MMoexp:The Harsh Reality of Diablo 4 Season 10

With the launch of Diablo 4 Season 10, every class has received a set of new uniques, powers, and seasonal mechanics designed to shake up the meta and encourage experimentation. While Sorcerers, Druids, and Barbarians are reveling in massive multipliers and flashy new build opportunities, the Rogue community is facing a different reality: disappointment.

The Rogue—once hailed as a sleek, high-damage assassin capable of dominating with versatile playstyles—is entering Season 10 on the back foot. Despite receiving new uniques like Orphan Maker and a host of chaos-themed seasonal perks, the class still feels sluggish, clunky, and overshadowed by its competition. Many players are left wondering: is the Rogue cooked for a second season in a row?

This article dives into everything surrounding Rogue in Season 10—from new items, perks, and mechanics, to the deeper design issues that leave the class trailing behind.

The Orphan Maker: Big Numbers, Bigger Problems

The headline addition for Rogues in D4 materials is Orphan Maker, a new weapon that dramatically alters how the class’s basic and core skills function. On paper, it sounds promising:

Basic and core skills that use the weapon now reload before firing.

This animation makes them clunky to use, but increases their damage by up to 300%.

At first glance, a 300% damage multiplier is nothing to scoff at. Factor in the new chaos uniques, and Orphan Maker can scale into the 360x multiplier range. For a class that has often struggled with raw damage output, these numbers sound exciting.

But here’s the catch: the reload mechanic fundamentally undermines the weapon’s appeal. Unlike attack speed scaling, reload animations cannot be bypassed or reduced. No matter how much speed you stack, you’ll always have downtime baked into your kit. The result is gameplay that feels clunky, unresponsive, and awkward compared to the fluid rotations of other classes.

Worse yet, these big numbers pale in comparison to what other classes are bringing to the table. Sorcerer Hydra builds, for example, scale so much higher that Rogue’s multipliers look like crumbs in comparison. It’s not enough for Orphan Maker to “deal more damage.” In a competitive endgame environment, multipliers need to be astronomical to offset severe downsides like reload mechanics—and Orphan Maker just doesn’t deliver.

Seasonal Powers: Underwhelming Perks, Awkward Design

Season 10 introduces new chaos perks, designed to encourage fresh playstyles across all classes. Unfortunately, most of Rogue’s seasonal perks fail to inspire confidence.

Here’s a breakdown:

Random Imbuement on Basic Skills

Every basic skill cast now receives a random imbuement.

Imbuement skills deal 40x damage.

At face value, this seems like a neat way to add passive multipliers. But because the imbuement is random (cold, poison, shadow), it undermines consistent scaling. Rogues already have access to Cold Clip, which guarantees a 40x multiplier against chilled or frozen enemies. Why rely on random rolls when more reliable tools already exist?

Chaotic Grenades Burst Damage

Stun grenades now release chaotic bursts for bonus damage.

While flashy, this perk has no real endgame potential. Other classes, particularly Barbarian with its access to multiple two-handed weapons, can scale grenade-style builds much higher. Rogue simply can’t compete.

Marksman Projectiles Cast Twice

100% chance for projectiles to cast twice.

However, this comes at the cost of losing passive energy regeneration.

The upside is misleading. Rogues already have access to projectile-doubling via gear and aspects like Sky Hunter. Adding it as a seasonal perk feels redundant, not empowering. Meanwhile, removing passive energy generation introduces a massive downside that kneecaps most builds.

Hit and Run

Moving 15 meters grants 50x increased damage for 5 seconds.

Stacks up to a few times, but does not refresh.

If inactive, you deal 30% less damage.

This perk exemplifies Rogue’s Season 10 woes. While the fantasy of “shoot, move, repeat” fits the class thematically, in practice it’s incredibly impractical. Against bosses, where movement is limited, the perk becomes dead weight. In chaotic environments like Infernal Hordes, the uptime is inconsistent at best. The damage reduction penalty if it isn’t active makes it actively harmful.

