Twisting Blades Rogue Leveling Guide

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

Alternate Boss Powers

• Harbinger of Hatred's Volley - Once you get access to Torment.

At level 15, we unlock the Rogue's Specialization class mechanic. Finish this Priority Quest as soon as possible to get Combo Points. Using a Basic Skill up to 3 times to boost the damage of your next Core Skill and buff you with more Movement Speed, allowing for much better Energy economy.

Introducing Imbuements

This is the part where the full build comes online. Imbuements are Skills that can buff your imbueable Skills with extra effects.

• Shadow Imbuement is an AoE tool, best used when there are many enemies nearby. It also refills Energy via Consuming Shadows.
• Poison Imbuement is great to melt single targets like elites and bosses.
• Note that both Imbuements cannot be used simultaneously.

At this point you should have some Veiled Crystals from salvaging Rare items that allows you to imprint an item at the Occultist. Complete Jalal's Vigil to unlock Bladedancer's Aspect and put it on your Amulet (because it's 50% stronger and Amulets are replaced very infrequently).

The Key Passive

Momentum is our Key Passive of choice for the Twisting Blades Rogue build. It can easily be activated by naturally using Blade Shift + Twisting Blades, providing a substantial damage, movement and defensive bonuses.

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.

Rogue Specializations

Unlocking Specializations

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 (Inner Sight at 20, Preparation at 30) and can be freely assigned at any time.

To get started as a Twisting Blades Rogue, always use your highest DPS Melee Weapon available for more damage. Your Ranged Weapon is simply a stat stick to fuel your power, so its DPS is secondary. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you acquire 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.

Tempering Tip:

For the early game, Elemental Surge Weapon Tempers are very powerful due to their high base damage, especially if you are twinking. If you find these, you may want to keep imprinting them on your weapons for an easy time.

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 us if we 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

• Bladedancer's (Jalal's Vigil - Scosglen)
• Energizing (Sanguine Chapel - Fractured Peaks)

Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Expectant (Underroot - Scosglen)
2. Enshrouding (Ghoa Ruins - Hawezar)
3. Volatile Shadows (Ancient's Lament - Dry Steppes)
4. Protector (Lost Archives - Fractured Peaks)
5. Wind Striker (Shivta Ruins - Kehjistan)
6. Arrow Storms (Howling Warren - Scosglen)
7. Vengeful (Inferno - Kehjistan)
8. Retribution (Abandoned Mineworks - Khejistan)

Great Uniques for this build

1. Cowl of the Nameless
2. Penitent Greaves

Jackpot Drops

As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can increase your power temporarily or if you are interested in trying another build archetype. 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 we 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 the Endgame Dance of Knives Rogue)
• High Velocity (enables the Endgame Barrage Rogue)
• Encircling Blades (enables the Endgame Flurry Rogue)

Build-defining Uniques

1. Saboteur's Signet (enables the Endgame Grenade Rogue)
2. Eyes in the Dark (enables the Endgame Death Trap Rogue)
3. Scoundrel's Kiss (enables the Endgame Rapid Fire Rogue)
4. Skyhunter (enhances the Endgame Rapid Fire Rogue)
5. Shard of Verathiel (enables Endgame Heartseeker Rogue)

You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Twisting Blades Rogue focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

• Cir + Mot - To generate Dark Shroud stacks.
• Poc + Thul - Mystical Frost Nova is very strong, it freezes, amplifies damage and applies vulnerable. The activation is very consistent as you spend a lot of energy.

Alternative Choices

If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:

• Wat - Decrepify helps with stagger, defense and allows an execute at 10% HP, can be combined with Xol in your other Runeword to generate large amounts of offering.
• Mot - You can use this before you have access to Umbrous in addition to taking Dark Shroud on your skill bar.
• Yax - Great way to generate offering that synergizes with Unstable Elixirs.
• Gar - To reach 100% Critical Strike Chance more reliably.
• Lum - Helps restore Energy in the early game when you may be resource starved.
• Qua - A massive Movement Speed boost while leveling.
• Neo - A good way to generate offering if you can avoid being damaged.

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.

Into the Endgame

This step marks the end of the 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

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.

Glyph Leveling Priorities

• The Twisting Blades Rogue is a super fast, fun to play leveling build.
• Attack enemies, then utilize your mobility through Evade, Dash or Shadow Step to hit more enemies with returning blades.
• Use Shadow Imbuement against groups and Poison Imbuement versus tough single targets.
• Focus on improving your Melee Weapons more than any other items.
• Look out for helpful Legendary Powers in the Codex of Power, especially Bladedancer and those that generate Energy and buff your damage/damage reduction.

Written by Avarilyn