Rogues in Diablo 4 are masters of stealth and fast attacks, occasionally utilizing traps and damage over time effects to deal with enemies. They can use a variety of dark arts including cold, poison and shadow magics. One such playstyle for the Rogue includes using poison traps to infect enemies in Diablo 4 and then run circles around them as the poison eats away at their health.
The Rogue class in Diablo 4 is quick but frail. They can cover a lot of distance immediately but even the weakest of enemies can become a hurdle in their progress. Rogues are talented archers and dagger bearers, who use Energy as their prime resource to cast all skills. Rogues are inherently resource hogs, making the use of skills a chore over time. This class is amazing in solo play and creating specific skill-based builds from Rogue class is extremely easy as compared to the rest.
For the exact same reason, we have decided to create one of the best Rogue builds in Diablo 4 with status effects in the form of Poison Traps. As always, we encourage players to take liberties with these specific builds and create something of their own. However, this build is extensively tried and tested against high-level bosses and elites. If you want the best Poison Trap build for a Rogue in Diablo 4, we implore you to stay true to every word in this guide.
Jump To:
- Skills and unlock order
- Rogue Specialization
- Playstyle and skill rotation
- Gear, Gems and Stats priority
- Paragon Board
- Unique Items
- Legendary Aspects
- Elixir choices
Poison Trap Rogue skill progression and unlock order
This whole build is based on two main skills, Poison Trap and Rapid Fire. The main purpose of the Poison Trap Rogue build in D4 is to trap as many enemies as possible inside stacked traps to kill them with poison damage. The poison damage is increased with the help of passives and gear items.
Any enemy that manages to survive this amount of poison should easily be taken down with Rapid Fire skill. Here is a basic list of skills we will be using for our Diablo 4 Poison Trap Rogue build.
- Puncture (basic)
- Rapid Fire (core)
- Dash (agility)
- Poison Trap (subterfuge)
- Concealment (subterfuge)
- Death Trap (ultimate)
- Exposure (key passive)
The next step is the allocation of skill points in a specific order. This order is extremely important if you are aiming for Poison Trap build from the very beginning of the game. However, once reaching the end-game, these points can be allocated as you wish.
Diablo 4 allows players to earn a maximum of 58 skill points before replacing them with Paragon points. 48 points can be earned from leveling up (1 per level) and the rest of the 10 points are granted collecting Renown rewards from all five regions.
| Unlock Order | Skill Name |
| 1 | Puncture (Rank 1) |
| 2 | Enhanced Puncture |
| 3 | Fundamental Puncture |
| 4 | Rapid Fire (Rank 5) |
| 5 | Enhanced Rapid Fire |
| 6 | Improved Rapid Fire |
| 7 | Dash (Rank 1) |
| 8 | Enhanced Dash |
| 9 | Disciplined Dash |
| 10 | Poison Trap (Rank 5) |
| 11 | Enhanced Poison Trap |
| 12 | Subverting Poison Trap |
| 13 | Concealment (Rank 1) |
| 14 | Enhanced Stealth |
| 15 | Subverting Stealth |
| 16 | Exploit |
| 17 | Alice |
| 18 | Agile |
| 19 | Deadly Venom |
| 20 | Death Trap |
| 21 | Prime Death Trap |
| 22 | Supreme Death Trap |
| 23 | Innervation (Rank 3) |
| 24 | Second Wind (Rank 3) |
| 25 | Trap Mastery (Rank 3) |
| 26 | Exposure |
| 27 | Debilitating Toxins (Rank 3) |
| 28 | Adrenaline Rush (Rank 1) |
| 29 | Haste (Rank 3) |
| 30 | Stutter Step (Rank 3) |
Following this table precisely, you will be able to spend 50 out of 58 points to unlock and upgrade the required skills. With the remaining 10 skill points, you can either upgrade a few more skills or purchase new ones (passives only) that aid you with your specific build. However, we don’t recommend meddling a lot with an already-established Poison Trap Rogue build.
Poison Trap Rogue build in Diablo 4 has only one function. Trap enemies inside the poison pool while concealed. Rogue triggers the Unstoppable status effect while in stealth and moves through enemies to create some distance from them. This phase also generates energy and striking the enemies makes them vulnerable.
