Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build – Shadowblade Guide: In this Diablo 4 Rogue Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Lvl 50 – Shadow Imbuement – Twisting Blades Rogue, which continues our beginner melee Diablo 4 Build for the Rogue. This build gives you an amazing clear speed and great mobility. If you want to Shadow Explode your way to victory, then this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build – Shadowblade

This build takes from where our beginner Twisting Blades Build left and uses the additional skill points to increase our energy acquisition, increase our damage, and most importantly increase our survivability. We’ll be swapping our specialization, but none of the active skills will change, and we’ll just focus on Passives to further increase our efficiency and to achieve almost 100% uptime.

The Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build still works the same way, you want to spam twisting blades in the first enemy you face until you run out of energy, then reposition yourself behind or even in the middle of a group of enemies and wait for the blades to return to restore your energy and repeat the sequence.

One of the biggest changes when compared with the previous build is that we’ll swap our Specialization from Combo Points into Preparation. The preparation specialization reduces your ultimate’s cooldown by 4 seconds for each 100 energy you spend, so you’ll be able to recover your ultimate very quick by just spamming twisting blade. Also, thanks to the Aftermath Passive, you’ll now be able to almost completely restore your energy as soon as you cast your ultimate, giving you many different options.

You can use the ultimate before a big pack of enemies, then go in and spam twisting blades as much as possible, and you’ll often get your ultimate back before you engage into your next fight. You can also save the ultimate for fighting Elites and Bosses, as you’ll run out of energy and the ultimate will allow you to restore it, thus resetting your combo from the start for this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build.

Another great change is that you’ll now be able to freely use Shadow Step to reposition, thanks to its upgrade and to the Ravager’s Aspect.

Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build Guide – Skill Distribution

As you progress towards Lvl 50 there’ll be three main aspects that you’ll want to resolve regarding your build: Energy Recovery, Damage Output and Survivability. Enemies will become much stronger at Tier 3, and you’ll probably struggle to stay stationary while attacking, so make sure you have enough survivability advancing in difficulty.

Stacking up Damage

We’ll be mainly using passives to increase our damage output. From our skills we’ll want to have Weapon Mastery, Exploit, Malice, and Precision Imbuement.

As for active Skills, you can use Shadow Step into an Elite or Boss to increase your critical chance against them, and Dash over them to increase the actual Critical Strike Damage they take.

Increasing Survivability

Enemies will hit much harder on later difficulties, and you’ll need to be able to survive while you are stationary, impaling blades into them..

The Momentum key passive provides a huge boost to survivability thanks to the 20% damage reduction and 15% increased movement speed, and on top of that you’ll also get 30% Energy Regeneration. You’ll be constantly hitting enemies from behind, so this will be constantly active during fights.

The Sturdy passive will further increase the damage reduction, while the Siphoning Strikes passive will provide you with health regeneration from your critical strikes. Last but not least, the Agile passive provides you with 12% dodge chance for 4 second after using a cooldown, so Dash, Shadow Step and Shadow Clone will allow you to prevent some attacks while using them.

Recovering Energy

The main way to deal damage with this build is by spamming Twisting Blades, and the only limitation for that is Energy. As previously stated, the Momentum Key Passive will give you a flat 30% Energy Regeneration increase, but on top of that you’ll want to get the Innervation Passive, which gives you 30% chance to gain 8 energy on a lucky hit.

This passive is massive for this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build, since all of our skills have a lucky hit chance, including both Twisting Blades and Shadow Imbuement. On top of that, Shadow Step has 100% Lucky Hit chance, so you’ll be constantly recovering energy while attacking enemies. You’ll want to further increase the chance of this happening by getting the Second Wind passive as well, which increases your lucky hit chance.

LEVEL 50 ROGUE SKILLS
Skill	Points Spent
Invigorating Strike	1
Enhanced Invigorating Strike	1
Fundamental Invigorating Strike	1
Twisting Blades	5
Enhanced Twisting Blades	1
Advanced Twisting Blades	1
Sturdy	3
Siphoning Strikes	2
Shadow Step	1
Enhanced Shadow Step	1
Disciplined Shadow Step	1
Dash	1
Enhanced Dash	1
Weapon Mastery	3
Agile	3
Exploit	3
Malice	3
Shadow Crash	1
Consuming Shadows	3
Shadow Imbuement	5
Enhanced Shadow Imbuement	1
Blended Shadow Imbuement	1
Precision Imbuement	3
Shadow Clone	1
Prime Shadow Clone	1
Supreme Shadow Clone	1
Innervation	3
Second Wind	2
Aftermath	3
Momentum	1

Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Equipment, Gems and Aspects

There are a couple of aspects that are key to make this build work, but all of them can be acquired from the Codex of Power. The other aspects are nice to have, but you can wait until later to acquire them if you like.

Aspects and Uniques

Must Have Codex of Power Aspects

• Bladedancer’s Aspect: You should have this from the original build, the orbiting blade is a must to make this build work. You can get it on the Codex of Power by completing the Jalal’s Vigil Dungeon on Scosglen.
• Aspect of the Protector: This aspect provides you with a Barrier when you damage an elite enemy. This is a must-have, as it’ll allow you to stay stationary without dying, enough time to set up your Twisting Blades. This Aspect can be acquired by completing the Lost Archives Dungeon in the Fractured Peaks.
• Aspect of Corruption: This greatly increases the potency of your Shadow Imbuement, greatly increasing your damage. You should slot it into your two-handed ranged weapon for 100% increased effect. You can get it by completing the Renegade’s Retreat Dungeon in Kehjistan.
• Ravenous Aspect: This is aspect greatly increases our Energy Regeneration when defeating vulnerable enemies, which is all the time. You can get it by completing the Shifting City Dungeon on the Dry Steps.
• Mother’s Embrace – Unique Ring: This ring is perfect for our Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build, as it refunds the cost of our twisting blades as long as they hit 5 or more enemies. You’ll get the ring as a guaranteed drop during the main campaign.

