What Rogue builds are the best in Diablo 4 Season 1 after patch 1.1 nerf? Read this article and we go over top 6 Rogue builds that are currently on S tier and also how the new hearts affect them. Whether you prefer the stealthy approach of the Shadow Hunter, the explosive prowess of the Demolition Expert, the toxic artistry of The Toxic Avenger, the swift elegance of The Whirling Dervish, or the deadly accuracy of The Sniper, there is an S-Tier Rogue build for leveling/endgame after patch nerfs tailored to your playstyle.

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The patch notes didn't affect the Rogue class and associated builds too much unlike some other classes neither in a positive or a negative way. So from a balancing point of view, not much has changed. With that in mind, these will be the best D4 S1 Rogue builds for PvP/PvE right now that are currently popping off and we’re going to start off with the most underrated build that should get much more shine.

D4 1.1 S Tier Rogue Build 1 - Triple Imbuement Barrage 

Any barrage oriented and focused build is definitely S+ tier, it is a really good ability and is up to par with the other meta builds that have emerged for the Rogue class. What makes Barrage so good is that it's probably the best Rogue ability out there when you make a new character right out of the gate, reason being it doesn't require anything, no gear, no aspects to start blasting with it unlike Twisting Blades or Penetrating Shot. You just put it on and start destroying everything and you'll start leveling with it really quickly. But then over time, it actually just becomes better and better and it comes even better when you start minimaxing your gear or when you reach level 100 and have done everything there is to do. What makes Barrage so good as well is that it's also the only Rogue ability that can be used both as a shotgun type of ability, but also a ranged multi-shot type of ability, and that means it plays very good for AOE. But it's also a really good ability for single Target damage and just killing bosses. 

Due to Barrage's properties of being multifunctional as both a close range nuke and a distant destructive ability, it functions very well in a triple immune build, because running triple imbuement and barrage means you have a solution to every single scenario in the game. That is really good for Season 1.

Check the Triple Imbuement Barrage build video if you want to know more about the barrage build for a Rogue.

D4 Season 1 S Tier Rogue Build 2 - Penetrating Shot 

The next build on the list is going to be Penetrating Shot. Nothing changed for the penetrating shot to build. A new bow was introduced with the name of Eaglehorn, but it's a hard pass bow, it being a bow means the innate ethics of it is not that useful and the aspect itself is really just bad. 

First, it requires you to be in a tight space to get some use out of it, and you need to position yourself in a way that the ricochets from the wall, actually hit something instead of just bouncing around in the area. However, it is not even a guaranteed effect, it is a chance based effect with a huge range from 30% all the way to 80%. This aspect being on your two-hander, then also means that from a opportunity cost perspective, it is even worse because you can't utilize your two-handed slope to get that 100% bonus unlike an actual aspect. So in multiple ways, it's just a bad option. 

The Penetrating Shot build has everything you need, it is great for AOE, great for single target damage, has great survivability and tankiness, great mobility and it also makes great use of bursting venoms. That's actually good synergy with penetrating shot, it provides you so much utility and damage output as well. 

If you want to know more about all of that, just click here and you will have a great experience following that build.

Diablo 4 S1 S Tier Rogue Build 3 - Ranged Rogue

There’s also an early game build that combines build Penetrating Shot and Barrage. It is essentially the fast way to level as a Ranged Rogue and it's really fun. 

D4 S1 Patch 1.1 S Tier Rogue Build 4 - Rapid Fire Build & Rain of Arrows

The next build is Rapid Fire. Rapid Fire is just still good, the ability pumps in a variety of scenarios and nothing really significantly changed for rapid fire in regards to how you played. Through these patch notes, if you want a good example of a Rapid Fire build, check out the machine gun rainbow rogue build which is a rapid fire and reign of arrows combo build, and also the best way to build a rapid fire build. It also covers you for any situation and has great synergies through rapid fire, being a good single target damage type of ability but having some AOE components. Reign of Arrows on the other hand being a great AOE damage type of ability, but also having some great single target components that when you use these two abilities together, creates this really destructive build where both elements synergize really well with each other. 

Rapid fire is also a completely self-sustaining ability because you can generate essence through one of its passives. So it only makes sense to run reign of arrows with it since we then can accordingly also run preparation. 

Click here if you want to know about all of the details and if you want a good example of a rapid fire build for Season 1. 

D4 Season 1 S-Tier Rogue Build 5 - Twisting Blades

Then we have Twisting Blades, it was meta preseason and nothing changed in that regards siphoning strikes got a nerf, but you won't notice too much of it when playing twisting blades, it is a pretty trivial nerf. All things considered and you still want to use it anyways. Twisting Blades then also doesn't really need an introduction since it's still the most popular Rogue build out of there, but essentially there are two variations of the build. One utilizes imbuements while the other is a trap based twisting blades build and both are really good and also really fast leveling builds. 

The strategy for twisting blades is really simple, you move from back to pack, use twisting blades, blow up everything and you win. Nothing really changed regarding the Twisting Blade builds or the meta.

D4 Season 1 Post Nerf S-Tier Rogue Build 6 - Flurry 

Finally, we have one more core skill and it's Flurry. There are definitely viable builds out there, it was the case pre-season, but it's still definitely the case in Season 1. Just from reading the patch notes, we don’t see anything in there that would hurt Flurry otherwise, again the siphoning strike nerf can be a bit annoying for our Flurry injuries out there. But Flurry has that innate heal already and you can now use the Caged Hearts for example, one of the new hearts of the Malignant heart mechanic in the game to compensate for siphoning strike nerfs. But outside of that, Flurry is still in a good spot because it means every Rogue core skill has viable builds.

The reason why nothing really changed for Rogue builds is because the patch notes didn't really hurt them that much, and the Malignant Hearts aren't really like a meta-defining mechanic, they are more enhancements to build in a similar sense like some of the legendary aspects, that just increase your damage output. So it just means more power to the builds, but not really a shift in how you play these builds or make them which is a bit of a negative for every Rogue player out there who just wanted to try out something new, but can also be positive, because everything you know is still relevant.

What are the Best Malignant Hearts for a Rogue in D4 Season 1?

- Caged Heart of the Vile Apothecary: This adds a ton of synergy to those builds already it's just a good heart.

- Caged Heart of Revenge: It is also a really good heart for survivability, it adds a ton of damage reduction to your build which is great to offset nerfs to survivability.

- Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact: It essentially cycles through 3 different bonuses for your Rogue that are all just really good. One helps out with damage output, the second one helps with essence regeneration and the third one helps out with survivability.

- Caged Heart of Tempting Fate: This is a nice one as well in the end game when you really want to start breaking up your crits. Definitely not a good option early on though as your crit chance won't be high enough to consistently benefit from the increased critical strike damage from this heart and you'll just end up making your build worse, as it will in fact nerf your normal damage output.

- Caged Heart of Creeping Death: This is a nice one as well if you have poison imbuement in your kit.