Due to undocumented changes in the 1.4.0 update, the planner might not match the written sections, we are working on a solution. If you can not meet the required breakpoints, drink an Elixir of Advantage II.
Welcome to the Shadow Step Rogue Specialized Build Guide! This build features a new Rogue archetype and playstyle never seen before. The purpose of this build is to zoom through even the most difficult content in the game! Therefore, we use Shadow Step as our main damage enabling ability, turbocharged by Victimize explosions! This relies on stacking Lucky Hit Chance and Cooldown Reduction to instantly jump from enemy to enemy triggering massive explosions boosted by conditional multipliers on each hit. The Gear, Skills, Paragon and Gameplay setup are unique to this build and require a strong understanding of the class to pilot properly!
Our Specialized Builds are lategame builds with specific requirements and purposes. To play them, you are expected to have a level 100 character and all of the listed items available. To get there, we recommend you use one of our existing lvl 50-100 Endgame Build Guides.
Shadow Step Rogue Gear
Shadow Step Rogue Skill Tree
Paragon
Look below for the selected Paragon Boards, Paragon point allocation, and the correct Glyphs you should use for the Shadow Step Rogue. Note: The Paragon Boards below are the final setup with no steps.
In Season 4, the Season Theme revolves around helping out the Iron Wolves. Compared to past themes, this one does not offer any borrowed power as the entire game has been redesigned with new itemization and crafting options, increasing player power substantially across the board. Instead, you can gather reputation similar to the Vampire Bounty Board from Season 2 to unlock rewards that supercharge your leveling journey to 100 with extra items, crafting materials and eventually even a Resplendent Spark to craft an uber unique.
We recommend to follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 4 guide for more information.
Gameplay
Zoom through the map with Shadow Step. It's your main mobility and damage enabling skill in the Shadow Step Rogue Build. Prioritize Elite enemies with your Shadow Steps to take them down before they can act. Simply spamming Shadow Step can already deal with most open world situations easily, but in order to be the most effective, there are many details to master. Your general gameplay rotation is as follows:
Activate Cold Imbuement immediately when it is off cooldown.
Shadow Step is your only consumer of Cold Imbuement.
Do not wait around for Aspect of Elements. You need to use Cold Imbue'd Shadow Steps to benefit from Alchemist's Fortune.
Follow by throwing down Caltrops if you anticipate a tough fight, else throw Smoke Grenade.
This activates a lot of your conditional damage multipliers and procs Synergy for Smoke Grenade.
Next, use Smoke Grenade to activate its multiplier and Synergy for the next Shadow Step.
Use Puncture to activate Tricks of the Trade and apply Lucky Hit Chance to X effects.
This can reduce your Smoke Grenade Cooldown.
Use Shadow Step to pop off your damage and Victimize Explosions.
This can reduce your Smoke Grenade Cooldown.
This hit will reset your Shadow Step CD through the Disciplined Shadow Step upgrade when you hit a new target with enough CDR.
This hit will proc Synergy for less Cooldown on your next Smoke Grenade.
If any of your skills are on Cooldown during this rotation, weave in Death Trap to reset all of your Cooldowns through Preparation.
Gear and Stat Requirements
The Shadow Step Rogue requires specific Aspects, Affixes, Masterworks and Tempers on your gear to perform their primary function. Only deviate from the list below after you have fully learned the intended gameplay style and strategies.
Legendary Aspects:
Synergy
Ravager's
Elements
Edgemaster’s
Retribution
Inner Calm
Rapid
Concussive Strikes
Frostbitten
Umbrous
Might
Uniques:
None required.
Recommended Stat Thresholds
30%+ Cooldown Reduction
45%+ Shadow Step Cooldown Reduction
50%+ Critical Strike Chance
40%+ Attack Speed
12+ total Ranks of Dark Shroud
12+ total Ranks of Shadow Step
700%+ Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
80%+ Chance to Cast Puncture Twice
2500%+ Shadow Step Damage
+2 Cold Imbuement Count
Armor Capped 9,230
Resistance Capped 70%
25,000+ Life
50%+ Dodge Chance
20%+ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize
150%+ Movement Speed
40%+ Caltrops Size
40%+ Caltrops Duration
25%+ Smoke Grenade Cooldown Reduction
80%+ Lucky Hit Chance
FAQ & Mechanics
Because the Shadow Step Rogue is a Specialized build, the obvious Mechanics or build interactions may not be clear to most first time players. Search below for the answers you need or come check me out live via the link at the top of the article for more information!
