Barrage – Rogue Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 11)

Build Introduction

The Barrage Rogue leveling build unleashes a spread of arrows to hit every foe. Barrage shotguns the toughest enemies, and then the arrows ricochet to hit additional targets. This is one of the best builds, featuring a straightforward playstyle, to level a new Rogue character during a season start in Diablo 4.

Check the Rogue Leveling Guide Overview for a comparison of all the starter builds on Icy Veins.

Once your Rogue character reaches Level 60, switch to the Endgame Guide for the Barrage Rogue to continue this build.

Quick Navigation

Want to skip ahead? Use the table below to jump to sections.

Allocation of Skill Points

The following table shows the order in which to allocate your Skill Points while leveling with the Barrage Rogue build. Leveling up grants 59 points. The remaining 12 points are gained from completing Renown for Eternal Players and Seasonal Rank/Journey for Seasonal Players.

Order	Skill	Cluster
1	Puncture Rank 1	Basic Skill
2	Barrage Rank 1	Core Skill
3	Dash Rank 1	Agility Skill
4	Shadow Step Rank 1	Agility Skill
5	Enhanced Barrage	Core Skill
6	Advanced Barrage (switch to Improved Barrage once you obtain Precision)	Core Skill
7	Enhanced Puncture	Basic Skill
8	Fundamental Puncture	Basic Skill
9	Barrage Rank 2	Core Skill
10	Barrage Rank 3	Core Skill
11	Barrage Rank 4	Core Skill
12	Barrage Rank 5	Core Skill
13	Exploit Rank 1	Subterfuge Passive
14	Exploit Rank 2	Subterfuge Passive
15	Exploit Rank 3	Subterfuge Passive
16	Malice Rank 1	Subterfuge Passive
17	Shadow Imbuement Rank 1	Imbuement Skill
18	Cold Imbuement Rank 1	Imbuement Skill
19	Enhanced Cold Imbuement	Imbuement Skill
20	Mixed Cold Imbuement	Imbuement Skill
21	Enhanced Shadow Imbuement	Imbuement Skill
22	Mixed Shadow Imbuement	Imbuement Skill
23	Malice Rank 2	Subterfuge Passive
24	Malice Rank 3	Subterfuge Passive
25	Unstable Elixirs Rank 1	Agility Passive
26	Unstable Elixirs Rank 2	Agility Passive
27	Unstable Elixirs Rank 3	Agility Passive
28	Weapon Mastery Rank 1	Agility Passive
29	Weapon Mastery Rank 2	Agility Passive
30	Weapon Mastery Rank 3	Agility Passive
31	Innervation Rank 1	Ultimate Passive
32	Haste Rank 1	Ultimate Passive
33	Haste Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
34	Precision	Key Passive
35	Haste Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
36	Stutter Step Rank 1	Core Passive
37	Stutter Step Rank 2	Core Passive
38	Stutter Step Rank 3	Core Passive
39	Frigid Finesse Rank 1	Imbuement Passive
40	Frigid Finesse Rank 2	Imbuement Passive
41	Frigid Finesse Rank 3	Imbuement Passive
42	Enhanced Dash	Agility Skill
43	Methodical Dash	Agility Skill
44	Enhanced Shadow Step	Agility Skill
45	Disciplined Shadow Step	Agility Skill
46	Trick Attacks Rank 1	Agility Passive
47	Trick Attacks Rank 2	Agility Passive
48	Trick Attacks Rank 3	Agility Passive
49	Deadeye Rank 1	Imbuement Passive
50	Deadeye Rank 2	Imbuement Passive
51	Deadeye Rank 3	Imbuement Passive
52	Sturdy Rank 1	Core Passive
53	Sturdy Rank 2	Core Passive
54	Sturdy Rank 3	Core Passive
55	Siphoning Strikes Rank 1	Core Passive
56	Siphoning Strikes Rank 2	Core Passive
57	Siphoning Strikes Rank 3	Core Passive
58	Shadow Imbuement Rank 2	Imbuement Skill
59	Shadow Imbuement Rank 3	Imbuement Skill
60	Shadow Imbuement Rank 4	Imbuement Skill
61	Shadow Imbuement Rank 5	Imbuement Skill
62	Impetus Rank 1	Ultimate Passive
63	Impetus Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
64	Impetus Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
65	Dash Rank 2	Agility Skill
66	Dash Rank 3	Agility Skill
67	Dash Rank 4	Agility Skill
68	Dash Rank 5	Agility Skill
69	Agile Rank 1	Subterfuge Passive
70	Agile Rank 2	Subterfuge Passive
71	Agile Rank 3	Subterfuge Passive

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

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

BarragePunctureDashShadow StepShadow ImbuementCold Imbuement

If you are unsure about the usage of these Skills, read the Build Mechanics section after setting up your Skill Bar.

