One of the most mobile and fast-paced – along with being massively proficient in offense – in Diablo 4 is the Death Trap Rogue build. This is a complex build that relies on many separate skills to make a certain playstyle.
With the wide amount of skills used, the build becomes quite complex to play and hence requires a lot of practice. This is given because the Rogue Class usually relies upon a solid strategy to win a fight because it has mediocre offensive and defensive potential based on pure stats.
However, if you do manage to master the builds’ playstyle, you will find yourself annihilating hordes of enemies within seconds.
The Death Trap Rogue build mainly relies on the Twisting Blades Skill to deal damage to enemies, but also has a lot of crowd control potential, especially with the help of the Poison Trap and the Death Trap Skills.
The build focuses its main strategy to optimize the overall efficiency of the last two skills, which, if used correctly together, can eliminate all enemies close to you in seconds.
With the set of skills we chose for this build, you may find it resembling a lot of the Poison Trap Rogue build or the Twisting Blades Rogue build, but there’s a small difference. Let us show you why.
- Skill Tree Distribution
- Specialization
- Gameplay and Skill Rotations
- Gems, Stats, and Modifiers
- Legendary Aspects
- Unique Items
- Paragon Boards and Glyphs
- Elixir and Incense
Skill Tree Distribution
The Rogue Skill Tree has a plethora of Skills you can choose from to create a unique build. For the Death Trap Rogue build, we will have to invest our Skill Points in a few specific skills that revolve around our main play style.
We will also be investing some Skill Points in improving our already selected skills to make them even more powerful. Note that since this is an endgame build, we assume that you have already reached level 50 and obtained a few extra Skill Points from Renown.
The Death Trap Skill is a given obvious choice, but there are a lot more skills that serve as the foundation of this build. Some of the other important skills that we must focus on include:
- Poison Trap (Subterfuge)
- Dash (Agility)
- Shadow Step (Agility)
- Puncture (Basic)
- Twisting Blade (Core)
- Exposure (Key Passive)
Unlock Order
Speaking of the general Skills required for this build, we must also remember the unlock order of our given set. This will help you in distributing your Skill Points in the most optimal way for this build.
That said, make sure to have a look at the list below before you set out to invest Skill Points on your own.
| Unlock Order | Skills (Rank) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Puncture (1/5) |
| 2 | Enhanced Puncture |
| 3 | Fundamental Puncture |
| 4 | Twisting Blades (5/5) |
| 5 | Enhanced Twisting Blades |
| 6 | Advanced Twisting Blades |
| 7 | Sturdy (1/3) |
| 8 | Siphoning Strike (1/3) |
| 9 | Shadow Step (1/5) |
| 10 | Enhanced Shadow Step |
| 11 | Methodical Shadow Step |
| 12 | Dash (1/5) |
| 13 | Concussive (3/3) |
| 14 | Trick Attacks (1/3) |
| 15 | Rapid Gambits (1/3) |
| 16 | Poison Trap (1/5) |
| 17 | Enhanced Poison Trap |
| 18 | Exploit (3/3) |
| 19 | Deadly Venom (1/3) |
| 20 | Debilitating Toxins (3/3) |
| 21 | Alchemical Advantage (1/3) |
| 22 | Death Trap |
| 23 | Prime Death Trap |
| 24 | Supreme Death Trap |
| 25 | Innervation (3/3) |
| 26 | Trap Mastery (3/3) |
| 27 | Aftermath (3/3) |
| 28 | Adrenaline Rush (1/3) |
| 29 | Haste (3/3) |
| 30 | Exposure |
This will be your main order of Skill Point investment if you are below level 50. Once you reach level 50, you will be able to obtain 10 more Skill Points to invest.
After you have obtained the extra Skill Points, you’d want to unlock the following skills in order:
- Stutter Step (Core)
- Weapon Mastery (Agility)
- Malice (Subterfuge)
Specialization
Choosing a suitable Class Mechanic is one of the most important things that go into a build. For the Death Trap Rogue Build, we will be using the Inner Sight Specialization.
The Inner Sight Specialization allows the Rogue to obtain an infinite amount of Energy for a short period of time – every time the Inner Sight gauge is filled up.
