Tag: shadow

Twisted Shade Rogue Build for Diablo IV [Top Melee Synergy]

Twisted Shade Rogue BUILD for Diablo IV S2 [Top Melee Synergy]

(Swift Death awaits in the shadows those who dare come close enough)

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Diablo IV Season 2 (Season of the Blood) started on October 17th, 2023 for Players on PC (Battle.Net & Steam), XBOX, & PlayStation). After extensive testing, I bring you a Melee Rogue with a TOP Synergy for the archetype. The build’s easy to gear up & get things going but requires 1 non-codex aspect. 3 out of 4 Uniques are relatively easy to get from Uber Bosses too. As usual, I’ll evolve & keep my builds updated. This is one such build for the Rogue Class called Twisted Shade.

This build will be updated when needed.

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 Latest & older Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Twisted Shade) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

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

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Puncture – Throw blades a short distance, dealing 21% (X – ?) damage. Every 3rd cast Slows enemies by 2 seconds. Critical Strikes will always Slow.
Requires Dual Wielded Weapons.
Lucky Hit Chance: 35%
Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Ranged, Marksman
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Puncture – Gain 2 Energy when Puncture damages a Crowd Controlled enemy.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Fundamental Puncture – Puncture now throws 3 blades in a spread, each dealing 35% of its Base damage. Hitting an enemy with at least 2 blades at once makes them Vulnerable for 2 seconds.

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

(active) Twisting Blades – Impale an enemy on your blades, dealing 45% (X – ?) damage and making them take 8% (multiplicative) increased damage while impaled. After 1.5 seconds the blades return to you, piercing enemies for 72% (X – ?) damage. Combo Points increase damage and grant a Movement Speed bonus: 1: 58.5% damage & 20% Movement Speed (*MS) bonus ; 2: 72% damage & 40% *MS bonus ; 3: 85.5% damage & 60% *MS bonus
Requires Dual Wielded weapons
Energy Cost: 30 | Lucky Hit Chance: 33%
Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Melee, Imbueable, Cutthroat
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Twisting Blades – Twisting Blades deals 30% (multiplicative) increased damage when returning.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Advanced Twisting Blades – When your Twisting Blades return, your active Cooldowns are reduced by 0.1 second per enemy they passed through, up to 2 seconds.
(passive) Sturdy – You gain 4%/8%/12% Close Damage Reduction.
- (upgrade) Siphoning Strikes – Heal for 1%/2%/3% of your Maximum Life when you Critically Strike Close enemies.
(passive) Stutter Step – Critically Striking an enemy grants +5%/+10%/+15% Movement Speed for 4 seconds.
(passive) did not pick any other Core passives to save points

Agility Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Shadow Step – Become Unstoppable and quickly move through the shadows and stab your victim from behind for 72% (X – ?) damage. Gain 50% increased Movement Speed for 2 seconds afterwards.
Requires Dual Wielded weapons
Charges Cooldown: 9 seconds ; Skill Use Cooldown: 0 seconds
Lucky Hit Chance: 100%
Damage: Physical ; Tags: Agility, Melee, Imbueable, Cutthroat
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Shadow Step – Damaging an enemy with Shadow Step increases your Critical Strike Chance against them by +8% for 3 seconds
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Methodical Shadow Step – Enemies damaged by Shadow Step are Stunned for 2 seconds.
(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) Rugged – Gain 5%/10%/15% Damage Reduction against Damage Over Time effects.
- (upgrade) Reactive Defense – Gain 6%/12%/18% Damage Reduction while inflicted with Control Impairing Effects
(passive) Rapid Gambits – Your Evade Cooldown is reduced by 0.5/1/1.5 seconds when you Daze an enemy.
(passive) did not pick other Agility passives to save points

Subterfuge Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Concealment – Vanish from sight, gaining an advanced form of Stealth for 5 seconds tat will not be removed by taking damage. Concealment also makes you Unstoppable, grants +30% Movement Speed, and allows you to move freely through enemies for its duration. Using an attack Skill during Concealment will break Concealment
Cooldown: 20 seconds.
Tags: Subterfuge
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Concealment – You gain 40 Energy when you enter Stealth.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Countering Concealment – The Skill that breaks Concealment will always be a guaranteed Critical Strike.
- (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 – While Stealthed, you Heal for 1%/2%/3% Maximum Life per second.Malice – You deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies.
- (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 +15% increased Critical Strike Chance against Injured enemies infected by Shadow Imbuement.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Mixed Shadow Imbuement – Enemies damaged by Shadow Imbued Skills take 12% (multiplicative) increased Non-Physical damage from you for 8 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.
- (passive – did NOT put any points here) 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) Shadow Clone – Your shadow mimicks your actions for 15 seconds. The shadow deals 60% of your damage.
Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate
- (1st upgrade) Prime Shadow Clone – You are Unstoppable for 5 seconds after casting Shadow Clone.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supreme Shadow Clone – Your Shadow Clone deals an additional 20% of your damage.
(passive) did not pick any Ultimate passives to save points

Key Passive / Capstone (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Close Quarters Combat – Damaging a close enemy with Marksman or Cutthroat Skills each grant a +10% Attack Speed bonus for 8 seconds.

While both Attack Speed bonuses are active, you deal increased damage equal to 40% (multiplicative) of your Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus.–

Seasonal Mechanic (Vampiric Powers):

Powers Used:
Metamorphosis = ferocity 2 + divinity 2 + eternity 2
Accursed Touch = divinity 6
Prey on the Weak = ferocity 2
Ravenous = ferocity 3
Resilience = eternity 2

Class Mechanic (Specializations):

The 3 Specializations are the Rogues’ Class Mechanics:

Combo Points – Your Basic Skills now generate Combo Points. Core 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 – Every 100 Energy you spend reduces your Ultimate Skill’s Cooldown by 4 seconds. Using an Ultimate Skill resets the Cooldowns of your other Skills..

I prefer and advise using Combo Points for this build, especially if you already are using the Condemnation dagger (it would be pointless to use that dagger without that specialization). Also, try to use Twisting Blades with full Combo Points as much as possible, especially vs Bosses and Elites.

Unique Items

Top Pick Uniques for the Build

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.

+[4.4 – 10]% Basic Skill Attack Speed
+[13 – 21]% Critical Strike Damage
+[10.5 – 17.5]% 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

Godslayer Crown (Helm)

When you Stun, Freeze, or Immobilize an Elite enemy, or damage a Boss, it pulls in nearby enemies. You deal x[30-60]% increased damage to them for 3 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 12 seconds.

