Diablo 4 Endgame Rogue Class Guide: Skills, Pros & Cons, Level 70 Gameplay, Endgame Build Types

In today’s D4 release endgame Rogue class guide, we go through some skills and things you might want to combo together, when you want to use some of the different specializations, the early, mid-game, late game, sort of progression and how you're going to feel and how the game plays out as the Rogue. Some things to know and potential downsides because although the Rogue is going to be the strongest level in class, there are some downsides to consider. 

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Diablo 4 Endgame Rogue Class Guide: Skills, Pros & Cons, Level 70 Gameplay, Build Types

The Diablo 4 launch time is no more than 4 days, and fans are already getting ready for this new version of the Diablo game. If you are wondering which is the best endgame class for D4 starters and what is the best Rogue build, here are some views from Veiled Shot, covering the abilities, strengths & weaknesses, level 70 gameplay, and build tips of Rogue at the start of Diablo 4 release. Let's dive into it!

Pros & Cons of Diablo 4 Release Rogue 

Pros:

- Versatile playstyle: The Rogue has access to a range of skills that can be used in a variety of ways, including stealth, ranged attacks, and melee combat, giving players a lot of flexibility in how they approach different challenges.

- Mobility: The Rogue has a focus on movement and agility, with skills that allow for quick dodges and evasions. This can be useful for avoiding danger in fast-paced endgame content.

- High crit chance: With a passive skill that increases crit chance, the Rogue may be able to deal lots of burst damage, which can be helpful in taking down powerful enemies quickly.

Cons:

- Fragile: The Rogue is described as a "glass cannon" class, with less defensive capabilities than some other classes. This may make it more difficult to survive in tough endgame content.

- Resource management: Some of the Rogue's skills require resources, such as focus or arrows, which can be depleted quickly in extended combat situations. This may make it harder to sustain damage output in endgame battles.

- Limited party utility: The Rogue seems to be focused on solo play, with fewer skills that benefit a group. This may make it less desirable for endgame group content.

Diablo 4 Endgame Rogue Skills and Abilities

When you're considering the Rogue skills, you have two main themes, you have the Marksman or Ranged version of the Rogue or the Cutthroat slash melee version of the Rogue. Each skill of your basic slash core skills are going to be labeled as such either Cutthroat or Marksman. The Marksman is totally viable and still quite good, but the Cutthroat slash melee version specifically twisting blades ends up being the strongest skill. But with a lot of the Marksman skills, you can build out some ranged kiting version and there are some options with that. In terms of the skills that people personally prefer, we're talking melee and specifically twisting blades and this is going to amplify and really start to shape up a few of the different builds.

Agility skills:

- Shadow Step and Dash: Both of the key movement abilities for the Rogue and what amplify the Rogues leveling process allowing you to zip through dungeons extremely quickly. 

- Caltrops: It can be useful in terms of just running through and maybe adding a little bit of extra damage, plus create things that maybe interact with other builds but caltrops tends to be one of the weaker skills.

Subterfuge skills:

- Dark Shroud: You have one of the most powerful defensive skills in the game in dark shroud, where you're going to get extra damage reduction. This is very powerful and keeps the Rogue alive. 

- Concealment: It is also extremely interesting because it allows you to get guaranteed crit strikes potentially or just extra energy regeneration which works really well in the early game although falls off later on. Smoke Grenade: This is one of the most powerful CC abilities with the Rogue because you have a couple of passives that can combo with it like concussion that allow you to knock down people, which makes it extremely valuable.

- Poison Trap: It really is an insane later game build when you can start to formulate the trap build which isn't necessarily the best thing to do at the beginning of the game, because traps fall over the place and you can't really get a ton of value out of them. But when you get later on, you can start seeing massive value with traps.

Imbuement skills:

- Shadow Imbuement: Shadow Imbuement allows you to imbue your attacks with Shadow damage, which will Infect any enemies it hits for 6 seconds. If you can then kill the Infected enemy within 6 seconds, they'll explode and deal 40% to all nearby enemies.

