Flurry Rogue Leveling Guide
Last Updated:April 29, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Flurry Rogue Leveling Guide! This build is an easy-to-play melee variant that's great for leveling. You have good mobility and high AoE damage to blast through monster packs while decimating larger foes with an onslaught of blades and Imbuement effects.
Flurry is a Core Skill that hits enemies up to four times per use in front of you. With the Encircling Blades Aspect you convert it into a 360° Area of Effect that jumps into the fray and destroys everything around you. This is enabled by Improved Flurry which allows you to close the gap by being able to teleport to a targeted enemy.
Combo Points requires a 3:1 rotation between a Basic Skill and Flurry to maximize your damage and Attack Speed. You use Blade Shift to grant Unhindered and a Movement Speed boost that is extended by Enhanced Blade Shift. Each Combo Points rotation has a little extra punch thanks to Fundamental Blade Shift. Arrow Storms and Vengeful are great Dungeon aspects to help chew through enemies as you obtain gear for harder content.
Shadow Imbuement gives the Flurry Rogue some additional Area Damage while leveling, making short work of weaker enemies while helping restore your Energy with Consuming Shadows. Shadow Clone patches up the mediocre single target damage of Flurry by giving you a 15 second window to essentially double your damage. As you transition into Torment difficulties you remove Shadow Imbuement from your skill tree since Shadow Clone cannot use Imbuements by default without Imitated Imbuement.
This is a well-rounded, beginner-friendly build if you're looking for a melee playstyle. Once you have the main setup together, you cruise through the leveling journey. This guide teaches you all about how to reach the endgame in Diablo 4 with the Flurry Rogue. The Flurry Rogue Endgame Build Guide explains more once you reach Torment 1. 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 in-depth Endgame guides, check out our Endgame 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 - As Blade Shift is a Basic Skill, the uptime of this Main Power is very high, allowing you to deal some additional damage to enemies you hit and execute them with Wandering Death's Chest Beam.
Modifiers
- Beastmaster's Training - Shadow Clone is a summon ability and deals a large portion of your damage. This modifier is a direct multiplier to its damage.
- Hatred's Embrace's Haste - While leveling, this gives a large amount of Critical Strike Chance and brings you close to 100%.
- Wandering Death's Chest Beam - This execute drastically improves clear time through activities and helps restore Energy when the execute activates.
Alternate Leveling Boss Powers
- Sinerat's Flames Modifier - Increases damage of Shadow Imbuement and Flurry when imbued, as well as the damage from Allek's Talons.
- Torusk's Rage Modifier - Provides a massive increase to Cap 2 Attack Speed when you also have some Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies.
- Flesh Reaper's Disruption Modifier - Provides a damage increase against Vulnerable enemies by using a Crowd Control Duration temper.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
Getting Started
To start off your Flurry Rogue, you must put 2 points into Basic Skills to unlock the other sections. Blade Shift is your choice because it grants you Unhindered, which allows you to move through enemies. Each time you do this, Enhanced Blade Shift extends the duration of the Movement Speed buff. Fundamental Blade Shift allows you to deal more damage after any other skill cast, so weave this into your combos to deal more damage.
Unlocking Flurry
Flurry is your Core Skill. It hits four times in a cone in front of you or in a full 360° radius with Encircling Blades. Make sure to unlock this Aspect as early as possible! The Enhanced Flurry upgrade applies the Vulnerable debuff to enemies and the Improved Flurry upgrade improves mobility and defense by healing you and teleporting you to your targets.
Defense and Mobility
At this point, you unlock Agility Skills. Here you pick up Dash and Shadow Step to move around the map faster. Disciplined Dash gives you an on demand Knock Down for Malice and can deal some pretty good damage early on and to trash mobs. Disciplined Shadow Step allows you to use it more often while Enhanced Shadow Step is a reliable way to apply Vulnerable to high priority targets.
Once you unlock Subterfuge Skills, pick up Dark Shroud. It gives you much needed defense, Movement Speed, and Critical Strike Chance. Cast Dark Shroud often to remain at full stacks. If you find Umbrous remove this skill from your bar for Shadow Step using Disciplined Shadow Step.
