Barrage Rogue Leveling Guide
Last Updated:April 28, 2025|Changelog
The Barrage Rogue is a simple to play, short to mid-range archer build that is great for leveling in Diablo 4. It combines a good mix of AoE and single target damage with high movement speed and solid defenses for an overall smooth experience.
Barrage is a Core Skill that fires multiple arrows spread out in a cone in front of you. While it's a ranged skill, it can only deal with large packs of monsters from a distance and you need to get close to hit individual targets with multiple arrows (shotgun), making it a very active playstyle that requires constant maneuvering.
Once you have the main setup together, it's all smooth sailing until the endgame. We include Shadow Imbuement to improve the build's otherwise mediocre AoE clear and blow up packs of monsters easily while applying Vulnerable debuff pretty much all the time.
This guide teaches you all about how to reach the endgame in Diablo 4 with the Barrage 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!
Check out our Leveling Builds Tier List to see how this build compares to others.
Boss Powers
Season 8 is the Season of Belial's Return. It allows you to tap into Boss Powers obtained from World, Event, and Lair Bosses throughout Sanctuary. The new seasonal mechanic, Apparition Incursions, is available at any difficulty level and gives you the opportunity to unlock a subset of these powers very early on. Various Apparition Monsters appear in these special timed events throughout Sanctuary. Defeating these monsters spawns 1 of 10 Apparition Bosses to hunt you down and defeating them grants you their Boss Power. After defeating the first Boss, continue the event for a chance to fight a second Apparition Boss, after which Belial himself joins the fray.
There are 24 Boss Powers available and the first time you defeat one of these Bosses, you claim their power for yourself. Boss Powers each have Main and Modifier effects to boost your build. 13 are available in all difficulties (from Apparition Incursions and World Bosses), while 11 can only be acquired in Torment 1 difficulty or higher from Lair Bosses and Lilith. You can equip 1 Main Power and 3 Modifiers, and all powers can be upgraded up to Rank 20, increasing the potency of both the Main and Modifier effect. You use Spectral Ash to upgrade these powers, dropped from Apparition Incursions and by defeating any Bosses. Boss Powers also scale with your Paragon Level, growing stronger as you progress.
Leveling Boss Powers
Main Power
Allek's Talons - Easy activation by just casting your basic attack skill for decent damage.
Modifiers
- Hatred's Embrace's Haste - Helps with Critical Strike Chance early on.
- Sinerat's Flames - Free damage for having resistances.
- Flesh Reaper's Disruption - We easily proc vulnerable in this build, so this gives us a nice multiplier for casting our main boss power.
Alternate Boss Powers
- Avarice's Explosive Ore - Good for wide AoE.
- Lilith's Wind of Hate - Good way to add additional AoE as a sub power.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
Generators
Puncture is a great choice here because it applies Vulnerable, and slow which are important damage multipliers. It also has fast attack speed, so it feels good in the earlier levels.
Barrage
Barrage is the centerpiece of this build. It fires multiple arrows in increasingly larger angles in a frontal cone. Against monster packs, you can simply spray'n'pray from a distance while on bigger targets like Elites and Bosses you have to get almost in melee range to hit them with more arrows. Always position yourself so that all of your arrows hit something.
Defense and Mobility
Here you want to pick up Dark Shroud for the toughness and the movement speed so that we can quickly move through content and also reposition well for our Barrage Skill. We pick up Dash for more mobility to get around the world quickly.
Imbuements
Both Shadow Imbuement and Poison Imbuement augment our Barrage skill for various effects to make us more powerful. Shadow Imbuement allows for additional explosions when you kill an enemy that has shadow damage on them. Shadow Imbuement also gives us back Energy upon explosion with the Consuming Shadows passive, making this a great Imbuement to pick up early on. Poison Imbuement adds additional poisoning damage to help with the bigger, more stubborn mobs with higher health pools. Use this after using both charges of Shadow Imbuement for cleaning up whatever is left.
Key Passive
We take Precision Key Passive to help with the lack of early game critical strikes. Upon building max stacks, our next attack is guaranteed to crit and do more damage.
Final
Here you spend your final points picking up the remaining passives to buff your character.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional Skill Points efficiently.
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 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.
Learn more details in our full Rogue Specialization Guide.
Gear & Stat Priorities
To get started as a Barrage Rogue, always use your highest DPS Ranged Weapon available for more damage. 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, Vulnerable Damage, Critical Strike 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
- Branching Volleys
Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks
- Rapid
- Might
- Expectant
Other useful Aspects (drop/gamble)
- Umbrous
- High Velocity
- Moonrise
- Elements
- Accursed Touch
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)
- Star Shards (enables the Endgame Dance of Knives 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 Barrage Rogue focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Cir + Lum - Great for resource as we're usually started for energy early game.
- Yax + Qua - Gives us a ton of movement speed early on.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Ceh Summons wolves for extra damage and aggro to keep you safe.
- Gar Grants critical strike chance.
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
We take Bastion for the shield, the unstoppable and decent damage buffs.
Reinforcement: Varyana
Her Earth Breaker skill provides a knockdown to proc the second portion of Malice.
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
- Imprint Important Aspects on Amulet
- It is a good idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, since it is usually not 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 Barrage 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. Unlike other setups, Barrage undergoes a huge shift in priority stats with a change in key passive and specialization. Make sure you look ahead for items to complement the shift.
At level 60, Paragon Levels and The Pit unlock. Work towards Tier 10 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
Level 15
- Turf
- Devious
- Control
- Headhunter
- Fluidity
Level 46
- Turf
- Devious
- Control
- Headhunter
- Fluidity
Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.
Video Guide
Coming soon.
Summary
- The Barrage Rogue is a great all-round build, combining mobility, great AoE and good single target damage up-close into one complete package.
- Stack Energy recovery where possible such as Consuming Shadows and Energy Cost Reduction.
- Activate Poison Imbuement and Shadow Imbuement whenever possible without overwriting each other.
- Always build 3 Combo Points before firing Barrage for the best results.
- Focus on improving your Ranged Weapon more than any other item.
- Look out for helpful Legendary Powers in the Codex of Power, especially those that generate Energy and buff your damage/damage reduction.
- Read the Next Steps above to continue your journey.
Credits
Written by DiEoxidE
Reviewed by wudijo