This whole setup of skills is to lure enemies into your traps and then move away without getting detected. Ultimate and key passives in these specific builds help in reducing the cooldown time to place further traps. Enemies that somehow survive this deadly attack, can be singled out and killed with other core skills.
Poison Trap Rogue in D4 is an extremely simple yet functional build. Despite having low DPS as compared to the other builds like Twisting Blades Rogue, the skills in Poison Trap Rogue build work in a unique harmony and create a battle session to remember.
Best Poison Trap Rogue Specialization
The Specialization system is a unique class mechanic in Diablo 4 that is exclusive to the Rogue class. This system allows Rogue to unlock 3 special passive skills at various levels. Each skill has its own unique effects that aid Rogues in one way or another. However, only one Rogue specialization can be equipped at a time for any Rogue build.
For the Poison Trap Rogue in Diablo 4, we will be going with the Preparation specialization that unlocks at level 30.
This Rogue specialization passive reduces the cooldown of Poison and Death Traps by 4 seconds for every 100 energy spent. It also instantly cooldown Poison Trap after activating the Death Trap ultimate so we can use it instantly during the next damage rotation.
Diablo 4 Poison Trap Rogue playstyle and skill rotation
In this section, we will mainly focus on the status effects or damage types we need to generate. The four main aspects to consider for the Poison Trap Rogue build in Diablo 4 are cooldown, increased DPS, survivability and increased movement speed. The last 2 points cover the shortcomings of Rogue builds in general.
Cooldown
The whole purpose of the Poison Trap Rogue build is to efficiently use Poison and Death traps, with minimum to zero wait times between two rotations. Trap skills have much higher cooldown times, making it impossible to achieve our primary goal. This can be offset by using the following skills to reduce the cooldown times.
- Supreme Death Trap: This ultimate skill when paired with paired with Preparation class specialization reduces the cooldown of Death Trap by 14 seconds and poison trap by 4 seconds.
- Exposure: This key passive decreases the cooldown time of both poison and death traps by up to 20% for hitting an enemy directly with trap. This bonus stacks with each enemy.
Increased DPS
The more damage your character can inflict on the enemies, the better. This is the whole philosophy behind every custom build in Diablo 4 and is no different for our Poison Trap Rogue build.
- Exploit: This passive skill increases damage against healthy and injured enemies by up to 6%.
- Malice: This passive skill increases damage against vulnerable enemies by up to 3%.
- Deadly Venom: This passive skill increases damage by poison by up to 3%.
- Trap Mastery: This passive skill increases critical strike chance against vulnerable enemies by 4% by activating the trap skills.
Movement Speed
Arming traps and then quickly move away from the enemies is how a rotation starts for Poison Trap Rogue. Unless the players have sufficient movement speed, this damage rotation is never going to work.
- Stutter Step: This passive skill increases movement speed by 5% for the next few seconds by delivering a critical strike.
- Haste: This passive skill increases movement speed by 5% if the players have more than 50% of their maximum energy. It also increases attack speed if maximum energy is below 50% of the maximum level.
- Dash: This active skill makes the players invincible while moving through the enemies.
Avoiding Damage
Poison Trap Rogue can avoid a lot of damage by using the following skills.
- Agile: This passive skill increases dodging chance by 4% for the next few seconds upon using a cooldown.
- Debilitating Toxins: This passive skill decreases the damage from poisoned enemies by up to 5%.
Poison Trap Rogue Damage Rotation
Now comes the main part of the fun, damage rotation. This section deals with allocating active skills and using them in a particular order. Most of the time, one rotation is enough to kill a group of small enemies. But bosses and elites require you to repeat the skills to efficiently take them down.
Based on our gameplay style and measuring the damage output vs the damage received, here is a list of skills we recommend to rotate for the Poison Trap Rogue build.
- Concealment
- Poison Trap
- Puncture
- Death Trap
- Rapid Fire
Always start a battle against enemies by using Concealment. Get close to the group of enemies without being detected and place 4 Poison Traps on top of each other. This is extremely important. Don’t attempt to place 5th one as it will remove concealment and its bonus from subverting enhancement, which makes enemies vulnerable by breaking concealment yourself with an offensive skill.
