The Season of the Malignant saw many adjustments to the strength of characters and builds across the board. It’s no secret that many of those changes weren’t well received. Fortunately, if you’re rocking Rogue this season, we escape the Nerf Hammer with a minor slap on the wrist, and we can still enjoy a smooth journey to level 50. Let me give you a crash course in all things sharp and stealthy with our Diablo 4 Season 1 best Rogue leveling builds | Twisted Blades, Flurry, Penetrating Shot, and more.
Rogue escaped the nerfs mostly unscathed, but same can’t be said for the Sorcerer. Still, just because they got hit, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them. If you want a challenge this season, check out our Sorcerer leveling guide.
What is the best Rogue Leveling Build in Diablo 4 Season 1?
If you want the best Rogue Build for leveling, which will also set you up for one of the strongest endgame builds, you can’t go wrong with Twisted Blades. For leveling, it’s easy to gear for and feels powerful from start to finish.
Best Rogue leveling builds in Diablo 4 Season 1 tier list
The Rogue really can get away with just about anything in Season 1, but here are our picks for the best builds this time around:
Twisting BladesÂ
Twisting Blades is a fantastic leveling build boasting excellent movement speed and tons of damage whether you’re fighting mobs or bosses. The best thing about Twisting Blades is your abilities go ‘live’ very early. By level 15, you have your entire arsenal of skills ready to use, and by level 20, resource generation becomes much less of an issue.Â
Penetrating Shot
Penetrating Shot is a remarkable ability to build around… Providing you hit your shot. If you’re comfortable managing your resources, you can delete foes before they can even think of getting close. Penetrating Shot deals absurd damage to tight packs of enemies. Your playstyle revolves around getting that to happen and laughing as your opponents try to fight back.
Image by PC Invasion
Rogue Twisting Blades Leveling Build
The star of the show in this build is its namesake, Twisting Blades. Twisting Blades does obscene amounts of damage and quickly becomes the skill we rely on for the entire leveling process. Dash is a decent gap closer and does respectable damage on hit; it also pairs nicely with our next skill as part of a combo. Poison Trap deals damage and knocks enemies down when a skill point is invested into Enhanced Poison Trap. The basic combo with this build is to get in close with Dash, pop the Poison Trap, and lay waste to your foes with Twisting Blades.
Finally, we use Dark Shroud and Subverting Dark Shroud for survivability and additional movement speed.
Best Rogue Twisting Blades leveling build skills
This is the order I recommend spending skill points. Feel free to go for mobility skills earlier and return to Twisting Blades, but the guide should be easy to follow in this order.
Level 1-10
- Puncture
- Enhanced Puncture
- Fundamental Puncture
- Twisting Blades
- Enhanced Twisting Blades
- Improved Twisting Blades
- Twisting Blades (x4)
These Skills establish the core of our damage profile. Fundamental Puncture can make enemies Vulnerable, and even though that debuff got a Nerf in Season 1, it’s still a valuable damage increase for the build. Improved Twisting Blades daze enemies and make them easier to deal with if we run into resource problems.
Level 11-10
- Shadow Step
- Dash
- Dark Shroud
- Enhanced Dark Shroud
- Subverting Dark Shroud
- Poison Trap
- Enhanced Poison Trap
- Exploit (x3)
Levels 11-20 fill up our skill bar, giving us access to the combo I mentioned earlier. Shadow Step is our gap closer; Dash is another excellent mobility tool, and Poison Trap gives us a respectable damage boost when we’re up close. The three points into Exploit grant even more damage across the board.Â
At this point, I strongly recommend completing the Rogue-specific subquest to unlock Specializations. At Level 20, you can use Inner Sight, which offers bursts of unlimited Energy and translates to insane damage output.
Level 21-30
- Adrenaline Rush
- Haste (x3)
- Trap Mastery (x3)
- Sturdy
- Siphoning Strikes (x2)
These ten levels may seem less impactful than the last without new skills, but they make a huge difference. We don’t really care about Adrenaline Rush, but we need it for Haste, which gives us movement and attack speed. Trap Mastery makes our Traps more potent, and Sturdy acts as a gateway to Siphoning Strikes for health regen. We will max that out next.
Level 31-40
- Siphoning Strikes
- Weapon Mastery (x3)
- Momentum (Key Skill)
- Concussive (x3)
- Stutter Step (x2)
We max out Siphoning Strikes and Weapon Mastery, which gives a sweeping damage buff, especially if you’re using Daggers. Momentum has many different effects, but they are all melee centric, and we’re using a melee-centric build. Concussive hurts knocked down enemies more, which you should still be doing with your Traps. Finally, Stutter Step gives us more mobility after critical strikes.
Level 41-50
- Stutter Step
- Deadly Venom (x3)
- Debilitating Toxins (x3)
- Alchemical Advantage (x2)
- Enhanced DashÂ
The closing skill points in this build allow us to ramp up our Poison damage. Two points in Alchemical Advantage mean we will often have a +15% attack speed increase, and Enhanced Dash briefly makes any enemies hit by the skill take more damage.
