The Diablo IV campfire is expanding -- with the Rogue being the fourth class reveal for the highly anticipated release, joining the Barbarian, Druid, and Sorceress at the campfire selection screen. Described as a “swift, deadly, mobile class with unparalleled versatility” the Rogue dates all the way back to the original Diablo but will also feature shades of Assassin and Demon Hunter as seen in Diablo II and Diablo III -- and some new stuff too.

Without further ado, here’s the Diablo IV Rogue in all their shoot, stab, freeze, trap, and poison glory.



Based on the look and feel you can see above, the Rogue fits in nicely with the darker tone and story found in Diablo IV, in addition to the game’s focus on emphasising class identity through weapons, gear, skills, and abilities. Plus the Rogue compliments the different classes announced so far -- adding that fast comat-feel.

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Based on the look and feel you can see above, the Rogue fits in nicely with the darker tone and story found in Diablo IV, in addition to the game’s focus on emphasising class identity through weapons, gear, skills, and abilities.

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“We started by looking at our current classes and asking, who's going to compliment this lineup really well?” Luis Barriga, Game Director on Diablo IV tells AusGamers. “There’s always a ‘niche’ for the dexterity, the precision, the fast combat class. Some incarnations include the melee version of that, like the Assassin [Diablo II], and some the more ranged version like the Demon Hunter [Diablo III]. It was really an embarrassment of riches of ideas to draw from.”

For the team at Blizzard the ideas covered the full “niche” and mix of speed, precision, and dexterity -- with just as many ideas for melee combat and ranged being thrown around. It was never a case of simply taking the Rogue as seen in the original Diablo and putting them in Diablo IV. The entire history of the franchise was looked at, plus the very idea of an RPG ‘Rogue’ and how that might play into the core elements that drive Diablo IV’s Design.


“Even though they’re associated with marksmanship in the first Diablo, and also when they came back as mercenaries in Diablo II, we knew we were going to expand beyond that,” Luis continues. “Something very near and dear to us is the traditional pen and paper Rogue seen in other RPGs, which traditionally is all about blades and stabbing. We thought that would give us these really cool pieces, to fill this [role] in a way that players can take melee or ranged.”

The new Rogue also builds on and fleshes out the Diablo II mercenary version by taking the concept of imbuing weapons with effects and expanding that to frost, poison, and dark shadow energy. That is stuff born from cursed oils. An example could be imbuing the close-range Flurry ability of melee attacks with frost that adds CC in the form of slowing enemies and freezing them over time. Alternatively Flurry could be imbued with Poison which would allow for dots that stack (that is damage-over-time) so you don’t always need to be there up front and close in a large boss-style encounter.

With this blend of close-quarters combat, range, poison, and freeze-based crowd-control -- all of these elements fit into the darker tone of Diablo IV and its massive open-world Sanctuary. And on that note the Rogue class is inherently darker than others. Poison will act like acid and basically melt monsters into pools of green goo, which is a far cry from a poison tipped blade striking from the shadows. “Being able to chill enemies is maybe less horrific,” John Mueller, Art Director on Diablo IV adds. “But when you see them shatter into cubes of body parts I’m not sure if that's better.”


“[The Rogue] really aligned with our desire to bring Diablo back to its darker roots,” John continues. “This is a medieval, cut-throat, bandit. You can be a more noble version of that or, go the other way. Even the whole layering and feel of the armour showcases that identity, it just fits perfectly in the world. With the open-world we're really trying to make it all feel immersive. This is the class that lives in the shadows, someone you don't want to meet in a dark alley.”

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“Something very near and dear to us is the traditional pen and paper Rogue seen in other RPGs, which traditionally is all about blades and stabbing. We thought that would give us these really cool pieces, to fill this [role] in a way that players can take melee or ranged.”

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“It's not a gender locked class either,” Luis concludes. “You can make whatever Rogue is in your head. Put scars or tattoos on them. If you want to make them more rugged the armour gives you options too -- things like a skull half-mask. Maybe that’s a part of your background canon, you come from the alleys of Caldeum or the swamps of Hawezar and change your look to adapt to that.”

For more on Diablo IV be sure to follow our full BlizzConline Coverage..