Welcome to the Twisting Blades Rogue Endgame guide! This build is an extraordinary farmer that moves faster than almost anything else in the game and decimates even the toughest bosses in seconds. However, such power comes at a price: Your defenses are mediocre and it's very difficult to play optimally. If you are looking for a fun & agile Rogue build, you've come to the right place!
Twisting Blades is a two-step melee attack: At 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.
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). All in all, Twisting Blades is a very versatile skill that can do everything 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!
Warning: There are various bugs in the game that make this build both stronger and weaker than intended (mostly stronger) under certain circumstances (thanks to Avarilyn for assisting with testing data). Beware that they might be fixed at any moment:
- Bladedancer aspect often hits once too often (it rotates twice but hits thrice).
- Bladedancer hits buffed by Poison Imbuement apply 100% damage value on each spin instead of their massively reduced return damage value.
- Some important multipliers don't work for Poison Imbuement such as Expectant, Edgemaster’s, Condemnation, Tricks of the Trade and Weapon Mastery which is why some variants don't use these effects.
- Poison Imbuement is not affected by Damage with Core (Basic, Ultimate) Skills and Damage with Cutthroat (Marksman) Skills stats, so avoid rolling these on your items over other stats for Poison variants.
- All in all this makes a fully Poison Imbuement focused build (like the Pinnacle Boss and T100 NMD variants below) between x2-3 stronger than expected. Regardless of a fix, the build would be played and perform in a pretty similar way but would be noticeably weaker against bosses.
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 22) with a single proc and deal extreme burst damage. This is a bug that we expect to get fixed any moment but if you have both of these items available you can use this combination to your advantage for now.
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 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.
Recommended Vampiric Powers
- Accursed Touch (Major) - Triggers and spreads the Vampiric Curse for extra effects.
- Prey on the Weak (Minor) - Ensures high Vulnerable uptime and buffs our damage further.
- Moonrise (Major) - Adds extra Attack & Movement Speed to the setup.
- Ravenous (Minor) - Frequently offers a massive buff to Attack Speed for more damage.
- Hemomancy (Minor) - Sometimes deals AoE damage and heals you.
Alternative Vampiric Powers
- Undying (Minor) - Can replace Ravenous or Hemomancy for more healing.
- Resilience (Minor) - Can replace Ravenous or Hemomancy for more damage reduction.
- Infection (Minor) - Can replace Ravenous or Hemomancy for more random damage procs.
- Metamorphosis (Major) - Can replace Moonrise or Accursed Touch for better Movement, Unstoppable and to apply the Vampiric Curse to enemies.
Eternal Realm
If you're playing on the Eternal Realm without access to Vampiric Powers, there are two notable differences:
- Some setups may use Metamorphosis to trigger Unstoppable and/or Tibault's Will. The same can be done with Shadow Step or Concealment.
- Some setups may use Metamorphosis or Accursed Touch together with Prey on the Weak to apply Vulnerable. The same can be done with Puncture, Exploit or Blended Shadow Imbuement.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
- Twisting Blades is our main damage skill. In order to use it effectively against monster packs, you have to utilize the returning blades to hit as many targets as possible.
- Against multiple enemies, attack different targets 1-3 times, then run, Dash or Shadow Step away so that the returning blades can do their job.
- On short single target encounters, simply spam this skill as much as possible.
- On longer single target encounters, switch to a 1:1 or a 3:1 rotation between Puncture and Twisting Blades to build Combo Points for better resource efficiency.
- Dash and Shadow Step are our mobility skills. Dash can be used freely while Shadow Step requires a target, so it should be prioritized to engage new packs. It can also be used to teleport up or down cliffs in outdoor content. Avoid wasting Imbuement charges on either of these two skills.
- Shadow Imbuement blows up packs and helps us to restore Energy with Consuming Shadows. It also helps to spread the Vulnerable debuff more easily for a damage boost until the Exploit Glyphs comes online.
- Poison Imbuement is used whenever you fight a bigger target like an elite or a boss. Best case gather 3 Combo Points before using Twisting Blades to maximize its damage. Note that the two imbuements cannot be used simultaneously, so they have to be cycled.