When I can transition to this build?
Shadow Step Rogue is a Specialized Build that requires a lot of gear to properly shine and will feel a bit clunky without it. You need plenty of Cooldown Reduction, Shadow Step Damage, Shadow Step Cooldown Reduction, +Cold Imbuement Count and Lucky Hit Chance. I would at least recommend having all of these on every 925 item power item they can appear on. Ideally you want them as Greater Affixes for Cooldown Reduction and Lucky Hit Chance. Getting to the above mentioned recommended stat thresholds is nearly impossible without Masterworking, so you need to at least be able to 8/12 your new gear before transitioning.
I feel squishy, how can I increase survivability?
The build includes only a required minimum of defensive choices on skill tree, paragon and through legendary aspects. In higher tiers, this build relies on you actively dodging incoming attacks through mobility and positioning. Therefore, correct item rolls are an important factor in increasing your survivability, in particular your chest and pants armor pieces. Make sure to stack stats like ranks to Dark Shroud, Dodge Chance, Maximum Life and cap your armor and resistances.
My damage is too low, how can I improve it?
Your main source of damage is your Victimize explosion after using Shadow Step on a Vulnerable target. To maximize your damage, you need to properly stack all of the conditional multipliers. Furthermore, you need to maintain the rotation of Smoke Grenade -> Mixed Cold Imbuement -> Puncture for Vulnerable through itself or Exploit and Tricks of the Trade -> and lastly Shadow Step.
To skyrocket your damage against bosses, you need to stagger them quickly before using Shadow Step. Pre-imbue yourself with Cold Imbuement. Use Puncuture, Caltrops and Smoke Grenade to stagger a boss quickly. Once staggered, swap in Godslayers Crown and use Cold Imbue'd Shadow Steps to finish the boss in ideally one hit. Do not forget to maintain the Smoke Greande - Puncture - Shadow Step rotation to maximize DPS output.
I'm not getting Victimize explosions on every Shadow Step, why?
You need +100% additional Lucky Hit Chance from gear and passives to guarantee a Victimize explosion after casting Shadow Step. You also need to use Cold Imbuement before Shadow Step to activate Alchemist's Fortune. Drink an Elixir of Advantage II to make it easier.
What are the pros and cons of Daggers and Swords?
Both weapon types offer the same DPS (damage per second) value at any given item power. This leaves four main differences between them:
1) Attack Speed (1.20/s Daggers, 1.10/s Swords)
2) Average Weapon Damage for Dual-Wield: (3064 Daggers, 3342 Swords, 925 item power)
3) Implicit Attribute (Close Damage on Daggers, Critical Strike Damage on Swords)
4) Weapon Mastery scaling
5%x vs Healthy per Rank and Dagger vs 3%x per Rank and Sword
Since we usually try to nuke the enemy's health entirely in one Shadow Step + Victimize Proc, the healthy bonus is net gain in damage, even when the base weapon damage is lower. Weapon Mastery is applied once per weapon but additive to itself.
With 3 Ranks of Weapon Mastery, the damage is as follows:
Daggers: 3064 * (1 + 0.15 + 0.15) = 3983.2
Swords: 3342 * (1 + 0.09 + 0.09) = 3943.56
This leads to Daggers being the superior choice due to not only being ahead in damage, but also in attack speed and implicit usefulness.
Are any Uniques useful for this build?
Godslayer Crown is useful for swapping it in after staggering a tormented boss for more burst damage.
Harlequin Crest is not as useful, as it is missing important Lucky Hit Chance and can not be tempered. I advise against using it as the opportunity cost is very high. If you do, you need to make up for the missing Lucky Hit Chance with Masterworks elsewhere.
How are Dark Shroud stacks generated for this build?
Even without Dark Shroud on your skill bar, you can gain shrouds through the Umbrous Aspect. It is used in this build to profit from the enormous damage reduction especially when you get hit infrequently. You gain stacks by hitting enemies with Puncture (a Marksman skill) greatly benefitting from Lucky Hit Chance.
Why Rubies instead of Emeralds in gem sockets?
