Best Malignant Hearts for Rogue in Diablo 4 S1

After Blizzard nerfing everything down to the ground, it has become difficult for users to adjust. It feels like a completely different game now and classes that were already squishy appear to have become even squishier.

Rogue has been a top-tier class in Diablo 4 and could still arguably be there. However, the nerfs to cooldown, vulnerability, and critical damage hit them hard. This is where the Season of the Malignant comes to the rescue.

It is evident that the developers knew what they were doing. And some of the nerfs make sense since we will be getting more than decent boosts through the Malignant hearts.

Best Malignant Hearts for Rogue in Diablo 4 S1

There is a wide range of Malignant Hearts in the game that could drastically improve your offense and defense. With survivability getting nerfed it could be a wise move to focus more on raw damage. However, your builds would become completely different at high-tier NM and defense would be your first priority.

The Malignant Hearts could make up for the nerfs we had through the pre-season patch. Here are the ones you should be looking to farm if you are playing Rogue for Season 1 in Diablo 4.

Hearts	Effects
Tempting Fate (Vicious Offensive)	You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.
Revenge (Brutal Defensive)	10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge, or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to nearby enemies.
The Malignant Pact (Wrathful Super)	Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills: Vicious: Gain 20% Attack Speed. Devious: Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource. Brutal: Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85-102 damage.
Cluster Munitions (Vicious Offensive, Rogue)	Lucky Hit: You have up to a 20% chance to launch 3 Stun Grenades that deal 26-32 Physical damage and Stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.
Trickery (Brutal Defensive, Rogue)	When you use a Subterfuge Skill, leave behind an unstable Shadow Decoy Trap that Taunts enemies. The Shadow Decoy Trap will explode after 6.0 seconds dealing 680-1020 Shadow damage. Cannot occur more than once every 5 seconds.
The Clipshot (Devious Utility, Rogue)	Lucky Hit: Up to a 20-40% chance for your Cutthroat Skills to Slow by 40% for 3 seconds and your Marksman Skills to Knock Back enemies.
The Vile Apothecary (Wrathful Super, Rogue)	Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency.

• Tempting Fate- A must have for any class who relies on critical hits. Rogue is definitely one of them. A 40-60% Critical Damage would do wonders for the class, especially with Twisting Blades.
• Revenge- This could be a really good defensive heart that could add to your offense. It can suppress 10-20% of the damage and amplify it with an explosion to deal fire damage to surrounding enemies.  And if you are using a Poison Trap build, this could genuinely work well for you.
• The Malignant Pact- I would not prefer this too much since it cycles between effects. Even if I use it I would do it to get a refill on my Primary Resource. However, it seems to be too random.
• Cluster Minions- Not the one that I want as the damage is really low and so is the Stun amount. However, if you get one with a Stun variant of 2 secs or more, go for it.
• Trickery- This is the main Malignant Heart that Rogues with Trap builds should use this Season. It uses a Shadow Decoy which the enemies run to attack. As a result, they fall into the trap and receive poison damage. The decoy also explodes after 6 seconds dealing shadow damage to the enemies. This is the best way to use Traps this season as almost the entire group walks into the trap willingly.  This also takes the enemy’s attention off from you so use this time to heal yourself or gather Energy. Trickery is undoubtedly the best Rogue Malignant Heart as of now.
• The Clipshot- If you are a Rogue running a Ranged build, then this should be ideal for you. It will keep the enemy away from you and allows you to maintain distance. However, Trap build Rogues should avoid this since Marksman Skills will push the enemy away from the trap.
• The Vile Apothecary- Well, perhaps the best one for Rogues as your attacks will have a chance of applying all the 3 Imbuement effects. If you add your own Skill Slot imbuement, then it adds to the damage. This gives you an insane amount of Single Target Damage as well as damage to an enemy group.

There you go, these are the Malignant Hearts you should be looking for. Remember, that Tempting Fate is the most essential heart that you need and then you combine it with the Heart that suits your build.

I believe Trap builds are meta for Season 1 and therefore use it with Tempting Fate, Trickery, and Vile Apothecary.

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