Rain of Arrows (RoA) – Rogue Build for Diablo 4 (Season 8)

Updated for Season 8

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Introduction

The Rain of Arrows Rogue (RoA) hails down an endless stream of death. Rain of Arrows receives a bonus damage that scales from your Damage to Distant bonus, making this S-Tier build capable of clearing the highest Tiers of The Pit!

The Rain of Arrows Rogue is a top-performing build for the endgame of Diablo 4 but requires strict gearing to function. Make sure you meet the Build Requirements before getting started. The Dance of Knives Rogue is recommended as a starter build to collect the gear.

Check the build tier lists to see how this build compares to others on Icy Veins.

Build Requirements

The Rain of Arrows Rogue is a specialized build that requires strict gearing to function. Obtain the following items before switching to this build.

Required Uniques

Skyhunter

Word of Hakan

Beastfall Boots

• At least 150 Maximum Energy is required. Beastfall Boots provides at least 30 Energy when fully masterworked, and then Elixir of Resourcefulness II fulfills the remaining requirement.
• The Cooldown of Rain of Arrows needs to be reduced to 10.25 seconds or less. Word of Hakan can easily reach the 75% cap for Rain of Arrows Cooldown Reduction to lower a Rank 5 Rain of Arrows Cooldown to 10.25 seconds.

Quick Navigation

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Skill Bar Setup for Rain of Arrows Rogue (order does not matter)

Rain of ArrowsHeartseekerBarrageConcealmentSmoke GrenadeCaltrops

The Skill Tree above shows the full allocation of 71 Skill Points for the RoA Rogue build. Make sure you obtain the 12 Skill Points available from Renown.

Wondering what comes after Level 60? Head to the Paragon Board section to power up the build even further. If you want to see how everything plays out in combat, check out the Rotation and Playstyle section for a quick breakdown.

Rogue Class Mechanic – Specialization

Preparation is the required Rogue Specialization for the Rain of Arrows Rogue. Barrage consumes 150 Energy through Beastfall Boots to activate Preparation twice, reducing the Cooldown of Rain of Arrows by 10 seconds.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.

Legendary Aspects

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects for the Rain of Arrows Rogue build. Salvage Legendary Items with higher Aspect values to unlock them in the Codex of Power, and then imprint them onto Legendary Items with the preferred affixes. For the best results, combine these Aspects with the ideal Stat Priorities.

Gear Slot	Name	Effect
Ranged Weapon	Skyhunter	The first direct damage you deal to an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Strike. When you consume Precision casting a Skill, that Skill gains x [20 – 60%] increased Critical Strike Damage and you gain [30 – 60] Energy.
Amulet	Word of Hakan	Your Rain of Arrows is always Imbued with all Imbuements at once and receives your Arrow Storm benefits.
Dual-Wielded Swords	Aspect of Arrow Storms	Lucky Hit: Your Marksman and Cutthroat Skills have up to a 25% chance to create an Arrow Storm at the enemy’s location, dealing Physical damage over 3 seconds. Your Arrow Storms deal [45 – 65%] increased damage.
Dual-Wielded Swords	Vengeful Aspect	Lucky Hit: Damaging a Vulnerable enemy has a 25% chance to create an Arrow Storm at the enemy’s location, dealing [X] Physical damage over 3 seconds. Your Arrow Storms deal x [45 – 65%] more damage.
Gloves	Vehement Brawler’s Aspect	Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your damage by [10 – 30%] for 8 seconds. Gain 2 additional Ultimate Skill Ranks.
Ring Slot #1 (replaced by Ring of Starless Skies)	Aspect of Apogeic Furor	Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your Ultimate damage by x [6 – 10%] , up to x [60 – 100%]. At 10 stacks, your Cooldowns and this bonus are reset.
Ring Slot #2 (replaced by Pitfighter’s Gull)	Aspect of Retribution	Distant enemies have a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds when they hit you. You deal [15 – 35%] increased damage to Stunned and Knocked Down enemies.
Helm (replaced by Cowl of the Nameless)	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2 – 10] seconds.
Chest (replaced by Shroud of False Death)	Cheat’s Aspect	You take [10 – 30%] less damage from Crowd Controlled enemies. Whenever a Crowd Controlled enemy deals direct damage to you, gain 15% Movement Speed for 2 seconds.
Pants	Umbrous Aspect	Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a [45 – 65%] chance to grant a free Dark Shroud shadow.
Boots	Beastfall Boots	When you cast an Ultimate Skill, your next Core Skill consumes all of your energy and deals [0.25 – 0.75%] increased damage per Energy consumed. Using a Cooldown restores 25 Energy.

