Best Diablo 4 Rogue build in Season 4 for levelling & endgame

Best Diablo 4 Rogue build in Season 4 for levelling & endgame
Images via Blizzard

Written by 

Harry Boulton

Last updated 

21st May 2024 15:10

Contents

If you're all about the damage in Diablo 4, gearing your Rogue up with one of the best builds for levelling and endgame is something you won't want to skip out on.

Dubbed Diablo 4's 'glass cannon', the Rogue deals a whole lot of damage, but also takes it too - letting you rip through the new vaults in Season of the Loot with ease. With a relatively low health pool, ensuring that you have the perfect set-up in the game for this class will help ensure that you don't get constantly sent back to the nearest town, and instead send your enemies further into hell than you already are.

What is the best Rogue build?

According to Maxroll.gg, one of the best Rogue builds for levelling in Season 4 of Diablo 4 currently revolves around the Penetrating Shot ability - and will catapult you through the levels and towards success.

This is primarily a ranged build for the Rogue, as the Penetrating Shot ability is one of your Core Skills that allows you to attack from afar and pierce through groups of enemies. This does, of course, come with the downside that you'll have to be on your toes with consistently managing your position on the battlefield.

Here's a full list of the skills and abilities that you'll want to employ within the Penetrating Shot Rogue build in Diablo 4 for the current meta:

Penetrating Shot Rogue Active Skills list

Ability Skill Tree
Fundamental Puncture (1/5) Basic
Advanced Penetrating Shot (5/5) Core
Disciplined Shadow Step (1/5) Agility
Methodical Dash (1/5) Agility
Subverting Dark Shroud (5/5) Subterfuge
Blended Shadow Imbuement (1/5) Imbuement

These Active Skills combine to make an extremely dangerous ranged build that lets you deal with crowds and single targets quickly and effectively. The Rogue is well known for its high damage output, and this class more than displays this in action.

The poison Penetrating Shot ability
Click to enlarge

Penetrating Shot Rogue Passive Skills list

Passive Skill Tree
Sturdy (3/3) Core
Siphoning Strikes (2/3) Core
Stutter Step (3/3) Core
Weapon Mastery (3/3) Agility
Agile (3/3) Subterfuge
Exploit (3/3) Subterfuge
Malice (3/3) Subterfuge
Shadow Crash (1/3) Imbuement
Consuming Shadows (1/3) Imbuement
Innervation (3/3) Ultimate
Adrenaline Rush (3/3) Ultimate
Haste (3/3) Ultimate
Precision Key Passive

These Passive Skills will only continue to enhance the sheer damage potential of the build, enhancing almost every aspect of your skillset to ensure that any enemy becomes merely a momentary hurdle in your journey.

Penetrating Shot item stats list

As is the case with many of the best builds for any of Diablo 4's classes in the current meta, it's less the specific weapons that you're after and more the stat boosts and effects that you'll want to integrate within your equipment.

Below, we have listed what items you should be looking for in Diablo 4 when building this best Rogue build below - but the one key part stat that you will want to have equipped is the Trickshot Offensive Aspect.

This will allow any connecting Penetrating Shot to split off into two additional shots at a 90-degree angle, dramatically increasing the punishment that you deal - especially when facing large crowds of enemies.

The Offensive Aspect of the Expectant is also incredibly strong if you balance between using Puncture and the main Penetrating Shot ability. Additionally, you can never go wrong with the Rapid Offensive Aspect, as faster attackers always mean more damage overall.

Image of combat with the Rogue class in Diablo 4
Click to enlarge

Here are the stats that you will want to try and integrate into your equipment in Diablo 4 when using the Penetrating Shot Rogue build:

Weapons

  • Vulnerable damage
  • Crowd Control damage
  • Core Skill damage

Armour

  • Cooldown reduction
  • Skill ranks
  • Life boosts
  • Damage with Imbued Skills
  • Damage with Ranged Weapons
  • Critical Strike chance
  • Attack speed
  • Movement speed
  • Energy Cost reduction

Jewellery

  • Cooldown reduction
  • Movement speed
  • Damage with Ranged Weapons
  • Marksman Skill damage
  • Critical Strike chance
  • Critical Strike damage
  • Distance Damage
  • Crowd Control damage

You are almost guaranteed success if you get as many of the stats listed above in your weapons, armour, and jewellery, so keep an eye out on your travels.

Best Gems for Rogues

Essentially being a glass cannon with high damage output potential at the cost of low survivability, the best Rogue gems to use in Diablo 4 are ideal for further boosting the class' damage and for making your build more durable. 

Listed below along with their uses, the best Rogue gems in Diablo 4 for the Season 4 meta are as follows:

Gem Uses
Skull
  • Weapons: Grants Life on Kill
  • Armour: Boosts Healing Received
  • Jewellery: Boosts Armor by 230
Sapphire
  • Weapons: Boosts Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
  • Armour: Provides Damage Reduction whilst you're Fortified
  • Jewellery: Applies Cold Resistance
Emerald
  • Weapons: Increases Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
  • Armor: Adds Thorns
  • Jewellery: Applies Poison Resistance
Ruby
  • Weapons: Boosts Overpower Damage
  • Armour: Increases Maximum Life
  • Jewellery: Applies Fire Resistance
Amethyst
  • Weapons: Increases Damage Taken Over Time
  • Armour: Boosts Damage Taken Over Time Reduction
  • Jewellery: Applies Shadow Resistance

Best endgame Rogue build in Season 4

While Twisting Blades was the go-to endgame Rogue build for a long while, in Season 4 it's best to just stick with the Penetrating Shot build that I've laid out above.

By all means you can still stick with a Twisting Blades build if you're running it right now, as it still remains a super strong way to deal up-close cluster damage, but the ranged aspect of the Penetrating Shot focus gives it the edge, especially when you're facing the toughest bosses.

Just make sure that you're taking advantage of the new crafting and item-boosting methods available in the Season of Loot, like the new Masterwork and Ancestral Tempering mechanics that can seriously enhance your gear.

How good is the Rogue in Diablo 4?

Image of the Rogue facing the camera in Diablo 4
Click to enlarge

According to the latest version of our Diablo 4 PvE class tier list, the Rogue sits in the S tier as the best solo class, while also dropping slightly to B tier when it comes to group play.

While the Rogue does have the lowest health pool of all classes in Season 4, the sheer amount of damage you can deal completely outweighs this fault, making the Rogue the top choice if you know what you're doing - which you can be if you use the builds below.

This perhaps makes playing as the Rogue not the best choice for beginners in Diablo 4, but anyone who is able to manage their positioning and stay on top of their healing is almost guaranteed to have great success.

Furthermore, there is no better class in the game for players who value speed over everything, so if you're a lover of all things fast, then you might want to give our dagger-wielding friend a try. With the introduction of Season 4 too, there is no better time than now to try out the Rogue as you can jump straight in with a completely fresh seasonal character.

We used a variety of resources including Maxroll and IcyVeins, as well as our own experience with the game when putting this build together.

If you mainly use a different class in Diablo 4 or want to try something new, we've got the best build guides for the other classes listed below:

Harry Boulton
About the author
Harry Boulton
Harry is a Guides Writer at GGRecon, having completed a Masters of Research degree in Film Studies. Previously a freelance writer for PCGamesN, The Loadout, and Red Bull Gaming, he loves playing a wide variety of games from the Souls series to JRPGs, Counter-Strike, and EA FC. When not playing or writing about games and hardware, you're likely to find him watching football or listening to Madonna and Kate Bush.
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