+[4.2 – 7]% Cooldown Reduction
+[X – Y] Maximum Life
+[10.5 – 17.5]% Damage
+[5 – 12]% Crowd Control Duration

“The Sahptev faithful believe in a thousand and one gods. If it takes me as many lifetimes, I will find and kill them all.” – Gaspar Stilbian, Veradani Outcast

Alternative Choice: Harlequin Crest (Helm) Right now this seems like a very good option for any build and if you’re lucky enough to get I Strongly advise trying it.

Gain [5-8%] Damage Reduction. In addition, gain +[4] Ranks to All Skills.

[N] Maximum Life
X% Cooldown Reduction
+12% Resource Generation
+[28] All Stats

“This headdress was once worn by an assassin disguised as a court mage. Her treachery was unveiled, but not before she used its magic to curse the king’s entire lineage.” – The Fall of House Aston

Tibault’s Will (Pants)

While Injured, Your Potion Also Restores 20% Resource You deal x[20-40]% increased damage while Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource.

+[2 – 3] Potion Capacity
+[7 – 14]% Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
+[10.5 – 17.5]% Damage
+[5 – 13] Maximum Resource

“The younger apprentices think wearing heavy plate in the swamps is foolish. They fail to understand that our armor is our legacy, and without it we are nothing.” – Crusader Pembroke

Grasp of Shadow (Gloves)

Lucky Hit: Damaging a Vulnerable enemy with a Marksman or Cutthroat Skill has up to a [24 – 34]% chance to summon a Shadow Clone that mimics your attack.

+[4.4 – 10]% Attack Speed
+[28 – 42] Dexterity
+[31.5 – 52.5]% Shadow Clone Damage
+[3 – 4] Ranks of All Core Skills (note: you get +5 to 6 ranks when fully upgraded)

Dark wisps creep hungrily across these gloves, like an assassin’s blade seeking a life to steal on a moonless night.

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.
Armor: Ruby or Sapphire/Topaz (dmg reduction can help you needed in higher tier NM dungeons).
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

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

+24%/+4.0%/22.1% for Royal (the 5th grade at lvl 60)

XYZ Topaz (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Basic Skill Damage
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Control Impaired
• Jewelry: N% Lightning Resistance

+20%/10%/22.1% for Royal (the 5th grade at lvl 60)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

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

+12%/3%/22.1% for Royal (the 5th grade at lvl 60)

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 Latest & Older Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Twisted Shade) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Aspect of The Protector / Godslayer Crown OR the Alternative Helm Pick (see notes in the Unique Items section)
Amulet: Aspect of Disobedience
Chest: Aspect of Might
Pants: Aspect of Lethal Dusk / Tibault’s Will
Gloves: Exploiter’s Aspect / Grasp of Shadow
Boots: Mangler’s Aspect
Ring 1: Accelerating Aspect
Ring 2: Aspect of Inner Calm
Main Hand Weapon: Aspect of The Expectant
I recommend using a sword as the 1h weapon
Off-hand Weapon: Rapid Aspect / Condemnation
(I recommend using another sword until the Unique Dagger Condemnation drops)
2-H Weapon: Bladedancer’s Aspect
(I recommend using a Crossbow as the 2H weapon)

Paragon Boards:

Use the link below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. On the link you’ll see what the boards will look like at lvl 100 with ALL paragon points spent and fully min-maxed to get the most out of every board BUT it’s base on my gear’s attributes bonuses (DEX, STR, INT) so you may need to reorder some of the floating nodes to make sure you get the double bonus requirements of all rare nodes. Leveling in Season 2 is fast so I no longer will provide a version with less points spent.

MAX LEVEL & MAX Paragon points spent : Click THIS LINK

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (in order of priority):

This is the Sorted by Slot list of Top Priority Affixes/Rolls:

Helm:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction
- Priority 2: Maximum Life
- Priority 3: Basic Skill Attack Speed
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Dex, Str, Int, All Stats), Total Armor
Chest:
- Priority 1: Damage Reduction from Close/Distant Enemies,
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, +N% X Resistance, Damage Reduction
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Dex, Int, Str, All Stats), Total Armor
- Priority 4: Imbued/Imbuement Skill Damage, Cutthroat Skill Damage, Damage with Dual-Wielded, +X% Damage, Physical Damage
Gloves:
- Priority 1: + X ranks of Twisting Blades, Critical Strike Chance
- Priority 2: Damage to Injured Enemies, Attack Speed
- Priority 3: Critical Strike Damage to Injured, Critical Strike Chance Against Injured
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Dex, Int, Str, All Stats)
Pants:
- Priority 1: Damage Reduction from Close/Distant Enemies, Damage Reduction while Injured
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, Damage Reduction
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Dex, Int, Str, All Stats)
- Priority 4: Total Armor
Boots:
- Priority 1: Movement Speed, Damage Reduction while Injured
- Priority 2: +N% X Resistance
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Dex, Int, Str, All Stats)
- Priority 4: Energy Cost Reduction
Amulet:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction, Movement Speed
- Priority 2: Damage Reduction from Close/Distant Enemies,
- Priority 3: Imbuement Skill Damage, Cutthroat Skill Damage, Damage with Dual-Wielded, +X Ranks of a Passive you like, Damage Reduction While Injured, Damage Reduction
- Priority 4: Energy Cost Reduction
Rings:
- Priority 1: Critical Strike Damage, Critical Strike Chance, Damage to Crowd Controlled
- Priority 2: Maximum Life
- Priority 3: Vulnerable Damage, Core Skill Damage, Damage to Injured/Close
- Priority 4: Physical/Cutthroat Damage
Main Hand Weapon: See the 2H Weapon Rolls List. Ideally, you’ll get a good high roll of +ALL Stats on the 2h Wep so that you won’t need to roll it on the 1h wep. It’s best to use a sword.
Off-hand Weapon: same stats preferred as main-hand & 2h Wep BUT eventually you’ll use a Unique Dagger here
2-H Weapon:
- Priority 1: Critical Strike Damage, Core Skill Damage, Damage to Crowd Controlled
- Priority 2: (All Stats or Dex), Damage to Close Enemies, Vulnerable Damage
- Priority 3: Damage to Injured Enemies
- Priority 4: Critical Strike Damage with Imbued Skills

This is the UNsorted by list of useful Affixes/Rolls:

Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Chance/Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Physical/Cutthroat/Imbued/Dual-Wielded Skills
Critical Chance/Critical Damage with Core Skills
Damage with Core/Cutthroat/Imbued/Imbuement/Dual-Wielded Skills
Damage Against Close Enemies
+ X Ranks to Core Skills
+ X Ranks to Twisting Blades
Cooldown Reduction
+ Maximum Life
+ All Stats
+ Dexterity, + Strength, + Intelligence
Vulnerable Damage / Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Resource/Spirit Cost Reduction
Attack Speed
Damage Reduction while from Close Enemies
Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies
Damage Reduction while Injured
Movement Speed
Resistance to All Elements / to XYZ type
Total Armor
+ X% Damage
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage while Healthy
Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
Physical/Cutthroat/Imbued/Dual-Wielded Skill Damage Bonus
Energy Generation / Regeneration / On Kill
Lucky Hit Chance

Higher Priority

Lucky Hit Chance with Physical/Cutthroat/Imbued/Dual-Wielded Skill Damage
Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Poisoned
Barrier Generation
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Restore +X% Primary Resource
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Heal +X Life
Lucky Hit: Up to a +X% Chance to Execute Injured Non-Elites

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV Latest Season 2 & Older (Post-Launch, RDY-4-Launch) Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

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

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

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This concludes the Twisted Shade 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, Steam)

Shadow Hunter Rogue Build for Diablo IV [S Tier Grade]

Shadow Hunter Rogue BUILD for Diablo IV [S Tier Grade]

(Emerge from the Shadows to Penetrate your foes while splitting your shots to clear big groups at once)

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Diablo IV launched on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation) and I’ve had my fair share of playing and testing done. I’m already making full Builds/Theorycrafts that work for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I’ll evolve & keep them updated when we get major rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Rogue Class called Shadow Hunter.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for my 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 when needed.

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 Hunter) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

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

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Forceful Arrow – Fire a powerful arrow at an enemy, dealing 20% (X – ?) damage. Every 3rd cast makes the enemy Vulnerable for 2 seconds.
Requires a Ranged Weapon
Lucky Hit Chance: 50% | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Ranged, Marksman
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Forceful Arrow – Every 3rd cast of Forceful Arrow additionally has a +15% increased Critical Strike Chance.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Primary Forceful Arrow – Forceful Arrow pierces through Vulnerable enemies.

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

(active) Penetrating Shot – Fire an arrow that pierces through all enemies in a line, dealing 70% (X – ?) damage.
Combo Points increase damage and improve Lucky Hit Chance* (LHC):
1: 91% damage & 10% LHC*
2: 112% damage & 20% LHC*
3: 133% damage & 30% LHC*
Requires a Ranged Weapon
Energy Cost: 35 | Lucky Hit Chance: 50% | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Ranged, Imbueable, Marksman
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Penetrating Shot – Penetrating Shot deals 20% (multiplicative) increased damage per enemy it pierces.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Improved Penetrating Shot – If Penetrating Shot damages at least 3 enemies, your next Penetrating Shot has a +20% increased Critical Strike Chance.
(passive) Sturdy – You gain 4%/8%/12% Close Damage Reduction.
- (upgrade) Siphoning Strikes – Heal for 1%/2%/3% of your Maximum Life when you Critically Strike Close enemies.
(passive) did not pick any other Core passives to save points

Agility Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Shadow Step – Become Unstoppable and quickly move through the shadows and stab your victim from behind for 72% (X – ?) damage. Gain 50% increased Movement Speed for 2 seconds afterwards.
Requires Dual Wielded weapons
Cooldown: 9 seconds | Lucky Hit Chance: 100% | Damage: Physical ; Tags: Agility, Melee, Imbueable, Cutthroat
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Shadow Step – Damaging an enemy with Shadow Step increases your Critical Strike Chance against them by +8% for 3 seconds
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Disciplined Shadow Step – Shadow Step’s Cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds if it damages an enemy you haven’t hit in the last 4 seconds.
(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) Rugged – Gain 5%/10%/15% Damage Reduction against Damage Over Time effects.
- (upgrade – ONLY put 1 point here) Reactive Defense – Gain 4.5%/9%/13.5% Damage Reduction while inflicted with Control Impairing Effects
(passive) did not pick other Agility passives to save points

Subterfuge Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Vanish from sight, gaining an advanced form of Stealth for 4 seconds tat will no be removed by taking damage. Concealment also makes you Unstoppable, grants +30% Movement Speed, and allows you to move freely through enemies for its duration. Using an attack Skill during Concealment will break Concealment .
Cooldown: 20 seconds. Tags: Subterfuge
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Stealth – You gain 40 Energy when you enter Stealth.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Countering Stealth – The Skill that breaks Concealment will always be a guaranteed Critical Strike.

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Dark Shroud – Surround yourself with up to 5 protective shadows. Gain 8% Damage Reduction per active shadow. Each time you take direct damage, that damage is reduced and a shadow is consumed
Cooldown: 20 seconds. Tags: Subterfuge
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Dark Shroud – Dark Shroud’s shadows have a 8% chance to not be consumed
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Countering Dark Shroud – While you have at least 2 active shadow from Dark Shroud, gain +10% Critical Strike Chance.
(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) 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.
- (passive) 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 – did NOT put point into this
- (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

Key Passive / Capstone (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Precision – Critical Strikes with Marksman Skills grant you Precision.

You gain 4% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage per stack of Precision, up to a maximum of 20% (multiplicative).

When you reach maximum Precision, your next Marksman Skill is a guaranteed Critical Strike that deals 40% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage, then consumes all stacks of Precision.

Class Mechanic (Specializations):

The 3 Specializations are the Rogues’ Class Mechanics:

Combo Points – Your Basic Skills now generate Combo Points. Core 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 – Every 100 Energy you spend reduces your Ultimate Skill’s Cooldown by 4 seconds. Using an Ultimate Skill resets the Cooldowns of your other Skills..

I prefer and advise using Combo Points for this build, especially if you already are using the Condemnation dagger (it would be pointless to use that dagger without that specialization). Also, try to use Penetrating Shot with full Combo Points as much as possible, especially vs Bosses and Elites.

Unique Items

Top Pick Unique for the Build

Harlequin Crest (Helm)

Gain [5-8%] Damage Reduction. In addition, gain +[2-4] Ranks to All Skills.

