Diablo 4: Best AOE Class [Rogue Build]

Diablo 4 has four classes, each having different attributes. To build a class with a decent AOE, you must tune them accordingly. Here, I have showcased my build using the Rogue class with a significant AOE, along with other adjustments for close-range battles and much more.

Also being an all-rounder Solo class, Rogue is ideal mainly because it offers skills. Whether it’s the close-range battles or large swarms of enemies, you have it all covered. You might have to grind a bit for this one to become perfect, but the merits are excellent.

Skills

Skill	Type	Description	Upgrades
Puncture	Basic Marksman	It throws blades at a short distance dealing 21% damage. Every 3rd shot slows enemies by 20% for 3 seconds	Enhanced Puncture, Fundamental Puncture
Twisting Blades	Core Imbueable, Cutthroat	Impales enemies using blades doing 63% damage. Blades return after 1.5 seconds to give 101% damage by piercing. Impaled enemies take x8% damage.	Enhanced Twisting Blades, Advanced Twisting Blades
Dash	Agility Imbueable, Cutthroat	Player dashes forward and slashes any enemy in its path to deal 37% damage	Enhanced Dash, Disciplined Dash
Shadow Step	Agility Imbueable, Cutthroat	Player goes through enemies and stabs behind their backs dealing 72% damage. Movement also increases by 20% for 2 seconds when ability ends.	Enhanced Shadow Step, Methodical Shadow Step
Poison Imbuement	Imbuement	Applies deadly poison to your weapons. Upcoming 2 skills deal Poison damage. Applies 100% of their base damage as poisoning damage for 5 seconds.	Enhanced Poison Imbuement, Blended Poison Imbuement
Rain of Arrows	Ultimate Imbueable, Marksman	Rain of Arrows is called 2 times upon a massive area dealing 100% damage.	Prime Rain of Arrows, Supreme Rain of Arrows

Diablo 4: Skills for AOE Class [Rogue Build]

1.Puncture

The basic skill allows you to deal with enemies at close range. It throws blades for a short distance, dealing massive damage. It will be beneficial when you cannot perform the Rain of Arrows.

Moving towards its two enhancements, the first is “Enhanced Puncture,” which regenerates Energy when hitting a Crowd Controlled Enemy. The second one, “Fundamental Puncture,” increases the output of this skill immensely by increasing the number of blades and imparting a “Vulnerable” effect.

2. Shadow Step

It is a movement-based ability that makes you move through any number of opponents while hitting them in the back. The main advantage comes when you get cornered and need a way out of the tough situation. Once it ends, you will also get a minor movement boost of 2 seconds.

The later upgrades of Shadow Step increase the “Critical Strike Chance,” which, combined with similar buffs, will help you easily eliminate large hoards of monsters. Moving further one step, the enemies will get stunned for 2 seconds, giving them a window to attack them using Punctured or Twisting Blades.

3. Dash

In my opinion, Dash is a necessary ability for this class because Rogue builds primarily focus on agility, whether it’s the DPS, AOE, or any other build. Using Dash, you move forward quickly and slash enemies on the way, along with a chance to get a “Lucky Hit.” You will be required to use it pretty often in fights.

My build uses this because the dashed monsters get more damage after the upgrades and get slowed or dazed. Similar to Shadow Step, it will come in handy between the ultimate attacks.

4. Twisting Blades

I recommend using Twisting Blades for short-distance combat. It enables you to use two blades that impale the enemies, and then they return back to you after 1.5 seconds. When coming back, they pierce through anyone dealing damage.

Maxing them out buffs up the damage and decreases the cooldown of your other abilities. This is helpful since you need to use the Rain of Arrows a lot more in some scenarios. Using this ability in between will help you do it efficiently.

5. Poison Imbuement

It is one of the imbuement techniques I have on my build. You can go for Shadow or Cold imbuement, too, but this one gives the most advantage in fights as compared to others when used individually. Poison Imbuement imbues your weapons with a deadly poison that vandalizes the enemy and retains the effect for 5 seconds in the base form.

The upgrades for this skill increase its effective time and output damage. According to my understanding, it is the key ability for the ultimate attack because when combined with other techniques, Rain of Arrows will vanquish most of the monsters in its way, thanks to the abovementioned effects.

