Arrow Storms Rogue Leveling Guide
Last Updated:October 31, 2024|Changelog
Welcome to the Arrow Storms Rogue Leveling Guide, one of the fastest leveling builds in Diablo 4! This setup relies on two key aspects, Arrow Storms and Vengeful, to rain destruction down upon your enemies. Luckily, both of these are unlockable from Dungeons, making this a very self-sufficient build that gets started easily and scales well into the lategame.
Since most of our damage comes from procs, we don't need to invest much into our skills and instead focus on ramping our damage by picking up Attack Speed & Lucky Hit Chance to trigger the aspects and generic damage multipliers from skills, passives and items.
The best way to play this build is to simply spam Puncture as your catalyst for Lucky Hits, meaning we don't even have to manage our Energy. This is assisted by occasional Flurry casts that combined with 3 Combo Points gives us a formidable 45% Attack Speed bonus for 3 seconds. In addition, this build is highly mobile thanks to Improved Flurry, Dash and Shadow Step.
While not relevant early on, there is an even better version of this build that unlocks in the endgame, replacing Flurry with Barrage as your Lucky Hit ability in order to benefit from the higher base damage of Crossbows for your Arrow Storms and various other synergies described in the Arrow Storms Endgame Guide.
This guide teaches you all about how to reach the endgame in Diablo 4 with the Arrow Storms Rogue. Let's get started!
This build guide takes you up to level 60 and gets you started for the early Endgame on Torment 1 difficulty. If you're looking for Endgame guides, check out our Rogue Guides section!
- Super Fast
- Easy to Play
- Smooth Progression
- Low AoE Coverage
- High Effort Playstyle
- Needs 2 Dungeon Powers
Check out our Leveling Builds Tier List to see how this build compares to others.
Season Theme
Season 6 is the Season of Hatred Rising. It features the Zakarum Remnants faction which hunts Realmwalkers, massive behemoths that roam outdoor zones and beckon Mephisto's hellspawn. Participate in these zone events and take down the Realmwalkers to spawn a portal to a Seething Realm. There you can acquire Seething Opals, new consumables that stack with Elixirs for a XP buff and the chance to gather extra rewards when defeating enemies. The types of Opals are:
- Seething Opal of Equipment
- Seething Opal of Gold
- Seething Opal of Materials
- Seething Opal of Torment
- Seething Opal of Socketables
Use these Opals at all times to earn reputation with the Zakarum Remnants faction and unlock further rewards.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
Getting Started
To start off we have to put 2 points into Basic Skills to unlock the other sections. Puncture is our choice because it has a fast attack animation, high lucky hit chance and applies Vulnerable to help out with bigger targets. As a Core skill, we pick up Flurry with a single point invested to gain healing, a dash and later on the attack speed buff from Combo Points.
Speed & Damage
Dash and Shadow Step unlock early, providing extra mobility and Unstoppable. Keep these on cooldown as you travel from pack to pack. Additionally, we pick up many offensive passives to boost our damage, starting with Trick Attacks, which needs to be triggered via Stun or Daze. This is where Smoke Grenade comes in, which should be used regularly on big packs to trigger this effect.
Adding Poisons
Subverting Smoke Grenade allows us to deal Poison damage, unlocking passives like Alchemical Advantage. This helps us greatly with our setup to trigger Arrow Storms more conistently.
Combo Points
At level 15, we unlock the Rogue's Specialization class mechanic. Finish this Priority Quest as soon as possible to get Combo Points. Using Puncture up to 3 times amplifies your next Core Skill. In our case, we get a 45% Attack Speed buff from Flurry.
Dark Shroud
A key defensive layer for any Rogue build is Dark Shroud. While in the very early game this is optional, it's no question that you have to include this later on. Use it often and try your best to keep up the stacks for damage reduction, speed and crit chance buffs. Luckily, there are two good ways to automate this effect: Umbrous and the Mot rune. In our case aim for the aspect and once you find it, you can remove this skill from your bar and pick up Caltrops to improve your boss nukes.
Key Passive
Our key passive of choice is Close Quarters Combat, which is the only suitable option to buff the damage of Arrow Storms. While in the early game we can barely ramp up it's multiplicative damage scaling with Damage to Close Enemies, it pops off later once we acquire Paragons, tempers and the Turf glyph. Even before, it provides a substantial attack speed buff that only requires you to hit an enemy with either Dash, Shadow Step or Flurry once every 8 seconds.
