Marksman Rogue Build Guide: Penetrating Shot + Rapid Fire Hybrid

This Diablo 4 ranged Rogue build is a powerhouse that combines the incredible clear speed of Penetrating Shot with top tier single target damage of Rapid Fire . By utilizing both of those skills, this Rogue build is versatile enough, to tackle any type of content available in Diablo 4. It is a great choice for farming Nightmare Dungeons, interacting with Seasonal and Open World mechanics, and pushing to Level 100.

About the Author:

Hi, I'm Asmodeus (Asmo for short)! I'm a competitive gamer, content creator and a gaming coach. I love creating and sharing new builds, strategies and ideas that help other players to get better and succeed in the games they play.

You can find most of my gaming content on my YouTube channel - mostly dedicated to ARPG's like Diablo IV and Path of Exile.

Skills Overview

Puncture

This is your Basic Skill of choice. It's a Marksman skill which uses your Melee Weapons. It has the fastest Attack Speed out of all basic attacks, which helps you stack the Combo Points quickly. It also applies Vulnerable, which is extremely valuable and slows enemies, which helps with staggering Bosses.

Penetrating Shot

The bread and butter clearing ability of this build. Whenever you're fighting more than one enemy, you want to be using this skill. Combined with the Trickshot Aspect , the AoE of this skill is unmatched. You will be hitting multiple monsters at once and applying your Imbuement to all of them at the same time. One of the main features of this skill is also a very high Lucky Hit Chance which allows us to consistently activate many bonus effects coming from our gear and passives.

Rapid Fire

While Penetrating Shot is the top choice for clearing large packs of monsters, it does lack in terms of single target damage. Luckily, Rapid Fire fits into this setup perfectly and solves that issue completely. Rapid Fire - especially with Poison Imbuement - will melt Elites and Nightmare Dungeon Bosses with ease.

Dash

This build is characterized by fast clear speed. One of the factors contributing to this, is the power of Dash as a mobility skill. This skill is unconditional - which means you can use it regardless of having a target or not. It also has two charges allowing you to quickly move between packs.

Poison Imbuement

If you had to choose one Imbuement skill to synergize with this build - Poison Imbuement would always be the first pick. When used with Rapid Fire - it allows you to boost your single target damage. When combined with Penetrating Shot - it speeds up your clear speed, because every arrow that spreads from your Trickshot Aspect also applies the Poison debuff to each enemy hit.

Concealment

As a Rogue, you need a reliable way to get out of Crowd Control effects - such as: Stun, Freeze, Fear etc. Concealment allows you to get out of any sticky situation and remain in Stealth as long as you need to get to safety.

Alternative Options

• Shadow Imbuement - before you get the Trickshot Aspect during your leveling, you might want to take advantage of the Shadow Imbuement which will increase your AoE and help you clear bigger packs of monsters.
• Dark Shroud - before getting the Umbrous Aspect you might want to use Dark Shroud instead of Concealment if you value the extra damage reduction and movement speed over the Unstoppable.

Specialization: Combo Points

We choose Combo Points as our specialization. Since we already want to use Puncture to apply the Vulnerable debuff this build naturally lends itself to the Combo Point playstyle. This also allows us to effortlessly sustain our Energy without having to invest in Energy Cost Reduction or Energy Regeneration Rate. Try to always use your Core Skills with 3 Combo Points, as that will maximize your damage output.

Aspects

Out of all Aspects used in this Diablo 4 ranged Rogue build, only Umbrous Aspect doesn't come from a Codex, which means that you'll be able to set this character up easily before World Tier 3. For that particular slot, we will also offer you an alternative Aspect so that you never have to rely on getting lucky.

With most of these Aspects you should try to get as high rolls as possible (the only Aspect where rolls don't matter that much is the Vengeful Aspect ).

Helm:

• Aspect of Might
  Great defensive Aspect for any Combo Point based build which will naturally maintain the Damage Reduction buff by regularly using your Basic Skill. Unlike Combo Points - to gain this buff you don't have to hit a target so you can simply throw your Puncture out before a fight to pre-buff yourself.

