The Diablo 4 open beta is on the horizon and it’s time to delve deep into the skills, gameplay, and builds of the Diablo 4 Rogue class (a blended ranged and melee class with some unique traits) to ensure you get the best out of this skillful warrior. Without further ado, let's go through the Diablo 4 Rogue guide and see whether it is a good starting character for the open beta!

Diablo 4 Beta Rogue Class Guide: Skills, Gameplay, Build Types, Strengths & Weaknesses

Rogue is a throwback to the origins of the RPG game series. Blizzard has said that this Rogue is a whole new look though, encompassing elements of other popular characters such as Diablo 3’s Demon Hunter and Diablo 2’s Assassin. And, although originally from the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye, players can reportedly take on either a female or male Rogue class role. Here's everything you need to know about the Rogue for D4 beta, class gameplay, unique class mechanics, all available skills, strengths/weaknesses, and build tips.

Related Read: Diablo 4 Beta Necromancer Class Guide

Rogue Class Overview for Diablo IV Open Beta

Our Diablo 4 Rogue guide begins with the class’s general description. Rogues in Diablo 4 are fast agile strikers who rely on blending melee and ranged attacks to clear out any obstacles in their way. They can even mix in a variety of tricks and traps to help tilt the situation in their favor. And they do come in multiple flavors, you can play as a Trapper, a Rogue who specializes in kiting groups of enemies into traps that'll slow and cause high amounts of damage. Or perhaps you're more of a Slugger who wants to stick close to enemies and twist your knife in to bleed out your target. Or a Marksman, who picks off targets from a distance to stay out of Harm's Way. Or maybe you're more of a Swashbuckler or a Bandit who prefers to master both close ranged and long-ranged combat. So if this sounds like you, the Rogue may be a class to check out. So Rogues are quick fighters who use energy to fuel their attacks. This energy is a resource that'll slowly regenerate over time or you can use some consumables to add some giddy up to that recharge speed. 

Strengths/Weaknesses of D4 Rogue Class

As Diablo 4 is not yet released, it is impossible to give an accurate list of weaknesses/strengths for the Rogue class. However, based on the information that has been released by Blizzard, here are some potential pros and cons.

D4 Rogue Strengths

• Can deal high damage: Rogues are built to deal high amounts of damage, they use their core skills and their passives to make this happen. So making sure that you use those as often as you can is going to help make quick work of anything in your way. 

• Very fast: Rogues also have multiple movement skills that allow them to zip around the battlefield. But they do also have access to things like slow, chill, freeze and stun crowd control effects at their disposal that way you can lock down enemies.

• Versatile: Rogues are a jack of all traits, you can use straightforward attacks, you can lay traps, you can slow down enemies, or you can simply blow everything up with heavy damage whether you're ranged or melee. 

D4 Rogue Weaknesses

• Very squishy: They do require investing into dodge chance to avoid taking large amounts of spike damage. So for this, you want to make sure to choose dexterity as your primary stat as it grants extra dodge chance and increases your skill damage. 

• Require positioning: Rogues do require positioning and setups to be most effective, so if you aren't able to debuff your enemies or use certain skills because you're out of range, then your damage is going to drop off of a cliff.

Special Trait for Diablo IV Rogue Class 

• Equip two one-handed weapons & a ranged weapon

So the special trait for the Rogue is their ability to equip two one-handers and a ranged weapon at the same time. Then you can swap between those depending on the ability that's being used, certain abilities will require a certain weapon and unlike Barbarians and their Arsenal system, you will not be able to choose which weapon to use for each ability, but you will still receive the stat benefits of all the equipped weapons whether they're being used or not.

Diablo 4 Beta Rogue Class Specialization System

The Rogue's Unique Class Mechanic is the Class Specialization System. Starting at level 15 the Rogue can unlock their class specialization with a questline called true potential, this starts in ministat and this will give you one option with the other two options unlocking at 20 and 30. So your specialization can be swapped at any time even mid-combat according to testers which crazy to think about in terms of builds and things like that. 

• Combo Points: This is going to cause your basic skills to generate combo points and then certain skills will consume these for extra effects. 

• Inner Sight: This is going to cause attacking marked enemies to fill up your inner sight gauge. When this gauge is full, you're going to gain unlimited energy for 4 seconds.

