Rapid Fire Rogue Guide (Season 3)

Season 3

Endgame

Instantly MELT all content with Ronarray's Rapid Fire Rogue Build Guide!

The build packs an amazing punch being able to instantly destroy any enemy from Uber Lilith to bosses in Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons. It is all content viable without changing anything in the setup and can showcase both - great Speedfarming capabilities due to innate Rogue Movement Speed which is the best in the current game and insane Single Target / Aoe damage. Survivability is less impressive but since the build is Ranged and can pick enemies from distance it should be enough for most of the content.

Rapid Fire itself is a pretty versatile skill and one of the strongest options for all Ranged Rogue builds!

Due to pretty low resource cost and various mechanics that can help with fast regeneration - the Rapid Fire Rogue build can always stay at the maximum resource so you can avoid worrying about additional management and use Edgemaster Aspect to the fullest. Combine it with Victimize + X'fal AOE and crazy Combo points single target and you will get an absolute Beast of a Build!!

This Build Guide is mostly focusing on the endgame qualities of the Rapid Fire Rogue build so to try it out you should have at least a 60+ level character with access to paragon. To get more paragon points you can check out our Altar of Lilith Map.

Main Skill

• Rapid Fire - Is the main skill of the build which is used for both AoE (through the Aspect of Repeating) and Single target. When used the skill will fire a set of arrows with some additional one based on combo points spent. Combined with Tibault's Will (Which can provide additional Maximum combo points due to unexpected interaction) and Condemnation it can shoot a set of 20+ arrows in one click doing an insane amount of damage. Improved Rapid Fire passive can also make sure that you will not spend any energy since it can refund almost the full cost of the skill for hitting a Vulnerable enemy.

Generator

• Puncture - Our basic attack and the generator that should be used a few times after every Rapid Fire cast to restack Combo Points to the maximum and buffing your next Rapid Fire cast. It can also make enemies Vulnerable with Fundamental Puncture Passive if at least 2 out of 3 blades hit the enemy. Since we need to use Puncture after every single cast of Rapid Fire it synergizes with Moonrise very well, providing strong Attack Speed bonuses and Movement Speed bonuses as well.

Defense

• Dark Shroud - Signature Rogue defensive ability that can lower the damage that you receive based on the amount of Shrounds that you currently have. Can significantly boost survivability and help with avoiding one shots in tough situations. Provides very strong Critical strike bonus through Countering Dark Shroud. Alternatively Subverting Dark Shouds can be used to boost movement speed even further for such purposes as Speed Farming.

Crowd Control

• Shadow Step - Main CC ability for any Rogue build, which can provide a source of Unstoppable, movement ability, and a 2 second Stun via Methodical Shadow Step . It can also add a significant amount of Critical Strike Chance because of Enhanced Shadow Step passive as well.

Imbuement Skills

• Poison Imbuement - Unique set of skills for a Rogue build that can imbue your weapons with a particular element. Poison Imbuement will make 2 of the next used skills do the Poison Damage instead of Physical one and Poison the enemies as well. It is the main source of additional damage which can be easily stacked further and should be used at all times.

• Shadow Imbuement - A second Imbuement skill which is mostly used as an alternative damage amplifier at the start of the fight or when your Poison Imbuement is on Cooldown. Can make all your Non-physical damage higher with Mixed Shadow Imbuement and increase your Critical Strike Chance against all injured enemies inflicted with Shadow Imbuement via Enhanced Shadow Imbuement .

Alternative skills

• Smoke Grenade - The strongest Crowd Control skill for almost any Rogue build in the current meta. Should be used in higher tiers Nightmare Dungeons if you feel like you need more CC to boost overall survivability of the build. Can also greatly increase your damage with Enhanced Smoke Grenade passive.

• Dash - Fastest moving ability in the Rogue builds skill kit. Can be used if you want to go even FASTER. Concealment - A pretty Unique disengaging ability for Rogues that can be used to avoid unnecessary fights while speedrunning dungeons for glyph experience.

