Diablo 4: Complete Twisting Blades Rogue leveling guide

Twisting Blades Rogue in Diablo 4 is the class you choose if you prefer to hit the enemy fast and hard. Based on dexterity and critical damage, Rogues rely on their mobility to maneuver around the enemies while dealing massive damage to them. They can use melee weapons like daggers and swords or ranged weapons like bows and crossbows — even both if you prefer a mixed build. This fast-paced combat style is preferred by players looking for a more close-quarters, involved playstyle.

Multiple types of builds can be created using the Rogue class in Diablo 4. Here, we will learn how to develop and use the Twisting Blade build.

Pros and Cons: Should you play Twisting Blades Rogue in Diablo 4 Season 7?

Although Twisting Blades was nerfed right after the game's launch, it remains one of the more versatile builds in Diablo 4.

Pros

High mobility.
Extremely versatile.
Amazing AoE damage output.
Perfect for power leveling and farming.
Ability to kite enemies.

Cons

Weak defensive abilities.
Low damage against a single target.
Hard to master.
Requires specific legendary aspects to unlock full potential.

How to play Twisting Blades Rogue in Diablo 4 Season 7

Twisting Blades is a two-step melee assault — you deal moderate damage to one enemy, and after a brief pause, the blades return to you from that enemy's position. These returning blades are the build's core and what you need to master to succeed. On their path back, they hit all enemies for high damage.

Combining Twisting Blades with various mobility skills like Evade, ‍Dash, or ShadowStep, you can annihilate entire groups of enemies at once while the blades return to you. These returning blades can rotate around you with the Bladedancer's Aspect, transforming you into a walking storm as you move across the map in Diablo 4.

There are many variants of Twisting Blades; by combining the core skill with different Imbuements (such as poison, shadow, and cold) and various other effects, they can be altered to the player’s preference. Imbuements such as Shadow Imbuement have high damage over time (DoT) potential, dealing continuous damage to the enemy while you cast other skills.

Build requirements for Twisting Blades Rogue

Skill Bar (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Essentials (Puncture and Twisting Blades)

In the beginning, pick Puncture as your basic skill; this will help replenish your energy while applying Vulnerable to enemies with quick attacks.
Get Twisting Blades as the core damage skill.
Use Puncture to generate combo points for Twisting Blades.

Agility (Dash)

Use Dash to quickly move out of tough situations while dealing damage.
Dedicate points to Weapon Mastery for an increased damage output to both injured and healthy enemies.

Imbuements (Shadow Imbuement)

Shadow Imbuement is the focus point of this build. Activating it gives extra Damage over Time (DoT) and an increased critical hit chance. While applying vulnerable to enemies. This can be made more effective if we use the Aspect of Corruption, which increases the damage output towards vulnerable enemies.

Subterfuge (Dark Shroud)

Gain some damage reduction while using Dark Shroud, all the while increasing your movement speed and critical hit chance.
Dedicate points towards Exploit (increased damage dealt to both healthy and injured enemies) and Malice (increased damage towards vulnerable enemies).

Ultimate (Shadow Clone)

Use Shadow Clone as your ultimate skill to multiply your damage as the clone deals damage to your enemies while you receive Unstoppable and Stealth.
Dedicate points towards Unto Dawn (45% increased damage of the ultimate) and Haste for increased movement speed.

Key Passive (Victimize)

Since we are applying Vulnerable to enemies, we will go with Victimize as the key passive skill. Further increasing the damage dealt to vulnerable enemies with a 50% chance of explosion.

Skill rotation

Mobbing

Build combo points with Puncture for Twisting Blades while Shadow Imbued. Doing so, you might score a few lucky hits, activating Victimize, which triggers an explosion that deals extra damage.
Use Twisting Blades to barrage enemies with continuous damage. If they are vulnerable, they will take increased damage. If you have Bladedancer's Aspect attached, the blades will circle you for a few seconds, dealing damage to enemies around you.
Use Dash to move away if you get overwhelmed while dealing damage to enemies as you pass through them. If they are vulnerable, they might again activate Victimize.
If you feel overwhelmed, activate Dark Shroud to increase your defense and movement speed.

Bossing

This is where Fundamental Puncture comes into play, using puncture to apply a guaranteed Vulnerable on the enemy. Attacking a vulnerable enemy has a chance to activate Victimize, dealing massive damage.
Have Shadow imbued skill activated to apply Vulnerable on enemies and deal extra damage over time. On cooldown, activate Shadow clones, who will mimic your actions while multiplying the damage output.
While Shadow clones are active, you will be unstoppable for 5 seconds; get up close and deal as much damage as possible.

Focus on increasing the Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage, which will be useful while fighting an enemy with high max health.

Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue Leveling progression guide: Skill Point allotment

When you are just at the beginning of Diablo 4, it should be your priority to get as many levels as you can and as quickly as possible. Also, remember to keep upgrading your weapons at this stage to get the best potential of Twisting Blades.

