I’d really like to try to play an actual ranged build in this game. It was clearly designed for close combat. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can accomplish this?
Ranged Rogues appear to have received a significant amount of love in the patch notes. Go read them and you can quickly determine what to keep an eye out for.
Highly likely a range build will be top tier this season.
Yeah I saw the notes. Hoping for a more specific recommendation from maybe someone that’s tried the various options.
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That’s a good video thx!
Ive been primarily ranged rogue from when I started playing in season 2 until now. I have tried the penetrating shot builds and rapid fire using combos of either shadow/poison or shadow/cold imbues. Both can hit pretty hard, pen shot build is a bit tougher as youre constantly trying to line the mobs up which can be tricky when in dungeons sometimes.
I had fun with the pen shot build but prefer rapid fire instead. Ive got heartseeker, RF, shadow/cold imbue, dark shroud and volley. This spec hits very hard and clears rooms with ease. Cold imbue great for elites and shadow for packs. Im also using combo points btw. Ive sacrificed any defensive abilities or passives in favor of all out damage. Unfortunately I’m only hovering around 18-20% crit at level 70, but the build deals tons of damage. Wish I could up my crit quite a bit more.
I also have a sacred/unique whatever you call it amulet which boosts volley pretty hard and causes that ability to wipe scores of enemies with absolute ease. I find myself more comfortable with RF over pen shot personality. Its a lot more work than it seems lining enemies uo for pen shot all the time, especially in smaller areas or dungeons. I still get decent enough AOE with shadow imbue.
Been playing Ranged Rogues since D3.
In D4 S1 my first toon was the classic Penshot build as per Maxroll guide. I then added Rapid Fire.
D4 S2 I tried the Flurry/Rapid Fire combo build which I liked but I do prefer the pure ranged, no close quarter combat.
When D4 S3 announced the ranged builds were getting a buff I was excited. Back to Penshot/Rapid fire combo. With some new variances with aspects. Still in WT3 at the moment but building up nicely.
I do rely on Maxroll guides a fair bit. With a little experimenting on my own once I get to 100.
Im currently using Luckys Build. I have 40+ crit chance and 700+ crit damage. I have nearly the exact gear shown on the build website.
I take care that im building up my 3 stacks with condemnation before i shoot the shadow imbued arrow into the mobs. Its totally rocking the overworld map but at NM Lvls 70 and above it feels very weak.
I try to improve my movement and positioning but its a stressfull and hard time. I cant imagine doing a lvl 90 NM dungeon with this build. I now have all runes at lvl 15 but not that noticable difference.
I killed Duriel yesterday and got tibaulds and except an uber unique nearly every other “normal” unique.
The penshot damage and 70% poison reduction is enough for a relaxed solo Duriel fight. But higher lvl NM dungeons or the last room of the vaults sometimes it goes bang boom bang and i hit the floor.
The build seems to be very easy to play but doing 1 or 2 errors can be absolutely fatal.
I also had to laugh a bit about myself. I wanted to gather as much ghosts in 70 NM dungeon to nuke them with my stronk rogue. ohhohh… after two hits from the ghosts i died. So now im playing very slow and move carefully.
Isnt there a rogue build thats easier to play for permament noobs like me so i maybe can do higher tier stuff like a lvl 90 NM dungeon? (without using tibaulds/doomslayer/banished lords amuled overpower 1-shot build)
Bone Spear Necromancer.
I provided some direct feedback to Lucky’s build. Some of which was when he had Skyhunter, but the main point below is relevant to you:
Shadow imbuement
You’re committed into shadow imbuement damage, but it’s really tough to get this high. I wonder how this will work out in practice, but my gut feel is your upfront DPS suffers before shadow imbuement clears the room, and your boss damage will be hurt by this anyway. This might be good for teams though.
That’s because he’s maxed out shadow imbuement, +3 imbuements on amulet, a corruption aspect on the amulet, and the Efficacy glyph (though in practice you’d replace Efficacy with Diminish anyway so doesn’t really help your situation). Also with shadow imbuement, the Pride glyph doesn’t work with it.
You can remove the corruption aspect, move accelerating to the amulet and then imprint a 40% edgemaster’s on the crossbow.
Also, what stats, damage and aspect does your weapon have? Is it a bow or crossbow?
And last but not least, have you speced into Advanced Rapid Fire?
