Welcome to our Rogue Class Specialization Guide for Diablo 4. In this guide we’ll take you through everything you need to know about the Rogue’s unique mechanic – Specialization. We’ll be covering each of the Specializations, their best use cases and how to unlock the Rogue’s Specialization mechanic.
How to unlock the Rogue’s Class Specialization
Starting out in Diablo 4, your Rogue does not have access to Specializations and requires two objectives completed to be unlocked:
- Reach Level 15.
- Complete a Rogue-specific questline that unlocks at Level 15 – viewable on the map.
The Specialization questline takes you on an adventure with Leyrana to find the location of a missing Rogue and also her two rookies. Throughout the questline you have several tasks to complete:
- Find signs of Bakira, the missing member.
- Follow the trail, leading you to the Forsaken Quarry Dungeon.
- Progress through the Dungeon to find Bakira and also the artifact she collected.
- Defeat Bakira’s Soul.
Once the Rogue: True Potential questline is complete, Specializations immediately unlock for you. However, each Specialization has a different level requirement to equip it:
- Combo Points (also unlocks on quest completion)
- Inner Sight (unlocks at Level 20)
- Preparation (unlocks at Level 30)
Combo Points
During the early game of Diablo 4, a large portion of combat is through the use of Basic Skills when attacking. However, this is a great thing for Combo Points – which requires you to land Basic Skills to build the points up! Combo Points allow for you to not only deal increased damage, but at no additional cost either! The general gameplay loop for Combo Points is to hit at least 3 Basic Skills in a row, generating maximum Combo Points and spending them on a Core Skill to enhance and nuke. Each Core Skill interacts with Combo Points differently:
- Twisting Blade – Increased damage and grants a Movement Speed bonus.
- Barrage – Increased damage and total arrows fired.
- Penetrating Shot – Increased damage and increased Lucky Hit Chance.
- Flurry – Increased damage and also grants an Attack Speed bonus for 3 seconds.
- Rapid Fire – Increased damage and total arrows fired.
You can get the most value out of Combo Points when your build has a focus on burst, for example a Penetrating Shot build.
Inner Sight
Inner Sight is another powerful tool at the Rogues’ disposal. This Specialization helps with resource management and provides a strong damage window. Each time you approach a mob, a purple icon appears above a mob and marks a mob at random. Every 10 seconds, the mark also re-applies onto a different nearby enemy. Hitting the marked enemies fills your Inner Sight meter underneath your Energy. The more damage you deal to your marked enemy, the quicker the meter also fills up.
Once the meter reaches 100%, Inner Sight procs, giving you a full 4 second window of infinite Energy. As a result of this, your damage potential is also infinite! After the Inner Sight proc wears off your Energy meter is left at 100% – even if you were 1% before the Inner Sight proc! On average you expect to proc Inner Sight every 15 seconds depending on build and the type of fight you’re engaged in. You can get the most out of Inner Sight with good target focus or great AoE cleave.
Preparation
Preparation is your Ultimate Skill focused Specialization. Using regular Skills and spending Energy reduces your Ultimate Skill’s Cooldown, while using an Ultimate Skill fully resets the Cooldowns of your regular Skills. As a result this provides a smooth gameplay loop for builds centered around an Ultimate, such as a Death Trap Twisting Blades build. Preparation is definitely more of an end-game focused Specialization, providing fantastic Energy management through the use of the Aftermath Skill Tree Passive.
Additional Tips
- Make sure to find and use the Unique Dagger “Condemnation” when playing around Combo Points, as it greatly boosts the playstyle with faster Combo Point generation and more damage.
- There is no penalty to switching Specializations, even during combat.
- Experiment with each Specialization to get a real feel for how you want to hone in on your build.
- Remember that Combo Points is for damage amplification. Inner Sight is for Energy management and DPS windows. Then finally, Preparation is for Cooldown Resets, Ultimate Skills and Energy management.
Conclusion
This concludes our guide for the Rogue Class Specialization in Diablo 4! For more information on Diablo 4, including Seasonal Content, Class Builds and Guides, be sure to check out our Diablo 4 home page!