Final Journey to Level 60
At this point, most of the key synergies are unlocked and the gameplay loop is almost complete. As you level up, you unlock a lot of extra points that go into various offensive and defensive passives or max out certain skills. Check out the skills progression above to see where to put your points as you go, but feel free to deviate from the order displayed as necessary. For example, if you need extra defense or healing, you may pick up Sturdy or Siphoning Strikes earlier or if you haven't acquired a source of Chill or Freeze such as an utility temper mod on your armor, there's no reason to include Frigid Finesse yet.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional Skill Points efficiently.
Rogue Specialization
Combo Points - Use Basic Skills to boost your subsequent Core Skills.
Whenever you fight bigger enemies, use this effect to boost your Energy efficiency so you don't run out of resources. Against weaker foes, this may not be necessary. Combo Points are displayed above your XP bar near the bottom of the screen.
Unlocking Specializations
Once you reach level 15, you have to complete a short questline starting in Menestad, Fractured Peaks. A Priority Quest leads you there to help out Leyrana. After a few stops outside of town you have to enter the Forsaken Quarry Dungeon and finish the questline there, unlocking Combo Points. After that, the other two Specializations unlock automatically once you reach their minimum level (Inner Sight at 20, Preparation at 30) and can be freely assigned at any time.
Learn more details in our full Rogue Specialization Guide.
Gear & Stat Priorities
To get started as an Arrow Storms Rogue, always use your highest DPS Melee Weapon available for more damage. Your Ranged Weapon is simply a stat stick to fuel your power, so its DPS is secondary. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you acquire the right ones. For example, % Damage, Damage to Close, Vulnerable Damage, etc. all work as long as you activate their conditions. Likewise, you can temper multiple defensive options such as Resistances, Life, Armor to fill gaps in your survivability. Tempering low level gear is relatively cheap and the results can be very impactful.
Tip: For the early game, Elemental Surge Weapon Tempers are very powerful due to their high base damage, especially if you are twinking. If you find these, you may want to keep imprinting them on your weapons for an easy time.
Legendaries & Uniques
The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary or salvaging items with these powers. Check out our Map Tool to locate these Dungeons.
For leveling, there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them. In addition, keep an eye out for powerful Unique items you may find for this or other builds.
Must-have Dungeon unlocks
- Arrow Storms (Howling Warren - Scosglen)
- Vengeful (Inferno - Kehjistan)
Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks
- Rapid (Buried Halls - Dry Steppes)
- Might (Dark Ravine - Dry Steppes)
- Shared Misery (Oblivion - Hawezar)
Other useful Aspects (drop/gamble)
- Umbrous
- Coldclip
- Pestilent Points
- Moonrise
- Elements
- Ravager's
What to Gamble
Offensive | 1h Weapon, Offhand |
Defensive | Helm, Chest, Pants |
Utility, Mobility | Boots |
Resource | Rings |
Great Uniques for this build
- Cowl of the Nameless
- Fists of Fate
- Penitent Greaves
Jackpot Drops
As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can massively amplify your power and speed up the leveling by switching to another build. Keep in mind that there are many more Aspects and Uniques that can be useful to multiple builds; this just lists some of the most impactful ones. While we usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 60, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:
Build-defining Aspects
- Moonrise + Adaptability (enables the Endgame Heartseeker Rogue)
Build-defining Uniques
- Saboteur's Signet (enables the Endgame Grenade Rogue)
- Eyes in the Dark (enables the Endgame Death Trap Rogue)
- Scoundrel's Kiss (enables the Endgame Rapid Fire Rogue)
- Andariel's Visage (enables the Endgame Andariel Rogue)
Learn more details in our articles covering the Codex of Power and Unique Items.
Runes
You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Arrow Storms Rogue focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Lith + Wat - Decrepify helps with stagger, defense and allows execute at 10% HP. When combined with Xol in your other runeword it also generates large amounts of offering
- Xol + Yom - Petrify is a powerful crowd conrol, stagger contributor and triggers No Witnesses
- In the lategame version with Barrage, we replace Xol + Wat to go with Tam + Ohm and Poc + Mot to gain War Cry and Dark Shroud (replacing Umbrous) for more damage
Alternative choices
As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Cir - Generates offering with Puncture spam
- Xal - For extra defense
- Gar - To reach 100% crit more reliably
- Mot - Generates Dark Shroud without having to rely on Umbrous
Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees and abilities. You can have one hired (permanent) mercenary during solo play and a reinforcement who assists you from time to time in certain situations.
Hired: Raheir
He provides us with extra all resistances and occasionally casts Bastion that gives us near invincibility for a short time. In addition, he prevents us from getting oneshot every 30 seconds thanks to Valiance. Beware that he's not present when playing in groups and make sure you remain resistance capped without him, e.g. by swapping gems, paragon nodes or using incenses.
