If you've been looking for a Multishot style build on Rogue, here it is! The Barrage Rogue is a very versatile skill that fires multiple arrows which fan out starting from the center. It leaves a really cool shadowy after effect which looks even cooler when stepping away after an attack.
Barrage Rogue is a jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none build, as you pick which distance is right for the situation, making it a true hybrid build. Cast the skill at mid range to spread your arrows out for massive AoE, or Shadow Step towards the elite left over to shotgun all arrows into a single target for great damage. Add Branching Volleys to create more ricochets and increase the madness!
This build uses Umbrous Aspect to add a 7th skill for free. You still take points into Dark Shroud for the extra movement speed as the Umbrous Aspect picks up all perks you put into the skill.
This is a straight forward build that's super fun to play and this guide teaches you the best way to tackle end game with Barrage Rogue!
Disclaimer: Currently the "Maximum Resource" stat on Tibault's Will adds extra maximum Combo Points that scale your Core Skill damage through the roof. It can be combined with Condemnation to immediately fill up all of your Combo Points (up to 23) with a single proc and deal extreme burst damage. This is a bug that is expected to be fixed in Season 3. Devs has encouraged it's use, so take advantage of this.
This build guide assumes you have a Level 50 Character and finished the Campaign. Level up with our Barrage Leveling Guide. If you are looking for a different Rogue playstyle, check out all of our Rogue Guides.
This is initially a tough to manage build. With multiple cooldowns, precise positioning, and active buffs that must be activated in order to deal damage, this can often times puts you in danger if you're not careful. Patience is required to master the rotations and once you do, you shall unleash its true power.
Season 2 - Season of Blood
Completing the seasonal questline, partaking in the seasonal Blood Harvest event and collecting Potent Blood are the main ways of obtaining and empowering these abilities. Check out the full Season 2 Guide from Chewingnom to learn more! Helms & Boots can have up to 3 Pacts, Pants can have up to 4, Chests & Gloves can have up to 5 giving you 20 Pacts to empower.
Best-in-Slot Vampiric Powers
- Ravenous (Minor) - Lots of attack speed due to a lot of movement speed options we take. This even allows us to get away with not taking certain attack speed aspects..
- Metamorphosis (Major) - Grants unstoppable, making it easy to deal with crowd control. Also allows you to proc Tibault's Will for free.
- Resilience (Minor) - Extra defense, especially for hardcore, is never a bad thing.
- Hectic (Minor) - Excellent for lowering your cooldowns especially on imbuements.
- Undying (Minor) - Excellent sustain to stay in battles longer without complete reliance on health potions.
Alternative Vampiric Powers
- Domination (Minor) - Good for additional damage when applying a hard crowd control. You can freeze with Cold Imbuement.
- Sanguine Brace (Minor) - Fortify on Rogue? Yes please!
- Moonrise (Minor) - Good for extra movement speed and attack speed
Skill Tree & Gameplay
- Puncture is our Basic Skill of choice to gain Energy and apply Slow & Vulnerable. Despite being a mid-ranged skill, it's the quickest way to stack Combo Points for more damage over the course of a fight.
- Barrage is your main ability. This Core Skill fires a cone of arrows that expand outwards. With the Aspect of Branching Volleys, you gain additional ricochet opportunities which helps to clean up leftover monsters.
- Shadow Step gives you incredible mobility to fly across the battlefield and an easy way to get out of tough situations. Also helps to proc Tibault's Will and our Close Quarters Combat key passive.
- Smoke Grenade makes fighting tough engagements, especially versus elites, a bit easier.
- Cold Imbuement is a buff you use for Barrage. It converts your damage to Cold and Chills the monsters. With enough hits, you can Freeze the monsters, increasing your damage substantially combined with Frigid Finesse while also increasing your survivability!
- Shadow Imbuement fills the last slot. Similar to Cold Imbuement it buffs Barrage by converting it to Shadow damage. Both can't be used simultaneously. Its primary use is to blow up trash packs efficiently and improving Energy restoration.
Passives
- Close Quarters Combat is the Key Passive of choice, giving us massive damage for stacking Damage vs Crowd Controlled on gear.
Alternatives
While the above is designed for optimal performance, there is wiggle room in the skill selection while keeping the core build intact. Smoke Grenade is not everyone's cup of tea and can be quite difficult to use. You can replace this for Dash for more movement options or a Trap such as Caltrops or Poison Trap for more of a lure playstyle.
Gameplay
Since Barrage is a versatile skill, you start off at mid range to maximize arrow spread and then you move close to cluster all of your arrows into any single target that is left. Blasting all of your arrows into one target is known as Shot-gunning. On tough affixes like Suppressor and Damage Resistance, you want to switch the order and take them out first and shotgun it down. Use Shadow Step aggressively to safe targets to trigger Close Quarters Combat and Tibault's Will. This is the brunt of your buffs, so learning to use Shadow Step well boosts your overall damage potential and survivability.
