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Diablo IV

Diablo 4 Rogue Leveling Builds For Season 1

By
Craig Robinson

The Rogue is one of the fastest and most efficient classes to play to get to max level in Diablo 4, thanks to its high damage, fast movement, and a varied arsenal of tools that make its single target and AOE damage really strong. No matter the playstyle, there’s something that will help you out. Below you’ll find three Diablo 4 leveling builds for Season 1, each with a different flavor of gameplay.

Which of our three Rogue leveling builds in Diablo 4 will you choose? Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

Diablo 4 Rogue Leveling Builds for Season 1

The three Rogue Leveling builds in Diablo 4 we recommend are as follows:

  1. Twisitng Blade Rogue Leveling Build
  2. Flurry & Trap Rogue Leveling Build
  3. Barrage Ranged Rogue Leveling Build

(feel free to click the blue text on these build names to auto-scroll to a relevant build you’re interested in. You can also find a quick summary of each build below.)

The "Twisting Blades" iconTwisting Blades Rogue is the fastest movement build on the list, with one of the highest damaging core skills. However, it’s slightly tricky to pull off, thanks to the lineup damage from Twisting Blades return damage being where the main DPS output come from, and it is also somewhat legendary reliant that you only start acquiring in Scosglen. It also requires the level 20 specialization, Inner Sight, to start properly working.

Meanwhile, the "Flurry" iconFlurry Rogue is very easy to get going, and makes for a very simple AOE build with great movement speed. It does lack single-target damage, but that begins to improve with Poison Trap greatly, and really comes online with your ultimate. Once you get your capstone, and third spec, you essentially see how this playstyle works even in end game, with you placing lots of traps, resetting cooldown, and nuking packs and getting stable single target damage for a generally effective playstyle.

Lastly, the Ranged Rogue leveling build is the more simple one of the build, taking advantage of crit, and attack speed ramps, and using "Barrage" iconBarrage to do single target and AOE damage. Its overall damage output is somewhat lower than the other two builds, but it requires the least amount of content to get it rolling, likely making this the better leveling build until you get your hands on ultimate skills and want to pivot. However, it is also viable to level in if you really like the ranged archetype.

Diablo 4 Rogue Leveling Build: Twisting Blades Mobility Build

The Twisted Blade build allows you to pop Shadow Clone on a boss with Inner Sight and nuke it down in a moment’s notice.

The Twisting Blades Rogue leveling build is a very high DPS build, focusing on your return damage on your Blades. The best way to utilize the damage of that is by grabbing as much movement as possible, and lining enemies up the best you can. So, this is going to be a very fast and agile, perfect for the Rogue archetype, as well as leveling speed, boss killing, and pack density.

However, be warned this build has a few break points while leveling, as you will need at least one movement skill to make this work, followed by key breakpoints that further improve, such as ultimate, level 20 specialization and one or two legendaries in Scosglen, "Aspect of Arrow Storms" iconAspect of Arrow Storms and "Bladedancer's Aspect" iconBladedancer’s Aspect, which are Scosglen dungeon rewards that only unlocks part way into Act 2. You need the movement break point to make this work, while the rest just make the build better for general DPS output in single and AOE damage areas, further snowballing this high-damage build.

For those doing a Rogue Leveling Build for Season 1, then be aware that the new "Pestilent Points Aspect" iconPestilent Points Aspect is available after completing Chapter 1 of your journey. You can get this in your codex from level 10 or earlier, and have it ready for aspect enchanting when you start getting "Veiled Crystal" iconVeiled Crystal. This will help with single target damage throughout the early game leveling process!