Chest Armor:

• Umbrous Aspect
  This is the only Aspect in this build that does not come from the Codex and has to be found on gear. In order to increase your chances at finding it you want to target farm Pants in Helltides and spend your Obols buying pants as well. Pants are the only item slot which is limited exclusively to Defensive Aspects therefore it gives you the highest chance to find the Umbrous Aspect out of any gear slot. The main benefit of this Aspect is that it allows us to take full advantage of Dark Shroud without having to put the ability on our action bar. You can play with six other abilities and still have Dark Shrouds protecting you and giving you extra speed, without having to cast them manually.

• Eluding Aspect
  A great alternative to the Umbrous Aspect is the Eluding Aspect which can be acquired right at the beginning of the game in Fractured Peaks. It will help you stay safe against Crowd Control. Becoming frozen or stunned is the most common way for your character to die and before you have access to other sources of Unstoppable, this Aspect will save your character.

Gloves:

• Vengeful Aspect
  Since we constantly apply Vulnerable through the Exploit Glyph as well as Puncture , we can greatly benefit from this Aspect. In practice it provides us with 9% additional Critical Strike Chance, which is a hefty amount for any build.

Pants:

• Aspect of Disobedience
  One of the most powerful defensive Aspects. Synergizes very well with the poison playstyle as each of the poison ticks activates the Aspect and gives you additional armor.

Boots:

• Wind Striker Aspect
  A ranged Rogue build will naturally want to invest in Critical Strike Chance. This allows us to benefit from the Wind Striker Aspect as well as the Stutter Step passive - both of which will increase your movement speed whenever you deal a Critical Strike. Your character will move much faster with those buffs active.

Ranged Weapon:

• Accelerating Aspect
  Critting with your Core Skills (Penetrating Shot or Rapid Fire), will grant you a global Attack Speed buff, which will make your character feel more responsive and will shorten the attack animations. More Attack Speed generally equals a more fluid playstyle. By using this on our Ranged Weapon we're doubling it's effectiveness (another good option to put on your ranged weapon is the Edgemaster's Aspect).

Amulet:

• Trickshot Aspect
  This Aspect gives our Penetrating Shot those extra perpendicular projectiles that branch off the main shot. It is usually a good idea to put it on the Amulet because it's a rarely upgraded slot and you want to use as high of a roll as you can find.

Rings:

• Edgemaster's Aspect
  While in combat you will usually have full or close to full energy, especially after getting all of your passives. That's why we can always benefit from this generic multiplier.

• Aspect of the Expectant
  Natural fit for every combo points based build. We get maximum benefit from this Aspect after using our basic ability three times. A well rolled Aspect of the Expectant is pretty rare to find, so make sure you're putting it on a good ring that you're not planning to replace for a while.

One-Handed Weapons:

• Rapid Aspect
  This Aspect will accelerate your Combo Point generation and help you with your overall DPS. Due to the fact that weapons are one of the most frequently replaced items - we're using a less important Aspect in this slot. Your second One-Handed Weapon slot is generally reserved for the unique dagger - Condemnation - however until you find it you can use one of these offensive Aspects:

• Aspect of Bursting Venoms
  This Aspect is particularly useful in long Boss fights. If you can position yourself in the pool of Poison spawned by this Aspect, it will allow you to repeatedly attack with your Imbued skill without consuming the Imbuement charge.

• Aspect of Arrow Storms
  A good way of adding extra AoE damage to finish off stragglers. It is especially useful if you can group enemies together with some form of Crowd Control. Unfortunately it is limited in it's scaling by the nature of having a flat damage value that isn't based on your total damage output.

Unique Items

This Diablo 4 ranged marksman Rogue build does not require any Unique items to function. However one of the Unique Daggers provides a nice boost to our overall damage.

Condemnation

Our DPS comes mostly from the Core skills, which use the Ranged Weapon. Because of that, we can sacrifice some One-Handed Weapon DPS in favor of a good roll on the Condemnation unique ability. If you can get a 40% roll on this Unique Dagger, it will likely be better than any other weapon you could use in that slot.

Item Modifiers

The most valuable damage modifiers are going to be affixes that act as multipliers to your damage: Critical Strike Damage, Critical Strike Chance, Vulnerable Damage. Other additive damage increases such as "Damage" or "Damage with Ranged Weapons" on Chest Armor are much less effective in the end-game.

