Welcome to the Twisting Blades Rogue Endgame guide! This is a great speedfarming build that clears faster than most others in the game but comes with a high skill ceiling. If you are looking for a fun & agile Rogue build that flies around the battlefield, you've come to the right place!
Twisting Blades is a two-step melee attack: First, you attack a single enemy for a moderate amount of damage, then the blades return to you from that enemy's position after a short delay. These returning blades are the core of the build and what you need to play around to succeed. On their path, they hit all enemies for high damage and combined with various mobility skills like Evade, Dash and Shadow Step you can annihilate entire packs at once during their flight. Finally, these returning blades rotate around you with Bladedancer's Aspect, transforming you a walking dervish as you fly across the map.
There are different variations of this build, combining this Core Skill with varying Imbuements and other effects (see more in the Progression/Variants sections below). The strongest version plays around permanent Poison Imbuement applications to produce large DoT ticks. All in all, Twisting Blades is a very versatile skill that can do everything reasonably well, making this build a great allrounder choice. While it may be difficult to get the hang of it right away when you first play it, don't despair! With some practice and our guide, you too are able to succeed with the Twisting Blades Rogue in Diablo 4. Let's get started!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 50 Character and finished the Campaign. Level up with our Twisting Blades Leveling Guide. If you are looking for a different Rogue playstyle, check out all of our Rogue Guides.
Season 4 - Loot Reborn
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.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
- Twisting Blades is our main damage skill. Build Combo Points first, then attack for maximum damage output and resource efficiency.
- Puncture is our generator. It applies Vulnerable, refills Energy and builds Combo Points for more damage output. Generally you use this 3 times before each Twisting Blades. In the later stages of progression it's possible to generate multiple Combo Points with a single attack so you slowly transition to a 2:1 and finally a 1:1 cycle, speeding up your rotations and increasing DPS.
- Poison Imbuement is our main Imbuement. Activating it adds an extra DoT to your next Twisting Blades casts. We invest heavily into it and eventually deal almost all of our damage through its Poison applications.
- While at first we cannot guarantee permanent uptime, later we get extra Imbuement charges from Tempering mods on Rings + Amulet and include Bursting Venoms to reset its cooldown.
- Dash and Shadow Step are used to move faster, engage packs or get out of crowd controls.
- Caltrops are another mobility tool and a powerful damage buff, especially with extra Caltrops Duration tempers on your weapons. Use these especially in boss fights to improve your damage.
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.
Building up Combo Points with your Basic Skill gives you more damage and added Movement Speed after using Twisting Blades. This allows for high damage output with low Energy consumption.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Rogue Specialization Guide.
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!
Twisting Blades Rogue Endgame Paragon
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
To Level 15
- Versatility
- Bane
- Tracker
- Efficacy
- Control
- Exploit
To Level 21
- Control
- Versatility
- Efficacy
- Bane
- Tracker
- Exploit
There are a total of 225 Paragon Points. Starting with level 50 you gain 4 Paragon Points per level, including 20 from Renown, and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Also check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Endgame Progression & Variants
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 in your Codex of Power:
- Bladedancer in Jalal's Vigil (Scosglen)
- Corruption in Renegade's Retreat (Kehjistan)
- Disobedience from Halls of the Damned in Kehjistan)
- Ravenous in Shifting City (Dry Steppes)
- Rapid in Buried Halls (Dry Steppes)
- Might in Dark Ravine (Dry Steppes)
- Wind Striker in Shivta Ruins (Kehjistan)
- Arrow Storms in Howling Warren (Scosglen)
- Vengeful in Inferno (Kehjistan)
- Inner Calm in Raethwind Wilds (Scosglen)
- Shared Misery in Oblivion (Hawezar)
- Volatile Shadows in Anicent's Lament (Dry Steppes)
- Retribution in Abandoned Mineworks (Kehjistan)
- Find the following Legendary Aspects either as a random drop or by gambling with Obols:
- Elements: Gamble Daggers. We simply include it for an occasional damage bonus. This replaces Arrow Storms.
