Just like every other game in the franchise before it,Diablo 4can be enjoyed by players either solo or in co-op. Thanks to the title’s live-service nature, one is never far from encountering other players in the world and can even join up with them for some demon-hunting action without needing to create a party or bother with matchmaking.Diablo 4also features the franchise’s first attempt at an open-world map complete with a plethora of dungeons and activities to invest time into. However, one of these activities – the Strongholds – can be daunting for solo Rogue players.
There are a total of15 Strongholds inDiablo 4, with three Strongholds located in each of the game’s five regions. These activities represent one of the more significant challenges for players to face early on as the enemies found in Strongholds are typically two levels above the player, including the bosses located at each one. For players who have chosen the Rogue as their starting class, it’s entirely possible to be faced with the need to completely respec a character after attempting one of the Strongholds, as they can immediately render a once-reliable build completely useless.
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Diablo 4’s Rogue Has a Tendency to Be a Glass Cannon
Despite featuring both ranged and melee options for players to invest their skill points into, the Rogue isn’t quite the flexible class that players might hope for. Investing in theRogue’s ranged attack optionsdoes provide some considerable offensive power, but this comes at the cost of both mobility and defense. Some of the bonuses to ranged combat even rely on the Rogue standing still, meaning players become a sitting duck for enemy combatants.
This vulnerability is only exacerbated when playing solo, as there are no allies present to draw aggro from mobs so that players can safely attack from a distance at the edges of the screen. To add insult to injury,Diablo 4’s Strongholdsare typically filled to the brim with ADDs prior to being able to take on the boss, making attempting these locations solo a chore instead of a compelling challenge. Every time a solo player dies and revives at their checkpoint, the enemy mobs respawn and they’re back to square one.
The alternative is to invest in the Rogue’s subterfuge and poison skill trees, slowing and affecting enemies with DoT while quickly rushing in and out of danger thanks to the Rogue’s enhanced mobility. However, even this solution doesn’t resolve the Rogue’s apparent fragility as a combatant, meaning that players who want to playDiablo 4solo as a Roguemust constantly be on their toes, aware of their health and positioning. This makes for a more involved and entertaining experience, but it also results in the unfortunate reality of one misstep causing players to lose progress.
The term “glass cannon” is common parlance for characters that deal high offense while lacking in defense, indicating the need to stay out of harm’s way as a means of self-preservation. The Rogue is indeed powerful, and players have already soloed the entireDiablo 4campaign on Hardcore modeusing the class. Still, using the class as an average player and attempting to get a sense of everythingDiablo 4has on offer can lead to some frustrating fights due to the class' lack of defense.
Thankfully, if a player runs up against a skill check while playing as the Rogue,Diablo 4makes respecing a character relatively painless. The ability to switch up playstyle on the fly and for a reasonable amount of gold is a boon for the times that a once-reliable strategy proves unreliable in the face of overwhelming odds. For now, though, it seems as if solo Rogue players will have to make peace with their fragility.
Diablo 4is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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