[0.245 – 0.455] Maximum Life
X% Cooldown Reduction
+[42 – 70]% Crafting Material Drop Rate
[14 – 28] All Stats

“This headdress was once worn by an assassin disguised as a court mage. Her treachery was unveiled, but not before she used its magic to curse the king’s entire lineage.” – The Fall of House Aston

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

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 is what this build needs most
Armor: Ruby or Topaz (dmg reduction is very needed in high tier NM dungeons).
Jewelry: Skull for Armor until they rework resistances. After the rework: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

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

+24/+5%/+250 for Royal (the 5th grade at lvl 60)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

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

+24%/+4.0%/22.1% for Royal (the 5th grade at lvl 60)

XYZ Topaz (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Basic Skill Damage
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Control Impaired
• Jewelry: N% Lightning Resistance

+20%/10%/22.1% for Royal (the 5th grade at lvl 60)

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 Hunter) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Umbrous Aspect / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Enshrouding Aspect
Chest: Aspect of The Protector
Pants: Aspect of Disobedience
Gloves: Aspect of Inner Calm
Boots: Eluding Aspect
Ring 1: Accelerating Aspect
Ring 2: Aspect of The Expectant
Main Hand Weapon: Trickshot Aspect
Off-hand Weapon: Vengeful Aspect / Condemnation (see notes below)
2-H Weapon: Rapid Aspect
(I recommend using a Crossbow in the 2h Weapon slot and using Swords in the 1h Weapon slots, until you equip the Condemnation unique dagger in one of the 1h weapon slots, of course)

NOTES: How to re-arrange if using any of the Uniques:

- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Aspect of The Protector gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Condemnation (Dagger): Vengeful Aspect gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Dagger.

NOTE 2: Keep in mind that, in order to get the most out of the Condemnation Unique dagger, I STRONGLY recommend using Puncture (with the triple shot upgrade) and leaning towards Close Enemies over Distant enemies bonuses (if you need to pick between them in the first place).

Obviously crit dmg, vulnerable dmg, core skill dmg, and Crit Dmg with Imbued skills (and even vs injured enemies) may be better than either dmg vs close or distant but when using Puncture the synergy is better when adopting point blank shotgun playstyle.

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 86 with 166 paragon points (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100). The other link is what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

166/223 Paragon Pts. (~LVL 86 with renown & altar pts): Click THIS LINK
MAX LEVEL & MAX Paragon points spent (223/223): Click THIS LINK

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

I’ve shortlisted 36 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. NOTE: I’ve added a new “Top Priority per Slot” list but left the old unsorted list below it.

This is the Sorted by Slot list of Top Priority Affixes/Rolls:

Helm:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, Basic Skill Attack Speed
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Str, All Stats), Maximum Energy
- Priority 4: Total Armor
Amulet:
- Priority 1: Cooldown Reduction, +X Ranks of Imbuement Skills, Movement Speed
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, +X Ranks of a Passive you like, Imbuement Skill Cooldown Reduction
- Priority 3: Imbuement Skill DMG, +X% Damage, Damage Reduction from Close or Distant Enemies/While Injured,
- Priority 4: Energy Cost Reduction
Chest:
- Priority 1: Damage Reduction from Close/Distant Enemies
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, + X% Damage
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Str, All Stats), Total Armor
- Priority 4: Imbuement Skill Damage, Marksman Skill Damage, Shadow Damage
Pants:
- Priority 1: Damage Reduction from Close/Distant Enemies
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, Damage Reduction while Injured
- Priority 3: + X ranks of Concealment/Dark Shroud, Core Stats (Int, Dex, Str, All Stats), Imbuement Skill Cooldown Reduction
- Priority 4: Total Armor, Damage Reduction
Gloves:
- Priority 1: + X ranks of Penetrating Shot
- Priority 2: Critical Strike Chance, Damage to Injured Enemies, Attack Speed
- Priority 3: Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +X% Primary Resource, Lucky Hit Chance
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Str, All Stats)
Boots:
- Priority 1: Movement Speed, Energy Cost Reduction
- Priority 2: Damage Reduction while Injured
- Priority 3: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Str, All Stats), +X Ranks of Shadow Step (if using it intead of an Ult)
- Priority 4: Dodge Chance, Dodge Chance Against Distant Enemies
Rings:
- Priority 1: Vulnerable Damage, Critical Strike Damage, Core Skill Damage
- Priority 2: Maximum Life, Critical Strike Chance, Damage to Injured Enemies, Damage to Close/Distant Enemies
- Priority 3: Physical/Shadow Damage, Imbued Skill DMG, Critical Strike DMG with Imbued Skills, Lucky Hit Chance
- Priority 4: Resource Generation
Main Hand Weapon:
- Priority 1: Vulnerable Damage, Critical Strike Damage, Core Skill Damage
- Priority 2: Damage to Injured Enemies, Damage to Distant/Close Enemies (depending on preferred playstyle)
- Priority 3: Critical Strike Damage with Imbued Skills
- Priority 4: Core Stats (Int, Dex, Str, All Stats)
Off-hand Weapon: See the 1H Weapon Rolls List
2-H Weapon: See the 1H Weapon Rolls List

This is the UNsorted by list of useful Affixes/Rolls:

+ X% Damage
Critical Strike Chance/Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Physical/Shadow/Imbued Skills
Critical Chance/Critical Damage with Core Skills
Damage with Core Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Core/Imbuement Skills
+ X Ranks to Penetrating Shot/Concealment/Dark Shroud/Shadow Step
Damage vs Injured Enemies
+ Intelligence, + Dexterity, + Strength
+ All Stats
+ Maximum Life
Energy Generation / Regeneration / On Kill
Resource/Energy Cost Reduction
Cooldown Reduction
Attack Speed
Physical/Shadow/Imbued Skill Damage Bonus
Lucky Hit Chance with Physical/Shadow/Imbued Skill Damage
Resistance to All Elements
Damage Against Close/Distant Enemies
+ % Physical/Shadow Damage to Elites
Vulnerable Damage
Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Restore +X% Primary Resource
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% chance to Heal +X Life
Damage while Healthy
Barrier Generation
Movement Speed

Higher Priority

Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
Lucky Hit: Up to a +X% Chance to Execute Injured Non-Elites
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)

Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

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

For my Diablo IV 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 Hunter 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)

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

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)

Dr. Bones 2.0 Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Dr. Bones 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(Dr. Bones imprisons & makes their foes vulnerable before showering them with spears & splinters)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 almost upon us and it’s time for some 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 Necromancer Class called Dr. Bones 2.0.

