Heartseeker Rogue Endgame Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

Build Introduction

The Heartseeker Rogue is the easiest-to-play build within the class, mainly focused on simply casting a Basic Skill repeatedly to deal damage. The newly buffed Victimize passive in Season 4 enables Heartseeker to deal high single-target damage, while the explosions kill any nearby enemies. This S-Tier ranked build requires well-rolled gear to truly perform in the highest Tiers of The Pit.

The only starting requirement for this endgame build guide is a character around Level 50 in World Tier 3. Check our Rogue Leveling Guide if you need help getting there.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Skill Bar Setup for the Heartseeker Rogue (order does not matter)

Heartseeker Flurry Dash Shadow Step Smoke Grenade Caltrops

The Skill Tree above shows the full allocation of 58 Skill Points for the Heartseeker Rogue build. Make sure you obtain the 10 Skill Points available from Renown.

Dark Shroud is not equipped on the Skill Bar, but instead activated through Umbrous Aspect.

Heartseeker Rogue Specialization

Combo Points is the preferred Rogue Specialization for the +45% Attack Speed bonus from Flurry when casted with 3 Combo Points. The constant spamming of Heartseeker rapidly generates Combo Points, and Flurry only needs to be cast every 3 seconds when maximum damage output is needed.

For a more simplified damage rotation, Inner Sight can selected instead for a specialization that is activated automatically and requires no management. Swap Flurry for Enhanced Poison Trap or Subverting Concealment in this setup.

Paragon

Paragon unlocks after reaching Level 50, and the progression system offers a considerable boost to character power. The images below provide a visual of each Paragon Board setup for the Heartseeker Rogue.

Important Notes:

• Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the correct orientation.
• Attach Legendary Boards in the correct order, as bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order.
• Additional bonus requirements on Rare Glyphs may not be obtainable until they gain increased radius range at Level 15.

1. Starting Board (Ranger)

Socket Ranger for some much needed Damage Reduction that is always active while casting Heartseeker. The bonus effect only becomes inactive for a brief moment right after casting Shadow Step or Dash.

2. Tricks of the Trade (Exploit)

Rotate the Tricks of the Trade board 2 times before attachment. Socket Exploit for Vulnerable damage to scale explosion damage from Victimize. Prioritize leveling Exploit to 15 for increased radius, as it is needed to allocate enough Strength to activate the additional bonus. The Legendary node on this board is not utilized.

3. Cheap Shot (Chip)

Rotate the Cheap Shot board 3 times before attachment. Immediately obtain the Legendary node on this board. Socket Chip to increase Physical damage, since the Heartseeker Rogue does not use any elemental imbuements.

4. Exploit Weakness (Control)

Rotate the Exploit Weakness board 2 times before attachment. Immediately obtain the Legendary Node on this board. Socket Control for a larger than usual multiplier that is activated through Lucky Hit Chance to Freeze/Stun tempers.

5. Deadly Ambush (Pride)

Rotate the Deadly Ambush board 1 time before attachment. Socket Pride to gain a damage multiplier and boost the Damage Reduction on Cunning. Finish the route with the easy to obtain nearby Legendary node, which is activated from the Trap Skill, Caltrops.

Paragon Board images courtesy of d4builds.gg. Click this link for the Paragon planner.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

Season 4 brings an incredible shift in character progression systems. The major rework to itemization and crafting in Patch 1.4.0 changes the core mechanics of Diablo 4, and the changes will remain in effect beyond Season 4. For further details, read the overview in the Tempering and Masterworking section.

Legendary Aspects

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects for the Heartseeker Rogue build. Salvage Legendary Items with higher Aspect values to unlock them in the Codex of Power, and then imprint them onto Legendary Items with the preferred affixes.

Gear Slot	Aspect Name	Aspect Power
Ranged Weapon	Aspect of the Moonrise	Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining x [40 – 80%] Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
Amulet	Aspect of Adaptability	When cast below 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills generate 3 of your Primary Resource, once per cast. When cast at or above 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills deal x [20 – 80%] increased damage.
Dual-Wielded Weapons or Rings	Aspect of Retribution	Distant enemies have a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds when they hit you. You deal [15 – 30%] increased damage to Stunned and Knocked Down enemies.
Dual-Wielded Weapons or Rings	Rapid Aspect	Basic Skills gain [15 – 30%] Attack Speed.
Dual-Wielded Weapons or Rings	Aspect of Elements	Gain x [20 – 30%] increased damage to a set of damage types for 7 seconds. This effect alternates between 2 sets: • Fire, Lightning, and Physical. • Cold, Poison, and Shadow.
Dual-Wielded Weapons or Rings	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [15 – 25%] for 3 seconds.
Helm (replaced by Harlequin Crest)	Frostbitten Aspect	Enemies hit by your Grenade Skills have a chance equal to your Critical Strike Chance to be Frozen for 2 seconds. You deal x [10 – 25%] increased Critical Strike Damage against Frozen or Stunned enemies. (only used for the damage multiplier, not the Grenade Skills effect)
Gloves (optional replacement with Fists of Fate)	Aspect of Concussive Strikes	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 20% chance to Daze them for 2 seconds. You deal x [5 – 20%] increased damage to Dazed enemies.
Chest	Umbrous Aspect	Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes with Marksman Skills have up to a [40 – 60%] chance to grant a free Dark Shroud shadow.
Pants	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2 – 6] seconds
Boots	Aspect of Quickening Fog	You automatically drop a Smoke Grenade at the end of Dash. Smoke Grenades reduce Dash’s Cooldown by [0.4 – 0.6] seconds for each enemy hit, up to [2.0 – 3.0] seconds.