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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for RoA Rogues, ranked by importance. Affixes on the same line have equal value, so attempt to obtain all affixes in each line before moving on to the next. Yellow affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades, while blue affixes are secondary options. For more details, check the Tempering and Masterworking guides.

Swords are equipped for the Critical Strike Damage implicit stat.

The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow. Maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Armor is only needed until capped at 1,000.

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Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Ranged Weapon	Skyhunter	Masterworking Priority: Chance for Marksman Projectiles to Cast Twice up to 100% cap and then Critical Strike Damage.
Dual-Wielded Swords	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Dexterity, Maximum Life	1. Assassin Augments (Weapon): Chance for Rain of Arrows to Deal Double Damage 2. Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Distant Enemies
Helm	1. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 2. Dexterity, Maximum Life	1. Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Percent Total Armor 2. Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Chest	1. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 2. Dexterity, Maximum Life	1. Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Percent Total Armor 2. Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Damage, Attack Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Dexterity, Maximum Life	1. Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Distant Enemies 2. Natural Schemes (Utility): Barrier Generation
Pants	1. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 2. Dexterity, Maximum Life	1. Daze Control (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Daze 2. Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Percent Total Armor
Boots	Beastfall Boots	Masterworking Priority: Movement Speed
Amulet	Word of Hakan	Masterworking Priority: Rain of Arrows Cooldown Reduction until 75% cap and then Ultimate Damage.
Rings	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Attack Speed 3. Dexterity, Maximum Life	1. Natural Finesse (Offensive): Damage to Distant Enemies 2. Ultimate Efficiency — Rogue (Resource): Rain of Arrows Cooldown Reduction

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Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Listed below are the required, recommended, and optional Unique and Mythic Unique Items for the Rain of Arrows Rogue build. Each item description includes the most important affix to target for Masterworking upgrades. Check the Mythic Unique Items Guide for information on target-farming them.

• Word of Hakan (required) caps Rain of Arrows Cooldown Reduction at 75% and grants Arrow Storm benefits.
  • Masterworking Priority: Rain of Arrows Cooldown Reduction until 75% cap and then Ultimate Damage.
• Beastfall Boots (required) is necessary to consume all Energy to activate Preparation.
  • Masterworking Priority: Movement Speed
• Skyhunter (highly recommended) provides a high amount of Critical Strike Damage to scale Precision and double cast for Rain of Arrows.
  • Masterworking Priority: Chance for Marksman Projectiles to Cast Twice up to 100% cap and then Critical Strike Damage.
• Cowl of the Nameless (highly recommended) grants Ranks to Trick Attacks to scale Precision.
  • Masterworking Priority: Trick Attacks
• Shroud of False Death (recommended) provides the highest damage increase in the slot due to the +1 Ranks to All Passives inherent affix.
  • Masterworking Priority: All Stats or Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth
• Pitfighter’s Gull (recommended) provides a multiplier to Critical Strike Damage that double dips with Precision. The Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth affix is utilized by casting Concealment immediately before Rain of Arrows.
  • Masterworking Priority: Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth
• Ring of Starless Skies (optional) provides a highly valuable 1.5x multiplier.
  • Masterworking Priority: Attack Speed

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Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the recommended Gems and Runewords to socket into your gear.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald for Critical Strike Damage to scale Precision.	Grand Emerald for Dexterity.	Any Resistance Gems needed or Grand Skull for Armor (up to the 1,000 Armor cap).

Runewords

Insert the following 2 Runewords, each consisting of a Rune of Offering and a Rune of Invocation, into any equipped Helm, Chest, or Pants item. Add sockets to your equipment at the Jeweler if necessary. Check the Runewords Guide for more details.

Runewords	Effects
Yul Ohm	Gain: 50 Offering — Cast a Skill with a Cooldown. Requires: 600 Offering, Cooldown: 2 Seconds — Invoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your damage dealt by x15% for 6 seconds.
Zan Vex	Gain: 150 Offering — Cast an Ultimate Skill. Requires: 150 Offering, Cooldown: 5 Seconds — Gain +1 to Skills for 10 seconds.

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Paragon Board

Use the following Paragon Boards, Legendary Nodes, and Glyphs for the Rain of Arrows Rogue.

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Boss Powers (Season 8)

In the Season of Belial’s Return (Season 8), equip the following Boss Powers to enhance this build.

Main: Urivar’s Lobbed Bombs — After you Cast an Ultimate Skill, lob 4 bombs that deal [400%] Fire damage. Gain [15%] Cooldown Reduction.

