When Diablo 4 Season 10 was revealed, many players hoped Rogue would finally receive meaningful buffs after a frustrating Season 9. Unfortunately, the opposite appears to have happened. Despite new Chaos Perks, balance adjustments, and a round of fresh unique items, Rogue is still sitting at the bottom of the class rankings during the Season 10 PTR (Public Test Realm). Compared to the massive strides made by Sorcerer, Barbarian, and Druid, Rogue remains underwhelming, especially in high-end content.

This has led to growing frustration among the Rogue community, who feel their class has been overlooked for two consecutive seasons. Even with carefully optimized builds, huge amounts of Diablo 4 Gold spent on crafting, and top-tier affixes rolled into endgame gear, Rogue simply cannot keep up with the damage output and survivability of other classes.

Let's take a deeper look at why Rogue is struggling, what went wrong with its design in Season 10, and what could be done to bring the class back into the spotlight.

The Death Trap Nerf and Its Ripple Effect

The most devastating change for Rogues this season came in the form of a nerf to Death Trap, one of the cornerstone skills for high-performing Rogue builds in Season 9. Death Trap provided both AoE burst and reliable damage scaling, making it one of the few ways Rogue could compete with the raw damage of Sorcerers and Druids.

Unfortunately, the nerf gutted both the consistency and the ceiling of the skill. Instead of empowering Rogues to climb higher tiers of Nightmare Dungeons and face Tormented bosses on equal footing, it left many builds crippled. Other classes received buffs to their signature skills in Season 10—like Sorcerers with Ball Lightning scaling or Druids with enhanced Earthquake synergy—but Rogues were pushed further behind.

This single change rippled across the class's toolkit, since many popular endgame setups revolved around building around Death Trap synergies. With its power reduced, Rogues are forced to experiment with alternatives, but none of them hold up to the dominant meta.

Underwhelming Chaos Perks and Uniques

Season 10 introduced Chaos Perks to shake up gameplay, giving each class a new layer of build customization. While Sorcerers and Barbarians received perks that dramatically boosted their core damage and resource efficiency, Rogues got a set of perks that felt situational and underpowered.

For example, perks tied to combo points or shadow damage lack the flexibility needed to thrive in the current meta. Instead of amplifying Rogue's best features—mobility, burst damage, and precision—they forced players into narrow playstyles that still didn't match the power levels of competing classes.

The new Rogue-specific unique items in Season 10 also fell flat. Instead of transforming builds or introducing exciting mechanics, most of them felt like slight stat boosts or awkward gimmicks. Compare this to Sorcerers, who received uniques that supercharged Ball Lightning builds into one of the strongest playstyles in the game. Rogues simply did not receive equivalent firepower.

Heavy Reliance on Gear

One of the biggest problems facing Rogues is their extreme dependence on perfect gear and affix rolls. Other classes can get by with moderate investments of gold and resources, but Rogues must chase near-perfect itemization to even reach competitive performance.

This reliance creates two problems:

Accessibility - Casual or mid-level players cannot realistically invest enough gold or resources to push Rogue to its potential. This leaves them frustrated and underpowered compared to other classes.

Endgame Ceiling - Even when Rogues manage to stack top-tier gear, their endgame performance lags behind classes that achieve higher results with less investment. For example, a Sorcerer with Ball Lightning doesn't need flawless affixes to outperform a perfectly geared Rogue.

This imbalance makes Rogue one of the least rewarding classes to play for long-term progression.

Meta Clash: Single-Skill Damage vs. Rogue Playstyle

Season 10's meta is heavily centered on single-skill damage scaling. Sorcerers use Ball Lightning to shred screens of enemies, Barbarians crush with Hammer of the Ancients, and Druids dominate with Pulverize or Earthquake. Each of these builds is straightforward, efficient, and extremely powerful.

Rogue, on the other hand, was designed around synergy and variety—balancing multiple resources, weaving combo points, and mixing traps with direct attacks. While fun and thematically appropriate, this design is at odds with the current meta. When other classes can pour all of their power into a single skill and outperform you, juggling complex mechanics feels punishing rather than rewarding.

This clash leaves Rogues behind both in damage and efficiency. They spend more time setting up combos and managing resources, only to deliver results that pale in comparison to simpler builds from other classes.

Rogue's Identity Crisis

At its core, the Rogue fantasy in Diablo 4 is about being a nimble assassin who delivers deadly precision strikes while darting in and out of danger. The problem is that the current numbers and systems don't support that fantasy. Instead of being rewarded for mobility and precision, Rogues are punished by resource constraints, nerfed skills, and perks that don't scale well.

This creates an identity crisis for the class: is Rogue supposed to be a trap-focused tactician, a bow-wielding sniper, or a close-range assassin? Right now, none of these playstyles truly shine.

What Needs to Change

If Blizzard wants to bring Rogue back into relevance, several changes should be considered for upcoming patches:

Revisit Death Trap - The nerf was too severe. Even a partial buff could restore viability to one of the class's only reliable endgame skills.

Improve Chaos Perks - Rogue perks should enhance its unique identity (mobility, burst, critical strikes) instead of forcing awkward play styles.

Stronger Uniques - New items should unlock exciting mechanics or create build-defining synergies, not just offer incremental stat increases.

Reduce Gear Dependency - Resource generation, damage scaling, and survivability should not rely so heavily on perfect affixes. Rogues need a baseline level of power that makes the class approachable.

Align with Meta Trends - If single-skill damage scaling is going to define Season 10, Rogue needs at least one competitive skill that can serve as its primary endgame nuke.

Final Thoughts

Season 10 should have been Rogue's comeback, but instead, it feels like déjà vu from Season 9. While other classes received dramatic boosts to their power, Rogue was hit with a nerf to its best skill and handed underwhelming perks and items in exchange.

The class now sits at the bottom of the meta, requiring huge gold investments and perfect itemization to perform at a level that still lags behind. Until Blizzard rethinks Rogue's design and gives it tools to compete in the current meta, Rogue mains are stuck in the shadows—watching other classes dominate endgame content.

For now, Rogue remains Diablo 4's most underwhelming class in Season 10, and it will take bold adjustments to change that perception.