S-TIER | ROGUE BUILD Tir pénétrant rank 1 (@Ithax) | SEASON 13

ENDGAME | PIT PUSH | SPEED FARM VOLEUR

Build Overview

This Rogue build was crafted and pushed to the global #1 rank on Tower T150 in Season 13 by Ithax, a top-tier Rogue player interviewed by Goblin-Inc. The core idea is to exploit a shade damage bug to deal astronomical numbers — what the community has dubbed "trillion damage" — on Bosses and elites.

The heart of the mechanic revolves around Penetrating Shot: the modifier on this skill spawns two shades that copy each shot. These shades benefit from a damage bug that has existed since the beginning of the expansion, and by stacking enough shade sources, it becomes possible to trigger this anomaly consistently and at massive scale.

But where Ithax truly innovated over other players is in solving the AoE consistency problem. Since shades initially only have a single target to hit, clearing normal monster packs was difficult. His solution: The Umbracrux, a unique trap-totem that replicates at 50% efficiency in AoE all damage it receives. By forcing shades to hit The Umbracrux, the bug propagates across the entire area, turning a single-target build into a pack-clearing machine.

The second layer of ingenuity is the Sightless set (Les Condamnés), which creates a chain reaction between Concealment and Shadow Clone: one resets the cooldown of the other in a loop, guaranteeing near-permanent uptime on shade generation. The Preparation specialization completes the loop by reducing the ultimate cooldown with every Penetrating Shot spam.

Pros and Cons

Recommended Gear

The gear for this build is built around two priorities: maximizing critical damage and cooldown reduction to keep the Sightless chain active at all times.

Helm — Godslayer Crown: This unique is primarily here for its ability to pull enemies in, which helps propagate the AoE of The Umbracrux. Cooldown reduction as a Greater Affix is a big bonus. Ithax notes you can skip it if you don't have a good roll — focus on Dexterity, Life, and Armor instead.

Chest — Tyrael's Might: The go-to survivability mythic. Resistances to all elements and damage reduction make it the essential choice for surviving T150 mechanics. Ithax pairs it with Sir and M runes from Dark Shroud to generate two charges simultaneously.

Gloves — with Aspect of Frozen Memories: The key multiplier of the build. The aspect triples damage against frozen enemies, which synergizes perfectly with Cold Imbuement and the shatter mechanic. Aim for Greater Affixes in critical damage multiplier and cooldown reduction.

Pants — Shrouded Gift: Each entry into stealth triggers a Concealment and grants damage reduction during and after stealth. Essential in this build that constantly enters and exits stealth. Alternative for the T12 Speed Farm variant: legendary Pants with Aspect of Glynn's Anvil.

Boots — Aspect of Mending Obscurity: Survivability in stealth. Every second spent in stealth heals and generates Fortify. With the build's permanent Concealment chain, this is a near-continuous source of healing and mitigation. Attacks reduce Evade cooldown allows you to incorporate Evade into your mobility.

Amulet — Ferocious Aspect + Aspect of Apogeic Furor: Ferocious Aspect generates Ferocity stacks that increase attack speed and damage — bonuses directly passed to shades that copy every shot. The additional crowd-control duration extends the shatter window and allows you to stagger Bosses more easily.

Ring 1 — Ring of Starless Skies: Reduces skill energy cost, which combined with lucky hit chance to restore resources is enough to sustain spamming Penetrating Shot without resource issues. Cooldown reduction as a Greater Affix is mandatory.

Ring 2 — Aspect of Apogeic Furor: Reducing other skill cooldowns on each use of the ultimate closes the Sightless loop. Cooldown reduction as a Greater Affix is mandatory on both rings to reach the required ~60%.

Main weapon — Crossbow or bow: Ithax uses a crossbow for its high damage base despite lower attack speed, since he already has very high attack speed from other sources. Dexterity, weapon damage, Maximum Life and critical multiplier are the target stats.

Off-hand — The Umbracrux + Nightstalker's Aspect: The Umbracrux is the centerpiece of the build: its trap-totem replicates shade damage in AoE. The off-hand carries Nightstalker's Aspect, which gives a 50% chance to spawn an additional shade and increases their damage. On both weapons, aim for lucky hit chance to freeze to fuel the shatter mechanic.

Horadric Seal S13

Gameplay Tips

The absolute priority before any T150 push is reaching approximately 60% cooldown reduction. Below this threshold, the Sightless loop does not cycle fast enough and shade generation becomes irregular. Check both rings, the amulet, and Godslayer Crown: each piece must contribute to the total.

