AlthoughDiablo 4Season 9’s meta seems to be dominated by Spiritborn, Sorcerer, and Necromancer builds, the Rogue has a sneaky setup that can still carry most players through the endgame content. While building a competent Rogue forDiablo 4Season 9 may take a bit of setting up, it can end up being a great option for players looking for a fairly straightforward playstyle. However, the best option for a Rogue build during the Sins of the Horadrim season doesn’t utilize its Core skill in the way most players would expect.
DespiteDiablo 4’s Rogue maintaining a fairly consistent place among the game’s class meta, one of its Core skills has skyrocketed in popularity in recent seasons. Penetrating Shot has never been one of the Rogue’s better Core Skills—usually falling behind skills like Rapid Fire and Twisting Blades—but due to theSeason 9 nerfs toDiablo 4’s Overpower damage, the Rogue’s best builds of the past have slid down the meta, creating room for Penetrating Shot to thrive. Although Penetrating Shot is the focal point of this build, it relies less on the skill itself and far more on how it synergizes with the Azurewrath unique sword.
Diablo 4 Season 9’s Penetrating Shot Rogue Makes Little Use of Penetrating Shot
Penetrating Shot Rogue is a Straighforward Diablo 4 Build in All But Name
Surprisingly, the goal of thePenetrating Shot Rogue Build inDiablo 4Season 9is to deal massive AoE damage to enemies by grouping them together and triggering pockets of Cold damage. While this may go against the conventional wisdom of Penetrating Shot, which typically is used for taking out enemies in a straight line, it’s the moving parts this build surrounds Penetrating Shot with that allow the skill to serve a much different function.
With Penetrating Shot being the primary damaging skill of this build, the rest of the Rogue’s skills are used to help support its agile playstyle. Dash works well for getting players out of dangerous situations, and Smoke Grenade can similarly help byCrowd ControllingDiablo 4’s enemies. Caltrops is a great coverage option when using its Methodical upgrade since it will synergize with the Cold damage that the rest of this build aims to deal. Shadow Clone is the Ultimate skill of choice since it provides a weaker copy of the Rogue to stack damage with, and Shadow Imbuement serves as an additional source of AoE damage.
The Azurewrath Unique Sword Does Most of the Heavy Lifting
While Penetrating Shot may be the name on the box, it’s theAzurewrath unique swordthat is the cornerstone of this build. The Azurewrath comes with the Lucky Hit chance to deal a substantial amount of Cold damage that can be spread over a wide area, thanks to the Trickshot legendary aspect that increases the reach of Penetrating Shot by splitting two arrows off in different directions when the first hits an enemy. What makes this build so powerful is the high Lucky Hit chance that Penetrating Shot has—the highest among all Rogue Core skills at a base of 50%. This makes Penetrating Shot the perfect trigger to consistently activate the Azurewrath’s Lucky Hit affix and cover hordes of enemies in Cold damage.
Other Uniques and Mythics that can improve this build include:
Penetrating Shot Rogues Also Benefit from Horadric Spells in Season 9
This Penetrating Shot Rogue build becomes even more powerful in Season 9 because it can take advantage of oneHoradric Spellset up to further boost its Lucky Hit chance. The Frigid Heart Arcana has a unique effect when paired with the Astral Pillar Catalyst that increases the Rogue’s Lucky Hit chance by 5% for 10 seconds for each enemy that it Freezes. When working in conjunction with Penetrating Shot, Astral Pillar and the Azurewrath’s affixes can quickly dispatch groups of enemies better than Penetrating Shot builds have historically been able to.