- Umbrous: Gamble Pants. With this aspect we can trigger Dark Shroud without having it on the bar for extra defenses and other synergies. This replaces Disobedience once you have enough armor. In addition, once you acquire Umbrous, replace Inner Calm with Volatile Shadows to also trigger free Shadow Imbuement explosions. For leveling and speedfarming, this is a great solution for AoE damage until we drop that aspect again later for the Pit build.
- Concussive Strikes: Gamble Boots. This Aspect offers another damage multiplier on a defensive slot. This replaces Wind Striker.
- Moonrise: Gamble Daggers. This is a better version of Rapid to use later in the progression and for certain variants.
- Noxious Ice: Gamble Boots. This Aspects is a powerful burst tool once you unlock Chance to Freeze tempers until we drop it later with uber uniques.
- Acquire the following Unique items either as a random drop or by farming specific Boss drops. Note: You cannot gamble Unique items with obols!
- This build doesn't run any regular unique items.
- If you get lucky with Uber Unique drops, consider the following adjustments:
- Doombringer: This sword is an incredible defensive boost in an offensive slot and can replace Elements, Rapid, Might or Concussive Strikes for better survivability in high-end content.
- Harlequin Crest: This Helm is great for many builds, bringing an all-round amazing package to the table. This replaces Concussive Strikes.
- Andariel's Visage is a viable alternative helm which helms clear lower tiers more easily thanks to the AoE novas but shifts roughly 1/3 of your total DPS output away from Twisting Blades and makes you roughly 1/3 squishier.
- Ring of Starless Skies: This Ring is incredibly powerful because it solves resources almost entirely by itself and gives you a strong damage buff. On top of that it also allows you to fix your resistances with a single "All Resistances" affix on your gear and unlocks an Inner Sight version of this build (see in the tabs below). However, due to the missing Ring temper it's much more difficult to sustain permanent Poison Imbuement so it requires very good gear to work well. This replaces Moonrise.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Steps
(lvl 50)
to 100
& The Pit
Ultimate Version
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
- Unlock all the Codex Powers mentioned above and start imprinting your items. Some of them are used only temporarily as a filler.
- Instead of the weapon, Bladedancer is also great to put on the Amulet if you are low on resources because you can use Amulets for a long time.
- As soon as you acquire Umbrous, replace Inner Calm with Volatile Shadows to trigger free Shadow Imbuement explosions. This requires a slight respec on the tree (see below).
- Focus on getting + Skill ranks, % Damage, Life, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, Armor & Resists on your items. Aim for 5000-7000 Armor as you progress through World Tier 3.
Skills
- This is the starter version of the build and requires some adjustments throughout the progression steps.
- As soon as you acquire Umbrous, switch to the Skill Tree from the next progression step, with the exceptions below.
- Wait until you acquire Accursed Touch to replace Blended Shadow Imbuement with Mixed Shadow Imbuement.
- Wait until you acquire Chance to Freeze Tempers on your armor, then switch Methodical Caltrops to Disciplined Caltrops.
Gameplay
Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above. While you're still starting out with this build, you may be Energy starved occasionally until you unlock your final form. In addition, we have Shadow Imbuement on the bar for some better AoE clear until we automate the effect and invest more into Poison Imbuement. Note that you cannot activate both Imbuements simultaneously, so you have to switch between them depending on the situation.
In this setup, you have access to all Legendary Aspects and Temper mods, allowing you to pilot a much stronger version of this build. Additional Legendary Aspects are used to fill slots that may be replaced with Unique items later on.
Gear
- As soon as you can, temper +Poison Imbuement Count on your Rings & Amulet and include Bursting Venoms or even Hectic to improve the uptime of Poison Imbuement.
- Get at least one temper of "Puncture Resource Generation" which also produces more Combo Points per attack. Like this you can start playing a 2:1 Puncture/Twisting cycle and speed up your DPS rotation.
- Weak Codex aspects are replaced with better drops and various other adjustments round out the build.
- Other important Temper mods to invest into are Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies, Chance to Freeze and Chance for Puncture to Cast Twice.
- Start working on capping your resists up to 70% and stack enough Armor (8000-9230) to progress through Torment difficulty.
Skills
- This is close to the endgame version of the build already. If you're still missing Umbrous, stick to the Skill Tree from the previous progression step, with the exception below.
