Il Cutthroat di Diablo 4 it is a versatile class that can attack both from a distance with a bow and crossbow, and at short range with swords and daggers. Additionally, he boasts great mobility and can infuse his attacks with poison, shadow, and ice, dealing additional damage and status ailments to enemies.
On the other hand, Cutthroats are relatively fragile and require perfect positioning to maximize the potential of their offensive abilities, which requires a bit of strategy and ability to adapt.
Diablo 4, as per the tradition of the series, truly offers you plenty of choice when it comes to skills and passives and the combinations in this sense are practically endless. Below we will suggest what we think two solid builds for the Cutthroat, one focused on close-range attacks and the other on skills with the bow and crossbow, designed to face the campaign of Blizzard's action RPG without problems and as a possible basis also for the endgame, clearly to be modified with the right precautions .
As we also said in the guides to the best builds for the Enchanter and the Barbarian, the advice however is to try yourself to create a setup that you consider ideal, studying the skills available for your favorite class and the possible combinations. After all, resetting points in the initial stages of the game has a relatively low cost and experimenting with various builds, even failing, is part of the fun.
Flurry-based build
- Basic skills: Drilling (1/5) → Reinforced Drilling → Basic Drilling
- Primary Skill: Burst (5/5) → Reinforced Burst → Improved Burst
- Agility Skills: Shadow Step (1/5) → Strengthened Shadow Step → Methodical Shadow Step
- Subterfuge Skill: Poison Trap (1/5) → Reinforced Poison Trap → Counteracting Poison Trap
- Subterfuge Skill: Dark Cloak (1/5) → Reinforced Dark Cloak → Revolutionary Dark Cloak
- Infusion Skill: Poison Infusion (5/5) → Enhanced Poison Infusion → Mixed Poison Infusion
- Passive Key: Impetus
- Passive primary branch: Solid (1/3) - Draining Assaults (3/3) - Rushing Stride (3/3)
- Passive agility branch: Weapon Mastery (3/3)
- Passive subterfuge branch: Opportunism (3/3) → Malice (3/3)
- Passive infusion branch: Precise Infusion (3/3) - Lethal Poison (1/3) - Debilitating Toxins (3/3) - Alchemical Advantage (1/3)
- Passive ultra branch: Trap Mastery (3/3) - Adrenaline Rush (1/3) - Celerity (3/3)
- Specialization: Combo Points
- Recommended Codex Aspects of Power: Aspect of the Enveloping Blades (Abandoned Quarry - Shattered Peaks), Aspect of Waiting (Underoak - Scosglen), Aspect of the Edgemaster (Ancestral Stones - Scosglen), Aspect of Corruption (campaign, Kehjistan), Vengeful Aspect (Hell - Kehjistan ), Aspect of Swiftness (Buried Halls - Dry Steppes), Aspect of Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan), Aspect of Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan), Aspect of Hunger (Shifting City - Dry Steppes), Energizing Aspect (campaign , Shattered Peaks)
The one above is a build designed to guarantee excellent mobility, skills with area damage to quickly eliminate groups of smaller enemies and a different poison-flavored skill to bring even the largest enemies to their knees.
The fulcrum of this setup is represented by gust, an ability that basically hits targets in front of the Cutthroat four times. However, thanks to the Aspect of the Enveloping Blades this attack will hit 360°, becoming even more valid when you launch yourself into the enemy ranks. In the Improved version it also becomes very simple to make all targets within its range "vulnerable", as well as healing you thanks to its passive bonus. We will alternate the primary with the basic ability Fundamental Puncture, which allows you to quickly charge energy, slow down enemies, increase the Combo Points counter and keep the offensive potential high.
To quickly throw ourselves into the fray we have Methodical Shadow Step, which also stuns and increases the critical hit chance on the target hit. Dark Cloak, on the other hand, represents our defensive ability to increase our chances of survival during the assault.
In the kit we also have the Contrasting Poisoned Trap, excellent for damaging and debilitating enemies and also having almost a one in three chance of resetting the cooldown of our infusion skill, i.e. Mixed Poison Infusion, which as the name suggests poisons the unfortunate ones on duty, causing damage over time and, thanks to Debilitating Toxins, reducing their offensive power.