Reinforcement: Varyana
We choose Earth Breaker for extra crowd controls and stagger.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
How To Level
In Diablo 4, you can level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, clearing Strongholds, fighting in the Undercity of Kurast or interacting with the Seasonal Mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are equal.
Campaign Leveling
- For your first character in Diablo 4, completing the Campaign provides all the background lore information but is not necessary.
- The Campaign is the slowest way to level, but it's worth experiencing the Campaign and Diablo 4's storyline at least once.
- To play Seasonal Content you need to have completed or skipped the Campaign.
- If your account is below Rank 4 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once per realm (Softcore / Hardcore).
- After finishing the campaign, you should focus on earning experience in Helltides by combining Helltide activities with Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or completing Gathering Legion Events.
- Strongholds provide a big boost of experience for little time investment. Make sure to clear all of them after around level 40.
Seasonal / Alt Leveling
- Complete the Seasonal Questline in order to progress your Seasonal Journey to unlock additional Legendary Aspects and work on your Seasonal Powers.
- If your account is below Rank 4 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once per realm (Softcore / Hardcore).
- Complete the Dungeons needed for any Legendary Aspects from your Codex of Power.
- From level 1-60 you should focus on earning experience in Helltides by combining Helltide activities with Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or completing Gathering Legion Events.
- Strongholds provide a big boost of experience for little time investment. Make sure to clear all of them after around level 40.
- If you're playing an Alt, make sure to use Tempers and Leveling Caches crafted from the Alchemist to speed up your progression.
- Find the most efficient way of leveling your character in detail with our Speed Leveling Guide.
Tips and Tricks
- Don't Imprint Your Weapon
- It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which will usually not be replaced as often as your Weapon.
- Compare Your Items
- Press Shift to activate item comparison. Use this build guide's Stat Priorities section to identify potential upgrades.
- Choose an Easy Difficulty
- Ideally, start on Hard difficulty for the extra XP modifier, then try to go higher when it's way too easy. If that slows you down noticeably, it's better to stay on a lower difficulty.
- Use Your Materials
- There's no point in holding on to your gold or materials for later. Use everything to speed up your journey to 60. If you're twinking, make sure to craft the Allowance Caches from the Alchemist at level 20 and if available, equip your Mythic Uniques at level 35 to make the leveling a breeze.
Speedrun Route
- If you're looking to min/max your time spent on the way to 60 instead of following a generic guideline, you need to use a specific strategy.
- This usually includes farming certain activities up to a specified level and then switching to other tasks while gathering XP in high density areas and pushing the difficulty as high as you can.
- We update this strategy seasonally in our Speed Leveling Guide.
Endgame Transition
As you approach level 60 with the Arrow Storms Rogue, you unlock higher item power gear that represents a massive jump in character power. This is a good time to refresh your setup with new tempers and imprints.
At level 60, Paragon Levels and The Pit unlock. Work towards Tier 20 to enter Torment 1, where the Endgame begins. Focus on overcapping your Armor (1000+) and Resistances (70%+) as you receive some penalties to your character's stats:
- -250 Armor per Torment difficulty
- -25% All Resistances per Torment difficulty
At this point, your setup should look roughly like this before you dive into min/maxing with Uniques, Mythics & Masterworking. With better gear, more levels and Glyphs, you can push further and eventually unlock higher difficulties for increased rewards.
This step marks the end of the leveling guide. Below is the Paragon setup to get you started in Torment difficulty, but ideally, you should now transition towards the endgame version of this build or choose another of your liking.
Paragon & Glyphs
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 at level 15 and from 4 to 5 at level 46. Some of them cannot be activated before reaching these thresholds! Progress through The Pit to rank up your Glyphs.
Use the slider to see progression steps. At around Paragon 200, leveling slows down significantly and all important Rare clusters, Legendary nodes and Glyph sockets should be unlocked. Afterwards, you can min/max your build with minor tweaks and by picking up additional smaller nodes.
Some Glyph position swaps, board changes and other pathing adjustments may occur as you unlock your full potential. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build before spending additional points that do not significantly impact your character's power.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Fluidity
- Chip
- Control
- Devious
- Pride
To Level 46
- Fluidity
- Control
- Chip
- Devious
- Pride
There are a total of 328 Paragon Points. After reaching level 60, you gain up to 300 Paragon Levels, 24 from Renown and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Video Guide
Coming soon.
Summary
- The Arrow Storms Rogue is a super fast, fun to play leveling build that scales very well into the lategame.
- Unlock the two Codex Powers and start blasting!
- Focus on scaling generic damage modifiers instead of skill-specific effects to boost your damage.
- Crowd control enemies to stay safe and increase your output.
- Gather critical strike chance, attack speed & lucky hit on your gear.
- Rain destruction unto your enemies!
Credits
Written by wudijo