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D4 Rogue Class Basics Guide | Should I Play Rogue?

This guide has two main purposes! One: Learn all about the basics of the Diablo 4's Rogue Class. Two: Help you answer, "Should I choose, or try out Rogue" in D4. Hopefully by the end of this, you'll be more informed about the Rogue class, as well as make a more informed decision if you wish to play one!

While this started out to be two separate guides, I ultimately combined them since they seemed served the same purpose...

Diablo 4 Rogue Overview

Here, I TRY to describe Rogue at a very high level. A summary of Rogue in D4, in a nutshell...

Rogues are the typical cloak and dagger (and crossbow) class in Diablo 4. It's a mix of the D2 Assassin and the D3 Demon Hunter. That's actually more accurate than I thought it would be.

Rogues primarily deal in Cutthroat (Melee-dual wield) skills, Marksman (Ranged bow) skills, and a smattering of Stealth, shadowy, deception-type skills.

The choice between ranged and melee firmly plants the rogue as a hybrid class. How effectively you can mix these two in the end-game is another story.

While the Marksman may play safely at range, the cutthroat half doesn't rely on straight up tankiness, but instead survive via life-leech, CC, or "evasion".

But regardless which path you do choose. Heavy DPS, maximizing opportunities or openings, and setting up for that huge burst are things I'd imagine you'd be doing as Rogue.

Rogue Key Passives

Each class has a variety of Key Passives that somehow push you towards a certain build archetype. They are incredibly powerful passives for a single point, and can be build defining. Knowing about the Rogue Key Passives might give you further info about the class, and if you should try the class out.

Momentum
Cutthroat skills grant a stack of Momentum for a bit if they either hit a Stunned, Dazed, or Frozen enemy - OR - hit an enemy from behind. At 3 Momentum stacks you gain a bunch of buffs. Damage Reduction, Energy Regeneration, and Movement Speed.

Close Quarters Combat
Damaging close enemies with Cutthroat or Marksman skills each grant a 10% attack speed bonus. While both bonuses are active you deal bonus damage to Crowd Controlled enemies.

Precision
Critical Strikes with Marksman skills give Precision, which gives 4% Crit Damage per stack up to 20%. At max Precision. your next Marksman skill is a guaranteed crit that deals bonus damage, then consumes all Precision.

Victimize
Dealing direct damage to a Vulnerable enemy has up to 30% chance to cause an explosion which deals 23% of the original damage to the target and surrounding enemies.

Exposure
Dealing direct damage to an enemy affected by a Trap has up to 25% chance to: Reduce active cooldowns of your Traps by 20%. Drop a cluster of Stun Grenades that deal damage and stun.

The Rogue key passives seem a little "involved", compared to other classes. But, we have a good representation of the Rogue identities here.

Rogue Unique Class Systems

Each class has their own "thing". These Class Systems are unique to the Rogue, and may help you gain more insights on wether you should play one.

Specializations

You can choose up to one active spec at a time, which kind of changes HOW you play your rogue. They can be somewhat build definiing, or help vs certain content types.

Combo Points Basic skills stack up to three combo points. Core skills use up to three combo points to deal more damage, and give other bonuses per combo points used. Very similar to the WoW Rogue.

Inner Sight* A random enemy is marked every few seconds. Attacking it fills up a gauge that, when filled, allows you to use Energy freely for a duration. If there's only one enemy, it becomes marked.

Preparation This wasn't in the beta!

Other little mechanics

Mini-Arsenal Rogue's have something like the D4 Barbs Arsenal weapon system. What's that you say? Well, in the case of Rogue, you mainly use your equipped Bows stats for Marksman skills, and your equipped Dual-Wielded weapons stats for Cutthroat skills. UNLIKE Barb, you cannot choose which weapon is used for each skill.

Notably this gives Rogue an extra Aspect on their gear.

Vulnerability Lots of Rogue skills either cause or benefit from Vulnerable enemies (more than other classes, heh).

Poison Is their main DoT element, and they also have a Shadow damage and small Cold damage subtheme.

Traps, Stealth, Clones, Backstabbing... It may be obvious but I'll state it anyway. I don't know how to categorize these... General skullduggery, thievery, rabblerousing, also yes - edginess, are part of the Rogue repertoire. This is a factor for some!

Outro & Summary

Well, that's all I can muster for an overview / summary of Diablo 4's Rogue, for now at least!

Some important related links for D4 Rogue:

Obviously, there's still a lot more to Rogue, but I hope you gained some more knowledge here. I'll definitely add more as time goes by! And if you're here to answer if you should choose a Rogue, with luck you've made your decision!

Some other related reading: