Diablo 4 Season 9’s Best Rogue Build is Not Exactly What It Says on the Box

Although Diablo 4 Season 9’s meta seems to be dominated by Spiritborn, Sorcerer, and Necromancer builds, the Rogue has a sneaky setup that can still carry most players through the endgame content. While building a competent Rogue for Diablo 4 Season 9 may take a bit of setting up, it can end up being a great option for players looking for a fairly straightforward playstyle. However, the best option for a Rogue build during the Sins of the Horadrim season doesn’t utilize its Core skill in the way most players would expect.

Despite Diablo 4‘s Rogue maintaining a fairly consistent place among the game’s class meta, one of its Core skills has skyrocketed in popularity in recent seasons. Penetrating Shot has never been one of the Rogue’s better Core Skills—usually falling behind skills like Rapid Fire and Twisting Blades—but due to the Season 9 nerfs to Diablo 4‘s Overpower damage, the Rogue’s best builds of the past have slid down the meta, creating room for Penetrating Shot to thrive. Although Penetrating Shot is the focal point of this build, it relies less on the skill itself and far more on how it synergizes with the Azurewrath unique sword.

diablo-4-season-9-vessel-of-hatred-rogue

Diablo 4 Season 9 Players Can Get a Taste of Vessel of Hatred Even Without the DLC, But There’s an Asterisk Attached

Diablo 4 Season 9 comes with the bonus of letting players try out one Vessel of Hatred mechanic for a limited time, even if it’s not exactly the same.

Diablo 4 Season 9’s Penetrating Shot Rogue Makes Little Use of Penetrating Shot

Penetrating Shot Rogue is a Straighforward Diablo 4 Build in All But Name

Surprisingly, the goal of the Penetrating Shot Rogue Build in Diablo 4 Season 9 is to deal massive AoE damage to enemies by grouping them together and triggering pockets of Cold damage. While this may go against the conventional wisdom of Penetrating Shot, which typically is used for taking out enemies in a straight line, it’s the moving parts this build surrounds Penetrating Shot with that allow the skill to serve a much different function.

Dash
Caltrops
Smoke Grenade
Shadow Clone
Penetrating Shot
Shadow Imbuement

With Penetrating Shot being the primary damaging skill of this build, the rest of the Rogue’s skills are used to help support its agile playstyle. Dash works well for getting players out of dangerous situations, and Smoke Grenade can similarly help by Crowd Controlling Diablo 4‘s enemies. Caltrops is a great coverage option when using its Methodical upgrade since it will synergize with the Cold damage that the rest of this build aims to deal. Shadow Clone is the Ultimate skill of choice since it provides a weaker copy of the Rogue to stack damage with, and Shadow Imbuement serves as an additional source of AoE damage.

The Azurewrath Unique Sword Does Most of the Heavy Lifting

While Penetrating Shot may be the name on the box, it’s the Azurewrath unique sword that is the cornerstone of this build. The Azurewrath comes with the Lucky Hit chance to deal a substantial amount of Cold damage that can be spread over a wide area, thanks to the Trickshot legendary aspect that increases the reach of Penetrating Shot by splitting two arrows off in different directions when the first hits an enemy. What makes this build so powerful is the high Lucky Hit chance that Penetrating Shot has—the highest among all Rogue Core skills at a base of 50%. This makes Penetrating Shot the perfect trigger to consistently activate the Azurewrath’s Lucky Hit affix and cover hordes of enemies in Cold damage.

Other Uniques and Mythics that can improve this build include:

Heir of Perdition (Mythic Helm)
Shroud of False Death (Mythic Chest Armor)
Ring of Starless Skies (Mythic Ring)
Fists of Fate (Unique Gloves)
Penitent Greaves (Unique Boots)
Eaglehorn (Unique Bow)

Penetrating Shot Rogues Also Benefit from Horadric Spells in Season 9

This Penetrating Shot Rogue build becomes even more powerful in Season 9 because it can take advantage of one Horadric Spell set up to further boost its Lucky Hit chance. The Frigid Heart Arcana has a unique effect when paired with the Astral Pillar Catalyst that increases the Rogue’s Lucky Hit chance by 5% for 10 seconds for each enemy that it Freezes. When working in conjunction with Penetrating Shot, Astral Pillar and the Azurewrath’s affixes can quickly dispatch groups of enemies better than Penetrating Shot builds have historically been able to.