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 (Dr. Bones 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

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

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Bone Splinters – Fire 3 bone splinters, dealing 22.5% damage each. Each subsequent time an enemy is hit by the same cast of Bone Splinters, you gain 1 Essence. Each subsequent time an enemy is hit by the same cast of Bone Splinters, you gain 1 Essence. Lucky Hit Chance: 17% Generates: 5 Essence Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Splinters – Bone Splinters has a 30% chance to fire 2 additional projectiles if cast while you have 50 or more essence.
- (2nd upgrade) Initiate’s Bone Splinters – Bone Splinters has a 20% chance per hit to make enemies Vulernable for 2 seconds.

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

(active) Bone Spear – Conjure a bone spear from the ground, dealing 85% (X-?) damage and Piercing through enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 50% Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Spear – Bone Spear breaks into 3 shards when it is destroyed, dealing 10% (X-?) damage each.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supernatural Bone Spear – Bone Spear makes the first enemy hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive) Hewed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Detonate a Corpse, dealing 75% (X-XX) damage to nearby enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Blighted Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion becomes a Darkness Skill and, instead of exploding, releases a vile miasma dealing 110% (X-?) Shadow Damage over 6 seconds.

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Bone Prison – Unearth a prison of bone with X Life that surrounds the target area for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 20 Seconds. Tags: Macabre, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Prison – If an enemy is trapped by Bone Prison, gain 3 Essence, plus an additional 5 per enemy trapped.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Ghastly Bone Prison – Enemies inside of Bone Prison are Vulnerable.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

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

(active)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active – ONLY put 2 points here) Bone Spirit – Consume all of your Essence to conjure a spirit of bone that seeks enemies. Upon reaching an enemy, the spirit explodes, dealing 80% (X-?) damage to the target and all surrounding enemies. Damage is increased by 3% (multiplicative) for each point of Essence spent casting Bone Spirit. Lucky Hit Chance: 33% Cooldown: 12.0 Seconds. Essence Cost: All remaining Essence Damage: Physical ; Tags: Macabre, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Bone Spirit – If Bone Spirit Critically Strikes, its Cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds. This effect can only happen once per cast.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Dreadful Bone Spirit – After Bone Spirit hits an enemy, you generate 30 Essence over the next 4 seconds.
(passive) Serration – Your Bone Skills have a +0.5%/+1%/+1.5% increased Critical Strike Chance for each 10 Essence you have upon cast
- (upgrade) Rapid Ossification – Every 100 Essence you spend reduces the cooldowns of your Bone Skills by 0.5/1/1.5 seconds.
- (upgrade) Compound – Fracture After Critically Striking 10 times with Bone Skills, your Bone Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage for 5 seconds.
- (upgrade) Evulsion – Your Bone Skills deal 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies.
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Bone Storm – A swirling storm of bones surrounds you and your Golem, dealing 180% (X-?) to surrounding enemies over 10 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Cooldown: 60 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Prime Bone Storm – Your Damage Reduction is increased by 15% while Bone Storm is active.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Bone Storm – Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by +20% while Bone Storm is active.
(passive) Stand Alone – Increases Damage Reduction by 6%/12%/18%,, reduced by 2% for each active Minion.
- (upgrade) Memento Mori – Sacrificing both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages increases their Sacrifice bonuses by 20%/40%/60%.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Ossified Essence – Your Bone Skills deal 1% (multiplicative) increased damage for each point of Essence you have above 50 upon cast.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and getting Fortify for each corpse generated, while consuming them with Corpse Explosion. On top of that we can keep spamming Bone Spear as long as we keep consuming the corpses as that gives us Essence. Since the build has a ton of Vulnerable and Crit related bonuses we’re Sacrificing all minions and take such bonuses for Sacrificing our Minions as well.

I’d advise taking Zero Minions for this build & Sacrifice the Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, & Golem. The types sacrifices are:

Skeletal Skirmishers: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Chance
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Cold Mages: Sacrifice is amazing to get extra DMG to Vulnerable enemies
- Description: You deal 15% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Mages.
Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Item:

Deathless Visage (Helm)

Bone Spear leaves behind echoes as it travels that explode, dealing N damage.

+[0.031 – 0.073] Armor
+[0.07 – 0.14] Physical Damage
+[14 – 21]% Critical Strike Damage
+[16 – 24] Maximum Essence

“Rathma is endless. He was the first Ancient, and will remain at the end. He is the master of the Great Cycle of Being. When Death comes for him, why should he fear it?” – Vauntus, Acolyte of Rathma

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, Amethyst, Diamond, Saphire, Ruby, or Skull.
Armor: Ruby, Saphire 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 Amethyst (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Damage Over Time
• Armor: N% Damage Taken Over Time Reduction
• Jewelry: N% Shadow Resistance

+5%/+8.2%/+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)

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)

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 (Dr. Bones 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Aspect of The Protector / Deathless Visage OR Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
Amulet: Aspect of Serration
Chest: Aspect of Shielding Storm / Blood Artisan’s Cuirass (see notes below)
Pants: Aspect of the Embalmer
Gloves: Osseous Gale Aspect
Boots: Exploiter’s Aspect
Ring 1: Aspect of Ultimate Shadow
Ring 2: Aspect of Exposed Flesh / Splintering Aspect (see notes below)
1H Weapon: Splintering Aspect / Black River (see notes below)
Off-hand: Aspect of Swelling Curse / Aspect of Shielding Storm (see notes below)
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Splintering Aspect (see notes below)

NOTE 1: Aspect of The Protector goes in the Helm slot ONLY until you get the Deathless Visage Unique Helm.
There are three other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Blood Artisan's Cuirass (Chest Armor), Harlequin Crest (Helm), & Black River (Scythe)
See the notes below for more info:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Blood Artisan's Cuirass (Chest Armor): Aspect of Swelling Curse gets removed from the Off-hand slot. You also need to remove the offensive Off-hand and replace it with a Shield off-hand. Aspect of Shielding Storm goes in the newly equipped Shield Off-hand to make room for the Unique Chest Armor.
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Aspect of The Protector gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Black River (Scythe): Aspect of Exposed Flesh gets removed from the Ring 2 slot & Splintering Aspect replaces it to make room for the Unique Scythe.