- Wait until you acquire Chance to Freeze Tempers on your armor, then switch Methodical Caltrops to Disciplined Caltrops.
Gameplay
This setup feels pretty close to the final version. Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above.
In this setup, you have access to all Unique items, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking. This allows you to pilot this build at its peak efficiency. Let's take a look at the changes you need to make to implement them.
Gear
- Optimize your Poison Imbuement uptime by working on +Poison Imbuement Count tempers on your Rings until you have 7 or more imbued attacks per cast.
- Invest more into "Puncture Resource Generation" to reach 3 Combo Points with a single attack more reliably. This is possible with 445 Strength and +165% Puncture Resource Generation.
- Depending on your resource situation, you can consider dropping Resource Cost Reduction on your weapon for % Damage or % Damage over Time.
- Ensure you reach at least 9230 Armor to be capped against all enemies in the game and boost your Resistances to 70%.
Gear with Uber Uniques
- Harlequin Crest: This Helm is great for many builds, bringing an all-round amazing package to the table. This replaces Concussive Strikes.
- Ring of Starless Skies: This Ring is incredibly powerful because it solves resources almost entirely by itself and gives you a strong damage buff. On top of that it also allows you to fix your resistances with a single "All Resistances" affix on your gear and unlocks an Inner Sight version of this build (see in the tabs below). However, due to the missing Ring temper it's much more difficult to sustain permanent Poison Imbuement so it requires very good gear to work well. This replaces Moonrise.
- Andariel's Visage is a viable alternative helm which helms clear lower tiers more easily thanks to the AoE novas but shifts roughly 1/3 of your total DPS output away from Twisting Blades and makes you roughly 1/3 squishier.
Skills
- This is the final version of the build, designed to push high into the Pit and deal with everything else the game throws at you. At this point you can consider a few adjustments to min/max your personal playstyle.
- At the high end we no longer need Movement Speed from Haste and invest those points into Dark Shroud instead.
- We remove Shadow Imbuement to pick up Siphoning Strikes for sustain.
- Several other tweaks round out the build.
- With Uber uniques in the setup, we move 2 points from Innervation and 1 from Dash to max out Alchemist's Fortune.
Gameplay
- This is the final version of the build. Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above.
- Depending on how much Puncture Resource Generation you have, you can now play a 1:1 cycle to generate either 2 or 3 Combo Points per Puncture.
- It's important that you target high value enemies with your Puncture to apply Vulnerable for Corruption, so switch targets between your attacks in monster packs.
- When fighting monsters in high tiers of the Pit, it's important to not get caught without your defenses active. Make sure to dance around enemies as you kite and fight to keep your Dark Shroud stacks high for the best protection.
- Remember that after crowd controlling elites for 5 seconds, they become Unstoppable for 8 seconds. This may be the right moment to start kiting them around because your damage done goes way down and they can freely retaliate.
- In boss fights, beware that some of your conditional damage reduction modifiers cannot activate, for example Wiles from the Cheap Shot Paragon board. This means that they generally deal more damage against you than regular monsters and you have to prioritize dodging the attacks from shadow bosses.
The Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers. With a few tweaks this build can go much faster.
Gear
- Hectic can replace Assimilation.
- Ravager's can replace Noxious Ice.
- Consider rolling more Cooldown Reduction on your items to get your Movement Abilities back more quickly.
Skill Tree
- We make various adjustments on the tree and bring back Shadow Imbuement to have an AoE burst on demand.
- Caltrops is replaced with a maxed out Dash so we can fly through zones.
- Various other tweaks round out the setup, but feel free to make adjustments for your personal preferences.
Gameplay
- Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above and use your mobility skills freely whenever they're ready. Note that you cannot activate both Imbuements simultaneously, so you have to switch between them depending on the situation.
This setup is intended to defeat the Tormented Bosses (lvl 200 version) and Uber Lilith and makes some adjustments based around these high-end encounters.
Gear
- Undying replaces Concussive Strikes on the Helm.
- Hectic replaces Noxious Ice for higher uptime of all skills.
Skill Tree
- Crowd control effects can't be applied, so we move around a few points and pick up Innervation to sustain Energy.
Gameplay
- Follow the general skill rotation described in the section above.
