Shadow Trapper 2.0 Rogue BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(the Dark Side of Alchemy: Deadly, Toxic, and Chilling Traps, Stunning Grenades & a shadowy Flurry of Blades are merely tools to aid us when disposing of our foes)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is a week away and i’m bringing you another one of my Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Rogue Class called Shadow Trapper 2.0.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively, I’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Shadow Trapper 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Invigorating Strike – Melee attack an enemy, dealing 23% (X -?) damage and increasing Energy Regeneration by 20% (multiplicative) for 3 seconds.
Requires Dual Wielded weapons
Lucky Hit Chance: 50% | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Melee, Cutthroat
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Invigorating Strike – Damaging a Crowd Controlled or Injured enemy with Invigorating Strike increases its Energy Regeneration bonus to 30% (multiplicative).
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Fundamental Invigorating Strike – Hitting an enemy while below 50% Energy makes them Vulnerable for 3 seconds.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

(active) Flurry – Unleash a flurry of stabs and slashes, striking enemies in front of you 4 times and dealing a total of 60% (X – ?) damage to each.
Combo Points increase damage and grant an Attack Speed bonus: 1: 75% damage, +15% Attack Speed ; 2: 90% damage, +30% Attack Speed ; 3: 105% damage, +45% Attack Speed
Requires Dual Wielded weapons | Energy Cost: 25
Lucky Hit Chance: 8% | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Melee, Imbueable, Cutthroat
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Flurry – Each time Flurry damages a Crowd Controlled or Vulnerable enemy, you are Healed for 1% of your Maximum Life, up to 12% Maximum Life per cast.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Improved Flurry – If Flurry hits any Vulnerable enemy it will make all enemies hit by that cast Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive) Sturdy – You gain 4%/8%/12% Close Damage Reduction.
- (upgrade) Siphoning Strikes – did NOT take this
(passive) did not pick any other Core passives to save points

Agility Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Caltrops – Leap backwards and throw Caltrops on the ground, dealing 30% (X – ?) damage and Slowing enemies by 50%. Lasts 6 seconds.
Energy Cost: 21 | Lucky Hit Chance: 25% | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Agility, Trap
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Caltrops – Enemies take 3% (multiplicative) increased damage from you each second they’re in Caltrops.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Methodical Caltrops – Caltrops now deals Cold damage and Chills enemies for 20% per second.
(passive) Weapon Mastery – Gain a bonus when attacking based on weapon type:
Daggers: 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage to Healthy enemies.
Swords: 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) increased damage.
Bows: 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Crossbows: 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage.
(passive) did not pick other Agility passives to save points

Subterfuge Skills (Required Points: 11 ) Not taking an Active Subterfuge skill

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Poison Trap – Place a trap that arms after 1.25 seconds. It activates when an enemy moves moves within range, applying 344% (X) Poisoning damage over 9 seconds to enemies in the area.
Cooldown: 10 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% | Damage: Poison ; Tags: Subterfuge, Trap
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Poison Trap – Poison Trap Knocks Down enemies for 1.5 seconds when it activates.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Countering Poison Trap – Poison Trap has a 20% chance to reset your Imbuement Skill Cooldowns when activated.
(passive) Exploit – You deal 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased damage to Healthy and Injured enemies.
- (upgrade) Malice – You deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies.
(passive – ONLY put 1 point here) Agile – Using a Cooldown increases your Dodge Chance by 3%/6%/9% for 2 seconds.
- (upgrade) Mending Obscurity – did NOT take this
(passive) did not pick other Subterfuge passives to save points

Imbuements Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Shadow Imbuement – Imbue your weapons with festering shadows. Enemies struck by your next 2 Imbueable Skills deal damage and infect enemies for 6 seconds. Infected enemies explode on death, dealing 40% (X) damage to all surrounding enemies. If the infection expires before the enemy dies, it will deal 40% (X) damage to only that enemy.
Cooldown: 9 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 33% | Damage: Shadow ; Tags: Imbuements
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Shadow Imbuement – You have +25% increased Critical Strike Chance against Injured enemies infected by Shadow Imbuement.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Blended Shadow Imbuement – Shadow Imbue’s primary explosion makes enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds.
(passive) Precision Imbuement – Imbued Skills gain +5%/+10%/+15% increased Critical Strike Chance.
(passive – ONLY put 1 point here) Shadow Crash – Lucky Hit: Shadow damage has up to a 10% chance to Stun for 0.5/1/1.5 seconds.
- (upgrade) Consuming Shadows – Each time you kill an enemy with Shadow Damage, you generate 10/20/30 Energy.
(passive) did not pick other Imbuements passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Death Trap – Place a trap that arms after 1.25 seconds. It activates when an enemy moves near, dealing 250% (X – ?) damage to enemies in the area.
Cooldown: 50 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 4% | Damage: Shadow ; Tags: Ultimate, Trap
- (1st upgrade) Prime Death Trap – Enemies are Pulled into Death Trap when it activates.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supreme Death Trap – If Death Trap kills an enemy, its Cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds.
(passive) Innervation – Lucky Hit: Up to a 10%/20%/30% chance to gain 8 Energy.
- (upgrade) Second Wind – Every 100 Energy you spend grants you +5%/+10%/+15% increased Lucky Hit Chance for 5 seconds.seconds.
- (upgrade) Alchemist’s Fortune – Non-Physical damage you deal has a +5%/+10%/+15% increased Lucky Hit Chance.
(passive) Aftermath – After using an Ultimate Skill, restore 25/50/75 Energy.
(passive) Trap Mastery – When Poison Trap or Death Trap activates, you gain +4%/+8%/+12% increased Critical Strike Chance against Vulnerable and Crowd Controlled enemies for 4 seconds.
(passive) did not pick other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Exposure – Lucky Hit: Dealing direct damage to an enemy affected by a Trap Skill has up to a 25% chance to: Reduce the active Cooldowns of your Trap Skills by 20% Drop a cluster of exploding Stun Grenades that deal 40% total Physical Damage and Stun enemies for 0.5 seconds

