Path of Exile 2 | Monk Build Guide

Monk's agility and capability of destruction got me hooked in Path of Exile 2. This, over time, drove me to form a build that could actually be more consistent, smooth, and working. Now, I want to go through an approach that could be a really fun and effective Monk build, mainly for mid-level play. Be it for survivability or pure DPS, this will get you started in either one.

Core Passives and Attributes

First of all, about passives and features, I set survivability first, taking all evasion and energy shield nodes, and that worked really great for me and allowed me to survive pretty long while learning and enjoying the game dynamics. You are free to go another way if you are more confident in your dodging abilities or just want to increase your DPS: go for better attack speed, critical hit chance, and raw damage bonuses.

Basically, I set Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence all to 20 points at the start of the game so my character could be versatile enough to wear multiple weapons and use key talents like Killing Palm and Falling Thunder. If you want to be more focused on defense like I did at the start-take, life-on-kill perks such as Taste for Blood. 20 life on kill, 2% chance to fully restore all Life. It's nice when things start to get hairy.

Key Skills: Killing Palm, Falling Thunder

Now, with the skills, the built-in question is based on two abilities: Killing Palm and Falling Thunder. Killing Palm is an unarmed dash attack that strikes targets and instantly kills enemies once their health gets low enough. Every kill generates a power charge needed to use Falling Thunder effectively.

These power charges are what Falling Thunder uses to create a powerful AoE lightning attack that clears hordes of enemies. The synergy's fairly simple: gain the power charges with Killing Palm, then go Falling Thunder. To push this one step further, I use a support gem that gives Falling Thunder a 35% chance to not consume power charges while still counting them; if you get lucky, that allows you to get in multiple high-damage hits.

Skill Supporting and Gems

I added talents like Frozen Locust and Glacial Cascade for utility. These not only give off cold damage but also provide crowd control, freezing enemies in place and giving you the opportunity to line up your heavy hits. I use uncut diamonds to customize my build further, too. These versatile gems grant you access to abilities from multiple archetypes, really opening up how you can play. 

One of the best examples of this is the inclusion of Contagion from the Occultist skill tree. When the target victim of this gem dies, it causes chaos damage to surrounding opponents, fitting perfectly with Falling Thunder's AoE damage.

To utilize your powers effectively, support gems are required. A few of them are mentioned below:

• Cold Infusion: Affects the cold damage of various skills, including Glacial Cascade.
• Health Drain: After Killing Palm kills an enemy, it regenerates 12% of its health within four seconds.
• Overpower Buildup: More stuns and utilities for CC skills.

These support gems make my build so adaptive and resistant, especially in the most chaotic fight.

Play Style and Rotation

My combat strategy is really simple but pretty effective: Frozen Locust for freezing enemies and giving me an opening, then Killing Palm for weaker opponents to build up some power charges; then, with three power charges, Falling Thunder to clean out the area. It just feels satisfyingly efficient while you're out there dealing with mobs.

One thing to remember when playing Killing Palm is timing. Enemies with a blue indicator above their head just mean they are low enough to be culled, so take that as a visual cue. The faster you generate power charges, the faster you are killing off groups with Falling Thunder. Sometimes, if you get lucky with your support gems, that just means saving the charges to let out a second strike to make it even deadlier.

Defense Strategy and Adjustments

While it is great to feel when playing offensively, I also like to lay more emphasis on survival. Anchoring my passive tree around life regeneration and cold damage lets me survive through most fights. This, among many more related perks, cushions me in fights where I would incur huge damage since, in this case, I have a better chance of regaining full health upon killing an adversary.

Otherwise, take more nodes in critical hit probability and increase the lightning damage if you aim to target an offensive side. That really opens the way for huge damage, especially if using talents relying on lightning damage, like Falling Thunder.

Gear and Suggestions

Gear will come in very handy in this build; look out for items that increase Cold or Lightning damage, Critical Hit chance, and Life on Pickup/Recover. A good example of this one-handed weapon that I found gave me physical fire and cold damage, plus increased attack speed and Life on, really spiking my fight performance.

And by all means, definitely experiment with uncut stones and shape them according to your taste. These are the gems that can really change your whole build-whether it's increasing Chaos damage with Contagion or survivability with Life Drain.

This is a very fun and effective Monk build during any mid-game. With all of your agility, strong AoE attacks, and a touch of cold magic, you should breeze right through every fight. It will, of course, want tweaking and a change in strategy at the end game, but it provides really good survivability and DPS.

Also, check our Path of Exile 2 Review and other guides below:

• Path of Exile 2 Class Guide | Which Class Should You Pick
• Path of Exile 2 | Warrior Build Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Beginner's Guide
• Path of Exile 2 | Witch Build Guide
• Path of Exile 2 | Ranger Build Guide
• Path of Exile 2 | Mercenary Build
• Path of Exile 2 | Sorceress Build Guide
• Path of Exile 2 Guide | How To Level Up Fast
• Path of Exile 2 | How To Farm & Use Uniques
• Path of Exile 2 | How To Craft Powerful Items
• Path of Exile 2 | How To Trade