Gems

Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each item type.

Slot	Gems
Weapon	Royal Sapphire for increased Vulnerable Damage.
Armor	Royal Ruby for increased Maximum Life.
Jewelry	Any Resistance Gems needed or Royal Skull for Armor (up to 9,230 Armor cap).

Elixirs

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Elixirs can also drop randomly from enemies and chests during many activities in Diablo 4. Listed below are the best Elixirs to consume, ranked by importance.

1. Elixir of Precision provides the highest damage output increase, if not already capped at 100% Critical Strike Chance.
2. Elixir of Advantage increases damage output, if not already capped at 100% Attack Speed bonus from gear and Paragon.
3. Elixir of Fortitude is the best general purpose option for survivability.
4. Specific Resistance Elixirs can be utilized to survive against Uber Bosses with elemental attacks.

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for Heartseeker Rogues. Each line of affixes are listed in order of importance. Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important, but their benefits may vary depending on how much is stacked or other character stats. Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades.

When comparing Legendary weapons with similar item levels, Crossbows are preferred over Bows for the Vulnerable Damage implicit stat. One-Handed Weapons are not used to attack with, so they are only beneficial for their stat increases. Equip Daggers if you prefer attacking close to enemies, or equip Swords if you play mostly at range.

Victimize increases the priority of Vulnerable Damage to scale its explosion damage.

The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow. Maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Check the Tempering and Masterworking section for more details on Blacksmith upgrading.

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Weapons	1. Maximum Life, Vulnerable Damage 2. Life on Hit, Dexterity	Basic Augments — Rogue (Weapon): Chance for Heartseeker Projectiles to Cast Twice (up to 100% maximum chance, and then temper Caltrops Duration or Caltrops Size from Trap Augments) Cutthroat Finesse (Offensive): Vulnerable Damage
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction, Lucky Hit Chance 2. Resistances, Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity	Natural Schemes (Utility): Crowd Control Duration Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor or Maximum Life
Chest	1. Ranks to Dark Shroud 2. Resistances, Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity	Worldly Fortune (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Freeze Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor or Maximum Life
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance, Lucky Hit Chance, Attack Speed 2. Vulnerable Damage, Resistances, Armor 3. Maximum Life, Dexterity	Cutthroat Finesse (Offensive): Vulnerable Damage Daze Control (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Daze
Pants	1. Ranks to Heartseeker 1. Resistances, Armor 2. Maximum Life, Dexterity	Worldly Fortune (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Immobilize Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Armor or Maximum Life
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Resistances, Armor 3. Ranks to Dash, Maximum Life, Dexterity	Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed Worldly Fortune (Utility): Lucky Hit Chance to Stun
Amulet	1. Ranks to Exploit, Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed 2. Lucky Hit Chance, Cooldown Reduction 2. Movement Speed, Armor	Cutthroat Finesse (Offensive): Vulnerable Damage Natural Motion (Mobility): Movement Speed
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance, Lucky Hit Chance, Lucky Hit Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable (only needed on 1 Ring), Attack Speed 2. Vulnerable Damage, Resistances 3. Maximum Life	Agility Efficiency (Resource): Agility Cooldown Reduction Cutthroat Finesse (Offensive): Vulnerable Damage

Unique Items

Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for the Heartseeker Rogue build. Each item description includes the most important affix to target for Masterworking upgrades.

• Harlequin Crest (recommended) provides a good amount of offense and defense, if you are lucky enough to find this Uber Unique Item.
  • Masterworking Priority: Cooldown Reduction
• Fists of Fate (optional) increases overall damage by 50% with a 300% value on the unique effect. They are comparable to well-rolled Legendary Gloves with Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, and an Offensive Aspect. The downside is the drastic damage range of the unique effect can cause an inconsistency in the hits required to kill enemies.
  • Masterworking Priority: Lucky Hit Chance to Immobilize or Daze

Season 4: Loot Reborn

The following list details the changes in the Season 4 Update (Patch 1.4.0) that may pertain to Heartseeker Rogues. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates.

• Victimize
  • Fixed an issue where this wasn’t activating and scaling from certain instances.
  • Increased chance to proc from 45% to 50%.
• Exploit Weakness
  • Maximum increased damage buffed from 15%[x] to 25%[x].
• Frostbitten Aspect
  • Previous – Chilled enemies hit by your Grenade Skills have a chance equal to double your Critical Strike Chance to be instantly Frozen for 2 seconds. You deal x10-25% increased Critical Strike Damage against Frozen enemies.
  • Now – Enemies hit by your Grenade Skills have the same chance as your Critical Strike Chance to be Frozen for 2 seconds. You deal x10-25% increased Critical Strike Damage to Stunned or Frozen enemies.