In Diablo 4, you will have a total of 71 skill points, 59 skill points from level 2 to 60, and 12 skill points from Renown. So be specific about where you allot your points.

Skills allotted for this Twisted Blades Build (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Level (2-3)

When you begin your journey in Diablo 4, you don't have many options, so begin by putting points into Puncture. This generates energy and deals Vulnerable to enemies.

Puncture
Enhanced Puncture

Level (4-7)

At this level, you will get access to your Core Skill. You must allot points to Twisting Blades, and upgrade it till you improve the Twisting Blades path, which will increase the damage dealt by this skill.

Twisting Blades
Enhanced Twisting Blades
Improved Twisting Blades
Twisting Blade

Level (8-15)

Once you have reached this level, you will have unlocked Dash, which will allow you to move out of a sticky situation and deal damage while doing so. Dash will help you to utilize Twisting Blades more effectively. You can also get Dark Shroud, which will increase your survivability and defense.

Dash
Twisting Blades
Twisting Blades
Twisting Blades
Puncture
Dark Shroud
Enhanced Dark Shroud
Countering Dark Shroud

Level (16-22)

You can pick an imbuement skill at this level; it could be poison, cold, or shadow. For our build, we will allot points to Shadow Imbuement, which will help with increased damage over time as well as making enemies Vulnerable, all the while increasing the level of older skills. At level 20, you will have access to a new specialization, Inner Sight, which is excellent for fighting singular targets.

Shadow Imbuement
Shadow Imbuement
Dash
Puncture
Enhanced Shadow Imbuement
Blended Shadow Imbuement
Dark Shroud

Level (23-32)

Now that you can access your ultimate, you can focus on getting Shadow Clone as quickly as possible. This will allow you to create a clone that will mimic your every move and multiply whatever damage you deal.

Enhanced Dash
Disciplined Dash
Shadow Clone
Prime Shadow Clone
Supreme Shadow Clone
Shadow Imbuement
Dark Shroud
Dash
Dash
Dash

Level (33-60)

Once you reach this level, you can access the Key Passive skill. Since we will be inflicting Vulnerable on enemies, choose Victimize as your key passive skill; this skill has a 50% chance to explode a Vulnerable enemy when you deal direct damage to them. At this point, you will have unlocked the complete skill tree, which leaves enough room for improvement. Level up your Agility, Imbuement, Subterfuge, and Ultimate skills to their maximum capability.

Shadow Clone
Aftermath
Victimize
Unto Dawn
Unto Dawn
Fundamental Puncture
Puncture
Puncture
Exploit
Malice
Unto Dawn
Shadow Clone
Consuming Shadows
Adrenaline Rush
Haste
Shadow Clone
Dark Shroud
Dark Shroud
Shadow Imbuement
Shadow Imbuement
Exploit
Malice
Malice
Exploit
Haste
Consuming Shadows
Shadow Crash
Consuming Shadows

If you have collected all Renown in Diablo 4, you achieve a global bonus (you get this bonus by finding waypoints, interacting with the altars of Lilith, doing side objectives, completing dungeons, and fighting through the strongholds). This bonus includes paragon points and a total of 12 extra skill points.

These points can be allotted to certain special nodes like Weapon Mastery, which improves the damage output of class-specific weapons.

Weapon Mastery
Weapon Mastery
Weapon Mastery
Unstable Elixirs
Aftermath
Aftermath
Adrenaline Rush
Precision Imbuement
Precision Imbuement
Precision Imbuement
Adrenaline Rush
Haste

Class specialization

Once you have reached Level 15, you will receive a priority quest called "True Potential". Finishing said quest will give you access to the Class Specialization.

Combo Points (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

In the beginning, you will have no choice but to use Combo points, which is good for mobbing in Diablo 4. You generate combo points, used by your Core Skill to deal additional effects. Combo Points increase damage and grant a 20%/40%/60% Movement Speed bonus for 3 seconds.

Inner Sight (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

At level 20, you can unlock Inner Sight; this skill helps you to keep your energy high on the battlefield. It will mark enemies on the battlefield, who will then receive extra critical damage. Once the Inner Sight gets filled up, you get unlimited energy for 4 seconds. This skill is useful when challenging bosses in Diablo 4.

Preparation (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

When you reach level 30, Preparation is unlocked; this skill resets the Ultimate skill of your character. Preparation uses energy to reduce your ultimate cooldown and give damage reduction.

For our Twisting Blades skill, we will focus on Combo Points while mobbing and Inner Sight while tackling Bosses.