You can fill up this gauge by constantly attacking Marked enemies (purple mark). Though the unlimited Energy may be for a short period, it is very useful for this build because of the selection of the Twisting Blades Skill.
The Twisting Blades is one of the build’s main damage-dealing skills. Since we will be using this Skill very often, it will become very difficult to manage our Resource Economy.
Hence why, the Inner Sight Specialization becomes a paramount factor in this build. It will allow us to spam our Twisting Blades Skill every time the gauge is full, thereby increasing our overall damage output.
However, there is a certain element that needs a bit of thought here. You may either have the option to attack the Marked enemies or multiple enemies with the Twisting Blade skill – or both.
It is up to you to make the right choice in this situation. If your Energy is running on fumes, then you may want to consider targeting the Marked enemies – if not, then doing both would be the best option.
Gameplay and Skill Rotations
The Death Trap Rogue build is a very fast-paced and complex build owing to its vast amount of Skills in Diablo 4. What matters most is using the Skill in the right order, otherwise, the build would be of no use.
Although the main point of the build is the Death Trap, we won’t necessarily always be using it. We will first be starting off with other skills as part of the strategy to set up the enemies for the final showdown.
General Offense
The Twisting Blades is our main skill as mentioned before. We will be using it constantly on singular enemies, but it will also attack more enemies along the way when the knives return to you.
Therefore, to get the most out of it, try to get as many enemies in line as you can from the initial target that you used the skill on. We will be using the Inner Sight Specialization to gain more Energy and spam the skill even more.
If, in case, you ever run out of Energy, then it’s time to turn over to the Puncture Skill. This skill will be very useful in slowing down enemies and making them Vulnerable.
Mobility
The Shadow Step and the Dash serve as the main mobility skills in this build. Instead of focusing on increasing our hitpoints, adding mobility will not only be able to help out on defense but also on offense.
This is why it is necessary to try and evade as many attacks as you can. The Shadow Step ability can be used to teleport from place to place, but it can also be used on offense to engage with hordes of enemies.
The Dash Skill serves the same role, but it would be preferable to save this skill to evade enemies once you use the Shadow Step Skill to engage them. This skill can also be replaced with the Dark Shroud Skill if you want to reduce the incoming damage rather than avoid it.
Crowd Control
An important Aspect of offense in D4 is Crowd Control. The first crowd control skill we will use in this build is the Poison Trap Skill. With the set of upgrades we selected in the unlock order, we will be able to apply a couple of extra buffs and debuffs.
These will be important not only to reduce the incoming damage but also to increase our overall offense by using Knockdown and increasing Attack Speed.
It would be preferable to follow up with this skill after using the Shadow Step skill to engage mobs. Furthermore, you will also be able to make enemies Vulnerable via this skill with the help of the Blast Trapper’s Aspect (Discussed later)
Finally, we will move on to the Death Trap Ultimate Skill. Although all it does on its own is draw a few enemies close to you and damage them, but use it with the two skills mentioned previously and you will annihilate every single enemy within the area.
Gems, Stats, and Modifiers
Each of your gear pieces in Diablo 4 comes with a few selected Status Effects and Modifiers. With such a huge number of them available, it becomes challenging to choose the best ones for a build.
For the Death Trap Rogue build in Diablo 4 though, debating which choice to make is pretty much self-explanatory because you only have a few things to focus on. These include:
- Critical Strike Chance
- Critical Strike Damage
- Core Skill Damage
- Vulnerable Damage
The higher the aforementioned stats you have, the more of an advantage you will have with this build.
Choosing the right character stats is also very important as it serves as the base of what your character might be capable of. For this build, we will be focusing the majority of our points in Dexterity, because that is what will help us most.
After Dexterity, you can turn your attention to Intelligence, followed by Strength. Willpower isn’t really necessary for this build so you can ignore that if you wish.
Lastly, suitable Gems can be a great addition to your build because of their unique bonuses. Each Gem gives a different bonus depending on what slot it is inserted in, which is why it becomes necessary to choose the correct one.
The Gems that we will be selecting in this build, along with their respective slots, are as follows:
- Jewelry: Royal Skull
- Armor: Royal Topaz
- Weapons: Royal Emerald
Since you have a great chance to inflict enemies with Vulnerable, the Royal Emerald would be the best choice because it increases your Critical Strike Damage on said Vulnerable enemies.