Nice to have Codex of Power Aspects

• Aspect of Unstable Imbuements: This is really nice to use as an AoE imbuement explosion while in the middle of a pack of enemies. You can get it by completing the Whispering Vault Dungeon on the Dry Steps
• Aspect of Imitated Imbuement: This makes it, so your shadow clone applies the Shadow Imbuement to its skills, as well as increasing its damage. It’s very useful against both bosses and big packs of enemies. This is a lucky drop.
• Aspect of Might: If you are struggling with surviving bosses or enemy packs, you can use this and use a regular attack in between your Twisting Blades to further increase damage reduction. This can be acquired by completing the Dark Ravine Dungeon in the Dry Steps
• Vengeful Aspect: This will greatly increase your critical strike chance, allowing you to stuck up even more damage. You can get it by completing the Inferno Dungeon on Kehjistan

Great to have, Lucky Drops

• Ravager’s Aspect: This adds a charge to Shadow Step, providing you with even more mobility on the battlefield, and if you actually kill the enemy (a minion for example) it’ll refund a charge.
• Protecting Aspect: This creates a bubble that makes you immune for a certain period. This is great, as you’ll have the opportunity to spam as many twisting blades as you want without to have to worry about the enemies. You’ll get an amulet with this effect during the first part of the main campaign.
• Aspect of Quickening Fog: This will help you with crowd control, as well as decreasing Dash cooldown, making it great for mobility and helping you to get in a couple of twisting blades before the enemies can even react.
• Grasp of Shadow Sacred – Unique Gloves: If you are lucky enough to get these gloves, they’ll greatly increase your damage output, as they synergize perfectly with this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build.

Equipment Affixes

Same as Skills, you’ll want your equipment to compensate for Damage, Survivability and Energy Management. The gear that you get during your play trough will be random, but here are some general guidelines on what you should be looking for:

Survivability

• Maximum Life: This is very important, as you’ll need enough life to survive damage bursts of Tier 3 and the Rogue is very squishy
• Elemental Resistances: Must have to be able to survive Nightmare Dungeons with elemental affinities
• Damage Reduction from close enemies
• Dodge Chance

Damage

• Attack Speed: Very important to be able to quickly apply Twisting Blades to your enemies
• Skills: You’ll want this for Twisting Blades and Shadow Imbuement, don’t worry about Shadowstep and Dash.
• + All Stats: Mainly focus on dexterity, but all stats are good
• Cutthroat Skill Damage
• Shadow Damage
• Vulnerable Damage
• Damage to Close Enemies
• Imbuement/Imbued Skill Damage
• Critical Strike Damage
• Critical Strike Chance
• Physical Damage
• Critical Strike Damage with Imbued Skills

Energy

• Energy Cost Reduction
• Lucky Hit Chance
• Maximum Energy

Gems

When it comes to gems, you’ll want to have this depending on the type of equipment

• Weapon: Emeralds. This greatly increases the critical strike damage you deal to vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Rubies: This increases the maximum life, greatly increasing your survivability
• Jewelry: You’ll want to add the Elemental Resistances that you are lacking, for example, if you have low Lightning Resistance you should slot Topaz, and so on. If all of them are even, use Diamonds.

Rogue Build for Paragon

When you reach lvl 50 you’ll unlock the first Paragon Board, and you’ll start earning Paragon Points. On the first Board you should first focus on the right part to get the “Prime” rare node which further increases your damage and gives you maximum life. From there, continue up and get all three of “Socket” and the two other rare nodes.

If you happen to find it, you should slot the “Efficacy” Glyph into the socket, and try to allocate at least 25 intelligence around it, so you get the Additional Bonus which increases the potency of your Imbuement Skills.

Try to get as many “dexterity” nodes as possible for this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build, but also make sure to fulfill the socketed glyph requirements on its radius to acquire its Additional Bonuses.

Once you reach the top, you will have to decide what Paragon Board to go for. I recommend the first board called “Eldritch Bounty“, as its legendary node will further enhance your Imbuement Skills.

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build Shadow Step is fantastic when fighting bosses because it teleports you right behind them, completely avoiding most of their attacks. Make sure to always have at least 1 charge available to prevent being hit by their skills. Also remember that you’ll have a 12% dodge chance because of the Agile passive each time you cast it.

For tough enemies or bosses when you are left 1v1, remember to attack with Invigorating Strike while you are below 50% energy, to apply the vulnerable status

I recommend using the Assault Elixir, as it increases attack speed allowing you to stack twisting blades faster, but if you are running Dungeons with specific enemy types, you may want to change into an elixir that boosts damage against that specific type of enemy.

I recommend casting shadow clone before engaging a big pack of monsters, instead of waiting until there’s only the elite left. Shadow Clone last for 15 seconds, which should be more than enough time to deal with both the elites and the regular enemies, and all the energy you spend will greatly reduce its cooldown.

Another great tip with shadow clone is to use shadow step when fighting a single elite or boss. This will ensure your clone is in the right position to deal damage, and is ideal for this Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Build.

Make sure to use dash to pass through the enemies and not only Shadow Step, as this will increase the amount of critical damage they take.

When fighting bosses, save your ultimate for when you run out of energy. Shadow Clone will reset all your cooldowns, restore your energy and provide you with unstoppable, essentially resetting your full combo. Make sure to spend all your energy and use shadow imbuement before casting it to maximize efficiency

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Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!