Diablo 4 Twisting Blade Rogue Leveling gear: Best stats and tempering affixes

Best Aspects for Twisting Blades (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

There are many Aspects to hunt for in Diablo 4; some you get from completing dungeons while others from legendary equipment. Here are a few that you should look out for:

Smiting Aspect (Legendary aspect): You have a 19% - 34% increased critical strike chance against injured enemies. While you are healthy, you gain (38% - 68%) increased crowd control duration.
Bladedancer's Aspect from Jalal's Vigil—Scosglen: Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing (60% - 80%) of Twisting Blade's return damage per hit. (Rogue Only)
Aspect of the Umbral from Champion’s Demise – Dry Steppes: Restore (1.0 - 8.0) of your Primary Resources when you Crowd Control an Enemy.
Aspect of Corruption from the Renegade's Retreat – Kehjistan: Your Imbuement Skill effect has (25% - 45%) increased potency against Vulnerable enemies (Rogue Only).
Cheat’s Aspect from Luban’s Rest — Scosglen: You take (10% - 30%) less damage from crowd-controlled enemy deals direct damage to you and gain 15% movement speed for 2 seconds (Rogue Only).
Edgemaster’s Aspect from Oldstones — Scosglen: Skills deal up to (5% - 25%) increased damage based on your available primary resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full primary resource.
Accelerating Aspect: Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by (10% - 30%) for 5 seconds.
Mangler’s Aspect: Lucky Hit - Dealing direct damage to a Vulnerable enemy has up to a (25% - 75%) chance to daze them for 2 seconds (Rogue Only).

While you can get some really decent legendary gear to strengthen your build in Diablo 4, it is important to attune it to the skill set you are using. Using aspects and tempering, you can achieve this with ease. Here is a list of priority stats you should look for when playing Twisted Blades Rogue in Diablo 4:

Melee 1

High Damage per Second
Vulnerable Damage
Critical Strike Damage
Dexterity
Core Skill Damage
Armor

Melee 2

High Damage per Second
Vulnerable Damage
Critical Strike Damage
Dexterity
Core Skill Damage
Armor

Bow

Vulnerable Damage
Critical Strike Chance
Core Skill Damage
Dexterity
Max Life

Helm

Cooldown Reduction
Maximum Life
Total Armor
Resistances
Core Skill Damage

Chest

Damage Reduction
Core Skill Damage
Ranks to Twisting Blades
Maximum Life
Total Armor
Resistances

Gloves

Ranks to Twisting Blades
Critical Strike Chance
Attack Speed
Cooldown Reduction
Vulnerable Damage

Pants

Damage Reduction
Vulnerable Damage
Cooldown Reduction
Maximum Life
Total Armor
Resistances

Boots

Movement Speed
Energy Cost Reduction
Vulnerable Damage
Maximum Life
Total Armor
Dexterity

Amulet

Movement Speed
Damage Reduction
Energy Cost Reduction
Cooldown Reduction
Maximum Life
Vulnerable Damage
Ranks to Malice
Dexterity

Rings

Critical Strike Chance
Critical Strike Damage
Vulnerable Damage
Total Armor
Resource Generation

Best gears to look for in Diablo 4

While progressing in the world, as you reach level 50, you will unlock endgame activities. To get far greater gear than before, switch to Nightmare difficulty. Keep progressing in this difficulty till Level 70; this allows you to find Sacred gears with far better stats than what was available in legendary gears. Once you reach level 70, change the difficulty to torment; doing so will ensure you find Ancestral items, the highest tier of items in Diablo 4.

You can find specific items for your build; here are some items to look out for:

Ghoul King's Blade increases crit strike damage and damage per hit.
Harlequin Crest provides an amazing affix, allowing you to live longer while increasing all your skills’ ranks.
Doombringer is another fantastic weapon option, as it reduces your enemies’ damage and provides you with a ton of additional HP.

Best Elixirs for Twisting Blades Rogue in Diablo 4

You can visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft elixirs or find them by killing enemies or opening chests while adventuring around Sanctuary in Diablo 4. Below are a few options to look for:

The Third Eye Elixir: It is made at the Alchemist and only requires three ingredients: Gallowvine, Howler Moss, and Crush Beasts Bones. This elixir improves movement, giving you a boost to your evade speed and chance, along with boosting the amount of experience you gain.
Precision Elixir: It's used to get a boost in critical chance and critical damage.
Resistance Elixirs: These will come in handy when you find a foe with a particular type of attack, poison, shadow, fire, etc.
Iron Skin Elixir: Boosts your armor by 900, giving you a defense upgrade for 30 minutes.

Best gems for Rogue build

Weapon Slot: Use emerald to gain extra critical strike damage against Vulnerable enemies.
Armor Slot: Use ruby to gain additional HP, allowing you to survive longer.
Jewelry Slot: Use diamond to gain more resistance to all elements.

In Diablo 4, you can use any gems you want, depending on what you want to strengthen and the situation you want handled. Gems can be changed anytime. Remember to upgrade your gems as high as you can for better effects.

Conclusion

Twisting blades, though complicated to start as a beginner, can be easy once you have understood the fundamentals. I hope this guide gives the basics of how to begin your journey with Twisting Blades in Diablo 4. Sanctuary awaits your arrival.

Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features:

Best Rogue builds in Diablo 4 Season 6
All Diablo 4 Marksman Rogue skills
5 best Rogue passives in Diablo 4
5 best Rogue AoE abilities in Diablo 4