Specialization
At level 15, you unlock your class mechanic called Specializations. Then, choose one of three to augment your build. The Flurry Rogue uses Combo Points while leveling which allows for a large burst of damage with Flurry after casting Blade Shift three times, while also giving you a massive attack speed boost.
Imbuement
Shadow Imbuement allows for additional Shadow damage explosions when you kill an enemy that has previously been hit by a Shadow Imbued skill. Combine Shadow Imbuement with the Consuming Shadows passive to get Energy back from the explosion. This is a great Imbuement to use early on. Avoid using Shadow Imbuement before casting Shadow Step, wait until you are ready to cast Flurry or Dash as they can both hit multiple targets.
Ultimate Skill
The Flurry Rogue uses Shadow Clone as its Ultimate skill. For 15 seconds you can effectively double your damage output. It mimics all of your skills except Shadow Imbuement and helps you take down any tough enemies you come across. While the cooldown is long early on, adding 5 ranks to the skill reduces the cooldown while increasing its damage and as you progress, the cooldown becomes short enough for full uptime of Shadow Clone.
Key Passive
Momentum is your Key Passive of choice for the build. It is a great all rounder that provides you Movement Speed, Damage Reduction, Energy Regeneration, Max Energy, and increased damage. Stacks are gained by casting Cutthroat skills which are Blade Shift, Flurry, Dash, Shadow Step, and Shadow Clone once you unlock its rank 5 bonus. Once it has been fully stacked, you don't need to worry about losing stacks as this build uses no Marksman skills.
Final Journey to Level 60
At this point, the core setup is complete. All of your remaining points go into boosting your damage, defenses, speed or already allocated 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, you can pick up Target Practice or Stutter Step earlier over Sturdy if you don't feel you need this extra defense.
Caltrops and Smoke Grenade Swaps
Shadow Imbuement is a great early game skill, however as you solve Energy issues, increase the size and damage of Flurry, and reduce the cooldown of Shadow Clone and can activate it consistently, Shadow Imbuement becomes less and less important and can be removed. Similarly, after you find Umbrous, Dark Shroud no longer needs to be on your skill bar as you gain its benefits through combat. Caltrops and Smoke Grenade are great ways to boost damage output against harder enemies and can be added into the build. Blade Shift can also be removed if you are able to use Flurry without running out of Energy. More info in the Flurry Rogue Endgame section below.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional Skill Points efficiently.
Rogue Specialization
Combo Points - Cast 3 Basic skills to boost the damage of your next Core skill. Start with this specialization as it helps maintain Energy.
Preparation - Spend Energy to reset your Ultimate Skill, which in turn resets all your other skills. Swap to this once you are able to maintain constant casts of Flurry.
This allows you to reset your cooldowns when you cast Shadow Clone while giving you some extra damage reduction. See the FAQ and Mechanics section on Better Energy Recovery if you can't maintain Preparation.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Rogue Class Overview.