This is why we're prioritizing defense in those equipment slots. That way we're getting much more value from our affixes and we can benefit from the most powerful defensive stats, which include: Damage Reduction, Armor, Maximum Life, and Dodge.

Try to always prioritize Movement Speed on your Boots and Amulet, as that will help you do everything faster and it greatly improves the quality of life of any build.

Item Bases

For certain item slots you will also want to pay attention to their type and the corresponding implicit modifier. This matters the most for your weapons.

• Crossbow is going to be better than a Bow for two reasons. First and foremost the implicit which gives us a large amount of Vulnerable Damage is much better than Damage to Distant Enemies from a Bow. Secondly, the higher damage values and lower Attack Speed fit this build very well due to how it interacts with Imbuements. Attacking slightly slower but hitting for more damage with your Core Skills synergizes very well with this build's playstyle.

• Swords are going to overperform daggers in general. The difference is not as big as with Crossbow vs. a Bow, but unless the difference in provided stat bonuses is significant, you'll want to stick with Swords. Critical Strike Damage is a multiplier that's more powerful and more universal than Damage to Close Enemies from Daggers.

Gems

The choice of Gems is tied to its effect on certain slot types. We will be using the same Gems in all Armor sockets, the same Gems in all Jewelry sockets and the same gems in all Weapon sockets.

Armor

Here we want the Topaz Gem [10% Damage Reduction while Control Impaired]. In any scenario where Crowd Control is present it will be the more likely cause of your character's death. Topaz gives you the most defense at the most crucial times.

Weapons

Emerald Gem [12% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies] is the bet offensive option because we're scaling Critical Strikes and constantly keeping our enemies debuffed with Vulnerable, either through the Exploit Glyph or Puncture.

Jewelry

Ordinarily these sockets are filled with Skulls [+250 Armor], however in the Season of the Malignant you will likely be using the Caged Hearts for their unique powers.

Skill Tree

Picking your skills in the right order will help with leveling and getting the build to come online efficiently. In this section you'll find the suggested order of filling in your skill tree as well as the most crucial commentary.

You can find the skill tree HERE (powered by D4Builds.gg). Under the "Skill Tree" tab, make sure that you have the "Leveling Path" enabled to see the recommended order of skill point allocation.

• We're starting off by rushing to Fundamental Puncture. We don't put any more points in Puncture beyond the first rank.
• Next we put a couple of points in Penetrating Shot and one point in Rapid Fire . You want to level them side by side. Pick Enhanced Penetrating Shot and Improved Rapid fire after having a couple of points in each skill.
• As soon as possible grab 1 rank in Dash unless you have an Amulet which gives you the skill. If you need a source of Unstoppable, you can temporarily grab Shadowstep . However, Unstoppable is not necessary in Softcore until you start doing Nightmare Dungeons.
• After that you want to go into Poison Imbuement , and during leveling - before you get the Trickshot Aspect - I recommend picking up Shadow Imbuement as a temporary boost to your clear. You don't need the Concealment early so that frees up an extra slot on your action bar, and Shadow Imbuement is the best replacement for early leveling. If you have an Amulet with +1/+2 to All Imbuement Skills it's enough to use the Shadow Imbuement without putting any points in it.
• Pick Mixed Poison Imbuement early (we swap it to Blended Poison Imbuement once we get 50%+ Crit Chance on our Puncture).
• As soon as possible take 1 point in Adrenaline Rush and 3 points in Haste - this bonus works even in town, making your progression much faster.
• Next take Improved Penetrating Shot and 3 points in Stutter Step .
• For our key passive we're picking Precision (even though Puncture is a Marksman skill and will consume the guaranteed Crit Strike frequently, it still ends up being the best key passive in practice and the damage increase is noticeable).
• In the end game we put 1 point in Concealment , and 1 point in Dark Shroud + Subverting Dark Shroud which will be activated by our Umbrous Aspect .
• Lastly we fill in our passives: Deadly Venom 3/3, Exploit 3/3 -> Malice 3/3 , Innervation 3/3, Sturdy 1/3 -> Siphoning Strikes 2/3.