• Preparation: This one is truly unknown right now, because it was not reachable in previous tests. However, the in-game achievement makes reference to using an ultimate multiple times within a short window. So speculation leads us to believe that this might be a cooldown reduction skill.

Diablo 4 Rogue Equipment & Weapons

• Armor: Helm, Chest, Gloves, Pants, Boots

• Jewelry: Amulet, Ring x2

• Weapons: Ranged Weapon, One-Handed Weapon x2

Best Diablo 4 Beta Rogue Skills & Abilities Guide

When it comes to best Rogue skills for D4 open beta, you have a wide variety to choose from and they're all divided into 6 categories. So you have basic skills, these are low damage skills that have zero cost and are typically used to generate resources or have an effect. Then you have core skills, which are going to be the meat and potatoes of your build and your rotation. These are going to consume resources to deal large amounts of damage and hit more enemies per cast. Agility skills, which are basically movement skills, these allow you to reposition move through or gain advantage on certain enemies. Then you have subscript skills, these are specific to the Rogue and these are a cluster of skills that'll add utility to your build. These can be offensive, defensive or a mixture of both. Imbuement skills, these are going to imbue your next two attacks with extra effects and they do possess a cooldown and you can do things like add poison or cold to attacks and they'll also possess a secondary effect. Ultimate skills, these are game changing, these are high impact skills that possess a long cooldown and only one of these can be chosen at a single time. To complement ultimate skills, we also have ultimate passives and these are very similar, they're extremely powerful and they'll help define the playstyle of your build. Just like skills, only one can be chosen at a time. So what type of skills the Rogue will have? Let's break down everything about what skills will be available.

Basic Skills 

- Puncture: Basic range attack that throws 3 blades, dealing damage. Every 3rd cast will apply a slow. 

- Heartseeker: Arrow that seeks an enemy, dealing damage and increasing crit chance against them.

- Forceful Arrow: Fire a powerful arrow that deals damage and every 3rd cast applies vulnerable to the enemy for a short duration.

- Invigorating Strike: Melee attack that deals damage and increases energy regen.

- Blade Shift: Melee attack that'll deal low damage and allow you to move through enemies for a short duration.

Core Skills

- Barrage: Ranged attack that'll unleash a barrage of arrows that expand outwards, and each arrow has a chance to ricochet.

- Rapid Fire: It will rapidly fire arrows.

- Penetrating Shot: It is going to fire an arrow that pierces through enemies in a line.

- Flurry: This is going to unleash a flurry of stabs and slashes to enemies in front of you.

- Twisting Blades: You're going to impale an enemy on your blades and make them and take increased damage while impaled. After a short duration, your blades will return to you damaging any enemies on the way back.

Agility Skills

- Shadow Step: It is going to cause you to become unstoppable and quickly move through the shadows to stab your target from behind. You're also going to gain movement speed for a short duration after this completes.

- Dash: It is going to cause you to dash forward and damage enemies.

- Caltrops: You're going to leap backwards and throw caltrops onto the ground, damaging and slowing enemies that run into them.

Subterfuge Skills 

- Dark Shroud: It is going to cause you to surround yourself with protective shadows. You're going to gain damage reduction per active shadow and once you take damage, your damage will be reduced and a shadow will be consumed.

- Smoke Grenade: It is a smoke bomb that will daze enemies.

- Poison Trap: It is going to cause you to place a trap on the ground that will apply a large amount of poison damage to enemies in the area.

- Concealment: It is going to cause you to vanish and gain stealth. During concealment you become unstoppable, have increased movement speed, and can move through enemies.

Imbuement Skills

- Poison: Your next two attacks are going to deal poison damage and apply a poison debuff that deals damage over time.

- Shadow: It is going to cause your next two attacks to deal shadow damage and infect enemies. This infection is going to cause them to explode on death, which will deal damage around them. Shadow imbue also does increased damage to shadow infected enemies, so you're going to be able to infect them and then deal more damage to them which will cause them to explode.

- Cold: Your next two attacks will deal cold damage and chill targets. Cold imbued skills will deal increased damage to crowd-controlled enemies.

Ultimate Skills 

- Shadow Clone: You summon a shadow that'll mimic your actions for a duration and then deal a portion of your damage.