Now use the Puncture skill to break concealment. The fundamental enhancement of the Puncture skill allows it to make enemies vulnerable that are hit twice. It stacks with the subverting concealment which also inflicts vulnerable status on enemies. The area now converts into a rapid poisoning zone with vulnerable enemies that take non-stop damage from the traps.
Time for the grand finale. Cast Death Trap ultimate skill. This skill deals 250% damage to each enemy in its range and reduces the cooldown for Poison Trap. Use Rapid Fire in conjunction to take down any unfortunate enemy that manages to leave the area alive.
With all our accompanying passives, the total amount of damage to each enemy increases by a passive amount. Our Poison Trap Rogue build in D4 recovers a lot of energy in the meantime with its active skills. We have worked towards a lot of cooldowns so the next rotation is always ready to use as soon as we are done with the first.
Gear, Gems, and Stats priority
Rogue is the only class in Diablo 4 that benefits from increasing all the primary stats. Diablo 4 offers the same 4 primary stats for all the classes. However, they have different primary effects for each class once upgraded. Secondary effects for each stat remain the same for all the classes.
Below is the order of upgrading stats for the Poison Trap Rogue playstyle in Diablo 4 to get the maximum benefit out of its skills
- Dexterity
- Strength
- Willpower
- Intelligence
The Dexterity stat for the Rogue class increases skill damage by 0.1% and dodge chance by 0.025% for each increment.
Strength stat is directly associated with increasing resource generation by 0.1% and armor by 1 for each increment.
Overpower damage is increased by 0.25% and healing received by 0.1% by increasing the Willpower stat by 1.
Intelligence stat increases chances of critical strikes by 0.02% and resistance to all elemental attacks by 0.05% for each upgrade.
Gems for any class or build in Diablo 4 are more of a personal preference rather than any hard and fast rule. Our favorite gemstones for Poison Trap Rogue build are listed below.
| Type | Gemstone | Effect |
| Weapon | Amethyst | This purple gemstone increases damage per second of all skills. |
| Armor | Ruby | This red gemstone increases maximum life of our Rogue by 30%. |
| Jewelry | Diamond | This unique gemstone increases all sorts of elemental resistances. |
Honestly, the endgame gear is highly dependent on what kind of buffs you are looking for and what suits your playstyles. For the Poison Trap Rogue build, our main focus is to deal a lot of damage, make enemies vulnerable, recover health and energy and cooldown our trap skills instantly.
Here is a list of all Diablo 4 item affixes that we recommend players must use on their gear to make their Poison Trap Rogue impossible to stop.
- Increased DPS
- Increased damage to vulnerable enemies
- Increased damage from critical skills
- Increased damage from core skills
- Increased damage to close enemies
- Increased damage to poisoned enemies
- Increased Dexterity
- Increased attack speed
- Increased movement speed
- Increased maximum health
- Increased maximum energy
- Increased trap skill damage
- Increased Armor
- Reduced time to arm the traps
- Increased damage to elites
- Decreased energy cost for skills
Paragon Boards
Diablo 4 introduces a new mechanic once the players hit level 50 with any character, Paragon Board. This system unlocks a new tab in the character menu from where you can purchase special passive bonuses in the form of nodes and glyphs with Paragon points.
These paragon points can be earned by leveling up like normal. Instead of getting a skill point for each level upgrade, players will now obtain 4 paragon points from level 50 onwards.
Here is a list of our favorite Rogue Paragon nodes and glyphs that you purchase to maximize the efficiency of Poison Trap build
- Chip: This rare glyph increases the physical damage by up to 10% for 15 seconds against close enemies. It also increases physical damage by 2% for every 5 dexterity purchased from the node’s vicinity.
- Deadly Ambush: This legendary allows the players to deal up to 22.5% more critical damage to the trapped enemies.
- Exploit: This rare glyph makes enemies vulnerable after taking damage for 3 seconds. It also increases damage to vulnerable enemies by 4% by purchasing 5 strength from the neighboring nodes.
- Cunning Strategem: This legendary node increases combo points bonuses by 33% for spending 3 combo points every time.
- Combat: This rare glyph restores 12% of energy of the skills that deliver a critical strike. It also increases critical damage of core skills by 4% for purchasing 5 intelligence from neighboring nodes.
