Diablo 4 Season 1 introduces a new questline to hunt Malignant Monsters across Sanctuary. Defeating them drops Caged Hearts that are placed in Jewelry infested sockets to gain build-altering powers. Check out the full Season 1 The Malignant guide from Chewingnom to learn more!

With this in mind, let's look at the top 3 best Caged Hearts (and alternatives) for this build:

If you acquire Caged Heart of The Barber, you have the option to pick up 1-2 points Consuming Shadows for extra Energy recovery because the Heart's explosions are considered Shadow damage. In general, you are looking for:

Caged Heart of The Barber absorbs all outgoing damage but immediately triggers as soon as the target has absorbed enough to be defeated. The main advantage of a short timer is that if you don't deal enough damage to a single target, the explosion triggers sooner and can chain react from multiple targets to blow up an entire pack whereas a longer timer helps in prolonged combat due to the stacking damage buff.

If you don't like the delayed damage playstyle around Caged Heart of The Barber, you can run with Caged Heart of the Vile Apothecary which is a great alternative in all situations.

At this point you unlock one of the Rogue's signature skills: Dash. This Agility Skill has two charges and allows you to quickly engage, escape or reposition yourself. While we're at it, we also pick up Shadow Step which is another mobility tool that's best used to engage or quickly teleport to another target, allowing you to hit more enemies with Twisting Blades. It also allows teleportation across cliffs which is very helpful in outdoor zones.

At level 13, we unlock Subterfuge Skills, where we pick up Dark Shroud. This is another important skill used in most Rogue builds due to the massive amount of protection it provides. In addition, we use it to boost our Movement Speed with Subverting Dark Shroud.

At level 15, we unlock the Rogue's Specialization class mechanic. Finish this Priority Quest as soon as possible to get Combo Points. While we don't care much about this effect, Puncture is still used regularly to boost our damage and Movement Speed from time to time.

This is the part where almost the full build comes online. Poison Trap is an incredible tool to disable monster packs, allowing you to safely do your twisted business. Jumping into the fray with Shadow Step allows you to hit most targets with ease.

At level 20, you unlock the Inner Sight Specialization, which plays a crucial role in solving our Energy troubles. Switch to this Specialization and pay attention to the purple eye icon above enemies. Those are the priority targets you need to hit to trigger a full resource refill. Pairing this with Innervation, you should now be able to use Twisting Blades almost constantly without having to rely on Puncture as much.

Momentum is our Ultimate Passive of choice for the build. Twisting Blades is a melee skill and can proc the effect with the returning blades portion of the skill, making it very easy for us to get 3 stacks as we're running away from a dying pack. Aside from small fights, keeping the effect up shouldn't require much attention. Whenever you use Shadow Step you also get one stack guaranteed to keep it rolling. On bosses and big elites, run or Evade behind them from time to time to keep it up.

At this point, the core setup is complete. All of our remaining points go into boosting our damage, defenses, speed or already allocated skills. This makes transitioning into the endgame very smooth with this build.

Gathering all Renown in Diablo 4 yields you 10 extra Skill Points to spend on every character. Your first priority is to spend them toward the leveling progression we've shown above. Once you've reached the end, put them into these nodes to build toward the Twisting Blades Endgame Build Guide:

The Rogue's Class Specialization allows you to choose one out of three powerful passive effects to boost your build. The three available choices are:

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 have to 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.

Each Specialization is very powerful, so you need to build and play around them. The one we're after in this build is Inner Sight which helps us out with our struggle for more Energy recovery. Until you unlock it at level 20, simply use Combo Points instead. Once you use Inner Sight, purple eye icon appears next to your resource globe and a similar icon appearing above nearby monsters. Hitting marked targets fills the gauge, and once full you are granted a full Energy refill and unlimited Twisting Blades spamming for 4 seconds. Depending on how low you are on resources, you need to pay more or less attention to this effect.

Leveling up in Diablo 4 is similar to most other ARPGs and MMOs - we're at the mercy of what drops. For the most part this means replacing Rares with better Rares all the way up to 50. If you're lucky enough to find some Legendaries, you can get a significant power boost and you probably want to equip it. Assuming you don't find any of those, let's look at some key stats to look for along the way:

Hint: Press SHIFT over an item to compare it to what you're wearing!

Always use your highest DPS Melee Weapon available for more damage. Your Ranged Weapon is simply a stat stick to fuel their power, so its DPS is secondary. The stats to look for on these are:

Focus on upgrading your Melee Weapons at the Blacksmith while leveling to save materials for other items later.

If you're lucky enough to have some sockets on your items, fill them with the following:

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. For leveling there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them:

Top 3 Codex Leveling Powers in Order:

Bonus: If you have finished the campaign or skip it when leveling an alt: Get Blast-Trapper's Offensive Aspect from Kor Valar Ramparts in Fractured Peaks as soon as possible.

Warning: DO NOT imprint your Weapons as they will be constantly replaced while leveling. Put Offensive Aspects on your Amulet, Rings, Gloves or Ranged Weapon instead.

If you're lucky enough to find a Legendary while leveling, chances are it'll be an upgrade for you and you should equip it immediately. However they are not all created equal, and some of them can accelerate your journey tremendously. Let's look at the top 5 powers you could find and how to take advantage of them:

Before we end this leveling guide, let's look at some general tips and tricks to remember for all classes and specs!

Compare your Items... Literally. Press Shift over an item in your inventory to compare it to what you're wearing. This makes it easy to determine what is and isn't an upgrade.

Renown is your Friend. While exploring the different zones, take time to gather Renown along the way. It has long-term benefits for your entire account, including more Skill/Paragon points and Potion charges. Renown is gained by activating Waypoints, finding Altars of Lilith, completing Side Quests/Dungeons and rescuing Strongholds.

Be Careful with Gold. A lot of endgame processes, like extracting and imprinting Legendary Aspects, are extremely expensive for a brand-new character. Don't spend all of your Gold along the way!

Don't Imprint Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly. This makes imprinting a Legendary Aspect on it a waste of resources. Instead, put your best offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.

Written by wudijo
Reviewed by DiEoxidE, Xtra37