Rapid Fire – Rogue Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

The Rapid Fire Rogue creates a laser beam of multiple arrows to snipe your foes. Each cast of Rapid Fire hits 8 times to deal high single-target damage to the toughest enemies, while Scoundrel’s Kiss provides the necessary Area-of-Effect (AoE) explosions to clear groups of enemies.

This endgame build guide requires a Level 60 character and Scoundrel’s Kiss to enable Rapid Fire to deal AoE damage. If you do not have Scoundrel’s Kiss, Rapid Fire needs to be supplemented with another Core Skill that hits multiple enemies. Barrage can also be used as a singular Core Skill with piercing and ricocheting arrows to hit additional targets. Check the links below for the recommended ranged builds without Unique Item requirements.

If you are starting a new Rogue character, check out the recommended Rogue leveling builds.

Strengths and Weaknesses

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

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Skill Bar Setup for the Rapid Fire Rogue (order does not matter)

Rapid FireHeartseekerDashCold ImbuementSmoke GrenadeConcealment

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

Dark Shroud is not equipped on the Skill Bar. It is instead automatically activated by Umbrous Aspect.

Rapid Fire Rogue Specialization

Combo Points is the preferred Rogue Specialization for general farming due to the burst damage playstyle of the Rapid Fire Rogue. Build Combo Points with Heartseeker to unleash additional damage and arrows for Rapid Fire.

Paragon

After Character Level 60, experience gains are applied to Paragon up to Level 300. A maximum of 228 Paragon Points can be obtained through Paragon Levels, Renown, and Altars of Lilith. Follow the Paragon setup designed for the Rapid Fire Rogue to gain a considerable amount of progression for your character.

Glyphs are inserted into sockets on each Paragon board and can be found during various activities in Diablo 4. Level up the Glyphs included in the Paragon setup by completing The Pit. Clearing higher tiers of The Pit allows Glyphs to reach higher levels.

Important Notes:

• Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the proper orientation.
• Attach Legendary Boards in the order shown, as bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order.
• Prioritize leveling each of your equipped Glyphs to 15 to gain the increased radius, which can be required to meet additional bonus requirements. Afterward, level each Glyph to 46 to unlock its Legendary Bonus and gain another radius increase.

The Paragon setup displayed above focuses on quickly unlocking the essential Glyph sockets and Legendary Nodes at a moderate Paragon Level. Once the base setup is complete, allocate the remaining Paragon points in the following order.

1. Obtain any remaining nodes providing a damage increase within the radius of Glyph sockets.
2. Path to the remaining Rare and Magic nodes. Prioritize obtaining damage reduction, any needed Resistances/Armor, and damage increases.
3. Any remaining points can be spent on Dexterity nodes within the radius of Headhunter.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

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 Rapid Fire 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.

Gear Slot	Name	Effect
Ranged Weapon (replaced by Skyhunter)	Edgemaster’s Aspect	Skills deal up to [10 – 20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.
Amulet (+50 bonus effect)	Coldclip Aspect	Your Basic Skills are always Cold Imbued. You deal x [5 – 20%] increased damage to enemies who are Chilled or Frozen.
Dual-Wielded Weapon Slot #1 (replaced by Condemnation)	Rapid Aspect	Basic Skills gain [15 – 30%] Attack Speed.
Dual-Wielded Weapon Slot #2	Aspect of the Expectant	Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by [5 – 10%], up to 30%.
Gloves (optional replacement with Fists of Fate)	Aspect of Retribution	Distant enemies have a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds when they hit you. You deal [15 – 30%] increased damage to Stunned and Knocked Down enemies.
Ring Slot #1	Scoundrel’s Kiss	Rapid Fire now lobs exploding arrows that deal [15% – 25%] increased damage.
Ring Slot #2 (replaced by Ring of Starless Skies)	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [15 – 25%] for 3 seconds.
Helm (replaced by Harlequin Crest)	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2 – 6] seconds
Chest (replaced by Tyrael’s Might or Shroud of False Death)	Aspect of Quickening Fog	You automatically drop a Smoke Grenade at the end of Dash. Smoke Grenades reduce Dash’s cooldown by [0.5 – 0.65] seconds for each enemy hit, up to [1.50 – 1.95] seconds.
Pants	Umbrous Aspect	Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a [45 – 60%] chance to grant a free Dark Shroud shadow.
Boots	Aspect of Concussive Strikes	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 20% chance to Daze them for 2 seconds. You deal x [5 – 20%] increased damage to Dazed enemies.

Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each item type.

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

Insert one of the following Runewords, consisting of a Rune of Offering and a Rune of Invocation, into your equipped Ranged Weapon. The other Runeword can be inserted into any equipped Helm, Chest, or Pants item. Add sockets to your equipment at the Jeweler if necessary.