- Whenever Vulnerable falls off or you're low on Energy, use Puncture to solve both problems and to build Combo Points for more damage output.
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.
Resource & Cooldown Management
Managing your Resources and Cooldowns is crucial to the success of this build.
Ravenous Aspect
This is a great resource tool and can be acquired early from the Codex of Power. Even the minimum roll has great value and smooths out the Energy recovery from the start.
Aspect of the Umbral
While this Aspect is usually better than Ravenous, it's a very rare find and thus not included in the standard setup as the Codex version has a low value. However, it allows us to generate tons of Energy with multiple ways to trigger it:
- Daze from Twisting Blades
- Slow from Puncture
- Slow from Lucky Hit: Chance to Slow stat on Gloves
- Knockdown from Trick Attacks
- Stun from Shadow Crash
All in all, this resource aspect is a big enabler for the build and almost single-handedly allows you to spam your Core Skill without downtime. If you happen to get a good roll of Umbral, you can replace Ravenous with it for even better Energy recovery (gamble Rings).
Energy Cost Reduction
Your amulet can roll a good amount of Energy Cost Reduction that helps with Energy management. Prioritize getting a good roll there.
Shadow Imbuement
Together Consuming Shadows, you can recovery Energy by defeating enemies. When you run low on resources and see a large pack of monsters ahead, use this skill to fill up your entire bar. Especially early in the progression this is a great tool for resources but becomes less relevant with better gear.
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
Level 15
- Control
- Closer
- Exploit
- Efficacy
- Turf
Level 21
- Control
- Turf
- Closer
- Efficacy
- Exploit
Glyphs for Level 100 Endgame Variants
After finishing your main setup, also level the following Glyphs:
- Bane
- Canny
- Tracker
- Diminish
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)
- Ravenous in Shifting City (Dry Steppes)
- 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)
- Shared Misery in Oblivion (Hawezar)
- Ghostwalker in Broken Bulwark (Scosglen)
- Corruption in Renegade's Retreat (Kehjistan)
- Expectant in Underroot (Scosglen)
- Energizing in Sanguine Chapel (Fractured Peaks)
- Find the following Legendary Aspects either as a random drop or by gambling with Obols:
- Ravager: The second charge on Shadow Step gives great quality of life and speeds up your runs. Once you acquire it, put it on your Boots, move Ghostwalker to your Amulet and replace Expectant. Gamble Boots.
- The Umbral: While this power exists in the codex, it's simply very weak at its minimum value. With a high roll you get tons of Energy back all the time to fully enable spamming Twisting Blades. If you have the rest of the setup completed and this aspect with a high roll, it's at this point that you can nearly stop using Puncture entirely for most fights. This replaces Ravenous. Gamble Rings.
- Accelerating: This aspect adds a lot of extra Attack Speed to smooth out the playstyle once you have enough resource recovery. This replaces Energizing. Gamble Daggers.
- Acquire the following Unique items either as a random drop or by farming specific Boss drops. Note: You cannot gamble Unique items with obols!
- Tibault's Will: With Ravager it's easy to trigger this effect for a huge damage boost. If you feel too squishy with this item, use a defensive legendary or Temerity instead.
- Godslayer Crown: This item is used in the Pinnacle Boss variant of the build for massive burst damage.
- If you get lucky with Uber Unique drops, consider the following adjustments:
- Harlequin Crest or Andariel's Visage: Replace Might and/or Cheat's but make sure you still have enough Armor from other sources (e.g. by also adding Disobedience if necessary).
- Doombringer: You can use this sword instead of Corruption or Ravenous. This sword has amazing stats and a damage reduction proc to survive high end content more easily.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Steps
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. Some of them are used only temporarily as a filler.
- Bladedancer is great to put on the Amulet until you move Ghostwalker there because you can use Amulets for a long time.
- Start working towards capping your Resistances and Armor.
Skills
- This is the standard version of the build and stays similar for the next progression steps.
- The only change we make during leveling progression is replacing Blended Shadow Imbuement with Mixed Shadow Imbuement as soon as you can activate the Exploit Glyph to apply Vulnerable.
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. Play around the Shadow Imbuement + Consuming Shadows combo to keep your resources high. Use your Basic Skill during downtime and to apply Vulnerable.