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 (1 spare point left): Click THIS LINK

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

I’ve shortlisted 44 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 Shadow/Physical/Darkness/Bone Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Bone Spear/Corpse Explosion/Bone Storm/Bone Spirit/Bone Prison
+ X Ranks to Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Shadow/Physical Damage
Shadow/Physical Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Shadow/Physical Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Shadow/Physical Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Shadow/Physical 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
Fortify Generation
Damage while Fortified
Chance When Struck to Fortify for X Life
+ % Damage Over Time
+ % Shadow Damage Over Time
+ % Shadow Damage Over Time Duration
Overpower Chance
Overpower Damage with Bone Spear/Corpse Explosion/Bone Storm/Bone Spirit/Bone Prison
Overpower Damage with Core/Bone/Darkness/Macabre/Corpse/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage to Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
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 Dr. Bones 2.0 Necromancer 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)

Dark Lord 2.0 Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Dark Lord 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(the Dark Lord emerge from the shadows to curse his foes & engulf the battlefield in darkness)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 getting closer and it’s time to make some 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 Necromancer Class called Dark Lord 2.0.

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 (Dark Lord 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

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

(active) Reap – Sweep an ethereal scythe in front of you, dealing 12% (X-?) damage. Hitting an enemy with Reap increases your damage Reduction by 15% for 2 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 17% Generates: 4 Essence per enemy hit Damage: Shadow ; Tags: Basic, Darkness
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Reap – If an enemy hit by Reap dies within 2 seconds, you gain 30% attack speed for 3 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – don’t need any of the 2 but temporary you can use ) Acolyte’s Reap – Reap forms a Corpse under the first enemy hit. Can only occur every 5 seconds.

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

(active) Blight – Unleash concentrated blight that deals 30% (X-?) damage and leaves behind a defiled area, dealing 80% (X) damage over 6 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Shadow ; Tags: Core, Darkness
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blight – Blight Slows enemies by 25%
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Paranormal Blight – Blight has a 30% (multiplicative) chance to Immobilize for 1.5 seconds on impact.
(passive) Hewed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Detonate a Corpse, dealing 75% (X-XX) damage to nearby enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Blighted Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion becomes a Darkness Skill and, instead of exploding, releases a vile miasma dealing 110% (X-?) Shadow Damage over 6 seconds.
(passive) Grim Harvest – Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
- (upgrade) Fueled by Death – You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 )

(active) Decrepify – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Decrepify are Slowed by 40% and deal 20% less damage for 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Curse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Decrepify – Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 10% chance to Stunned them for 2 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Abhorent Decrepify – Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 15% chance to reduce your Active Cooldowns by 1.0 seconds.

(active – ONLY investing 1 point here and ONLY in the skill, NOT the upgrades) Iron Maiden – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Iron Maiden take 10% (X-?) damage each time they deal direct damage. Lasts 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Curse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) did not take
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) did not take
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active) Corpse Tendrils – Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20% (X-?) damage to them. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse Tendrils – Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Plagued Corpse Tendrils – Enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils are made Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
(passive – ONLY put 1 point into this) Reaper’s Pursuit – Damaging enemies with Darkness Skills increases your Movement Speed by +5%/+10%/+15% for 3 seconds.
- (upgrade – ONLY put 2 points into this) Crippling Darkness – Lucky Hit: Darkness Skills have up to a 15% chance to Stun for 1/2/3 seconds.
- (upgrade) Gloom – When you damage enemies with Darkness Skills, they take 2%/4%/6% (multiplicative) increased Shadow Damage from you and your Minions for 2 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
- (upgrade) Terror – Darkness Skills deal 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies who are Slowed, and 3%/6%/9% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies who are Stunned or Immobilized. These bonuses stack and apply to Shadow Damage dealt by your Minions.
(passive – ONLY put 1 point into this) Serration – Your Bone Skills have a +0.5%/+1%/+1.5% increased Critical Strike Chance for each 10 Essence you have upon cast
- (upgrade) Rapid Ossification – DID NOT Take this
- (upgrade) Compound – Fracture After Critically Striking 10 times with Bone Skills, your Bone Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage for 5 seconds.
- (upgrade) Evulsion – DID NOT Take this
(passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Bone Storm – A swirling storm of bones surrounds you and your Golem, dealing 180% (X-?) to surrounding enemies over 10 seconds. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Cooldown: 60 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Bone
- (1st upgrade) Prime Bone Storm – Your Damage Reduction is increased by 15% while Bone Storm is active.
- (2nd upgrade) Supreme Bone Storm – Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by +20% while Bone Storm is active.
(passive) Stand Alone – Increases Damage Reduction by 6%/12%/18%,, reduced by 2% for each active Minion.
- (upgrade) Memento Mori – Sacrificing both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages increases their Sacrifice bonuses by 20%/40%/60%.
(passive) DID NOT INVEST in any other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Shadowblight – Darkness Skills infect enemies with Shadowblight for 2 seconds. You and your Minions deal 10% (multiplicative) bonus damage to enemies affected by Shadowblight.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and consuming them with Corpse Explosion directly or with the auto-cast via Blood Mist. For that we don’t need minions as much. However, there’s no room for a basics kill on the skillbar so we’ll use Cold Mages to generate essence in case there are no corpses nearby to consume for essence.

I’d advise taking Zero Minions for this build & Sacrifice the Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, & Golem. The types sacrifices are:

Skeletal Skirmishers: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Chance
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Cold Mages: Sacrifice is amazing to get extra DMG to Vulnerable enemies
- Description: You deal 15% (multiplicative) increased damage to Vulnerable enemies, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Mages.
Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Item

Black River (Scythe)

[0.06] Life On Kill

Corpse Explosion consumes up to 4 additional Corpses around the initial Corpse, dealing x[N] increased damage and with a +[X%] larger radius per additional Corpse.

[49 – 63] Intelligence
+[21 – 35]% Damage to Healthy Enemies
+1 Ranks of the Fueled by Death Passive
+[2 – 4] Ranks of Corpse Explosion

“The scrolls describe a river of tar that separated the living from the land of the dead. Any unfortunate soul who tried to cross would be dragged down into oblivion.” – Notes of Scholar Kamien

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: Amethyst, Diamond, Saphire, Skull, Ruby, or Emerald.
Armor: Ruby, Skull, or Saphire.
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 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)

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 (Dark Lord 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Exploiter’s Aspect
Amulet: Blighted Aspect or Aspect of Grasping Veins (whichever you want to get the 50% boost, the other one goes in the 2nd Ring Slot)
Chest: Aspect of the Embalmer
Pants: Aspect of Shielding Storm
Gloves: Aspect of Ultimate Shadow
Boots: Aspect of The Void
Ring 1: Aspect of Decay
Ring 2: Blighted Aspect or Aspect of Grasping Veins (whichever of the two you did not put in the Amulet goes here)
1H Weapon: *Smiting Aspect Until The Unique goes here (see notes below)
Off-hand: Aspect of The Damned
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): *Smiting Aspect Until The Unique goes in he 1h slot (see notes below)

NOTE: Smiting Aspect goes in the 1H Weapon slot ONLY until you get the Black River Unique Scythe.
There are two other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet) & Harlequin Crest (Helm)

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet): Smiting Aspect gets removed from the 1H Weapon slot and Blighted Aspect or Aspect of Grasping Veins (whichever you put in the Amulet) goes in the now empty 1H Weapon slot to make room for the Unique to go in the Amulet slot
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Smiting Aspect gets removed from the 1H Weapon slot. Aspect of Ultimate Shadow goes in the now empty 1H Weapon slot. Then Exploiter’s Aspect goes in the now empty Gloves slot to make room for the Unique to go in the Helmet slot.

