The Diablo 4 Rogue has a wide variety of ranged and melee combat options, giving him versatility unmatched by other classes. However, knowing what spells, powers, and specializations is essential to survival. Here’s something to get you on your way.
Although the Rogue class is well known to veterans of the franchise, Diablo 4 was eagerly awaited by players who wanted to reconnect with this class. Indeed, the Thief was not present in the third opus of the franchise, he had been replaced by the Demon Hunter.
The least we can say is that the Thief’s followers were not disappointed! Many consider it to be the best leveling class, and one of the classes with the most viable build diversity. Daggers, bow, traps… many archetypes are capable of facing the most difficult content in Diablo 4.
If you like classes based on traps, handling blades or even the use of bows and crossbows, the Thief will satisfy you. The icing on the cake is that several builds will allow you to emphasize different play styles specific to the Thief, for example focusing on stealth, or even high damage to a target. If you feel like it, you can even develop a build halfway between these two possibilities.
Summary
The best Thief builds
The best Thief builds for the endgame
The Thief is a formidable class, which excels in many areas thanks to its colossal damage, its unparalleled mobility and its excellent control abilities.
Here are the best Rogue builds to tackle the endgame and the most difficult content in Diablo 4.
Build Thief Death Trap
The Deathtrap Thief is a complex build that – unlike the majority of Diablo 4 builds – does not focus all of its damage on a single skill.
Indeed, the Death Trap Thief has many similarities with the Sneaky Blades Thief. So, it is the Sneaky Blades skill that you will use constantly, but not only with the aim of inflicting damage.
The Death Trap Thief gives up some of the mobility of the Sneaky Blade Thief in favor of powerful trap synergies that allow Death Trap and Poison Trap to be overused to unleash powerful AoEs.
To learn everything about the Deathtrap Thief’s Paragon skill tree, gear, aspects, and board, check out our complete guide to this build:
Build Thief Sneaky Blades
The Sneaky Blades build is quite possibly the most popular on Diablo 4. Indeed, it is an easy build to set up, and which can take you from your first steps in Sanctuary to the most difficult Nightmare Dungeons.
The concept of the build is to maximize Sneaky Blades. This main skill allows you to plant daggers in a target, and recall them after a short delay. To spice things up, all enemies in the path of the blades take heavy damage.
The concept of the build is as simple as it is devastating: use Sneaky Blades and cover as much distance as possible so that their return cuts through a multitude of enemies.
This ultra-satisfying gameplay is based on the unparalleled mobility of the Thief, which gives all its efficiency and panache to this build.
Build Thief Penetrating Shot
Would you rather shoot a few well-placed crossbow bolts than play with your blade? The Penetrating Shot build is for you and is proof that the Ranged Thief has a bright future ahead of him.
This build is based on the main skill Penetrating Shot which deals huge damage in a line (then in a wide area with some aspects). The Penetrating Shot Thief is as easy to learn as it is effective, especially when colossal enemy damage makes melee gameplay more difficult.
The rest of the Penetrating Shot Thief’s kit is notably made up of Impregnation skills which allow you to boost the next uses of the main skill.
The only weakness of this build is mobility, which – while not entirely ridiculous – pales in comparison to other Thief builds.
Burst/Rapid Fire Thief Build
Since the release of Diablo 4, players have tried in vain to concoct a top meta build of the Burst Thief or the Rapid Fire Voleut. Unfortunately, each of his builds has a gaping weakness.
The Flurry Thief excels at clearing monster packs, but struggles to deal high single-target damage. For the Rapid Fire Thief, it’s exactly the opposite.
You guessed it, the solution to these problems is ultimately obvious: combine the two builds to take advantage of the AoE of Burst and the enormous single-target DPS of Rapid Fire.
If this build does not excel in any area, its extreme versatility allows it to clear any endgame content with disconcerting ease.
The best Thief builds for leveling
Build Thief Sneaky Blades | Season 3
Sneaky Blades is a great main skill for the Rogue, and arguably their best AoE damage option for leveling.
This build details the progression of your skills up to level 50, but also gives you a list of Aspects and Vampiric Powers that can strengthen your Thief.
How the build works
This build relies on the effectiveness of one skill in particular: Sneaky Blades. The latter allows you to plant daggers in an enemy, then recall these daggers after a short delay, inflicting damage to all enemies crossed.
The objective of the Sneaky Blades Thief is therefore to cover as much distance as possible after using this skill, so that the return of the daggers passes through as many enemies as possible.
Thanks to this method, the Thief has immense area damage potential, but also exceptional mobility which will make your movements significantly faster through the Sanctuary.
Gameplay
This Thief build requires constant concentration, but knows how to reward its players with enormous damage and exceptional mobility.
The basis of the gameplay couldn’t be simpler: plant the Sneaky Blades into an enemy, and travel a great distance with Haste and/or Shadow Step so that the returning Sneaky Blades passes through as many enemies as possible.
The rest of the skill set consists of Poison Trap for its excellent crowd control, Dark Veil for its survivability and mobility, and Piercing for Energy generation.