Percentage-based increases to Maximum Life (e.g. from Royal Ruby or Paragon nodes) scale multiplicative. Each individual source of % life multiplies your base life (7959 total at level 100) + all flat bonuses from gear.
With 5x Royal Ruby and no flat life bonuses, the total benefit is 1.09 ^ 5 = 1.539 for a total bonus of 53.4% effective hit points (eHP).
This is massively more useful than a few more points in our main stat.
Why Preparation when we do not even spend energy?
We use Preparation to reset any given skill on demand whenever we activate Death Trap.
This can be done whenever an important skill is unavailable during a clutch moment.
As we have a lot of Cooldown Reduction and our rotation is quite tight, we usually won't use Death Trap outside of key moments.
Death Trap has the additional benefit of being able to group enemies up nicely for Victimize explosions.
Why Exploit and not Malice on the Amulet?
Cooldown Reduction and Lucky Hit Chance are mandatory rolls to hit our breakpoints. This leaves us with one open roll that goes to Exploit. But why Exploit, you may ask?
Exploit double dips for Victimize Explosions. This means it applies to the damaging ability causing the explosion and the explosion itself.
This makes Exploit a bigger relative damage gain over Malice, even though Malice is used in the Victimize Damage Formula.
In most if not all cases, our enemies meet the condition for Exploit.
How to get 1B+ Victimize Pops?
Getting such huge Victimize explosions requires a massively optimized approach. This means near perfect gear, masterfully executed Shadow Step Rogue rotation and good timing.
You need to ensure all of your conditional damage multipliers are active.
Stacked Enhanced Caltrops is neccessary to activate a lot of damage multipliers.
Follow the rotation in the gameplay section properly.
Ideally you imbued Shadow Step with Cold and are on the Cold Cycle of the Element's aspect.
Ideally your target needs to be healthy or injured, dazed and frozen.
This usually requires a boss to be staggered.
Swap in Godslayers Crown after right after staggering for massive explosions.
Mechanics
Learn about the mechanical details that make the build tick.
Dark Shroud Scaling
Dark Shroud stacks damage reduction additively for each active shadow. Due to the additive stacking, each increase in the skill's rank and active shadows boosts your survivability exponentially.
At maximum stacks, increasing your total Ranks of Dark Shroud affects your effective hit points (eHP) against one-shots as follows:
Increasing Dark Shroud from:
Rank 1 to Rank 5: 15.3% more eHP
Rank 1 to Rank 11: 50% more eHP
Rank 1 to Rank 15: 87.5% more eHP
Rank 5 to Rank 11: 30.1% more eHP
Rank 5 to Rank 15: 62.5% more eHP
Rank 11 to Rank 15: 25% more eHP
Attack Speed Caps
While all the exact mechanics are much more nuanced, there are two separate Attack Speed Bonus caps of +100% that apply to all builds for a total potential of +200%. For Rogues, these two caps are distributed in the following way:
So whenever you deal 100 Damage with Shadow Step, Victimize explodes for 320 Damage.
A few effects can double dip for Victimize, effectively increasing your total damage output twice.
These effects get multiplied again for the Victimize Explosion, after already having been multiplied to the damaging skill.
Below are known and tested relevant interactions that double dip for Victimize, credits to Ava:
Control x1.2
Deadly Ambush x1.23
Enhanced Caltrops x1.45
Exploit x1.18
Exploit Weakness x1.25
This results in an additional multiplier of: 1.2 * 1.23 * 1.45 * 1.18 * 1.25 = 3.157 if all conditions are met. This is applied to the Victimize Explosion.
Factoring both Multipliers together, this results in an actual Victimize Multiplier of: 3.2 * 3.157 = 10.10
So if you for example deal 10 million damage with Shadow Step, Victimize will deal 101,000,000 explosion damage.
Damage Multiplier Scaling
This build utilizes the following (conditional) multipliers that are not aspects:
Skills / Passives:
Enhanced Caltrops
Enhanced Smoke Grenade (does not work on Bosses)
Exploit
Frigid Finesse
Malice
Mixed Cold Imbuement
Weapon Mastery
Legendary Nodes:
Cheap Shot
Deadly Ambush
Eldritch Bounty
Exploit Weakness
Tricks of the Trade
Glyphs:
Ambush
Control
Versatility
Key Passive:
Victimize
Cooldown Reduction Scaling
You need exactly 66.66% Cooldown Reduction to reduce Shadow Step's Cooldown to 3 seconds.