Runewords	Effects
Xol Ohm	Gain: 150 Offering — Evoke power from another Class. Requires: 600 Offering, Cooldown: 2 Seconds — Evoke the Barbarian’s Enhanced War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt.
Lith Wat	Gain: 25 Offering — Stand still for 0.3 seconds. Requires: 100 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Evoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.

If you prefer to stutter-step (move in between attacks), replace Lith with Moni.

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 Rapid Fire Rogue, ranked by importance.

1. Elixir of Advantage increases damage output, if not already capped at 100% Attack Speed bonus from gear and Paragon.
2. Elixir of Resource greatly helps with Energy issues, if you do not already have the appropriate Energy gear. This elixir is highly recommended for starting characters to maintain the casting of Core Skills.
3. Elixir of Fortitude is the best general-purpose option for survivability.
4. Elixir of Iron Barbs can provide a high amount of Physical Damage Reduction. Armor becomes more effective as you approach the Armor cap (9,320 against monster level 100 and above).
5. Specific Resistance Elixirs can be utilized to survive against Uber Bosses with elemental attacks.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for Rapid Fire Rogues. Each line of affixes are listed in order of importance. Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important, but their benefits may vary depending on how much is stacked or other character stats. Attempt to obtain all affixes in each line before moving to the next line. Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades.

When comparing Legendary weapons with similar item levels, Crossbows are preferred over Bows for the higher Damage per Hit for Rapid Fire. Daggers are selected for the fastest weapon speed to generate Combo Points.

Precision increases the priority of Critical Strike Damage to scale the bonus multiplier, while reducing the need for Critical Strike Chance.

Prioritize Boots with the implicit effect, attacks reduce Evade’s cooldown, for constant Evades to activate Advanced Rapid Fire.

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.

Check out our Tempering Guide for more details on Blacksmith upgrading.

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Weapons	1. Critical Strike Damage, Maximum Life 2. Life on Hit 3. Dexterity	Marksman Augments — Core (Weapon): Chance for Rapid Fire Projectiles to Cast Twice Subterfuge Expertise (Offensive): Damage per Dark Shroud
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity, Lucky Hit Chance	Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Dodge Chance
Chest	1. Dexterity, Maximum Life 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Healing Received	Worldly Fortune (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Immobilize Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Dodge Chance
Gloves	1. Ranks to Rapid Fire, Attack Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Maximum Life, Life on Hit, Lucky Hit Chance	Subterfuge Expertise (Offensive): Damage per Dark Shroud Worldly Fortune (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Stun
Pants	1. Dexterity, Maximum Life 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor	Worldly Fortune (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Freeze Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor up to 1,000 cap, otherwise Dodge Chance
Boots	Implicit Stat: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown 1. Movement Speed 2. Any uncapped Resistances or Armor 3. Ranks to Dash, Maximum Life, Dexterity	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed Daze Control (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Daze
Amulet	1. Ranks to Unstable Elixirs, Frigid Finesse, and Weapon Mastery 2. Cooldown Reduction, Attack Speed	Imbuement Abundance (Resource): Cold Imbue Additional Casts Subterfuge Expertise (Offensive): Damage per Dark Shroud
Rings	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life, Life on Hit, Lucky Hit Chance	Imbuement Abundance (Resource): Cold Imbue Additional Casts Subterfuge Expertise (Offensive): Damage per Dark Shroud

Unique and Mythic Items

Listed below are the required, recommended, and optional Unique Items for the Rapid Fire Rogue build. Each item description includes the most important affix to target for Masterworking upgrades.

• Scoundrel’s Kiss (required) enables Rapid Fire to deal Area of Effect damage against groups of enemies.
  • Masterworking Priority: Ranks to Rapid Fire
• Skyhunter (recommended) synergies well with Precision to guarantee Critical Strikes, increase damage, and restore Energy.
  • Masterworking Priority: Attack Speed, Critical Strike Damage, or Chance for Marksman Projectiles to Cast Twice
• Condemnation (recommended) provides a 1.4x multiplier that works well in this Combo Points build.
  • Masterworking Priority: Basic Skill Attack Speed
• Harlequin Crest (recommended) provides a good amount of offense and defense, if you are lucky enough to find this Mythic Unique Item.
  • Masterworking Priority: Cooldown Reduction
• Ring of Starless Skies (recommended) is a Mythic Unique Item that provides a highly valuable 1.5x multiplier. The downside is the unique effect requires some management to ramp up and maintain the buff stacks.
  • Masterworking Priority: Critical Strike Chance or Ranks to Core Skills
• Fists of Fate (optional) increases overall damage by 50% with a 300% value on the unique effect. They are comparable to well-rolled Legendary Gloves with Ranks to Rapid Fire, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, and an Offensive Aspect. The downside is the drastic damage range of the unique effect can cause an inconsistency in the hits required to kill enemies.
  • Masterworking Priority: Attack Speed
• Cowl of the Nameless (optional) provides the highest damage output when properly Masterworked.
  • Masterworking Priority: Ranks to Unstable Elixirs or Trick Attacks
• Tyrael’s Might (optional) is the best defensive option for a Chest Armor. The divine barrage does not contribute a significant portion of the total damage in this build.
  • Masterworking Priority: Damage Reduction
• Shroud of False Death (optional) provides the highest damage increase in the slot due to the +1 Ranks to All Passives inherent affix.
  • Masterworking Priority: All Stats or Maximum Life