Hardcore Adjustments
Hardcore requires you to build into more defenses. Here are some tips to be successful in this game mode:
- Focus more on your chest & pants while gearing up. Make sure to have only defensive stats on these two slots as they provide a ton of survivability. Tibault's Will is an optional unique that can be replaced with a defensive legendary item.
- Add extra Armor & Maximum Life instead of damage nodes on your Paragon Boards.
- For even more protection, include Eluding in your setup to get out of crowd controls.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- Energy: While continuous spamming of Twisting Blades all the time may not be possible, it gets better as we progress, especially through Resource Generation rolls on Rings and Ravenous Aspect + Aspect of the Umbral.
- Critical Strikes: You boost your Critical Strike Chance in various ways including rolls on Gloves & Rings and Intelligence.
- Vulnerable: We apply this debuff in various ways including Puncture, Blended Shadow Imbuement and Exploit Glyph.
- Mobility: With more tools and higher Movement Speed, we are able to get more out of each individual Twisting Blades use because we can prolong their flight.
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
- Any Resistance
- Any Resistance
- % Total Armor
- Ranks to Poison Imbuement
- Cooldown Reduction
- Maximum Life
- Chest Armor: Disobedience
- % Total Armor
- Damage Reduction
- Close Damage Reduction
- Distant Damage Reduction
- Maximum Life
- Gloves: Shared Misery
- Ranks to Twisting Blades
- Lucky Hit: Chance to Slow
- Critical Strike Chance
- Attack Speed
- All Stats
- Dexterity
- Pants: Tibault's Will, look for high Maximum Resource & effect rolls
- Otherwise Look For: Cheat's
- % Total Armor
- Damage Reduction
- Close Damage Reduction
- Distant Damage Reduction
- Maximum Life
- Boots: Ravager's
- Implicit: Maximum Evade Charges
- Movement Speed
- Any Resistance
- Any Resistance
- Any Resistance
- Movement Speed on Elite Kill
- Amulet: Ghostwalker
- Movement Speed
- Energy Cost Reduction
- Cooldown Reduction
- Ranks to Weapon Mastery*
- Ranks to Malice*
- Ranks to Exploit*
- Damage Reduction
- % Total Armor
- Close Damage Reduction
- Distant Damage Reduction
* Cannot appear on the same item together.
- Rings: Corruption & Ravenous
- Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- Resource Generation
- Critical Strike Chance
- Maximum Life
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Vulnerable Damage
- Ranged (Crossbow): Edgemaster’s
- Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- Damage to Close Enemies
- All Stats
- Dexterity
- Core Skill Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
- Melee 1 (Dagger): Condemnation, look for high DPS & effect rolls
- Otherwise Look For: Accelerating
- Melee 2 (Dagger): Bladedancer's
- High DPS (Item Power)
- Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
- All Stats
- Dexterity
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Core Skill Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
Fill your item's sockets with the following:
- Royal Skull into Weapons for health recovery.
- Royal Ruby into Armor for more survivability.
- Any gem type of Resistances you are missing into Jewelry, prioritizing Fire and Lightning first. If you are capped on all of them, add Royal Skull for more Armor.
This build benefits the most from the following consumables:
- Elixirs: Elixir of Cruelty, Iron Skin Elixir, 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.
What can I do to improve survivability?
How does this build compare to Twisting Blades with Death Trap?
How do Swords and Daggers compare?
Why Rubies instead of Topazes in Armor sockets?
How can I trigger Unstoppable?
Mechanics
Dark Shroud Scaling
Twisting Blades
Twisting Blades + Poison Imbuement Bugs
Penitent Greaves
X'Fal's Corroded Signet
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. 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.
- Invest into Energy recovery as much as possible early on so you can spam Twisting Blades.
- Attack a few times, then start dancing around enemies to hit them with returning blades.
- Use Evade, Dash and Shadow Step to reposition constantly in combat and hit more targets.
- Activate your Imbuements when necessary to increase your AoE (Shadow Imbuement) or single target damage (Poison Imbuement).
Hungry for more Guides?
Rogue Guides
General Guides
Credits
Written by wudijo
Reviewed by DiEoxidE
Shoutout to Avarilyn for in-depth testing and insights on damage mechanics