Paragon Boards & Glyphs

The Paragon system is usually the most complex part of any build in Diablo 4. Below you will find an overview of the Paragon Boards and Glyphs for this Diablo 4 ranged Rogue build.

You can also find the full Paragon setup you can follow HERE (powered by D4Builds.gg).

Starting Board

You don't have any choice about the Starting Board, however it does provide a huge amount of Dexterity in the Glyph radius. The stats available in the Glyph radius are often a big determining factor for their selection because we want to squeeze as much power out of our Glyphs as possible. The Glyph of choice here is Ranger [Increases Marksman Skill Damage, and grants 10% Damage Reduction while wielding a ranged weapon]. It gives us a huge amount of additive increased damage and some extra tankiness.

No Witnesses

Our second Paragon board is chosen due to high amount of strength in radius which helps us leverage the Exploit Glyph [Increases Damage to Vulnerable targets, and applies Vulnerable debuff to each enemy hit for 3 seconds]. This is one of the most important pieces of the entire build and will massively boost your damage output because every monster you hit for the first time will immediately become Vulnerable.

Tricks of the Trade

The next Paragon board will support the Chip Glyph [Increases Physical Damage, and increases all Damage Taken by enemies hit by Physical Damage]. This Glyph increases our Physical damage which is all of our damage whenever we're not using an Imbued skill. It also provides a multiplier to all of our damage dealt after an enemy is hit with Physical damage from our skills. Tricks of the Trade board has also good rare Paragon nodes that work well with the ranged Rogue build.

Exploit Weakness

The Exploit Weakness board is the only board in this build's setup where we actually pick the Legendary node. In order to path to it, we have to spend a lot of points however some of them include Vulnerable Damage stat which is boosting the Vulnerable debuff multiplier for us. Coupled with the Exploit Weakness which also is a multiplier, this Paragon board gives our build a big chunk of it's damage. The Glyph of choice here is Combat [Increases Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills, and restores portion of Energy cost on Critical Strikes], because we can benefit from a lot of Intelligence nodes in the radius to boost it's effectiveness.

Leyrana's Instinct

We quickly path through this board, again due to large amount of available Intelligence in the Glyph radius. The Glyph we're socketing in this board is Tracker [Increases damage to Poisoned Targets, and extends duration of Poisons by 33.3%]. It boosts all of our damage to Poisoned targets and extends the Poison duration, letting us benefit from that boost for longer.

Cunning Stratagem

The last board we attach to our Paragon setup is Cunning Stratagem. It features a couple of decent but optional rare nodes and a good amount of Strength in the Glyph radius. We fill the Glyph socket with the Bane Glyph [Increases Poison Damage, and grants 10% chance to double Poison Damage], which simply increases our Poison damage.

Gameplay Tips

• Try to always use your Core skills with three Combo Points. As you play with the build you'll learn how much damage you're doing and know when it's not necessary to stack up to three, but if you want to maximize your damage you should puncture up to three Combo Points first and then use Core Skill once and repeat.
• When to use Penetrating Shot and when to use Rapid Fire ? In general, Penetrating Shot is for hitting multiple enemies and Rapid Fire is for hitting one enemy. If you're fighting The Butcher, with a pack of other monsters around him - you want to use Penetrating Shot and aim it through The Butcher (same thing with Elites). If there is a fat little mob with extra health bothering you by himself, your Rapid Fire him in the face. Always Rapid Fire a Boss.
• When running to the Boss room, immediately use all charges of Dash and then use Poison Imbuement right after. That way by the time you get to the Boss and Rapid Fire him twice, your Poison Imbuement cooldown will come back up and you can use four Rapid Fires in a row with the Imbuement.
• You can do the same thing when entering the Dungeon. Spam Dash (Dash consumes the Imbuement charge - that's why you want to use it first) and Evade immediately and then use Poison Imbuement to get the cooldown ticking.

The Diablo 4 Ranged Rogue Build is truly one of the most comfortable and versatile builds in Diablo 4. It's simple to play, easy to put together and blasts through the content at high speed.

If you're looking for a fast build that can tackle any content, the Marksman Rogue is going to fit your playstyle!