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 93 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 93 & no Points from renown: Click THIS LINK
MAXed out points: Click THIS LINK

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

I’ve shortlisted 46 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 Darkness/Shadow/Corpse/Bone/Physical Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage
Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Darkness/Shadow/Bone/Physical 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 to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Close Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Vulnerable Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Fortify Generation
Damage while Fortified
Chance When Struck to Fortify for X Life
Overpower Chance
Overpower Damage with Blight/Corpse Explosion/Bone Storm
Overpower Damage with Core/Macabre/Ultimate/Darkness/Corpse/Bone Skills
Damage to Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies

Higher Priority

+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Damage vs Close Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
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 Dark Lord 2.0 Necromancer 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)

Dark Ice Diablo IV Rogue Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Dark Ice Rogue BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(get up close & personal to cause the shadows to explode, chilling & freezing your 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 getting closer and it’s time to make some 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 Dark Ice.

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

Video Version:

https://youtu.be/OrJwt7jVYUc

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 (Dark Ice) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

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

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Puncture – Throw blades a short distance, dealing 21% (X – ?) damage. Every 3rd cast Slows enemies by 2 seconds. Critical Strikes will always Slow. Requires Dual Wielded Weapons. Lucky Hit Chance: 50% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Ranged, Marksman
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Puncture – Gain 2 Energy when Puncture damages a Crowd Controlled enemy.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Fundamental Puncture – Puncture now throws 3 blades in a spread, each dealing 35% of its Base damage. Hitting an enemy with at least 2 blades at once makes them Vulnerable for 2 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 – ONLY put 2 points here) Siphoning Strikes – Heal for 1%/2%/3% of your Maximum Life when you Critically Strike Close enemies.
(passive) did not pick any other Core passives to save points

Agility Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active – ONLY put 1 point here) Dash – Dash forward and slash enemies for 37% (X – ?) damage. Requires Dual Wielded weapons Charges: 2 Lucky Hit Chance: 25% Damage: Physical ; Tags: Agility, Melee, Imbueable, Cutthroat
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Dash – Enemies damaged by Dash take 20% (multiplicative) increased Critical Strike Damage for 5 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Methodical Dash – Dealing damage to Crowd Controlled enemies with Dash reduces its Charge Cooldown by 0.5 seconds, up to 3 seconds per cast.

(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) Disciplined Caltrops – You have +5% Critical Strike Chance against enemies inside your Caltrops. Double this amount against Vulnerable enemies.
(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)
- (1st upgrade)
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
(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) 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 Imbuable 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 – Invested 2/3 ranks into it only to save points) Shadow Crash – Lucky Hit: Shadow damage has up to a 10% chance to Stun for 0.5/1/1.5 seconds.
- (upgrade – ONLY put 1 point here) Consuming Shadows – Each time you kill an enemy with Shadow Damage, you generate 10/20/30 Energy.
(passive) Frigid Finesse – You deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased damage to Chilled enemies. This bonus increases to 10%/20%/30% (multiplicative) against Frozen enemies.
(passive) did not pick other Imbuements passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Shadow Clone – Your shadow mimicks your actions for 15 seconds. The shadow deals 60% of your damage. Cooldown: 60 seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate
- (1st upgrade) Prime Shadow Clone – You are Unstoppable for 5 seconds after casting Shadow Clone.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supreme Shadow Clone – Your Shadow Clone deals an additional 20% of your damage.
(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) did not pick other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Close Quarters Combat – Damaging a nearby enemy with Marksman or Cutthroat Skills grants a +10% Attack Speed bonus for 8 seconds. While both Attack Speed bonuses are active, you deal 20% (multiplicative) increased damage against Crowd Controlled enemies.

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 Item

Frostburn (Gloves)

Lucky Hit: Up to a [15 – 25]% chance to Freeze enemies for 2 seconds.

+[3 – 8]% Critical Strike Chance
+[0.07 – 0.14] Cold Damage
+[7 – 14]% Freeze Duration
Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore +[14 – 28]% Primary Resource

A touch so frigid it stops the heart and chills the very soul.

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 (Dark Ice) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Exploiter’s Aspect
Amulet: Aspect of Encircling Blades
Chest: Aspect of Quickening Fog
Pants: Aspect of Elusive Menace
Gloves: Blast-Trapper’s Aspect Until The Unique goes here
Boots: Frostbitten Aspect
Ring 1: Icy Alchemist’s Aspect
Ring 2: Aspect of Corruption
1H Weapon: Shadowslicer Aspect
Off-hand: Aspect of Imitated Imbuement
2-H Weapon: Vengeful Aspect

NOTE 1: Blast-Trapper's Aspect goes in the Gloves slot ONLY until you get the Frostburn Unique Gloves. 
There are two other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Grasp of Shadow (Gloves) & Harlequin Crest (Helm)
See the note below:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Grasp of Shadow (Gloves): Blast-Trapper's Aspect gets removed from the Gloves to make room for the Unique (same item type as Frostburn so nothing special)
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Blast-Trapper's Aspect gets removed from the Gloves and Exploiter’s Aspect goes in the Gloves to make room for the Unique

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: Saphire, Skull, Diamond, or Emerald.
Armor: Skull or Ruby.
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 95 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 95 & 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 45 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/Cold Skills
Critical Chance/Critical Damage with Core/Imbuements/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Imbuements/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Core/Imbuements/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Physical/Shadow/Cold Damage
Physical/Shadow/Cold Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Physical/Shadow/Cold Damage
Resistance to All Elements
Damage to Enemies Affected by Trap Skills
+ % Physical/Shadow/Ice Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Physical/Shadow/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 to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Close Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Vulnerable Enemies
Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Damage while Healthy
Damage to Vulnerable Enemies with Imbued Skills
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 Dark Ice 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)

Dark Lord Diablo IV Necromancer Build

The Dark Lord and his Mages emerge from the shadows to engulf the battlefield in darkness

Dark Lord Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV

(the Dark Lord and his Mages emerge from the shadows to engulf the battlefield in darkness)

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

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 Open Beta Tests are almost here and I felt motivated to make some Pre-Launch theorycrafted semi-builds that should be good for ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters when the game launches. I also plan to evolve them into FULL builds when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Dark Lord.

