All Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant Rogue changes: Buffs, nerfs, and more

Diablo 4’s first season, the Season of the Malignant, is fast approaching, and in its wake Blizzard are enacting sweeping changes across all five of the game’s classes. Some, like the Sorcerer, are coming out of this looking a little worse for wear, but others, like the Rogue, are going to be stronger than ever. If you’re planning to get your sneak on in season one, then read on for a full list of all the Season of the Malignant Rogue changes in Diablo 4, including buffs, nerfs, and more.

All new Rogue Uniques and Legendary Aspects in Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant

Before we get into the raw numbers, we thought we’d show off the new Unique weapon and Legendary Aspect Rogues will be getting access to in Season of the Malignant. The weapon appears somewhat niche, though other changes we’ll discuss later may push Penetrating Shot builds into the spotlight, but the Aspect looks fantastic, and a great way to capitalize on Puncture, one of Rogue’s best overall skills.

• New Unique: Eaglehorn (Unique Bow) – Penetrating Shot has a 30-80% chance to fire an arrow that bounces off walls and scenery. Hitting enemies from behind with Penetrating Shot will make them Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
• New Legendary Aspect: Pestilent Points – Every third cast of Puncture is Poison Imbued with 100-150% of normal potency.

All Rogue bug fixes in Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant

In addition to the more exciting gameplay tweaks and adjustments, Season of the Malignant also brings some general housekeeping, and a series of nice bug fixes for every character. Here are those which have been fixed for Rogue:

• Fixed an issue where Shadow Step wouldn’t trigger the Aspect of Uncanny Treachery if the target was killed.
• Fixed an issue where Advanced Penetrating shot would not knock down other players in PvP play.
• Fixed an issue where Twisting Blades would not come back when the ability killed a Bloated Corpsefiend enemy.
• Fixed an issue where the Dash skill would not move the full distance if targeting an enemy while using a controller.
• Fixed an issue where the Eldritch Bounty Paragon node granted bonus resistances incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where Rapid Fire had an extra arrow VFX that behaved erratically.
• Fixed an issue where the Awakened Glyphstone wouldn’t spawn for Rogue players using Improved Barrage.

All Rogue buffs in Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Now we get to the good stuff: the buffs that Rogue has received going into Season of the Malignant. There’s a substantial list, and while these are largely minor tweaks, their collective effect should be a much smoother play experience for those trying out the Rogue in the new Season.

Skills

• Advanced Rapid Fire duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
• Caltrops cast speed increased by 15%.
• Enhanced Cold Imbue Lucky Hit Chance increased from 30% to 40%.
• Enhanced Smoke Grenade damage bonus increased from 15% to 20%.
• Methodical Dash maximum Cooldown reduction increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
• Concealment Stealth duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds.
• Enhanced Dark Shroud’s chance to not be consumed increased from 10% to 14%.
• Supreme Death Trap Cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 12 seconds.

Passives

• Victimize Lucky Hit Chance increased from 30% to 35%.
• Rugged Damage Reduction against Damage over Time effects increased from 5/10/15 to 6/12/18.
• Mending Obscurity healing per second while Stealthed increased from 3/6/9% to 4/8/12%.
• Aftermath Energy restored increased from 25/50/75 to 30/60/90.

Paragon

• Combat Glyph’s bonus now affects all damage instead of just Core Skills.
• Eldritch Bounty Legendary Node duration increased from 6 to 9 seconds.

Specialization

• Preparation’s Ultimate Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds.

Legendary Aspects

• Aspect of Volatile Shadows damage increased from .1075-.193 to .2-.27.
• Icy Alchemist’s Aspect Chill increased from 15% to 25%.
• Shadowslicer Aspect damage increased from 25-35% to 80-100%.
• Toxic Alchemist’s damage increased from 0.080-0.13 to .11-.16.
• Vengeful Aspect Lucky Hit Chance increased from 30-50% to 40-60%.
• Aspect of Imitated Imbuements duration increased from 5 to 9 seconds.
• Aspect of Stolen Vigor healing increased from .02-.06 to .04-.08.
• Aspect of Lethal Dusk Life of Kill duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
• Aspect of Noxious Ice bonus damage increased from 10-25% to 14-29%.
• Aspect of Elusive Menace Dodge chance increased from 1-5% to 3-7%.

Items

• Skyhunter’s Energy gain increased from 15-25 to 20-30.
• Grasp of Shadow Lucky Hit Chance increased from 20-30% to 24-34%.

All Rogue nerfs in Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant

Rogue only receives one nerf in Season of the Malignant, to the passive skill Siphoning Strikes, but the more general changes to the vulnerable mechanic affect Rogue a lot as well, since it’s a class that previously relied on exploiting vulnerable enemies for a lot of its more powerful builds. For this reason, we’ve included the vulnerable nerfs here too, even though they’re not specifically targeted at the Rogue class.

Passives

• Siphoning Strikes now also requires a Lucky Hit chance of 75%.

Vulnerable

• Vulnerable damage: reduced by 40%.
• Vulnerable damage (inherent on Crossbows): reduced by 65%.
• Vulnerable Glyphs’ Bonus reduced by 66%.

And that’s that: all the changes, positive and negative, coming to Rogue in Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant. Out of the five classes, Rogue got hit the least here, but those huge nerfs to vulnerable may prove too much for them to handle when things get going. Only time will tell, of course.