Wondering what comes after Level 60 or which Paragon boards to pick? Head to the Rogue Builds page and choose an endgame build to continue your character progression.

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Rogue Class Mechanic – Specialization

Once you reach Level 15, immediately complete the True Potential class questline to unlock the Rogue’s Specialization. Combo Points is the preferred Specialization for general farming due to it providing bonus damage and additional arrows for Barrage.

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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 during the leveling process. Higher Item Power generally indicates stronger gear, but you should also consider the affixes and effects that are relevant to your class and build.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Branching Volleys can be unlocked in the Codex of Power by completing the Shadowed Plunge Dungeon in Hawezar. The dungeon becomes unlocked after completing Vyeresz Stronghold. Clear them both immediately to unlock the aspect for Barrage, and then visit the Occultist to imprint it onto a Rare or Legendary Item. An Amulet is recommended for imprinting important Aspects, since it provides a +50% bonus effect and is replaced less often than weapons.

Higher Tier Aspects with stronger effects can be found on dropped Legendary Items. Salvage unwanted Legendary Items at the Blacksmith to unlock these Aspects in the Codex of Power, and then imprint them onto well-rolled Rare Items. Check the in-depth Aspect and Codex of Power guide for more information.

Listed below are all the Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for the Barrage Rogue leveling build. They are listed in order of priority. For the best results, combine these Aspects with the ideal Stat Priorities. The best-in-slot Aspects List is in the Endgame Guide for Penetrating Shot Rogue.

Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Source
Aspect of Branching Volleys	Increase the damage of arrows that ricochet from Barrage from 40% to [50 – 90%]. Barrage’s arrows have a [30 – 70%] chance to split into 2 arrows whenever they ricochet.	Shadowed Plunge, Hawezar
High Velocity Aspect	Barrage arrows now pierce through 1 enemy. Barrage has [10 – 30%] increased Attack Speed.	Random Drop
Edgemaster’s Aspect	Skills deal up to x [5 – 25%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.	Oldstones, Scosglen
Aspect of the Expectant	After attacking enemies with a Basic Skill, increase the damage of your next Core Skill cast within 5 seconds by x [5 – 12%], up to x30%.	Underroot, Scosglen
Aspect of Retribution	Distant enemies have a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds when they hit you. You deal x [15 – 35%] increased damage to Stunned and Knocked Down enemies.	Abandoned Mineworks, Kehjistan
Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2 – 10] seconds.	Dark Ravine, Dry Steppes
Rapid Aspect	Basic Skills gain + [15 – 35%] Attack Speed.	Buried Halls, Dry Steppes
Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by + [10 – 30%] for 5 seconds.	Random Drop Only
Aspect of Slaughter	You gain 20% Movement speed. Lose this bonus for [5 – 2] seconds after taking damage from a Close Enemy.	Random Drop Only
Aspect of Nebulous Brews	Healing Potions can be used at full Life and grant [35 – 55%] Movement Speed for 3 seconds. Every 20 meters you travel refills a Healing Potion.	Random Drop Only
Wind Striker Aspect	Critical Strikes grant [8.5 – 19%] Movement Speed for 1 second, up to 6 seconds.	Shivta Ruins, Kehjistan
Cheat’s Aspect	You gain [5 – 15%] increased Damage Reduction and +10% increased Movement Speed. These bonuses are doubled while below 50% Maximum Life.	Luban’s Rest, Scosglen

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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear during the early leveling of a Barrage Rogue, 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.

Ensure you temper your best item upgrades regularly, as the extra affixes provide a significant advantage while leveling. Weapon and Offensive category tempers are especially powerful and can massively boost your damage output.