- Poison Imbuement: Imbue your weapons with lethal poison. Your next 2 Imbueable skills deal poison damage and apply 140% of their base damage as additional poisoning damage over 5 seconds. 

- Cold Imbuement: It is a little bit lackluster just because of not really offering nearly as much damage potential at least early to mid game as the other two poison imbuements which that's kind of when you're using imbuement is that early to mid game. 

Ultimate skills:

- Shadow Clone: Create a shadow that mimics your actions, dealing a portion of your base damage.

- Death Traps: It is extremely powerful going on later when you can combo the traps together and have the luxury items that work with it. This is more of a mid to end game type build skill. 

- Rain of Arrows: It can definitely be interesting for a marksman. 

Key passives:

- Exposure: You can start to reduce your cooldowns if you get some lucky hits.

- Victimize: It could potentially do some extra AOE damage with lucky hits. Precision: It works really well with some of the Marksman builds, you can get some extra critical strike damage and get guaranteed crit strikes, and critical strike damage is one of the highest scaling DPS mechanics later on in the game. 

- Close Quarters Combat: Which extra attack speed, really solid when you're in close quarters combats. 

- Momentum: It can give you a ton of additional utility for comboing together a lot of your Cutthroat skills.

Diablo IV Launch Rogue Specializations 

Rogue has 3 specializations, combo point, preparation and inner sight. 

- Preparation: We have almost never used preparation, it is not really extremely useful unless you get way later on you have some combo that can work with resetting your cooldowns. 

- Combo Point: But as for combo points, it is generally what we'll be running overall throughout dungeons and throughout any content with the exception of bosses. The thing is with combo points is you're going to cast out basic abilities and you're going to be able to amplify your core skill. The combo points really along with the build we’re running, allowing to amp up effectiveness a ton by giving extra damage and extra movement speed with abilities. And it’s highly recommended that you running combo points in about 90% of your gameplay.

- Inner Sight: When you're considering the other specialization, the inner sight, you can use it on bosses and solo World tier 4, World boss at level 62 and there's going to be a purple mark above the character's head and it randomly selects a target in the area. But when there's only 1 target, it automatically selects the world boss and or whatever boss it is and you'll get infinite energy when you channel that gauge right next to the energy bar. As you hit the to mark target, it'll raise and then give you unlimited energy for 4 seconds which this decimates boss is just absolutely destroys them. Inner site's going to be a absolutely massive contributor and for almost every build for the Rogue, this generally applies meaning you want combo points because inner sight marks random targets. 

Diablo 4 Rogue Gameplay Tips

• D4 Early Game Rogue: For the early game Rogue, you should not lack damage at all, in a PVP Zone just doing some random open world events on the road and never lack damage, also never lack mobility and that's a key component. You want as many mobility skills as you possibly can on your bar in the early game because you're going to go through so many different dungeons, you're going to go through the campaign. With the early game build, you should rune punctures, you can guarantee vulnerable land and vulnerable is a separate damage multiplier from every other damage multiplier, which means that vulnerable damage is one of the most important things to have on your build. And one of the reasons why a lot of other classes struggle in the early game while Rogue does not, when you apply vulnerable with basic, the damage differential between not having vulnerable is absolutely critical. A key component as well if twisting blades is your pick of your poison, then you have to move around quickly and get behind enemy, so you can get that pull back as much as on you possibly can. Bosses are not going to be a problem, most of bosses even as low as level 15, 20, 30, they're killed within 5 to 12 seconds every single time and even as you get closer to 50 if you as long as you're building your build correctly, you're going to have no issues whatsoever killing any boss.