- Avoid getting hit by any big attacks, especially those that apply the Tormented debuff (increased damage taken). Use Dash and Shadow Step if necessary.
Once you've unlocked Ring of Starless Skies and optimized your gear with lots of Lucky Hit Chance bonuses, Poison Imbuement Count tempers and Energy recovery, you get to the point where you can play completely without Combo Points and almost entirely just spam Twisting Blades. Thanks to the powerful Combo Points generation capacity of Puncture it's not really stronger but a viable alternative and luckily doesn't require many adjustments to the build.
Gear
- We include Accursed Touch to apply Vulnerable since we no longer cast Puncture very often.
Skills
- The skill tree remains largely unchanged. If you run into Energy issues too often, include Innervation.
Gameplay
- With Inner Sight there is no need to use your Basic skill very often. Just make sure to activate it in time for your buffs (at least once every 7sec).
- Pay more attention to Bursting Venoms procs as your Poison Imbuement stacks drain significantly faster than before with pure Twisting Blades spam.
- When fighting monsters in high tiers of the Pit, it's important to not get caught without your defenses active. Make sure to dance around enemies as you kite and fight to keep your Dark Shroud stacks high for the best protection.
- Remember that after crowd controlling elites for 5 seconds, they become Unstoppable for 8 seconds. This may be the right moment to start kiting them around because your damage done goes way down and they can freely retaliate.
- In boss fights, beware that some of your conditional damage reduction modifiers cannot activate, for example Wiles from the Cheap Shot Paragon board. This means that they generally deal more damage against you than regular monsters and you have to prioritize dodging the attacks from shadow bosses.
Hardcore Adjustments
Hardcore requires you to build into more defenses. Here are some tips to be successful in this game mode:
- For better oneshot protection (but less overall sustain), you can replace Dexterity and Dodge with Maximum Life.
- Focus on acquiring Doombringer and include it instead of an offensive aspect.
- Be more conservative with Shadow Step and keep a charge ready when you engage enemies that can crowd control you, for example Cold Enchanted elites or Snakes mob types.
- For even more protection, include Protecting or Eluding in your setup to get out of crowd controls.
Build Scaling & Stat Priorities
Read on to learn all you need about how to scale this build into endgame.
- Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies: Thanks to Close Quarters Combat, this stat becomes a powerful damage multiplier, so we stack it on Paragon boards and Temper it on items.
- Combo Points: With the Combo Point Specialization you can use Puncture up to 3 times to boost your next Twisting Blades. Building Combo Points allows you to keep your Energy high for the Edgemaster’s Aspect. With extra Resource Generation from Strength and Puncture Resource Generation tempers you can get to the point where you get 2 or even 3 Combo Points from a single attack to speed up your DPS rotation.
- Energy: With some Resource Cost Reduction on the Crossbow and resource recovery, continuous spamming of Twisting Blades becomes achievable.
- Attack Speed: We hit the 100% Attack Speed from gear cap and even go beyond with some effects like Close Quarters Combat and Rapid.
- Critical Strikes: You boost your Critical Strike Chance in various ways including rolls on Gloves, Amulet & Rings for Blended Poison Imbuement.
- Vulnerable: We apply this debuff in various ways including Puncture, Blended Shadow Imbuement & Accursed Touch.
- Skill Ranks: Poison Imbuement profits from ranks to itself and the carrying skill, allowing you to scale its damage very high in the lategame.
- Resistances: As we approach lategame, we focus on capping all of our elemental resists at 70% through rolls on Armor pieces, Paragon nodes and Jewelry sockets.
- Armor: Similar to resistances, we aim to hit the 85% damage reduction armor cap of 9230 vs. lvl 100+ monsters to be well protected against any damage type.
- Maximum Life: We stack a lot of this stat on gear and Paragons.
- Defensive Aspects: Might is a great boost to survivability.
- Dark Shroud: Triggered by Umbrous, we gain tons of damage reduction as long as we don't get hit too frequently.
- Crowd Controls: We Daze our main target with Twisting Blades and Temper various crowd control mods on our gear. For engaging packs, we use Smoke Grenade.
