Diablo 4: Best Rogue leveling build in Season 11

The Rogue remains one of the most versatile classes in Diablo 4, and the Dance of Knives retains its place as the fastest build to level up your character in Season 11. It offers constant area damage while being extremely mobile, making it one of the best setups to clear mobs and elites.

The mechanics of this build are simple and straightforward, so new players can easily get accustomed to it. When built properly, it easily transitions into the harsh endgame of Diablo 4 without having to change much.

In this guide, we will break down how to build the Dance of Knives Rogue, what gear you will need, and how to set up your skills for optimal performance.

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Diablo 4: How does the Dance of Knives Rogue work?

Dance of Knives is one of the most agile skills of the Rogue in Diablo 4 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

The Dance of Knives creates a spinning whirlwind that can easily shred through enemies with minimal effort and with low energy cost. This build doesn't require any major early-game gear setup. The skill rotation is simple; just move around the battlefield while using the Dance of Knives. Uses Shadow Imbuement to take out mobs and Poison Imbuement to take out bosses.

The build receives an immense power boost when you acquire the Aspect of Star Shards; it explodes your blades and deals increased physical damage. Also, combining Vengeful Aspect and Aspect of Arrow Storms allows you to create Arrow Storm when hitting a Vulnerable enemy and using marksman/cutthroat skills, respectively. These aspects give you a massive boost in clearing mobs while leveling.

Also Read: How to get Hesha e Kesungi in Diablo 4 and its Unique Effects

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Diablo 4 Dance of Knives Rogue build: Skills to get for early progression

Here's a look at the skills you need to get early on:

• At the beginning, start with Blade Shift (Enhanced), just to get a skill that can help you right at the beginning.
• Next up, spend some points in Sturdy and Stutter Step. This will unlock the rest of the skill tree to you.
• Immediately spend points in Dance of Knives, and follow up with Disciplined Dance of Knives, which increases the chance for the knives to pierce through enemies while slowing them down.
• Once you have unlocked the subterfuge skill node, get the Dark Shroud first to gain some much-needed damage reduction for battling elites and bosses.
• When you have access to the imbuement node, get Shadow Imbuement, as it deals Vulnerable to enemies, making them susceptible to more damage; this is especially useful when taking down elites and basic mobs. You should also invest in Poison Imbuement, which will help you deal extra damage over time (DoT) to bigger enemies and bosses.
• Acquire Concealment to gain stealth along with Unhindered and Unstoppable while the skill is active.
• For the ultimate skill, you must use Shadow Clones, which increases the damage output of your skills exponentially, bringing out the full potential of the Dance of Knives Rogue build.
• To further increase the damage, make sure to acquire the Momentum key passive; this will allow you to stack both damage-increasing and speed-increasing stats while using Cutthroat skills.

Mastery

Preparation:

Using the Preparation mastery allows you to reset the cooldown of other abilities whenever you cast your Ultimate skill. This allows you to deal burst damage in combat every time you cast your Ultimate.

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Optimal skill rotation while leveling

• Activate Dark Shroud to maintain mobility and damage reduction.
• Enter combat by using Shadow Clones and use it whenever it's available to reduce the cooldown of other skills.
• Use Shadow Imbuement for mobs and elites or Poison Imbuement for bosses and larger enemies.
• Cast Concealment to get yourself out of a sticky situation and get guaranteed critical strikes.
• Spam Dance of Knives and shred through enemies.

Also read - Diablo 4: What to do with Legacy Items

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Diablo 4 Dance of Knives Rogue build: Best gear and aspects to prioritize early

Attaching specific aspects to a build can drastically enhance a build (image via Blizzard Entertainment)

1) Vengeful Aspect (Inferno in Kehjistan)

• Lucky Hit: Damaging a Vulnerable enemy has up to a 25% chance to create an Arrow Storm at the enemy's location, dealing 966 Physical damage over 3 seconds.
• Your Arrow Storms deal 65% increased damage.

2) Aspect of Arrow Storms (Howling Warren in Scosglen)

• Lucky Hit: Your Marksman and Cutthroat Skills have up to a 25% chance to create an Arrow Storm at the enemy's location, dealing 1931 Physical damage over 3 seconds.
• Your Arrow Storms deal 65% increased damage.

3) Aspect of Star Shards

• Knives from Dance of Knives have a 50% chance to shatter into 6 shards of metal on hit, dealing 2384 Physical damage.
• Dance of Knives now Consumes Combo Points, granting up to 3 additional Charges that can exceed the Maximum.

4) Wind Striker Aspect (Shivta Ruins in Kehjistan)

• Critical Strikes grant 19.0%[+] Movement Speed for 1 second, up to 6 seconds.

5) Ravenous Aspect (Shifting City in Dry Stepps)

• Killing a Vulnerable enemy grants you 75.0%[x] increased Energy Regeneration for 4 seconds.

6) Aspect of the Protector (Lost Archives in Fractured Peaks)

• Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to 4718 damage for 10 seconds. This effect can only happen once every 20 seconds.

7) Enshrouding Aspect (Ghoa Ruins in Hawezar)

• Using a Healing Potion makes a free Dark Shroud shadow. Each shadow grants 4.5% increased Damage Reduction.
• You may now drink your Healing Potion while at full Life.

If you can get an Umbrous Aspect, you can include that in your build for a much more effective Dark Shroud.

Also read - Diablo 4: 5 best Rogue builds to try in Season 11

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Diablo 4 Dance of Knives Rogue build: Best gems and runes for the early game

1) Emerald

• +[10-60] dexterity (armor)
• +[12-72]% critical strike damage (weapon)

2) Skull

• +[40-240] armor (jewelry)

3) Cir/Zec

• Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds.
• Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 3 seconds.

4) Zan/Wat

• Cast an Ultimate Skill.
• Invoke the Necromancer's Horrid Decrepify Skill, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.

Also Read - 6 most nerfed builds in Diablo 4 Season 11

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Tips for faster leveling of Dance of Knives Rogue build in Diablo 4 early game

Combining Poison Imbuement with Dance of Knives allows the Rogue to melt down bosses in seconds (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Focus on Helltide Events and Tree of Whisper contracts. For early game progression, these offer the highest amount of experience (XP).

Once you have made it to level 35+, participate in Gathering Legion events and clear out Strongholds to level up optimally.

Leveling in Diablo 4 with the Dance of Knives Rogue is extremely fun; it offers you fast-paced gameplay with extremely high critical scaling. When built properly with the right aspects, like the Aspect of Star Shards, the early game feels super easy.

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Edited by Abu Amjad Khan