The Monk Class in Path of Exile 2 effortlessly clears mobs, freezes enemies, and makes boss fights EASY! This Beginner Monk build with a focus on cold damage, freezing effects, and mobility, is perfect for conquering POE2’s campaign mode and easily transitions into end-game! This guide will walk you through everything you need to master this build, from skills to passive tree choices and the best weapons and armor for optimal performance.
Best Monk Skills
The Beginner Monk build relies on a combination cold damage and freezing effects to immobilize and explode enemies, making both clearing and bossing a breeze! Below, each skill is detailed with its strengths, uses, and recommended support gems to maximize effectiveness.
1. Lightning Arrow
Lightning Arrow is a bow skill that deals lightning damage and chains to nearby enemies, creating a devastating chain reaction. This is your go-to skill for clearing groups of enemies efficiently during the early game where your Quarter Staff skills are not quite up to par. Trust me, it’s highly effective for getting through the first half of Act 1 until you obtain Ice Strike (see below).
Recommended Support Gems:
- Martial Tempo: Increases attack speed, allowing you to fire more arrows quickly.
- Lightning Infusion: Boosts overall lightning damage, making Lightning Arrow hit harder.
2. Lightning Rod
Lightning Rod creates additional rods that amplify Lightning Arrow’s chain damage by creating more targets for the chain effect. It synergizes perfectly with Lightning Arrow for clearing enemies in wide areas, as it allows lightning damage to spread across multiple targets seamlessly. Again, this will be replaced once Ice Strike is unlocked around level 14.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Scattershot: Adds more rods, increasing the overall area of effect and damage coverage.
- Magnified Effect: Enhances the area of effect of lightning rods, allowing them to cover more ground.
3. Frozen Locus
Frozen Locus creates a giant block of ice on the ground that can immobilize enemies when broken, either by your attacks or enemy hits. This skill is highly effective in Acts 1 and 2 for controlling enemies in narrow spaces, preventing them from overwhelming you. It synergizes well with other cold-based skills by spreading freezing effects to multiple enemies.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Glaciation: Increases freeze buildup, making it easier to immobilize enemies.
- Deep Freeze: Extends freeze duration by 50%, keeping enemies locked down for longer.
4. Frozen Locus
Frozen Locus creates a giant block of ice on the ground that can immobilize enemies when broken, either by your attacks or enemy hits. This skill is highly effective in Acts 1 and 2 for controlling enemies in narrow spaces, preventing them from overwhelming you. It synergizes well with other cold-based skills by spreading freezing effects to multiple enemies.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Glaciation: Increases freeze buildup, making it easier to immobilize enemies.
- Deep Freeze: Extends freeze duration by 50%, keeping enemies locked down for longer.
5. Killing Palm
Killing Palm is a versatile skill that closes the gap between you and enemies, allowing you to reach distant or dangerous targets instantly. It is especially useful for finishing off low-health enemies or rushing to high-priority targets, such as ranged attackers or bosses. The skill deals significant damage to weakened foes, making it an excellent utility and execute tool.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Life Drain: Restores health when you kill an enemy, improving your sustain during tough fights.
6. Ice Strike (THIS IS OP!)
Finally! Ice Strike can unlock at level 14 with your first level 5 skill gem. Ice Strike is your bread-and-butter ability, delivering three quick strikes with freezing effects and a small gap closer. This skill shines in both crowd control and single-target scenarios.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Martial Tempo: Increases attack speed by 25%.
- Rage: Stacks up to 30 times for a 30% bonus damage boost.
- Ice Bite: Adds 35% cold damage against frozen enemies.
7. Herald Of Ice
This Spirit skill shatters frozen enemies, creating explosions that deal additional cold damage. It amplifies your overall damage and helps clear packs of enemies effectively.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Cold Infusion: Further enhances cold damage.
- Clarity: Improves mana regeneration to sustain your skills.
8. Tempest Bell
Tempest Bell unleashes a massive AoE attack when you hit the bell with your Quarter Staff. You can even get bonus Elemental damage by freezing the bell! Use this skill against stationary bosses or rare enemies that don’t move much for a quick burst of damage.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Persistence: Increases the duration of the bell.
- Hourglass: Increase damage but add a cooldown.
8. Wave Of Frost
This skill creates a wave of ice with a high chance to freeze enemies. Replace Frozen Locus with this in Act 2 for better crowd control.
Recommended Support Gems:
- Glaciation: Enhances freeze buildup.
- Magnified Effect: Expands the skill’s area of effect.
Best Monk Weapons And Armor
Quarterstaff
Once you unlock Ice Strike on your Monk, the Quarter Staff will be your weapon of choice for the rest of the game. Your priority stat to look for with this weapon is always Physical Damage. That’s because even most elemental skills convert a portion of your physical damage to that element (usually Ice on this build). So the more physical damage you can get on your staff the better! You can also apply up to two Iron Runes early in the game to get another 40% bonus to the physical damage of this weapon.
Important Stats for the Quarterstaff:
- Increased Physical Damage
- Increased Elemental or Cold Damage
- Increased Critical Chance or Critical Damage
- Increased Intelligence or Dexterity
Boots
Boots are a surprisingly important piece of Armor in Path Of Exile 2 as they can substantially increase your movement speed, helping you to avoid enemy attacks while also repositioning yourself for better defenses.
- Looking for starting boots with stats like:
- 10-15% increased movement speed.
- Look for additional bonuses like max life and intelligence or dexterity, plus Evasion and/or Energy Shield
Armor
Some additional important stats you need to look out for include:
- Increased Spirit
- High value Energy Shield and Evasion
- Intelligence and Dexterity
- Maximum Life
- Maximum Mana
- Bonus Spirit
Passive Skills
The passive skill tree is a vital part of optimizing your Monk build in Path of Exile 2. It provides access to defensive and offensive bonuses that significantly enhance your character’s survivability and damage potential. Below is a detailed breakdown of the key passive skills you should prioritize.
Recommended Starting Monk Passives
- 3% Skill Speed
- 3% Skill Speed
- 15% Increased Critical Damage Bonus
- 15% Increased Critical Damage Bonus
- Flow Like Water
- 12% increased Evasion Rating / Energy Shield
- Mindful Awareness
- 12% increased Evasion Rating / Energy Shield
- Step Like Mist
- 15% Increased Freeze Build Up
- Essence Of The Mountain
- 15% Increased Freeze Build Up
- +Stats
- +Stats
- +Stats
- +12% Increased Attack Damage
- +12% Increased Attack Damage
- Blinding Strike
- 10% Increased Critical Chance
- Crashing Wave
How To Play The Monk Class
The Monk when focused on elemental abilities, especially cold-based skills in this build is amazingly powerful. The playstyle revolves around freezing enemies to lock them in place, dealing consistent area-of-effect (AoE) and single-target damage, and maintaining high mobility to avoid taking hits.
Boss Fights: Drop Tempest Bell to deal massive damage and combine it with Ice Strike for devastating results.
Early Game: Use utility skills like Frozen Locus for crowd control and a bow-based setup for easier clearing.
Mid Game: Transition to your core skill, Ice Strike, combined with Herald of Ice, to maximize freezing potential and damage.
The Final Word
I hope you enjoyed this beginner build for the Monk Class in Path Of Exile 2! Stay tuned for more POE2 Builds and Guides as this game continues to progress through Early Access into full release!
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