- Exploit Weakness: This legendary node increases damage against vulnerable enemies by 1% per second, up to 15% only.
- Ambush: This rare glyph increases damage against trapped enemies by up to 10%. It Also allows players to deal 9% more damage to enemies affected by traps for every 5 strength purchased.
Unique Items
Unique items in Diablo 4 are the most powerful gear items that come with specific unique affixes. These affixes are permanent and they determine which unique item is beneficial for a particular build or not.
We normally don’t recommend unique items with our class-specific builds as they are not only difficult to acquire, but also appear very late in the game making all their benefits negligible. However, with Poison Trap Rogue build in D4, we recommend finding and equipping a few unique items.
Asheara’s Khanjar: This unique dagger increased the attack speed up to 10% for the next 10 seconds. It also increases damage against close enemies and damage from basic skills.
Windforce: This unique bow has a 10% chance to deal double damage to enemies and knock them back. It also raises all stats by 4 and increases damage by core skills and against distant enemies.
Eyes in the Dark: These unique pants rearm the death trap over and over until it damages a non-boss/player enemy. However, this comes at a cost of increased cooldown for Death Trap skill. It also increases damage against elites and enemies affected by death and poison traps.
Legendary Aspects for Poison Trap Rogue
Diablo 4 offers extremely powerful gear affixes in the form of legendary aspects. These aspects store the power of affixes and can be attached to any rare or legendary gear item to grant them the power of those affixes.
Legendary aspects are either drops in the form of codex of power or extractions from legendary gears. To extract a legendary aspect from a gear, players need to visit the local Occultist and pay them to remove the aspect for further use.
Some of our favorite legendary aspects for Rogue are listed below and would be highly useful for a poison trap build
Aspect of Repeating: This legendary aspect allows the arrows from rapid fire to ricochet to another enemy for additional damage (25% chance).
Smiting Aspect: This legendary aspect increases the critical strike chance against injured enemies by up to 20%. It also increases crowd control timing by up to 40% if the players are healthy (more than 80% health).
Infiltrator’s Aspect: This legendary aspect decreases the cooldown of poison traps by up to 8 seconds per trap and activates the traps automatically as soon as you exit concealment.
Aspect of the Expectant: This legendary aspect increases the damage of core skills by up to 30% by casting them after a basic skill.
Edgemaster’s aspect: This legendary aspect allows all the skills to deal 20% more damage if the players have full energy.
Accelerating Aspect: This legendary aspect increases attack speed by up to 25% for a few seconds if the core skills land a critical strike. The bonus effect stacks.
Rapid Aspect: This legendary aspect increases the attack speed of basic skills by up to 30%.
Exploiter’s Aspect: This legendary aspect increases damage against unstoppable enemies by up to 50%. It also increases crowd control timing by up to 20%.
Mangler’s Aspect: This lucky hit has a 45% chance to daze vulnerable enemies by attacking them.
Aspect of the Might: This legendary aspect increases defense by 20% for a few seconds after casting basic skills.
Aspect of Quickening Fog: This legendary aspect drops a grenade after using the Dash skill.
Elixir and Potion Choices
The rogue class is highly prone to damage and quickly loses health against strong enemies. Our Poison Trap Rogue is built around the idea of stealth, traps, energy generation and attacking enemies from a distance. This leaves little room for skills and passives to generate health over time, leaving the character vulnerable.
To counter this problem, we recommend periodically visiting towns to upgrade your healing potions once level requirements are met. They are extremely important for your survival with this particular build.
Elixirs are unique in the sense as they can only be used once and their effects linger for a very long time, providing passive benefits to the players constantly. However, only one elixir’s effects can be activated at a time. Elixirs can be crafted with the help of Alchemists by providing proper materials and gold.
Here are a few of our favorites to accompany Diablo 4 Poison Trap Rogue build.
- Expertise Elixir; This elixir reduces energy cost by 20% for the next 30 minutes.
- Iron Skin Elixir; This elixir increases total armor by a whooping 900 for next 30 minutes.
- Elixir of Fortitude; this elixir increases the maximum life of our character by 30% for the next 30 minutes.
- Strong Vampirism Elixir; This enhanced elixir restores 1.2% of player’s maximum health per second for the next 30 minutes