Notable Passives

• Victimize - Core passive that utilizes our huge Vulnerable bonus that we stack everywhere in the build. Can help with both AOE and single target burst.

• Innervation - another part of the Rogue kit that can make sure that we will always have enough resource. Together with our amazing Attack Speed and constant stream of arrows from Rapid Fire we can proc it often enough to ensure that energy will stay at maximum at all times to get bonus from Edgemaster's Aspect .

• Debilitating Toxins - a great Survivability passive that can make all poisoned enemies deal less damage.

• Haste - an amazing source of Movement Speed for every Rogue build out there. Can also provide attack speed but since we never drop lower than 90% of resource should be used only for the movement speed bonus.

Alternative Core Passive

• Close Quarters Combat - an interesting alternative to the Victimize mostly used in other Rogue builds such as Twisting Blades Rogue or Flurry Rogue. Since you will need to use both Marksman and Cutthroat skills together - you can use Puncture and follow it with Shadow Step to get the bonus. If you are using this passive it would be a great idea to take Dash as well to make it easier to proc it with Dash + Puncture combo too. However attack speed boost from it could be a nice addition to the build for people who prefer speed over everything else which can be a theme for Rogue builds as well.

For an in-depth explanation of the various stone choices, see the detailed video guide from Ronarray:

Offensive

• Edgemaster's Aspect - One of the best available aspects for the damage increase and core aspect for Rapid Fire Rogue build. Since we are always staying at almost maximum resource should always provide a huge 40% damage increase. Always should stay at two handed weapon for maximum benefit.

• Repeating Aspect - A special aspect that works directly with Rapid Fire based builds and gives the chance for rapid fire arrows to ricochet to another target. Invaluable aspect for AOE and overall clear in the dungeons. Placed at the Amulet to ensure that the ricochet percentage will be high enough.

• Aspect of Corruption - Strongest pick for any Rogue build that focuses on imbuements. The 40% potency increase from it will provide a significant poison damage increase when Poison Imbuement is used. Just make sure that you use Puncture often enough to always keep enemies Vulnerable.

• Aspect of the Expectant - Since we are using Puncture at least 2-3 times after every cast of Rapid Fire this aspect can help to capitalize even higher on this situation providing up to 30% damage increase

• Accelerating Aspect - Reliable and straightforward Attack Speed boost which procs after every Core skill critical and helps with rising AS even higher shortening the animation of Rapid Fire as well.

Defensive

• Aspect of Disobedience - Still the best way to ramp up armor in the toughest situations for any build out there, and is therefore the most important defensive aspect due to the huge bonus it can provide.

• Aspect of Might - Since we need to Puncture after every cast of rapid Fire this aspect is a constant source of 20% Damage Reduction so should be picked in the most cases.

• Ghostwalker Aspect - The way to boost our incredible Movement Speed even higher!

Alternative Aspects

Most of Alternative options for the offensive aspects should replace Aspect of Accelerating and most of the defensive ones should replace Aspect of Might.

• Aspect of Inner Calm - Good damage multiplier that can increase single target damage even more if you stay in one place. Due to the animation you are standing at one place when Rapid Fire is used so it could be a valuable option for Rapid Fire Rogue Build.

• Aspect of Pestilent Points - Interesting aspect for all poison based Rogue Builds - can make our Puncture even stronger by applying more poison to get bonuses from Debilitating Toxins and Alchemical Advantage.

• Aspect of Bursting Venoms - Mostly a way to increase your Poison Imbuement uptime since it can heavily help with the cooldown.

• Mangler's Aspect - great way to constantly daze all vulnerable enemies therefore boosting survivability. Mostly used for higher Nightmare Dungeons.

• Cheat's Aspect - Can be used with Penitent Greaves Unique boots to get additional survivability since any close enemy will be chilled and therefore crowd controlled.