The Item Power of weapons determines its DPS and is the most important factor when searching for upgrades. When comparing weapons with similar Item Power, Crossbows are preferred over Bows for the higher Damage per Hit for Barrage. 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.

The most beneficial tempering affixes while leveling are included below. The best-in-slot tempering affixes are available in the Endgame Guide for the Barrage Rogue. Check the Tempering Guide for more information on this system.

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Weapons	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Maximum Life, Dexterity	Marksman Augments — Core (Weapon): Chance for Barrage Projectiles to Cast Twice
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction, Energy per Second, Ranks to Shadow Imbuement 2. Resistances, Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity, Lucky Hit Chance	Imbuement Abundance (Utility): Shadow or Cold Imbue Additional Casts
Chest	1. Ranks to Dark Shroud, Energy per Second 2. Resistances, Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity	Imbuement Abundance (Utility): Shadow or Cold Imbue Additional Casts
Gloves	1. Ranks to Barrage, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Damage 2. Resistances, Armor 3. Resource Cost Reduction, Critical Strike Chance	Marksman Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage
Pants	1. Resistances, Armor 2. Maximum Life, Dexterity	Imbuement Abundance (Utility): Shadow or Cold Imbue Additional Casts
Boots	Implicit Stat: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown 1. Movement Speed, Energy per Second 2. Resistances, Armor 3. Ranks to Dash, Maximum Life, Dexterity	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed
Amulet	1. Ranks to Unstable Elixirs, Exploit, Malice, or Weapon Mastery 2. Cooldown Reduction, Attack Speed	Marksman Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage
Rings	1. Attack Speed, Critical Strike Damage 2. Resource Cost Reduction, Vulnerable Damage, Resistances, Maximum Life 3. Dexterity, Lucky Hit Chance, Critical Strike Chance	Marksman Finesse (Offensive): Critical Strike Damage

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Gems and Runewords

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

Gems

Equip the corresponding Gems into your Weapon, Armor, and Jewelry slots.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Emerald for increased Critical Strike Damage.	Emerald for Dexterity.	Any Resistance Gem or Skull for Armor.

Runewords

Runes start to drop after unlocking them during the Vessel of Hatred campaign. A Rune of Ritual and a Rune of Invocation can be combined by inserting them into equipment with 2 available sockets, creating a Runeword. A limit of 2 Runewords can be equipped.

Listed below are the best Runewords utilizing Magic and Rare Runes that are beneficial for this build. The best-in-slot Runewords utilizing Legendary Runes are in the Endgame Guide for the Barrage Rogue.

Runewords	Effects
Yax Wat	Gain: 200 Offering — Drink a Healing Potion. Requires: 100 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Invoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.
Feo Qua	Gain: 200 Offering — Deal damage after not taking any within 2 seconds. (Resets if Invulnerable.) Requires: 50 Offering, Cooldown: 1 Second — Gain 10% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 50%.

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Season 11 Mechanics

Season 11: Divine Intervention offers a seasonal theme that can be utilized to enhance this build. Access Divine Gifts from the tab in the character sheet, and apply Sanctification on your items for additional bonuses.

Divine Gifts

Obtain the Divine Gifts of Lesser Evil bosses by defeating them for the first time, and then level up equipped Divine Gifts by killing the associated Lesser Evil or any of their minions. Insert the following Divine Gifts setups into Purified sockets, unlocked by progressing through the Seasonal Reputation Board, to gain beneficial rewards for specific activities.

• Helltides – Duriel
  • Purified: Essence of Pain – Briefly gain maximum Barrier after becoming Injured, every 20 seconds.
  • Corrupted: Essence of Squallor
• World Bosses – Azmodan
  • Purified: Essence of Sin – Gain 20% increased Armor.
  • Corrupted: Essence of Hellfire
• Kurast Undercity – Andariel
  • Purified: Essence of Anguish – Gain 30% Movement Speed.
  • Corrupted: Essence of Screams
  • Note: If you are already move speed capped or need extra defense, swap the Andariel Gifts for a 20% Resistance boost to defense.
• Belial – The Pit
  • Purified: Essence of Lies – Fortify for 1% of your Maximum Life a second.
  • Corrupted: Essence of Shadows

Sanctification

Use Heavenly Sigils to sanctify your items at the Heavenly Forge for a chance to apply one of the outcomes listed below. Sanctification makes the item unmodifiable, so ensure all other item crafting is finalized.