The Royal Topaz Gem and the Royal Skull are very helpful in increasing your overall defense by decreasing the damage taken and increasing Armor respectively.
Legendary Aspects
Legendary Aspects are one of the most important factors to consider when creating a build in D4. These offer a variety of unique bonuses that range from defense to offense to utility, etc.
The best Legendary Aspects to choose for the Death Trap Rogue build in Diablo 4 are as follows:
- Aspect of Synergy: Lowers the Cooldown of the subsequent Subterfuge Skill after using an Agility Skill – and vice versa increasing damage.
- Bladedancer’s Aspect: Makes the Twisting Blades revolve as they get back to you, dealing a percentage of the initial damage along the way.
- Accelerating Aspect: Increases your Attack Speed every time you land a Critical Strike with a Core Skill
- Aspect of the Protector: Increases your defense by absorbing damage every time you land a hit on an Elite enemy
- Edgemaster’s Aspect: Increases your skills’ damage output depending on the amount of Primary Resources you have in store.
- Aspect of Might: Reduces your damage taken after casting a Basic Skill.
- Mangler’s Aspect: Grants you a chance to Daze an enemy after striking it damaging it while it’s Vulnerable
- Ghostwalker Aspect: Grants you a bonus in Movement Speed after a short while in the Unstoppable state.
- Blast Trapper’s Aspect: Grants you a chance to make enemies Vulnerable after hitting them directly while they are in your Trap.
- Aspect of the Umbral: Allows you to regenerate your Primary Resource after killing a Crowd Controlled enemy.
Unique Items
While Unique Items may not be of great importance within a build, they do offer a worthwhile bonus that can be helpful in certain situations. The best Unique Items for the Death Trap Rogue build in Diablo 4 would be the Penitent Greeves, the Harlequin Crest, and the Doombringer Sword.
The Penitent Greeves and the Harlequin Crest are the defensive Unique Items that grant you an insane amount of Armor, among other things.
The former item allows you to leave behind a trail that Chills enemies if they come into contact with it.
The latter item not only decreases your overall damage taken, but also grants a few Ranks to your Skills.
The Doombringer is an amazing Sword that has an insane amount of DPS stat. Moreover, it also grants users a Lucky Hit, granting them a chance to massive amounts of Shadow Damage to nearby enemies while also granting some Damage Reduction.
Paragon Boards and Glyphs
Paragon Boards are a unique factor that grants a build some great bonuses depending on the Glyphs and Nodes that the players choose. It is important to note that you must spend Paragon Points in a way that you obtain the shortest route to the Glyphs and Rare Nodes of your choice.
For the Death Trap Rogue build in Diablo 4, we will first focus on the Starting board and grab the Skillful, Lawless, and Closer Rare Nodes/Glyphs respectively.
Then, rotate the board towards the Deadly Ambush board gate. Here, grab all the Rare, Legendary, and Magic nodes/Glyphs in the following order:
- Trapper
- Deadly Ambush
- Engineering
- Cunning
- Magic Nodes
- Diminish
- Spring-loaded
Next up is the Cheap Shot board gate, where you must select the following nodes/glyphs in order:
- Devious
- Wiles
- Magic
- Combat
- Safeguard
- Magic
- Cheap Shot
- Oppress
- Spearhead
From here, you must turn the board towards the Tricks of the Trade Board, such that the Brawler Rare Node is nearest to the Turf Board Attachment Gate.
After unlocking the Brawler Rare Node, move on to the Magic Nodes, and then unlock the Turf, Focused, Lawless, and Havoc Nodes/Glyphs.
Once that’s done, rotate the board until it aligns with the No Witnesses/Exploit Board Attachment Gate such that the Knowledge Rare Node is closest to it and grab that.
Next, grab the Training Node and the Exploit Glyph before finally finishing up by grabbing the Resilience Rare Node at the Starter Board.
Elixir and Incense
Although Elixirs and Incense would have the least significance in a build, it still helps to know which ones to carry with you just in case you need them.
There are a few examples that would work best with the Death Trap Rogue build, which are as follows:
Elixirs:
- Elixir of Fortitude
- Heady Precision Elixir
- Heady Assault Elixir
Incenses:
- Reddamine Buzz
- Song of the Mountain
- Chorus of War