• Tibault's Will - The most important Unique for any combo points based Rogue build. Due to unintended interaction can provide as many additional combo points as Maximum resource bonus written on the item. Therefore perfect Tibault's Will should have +18 Maximum Resource. Can also provide additional damage and resource when you are becoming unstoppable which should happen constantly when you evade with Metamorphosis .

• Condemnation - Second Unique of the build which is essential and shouldn’t be replaced. Gives us a chance to generate more combo points when attacking with Puncture . Synergizes with Tibaults maximum combo points unintended interaction and can provide up to 21 combo points.

Always make sure to use a few Puncture attacks right after Rapid Fire to proc it.

• X'Fal's Corroded Signet - A pretty great item that can provide a various stat set that can compliment the build. Damage Over Time for the initial poison ticks, lucky hit chance to proc various effects and X'Fal's Corroded Signet itself. Cooldown Reduction can help with Poison Imbuement uptime. And the Unique part can provide an awesome Poison eruption that can add both single target and AoE damage to the whole build kit.

• Harlequin Crest (Shako) - Best In Slot helmet for all Rogue Builds and especially for Rapid Fire Rogue. Can give us the same Damage Reduction as an Aspect of Might without additional conditions. Can also provide a significant Maximum Life increase together with Resource Generation and amazing +4 Ranks to all Skills bonuses. If you have the Harlequin Crest you definitely should use it in the build.

• Grasp of Shadow - Awesome gloves that could be a valuable addition to any Rogue build mostly due to strong +6 to all Core skills bonus and innate attack speed. However, the downside of losing critical strike chance and offensive aspect could be a reason to avoid them.

• Penitent Greaves - Strong boots that can provide a constant crowd control uptime in the form of chill. Can be used together with Cheat's Aspect for better survivability and easier speed runs through dungeons.

• Doombringer - A really good alternative to the second Sword or dagger. Could be used to heavily improve survivability due to significant Maximum Life Bonus (about 41% for upgraded version). Lucky hit proc can synergize without high Lucky Hit chance as well and can heal the character pretty often.

• Skyhunter - Decent alternative to the crossbow which is usually not picked due to the lack of Vulnerable damage bonuses and the loss of Two Handed Edgemaster's Aspect . Can still work, but requires some changes in the build.

Most of the Gem picks are pretty common through all Rogue builds so they will be pretty easy to acquire early in the game.

For armor slots the best pick will be Royal Ruby everywhere to stack our health higher for survivability. We can have 1 in the helmet, 2 in the Chest armor and 2 in the pants for a total of 5 stones. It can give about 20% of additional Maximum Life which is a very strong bonus - make sure you always have all 5 gems on.

For the weapons we are using Royal Emerald since most of the time we are maintaining the Vulnerable status effect on all the enemies through various means. In the jewelry Royal Diamond x2 + 1 additional Gems that compensate the resistance we don't have on gear is the best option. The last gem could vary so just check which res you are missing on your helmet and boots and use that. In my example it is a Royal Amethyst . You can also try to use different stand alone gems instead of the Royal Diamond to boost resistances that you don't have, to close the gap.

In Season 2 the resistance system was revamped heavily. Now to reach best survivability we will need to cap most of them - ideally all to a maximum of 70%. It could be done though a variety of options.

For the Rogue builds - you can pick some of them in the paragon but ultimately you will need to roll resistances on Gear. Best place to do so would be Boots since there are not a lot of good bonuses except the movement speed.

You can also roll some of those on the Helmet or Chest armor to reach the cap. Always make sure that you have at least 68%+ to stay alive in higher Nightmare Dungeons without any issues and have better gameplay experience overall.

For this purpose you can use various Gems in your Jewelry which are covered in the previous section.

For the Rapid Fire Rogue build the best choice will always be Combo Points since it is the main way to stack damage of the build to a high enough amount. Unfortunately no alternatives are good enough to be considered.