Compared to the perks Druids, Sorcerers, and Barbarians are enjoying—many of which scale into hundreds or thousands of multipliers—Rogue’s perks feel small, situational, and punishing.

Combo Points and Class Identity

One of Rogue’s defining mechanics is combo points, a system encouraging players to weave between basic skill generators and core skill spenders. In Season 10, Rogues received a notable buff:

Casting a basic skill now always generates maximum combo points.

This is a strong change on paper. Previously, combo point generation was RNG-based (around a 33% chance). Guaranteeing three points every cast makes combo-point builds much smoother and more reliable.

The issue? Rogue’s clunky design prevents the mechanic from shining. Even with maximum combo points, you’re still forced into awkward rotations because of Orphan Maker’s reloads and the long cooldowns on abilities. The ideal flow of “generator → spender → generator → spender” gets interrupted by downtime, making combat feel sluggish instead of smooth.

Other classes, meanwhile, are leaning into single-skill dominance, where one core ability becomes the entire DPS engine. For example, Sorcerers can lean fully into Hydra, and Barbarians into Whirlwind or Hammer of the Ancients. Rogue’s reliance on juggling multiple skills is at odds with Diablo 4’s current design meta, where simplicity and high multipliers win out.

The Meta Problem: Rogue at the Bottom

Even before Season 10, Rogue was struggling. Death Trap builds, once dominant, were nerfed heavily in previous patches, leaving the class with few strong options. In PTR testing for Season 10, Rogues remain at or near the bottom of the barrel, struggling to clear the highest levels of The Pit (Diablo 4’s new endgame dungeon system).

By comparison, other classes are soaring:

Druids can stack absurd multipliers from resource gain.

Sorcerers ramp damage infinitely with core skill ranks.

Barbarians leverage multiple two-handers for insane scaling.

Rogues, meanwhile, scrape by with modest multipliers that come attached to massive downsides. Even when a build like Dance of Knives or a chaos-focused combo setup looks fun, the damage ceiling just isn’t competitive.

And that’s the heart of the issue: Diablo 4’s endgame is all about efficiency. Players gravitate toward the smoothest, strongest builds that melt content without friction. If a class feels clunky, underpowered, or overly conditional, it doesn’t matter how “thematically interesting” the design is—players won’t stick with it.

What Could Fix Rogue?

So what can Blizzard do to rescue the Rogue from mediocrity? A few potential changes stand out:

Make Reload Scale with Attack Speed

If Orphan Maker’s reloads scaled down with higher attack speed, the weapon would feel much less clunky. This would reward proper gearing and create a smoother rotation.

Increase Multipliers Across the Board

Rogue’s seasonal perks need numbers that compete with other classes. Adding another zero (as some players joke) might actually be necessary.

Rethink Conditional Downsides

Losing passive energy generation, damage reductions when buffs aren’t active, or relying on random imbuements—all of these create frustrating gameplay loops. Downsides should exist, but they shouldn’t invalidate the upside.

Lean Into Combo Points

Make combo points central to Rogue’s kit by tying stronger multipliers, faster animations, or cooldown resets to them. This could help distinguish the class from others while still keeping it competitive.

Conclusion: Rogue’s Future in Season 10

At the end of the day, Rogue in Season 10 feels underwhelming. Despite flashy new items like Orphan Maker and chaos-themed perks, the class is plagued by clunky mechanics, redundant powers, cheap D4 materials,, and multipliers that simply don’t keep pace with other classes.

For players who love the Rogue fantasy, there are still fun builds to experiment with—Dance of Knives may shine in Infernal Hordes, and combo point buffs do open some doors. But in the broader endgame meta, Rogue is lagging behind, struggling to even clear 100 in the Pit while other classes blaze far ahead.

Unless Blizzard makes significant changes, Season 10 risks cementing Rogue as the bottom-tier class for a second season in a row. And in a game where fluidity and power define the experience, being both clunky and weak is a recipe for being ignored.

For now, the Rogue is in desperate need of a rework—or at the very least, some bigger numbers.