Edit: here’s my build planner for inspiration https://maxroll.gg/d4/planner/6z2s0e79#1
It shows a build without shadow imbuement, but you can easily replace concealment with shadow imbuement if you like. See other variants for builds without tibault’s.
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Thank you for the suggestions. Im using a Skyhunter and im using improved rapid fire.
I did some more NM 70 dungeons yesterday and carefully watched what i did. I definitely need better placements of the shots and positioning/moving my rogue better.
Honestly, you don’t need improved rapid fire if you’re also using skyhunter. Skyhunter’s energy regen should keep you topped up with energy if you’re able to attack with maximum precision stacks each time.
You also won’t need innovation, consuming shadows or resource generation affix rolls on items to help with energy sustain for this reason.
And was my other feedback to Lucky for his build 
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Glad I picked PS/RF this season. Able to nuke things from afar even when a braindead Barb charges something out of the way.
So far I liked 2 builds Pen / RF from M1PY and Lucky Luciano .
Just wondering if anyone has tried Robb’s kamehaha build for rogue? I’m going to try respeccing to it when the new event starts as my rogue is not level 100 yet.
I’ve looked at M1py’s, Lucky’s and Sanctum’s builds all using penshot + shadow imbuement.
M1py’s and Sanctum’s builds are quite similar and look pretty decent. Lucky’s build tries to max out shadow imbuement damage but in doing so removes some upfront damage from his core skills, which I have doubts on whether that’s a good idea. Lucky’s one uses icy alchemist though, which seems pretty fun this season.
My Pen/RF no imbuements build is here https://maxroll.gg/d4/planner/6z2s0e79#1
Some reasonings for my choices:
- Doesn’t use shadow imbuement, but you can spec into shadow imbuement by replacing shadow step or concealment. Why no shadow imbuement? While shadow imbuement is not bad, precision - the biggest damage multiplier - doesn’t increase shadow imbuement damage:
- Precision (3.15x)
- Condemnation (1.4x)
- Pride glyph (1.13x)
- Weapon mastery (1.15x)
- Expectant (1.3x)
- and maybe edgemaster’s doesn’t either (1.4x)
- Total: 7.45 multiplier (or more) that doesn’t get applied to shadow imbuement
- Shadow imbuement explosions also don’t get the guaranteed crit
- To make up for no shadow imbuement, the build has the highest consistent raw damage potential overall (crossbow edgemasters for higher numbers, or trickshot for more evenly spread damage) while also having rapid fire for single target
- More tanky and natural movement speed due to having dark shroud/umbrous
- Faster combo point attack cycles since we’re using 2x daggers and getting attack speed nodes in paragon
- Enhanced vs Advanced Penetrating Shot: I’m using Enhanced Penetrating Shot for extra crit chance with puncture for precision stacking, but I could consider switching to Advanced Penetrating Shot to more easily get the control + damage vs crowd controlled damage bonuses
- Core skill damage vs close damage: The build has speced for close damage, but your two weapons can be core damage to increase your AoE damage slightly but decreasing your single target damage
I think that’s actually M1py’s build that Rob showcased in one of his videos, but yeah pretty big damage.
I’ve got 15K armor, 15K life, nearly full DR (close/distance) on Chest/Pants, and nearly full resistances, yet I’m still getting nuked by elemental attacks at 90+ NM dungeons. What am I missing?
How much is nearly full resists? The difference from 60% to 70% resists is effectively 25% DR. Do you also have other forms of DR or umbrous?
I got all glyphs to Lvl 21, resistances all 70, got good gear for my rabbit fire/pen shot rogue. As i was farming NM-dungeons i chose Level 70-80, because than you get 925 item level gear.
I feel comfortable at NM-dungeons up to 80. I adjusted my movement and positioning and now its easier to handle. When i try out a promising build i feel so strong that i just dash into the enemies and think they will all die. Not a good decission if the room is full of ghosts or Maulers that are already in midair ready to jump on me 
.
At higher NM-levels i carefully run into the room, take a quick look around and if theres a delicate situation like descriped above i go back and prepare my ranged attacks.
Thats typicall for me. Playing ranged and jump into large crowds of enemies. 
Maybe i will try a 90+ dungeon today. I guess doing a Lvl 90 vault and survive the last trap room will be the most satisfying thing. 
I confess I am struggling to play this class. Squishy doesn’t even come close. At level 80 I tried Grig and not only did I not have enough dps, he just killed my $$$. Not as young as I used to be but it seems to me it’s not worth the effort.