• Apply a bonus Legendary power
• Improve an Affix into a Greater Affix
• Add a bonus Affix from a pool of special Sanctification affixes
• Replace an existing Affix with a random Sanctification affix
• Add a random amount (5-25) of bonus Quality

Some of the jackpot desirable Sanctifications include +Ranks to All Skills, useful affixes like Critical Strike Chance or Attack Speed, or generic offensive Legendary Aspects. The potential Quality Increases will be especially strong on a weapon, increasing its DPS. Other options can ruin your item, such as replacing a necessary existing affix.

Mercenaries

Once the Den is unlocked during the main questline in the Vessel of Hatred expansion, complete the key quests to acquire each Mercenary. 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 Barrage Rogue build is fairly simple to play, but requires some precise positioning. Barrage fires arrows in an arcing range to cover a wide area, similar to Multishot in other ARPGs. The ricocheting arrows provide additional hits to clear groups of enemies, and the automatic targeting makes for an easy playstyle.

Fundamental Puncture applies Vulnerable to enable the 100% ricochet chance from Enhanced Barrage. Precision also guarantees Critical Strikes for the ricochets.

Activations of Shadow Imbuement and Cold Imbuement can be alternated for high imbuement uptime. Shadow Imbuement provides the build with the necessary Area of Effect explosions against groups of enemies. Mixed Shadow Imbuement also increases the damage of Cold Imbued attacks. Cold Imbuement quickly Freezes enemies in one cast of Barrage due to the multiple hits, activating Mixed Cold Imbuement and Frigid Finesse for a huge damage boost against Elites.

Damage is increased further with Unstable Elixirs, Weapon Mastery, Exploit Malice, and Impetus.

Finally, Stutter Step, Haste, and Dash speed up movement for faster farming.

Rotation and Playstyle

Use the following rotation to optimize damage output.

1. Activate an Imbuement Skill:
   • Against large groups of enemies, activate Shadow Imbuement for AoE explosions.
   • Against Elites, activate Cold Imbuement for more single-target damage.
2. Use a Potion to activate the damage buff from Unstable Elixirs.
3. Cast Puncture three times to build Combo Points. Try to stay close enough to elites and bosses to apply Vulnerable with Fundamental Puncture.
4. Cast Barrage next to the toughest enemy to shotgun them, hitting them with every arrow and ricocheting to other enemies.
5. Repeat the rotation, alternating activations of Imbuement Skills when needed.

Elixirs

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants for Bundled Herbs during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Elixirs can also drop randomly from enemies and chests during many activities in Diablo 4.

Listed below are the best Elixirs to consume while leveling the Barrage Rogue, ranked by importance.

1. Elixir of Resourcefulness II 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 casts of Core Skills.
2. Elixir of Precision II provides the highest damage output increase, if not already capped at 100% Critical Strike Chance.
3. Elixir of Advantage II increases damage output, if not already capped at 100% Attack Speed bonus from gear and Paragon.
4. Elixir of Fortitude II is the best general-purpose option for survivability.

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Season 11 Updates

A brief summary of the changes in Patch 2.5.0 that may pertain to this specific build is provided below. For a complete overview of Season 11, take a look at the comprehensive season guide.

• Damage scaling per 10 points of Dexterity increased from 1.1% to 1.25%.
• Siphoning Strikes: Healing per Rank reduced from 1% to .5% of Maximum Health.

Difficulty and Endgame

Once you hit Level 60 with this build, tackle harder difficulties and more challenging endgame content. Make sure to pick one of our recommended endgame builds for Rogue to continue your journey! The endgame builds also cover the Paragon setup unlocked at Level 60.

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Video Overview and Gameplay Footage

Changelog

• December 7th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 11 (Patch 2.5.0).
• September 21st, 2025: Guide updated for Season 10 (Patch 2.4.0).
• June 27th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 9 (Patch 2.3.0).
• April 26th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8 (Patch 2.2.0).