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Malignant Hearts can be collected from dangerous enemies in Diablo 4 to give some of the best gear Slot powers for class builds, including the Rogue. Learn more about the top 10 Malignant Powers in Diablo 4 for Rogue Builds in the post below.
Legendary Aspects from Malignant Hearts in Season 1 of Diablo IV act like Gem Slots in your character’s gear, providing some of the best powers for class builds like the Rogue. Dropped by Elite enemies infected by a mysterious blight taking a hold of Sanctuary, the passive abilities from these hearts can be quite strong. Divided into four categories, it may hard to determine which of these buffs suit your chosen skills.
There are Vicious Hearts, Brutal Hearts, Devious Hearts, and Wrathful Hearts, which are dropped by specific monsters or crafted from Cormond’s wagon. Brutal Hearts gift defensive powers, while Vicious Hearts and Devious Hearts are used for offensive and utility traits respectfully. Meanwhile, Wrathful are the hardest Malignant Hearts to farm in Diablo 4, giving “super” powers that have much stronger qualities.
TIP: Any Malignant Heart must be equipped into an Infested Slot in your character’s gear that matches its color, except for Wrathful Hearts which can go into any kind of Slot.
10. Tempting Fate (Vicious)
One consistency between Rogue builds in Diablo 4 is how the class likes to have high Critical Strike Damage, which is exactly what the Tempting Fate Heart increases. However, the non-Critical damage dealt by your character does decrease when equipping this power. A build designed with a higher Critical Strike chance is almost necessary here, but thankfully many of the Rogue’s skill upgrades help toward this goal.
9. The Calculated (Devious)
This Devious Heart causes your character’s next attack to Stun enemies for 2 seconds when you spend 150-200 Energy. Ultimate Skills like Shadow Clone and Rain of Arrows take a lot of Energy to use, making this Malignant Power easy to trigger in different situations.
The Rogue has some of the highest single-target damage among the classes of Diablo 4, which becomes simple to inflict on a Stunned enemy.
8. Revenge (Brutal)
Equipping this Malignant Power automatically suppresses 10-20% of incoming damage, which is incredibly strong considering the low health any Rogue has. This repelled damage actually becomes stored up to 250% until you use a Subterfuge skill such as Concealment, Dark Shroud, or Poison Trap.
Activating one of these skills unleashes the stored damage in a massive explosion that deals Fire damage to surrounding enemies.
7. The Picana (Vicious)
For Rogues that prioritize single target Critical Strikes, Crowd Control can be difficult in Diablo 4 without a Heart power like The Picana. Anytime your character deals a Critical Strike, the enemy hit gets electrically charged, causing Lightning to arc off of them and damage surrounding foes. This ability gives your Rogue more damage against the larger groups of overwhelming forces from Hell without having to redistribute skill points.
6. The Barber (Wrathful)
Targets that you deal damage to while The Barber Heart is active absorb any hits taken for 2–4 seconds before exploding outward to itself and surrounding enemies. Another fantastic way to inject Crowd Control for Diablo 4 into your Rogue build, this ability helps the most within Strongholds or other World Events that throw tons of foes at your character. Since this Heart power is classified as Wrathful, it can go into any Infested Slot.
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5. Cluster Munitions (Vicious)
On a Lucky Hit, this power has a 20% chance to fire 3 Stun Grenades that deal physical damage and Stun enemies in Diablo 4 for a brief period of time. This ability is useful for getting out of a bad spot while fighting, locking down creatures as your character activates Shadow Step, or another Mobility skill to get away. This contributes to the slippery nature of the Rogue, while also being a strong offensive trait while attacking with Basic Skills.
4. The Malignant Pact (Wrathful)
One of the more common Hearts to find in Season 1, The Malignant Pact cycles between different abilities every time your character gets 20 kills. This can be either Vicious, where your character gains a 20% Attack Speed, or Devious, which has a chance to fully restore your Energy when using a Basic or Core Skill. Finally, the Brutal ability from this rotation gives your character a Barrier every 21 seconds, which can be potent for a PvP Rogue build in Diablo 4.
3. The Vile Apothecary (Wrathful)
The Vile Apothecary Heart power has a small chance to apply all your Rogue’s Imbuement effects to your attacks, but only at 40-50% of their normal effectiveness. The ability to immediately gain Shadow or Poison Imbuements to attacks takes the normally high damage of the Rogue into ridiculous numbers.
The impressive values reached here might be best applied to the bosses of Diablo 4’s Capstone Dungeons to reach higher World Tiers.
2. The Clipshot (Devious)
Once again occurring on a Lucky Hit, this Malignant Heart gives your Cutthroat abilities to Slow by 40% for 3 seconds, while also grating Knockback to a Rogue’s Marksman skills. What makes this power so strong is how it could assign itself to multiple Rogue build archetypes, making it flexible for many different characters.
No matter whether your character uses knives, a bow, or both with their attacks, this Diablo 4 power greatly amplifies those skills.
1. Trickery (Brutal)
The best Heart power you can have as a Rogue in Diablo 4 is Trickery, which creates a Shadow Decoy Trap that taunts enemies whenever you use a Subterfuge Skill. Almost acting like a mini-Ultimate of sorts, this trap explodes after 6 seconds, dealing a huge amount of Shadow damage to anyone who gets caught in the explosion. Although this effect may only happen once every 5 seconds, there’s no denying how powerful it can be.
You do not even need to have a Trap build for this ability to work, since its acts almost like the Shadow Clone Ultimate. Distracting enemies to set up Imbuements, other Traps, or even just to get away and recover some health make this Malignant Heart arguably have the most effective ability out of the others listed. The best Malignant powers seen in Diablo IV Season 1 for the Rogue all make sure to lean into the strategies this class utilizes during combat.
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