Class Mechanic:

I don’t have much information about the 3rd Specialization of the Rogue. The 3 Specializations are the Rogues’ Class Mechanics:

Combo Points – Your Basic Skills now generate Combo Points. Certain Skills consume Combo Points for additional effects.
Inner Sight – Attack marked enemies to fill up your Inner Sight gauge. When it’s full, gain unlimited Energy for 4 seconds.
Preparation – This specialization was not available during the closed beta builds of the game.

I prefer and advise using Combo Points but I liked Inner Sight during the beta too so not a bad one either for some 0 cost Skill Spams every now and then. We’ll have to wait and see about the last one.

Unique Gear

In Diablo IV apparently (I have multiple sources that confirmed this) we can equip more than one unique item at the same time (not so ‘unique’ if we can get decked out in full uniques I guess). It seems that the one unique per build idea that Unique inherited from the Mythical gear they supposedly replaced was scrapped even before the closed beta tests. My top pick will be the following one but check the notes under the Aspects list for some additional picks:

Condemnation (Dagger)

+[20%] Damage to Close Enemies

Your Core Skills deal x[20 – 40]% increased damage when spending 3 Combo Points. Your Basic Skills using this weapon have a [30%] chance to generate 3 Combo Points.

+[4 – 10]% Basic Attack Speed
+[4.5 – 12]% Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
+[7 – 14]% Damage with Dual-Wielded Weapons
+[12.5 – 19.5]% Core Skill Damage

“I’ve never seen such ruthless butchery. He deserves to be be shipped off to die in the swamps with the rest of the godless murderers.” – Witness to the murder of Sergeant Walcot

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Shadow Trapper 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Frostbitten Aspect / Harlequin Crest Unique Helm (see notes below)
Amulet: Infiltrator’s Aspect
Chest: Aspect of Lethal Dusk
Pants: Aspect of Siphoned Victuals / Eyes in the Dark Unique Pants (see notes below)
Gloves: Blast-Trapper’s Aspect
Boots: Exploiter’s Aspect
Ring 1: Toxic Alchemist’s Aspect
Ring 2: Opportunist’s Aspect / Mother’s Embrace Unique Ring (see notes below)
1H Weapon: Icy Alchemist’s Aspect
Off-hand: Trickster’s Aspect / Condemnation Unique Dagger (see notes below)
2-H Weapon: Aspect of Encircling Blades

NOTE 1: Trickster's Aspect goes in the Off-hand slot ONLY until you get the Condemnation Unique Dagger. After that discard it to make room for the Unique Dagger.
There are three other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Eyes in the Dark (Pants), Harlequin Crest (Helm), & Mother's Embrace (Ring).
See the 2nd note below:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Eyes in the Dark (Pants): Aspect of Siphoned Victuals gets removed from the Pants slot to makes room for the Unique Pants. 
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm):  Frostbitten Aspect  gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm
- For Mother's Embrace (Ring):  Opportunist's Aspect gets removed from the Ring 2 slot to make room for the Unique Ring

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Emerald, Saphire, Diamond, or Skull.
Armor: Ruby or Skull.
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received • Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 90 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown. The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

LVL 90 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 42 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance/Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Physical/Shadow/Poison/Cold Skills
Critical Chance/Critical Damage with Core/Cutthroat/Trap/Subterfuge/Imbuements/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Cutthroat/Trap/Subterfuge/Imbuements/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Core/Cutthroat/Trap/Subterfuge/Imbuements/Ultimate Skills
+ X Ranks to Flurry/Poison Trap/Shadow Imbuement/Caltrops
Lucky Hit Chance with Physical/Shadow/Poison/Cold Damage
Physical/Shadow/Poison/Cold Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Physical/Shadow/Poison/Cold Damage
Resistance to All Elements
Damage to Enemies Affected by Trap Skills
+ % Physical/Shadow/Poison/Cold Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Physical/Shadow/Poison/Cold Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage / Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Reduces the Arm Time of Your Trap Skills by X Seconds
+ % Chill Application
Damage while Healthy
Critical Strike Damage with Imbued Skills
Shadow Imbued Skill Damage
Imbued Skill Damage
Imbuement Potency

Higher Priority

Damage for X Seconds After Dodging an Attack
Attack Speed for X Seconds After Dodging an Attack
Dodge Chance (both +% and x% exist)
Dodge Chance Against Close Enemies
+ All Stats
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Energy Generation / Regeneration/ On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Dexterity
Resource Cost Reduction

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Shadow Trapper 2.0 Rogue Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

XBOX

PlayStation

Official Website

Tag: Shadow Trapper 2.0

Shadow Trapper 2.0 Diablo IV Rogue Build [RDY-4-Launch]