Diablo 4 Rogue Build - Shadow Barrage
Jun. 9, 2023Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Shadow Barrage
Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Shadow Barrage: In this Diablo 4 EndgameRogueBuild Guide, I’m going to show you my Shadow Barrage Build that makes full use of theBarrage Skillto obliterate multiple enemies very quickly. If you’re looking for a Diablo 4 Endgame Rogue Build that is aimed at World Tier 3, and one that executes strategic moves efficiently while remaining in top shape, Health and Energy-wise, then this Diablo 4 Build Guide is for you!
The way thisDiablo IV Endgame Buildworks is by casting Barrage repeatedly to deal devastating damage. Barrage is an Imbueable Marksman Skill that allows you to shoot out 5 arrows that expand in a V pattern from you. You can hold this button down and it will literally empty your Energy pool to channel arrows over and over again. Now these arrows have a 20% chance to ricochet off of enemies one time, dealing a little less damage.
But when you hit aVulnerabletarget or critically strike an enemy it was guaranteed to ricochet off of, you’re able to spread around status effects very easily since arrows bounce all over the screen. Barrage is even made better thanks to theImproved Barrageupgrade so for every 3rd cast, you’re able to apply Vulnerable for 2 seconds. It tends to happen for everyone because of the ricochets.
With theToxic Alchemist’s Aspect, there will be a lot of AoE explosions going on, making it so that you have a way to deal with large groups of enemies effectively, which is something that the Marksman has trouble doing without usingPenetrating Shot.
Each Diablo 4 Rogue Build comprises the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing theseSkillscan drastically alter the way the Rogue Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Shadow Barrage Rogue Diablo 4 Endgame Build. By the time you reach Level 50, you’ll approximately have 58 points, assuming that you’ve accumulated enough Renown from different regions to gain 10 extra points. So your Skill distribution should look something like this:
The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.
In this section, I’ll discuss how the Skills work for the current Shadow Barrage Endgame Build of the Rogue Class. The strategies will change depending on the type of foe you’re facing whether they’re comprised of a large group of enemies orElitesandBosses.
Barrage is best combined with theAspect of Branching Volleys, which makes it so that the Marksman Skill’s arrows have up to a 50% chance to split into 2 when they ricochet, allowing you to spread this around even more. So you definitely want thisLegendary Aspecton your Two-Handed Weapon in order to get the most ricochet possible because the idea here is to hit as many enemies as possible to spread around the damage.
However, there are 2 problems with Barrage. First, it drains your Energy extremely rapidly when you’re just sitting there holding the button down. And second, you have to be able to stand there and live while you’re doing this. So you need to solve being able to heal yourself and having damage resistances while also maintaining your Energy to constantly trigger Barrage. Let’s first talk about how to keep this resource topped up withConsuming Shadows.
The Consuming Shadows passive makes it so that each time you kill an enemy with Shadow Damage, you generate Energy, and when you useShadow Imbuement, this happens all the time. So Shadow Imbuement is your primary way to constantly raise Energy, and you typically want to switch over fromPoison Imbuement, which you lead off with to soften up enemies. This will allow you to finish them off with Shadow Damage to then replenish your Energy so you can sit there as you watch enemies explode.
Although not specifically relevant to Energy, the Toxic Alchemist’s Aspect makes it so that when youLucky Hitan enemy that’s Poisoned with a Shadow Imbuement Skill, you have a 75% chance of creating a toxic explosion, which deals Poison Damage to the target and all surrounding enemies, thereby further spreading around this type of damage. Now I don’t have that aspect in this Diablo 4 Rogue Build because I didn’t get a good roll but it’s something you could slot that would work really, really well.
Next is the Innervation passive, which makes it so that on a Lucky Hit, you have up to a 30% chance to gain 8 Energy. This happens all the time because you’re constantly getting Lucky Hits with this Diablo IV Rogue Build. You also have theAlchemist’s Fortuneat 2 ranks here so that your Non-Physical Damage gives you a 10% increase in Lucky Hit Chance. And there are a couple of other passives at the bottom of the tree likeAdrenaline RushandHastethat will also help with Energy regeneration as well as Movement Speed, respectively.
The most important Legendary Aspect for the survivability of this Shadow Barrage Diablo IV Rogue Build is theAspect of Cruel Sustenance. This makes it so that the explosions triggered by theVictimize Key Passiveheal you for each damaged enemy up to a maximum of X amount of Life, which happens constantly.
And what Victimize does is on Lucky Hit from dealing direct damage, so not Poison Damage, to a Vulnerable enemy, it has up to a 30% chance to cause an explosion dealing 23% of the original damage to them and surrounding enemies. This works fantastic for this D4 Rogue Build because when you’re firing into a group with Barrage, and especially when you set Vulnerable every 3 shots, Victimize will trigger all the time, and in doing so, heal you.
The Key Passive alone combined with the Aspect of Cruel Sustenance allows you to face tank tons and tons of damage. Although it won’t be enough to keep you alive as you go higher and higher inNightmare Dungeons, it’s sufficient to get you through a chunk of the way up there. You’ll probably have to stack a damage shield on top of this at some point to be able to stand there and take a couple of hits.
Keep in mind too that when you usePuncture, which is your Basic Skill, you’re applying Vulnerable on targets. When you do and you fire into them with Barrage, you’re going to heal yourself in a hurry while setting a ton of explosions in motion
For this Shadow Barrage Diablo 4 Rogue Endgame Build, you can either useShadow CloneorRain of Arrowsas your Ultimate Skill. Shadow Clone is fantastic because it’s basically going to make the Clone do exactly what you do with it. There’s even theAspect of Imitated Imbuement, which makes it so that they benefit from your Imbuements while dealing increased damage. For instance, you can sit there with Shadow Imbuement and unload into a group of enemies with your Shadow Clone standing next to you, never running out of Energy as you both wipe them out.