Modifier:

• Liilth’s Wind of Hate: Hitting an Elite enemy with a Main Boss Power creates an inert Blister Clone with 10% of their Maximum Life for 15 seconds. Killing the Blister removes [2.1%] of the Elite’s Life. An Elite can have up to 1 Blister active at once, and a Boss can have up to 2 Blisters. Enemies with Resilience cannot spawn Blisters.
• Sinerat’s Flames: Gain x [5%] increased damage to all Elements. For each 1% of an Element’s Resistance from bonuses, gain x0.2% increased damage for that Element, up to a maximum of x [15.5%].
• Flesh Reaper’s Disruption: Gain x [5%] Vulnerable Damage, increased by x0.5% for each 1% of Crowd Control Duration Bonus you have, up to a maximum of x [10.5%].

Mercenaries

Once the Den is unlocked during the main questline in the Vessel of Hatred expansion for Diablo 4, complete Mercenary key quests to acquire them. Hire a Mercenary and enlist a Reinforcement in the following setup.

• Hired Mercenary: Raheir
  • Skills: Ground Slam, Raheir’s Aegis, Bastion, Inspiration
• Reinforcement: Varyana
  • Skill: Bloodthirst
  • Opportunity: Cast when the player casts any skill in combat

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Build Mechanics

The Rain of Arrows Rogue is a specialized build for the endgame of Diablo 4. The build excels at pushing the highest Tiers of The Pit. Although, the skill rotation is difficult and the playstyle has a slower pacing than other builds during speed-farming activities.

Rain of Arrows is rapidly cast by reducing its Cooldown. The cooldown cap of 75% can be obtained for Rain of Arrows solely through Word of Hakan to lower a Rank 5 Rain of Arrows to 10.25 seconds. Preparation is activated twice by consuming 150 Energy with Barrage and Beastfall Boots to further reduce Rain of Arrows Cooldown by 10 seconds. The additional 50 Energy is granted by Beastfall Boots and Elixir of Resourcefulness II.

Any Core Skill can be used to consume Energy with Beastfall Boots, but Barrage is ideal due to it having the lowest animation frames.

For survivability, Second Wind constantly generates Barrier due to the high Energy consumption. The ranged playstyle and Knock Downs provide additional layers of safety.

Mixed Cold Imbuement and Mixed Shadow Imbuement are applied by Rain of Arrows through Word of Hakan.

Concealment is cast directly before Rain of Arrows to apply Vulnerable with Subverting Concealment, while activating Danse Macabre and Damage on Next Attack After Entering Stealth affixes.

Resource Management

At least 150 Energy needs to be generated before each cast of Barrage to activate Preparation twice. Aftermath Rank 3 grants 75 Energy, Enhanced Concealment grants 40 Energy, and Beastfall Boots restores 50 Energy to fulfill the resource requirements.

Rotation and Playstyle

Use the following rotation to optimize damage output.

1. Use a Potion every 10 seconds to activate the damage buff from Unstable Elixirs.
2. Against tough elites and bosses, cast Caltrops to apply Enhanced Caltrops for more damage.
3. Cast Smoke Grenade on enemies every 5 seconds to apply Enhanced Smoke Grenade and activate Pitfighter’s Gull.
4. Cast Concealment to apply Vulnerable from Subverting Concealment and activate Danse Macabre.
5. Cast Rain of Arrows to deal damage.
6. Cast Barrage to consume all your Energy for Preparation and gain 1 Precision stack.
7. Cast Heartseeker twice to gain the 2nd and 3rd Precision stack.
8. Continue repeating the rotation of Concealment, Rain of Arrows, Barrage, and 2x Heartseeker.

Elixirs

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs, or find Elixirs by killing enemies or opening chests during various activities in Diablo 4. Listed below are the best Elixirs to consume for the Rain of Arrows Rogue, ranked by importance.

1. Elixir of Resourcefulness II is required in this build to reach 150 Energy.

Season 8 Updates

A brief summary of the seasonal changes are provided below. For a complete overview of Season 8, take a look at the comprehensive season guide.

• Fists of Fate no longer applies random crowd controls.
• Worldly Fortune can no longer apply any crowd control tempers.
• Aspect of Concussive Strikes no longer provides increased damage.
• Frostbitten Aspect is now in the Offensive category.
• Rain of Arrows: Rank 5 Bonus capped at 200%[x] damage increase.
• Trick Attacks
  • Previous: Dazing or Stunning an enemy increases your Critical Strike Chance by 2/4/6% and Critical Strike Damage by 2/4/6% for 5 seconds, up to 12/24/36%.
  • Now: Attempting to Daze or Stun an enemy increases your Critical Strike Chance by 1/2/3% and Critical Strike Damage by 1/2/3% for 8 seconds, up to 5/10/15%.

Changelog

• April 26, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8 (Patch 2.2.0)
• January 24, 2025: Fixed errors in the Paragon setup.
• January 21, 2025: Guide created for Season 7 (Patch 2.1.0).