6. Rain Of Arrows

It is the core skill of my AOE build using the Rogue class. As the name suggests, Rain of Arrows deals damage of 100% to a large area twice once you call the attack. The only negative of this skill is the massive cooldown time of 60 seconds.

To bump up the damage stats, I chose various aspects, passive skills, and active skills. The major ones that directly benefit it are the Imbuement Skills, which are in effect simultaneously in this attack using the “Word of Hakan” amulet. The corresponding passive skills of the Imbuement class give a significant boost to this attack.

Skill Tree

The skill tree for my build is given below. It includes all the points I have allocated to various skills to make this build possible.

Basic Skills

Skill	Points Alloted
Puncture	1/5
Enhanced Puncture	1/1
Fundamental Puncture	1/1

Core Skills

Skill	Points Alloted
Twisting Blades	5/5
Enhanced Twisting Blades	1/1
Advanced Twisting Blades	1/1

Agility Skills

Skills	Points Alloted
Shadow Step	1/5
Enhanced Shadow Step	1/1
Methodical Shadow Step	1/1
Dash	1/5
Enhanced Dash	1/1
Disciplined Dash	1/1

Imbuement Skills

In addition to the Poison Imbuement, I also have Shadow and Cold Imbuements in my arsenal. The first one is presented in detail in the “Skills” section, so let’s move forward to the other two.

• Shadow Imbuement

It is similar to the Poison Imbuement in terms of working; however, instead of Poison, it imbues the weapons with festering shadows or infections. Once the skill is active, your upcoming two attacks will have their effects, and enemies will get infected for 6 seconds if hit by these attacks.

These shadows/infections deal 40% damage to that enemy itself if it doesn’t die in the ability’s active time. However, the victim explodes on death and deals 40% damage to its neighboring. The further upgrades increase the Critical Strike Chance by 15% and 12% more Non-Physical Damage for the victim enemies for 8 seconds.

• Cold Imbuement

Similarly, Cold Imbuement makes your next two moves inflict a cold effect on the enemies. Those attacks will deal with Cold Damage and Chill them for 25% per hit.

The upgrades include a Lucky Hit chance to make enemies Vulnerable if hit by Cold Imbuement up to 30%. The final one is the same skill that will impart 20% damage to Crowd Control Enemies and 40% to Frozen ones. I suggest using these as they effectively deal with large hoards of monsters.

Skills	Points Alloted
Shadow Imbuement	1/5
Enhanced Shadow Imbuement	1/1
Mixed Shadow Imbuement	1/1
Poison Imbuement	1/5
Enhanced Poison Imbuement	1/1
Blended Poison Imbuement	1/1
Cold Imbuement	1/5
Enhanced Cold Imbuement	1/1
Mixed Cold Imbuement	1/1

Ultimate Skills

Skills	Points Alloted
Rain of Arrows	1/1
Prime Rain of Arrows	1/1
Supreme Rain of Arrows	1/1

Passive Skills

These passive skills complement the other active skills in my build and boost their respective abilities. Additionally, they provide many advantageous buffs like increased Max Health, Health Regeneration, and Damage Reduction, which are vital for battle survival. Their effects get a huge increment due to the specific combination.

Skill	Description	Points Alloted
Sturdy	You gain 12% close damage reduction	3/3
Siphoning Strikes	Heal for 3% max hp when you critical hit a close enemy	3/3
Weapon Mastery	Gain a bonus when attacking based on weapon type: -Daggers: 15% increased damage to Healthy enemies. -Swords: 9% increased damage. -Bows: 12% increased damage to vulnerable enemies. -Crossbows: 15% increased Critical Strike Damage.	3/3
Exploit	You deal 18% increased damage to Healthy and injured enemies	3/3
Malice	You deal 9% increased damage to vulnerable enemies.	3/3
Precision Imbuement	Imbued Skills gain 9% increased Critical Strike Chance	3/3
Deadly Venom	Deals 9% increased Poisoning Damage	3/3
Debilitating Toxins	Poisoned Enemies deal 5% less damage	1/3
Frigid Finesse	You deal 15% increased damage to Chilled enemies. For Frozen enemies, it increases to 30%	3/3
Invervation	Lucky Hit: Upto 10% chance to get 8 Energy	1/3
Second Wind	Every 100 Energy spending gives a 5% increased chance to get Lucky Hit for 5 seconds.	1/3
After Math	Using Ultimate Skill restores 50 Energy	2/3
Momentum	Cutthroat Skills grant a stack of Momentum for 8 seconds if they either: -Hit a Stunned, Dazed, or frozen enemy. -Hit any enemy from behind. While at 3 stacks of Momentum, you gain: -20% increased Damage Reduction -30% [x] increased Energy Regeneration -15% [x] increased movement speed	1/1

