Every class in Diablo 4 has a powerful unique mechanic that contributes to its identity and the build-making process. For the Rogue, it's simply called Specialization, allowing you to choose one out of three passive bonuses that influence your playstyle. Your Specialization can be swapped at any time, even mid-combat. This system unlocks at level 15 after doing a special Rogue-only questline.
Combo Points
Combo Points are a mighty tool to enhance any Core Skill. Especially in the slow-paced early game without many tools to recover Energy effectively, Basic Skills make up a large portion of your attacks anyway. By using both types of skills in conjunction you can build up to 3 Combo Points to unleash a more powerful Core Skill with no extra cost. It also allows extra synergies for big nukes, for example by stacking 3 Combo Points before entering Concealment and attacking with a guaranteed Critical Strike.
The Combo Point effects for each of the skills are:
Barrage: Combo Points increase damage and raise arrows fired to 6/7/8.
Rapid Fire: Combo Points increase damage and raise arrows fired to 6/7/8.
Penetrating Shot: Combo Points increase damage and increase Lucky Hit chance by 10%/20%/30%.
Flurry: Combo Points increase damage and grant an 15%/30%/45% Attack Speed bonus for 3 seconds.
Twisting Blades: Combo Points increase damage and grant a 20%/40%/60% Movement Speed bonus for 3 seconds.
Inner Sight
Unlocks at level 20.
Inner Sight helps you to keep Energy high. As you approach a group of enemies, one of them will be marked with a purple eye-icon above them at random. If the marked enemy survives for more than 10 seconds, the mark switches to another random nearby enemy. Hitting marked enemies fills up the Inner Sight gauge found next to your Energy bar. Larger hits fill it up faster, meaning that a strong character benefits a lot more from this specialization. Likewise, this effect is rather weak in high-end content against very tanky enemies as the gauge barely fills up.
The permanent full Energy bar is actually fake and simply an animated overlay on top of your Energy globe. Behind the scenes your Energy simply fills up once at the start of the effect and all your resource costs are set to 0 for the duration, but effects like Beastfall Boots or Melted Heart of Selig can still drain your Energy and leave you with nothing after it ends.
Preparation
Unlocks at level 30.
Preparation allows you to reset the cooldown of your Ultimate Skill by spending Energy . In addition, using your Ultimate Skill resets all other skills. This is a powerful tool for lategame builds that have a lot of Energy generation or run Death Trap + Exposure. With high Attack Speed it's possible to use all of your skills much more often.
Unlocking the Class Specialization
Once you reach level 15, you automatically start the Priority Quest "True Potential". This short questline is required to unlock the Specialization feature.
Quest Spoilers
Video
This video covers the Rogue overall including the specialization:
Summary
- The Rogue's class Specialization unlocks at level 15 with the "True Potential" questline beginning in Menestad, Fractured Peaks.
- After finishing the questline, the other two options unlock automatically upon reaching levels 20 and 30 respectively.
- The three available options are:
- Combo Points (amplify your Core Skills)
- Inner Sight (attack marked enemies for unlimited Energy procs)
- Preparation (reset your Ultimate Skill by spending Energy)
- The Specialization can be swapped at any time, even mid-combat.
Check out our Rogue Class Overview to learn all the details about Skills, Items, Legendaries and more.
Credits
Written by wudijo
Reviewed by Raxxantearx