel’s Leathers and Beastfall Boots are absolutely mandatory too.

Rogue Flurry Build

For an actual melee Rogue build that relies purely on a melee skill, then this is a great setup to try. Unlike the Death Trap build above, this one will use Flurry as its main DPS tool all the way to the endgame, and as such, we’ll be heavily improving its effectiveness while minimizing its weaknesses.

Nearly every part of this build boosts Flurry’s DPS one way or another:

• Grasp of Shadow spawns Shadow Clones that also cast Flurry
• Deathmask of Nirmitruq burns your Life to make Flurry stronger
• Penitent Greaves Chills enemies, making them vulnerable to Chill/Crowd Control-related passives and Coldclip Aspect
• Caltrops amplifies the damage enemies take from you while increasing your crit chance against them
• Smoke Grenade adds another damage multiplier while also Poisoning enemies
• Invigorating Strike, Dash, and Shadow Step give you utility that’ll help keep you alive

It’s worth noting that Flurry is a Resource-hungry skill, but with Deathmask of Nirmitruq, you’ll only need to worry about your Life instead of your Energy. You need to burn your Energy as quickly as possible for Deathmask’s effect to kick in, and once it does start chewing your health, you’ll need to find some way to compensate for the health loss.

Improved Flurry will heal you for 6% of your Max Life when you use the skill, but the healing here is distributed over 1.5 seconds. You’ll want to have Life on Kill/Hit on your weapons or accessories to offset Deathmask’s health cost. Thankfully, the changes made in Diablo 4 Season 11 made getting these affixes much easier, and they’re a lot more noticeable now too.