Image by PC Invasion
Best Rogue Twisting Blades Aspects and how to get them
Twisting Blades Rogue doesn’t need any specific Aspects for the leveling process. That said, here are a few that will help on your journey to 50. If any Legendary gear drops on the way, feel free to use it even if it has an Aspect not mentioned here:
Bladedancer’s AspectÂ
- Region – Scosglen
- Location – Jalal’s Vigil
This Aspect affects our primary skill, so naturally, we want it! The Bladedancer’s Aspect turns us into a meatgrinder as our Twisting Blades orbit us briefly when they return. During this period, we deal more damage, and that’s why we want it.Â
Cheat’s Aspect
- Region – Scosglen
- Location – Luban’s Rest
You’ll notice that during the leveling process, our primary concern is maximum damage as fast as possible, and survivability takes a back seat. When you’re storming through levels in Season 1, you can end up in a position where your gear is much lower level than your character, affecting your survivability. The Cheat’s Aspect will help, as you’ll take less damage from Crowd Controlled enemies.
Edgemaster’s Aspect
- Region – Scosglen
- Location – Oldstones
Back on the theme of damage, The Edgemaster’s Aspect increases our damage based on how much Energy we have. This Aspect works nicely with the Inner Sight Specialization, which grants bursts of unlimited Energy. Ensure you activate Inner Sight when you hit Level 20, as this Aspect essentially gives us free damage.
Rogue Penetrating Shot Leveling Build
If you prefer your fights at range, Penetrating Shot is a fun and powerful build where you can do just that. Penetrating Shot does obscene amounts of damage to packs of enemies, and our skills are structured to make this happen as often as possible. We use Imbuements to buff our Penetrating Shot, and Dash is an invaluable repositioning tool. When you’re learning the build, trust me, you’ll need it.
Best Rogue Penetrating Shot leveling build skills
This is the order I recommend unlocking your skills in. Like Twisting Blades, we will start with Puncture, as it’s arguably the best generator for Rogue.
Level 1-10
- Puncture
- Enhanced Puncture
- Fundamental Puncture
- Penetrating Shot
- Enhanced Penetrating Shot
- Advanced Penetrating Shot
- Dash
- Dark Shroud
- Enhanced Dash
- Disciplined Dash
As previously mentioned, Puncture is an excellent generator for Rogue and can inflict Vulnerable, which is a bonus, even if it was nerfed for Season 1. We will invest everything we can into Penetrating Shot soon, but as we want to stay away from our opponents, Dash and Dark Shroud are essential.
Level 11-20
- Enhanced Shroud
- Subverting Dark Shroud
- Penetrating Shot (x4)
- Shadow Imbuement
- Poison Imbuement
- Enhanced Shadow Imbuement
- Enhanced Poison Imbuement
This is a big ten levels for us as our Imbuements go live and kick our Penetrating Shot damage into the stratosphere. Subverting Dark Shroud gives us some welcome movement speed and sets us up nicely for hitting those crazy powerful shots. At level 15, I strongly advise doing the Rogue Subquest to unlock Specializations. This lets you use Combo Points, a solid damage buff for the build.
Level 21-30
- Blended Shadow Imbuement
- Blended Poison Imbuement
- Exploit (x3)
- Precision Imbuement (x3)
- Adrenaline Rush
- Haste
We fill in our Imbuement skills here, and max Exploit is a respectable damage buff across the board. Precision Imbuement increases our critical strike chance with Imbued attacks, and we finish off with a point in Haste. Adrenaline Rush isn’t great, but we need it to get to Haste, and we will max out that skill in the next couple of levels.
Level 31-40
- Haste (x2)
- Precision (Key Skill)
- Weapon Mastery (x3)
- Malice (x3)
- Shadow Crash
Levels 31-40 max out Haste, a fantastic damage skill, and we finally unlock our Precision Key Skill. Weapon Mastery offers a whopping 15% additional critical strike damage if you’re using a Crossbow, and Malice increases damage vs Vulnerable enemies.Â
Level 41-50
- Consuming Shadows (x2)
- Shadow Imbuement (x3)
- Poison Imbuement (x3)
- Innervation (x2)
Our last batch of points gives us buffs to both Imbuements. Consuming Shadows grants Energy whenever an enemy dies to Shadow Damage, and Innervation helps with any further energy issues the build may have.
Image by PC Invasion
Best Rogue Penetrating Shot Aspects and how to get them
Penetrating Shot Rogue has a few key Aspects that are obtainable through Dungeon completions. The Trickshot Aspect, in particular, works in tandem with our Penetrating Shot and grants an instantly noticeable damage buff.Â
Trickshot Aspect
- Region – Hawezar
- Location – Bastion of Faith
Trickshot Aspect grants a tremendous damage buff to our Penetrating Shot, and it’s a mandatory part of the build. We live or die on our ability to wipe out enemies with Penetrating Shot and Imbuements, and no other Aspect fills this role.
Aspect of Corruption
- Region – Kehjistan
- Location – Renegade’s Retreat
The Aspect of Corruption makes your Imbued shots much more effective against Vulnerable enemies. Even with the Nerfs, Vulnerable is still a key debuff we shoot for as a Penetrating Shot Rogue.
Aspect of the Expectant
- Region – Scosglen
- Location – Underroot
Aspect of the Expectant gives our Penetrating Shot even more damage providing we’ve used our Basic Skill beforehand. In this build, we use Puncture, which makes enemies vulnerable, so we should be able to take advantage of this Aspect in our general rotation.