SKILLS
Here is the recommended order of skill progression. The most important thing is to quickly obtain your active skills, and to raise Sneaky Blades to level 5. For the rest, do not hesitate to change the order of obtaining the passives according to your needs and your difficulties.
| Level | Skill |
|---|---|
| 2 | Perforation 1/5 |
| 3 | Reinforced perforation |
| 4 | Fundamental perforation |
| 5 | Sneaky Blades 1/5 |
| 6 | Reinforced underhand blades |
| 7 | Advanced sneak blades |
| 8 | No shadow 1/5 |
| 9 | Celerity 1/5 |
| 10 | Sneaky Blades 2/5 |
| 11 | Sneaky Blades 3/5 |
| 12 | Sneaky Blades 4/5 |
| 13 | Dark Veil 1/5 |
| 14 | Reinforced Dark Veil |
| 15 | Dark subversive veil |
| 16 | Poison Trap 1/5 |
| 17 | Reinforced Poison Trap |
| 18 | Sneaky Blades 5/5 |
| 19 | No reinforced shadow |
| 20 | No methodical shadow |
| 21 | Exploit 1/3 |
| 22 | Exploit 2/3 |
| 23 | Exploit 3/3 |
| 24 | Robust 1/3 |
| 25 | Adrenaline rush 1/3 |
| 26 | Haste 1/3 |
| 27 | Haste 2/3 |
| 28 | Haste 3/3 |
| 29 | Innervation 1/3 |
| 30 | Innervation 2/3 |
| 31 | Innervation 3/3 |
| 32 | Trap Mastery 1/3 |
| 33 | Trap Mastery 2/3 |
| 34 | Trap Mastery 3/3 |
| 35 | Inertia – Primary Passive Skill |
| 36 | Trauma 1/3 |
| 37 | Trauma 2/3 |
| 38 | Trauma 3/3 |
| 39 | Draining Strikes 1/3 |
| 40 | Draining Strikes 2/3 |
| 41 | Draining Strikes 3/3 |
| 42 | Deadly Venom 1/3 |
| 43 | Incapacitating toxins 1/3 |
| 44 | Incapacitating toxins 2/3 |
| 45 | Incapacitating toxins 3/3 |
| 46 | Alchemical Advantage 1/3 |
| 47 | Weapon Mastery 1/3 |
| 48 | Weapon Mastery 2/3 |
| 49 | Weapon Mastery 3/3 |
| 50 | Increased speed |
| Renown 1 | Disciplined celerity |
| Renown 2 | Small steps 1/3 |
| Renown 3 | Small steps 2/3 |
| Renown 4 | Small steps 3/3 |
| Renown 5 | Malice 1/3 |
| Renown 6 | Malice 2/3 |
| Renown 7 | Malice 3/3 |
| Renown 8 | Celerity 2/5 |
Specialization
The best specialization for this build is Inner View, unlocked at level 20.
The latter allows you to benefit from unlimited Energy for 4 seconds after defeating the marked target. Since this build benefits from a lot of mobility, you will have no difficulty killing marked targets to take advantage of this bonus.
Aspects to prioritize
- Aspect of Blade Dance: After returning to you, Sneaky Blades orbit for a short time, dealing X% of Sneaky Blades return damage per hit. Depending on how far the blades returned, orbit damage can increase by up to X% of return damage.
- Aspect obtained in the Eve of Jalal – Scosglen dungeon.
- Ravenous Aspect: Killing a vulnerable target increases your energy regeneration by X% for X seconds.
- Aspect obtained in the Moving City – Arid Steppes dungeon.
- Tightrope Aspect: Skills deal up to
- Aspect obtained in the Peyrevieille – Scosglen dungeon
Vampiric powers
Vampiric Powers are the new mechanic for Season 2 of Diablo 4. It is possible to equip up to 5 of them, to benefit from powerful offensive and defensive effects. Here are the most effective Vampiric Powers for the Sneaky Blades Thief build
- Cursed Touch (Major): You have up to an X% chance of casting a vampire curse on your opponents. targets hit have a 15% chance of spreading the curse to nearby opponents. Hoarded Souls from the Vampiric Curse deal X% more damage
- Hemomancy (minor): Your attacks deal X% of your maximum health as physical damage to nearby opponents. This effect can only occur once every 4 seconds. You heal yourself for 1% of your maximum health for any opponent taking damage in this way.
- Attack of the Weak (Minor): You deal X% additional damage to vulnerable targets. Opponents under the effect of a vampire curse from other vampire powers are vulnerable.
- Voracity (minor): Luck: Up to 20% chance to increase your attack speed by X% of your total movement speed for 6 sec.
- Immortality (minor): Using skills heals you for X%. Double this bonus when you have less than 50% health.
Is the Thief viable in Diablo 4?
The thief is very viable in Diablo 4, and many players even think that it is one of the best classes in many aspects.
With its impressive mix of damage, controls and mobility, the Thief is an excellent fighter, both solo and in groups.
Additionally, the Thief is undoubtedly one of the best leveling classes. Indeed, it has excellent damage and can set up completely functional builds without necessarily needing unique items and aspects that are difficult to obtain.
If the theme of the stealthy and mobile fighter, using an entire arsenal of blades or a bow tempts you, don’t hesitate: the Thief is worth the detour!
Check out our other Diablo 4 guides:
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