Diablo 4 Season 16 gives Rogues a Shadow Imbuement rework

A few Rogue Uniques are also getting buffed, and a ton of class bugs are being fixed.

Jaymo

Editor

Published Oct 23, 20264 min read

Season 16 PTR was released yesterday, and with it came the full patch notes and upcoming balance changes.

Rogue had a pretty good Season 15, with a few really powerful builds, and even an immortal version of Rain of Arrows, so safe to say, no Rogue main wants this class to be nerfed next.

And even if Ferocity bonuses have been slightly decreased, the class overall got some pretty good adjustments and a TON of bug fixes.

Rogue Skill Changes

When it comes to skills, Shadow Imbuement is getting the biggest changes. It will no longer refresh on reapplication, and instead, any additional application of Shadow Imbuement now stacks to deal more damage. Infection explosions can also stack.

Dark Dance will also work when you use Dash through an enemy, and Endemic now counts as a Cutthroat skill too. And finally, Shadow Play's infections will explode when they expire.

Outside of that, Rogue got a few other number changes and little adjustments:

• Succession

  • Damage increased from 20% to 30%.

• Dance of Knives

  • Artillery Shrine now triggers at the player's location.

• Penetrating Shot

  • Ferocity Upgrade damage bonus reduced from 7% to 4%.

• Rain of Arrows

  • Ferocity Upgrade damage bonus decreased from 10% to 4%.

  • Flash Flood Arrow Storms will now always try to find a Nearby target.

• Rapid Fire

  • Ferocity Upgrade damage bonus reduced from 7% to 4%.

  • Breakneck Quiver damage increased from 30% to 38%.

  • Explosive Shot now benefits from AoE size increase effects.

• Shadow Clone

  • Sentry is now also a Trap skill

• Artifice no longer snaps to a target.

Rogue Uniques & Talisman

A few unique items specific to Rogue received a damage buff, and one item was completely modified:

• Assassin's Stride

  • Split up Shadow Imbuement potency having to require a Mobility skill.

• Orphan Maker

  • Damage increased from 80-100%[x] to 150-180%[x].

• Skyhunter

  • Damage increased from 80-100%[x] to 135-175%.

• Pitfighter's Gull

  • Before: Smoke Grenade bounces and detonates a second time. Smoke Grenade's damage is increased by 15-20%[x] and Duration is increased by 7.5-10%.

  • After: Smoke Grenade's Duration and Size are increased by 18.7-25.0% and bounces and detonates a second time. Grenade Skills deal 45-60% increased damage.

Two Talisman sets also got very small changes.

Nilfur's Narrow Eye's vengeance duration is increased from 4 to 8 seconds, and Spellbound Steel's 3-piece set bonus went from 30% Health potion increased to 40%.

Rogue Bug Fixes

When it comes to bugs, Rogue had a lot of things that finally needed to be taken care of:

• Fixed an issue where the Arrow Storms did not benefit from Ferocity and Double Damage upgrades.

• Fixed an issue where Devouring Arrow was not piercing the appropriate amount of times.

• Fixed an issue with Crowd Controlled or Weakened not benefiting Poison Imbuement.

• Fixed an issue where Eaglehorn benefitted from Poison Imbuement.

• Fixed an issue where Shadow Clone did not benefit from Poison Imbuement - Toxic Touch.

• Fixed an issue where Shadow Clone's Awakening upgrade did not properly interact with Imbuements while using Aspect of Imitated Imbuement.

• Fixed an issue where Death Trap with Explosive Trigger could stop arming after the Rogue was affected by certain Crowd Control effects.

• Fixed an issue where Dark Dance upgrade did not activate Stealth as intended.

• Fixed an issue where Invigorating Strike was not restoring the correct amount of energy.

• Fixed an issue where Ruckus did not properly increase damage.

• Fixed an issue with Etna's Lost Dagger not applying bonuses to Shadow Clones.

• Fixed an issue where Holy damage could not trigger Etna's Lost Dagger's effect. 

• Fixed an issue where bonus damage per Combo Point spent did not properly apply to certain Rogue skills.

• Fixed an issue where the Assassin Glyph granted less bonus damage than intended.

• Fixed an issue where Nilfur's Narrow Eye 5-piece set bonus could fail to trigger against distant targets.

• Fixed an issue with the 5-piece set bonus of Spellbound Steel potency bonus not benefiting Shadow Clones.

• Fixed an issue where salvaging Cassia's Grace did not unlock its appearance.

• Fixed an issue where Orphan Maker could not be marked as Junk.

So overall, Rogue was definitely not the class that got the biggest modifications, especially when you compare it to Druid or Sorcerer, who had a lot of skill changes.

But it is nice to see some of the bugs being finally addressed, and overall, the Rogue did not get any huge nerfs, meaning you might still be able to clear Pit 150 with it next season.