The Beta tests will only let us reach lvl 25 and only let us play in the first Act/Zone (Fractured Peaks) so those builds will be more useful for the actual game launch and ideally for characters around lvl 50+ or 60+. I’ve used 50+ and 60+ skill points when making the builds instead of the full 100 so that they can be used to jumpstart a player’s post-story endgame grind.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect that work well with the build so one can spend the extra skill points on the way to lvl 100 into those other skills.

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have actual 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 on the way to lvl 100 + alternative skill options, you can check my pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Reaping Army) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

The images you see are PLACEHOLDERS due to lack of any real skill icons leaks for the Necromancer class. I will replace them once the Beta starts and I can screenshot the actual icons.

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

(active) Reap – Sweep an ethereal scythe in front of you, dealing 12.00% (X-?) damage. Hitting an enemy with Reap increases your damage Reduction by 15% for 2 seconds. Generates: 4 Essence per enemy hit Damage: Shadow
- (1st upgrade) Enhanced Reap – If an enemy hit by Reap dies within 2 seconds, you gain 30% attack speed for 3 seconds.
- (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Initiate’s Reap – Reap instantly executes non-Bosses below 5% Life.

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

(active) Blight – Unleash concentrated blight that deals 30.00% (X-?) damage and leaves behind a defiled area, dealing 80% (X) damage over 6 seconds. Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Shadow
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Blight – Blight Slows enemies by 25%
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Paranormal Blight – Blight has a 10% (multiplicative) chance to Stun for 2 seconds each time it deals damage.
(passive) Unliving Energy – Your maximum Essence is increased by 3.
- (1st upgrade) did not pick to save points
(passive) Reconstitution – Your damage has up to a 4% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

(active) Corpse Explosion – Release a vile miasma from a Corpse, dealing 75.00% (X-?) Shadow Damage over X seconds. Detonate a Corpse, dealing X damage to nearby enemies. Cooldown: ? Seconds.
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Explosion Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Horrid Corpse Explosion – Corpse Explosion deals 15% (multiplicative) increased damage to enemies that are Slowed, Stunned or Vulnerable.
(passive) did not invest into the Macabre passives yet to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 ) here we’re taking both Curses

(active 1) Iron Maiden – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Iron Maiden take 10.00% (X-XX) damage each time they deal direct damage. Lasts 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden no longer costs Essence. Instead, gain 5 Essence for each enemy Cursed. Does not work with enemies already cursed with Iron Maiden.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Abhorrent Iron Maiden – Heal for 5% of your maximum Life when an enemy dies while afflicted with Iron Maiden.

(active) Decrepify – Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Decrepify are Slowed by 50% and deal 25% less damage for 10 seconds. Essence Cost: 10 Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Decrepify – Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Abhorent Decrepify – Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 15% chance to reduce your active cooldowns by 1.0 seconds.
(passive) Skeletal Mage Mastery – Increase the damage and Health of your Skeletal Mages by 15%.
(passive) did not invest into other Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

(active DID NOT TAKE IT BUT YOU CAN REMOVE A CURSE FOR IT) Corpse Tendrils – Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20.00% (X-?) damage to them. Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse – Tendrils Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
(2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Horrid Corpse Tendrils – Enemies Stunned by Corpse Tendrils take 40% (multiplicative) more damage from Corpse Explosion.
(passive) Reaper’s Pursuit – Damaging enemies with Darkness Skills increases your Movement Speed by 5% for 3 seconds.
- (upgrade) Crippling Darkness – DID NOT INVEST in this to save points
- (upgrade) Gloom – When you damage enemies with Darkness Skills, they take 2% (multiplicative) increased Shadow Damage for 2 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
- (upgrade) Terror – Darkness Skills deal 5% increased damage against Immobilized, Slowed, or Stunned enemies. This also applies to Shadow Damage dealt by your Minions.

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

(active) Blood Wave – Conjure a tidal wave of blood that deals 90.00% (X-XX) damage and knocks enemies back. Cooldown: 50.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical
(1st upgrade) Prime Blood Wave – Blood Wave Slows enemies by 50% for 4 seconds.
(2nd upgrade) Supreme Blood Wave – Blood Wave leaves behind 3 Blood Orbs as it travels.
(passive) Hellbent Commander – Your Minions deal 10% (multiplicative) increased damage while you are near them.
- (upgrade) Inspiring Command – DID NOT INVEST in this to save points
(passive) Bonded in Essence – Your Minions gain 15% of your Resistances.
- (upgrade) Death’s Defense – DID NOT INVEST in this to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

(passive) Shadowblight – Darkness Skills infect enemies with Shadowblight for 2 seconds. Every 10th time an enemy receives Shadow Damage from you or your Minions while they are affected by Shadowblight, they burst for 20.00% (X-XX) Shadow Damage.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about doing as much shadow dmg hits as possible and focuses on ranged DPS. Sacrificing our melee minions might make it hard by not having a “tank” but it also boosts our dps in a lovely way. As for the types I picked, I’d recommend as follows:

Skeletal Reapers + Sacrifice is what we take for the bonus dps
- Description: Your critical strike chance is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.
Shadow Mages + Upgrade 2 is a good build synergy
- Description: Shadow Mages fire an additional shadow bolt every 6th attack.
Bone Golem + + Sacrifice is what we take for the bonus dps
- Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

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 pre-launch builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Dark Lord) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Helm: Aspect of The Umbral
Amulet: Blighted Aspect
Chest: Sacrificial Aspect
Pants: Aspect of Disobedience
Gloves: Aspect of Shared Misery
Boots: Aspect of The Void
Ring 1: Aspect of Pummeling
Ring 2: Aspect of Retribution
1H Weapon: Aspect of The Damned
Off-hand: Aspect of The Expectant
2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Aspect of The Damned

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

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

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

♦ ◊ ♦ ◊ ♦

This concludes the Dark Lord Necromancer 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)