Diablo 4 is built on power fantasies, and the Rogue delivers the ability to decimate huge crowds of enemies while nimbly dodging through the crowd without taking a single hit.
Of course, slaughtering foes without taking any damage sounds a lot easier than it actually is. The Twisting Blades Rogue is easily the best Rogue build in terms of damage output, but it won’t let you turn your brain off and mindlessly click your way to victory (and carpal tunnel syndrome). Instead it’s a perfect build for focused players who want to test their skills and clear cut enemy packs at an unbelievable rate.
It’s all in the wrist
The best Rogue build in Diablo 4 season 2 remains mostly the same as it was in Season 1, which might point to a skill diversity issue in the game. The truth is Twisting Blades just can’t be beat. The core skill actually contains two attacks. On the initial hit, your blades plunge into the side of an enemy, and a moment later they fly back to your hands, slicing anything in their path.
The boomerang effect is what makes Twisting Blades so powerful. When combined with the right gear and mobility skills, your blades will rip apart entire packs on their return journey. The initial strike also does its fair share of damage, so if you manage your Combo Points and combine Twisting Blades with the right imbuements, you’ll be able to take down single targets like bosses almost as easily as you tackle packs.
Season 2 has strengthened this build even further with Vampiric Powers. Powers like Prey on the Weak increase Vulnerable damage, which was already a core component of the build, and others like Moonrise and Ravenous increase attack speed for even more damage output. The Powers supplement the build, but you need to get everything else right to really make them shine.
Imbue, strike, dash, repeat
The most important support skills for the Twisting Blades Rogue are Dash and Shadow Step. These are how you’re going to manage to put some distance between yourself and your initial Twisting Blades attack to maximize the damage the blades do when they fly back to you. The basic game plan is to get in a couple of Twisting Blades hits, then Dash and Shadow Step away to put as many enemies between you and your blades as possible.
Shadow Imbuement is just icing on the cake here. It adds Shadow damage to your Twisting Blades and infects enemies for 6 seconds. As long as you kill them within that window, they’ll explode, dealing even more damage and making crowd clearing that much easier. On the other side of the spectrum, Poison Imbuement adds damage over time to your Twisting Blades, which can be a great way to tackle bosses.
When all is said and done, these should be the skills you have as a Twisting Blades Rogue:
Puncture – Generate Energy, Combo Points, and make targets Vulnerable,
Twisting Blades – This is the core of the entire build and can Daze enemies.
Shadow Step – The best mobility skill there is and a top priority for skill points.
Dash – A good supplement to Shadow Step when you need to wait for cooldowns.
Shadow Imbuement – Incredibly important for attacking crowds.
Poison Imbuement – A great way to boost single target damage.
Close Quarters Combat – The only Core Passive that makes sense here.
Don’t sleep on passive skills
Those primary skills are only part of the story. Some of the Rogue’s passive abilities are incredibly important when it comes to maximizing your damage and staying alive on the battlefield. These should be your priorities:
Weapon Mastery – This is a straight damage boost, so max it out.
Exploit – Bonus damage against healthy enemies, another target to max.
Malice – Bonus damage to Vulnerable enemies that you’ll definitely want.
Sturdy – Damage reduction when you’re in melee range, this is a must have.
Siphoning Strikes – This lets Critical Hits heal you. You should already want Critical Hits anyway!
Consuming Shadows – Gain more Energy from Shadow damage kills.
Precision Imbuement – Increase crit chance on imbued skills to get your other triggers.
Innervation – Another easy way to keep your Energy supply strong.
Haste – With this you’re always either gaining movement speed or attack speed.
Get your Aspects in line
Some of the best Legendary Aspects in the game are random drops that you’ll just have to cross your fingers for. Others can be farmed and added to your Codex of Power. Either way, these are the Aspects that have the biggest impact on the Twisting Blades Rogue build:
Accelerating Aspect (Random drop) – Critical strikes with Core Skills increase attack speed by 15-25% for 5 seconds.
Aspect of Corruption (Renegade’s Retreat, Kehjistan) – Imbued skills do 20-40% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Aspect of Disobedience (Halls of the Damned, Kehjjistan) – 4 seconds of 36-66% increased Armor when you deal damage of any kind.
Aspect of the Expectant (Underroot, Scosglen) – Attacking with Basic skills increases the damage of the next Core skill by 5-10%.
Aspect of Might (Dark Ravine, Dry Steppes) – Basic skills grant 20% reduced damage for 2-6 seconds.
Aspect of Shared Misery (Oblivion, Hawezar) – 30-50% chance to spread crowd control effects when attacking crowd controlled enemies.
Aspect of the Umbral (Champion’s Demise, Dry Steppes) – Restores 1-4 of your Primary Resource whenever you crowd control an enemy.
Bladedancer’s Aspect (Jalal’s Vigil, Scosglen) – Twisting Blades orbit you after they return to you, dealing 10-15% of the return damage per hit, increased an additional 20-30% based on the distance they returned.
Cheat’s Aspect (Luban’s Rest, Scosglen) – Take 15-25% less damage from crowd controlled enemies and gain 15% movement speed for 2 seconds when you take damage from a crowd controlled enemy.
Edgemaster’s Aspect (Oldstones, Scosglen) – Skills deal up to 10-20% increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.
Energizing Aspect (Sanguine Chapel, Fractured Peaks) – Damaging an Elite enemy with a Basic skill grants 5-9 Energy.
Ghostwalker Aspect (Broken Bulwark, Scosglen) – While Unstoppable and for 2 seconds after, you gain 10-25% increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies.
Ravager’s Aspect (Random drop) – Shadow Step gets an additional charge. Killing an enemy with Shadow Step restores a charge and increases the damage of Shadow Step by 1-6%, stacking up to 5-30%.