However, I have theWord of Hakan, which is Sacred Unique Amulet where Rain of Arrows is always Imbued with all Imbuements at once. So it applies Shadow, Poison, and Frozen Imbuements to all enemies it hits on the screen while triggering explosions. You lead with Rain of Arrows any time you sense danger like an Elite with damage resistance.
Moreover, you’re going to take thePreparation Specializationand reduce the cooldown of your Ultimate Ability so that you can use it every time you need it. Just be sure to have the other Skills likePoison Trapready before pushing through in Dungeons.
At World Tier 3, you’ll gain access to many items together with their bonuses. It can be challenging to determine the right ones to keep for your Diablo IV Rogue Endgame Build without the proper direction. So in this section, I’ll discuss the best gear bonuses you should chase after together with theGemsand aspects to place in them. Remember that you can replace unwanted affixes atThe Occultistand upgrade your gear atThe Blacksmithfor the best results.
For theWeapon, the bonuses you’ll want include the following:
For the Offensive Aspects, it’s important to focus on anything that gives increasedCritical Strike Chanceor Attack Speed because you want Barrage to fire faster. Doing so will hit enemies more to deal continuous damage and explosions to kill them quickly. You’re literally trying to get to the point where you cannot attack fast enough because you don’t run out of Energy.
Lastly, Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies is helpful since you do impair enemies with Puncture as it Slows them down and when you unload with Rain of Arrows, everything is CCed so the extra damage here will come in handy.
For the gems, remember to useSapphiresfor the increased Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies for your Bow andAmethyststo deal more Damage Over Time.
ForArmor, you have the Helm,Chest Armor,Gloves,Pants, andBoots. The major bonuses you’ll want here include the following:
Another aspect to imprint on your Chest Armor is theAspect of the Crowded Sage. This makes it so that you heal for X amount of Life per second for each Close Enemy. So be sure to upgrade the gear continuously as the amount of Life you heal goes higher and higher upon moving through the game. When you’re surrounded, you’re going to keep healing yourself, which is absolutely fantastic. On top of this and as long as you get a damage shield later on, you should be able to keep yourself topped up without any problems.
For the gem, you’ll want to slot theRubyto raise your Maximum Life.
For Jewelry, you have theAmuletand 2Rings. The gear bonuses you’ll need include the following:
Mother’s Embrace Unique Ringis what you get from finishing the game and as a random drop. What this does is that if you use a Core Skill and hit up to 5 enemies or more, you end up refunding up to 40% of the resource. This is huge as it drastically reduces the cost of Barrage. With all the other ways of gaining Energy, you’ll net Energy when using this Skill as long as you’re hitting a lot of enemies.
The Legendary Aspect you would want to have on one of your Rings is theRavenous Aspect. This makes it so that if you kill a Vulnerable enemy, which is constant for this Diablo IV Rogue Build, it grants up to a 70% increased Energy regeneration for 4 seconds.
You should then slot any of the gems that will grant additional Elemental Resistances based on what you currently lack.
At Level 50, you unlock the basic Paragon board to further enhance your Diablo 4 Shadow Barrage Endgame Rogue Build. I’m using the Combat Glyph, which not only increases our Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills but also makes it so that thoseCritical Strikesrestore 12% of the Energy cost of the Skill. As such, you can regenerate a lot of Energy by landing multiple crits with Barrage, and since it fires out a ton of arrows, this tends to happen regularly.
And then lastly, for theRogue Paragon Board, we’re going for the Cunning Strategem. It may not make sense now because the bonus isn’t going to affect you since you’re using Preparation instead ofCombo Points. However, it does have a lot of nodes for Core Skill Damage, allowing you to crank up Barrage’s damage as much as possible. So until you have a lot more points or you’re closer to reaching Level 70, you can pick up a different board.
As such, you can go for No Witnessinstead. This increases your Ultimate Skill Damage by 30% and then raises your damage for a period of time after casting the corresponding ability. No Witness even has a lot of nodes that just amplify your damage in some way or another. For instance, you can increase your Critical Strike Damage against Healthy Enemies, etc. So the damage you get from your Ultimate and Regular Skills will essentially be greater.
Just a few more things you want to make sure of to improve this Shadow Barrage Diablo IV Rogue Build further. The first is to use a Bow instead of a Crossbow because of its attack rate. The Bow is faster, making Barrage hit quicker, and also, it has Damage to Distant Enemies, making the Core Skill more useful at range.
You do a lot of damage up close so getting the Damage to Close Enemies bonus is good but having some damage at a distance will also help when you’re trying to pick off pesky stragglers that are spread out. Otherwise, your damage will drop off and it will be hard for you to clean them up.
Second, you also don’t want to just charge into groups because you want to stay on the fringes and load into enemies to cause explosions. You want to keep them on the edge of the map if possible. And third, remember to equip Boots with extra Dodge since there’s no Mobility Skill on this D4 Rogue Build. Doing so will help you keep out of harm’s way.
Lastly, remember to craft Elixirs to not only boost your damage but to increase your XP gain. They are not hard to craft, and you should have a bunch of materials by this point of the game. They can make yourDungeonclear speed a bit better if you know the enemy type you will be facing. You might need to enter the dungeon first to see what’s inside before using it.
Be sure to check out ourDiablo 4 Wikifor any other questions you have about the game and theBuildspage if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as ourUltimate Beginner GuideandAll Classes Overviewif you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
Is there a stronger version of this build?
