Lucky Luciano's No Imbuement No Cooldown T100 Nightmare Dungeon Rogue

Imbuements are fun, but they have cooldowns, and cooldowns are not fun. Why wait to deal damage when you can use The Barber to delete packs of enemies without ever having to stop? With no imbuements crowding your skill bar you’re free to take utility skills that bring massive crowd control and additional damage to the table. Luckily such a build exists and Lucky Luciano has put it together all in one incredibly fun-to-play and intuitive-to-use package. In this guide, we’ll be going over Lucky Luciano’s No Imbuement and No Cooldown Rogue build and explain why it’s absolutely crushing high-tier Nightmare Dungeons. Check out the build in our Calculator Here!

How It Works

Lucky’s build takes advantage of the incredibly powerful state of The Barber in patch 1.1.1 to put out all his damage. This means he can run additional utility skills with massive CC and does not need to rely on any cooldowns for damage. Generally, the core gameplay loop involves stun-locking a large pack of enemies, activating The Barber, and then dumping damage while keeping the crowd locked down until the barber nukes everything around you. In the event that things don’t immediately die you have access to Dash and Shadow Step to quickly dip out and choose your moment to step back in.

Damage

• Malignant Heart The Barber: The king of Malignant hearts this patch, The Barber is your primary damage source with this build. When you crit, The Barber activates and for 2-4 seconds all damage taken by the enemy you crit will be absorbed, increasing by a percent each second, and then explode in an area around the target. This means that you can focus on damaging a single target with Twisting Blades knowing that the damage will crush everything around you.

  • Note: The Consuming Shadows passive is super important here for energy economy. The passive generates 20 energy every time an enemy is killed with shadow damage. The Barber explosion counts as shadow damage, meaning every AOE nuke refills your energy bar.
  • Accelerating Aspect: This aspect synergizes very well with The Barber. Upon landing a critical strike your core skill attack speed is increased by 15-20% for 3 seconds. Since a single crit also activates The Barber this means that once an enemy starts storing damage you’ll have the core skill attack speed to dump everything you have into it before the explosion.
• Smoke Bomb: This ability does 2 really great things for the build. First it applies daze for 4 seconds meaning massive AOE CC when combined with poison trap. Second, it increases damage to affected enemies x20% meaning a massive AOE damage buff that you can activate to enhance The Barber.

  • Frostbitten Aspect: Since Lucky runs Penitent Greaves, which constantly chill enemies behind you, this aspect is insane. Chilled enemies hit by your grenade skill have a chance double to your crit chance to be instantly frozen. Frozen enemies take x10-25% increased crit damage. Since most enemies around you are chilled, this means even further damage to enemies when you pop smoke bomb.
• Puncture: Lucky specs into Fundamental Puncture and makes sure to maximize his attack speed. This means that he can quickly apply vulnerable to enemies without having to rely on any cooldowns. Lucky gains further access to vulnerable through the Exploit glyph on the paragon board.
• Twisting Blades: Our main damage skill to stack The Barber, Lucky grabs Improved Twisting Blades for the CC. Essentially this skill also begins what is a very long CC chain within the build between Shadow Step, Dash, Poison Trap, Smoke Bomb, and the Penitent Greaves.

  • Aspect of Encircling Blades: A must-have for any Twisting Blades user, this aspect makes your Twisting Blades circle around you upon return dealing additional damage.
• Edgemasters Aspect: Increases damage of skills based on primary resource with the max benefit at full resource. Lucky takes this because of the powerful energy synergy with The Barber and Consuming Shadows. Essentially he has little trouble keeping his energy bar full and therefore is able to take advantage of the massive benefit from Edgemasters. Lucky swaps this aspect out for Aspect of Surprise (preferred in slot) when he wants to gain additional CC.
• Specialization Combo Points: Because Lucky is able to keep his energy bar full between Consuming Shadows, Innervation, and Adrenaline Rush, Lucky does not need to go with Inner Sight. Instead, he grabs Combo Points for massive additional damage when used effectively.

  • Unique Dagger Condemnation: This unique makes core skills deal an additional x20-30% damage when spending 3 combo points. It also grants basic skills a 30% chance to generate 3 combo points.

Crowd Control: A really important part of this build. Since Lucky gets all the damage he needs from The Barber and Twisting Blades, his only remaining focus is ensuring that targets sit still while he fills them with damage and can’t move, meaning they can’t damage him.

• Aspect of Shared Misery: The amount of CC in this build is insane, and this aspect takes things to a whole new level. As a Lucky Hit this aspect grants a 30-50% chance upon hitting a CC’d enemy to spread that CC to other unaffected enemies. Consider this aspect as we cover all the different forms of CC in this build.
• Penitent Greaves: The absolute best for constantly applying CC. These unique boots leave behind a trail of frost wherever you walk that chills enemies. They also enhance the damage dealt to chilled enemies by 7-10%.
• Shadow Step: A great escape tool when CC’d Lucky specs into Methodical Shadow Step for the additional CC.
• Dash: Used for mobility and CC, Lucky Specs into Disciplined Dash for additional CC.