  1. Puncture
  2. Enhanced Puncture
  3. Twisting Blades (TB)
  4. Fundamental Puncture
  5. Enhanced TB
  6. Improved TB
  7. Dash
  8. Shadow Step
  9. Enhanced Shadow Step
  10. Disciplined Shadow Step
  11. Enhanced Dash
  12. TB
  13. TB
  14. TB
  15. TB
  16. Puncture
  17. Shadow Imbuement
  18. Enhanced Shadow Imbuement
  19. Blended Shadow Imbuement (if you don’t have a piece of gear that grants a skill point to Poison Imbuement, feel free to assign just one point to it. This allows you to swap to PI for single target against obvious boss fights.)
  20. Puncture
  21. Puncture
  22. Puncture
  23. Disciplined Dash
  24. Shadow Clone
  25. Prime Shadow Clone
  26. Supreme Shadow Clone
  27. Precision Imbuement
  28. Precision Imbuement
  29. Precision Imbuement
  30. Exploit
  31. Malice
  32. Malice
  33. Malice
  34. Exploit
  35. Exploit
  36. Rapid Gambits
  37. Trick Attacks
  38. Trick Attacks
  39. Trick Attacks
  40. Concussive
  41. Concussive
  42. Concussive
  43. Sturdy
  44. Sturdy
  45. Sturdy
  46. Stutter Step
  47. Stutter Step
  48. Stutter Step

If you like this build, why not check out our full end game Rogue Twisted Blades build in D4, featuring Paragon boar, full legendary effects, stat priority and more.

Diablo 4 Rogue Leveling Build: The Vulnerable Flurry Trap Master Build

Plant traps, get resets, and nuke packs using imbuements. Simple build; highly effective for end game and leveling.

The general idea behind the Flurry Trap Master leveling play style is that you generate Vulnerability really easily, spread it using Flurry, and then use Poison Trap for single target, and Shadow Imbuement for AOE clear speed increase. This makes the build fairly well-rounded in its early damage profile. You also get Dash, adding to your general leveling speed and map clearing speeds while leveling.

When you enter that ultimate phase of leveling, you can see the build come online, as your Death Trap will pull enemies in range to the center, making it easy to spread your Vulnerability to all enemies brought into the trap’s center, which then combines for applying your Poison Trap onto enemies in the middle. You also get your hands on Preparation Specialization at level 30, which is a very good cooldown reset for Poison Trap, and SI, which spending energy lowers your Death Trap cooldown too. This allows you to pull large packs and get several Poison Traps easily, and potentially a second or third Death Trap off too.

You can also get your hands on the "Aspect of Encircling Blades" iconAspect of Encircling Blades, an aspect you get from Fractured Peaks, which makes this build even better to get going early on. You can also grab the Aspect of Arrow Storms if you’d like, but its not necessary as you already do lots of AOE damage, so it will only be used as a single target damage proc while you use Puncture to refill your energy.

  1. Puncture
  2. Enhanced Puncture
  3. Flurry
  4. Fundamental Puncture
  5. "Enhanced Flurry" iconEnhanced Flurry
  6. "Improved Flurry" iconImproved Flurry
  7. Dash
  8. Enhanced Dash
  9. Flurry
  10. Flurry
  11. Flurry
  12. Poison Trap - This will begin to increase your single target boss killing.
  13. Enhanced Poison Trap
  14. Subverting Poison Trap
  15. Flurry
  16. Poison Trap
  17. Shadow Imbuement
  18. Enhanced Shadow Imbuement
  19. Mixed Shadow Imbuement - You already have great Vuln spread, so, you can take this to increase synergy with your poison trap damage.
  20. Precision Imbuement
  21. Precision Imbuement
  22. Precision Imbuement
  23. Poison Trap
  24. Death Trap
  25. Prime Death Trap
  26. Supreme Death Trap
  27. Trap Mastery
  28. Trap Mastery
  29. Trap Mastery
  30. "Aftermath" iconAftermath
  31. Aftermath
  32. Aftermath
  33. Poison Trap
  34. Capstone - Exposure: You have great AOE damage already and don’t need Victimize, and more traps going off in a fight is great for added single target damage
  35. Innervation
  36. Alchemists’ Fortune
  37. Alchemists’ Fortune
  38. Alchemists’ Fortune
  39. Second Wind
  40. Second Wind
  41. Second Wind
  42. Poison Trap
  43. Puncture
  44. Puncture
  45. Puncture
  46. Puncture
  47. Sturdy
  48. Sturdy
  49. Sturdy

via GIPHY

Diablo 4 Rogue Leveling Build: Barrage Build

This Ranged Rogue leveling build in Diablo offers some impressive AOE clear thanks to its ultimate.