- Rain of Arrows: It will cause arrows to rain down over an area twice, dealing large amounts of damage each time.

- Death Trap: This is a trap that's placed on the ground that'll deal a large amount of damage to enemies in an area when it gets triggered.

Ultimate Passives

- Momentum: This is going to cause melee skills to grant a stack of momentum for a short duration if they hit a stunned immobilized or frozen enemy, or if they hit any enemy from behind. When you reach three stacks of momentum, you're going to gain increased damage reduction, increased energy region and increased attack speed.

- Close Quarters Combat: Dmaging a nearby enemy with a ranged or melee skill will grant increased attack speed for a duration. If both melee and ranged attack speed bonuses are active at the same time, you're going to gain lucky hit, which has a chance to generate energy and deal increased damage when you damage a crowd controlled enemy.

- Precision: This is going to cause critical strikes with range skills to grant you precision. You're going to gain increased crit damage per stack, up to 5 stacks. Once at max, your next range skill is guaranteed to be a critical strike that also deals extra damage. All stacks of precision are consumed.

- Victimize: You're going to gain lucky hit again. When you deal direct damage to a vulnerable enemy, they have a chance to cause an explosion, dealing damage to themselves and nearby enemies. 

- Exposure: It is another lucky hit based passive. This one is going to be when you damage enemies, you have a chance to reduce cooldowns of all of your trap skills by 25%. This is perfect for Trapper based builds, so if you want to be a Trapper play style, exposure is going to be one you definitely want to look at.

D4 Rogue Gameplay - How to Play Rogue in Diablo 4?

When playing as the Rogue, stay on your toes. Positioning is vital as this Rogue build doesn’t have any close quarter skills. You’ll be making effective use of the tools you have at your disposal out of any of the five classes; such as setting up Caltrops to slow enemies down in a tight corridor before using Barrage to take out as many of them as possible.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build Types for Open Beta 

• Melee DPS: Focus on high damage output in close combat using fast-paced melee attacks and critical hit chance. Skills such as Shadow Strike, Lacerate, and Fatal Finesse can be useful in this build.

• Ranged DPS: Focus on ranged combat and dealing damage from a distance using bow or crossbow weapons. Skills such as Poison Arrow, Fan of Knives, and Shadowshot can be useful in this build.

• Control: Focus on crowd control and debuffs to keep enemies at bay and disrupt their attacks. Skills such as Smoke Screen, Gouge, and Envenom can be useful in this build.

• Trap-Based: Focus on laying traps to control the battlefield and deal damage over time to enemies. Skills such as Tripwire, Shrapnel Trap, and Poison Gas Trap can be useful in this build.

• Hybrid: Combine aspects of different builds to create a versatile and adaptable character. This build may include skills from the melee, ranged, and control categories, allowing you to switch between different combat styles as needed.

What is the Best Diablo 4 Rogue Build for Open Beta?

• D4 Highest DPS Poison Barrage Hybrid Rogue Build: This build is very versatile, we're very mobile deals lots of damage, and also have unlimited energy because of the specialization. The highlight of this build will be focused on the poison trap and also poison agreement. 

• D4 Best Melee Rogue Build: It is designed for rapid leveling and maximum XP gain during the beta phase. As soon as you reach level 25, this construct is capable of easily defeating any obstacle and any boss. Experience the game-changing combination of stunning (Daze) and immunity (gear-based) that make this Rogue class build the go-to choice for Diablo IV beta players seeking an unbeatable edge in the race to the top.

• D4 Best Ranged Rogue Build: This Rogue build places an emphasis on the character's ability to deliver significant levels of damage while maintaining excellent mobility and ultimately unleashing devastating attacks. With dual blades and a bow or crossbow in hand, the Rogue relentlessly assaults adversaries, leaving them little time to gather their breath or regroup before falling to the Rogue's fury.

Overall, the Rogue is a powerful class, however, it does require you to implement strategy and to gain an understanding of all of their core mechanics to truly survive and maximize their potential. But once you do, you should be an absolute force to be reckoned with, being able to move, silently throughout the battlefield, being able to move through enemies, set up traps, drop caltrops, slow down enemies, blow them up with high damaging skills whether they're ranged or melee or mixture of both, this one seems to be truly a jack-of-all-trades.