  • Aspect of the Quickening Fog: This aspect provides even further AOE CC with Dash. This aspect automatically drops a smoke grenade at the end of dash that dazes enemies. Dashes cooldown is reduced depending on the number of enemies dazed. (Lucky Swaps this out with Aspect of Stolen Vigor when pushing higher content where life regen is a struggle)
• Poison Trap: Another awesome tool for big CC, Lucky allocates only one point beyond the initial skill, grabbing Enhanced Poison Trap for the knockdown.
• Aspect of Retribution: Just in case everything above wasn’t enough Lucky adds this aspect which grants an 8% chance for distant enemies to be stunned when hitting you. More notably this aspect also increases damage to stunned enemies x10-20%.
• Aspect of Surprise: Preferably slotted in lue of Edgemasters this aspect drops a cluster of stun grenades every time you evade or shadow step. You get incredibly high uptime on this aspect with additional evade charges and it puts out massive AOE CC.
• Malignant Heart Cluster Munitions: This heart grants a Lucky Hit 20% chance to launch 2 Stun Grenades that deal physical damage but more importantly stun for .5 seconds.

Defense

• Key Passive Momentum: A solid choice for the defensive stats and energy economy. Essentially you can keep the passive stacked permanently with the massive CC found within the build.
• Aspect of Might: Basic Skills grant 25% damage reduction for 2-6 seconds.
• Aspect of Disobedience: The king of all defensive aspects. Lucky slots this on his amulet for additional effectiveness. This aspect grants a stacking percent increase to armor when hitting enemies.
• Aspect of Stolen Vigor: Lucky swaps this aspect in for Aspect of the Quickening fog in content where survivability is an issue. This aspect heals per stack of the momentum key passive.
• Malignant Heart Revenge: A very powerful heart with both offensive and defensive benefits, however, because of its damage cap, is more valuable for its defensive benefit. This heart suppresses a percentage of incoming damage, and once a subterfuge skill is used, the suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes in an area around you.

Gear Stat Priority

• Helmet

  • Cooldown Reduction
  • Max Life
  • Basic Attack Speed
  • Total Armor
• Chest

  • Max Life
  • Total Armor
  • Damage reduction from Close
  • Damage Reduction from Distant
• Gloves

  • Attack Speed
  • Crit Chance
  • Lucky Hit Chance
  • Ranks of Twisting Blades
• Pants

  • Damage Reduction
  • Damage Reduction from Close
  • Damage Reduction from Distant
  • Dexterity
• Boots Unique Penitent Greaves
• Amulet

  • Ranks of Frigid Finesse Passive
  • Energy Cost Reduction
  • Total Armor
  • Dexterity
• Ring

  • Critical Strike Chance
  • Critical Strike Damage
  • Vulnerable Damage
  • Lucky Hit Chance
• Sword (taken because the Critical Strike damage implicit)

  • Vulnerable Damage
  • Critical Strike Damage
  • Dexterity
  • All Stats
• Dagger Unique Condemnation
• Crossbow (Taken because the Damage to Vulnerable)

  • Vulnerable Damage
  • All Stats
  • Dexterity
  • Critical Strike Damage

Paragon

• Starting Board: Lucky grabs Prime, Lawless, and Skillful for the damage and armor. He slots Closer for the increased Cutthroat skill damage and the damage reduction when wielding a melee weapon.

• Tricks of the Trade: Lucky rotates this board twice. He grabs the glyph first slotting Diminish for the bonus to surrounding rare nodes and the reduced physical damage from vulnerable enemies, which is easy to take advantage of because of Puncture and Exploit. For rare nodes, he grabs Focused, Lawless, and Brawler for the defensive stats and the additional damage to close enemies and elites. Finally, he grabs the legendary node for the 25% damage increase when swapping between Marksman skills and Cutthroat skills

• Cheap Shot: Attached to the right of Tricks of the Trade and left unrotated. Lucky grabs Oppress and Devious for the increased crit damage and straight damage to crowd-controlled enemies. He grabs the legendary node for the increased damage per nearby crowd-controlled enemy (up to a max of x25%), and slots Control for the increased damage to crowd-controlled enemies and further damage buff to chilled, slowed, and frozen enemies.

• No Witnesses: Attached to the top of Cheap Shot and not rotated Lucky makes a quick pit stop here. Lucky grabs Knowledge and Training for the increased max life and damage. He then slots Exploit for the increased damage to vulnerable and the ability to make an enemy vulnerable by damaging them, an effect that can only happen once every 20 seconds per enemy.

• Cunning Stratagem: Attached to the right of No Witnesses and left un-rotated. Lucky grabs Lawless and Finisher for the defensive stats and the increased Core Skill damage. Lucky Slots Devious for the bonus to magic nodes and the stacking percent damage increase when hitting enemies with crowd control effects.

• Exploit Weakness: Attached to the top of Cunning Stratagem and rotated 3 times so the glyph slot is close on the right side. Lucky grabs Artifice and Dosage for the increased potion healing and the increased vulnerable damage. Lucky slots Combat for the increased critical strike damage and the 12% energy cost refund for skills that crit.

• Deadly Ambush: Attached to the right of Exploit Weakness and not rotated. Lucky grabs Engineering and Cunning for the damage reduction from enemies affected by trap skills and the damage to trapped enemies. Lucky slots Turf for the increased damage to close enemies and the damage reduction from close enemies.

Wrapping It Up

While imbuements are fun you always have to consider the cooldowns. This build requires no such end to the fun. With all your damage coming from The Barber, which is stacked by Twisting Blades, cooldowns are all tied to utility skills. This means that you can jump into massive elite packs and dump damage, all while rotating through your utility skills to apply big damage buffs and never-ending cc. Add in the Penitent Greaves unique and virtually nothing can move while you prep enemies to nuke packs with The Barber. Once again Lucky has created a rogue build that absolutely slaughters high-tier Nightmare Dungeons with ease. For more Diablo IV content check out Lucky Luciano’s channel Here and for his build in our calculator click Here!