The key passive Surging it offers us a bonus to resistance, movement speed and energy recharge by performing slaughter abilities on dazed enemies, while the rest of the passive abilities are designed to increase damage against vulnerable enemies and critical hit rates, as well as mobility of our Cutthroat.
Build based on Piercing Shot
- Basic skills: Drilling (1/5) → Advanced Drilling → Drilling → Fundamental or Fundamental Overwhelming Arrow
- Primary skill: Piercing Shot (5/5) → Reinforced Piercing Shot → Improved Piercing Shot
- Agility skills: Dash (1/5) → Reinforced Dash → Disciplined Dash
- Subterfuge skills: Dark Cloak (1/5) → Reinforced Dark Cloak → Revolutionary Dark Cloak
- Infusion Skill 1: Shadow Infusion (5/5) → Strengthened Shadow Infusion → Blended Shadow Infusion
- Infusion Skill 2: Poison Infusion (5/5) → Enhanced Poison Infusion → Mixed Poison Infusion
- Passive Key: Accuracy
- Passive agility branch: Weapon Mastery (3/3)
- Passive subterfuge branch: Opportunism (3/3) - Malice (3/3)
- Passive infusion branch: Shadow Crash (1/3) - Wearing Shadows (3/3) - Lethal Poison (1/3) - Debilitating Toxins (3/3) - Precise Infusion (3/3)
- Passive ultra branch: Innervation (3/3) - Adrenaline rush (1/3) - Celerity (3/3)
- Specialization: Combo Points
- Recommended Codex Aspects of Power: Aspect of Deceptive Shot (Bastion of Faith - Hawezar), Aspect of Waiting (Underoak - Scosglen), Aspect of Swiftness (Buried Halls - Barren Steppes), Aspect of the Master of the Edges (Ancestral Stones - Scosglen), Aspect of Corruption ( countryside, Kehjistan), Vengeful Aspect (Hell - Kehjistan), Aspect of Disobedience (Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan), Aspect of Hunger (Shifting City - Barren Steppes), Energizing Aspect (campaign, Shattered Peaks)
Unlike the previous build, this one is based on the use of ranged weapons and Penetrating Shot, an arrow fired in a straight line that deals damage to all enemies in its path and therefore requires optimal positioning each time to hit as many targets as possible to maximize damage. A simple ability, which becomes much more interesting thanks to the Trick Shot Aspect of the Codex of Power (found in the Bastion of Faith, in the Hawezar region): each enemy hit generates two additional arrows that are shot to opposite sides which inflict a small portion of the original damage.
This skill must be alternated with the basic skill Puncture or alternatively Overwhelming Arrow taking advantage of the Combo Points specialization to increase the strength of the primary. They are both valid and you should choose the one that inspires you the most or that you feel comfortable with. We prefer Piercing: it requires playing at a closer distance, thus increasing the risks, but on the other hand the attacks are faster and therefore allow you to regenerate more energy.
Considering that you will often have to reposition yourself to take advantage of the Penetrating Shot, we suggest using Shoot. This is an agility skill with two charges that allows you to quickly dash forward, dealing damage to enemies in your path and, in the Disciplined variant, slowing them or inflicting daze. As a defensive ability, this time too we have the very useful Dark Cloak, essential to make up for the Cutthroat's fragility.
This build also takes advantage of two different ones infusion skills, that is, that of Shadow and that of Poison, so as to always have an active enhancement for your Cutthroat's Penetrating Shot. The first inflicts shadow damage and explodes causing area damage if the enemies hit die while its effects are active and is therefore useful for eliminating many targets in a short time, while the poison infusion causes damage over time, proving useful especially with bosses with a lot of life.
With regard to passive skills, we suggest you invest a good number of points on the bonuses for infusions and on those that increase the critical chance and damage in general. The key passive we have chosen in this case is Precision, which guarantees increased critical damage and at regular intervals the ability to fire an enhanced Precision Shot (Penetrating and Overwhelming Arrow).
