Best Diablo 4 Rogue build: Best skills for the Rogue

Looking for the best Diablo 4 Rogue build? The Rogue is the resident sneaker and stabber in Diablo 4, and they have a slew of powerful skills that you can use to shower your enemies in debuffs. We've honed in on that with our Shadow Rogue build, with ways to to apply Slow, Dazed, Vulnerable, and Infect effects on those pesky demons.

In this guide, we'll break down the best Rogue build in Diablo 4, talking you through how to make our Shadow Rogue build. We'll cover the skills that you need to get in order, an attack pattern to help you out in combat, and the key attributes and gems that you'll want as a Rogue.

Best Rogue build in Diablo 4

Our Diablo 4 Shadow Rogue build splits the focus between simple damage and sneaky debuffs that'll help you control crowds of demons. Puncture and Flurry, for example, will stab away at enemies while also leaving them Slowed or Vulnerable.

You can then use Dash and Smoke Grenade to apply the Dazed effect to these enemies, leaving them open to follow up attacks. Smoke Grenade also raises the damage dealt to enemies caught within its effect, and you can take that even further with Shadow Imbuement.

Shadow Imbuement is key for this Diablo 4 Rogue build, allowing Flurry to Infect enemies. Infected enemies will explode on death, dealing 40% of your usual damage to nearby enemies. This functions similar to the Corpse Explosion Necromancer skill, and while it deals less damage, it's still incredibly powerful for ripping through the hordes of hell.

Finally, the ultimate for this Shadow Rogue build is Shadow Clone. This does what you'd expect, creating a murky copy of your character that mimics your attacks and abilities for 15 seconds. The Shadow Clone deals 60% of your usual damage, making it an excellent companion to have on the field when facing particularly tough enemies.

Diablo 4 Shadow Rogue build skills

Below, you'll find a full list of the skills that you should acquire for our Diablo 4 Shadow Rogue build, in order:

1. Puncture (Basic)
2. Enhanced Puncture
3. Fundamental Puncture
4. Flurry lvls 1-5
5. Enhanced Flurry
6. Improved Flurry
7. Dash
8. Enhanced Dash
9. Disciplined Dash
10. Smoke Grenade lvls 1-3
11. Enhanced Smoke Grenade
12. Subverting Smoke Grenade
13. Shadow Imbuement lvls 1-3
14. Enhanced Shadow Imbuement
15. Blended Shadow Imbuement
16. Shadow Clone

Puncture

Puncture is your basic skill for our Diablo 4 Shadow Rogue build, throwing out three blades to hit nearby enemies from a short distance. With the default skill, every third cast will grant the Slow effect on enemies for 2 seconds. However, the Fundamental Puncture upgrade also allows you to make enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds, which increases the damage they take by 20%.

It's also worth mentioning that Enhanced Puncture, the first upgrade you can get for this skill, turns Puncture into a builder, granting 2 Energy when Puncture damages an enemy that currently has a crowd control effect (such as Slow). Energy is the resource for a Rogue, so having an easy builder that you can spam makes this build far more viable.

Flurry

Flurry is your main spender, costing 25 Energy per cast. When used, you will stab out to strike enemies ahead of your character four times. This is a powerful melee skill alone, but the Enhanced Flurry upgrade makes it tie directly into this build by healing you each time it damages a crowd controlled or Vulnerable enemy. CC and Vulnerable effects are the whole point of this build, which means this offers a lot of healing potential!

The Improved Flurry upgrade helps it synergise even more, as it will apply the Vulnerable effect to all enemies hit with a cast of the skill if it hits a single Vulnerable enemy. That offers an easy way to spread the Vulnerable effect, potentially softening up an entire crowd of demons so that you can get some easy kills.

Dash

Dash is an Agility ability that you can use to dart in and out of crowds while dealing damage. It's really useful for escaping harm when you're low on health, but the Disciplined Dash upgrade also helps it synergise with this Rogue build.

With the Discipled Dash upgrade, it applies the Slow effect to any enemies hit for 3 seconds. If an enemy is already Slowed, they will be Dazed for 2 seconds instead. This gives you two ways to apply Slow (Dash and Puncture), and if you Slow enemies with Puncture first, then Dash will Daze them, preventing them from attacking for a few seconds as well.

Smoke Grenade

Smoke Grenade applies the Dazed effect to any enemies caught within its blast for 4 seconds. However, the Subverting Smoke Grenade upgrade will Daze them for 20% longer if an enemy is already Vulnerable or Slowed.

This should already be the case if you've used Puncture, Flurry, or Dash while approaching, so dropping a Smoke Grenade in a crowd could potentially leave most of your enemies unable to attack for 5 seconds.

Shadow Imbuement

Shadow Imbuement allows you to imbue Flurry 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.

The upgrades for Shadow Imbuement make it even more powerful, with Enhanced offering 25% higher crit chance against Infected enemies. If you get the Blended Shadow Imbuement upgrade, the Infect explosion will also give enemies the Vulnerable status effect for 2 seconds. If you combo this with Flurry to spread Vulnerable even further, you can easily chain it through a room full of enemies.

Shadow Clone

Shadow Clone is the ultimate for our Shadow Rogue build, giving you a mimic who will copy your actions for 15 seconds. While they deal slightly less damage than your player character, the Shadow Clone still offers a huge boost to your DPS potential that help you spread those debuffs even further, and then capitalise on them with extra attacks and, ultimately, a ton of extra damage compared to what you could deal alone.

If you're not sure how to use these skills effectively, follow the attack pattern below:

1. Cast Puncture to apply Slow and Vulnerable as you approach a group of enemies.
2. Dash into the crowd to Daze the Slowed enemies.
3. Use Smoke Grenade in the crowd.
4. Use Shadow-Imbued Flurry to deal damage while applying Infect.
5. Finish off the enemies to make them explode, spreading Vulnerable even further.
6. Use your second Dash charge to get out of the crowd, and repeat.

Diablo 4 Shadow Rogue build attributes

Dexterity is the most important attribute for our Diablo 4 Rogue build, as it increases your Skill Damage by 0.1% per point. This might seem small, but it'll add up over time and provide a substantial damage boost when you reach the endgame.

Strength is the next attribute to focus on, as it increases your Energy generation by 0.1% per point. Puncture is the only Energy builder we have in this build, so any extra granted by your Strength stat is incredibly important for those moments when you want to spam spenders, such as Flurry.

Finally, Intelligence is also worth investing in as a Rogue, as each point offers an extra 0.02% crit chance. It's a tiny buff, negligible in the early stages, but it's worth building up over the course of the game. The extra crit chance might not be too shabby in the endgame, and landing crits on Vulnerable enemies will help you whittle crowds down at remarkable speed.

Diablo 4 Shadow Rogue build gems

Your gear will have gem sockets in Diablo 4, and you can insert gems into these sockets for powerful bonuses. Gems have different effects depending on whether they are put into weapons or armor.

For any weapon gem slots, we'd recommend using Rubies and Sapphires. Rubies offer extra Energy generation, while Sapphires will increase crit damage against enemies that have crowd control effects, such as Slow and Dazed.

For your armor gem slots, you should also use Rubies, as they increase your maximum Life total. The Rogue is notoriously easy to kill, with less life than other melee classes such as the Barbarian, so the extra life on offer here is certainly worth taking at any opportunity.

That wraps up our Diablo 4 Rogue build. If you're after something better-suited to slinging spells from a distance, take a look at our Diablo 4 Sorcerer build. If you want to read our thoughts on the beta, check out our recent Diablo 4 preview.

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