In regards to the weapon choices we generally have many possible combinations that could be chosen based on the Gear that you have in your disposal. The recommended one will be a combination of Crossbow to receive Vulnerable damage bonus and one handed sword for the critical damage bonus as well. The second melee weapon slot is reserved for Condemnation which is essential part of the build. The second option would be picking Dagger instead of Sword which could be less beneficial since you will need to always stay close to get a full damage bonus from it. Doombringer could be a great option instead of the normal Sword as well, mostly boosting Survivability which is pretty important because Rapid Fire Rogue don't have a lot of means to tank the damage - especially in higher tiers.

With the current paragon setup we are mostly focusing on getting bonuses to Vulnerable to stack Victimize even further. We are also amplifying Non-Physical and Imbued Skills damage since it is the main source of the whole punch that Rapid Fire packs. Some survivability nodes should be taken as well in the form of Basic Resistances and Additional Armor which should help in both Tier 100 Dungeons and Abattoir of Zir.

Glyph leveling priorities

1. Efficacy - Provides some armor together with damage but mostly valued for the amazing Additional Bonus which grants a significant increase in Imbuement damage.
2. Canny - Good way to combine damage oriented Main bonus with good Additional bonus to boost it even further.
3. Ranger - Unfortunately the percentage for this glyph is only 6.6%. However it requires Dexterity and the additional bonus can provide required survivability so it should be acquired earlier if possible.
4. Exploit - Since we are stacking Vulnerable Damage bonus for Victimize this is one of the greatest sources. It also provides an Utility bonus in terms of making enemies vulnerable even without Puncture interaction.
5. Infusion - The last glyph to level for the Rapid Fire Rogue build - it is mostly taken for a huge main bonus percentage and used just to amplify damage of the build even further.
6. Tears of Blood - The best damage glyph for any build out there that should replace Infusion and be placed in No Witnesses board. Take all the surrounding stats nodes for a tremendous damage boost.

Alternative glyphs

• Bane - A good option in case you want to focus on the Poison damage more. It has a pretty decent Additional bonus as well.

• Combat - An interesting option which can boost Critical strike Damage and make energy management even easier due to Additional Bonus.

Tears of Blood (New Glyph)

• The new Tears of Blood glyph will provide even more damage for the build moving the potential to a truly insane amount. After you acquire the Tears of Blood unique glyph from Abattoir of Zir you will need to move Canny to the exploit Weakness Board and drop Infusion completely. Tears of Blood on the other hand will take place in the No Witnesses board. Drop Hunter Killer, Ruin and Dominant + all leading nodes to take all core stats ( Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Willpower) around Tears of Blood to stack the damage even further.

Rapid Fire Rogue has an elaborate rotation and it is pretty important to follow that to see those big Damage numbers. At the start of any fight you need to attack with at least 3-4 uses of Puncture to apply Vulnerable and stack Combo Points. This is a general approach for many different Rogue Builds so it will be easier to get used to it.

After the Puncture set you can use the Poison Imbuement and Rapid Fire enemies immediately.

If somebody survived it you need to repeat the process - so 3-4 Puncture uses again and then Poison Imbuement (Use shadow Imbuement if Poison Imbuement is on cooldown) + Rapid Fire.

For a single target you can also add Shadow step at the start of the fight to boost your Critical strike Chance with Enhanced Shadow Step .

In most of the cases you will need to utilize the Ranged origin of the build by keeping your distance and picking enemies from afar which should help with Survivability.

Perfect distance should be a distance of Puncture hit - come closer than that only for big single target burst against big elites or bosses.

The Rapid Fire Rogue build is currently completely broken in terms of damage in the same fashion as Twisting Blades Rogue, Ball Lightning Sorceress, and Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian. This will be one of the most promising Rogue builds to clear all the current content together with the upcoming Abattoir of Zir. With such great damage you can also drop some offensive Aspects to focus more on the defensive part to reach better Survivability so the build can stay versatile enough.