Advanced Information

Additional details are provided in the following sections for a more in-depth explanation of the Heartseeker Rogue. Read this advanced information after understanding the basic overview of the build in the previous sections.

Build Mechanics

The Heartseeker Rogue focuses on increasing Basic Skill damage with massive multipliers from Aspect of the Moonrise and Aspect of Adaptability. Primary Heartseeker allows for 2 hits per cast, even against an individual target due to the seeking property of the skill.

Victimize synergies well with Heartseeker due to its high base Attack Speed and decent Lucky Hit Chance. The damage from Victimize explosions scales massively with increased Vulnerable damage to deal much more damage than the original Heartseeker hits, and they are extremely useful for killing groups of enemies.

The Lucky Hit Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable affix is only needed on one of your Rings for consistent application.

Dark Shroud is not equipped on the Skill Bar. Dark Shrouds stacks are instead rapidly generated through Umbrous Aspect with the high Attack Speed of Heartseeker.

Smoke Grenade can be casted manually from the Skill Bar, or auto-casted through Aspect of Quickening Fog by using Dash. Aspect of Quickening Fog also reduces the cooldown of Dash when enemies are hit by a Smoke Grenade from either source. Use Dash offensively to land on top of enemies and Daze them, while applying Enhanced Smoke Grenade for enemies to take 25% increased damage.

Caltrops increases damage enemies take from you by 10% each second they are affected and lasts for 7 seconds by default, resulting in Enhanced Caltrops reaching a maximum damage increase of +45%. Increasing the time limit with the Caltrops Duration temper allows Caltrops to build up to a higher maximum damage increase.

Crowd Controls and Boss Stagger

Lucky Hit Chance to Freeze/Daze/Immobilize/Slow tempers, Smoke Grenade, and Aspect of Concussive Strikes are utilized to Crowd Control normal and elite enemies, activating Frigid Finesse, Aspect of Retribution, and Control for massive damage increases. These damage bonuses do not apply to bosses unless they are Staggered. Repeated Crowd Controls of the same type in a short duration apply less Stagger to bosses, so separate sources of Crowd Controls are tempered for maximum effect. Make sure to optimize damage against Staggered bosses by building up the Enhanced Caltrops damage bonus ahead of time.

Damage Rotation

Use the following rotation to optimize damage output.

1. Cast Flurry with 3 Combo Points to gain +45% Attack Speed bonus.
2. Initiate combat with one of the following Skills:
   • Dash on top of enemies to apply Enhanced Dash and automatically drop a Smoke Grenade.
   • Cast Shadow Step on an enemy to close the gap and apply Enhanced Shadow Step.
   • Cast Smoke Grenade to Daze enemies from a distance while running up to them.
3. Against bosses or tough elites, cast Caltrops on top of them to apply Enhanced Caltrops.
4. Spam Heartseeker to deal damage.

Tempering and Masterworking

The Season 4 update (Patch 1.4.0) introduces a rework for itemization. Tempering and Masterworking brings the biggest change to itemization since the release of Diablo 4, so make sure you understand the new systems explained in this section.

The amount of affixes on items has been changed to reflect its rarity: Normal Items have no affixes, Magic Items have 1 affix, Rare Items have 2 affixes, Legendary Items have 3 affixes, and Unique Items have 4 affixes. Upgrading a Rare Item to a Legendary Item by imprinting a Legendary Aspect from the Codex of Power will not add a third affix. Therefore, Legendary Items are superior to lower rarity items for a min-maxed character.

Greater Affixes are a newly added mechanic that increases the value of an affix by 50%. Ancestral Legendary Items and Unique Items can now drop with up to 4 Greater Affixes! Search for items with your preferred Greater Affixes to upgrade with Tempering and Masterworking.

Tempering and Masterworking is an important system, even mandatory in the endgame, for character progression. You are able to add 2 additional affixes on any Rare Item or Legendary Item, exclusive to the Tempering System. An Ancestral Legendary Item can have up to 5 total affixes! Unfortunately, Unique Items cannot be tempered to add affixes.

Masterworking uses new crafting materials found in The Pit to further enhance the stats of an item. These upgrades can be applied on an Ancestral Legendary Item that has its Tempering Slots filled out. Unique Items can be upgraded with Masterworking right away, as tempering does not apply to them. Each item has 12 upgrade slots. On upgrade Ranks 4, 8, and 12, a random affix is increased in value by 25%. Every other upgrade Rank applies a 5% increase to all affixes on an item. Attempt to apply the bonus 25% upgrade to your preferred affix multiple times by resetting the Masterworking Ranks to repeat the process.

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Use Obols on your target equipment for a chance to receive Greater Affixes. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.

Changelog

• May 26th, 2024: Guide created.