No melee here! We’re anti-meta!
We’re going to pew pew everything from half a screen away and then run because we can’t wreck like WW Barbs!
I’m going with a Vulnerable-focused build with Barrage at its core. Might also try a fully Crit-based build with Rapid Fire or Penetrating Shot.
What you guys doing?
I just wanted to play an amazon again or something closer to the demon hunter. Ranged rogue felt so bad, I struggled to find a single interesting spell. Doubt I will try them anytime soon.
That would be me! I don’t want to replay my WoW rogue or hunter. I want something in between. Specifically, ranged plus cold!
Penetrating shot was definitely my favorite ranged skill and one of my favorite skills overall across all classes.
Even though I didn’t have any legendaries that specifically buffed it, penetrating shot just felt so impactful. I’m not even talking damage. More of just the feel of it (animation, sound, etc). It just felt solid and powerful.
So penetrating shot rogue is definitely high on my list of builds I will be using first.
My second character is going to be a ranged rogue…right after I finish up my melee one 
. There is no other class, but there is item sharing . GLHF!
After going through a few guides online and realising how Heartseeker isn’t in any meta builds, I felt sad.
As much as I want to be a ‘ranged-only’ rogue, most of my setup is at the mercy of my gearing.
But yes, I’m still going for Heartseeker + whatever my gear’s skill provides me with, and would most likely create a hybrid between the two.
D1 was my first rogue. I miss it. Arguably, it was not named correctly to begin with, because its forte was ranged damage and should have been named something like “archer”.
Now it’s been infused with the melee meaning of “rogue”. Those should be two separate classes in my book. Although I guess it makes sense for the Diablo devs to roll them into one.
In D4, because they rolled both the rogues and archers into one class, they apparently made melee rogues do more damage than ranged rogues. Because ostensibly, ranged characters take less damage.
Playing solo, I don’t see that.
However, I’ve only ever had fun playing any Diablo version in a group, and I will be in D4. They are all long time friends and family, so they don’t care if my toon is effective or not. But I do.
So, yeah, I’m in - Full Ranged Rogue. I don’t really know how to do that yet, although I did see a Rapid Fire video that looked interesting. So I’ll be listening to what you all have to say instead of contributing at first.
I wanted to go with a rapid shot rogue for bosses, but the game is built around needing AoE.
I specced Shadow imbuent and it adds an AoE explosion to mobs that die.
Also using Caltrops to CC mobs in bottlenecks.
Seems to be working good so far.
Yeah I’ve experienced a few deaths getting mobbed but getting better with using caltrops and dash to stay at range. Really been focused on a cold rogue but has anyone else had any luck or aware of any skill/gear combo to curb immobilization? Seem to be more enemies that lock you down in this game or it could just be me.
Bow rogue here. My brother, who plays a melee rogue suggested I use the shadow orbs thingy that reduces your dmg taken, but Caltrops works a lot better for me. The shadow orb thingy gets consume in a matter of seconds and is on a 20 second cooldown.
I use poison trap and rapid fire.
Rapid Fire is excellent for single-target, but for AOE clearing, it is abysmal.
Penetrating Shot with its accompanied legendary effect plus Shadow Imbue = small mob screen clear. Can be good against elites and bosses too if they are surrounded by small mobs. Otherwise, it is abysmal for single-target.
So it would seem that for either of these skills, you need a 2nd skill as a back-up to cover their weakness. Which is kinda lame. Would like a legendary effect of some kind that would shore up these weaknesses. Or something.
I haven’t tried Barrage, but it seems for single target, you need to point-blank shotgun it, or use a different skill. I don’t know how good it is for that though.
I now have an AoE “Nuke” combo at level 30:
I pop Shroud, drop Caltrops, hit Shadow Imbue, Hit Rain of Arrows and then spam Barrage.
Everything large pack is obliterated.
Feels soooo good.
Ive been using poison trap with rapid shot and twisting blades. Heartseeker, poison imbue and dash. This has been working well for me and on veteran I am level 20 and havent died. Poison trap knocks down, imbue to melee into twisting blades, dash through for the return blades, imbue again then burn them down with rapid fire. That said - I may trade out rapid fire for rain of arrows.
All in all, I am trying to plan around this. I want to try and build something mobile that uses both blades and bow.
I wish Multi Shot was available.
Bow and arrow for lifeee.
I haven’t looked up any builds or guides and so far I’m really liking my Barrage Rogue at level 36. She’s using the Shadow Imbuement with poison traps (knockdown) and the Shadow Clone. I have the Arrow Storm aspect and I just cleared the stronghold at Vyeresz so I can hit that dungeon and get Branching Volleys.
Been playing penetrating shot with Shadow imbue for aoe and Poison imbue for st and have been destroying pretty much anything I do with tier 3 including +12 nightmars.
I’m experiencing the same now that I’ve gotten my legendary picks and a full set of sacred items. The 45-53 level range was rough for me though.