- Use Smoke Grenade to apply Daze, which makes enemies easier to deal with and elites unable to cast affixes. Dazed enemies also take 20% more multiplicative damage, which is a nice bump of damage to quickly dispatch tough situations.
- Puncture isn't used for DPS, but for its utility. It gives you Combo Points, the Vulnerable and Slow debuffs.
Build 3 Combo Points with Puncture, activate Shadow Imbuement, then fire Barrage. - Always activate Shadow Imbuement first when approaching a large pack of enemies, as it's really good at taking out big packs with AoE explosion damage. This also keeps your Energy full with Consuming Shadows early endgame and synergizes well with Edgemaster’s Aspect.
- Use Shadow Step to get around the battlefield for better positioning for Barrage and to generally travel around the world and through dungeons quickly.
- For tougher enemies, especially those that may be above your character level, you activate Cold Imbuement when Shadow Imbuement is on cooldown to finish them off. For single target situations like bosses, swap the order and use Cold Imbuement first for Stagger effect. Always use an Imbuement when you can. Beware that Shadow Step can be Imbued, so avoid wasting charges on it.
Rogue Specialization - Combo Points
Rogues choose one out of three special passives that enhance their playstyle. Barrage can be played with either Combo Points or Inner Sight. Though the former is a little stronger, so in this guide we're going to focus on Combo Points.
Building up Combo Points with your Basic Skill gives you 3 additional arrows that also hit harder. This gives the skill a Multishot feel and makes for great AoE spread clear. This also works well with Cold Imbuement as more arrows per shot leads to more ricochets, thus more Freeze and more damage.
Later on you unlock further synergies that make this Combo Point playstyle even more powerful with Condemnation and Aspect of the Expectant. Rapid Aspect and attack speed rolls work well in building Combo Points quicker for faster burst, however it can make it difficult to manage your Energy.
Learn more details and how to unlock this class specification in our full Rogue Specialization Guide.
Resource & Cooldown Management
As with all Combo Point builds, resource management is rather easy as you're naturally regenerating Energy when you're not using Barrage. Puncture, Consuming Shadows and Energy cost reduction on gear all aid in resource management to where you don't have to think about it.
As for cooldown, you only have to keep up with Shadow Imbuement and Cold Imbuement. With cooldown reduction on helm, pants (imbuement cooldown) and neck, you can comfortably rotate between these 2 imbuements without much trouble. Due to the heavy investments in imbue stats, it is critical that you're always using an Imbue before firing Barrage, otherwise your damage falls off hard.
Mobility
Feel free to use Dash on an enemy whenever necessary to go faster. Rogues naturally have a lot of movement speed, so getting around the open world and the battlefield is never an issue.
Paragon Board
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 when they reach level 15!
Level the Paragon Board by scrolling. Each step optimizes progression.
Glyphs
We need to level up our Glyphs to increase their power and activate their Additional Bonus with surrounding nodes. Glyphs have a radius of 3 by default, this increases to 4 at Glyph level 15. Complete Nightmare Dungeons to obtain Glyph experience.
Note that there are some Glyph position swaps and a few adjustments to surrounding Paragon nodes once they reach level 15. See the last two steps in the Paragon progression above for details. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Control
- Exploit
- Combat
- Ranger
- Infusion
Level 21
- Control
- Combat
- Ranger
- Infusion
- Exploit
Also check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Endgame Gear & Skill Progression
When you start diving into the Endgame, you don't have all the tools available to achieve the final build versions. Let us guide you through different progression points to give you a smooth transition from our Leveling Guides to the final build version.
Progression Goals
Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. While we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.
- Unlock the following Aspects from Dungeons:
- Aspect of Branching Volleys in Shadowed Plunge (Hawezar)
- Rapid Aspect in Buried Halls (Dry Stepps)
- Eluding Aspect in Caldera (Fractured Peaks)
- Disobedience in Halls of the Damned (Kehjistan)
- Edgemaster’s in Oldstones (Scosglen)
- Might in Dark Ravine (Dry Steppes)
- Cheat's in Luban's Rest (Scosglen)
- Find the following Legendary Aspects either as a random drop or by gambling with Obols:
- Aspect of Elements
- Accelerating Aspect
- Mangler's
- Umbrous Aspect
- Acquire the following Unique items either as a random drop or by farming specific Boss drops.
- Condemnation
- Tibault's Will
- If you're lucky enough to obtain the following Uber Uniques, they're useful for the build.
- Harlequin Crest
- Doombringer
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Steps
ENDGAME
ENDGAME
FARMING
DUNGEONS
UNIQUES
Once you have completed the leveling guide, only the Codex of Power Aspects are guaranteed. With this setup, you can farm the Legendary Aspects and Unique items you need for the next progression point.