Gear & Stat Priorities
To get started as a Flurry Rogue, focus the most on upgrading your melee weapons as their damage is the base for all further damage calculations for all Cutthroat skills. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. Since this build does not use any Marksman skills for damage, your ranged weapon becomes a stat stick that does not need to be replaced often. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you get 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 leveling an alternate hero. 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 if you 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
- Encircling Blades (Forsaken Quarry - Fractured Peaks)
- Arrow Storms (Howling Warren - Scosglen)
- Vengeful (Inferno - Kehjistan)
Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks
- Might (Dark Ravine - Dry Steppes)
- Wind Striker (Shivta Ruins - Kehjistan)
- Rapid (Buried Halls - Dry Steppes)
- Expectant (Underroot - Scosglen)
- Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan)
- Energizing (Sanguine Chapel - Fractured Peaks)
- Retribution (Abandoned Mineworks - Kehjistan)
- Enshrouding (Ghoa Ruins - Hawezar)
Other useful Aspects (drop/gamble)
- Stolen Vigor
- Breakneck Bandit's
- Umbrous
- Apogeic Furor
- Vehement Brawler's
- Juggernaut's
- Accelerating
- Coldclip
- Starlight
- Nebulous Brews
What to Gamble
Offensive | 1H Weapons |
Defensive | Chest, Pants |
Utility, Mobility | Boots |
Resource | Rings |
Great Uniques for this build
- Cowl of the Nameless
- Asheara's Khanjar
- Condemnation
- Tibault's Will
- Grasp of Shadow
- Assassin's Stride
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 it's usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 60, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:
Build-defining Aspects
- Star Shards (enables Dance of Knives Rogue Endgame Build)
- Creeping Death (enables Twisting Blades Rogue Endgame Build)
- Repeating (enables Rapid Fire Rogue Endgame Build)
- High Velocity (enables Barrage Rogue Endgame Build)
- Apogeic Furor (enables Death Trap Rogue Endgame Build and Rain of Arrows Rogue Endgame Build)
Build-defining Uniques
- Eyes in the Dark (enables Death Trap Rogue Endgame Build)
- Scoundrel's Kiss and (enables Rapid Fire Rogue Endgame Build)
- Shard of Verathiel (enables Heartseeker Rogue Endgame Build)
- Skyhunter (enhances Rapid Fire Rogue Endgame Build)
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 Flurry Rogue focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Cir + Vex - Boosts all skill ranks as you fight, letting your Shadow Clone hit much harder.
- Tam + Thul - Mystical Frost Nova Freezes all nearby enemies and enables Frigid Finesse, while granting an additional 15%[X] damage multiplier to all enemies it hits.
Alternative choices
As long as you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top Runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Poc - Another way of generating Offering while spending Energy
- Yax - Great way to generate offering that synergizes with Unstable Elixirs
- Zec - Helps reduce Shadow Clone cooldown to get you closer to full uptime.
- Kry - Vortex pulls in nearby enemies ensuring they do not leave your range
- Xal - For extra defense by greatly increasing your health
- Gar - To reach 100% Critical Strike Chance more reliably
- Mot - Generates Dark Shroud for extra defense
- Lum - Helps restore Energy in the early game when you may be resource starved.
Qua - A massive Movement Speed boost while leveling
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: Varyana
She is primarily used to boost your Attack Speed through Hysteria, Bloodthirst, and Bloodlust. She also gives you a Movement Speed boost as you kill more and more enemies through Massacre.
Reinforcement: Raheir
Call Raheir, the Shieldbearer as your reinforcement Mercenary to when you become Injured to save you with Bastion and prevent nearly all damage dealt to you for 5 seconds.
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 Melee Weapons
- It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Ranged Weapon and Amulet, which will usually not be replaced as often as your Melee Weapons.
- 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 Flurry 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 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.
The transition into the Flurry Rogue Torment 1 Starter Setup has you remove Shadow Imbuement as described at the end of the Skills and Gameplay section, change your Specialization to Preparation for better uptime on Shadow Clone, and relies on Umbrous for Dark Shroud generation. Caltrops and Smoke Grenade are included to increase your damage dealt to enemies.
This step marks the end of the Flurry Rogue 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
- Turf
- Control
- Closer
- Chip
- Versatility
To Level 46
- Turf
- Closer
- Versatility
- Control
- Chip
Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.
Video Guide
Coming soon.
Summary
- The Flurry Rogue comes online easily and is a speedy farming build with high mobility skills and area damage.
- Build 3 Combo Points with Blade Shift then unleash Flurry. Continue repeating this combo to maximize your damage output.
- Activate Shadow Imbuement for Shadow Damage explosions on kill.
- Maintain Dark Shroud stacks by casting on cooldown.
- Focus on improving your Melee Weapons more than any other items.
- Keep Shadow Clone active as often as possible.
- Look out for helpful Legendary Powers in the Codex of Power, especially Encircling Blades and those that provide extra damage and defense.
Credits
Written by DeezyTheMonster
Reviewed by M1PY