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: Varyana
  • Skills: Cleave, Hysteria, Bloodthirst, Bloodlust
• Reinforcement: Raheir
  • Skill: Bastion
  • Opportunity: Cast when the player becomes Injured

Advanced Information

Additional details are provided in the following sections for a more in-depth explanation of the Rapid Fire Rogue. Read this advanced information after understanding the basic overview of the build in the previous sections.

Build Mechanics

Rapid Fire has high single-target damage, but normally lacks the Area of Effect (AoE) damage to clear groups of enemies. Scoundrel’s Kiss provides the AoE explosions needed to enable Rapid Fire as a main damage dealer for all situations.

Dash is a Cutthroat Skill that activates Tricks of the Trade for additional damage on the next Rapid Fire. A Smoke Grenade is dropped at the end of Dash with Aspect of Quickening Fog, so Dash can be used offensively to land on top of enemies. Enhanced Smoke Grenade is allocated for enemies to take 25% increased damage.

Dark Shroud is not equipped on the Skill Bar. Dark Shrouds stacks are instead granted through Umbrous Aspect with the high amount of hits per cast from Rapid Fire.

Enhanced Cold Imbuement applies Vulnerable to enemies from Rapid Fire with Cold Imbuement activated or Heartseeker through Coldclip Aspect.

Innervation should provide enough Energy generation if you are taking the time to build 3 Combo Points before casting each Rapid Fire.

Resource Management

Skyhunter and Combat should provide enough Energy generation if you are taking the time to build 3 Combo Points before casting each Rapid Fire. Ring of Starless Skies is an option for additional resource management. You can also reallocate 2 Skill Points from Stutter Step into Innervation.

Crowd Controls and Boss Stagger

Cold Imbuement is utilized to activate Mixed Cold Imbuement, Frigid Finesse, Frostbitten Aspect, and Control for additional damage. These damage bonuses do not apply to Bosses unless they are Staggered.

Chill from Cold Imbuement and Lucky Hit Chance to Stun/Freeze/Daze/Immobilize tempers are utilized to quickly Stagger bosses. Repeated Crowd Controls of the same type in a short duration apply less Stagger to bosses, so separate sources of Crowd Controls are tempered for maximum effect. Make sure to optimize damage against Staggered bosses by activating Cold Imbuement.

Animation Cancel Technique

An Evade can be used immediately after using Rapid Fire to cancel the casting animation. This technique is important to quickly dodge incoming attacks while activating Advanced Rapid Fire. Boots with the implicit effect, Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown, allow for an animation cancel after using 3 Basic Attacks and a Core Skill. Practice hitting Evade after every Rapid Fire to build muscle memory.

Damage Rotation

Use the following rotation to optimize damage output.

1. Activate Concealment to move quickly between packs of enemies, or save it to break any Crowd Controls.
2. Use Evade to activate Advanced Rapid Fire.
3. Use a Potion to activate the damage buff from Unstable Elixirs.
4. Build 3 Combo Points with Heartseeker.
5. Dash on top of enemies to apply Enhanced Dash and automatically drop a Smoke Grenade.
6. Activate Cold Imbuement for damage increases from Mixed Cold Imbuement and Frigid Finesse.
7. Cast Rapid Fire at the target.
8. Immediately animation cancel Rapid Fire with an Evade to restart the rotation.

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Use Obols on your target equipment for a chance to receive Greater Affixes. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.

Changelog

• October 16th, 2024: New Paragon tool added.
• October 4th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6 (Patch 2.0.2).
• August 6th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5 (Patch 1.5.0).
• May 22th, 2024: Article changed to a pure Rapid Fire build. Moved the previous Dual Core Rapid Fire Flurry Rogue build guide to another page.
• May 14th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 4 (Patch 1.4.0).
• January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 (Patch 1.3.0).
• October 17th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 (Patch 1.2.0).
• July 18th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.