• For the passive skills, start by leveling each of them individually, only to Rank 1.
• According to the table, as you progress and gather more points, you can focus on maxing them out.
• I suggest your main focus should be on the skills related to Imbuement, as they play a key role in your build.
• You can leave the others for the end. However, balancing offensive and defensive skills worked best in my playthrough. Level them up equally, or else none of your abilities will be able to keep you alive.
• I advise leaving the passive skills in the Ultimate section for the end. They are only good if your other ones are upgraded.

Aspects

Aspect	Description	Used on Gear
Aspect of Disobedience	Player gains 0.25 – 0.5% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal damage of 25 – 50%	Helm
Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 25% damage reduction for 2 – 6 seconds	Chest Armor
Aspect of Corruption	Imbuement Skills have 20 – 40% more potency against Vulnerable enemies	Gloves
Temerity	– Briefly grants Movement Speed – Potion Charges – Potion Drop Rate – Lucky Hit: Chance to Heal – Healing – Effects that you heal you beyond 100% Life grant you a barrier of 40 – 80% of your Maximum Life that lasts for 8 seconds.	Pants
Ravager’s Aspect	Shadow Step’s charge increases by 1. Killing enemy with this ability refunds the charge and increases its damage by 1 – 6% for 2 seconds, goes upto 5 – 30%	Boots
Bladedancer’s Aspect	Twisting Blades orbit you for short time doing 10 – 15% of their return damage. Based on the distance of return, the orbiting blades damage increases upto 20 – 30% of return damage	Ranged Weapon
Word of Hakan	It increases: – Non-Physical Damage – Ultimate Skill Damage – Critical Strike Damage for Imbuement Skills – Ranks to Imbuement Skills It also imbues all Imbuement Skills to your Rain of Arrows at once everytime.	Amulet
Aspect of Bursting Venoms	Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes with Imbuement Skills have a 10% chance to make a toxic Pool. Inside Toxic Pool: – Enemies get Poison Damage for 3 seconds – Poison Imbuement doesn’t have any Charge Limit or Cooldown.	Ring 1
Aspect of Arrow Storms	Lucky Hit: Marksman Skills have 10% chance to make Arrow Storms at enemy’s location. In Arrow Storm, enemies get physical damage for 3 seconds. You can have 5 active arrow storms.	Ring 2
Accelarating Aspect	Core Skills’ Critical Strikes increase Attack Speed by 15-25% for 5 seconds	Dual-Wielded Weapon 1
Conceited Aspect	Inside an active Barrier. deal 15-25% increased damage	Dual-Wielded Weapon 2

Gems

Type	Gem	Effect
Weapon	Emerald	Increases Critical Damage to Vulnerable enemies by 12%
Armor	Ruby	Increases Maximum Life by 4%
Jewelry	Skull	Increases Armor by 250

Looking at the stats of my build, the Emerald and Ruby are of major significance. Emerald allows you to give more Critical Damage to vulnerable enemies that will most likely occur due to your other skills. Ruby works closely with Siphoning because it heals you according to your maximum life.

I suggest adding Skull to Jewelry to improve the defenses and to ensure you don’t die quickly. You can swap them with any other gems you see fit, but these are the best ones I think might work out here.

For more details, check Diablo 4 Best Gems.

My Thoughts On Best AOE Class

In my experience, the Rogue is the best class for an AOE build. I used the Rain of Arrows and Twisting Blades as my prime attack, which gets significantly boosted when combined with other skills and attributes. For better DPS of primary skills, I recommend investing skill points in all imbuements and upgrading them to the maximum level.

I chose the Aspect of Disobedience, Aspect of Might, and Temerity for my build to increase the survival rate by improving Armor and adding healing effects. Furthermore, the gems I selected enhanced my build significantly by boosting healing, armor, and critical damage. Overall, the rest of the skills worked closely to complement each other and give out the maximum damage over a larger area.

Do check out these guides:

• Diablo 4 World Boss Times And Location.
• Diablo 4 Codex Of Power.