Gear & Strategy
- Aspect of Branching Volleys, Edgemaster’s Aspect, Rapid Aspect, Vengeful Aspect, Eluding Aspect and Aspect of the Expectant in the Codex of Power.
- Use Vengeful Aspect and Accelerating Aspect early on to fill slots until you can farm for the better aspects/unique listed later.
- Since there's a very slim chance of having Umbrous Aspect use the setup below.
Build Scaling & Stat Priority
Learn about the important build scaling mechanics and stat weights.
- Combo Points: With the Combo Point Specialization you can use Puncture up to 3 times to boost your next Barrage. This is further enhanced by Condemnation and Aspect of the Expectant. You use the Rapid Aspect to build Combo Points faster and reduce downtime between your nukes. Building Combo Points allows you to keep your Energy high for the Edgemaster’s. Use Aspect of Elements for high burst damage, especially on bosses.
- Critical Strikes: You boost your Critical Strike Chance in various ways including Precision Imbuement, Intelligence and stat rolls on your items.
- Crowd Controls: Cold Imbuement provides you with a way to Chill enemies, which opens up damage modifiers such as Damage vs Chilled, Damage vs Crowd Controlled and Damage vs Frozen.
Our Damage Explained article explains how to scale your Offense.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Stat Priorities & Gear Options
Choosing the right stats for your gear can make or break your build. You won't always find perfect stats (also known as affixes or modifiers) though, and you may need to make a tough choice between two good pieces of equipment. Use the following list of priorities to compare your gear and pick the best.
- Helm: Might
- Direct swap for Harlequin Crest if you find one.
- Any Resistance
- Cooldown Reduction
- Total Armor %
- Maximum Life
- Basic Attack Speed
- Chest Armor: Umbrous
- Any Resistance
- Any 2Resistances if Harlequin Crest is equipped.
- Damage Reduction
- Damage Reduction from Close
- Total Armor %
- Maximum Life
- Gloves: Rapid
- Ranks to Barrage
- Attack Speed
- Critical Strike Chance
- Lucky Hit Chance
- All Stats
- Dexterity
- Pants: Tibault's Will
- Otherwise Look For: Cheat's
- Damage Reduction
- Armor
- Maximum Life
- Imbuement Skill Cooldown Reduction
- Ranks to Dark Shroud
- Boots: Mangler's
- Any 3 Resistances
- Movement Speed
- Movement Speed on Elite Kill
- Dodge Chance
- Amulet: Elements
- 1. Ranks to Exploit
- 2. Cooldown Reduction
- 3. Movement Speed
- 4. Armor
- 5. Damage Reduction
- 6. Ranks to Weapon Mastery
- 7. Ranks to Malice
- Rings: Accelerating & Expectant
- Damage vs Crowd Controlled
- Critical Strike Chance
- Maximum Life
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Damage to Distant Enemies
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Damage with Imbued Skills
- Crossbow: Edgemaster’s
- High DPS (Item Power)
- Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- Core Skill Damage
- All Stats
- Dexterity
- Critical Strike Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
- Main Hand: Condemnation
- Otherwise Look For: Branching Volleys (Sword)
- Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- Core Skill Damage
- All Stats
- Dexterity
- Critical Strike Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
- Off-Hand: Corruption (Sword)
- Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- Core Skill Damage
- All Stats
- Dexterity
- Critical Strike Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
This build benefits the most from the following consumables:
- Elixirs: Elixir of Cruelty, Iron Skin Elixir, Elixir of Fortitude, Heady Assault Elixir & Heady Precision Elixir
- Incenses: Song of the Mountain, Reddamine Buzz & Chorus of War
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
Why is Branching Volleys no longer used for Barrage?
Why Cold Imbuement over Poison Imbuement?
How come you don't suggest Windforce nor Skyhunter Uniques?
Why Rubies instead of Topazes in Armor sockets?
Mechanics
Dark Shroud Scaling
Eldritch Bounty
Imbuement Potency
Video Guide
Summary
The Barrage Rogue is a versatile hybrid capable of tackling all situations. It takes some time to get use to knowing when to stay back and when to go in for the kill, but overall it's a really fun build to play and brings back the glory of Multishot!
- Build 3 Combo Points with Puncture, then finish with Barrage.
- Pick your positions wisely. Know when to spray AoE and when to shotgun single targets.
- Use Cold Imbuement and Shadow Imbuement in tandem.
- Use Agility Skills cleverly to gain advantages in combat, rather it be positioning or keeping distant.
This is initially a tough to manage build. With multiple cooldowns, precise positioning, and active buffs that must be activated in order to deal damage, this can often times puts you in danger if you're not careful. Patience is required to master the rotations and once you do, you shall unleash its true power.
Hungry for more Guides?
Rogue Guides
General Guides
Credits
Written by: DiEoxidE
Reviewed by: Tenkiei, Wudijo