If you want a ranged rogue leveling playstyle, that is likely the best option for early-game leveling. Barrage offers the more hybrid AOE and single target, with "Rapid Fire" iconRapid Fire more single target focused, and "Penetrating Shot" iconPenetrating Shot more AOE focused. You can also take Heart Seeker for general crit ramping for boss battles, and it also has the best synergy with your capstone talent later on.

You also take movement skills just to make leveling quicker, along with Poison Trap for some more kiting and single-target boss damage. You can also take Shadow Imbuement for additional map-clearing speeds. Your core legendary affix while leveling is called Aspect of Arrow Storms, which is a legendary affix that comes from Scosglen, so, you will want to make that a destination once you’re around level 20.

  1. Heartseeker (HS)
  2. Enhanced HS
  3. Barrage
  4. "Enhanced Barrage" iconEnhanced Barrage
  5. "Improved Barrage" iconImproved Barrage
  6. Dash
  7. Enhanced Dash
  8. Disciplined Dash
  9. Barrage
  10. Barrage
  11. Concealment
  12. Enhanced Concealment
  13. Countering Stealth
  14. Barrage
  15. Barrage
  16. Shadow Imbuement
  17. Enhanced Shadow Imbuement
  18. Blended Shadow Imbuement
  19. Heartseeker
  20. Heartseeker
  21. Heartseeker
  22. Heartseeker
  23. Rain of Arrows
  24. Prime Rain of Arrows
  25. Supreme Rain of Arrows
  26. Precision Imbuement
  27. Precision Imbuement
  28. Precision Imbuement
  29. Aftermath - Grants 25 energy after casting an ultimate skill. - General DPS improvement for bosses.
  30. Aftermath
  31. Aftermath
  32. Exploit
  33. Precision - Capstone skill for Markmsan crit modifiers.

When you reach capstone, you can start synergizing your build with better critical strike chance, but it likely means you lose on some mobility. In an ideal synergized world, you want to switch from Poison Trap and Dash to Caltrops and Concealment. This will grant you much better synergy with your critical strike chances and increase synergy with the Precision capstone, so you can often generate more crits, especially while you have low crit chance in the early game.

If you want to keep mobility, we recommend only trading Poison Trap for Concealment. It will slightly lower your single target damage, but you will still have access to Dash for movement speed. You will also start getting passive damage improvements and other energy regen methods to compensate for the lack of poison damage and more Basic and Core skill-up time instead.

Other passives we recommended you take is Haste. Haste grants movement speed while above 50% energy or attack speed while below that threshold. You can also grab Stutter Step, which grants movement speed when you critically strike opponents for four seconds. This is some nice additional movement speed modifiers that scale with your ranged crit build.

You can also spend your remaining talent on improving Shadow Imbuement, lowering Concealment’s cooldown, or finding other ways to increase your damage until you reach level 50.

This concludes our Diablo 4 Rogue leveling builds for Season 1 guide. Hopefully you have an idea of what build and playstyle you’re interested in, which can take you to the next level.

Looking for more leveling builds? Check out other class’ leveling builds below:

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Blizzard Entertainment
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, PS5, XB One, XB X|S
  • Genre
    Action RPG
  • Guide Release
    15 March 2023
  • Last Updated
    19 October 2024
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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Diablo IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. This guide for Diablo 4 currently contains the following:

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