You can combine Cooldown Reduction affixes and Shadow Step & Agility Cooldown Reduction tempers.
Cooldown Reduction is inversely multiplicative with each other.
Example: You have two Cooldown Reduction rolls, each being 20.2%.
Your actual Cooldown Reduction is not 40.4% now, but 36.3% instead.
The formula for this is as follows:
0.363 = 1 - (1 - 0.202) * (1 - 0.202)
Shadow Step Mechanics
With Ravager's you gain an additional charge for Shadow Step.
Ravager's also resets your Shadow Step Cooldown when you kill an enemy with Shadow Step.
This does not work for enemies slain by Victimize explosions.
Disciplined Shadow Step reduces your Shadow Step Cooldown by 3 seconds when you fulfill the condition. This is massively useful to instantly reset your Shadow Step Cooldown given enough Cooldown Reduction (66.66%).
Lucky Hit Chance Mechanics
Victimize has a 50% chance to release an explosion upon a Lucky Hit.
Shadow Step has a base Lucky Hit chance of 100%.
So without additional Lucky Hit Chance, Shadow Step procs Victimize every other time.
This means we need 100% additional Lucky Hit Chance to proc Victimize on every Shadow Step.
Therefore, we need Lucky Hit Chance on every single piece of gear where it can appear.
To reach +100% Lucky Hit Chance efficiently, you need to have:
Greater Affix Lucky Hit Chance on every piece of gear.
Masterwork Lucky Hit Chance twice on your gloves.
3 Points in the Alchemist's Fortune passive.
Alternative ways to reach +100% Lucky Hit Chance without Greater Affix rolls require you to masterwork proc your non-ring gear pieces at least twice for it.
Going over +100% additional Lucky Hit Chance does not yield any further benefit for Victimize.
Dodge Mechanics
You can dodge most things in the game excluding Damage over time effects and certain boss-mechanics.
Utilizing the high natural dodge chance of this build allows to keep high stacks of Dark Shroud.
Dodge Chance affixes are not additive, but inversely multiplicative instead.
Dodge Chance aspects, such as Assimilation are additive.
Agile is treated like an affix, so inversely multiplicative.
This would grant you 44.35% Dodge Chance, instead of 16.6+15+15 = 46.6 if it was additive.
Smoke Grenade Mechanics
Countering Smoke Grenade is required to reset the cooldown quickly. With sufficient Cooldown Reduction and Smoke Grenade Cooldown Reduction, you can reset the cooldown with 1 hit on a vulnerable enemy affected by it.
Daze has different effects, depending on the target:
Against monsters, it's functionally similar to Stun. Monsters won't attack, move or use their spells.
Against players, it disables their abilities but they can still move around freely.
Against bosses, it raises the stagger bar.
The damage bonus is tied to the Daze effect. If the crowd control is removed through Unstoppable, so is the damage buff.
Stagger Mechanics
Bosses are immune to Crowd Control (CC) and instead take Stagger Damage when hit by one. The amount of Stagger Damage dealt depends on the type of CC and is proportional to its duration. After being hit by a CC effect, the Boss will temporarily take less Stagger Damage from CC of the same type.
Effectively, spamming just one type of CC is not very efficient. Instead use as many different types of CC as possible to stagger the Boss quickly. The types of CC we have in the Penetrating Shot Rogue are:
Slow, Stun, Immobilize and Freeze from tempered affixes on our gear.
Daze from Concussive Strikes.
After the Boss is staggered it gains a certain amount of stacking Stagger Damage Reduction for the rest of the fight:
After 1st Stagger: 20%
After 2nd Stagger: 40%
After 3rd Stagger: 60%
After 4th Stagger: 90%
Bosses naturally regain 1% of their Stagger HP every second and when that regeneration is combined with 90% Stagger Damage Reduction it becomes borderline impossible to Stagger the Boss again.
Preparation Mechanics
Preparation is able to refund both charges of Shadow Step when using Ravager's Aspect.
Use Death Trap whenever you have a key skill on cooldown and are otherwise stuck waiting for it in your rotation.