• D4 Mid-Game Rogue: As we approach the mid game, consider World tier 3 and World tier 4 or between those two rather as you approach level 70 or 80 depending on where your build is at, that is kind of the end game. If you're able to get an end game build and have the legendary aspects, then you're already in the end game. But with a mid game, you start to want to take a few defensive abilities, dark shroud might be an option, maybe you want to focus on some Dodge and this is where you can start adding some traps into your build beforehand this is where it starts to be or before it's awkward to get some value out of traps, and unless you're having a stationary target, you probably won't have the ability to amp it up. But when you start to have a lot of legendary options and you get to World tier 3, you're going to be using your gear for quite some time so you can start to put together a trapping build. But you'll be totally fine running a standard poison imbuement build as well. Poison imbuement is viable and very good throughout the entirety of the game although you might get some extra value out of traps later on for specifically farming although you might lose some damage reduction it really depends on what you want to go for. 

• D4 Endgame Rogue: As you start to approach end game, try to push some nightmare dungeons far above your level. When you get to world tier 4, the game changes a little bit for the Rogue, meaning that this is at the point where you do start to potentially die if you're not playing safe. And as for the people that are saying the Rogue is squishing, they can't compete. So in order to play the Rogue quite efficiently, you need to have a hit and run play style, you cannot sit in the middle of people and hit things, you need to hit, you need to move, you need to run around. If you are going into the middle of the group, you should immediately dodge out or shadow step away and the key to this is you need to target certain enemies in the end game and start to focus on Champions. So you can remove the damage reduction aura and if there's suppressors, you need to get in kill the suppressor and get out as quick as possible, so then you can start taking on all the other units.

As you start to approach level 70 and you enter into World tier 4, you could potentially use those pieces of gear all the way up to level 100. This is where if you want to have an easier experience and not have to think as much on the Rogue, you could start building the trapper build which is a very much more relaxing experience compared to kiting with the poison imbuement and actually can be a lot more valuable for AOE clearing, although the only thing about that build is you do need to have all of your eggs in order meaning you need some Paragon points you do need some legendary items for that build to really start to shine. But at this point in the late game when you do have World tier 4 unlocked and you are picking up ancestral pieces, that is when the trapper build really starts to break out and you can start to group up enemies and blow them up which is very powerful. You could still do that with the poison Amusement building you'll have no issues. But if you want a slightly easier experience and if you have been lucky enough to get the items that you need, then you'll have an easy shot at a late game potential.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build Tips for Endgame

- Specialize in a playstyle: Determine whether you want to focus on melee, ranged, or a hybrid approach and choose skills and talents that align with your desired playstyle. This will help you allocate your resources and gear accordingly.

- Balance offense and defense: It's crucial to strike a balance between dealing damage and surviving encounters. Allocate skill points and equip gear that enhance both offensive and defensive capabilities. Consider defensive skills, crowd control abilities, damage reduction, and healing options to increase your survivability.

- Synergize skills and passives: Look for skills and passives that have synergistic effects. Certain combinations of skills can amplify each other's damage or provide additional utility. Experiment with different combinations to find powerful synergies that complement your playstyle.

- Utilize crowd control and mobility: Abilities that allow you to control crowds or reposition quickly are valuable in endgame scenarios. Skills such as stuns, freezes, snares, or teleports can give you an edge in challenging encounters.

What is the Best Diablo 4 Endgame Rogue Build for Launch?

- Twisting Blade Build: The Twisting Blade build typically focuses on fast-paced melee combat with high mobility and damage output. It often utilizes skills and abilities that revolve around dual-wielding weapons and delivering rapid strikes. The build might involve combining skills that enhance attack speed, critical strike chance, and damage modifiers for melee attacks. It can be effective for players who enjoy an up-close and personal playstyle with quick, flurry-like attacks.

- Ranged Melee Rogue Build: The concept of a ranged melee Rogue build suggests a hybrid approach that combines ranged and melee combat. This type of build may incorporate skills and abilities that allow the Rogue to engage enemies from a distance using ranged weapons (such as bows or crossbows) and then transition into close-quarters melee combat when necessary. The build might focus on skills that provide versatility, allowing the Rogue to adapt to different combat situations effectively.