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
To enable your build to perform optimally, you need to reach certain Stat "Breakpoints". Some examples are reaching 100% Chance to Critically Strike, or 20 Resource per second. Since there are many values of these stats on different pieces of gear and some are interchangeable, read the checklist below and refer to the recommended Tempered Affixes ⚒️ and Masterwork Crits ↑. Desirable Greater Affixes will always be the top three recommended Affixes.
Recommended Stat Thresholds
- 7+ total Poison Imbuement Count
- 9+ total Poison Imbuement Ranks
- 9+ total Twisting Blades Ranks
- 9+ total Dark Shroud Ranks
- 45%+ Critical Strike Chance
- 15%+ Attack Speed Bonus
- 800%+ Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- 250%+ Caltrops Duration
- 90%+ Chance to Cast Puncture Twice
- Armor Capped 9,230
- Resistance Capped 70%
- 45,000+ Life
- 30%+ Dodge Chance
- 50%+ Chance to Freeze
- 15%+ Chance to Stun
- 12+ Energy Per Second
- 180%+ Movement Speed
- 165%+ Puncture Resource Generation
Helm: Concussive Strikes
- Ranks to Poison Imbuement ↑
- Cooldown Reduction
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Dexterity
- ⚒️ Dodge Chance
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Chest Armor: Umbrous
- Ranks to Dark Shroud ↑
- Maximum Life
- Energy per Second
- Dexterity
- ⚒️ Dodge Chance
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Gloves: Noxious Ice
- Ranks to Twisting Blades ↑
- Critical Strike Chance
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Attack Speed
- ⚒️ Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Pants: Might
- Maximum Life ↑
- Armor
- Any Resistance
- Dexterity ↑
- ⚒️ Dodge Chance
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Boots: Shared Misery
- Movement Speed ↑
- Armor
- Any Resistance
- Dexterity
- ⚒️ Movement Speed
- ⚒️ Chance to Freeze/Stun/Immobilize/Slow
Crossbow: Bladedancer's
- Resource Cost Reduction
- Maximum Life ↑
- Dexterity ↑
- ⚒️ Chance to Cast Puncture Twice ↑
- ⚒️ Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
One-Handed: Inner Calm & Pestilent Points
- Dexterity
- % Damage
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️ Caltrops Duration ↑
- ⚒️ Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
Amulet: Corruption
- Ranks to Frigid Finesse ↑
- Movement Speed
- Critical Strike Chance
- Ranks to Deadly Venom
- Ranks to Malice
- ⚒️ Puncture Resource Generation ↑
- ⚒️ Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Ring 1: Retribution
- Dexterity
- Attack Speed ↑
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- ⚒️ Poison Imbuement Count ↑
- ⚒️ Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
Ring 2: Bursting Venoms
- Attack Speed ↑
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- Dexterity
- ⚒️ Poison Imbuement Count ↑
- ⚒️ Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ↑
Fill your item's sockets with the following:
- Royal Amethyst into Weapons for extra damage.
- Royal Ruby into Armor for more survivability.
- Any gem type of Resistances you are missing into Jewelry, prioritizing Fire and Lightning first.
The best potion to use for this build is Elixir of Advantage II.
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.
What can I do to improve survivability?
How can I trigger Unstoppable?
What can I do for better Energy recovery?
Mechanics
Dark Shroud Scaling
Attack Speed Caps
Twisting Blades
Poison Imbuement
Deadly Ambush
Smoke Grenade
Stagger
Video Guide
Summary
The Twisting Blades Rogue is a super fun and mobile assassin that farms outdoor content and low Nightmare Dungeons better than almost anything else and can pull its weight in higher end content thanks to Poison Imbuement. While quite difficult to learn, it's a build that feels very rewarding once you have mastered its gameplay and is an excellent choice to start a fresh season with.
- Build Combo Points to increase your damage output and don't run out of resources before Twisting Blades.
- Focus on +Poison Imbuement Count and Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies Temper mods.
- Activate Poison Imbuement whenever ready to apply heavy DoTs and melt enemies.
- Use your crowd controls to deal more damage and stay alive with Dark Shroud triggered from Umbrous.
Credits
Written by wudijo
Shoutout to Avarilyn for in-depth testing and insights on Poison damage mechanics