Core rotation: maintain a constant spam of Penetrating Shot to reduce Shadow Clone's cooldown via the Preparation specialization. Whenever Concealment or Smoke Grenade is available, use them to enter stealth — this triggers the Shadow Clone cooldown reset via the Sightless set. When Shadow Clone is ready, activate it to spawn new shades and loop.

Pack management: let Subo engage elites and bring them into your zone. Place The Umbracrux in the middle of the pack before triggering shades — the totem amplifies damage in AoE as soon as shades hit it. Cold Imbuement helps freeze the entire pack, initiating the shatter cycle for a zone explosion.

Survivability: enter and exit stealth as often as possible. Aspect of Mending Obscurity runs continuously as long as you are in stealth, regenerating your Life and Fortify. Shrouded Gift grants additional damage reduction when exiting stealth. Dash serves both for mobility, to occasionally break stealth, and for damage absorption via its upgrades.

Boss: target a Boss, activate Cold Imbuement to freeze, then spam Penetrating Shot + Shadow Clone to trigger shades on the Boss. The stacked critical multipliers (Aspect of Frozen Memories × freeze × Devious) combine to one-shot it. Note: freeze has diminishing returns if applied in excess — act fast after each freeze.

T12 Speed Farm variant: replace Godslayer Crown with Harlequin Crest for a general boost to cooldown reduction and survivability, and swap Pants Shrouded Gift for Pants with Aspect of Glynn's Anvil for Resolve stacks. This variant is more comfortable for fast farming without needing to push T150.

Talent Tree

The build invests heavily in the three offensive skills that form the core mechanic: Penetrating Shot 15/15 with Shadow Shot (shade damage) and Ferocity (multiplicative attack speed) upgrades; Cold Imbuement 15/15 with Frozen Heart (frost nova on ultimate); and Shadow Clone 15/15 with the Awakening upgrade (additional shades based on energy spent).

Utility skills remain at 1/15: Dash (mobility + breaks stealth), Concealment (stealth + Sightless cooldown reset), Smoke Grenade (second source of Sightless reset). Dark Shroud goes up to 14/15 with movement speed, heal, and Best Served Cold upgrades — it is the defensive backbone of the build.

The T12 Speed Farm variant swaps Dash for Shadow Step 1/15, which provides burst mobility and Unstoppable to push through crowd-control affixes.

Mercenary S13

Paragon and Glyphs

The Paragon of this build (Standard variant) is structured around five boards built exclusively around maximizing damage, especially against crowd-controlled enemies — which fits perfectly with the build's constant freeze spam.

The first board Start hosts the Assassin glyph at L150: increased damage against elites, which directly amplifies shade damage on priority targets. The second board Cheap Shot carries the Control glyph at L150: a damage multiplier against crowd-controlled enemies — a permanent bonus given the build's constant freeze.

The third board Leyrana's Instinct is paired with the Versatility glyph at L150: a generic multiplier for core skills, and therefore for Penetrating Shot. Ithax notes he does not use Inner Sight and that this board is chosen primarily for its damage nodes — other Rogue boards would have comparable effects. The fourth board Exploit Weakness carries Eclipse at L150: boosts both shade damage AND cast speed, which is multiplicative and exceeds the attack speed cap. More cast speed means more shades per second means more chances to trigger the bugged damage.

Finally, the fifth board Danse Macabre hosts Devious at L150: all enemies in the area take increased damage when mobility and subterfuge skills are active — representing roughly 60% uptime given the permanent use of Concealment and Smoke Grenade.

Sightless + Preparation Chain Reaction

The most complex and most important mechanic in this build is the permanent cooldown loop created between the Sightless set (Les Condamnés), Concealment skills, and the Preparation specialization. Understanding this cycle is essential to fully leverage the build.

The Sightless set creates two links:

• Using Concealment or Smoke Grenade → resets Shadow Clone's cooldown
• Using Shadow Clone → resets the cooldown of Concealment and Smoke Grenade

These two links feed each other and allow Shadow Clone to be available near-permanently — each activation of the ultimate spawns new shades that copy Penetrating Shot, and the stealth skills that follow immediately reset the ultimate's cooldown.

The Preparation specialization adds to this loop: each energy expenditure via Penetrating Shot directly reduces Shadow Clone's cooldown. By continuously spamming Penetrating Shot, you accelerate your ultimate's return independently of the Sightless chain. This is a double cooldown reduction mechanism, which explains why ~60% cooldown reduction is the minimum threshold to make the rotation smooth: below that, the gaps between Shadow Clone activations become too long to maintain satisfying uptime on shades.