Overview

In Path of Exile 2, the Monk class appears to blend the strengths of several archetypes, combining elements of Mage, Rogue, and Warrior. Whether you're drawn to their versatile skill set, defense mechanisms, or the potential for powerful combos, the Monk offers an intriguing and dynamic play style. In this guide, we'll delve into the Monk class, highlighting some of its most promising skills and combos, as well as a detailed look at both available Ascendancies: Acolyte of Chayula and Invoker.

Monk Skills and Combos

The Monk's skill set features a variety of powerful abilities that can synergize well together. Here are some of the best combinations to explore, especially in the early stages of the game:

Falling Thunder & Siphoning Strike

Playstyle: Power Charge-based build.

Combo Insight: Falling Thunder is a potent skill for charge stacking. When combined with Siphoning Strike, which generates charges by shocking enemies, this combo excels against bosses that can be consistently shocked. It's ideal for stacking power charges and boosting damage output early in the game.

Glacial Cascade & Frozen Locus

Playstyle: Crowd Control and AoE.

Combo Insight: This combo provides both crowd control and damage. Glacial Cascade is a great AoE skill that deals decent damage while freezing enemies in place. Frozen Locus helps with freezing, enhancing your ability to survive against tougher enemies and giving you breathing room in difficult encounters.

Killing Palm / Behead

Playstyle: Boss and rare monster eliminator.

Combo Insight: Killing Palm is perfect for finishing off tough rares or bosses, while Behead synergizes by granting additional modifiers from the monster. This makes it an excellent combo for handling high-health enemies and maximizing your loot drops.

Vaulting Impact

Playstyle: Stun-based and heavy attack combo.

Combo Insight: This skill is great for dealing with massive damage with its 213% attack damage effectiveness. However, the long cast time and jump make it more of a combo finisher or opener than a spamable skill. It could work well when combined with stuns for added control and damage.

Charged Staff

Playstyle: Elemental charge stacking.

Combo Insight: If you're not using Falling Thunder, Charged Staff is a fantastic way to make use of power charges and deal elemental damage. This skill is a great option for those aiming to focus on elemental damage while maintaining strong charge-based mechanics.

Hand of Chayula

Playstyle: Curse support and single-target damage.

Combo Insight: This unique skill can apply socketed curses when hitting enemies, making it a versatile choice for builds that rely on curse mechanics. It also scales well with single-target damage, so combining it with AoE skills for clearing will give your build flexibility.

Flicker Strike

Playstyle: Fast movement and high single-target damage.

Combo Insight: A flashy skill that offers high damage effectiveness, Flicker Strike allows you to quickly close the gap between you and your enemies. However, its reliance on Power Charges makes it a late-game skill, so it's not ideal for early progression.

Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy

The Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy focuses on defensive mechanics, particularly through chaos resistance and mana sustain. Let's break down the key passives and how they shape your build:

Chayula's Gift

Effect: Grants bonus chaos resistance, up to +10%, and potentially doubles your negative chaos resistance. This can be a powerful defensive tool if there are PoE items or keystones (like Divine Flesh) that let you convert elemental or physical damage into chaos. It pairs well with Mind Over Matter for an additional defensive layer.

Consideration: It's particularly useful against chaos damage enemies, but it doesn't stack with Chaos Inoculation, which makes you completely immune to chaos damage.

Ravenous Doubts

Effect: Converts all mana leech to be instant. This passive resolves mana sustain issues, which the Monk class has struggled with in earlier showcases. Combining it with Mind Over Matter could create a tanky hybrid build, offering multiple layers of defense.

Synergy: Ravenous Doubts can also pair well with Energy Shield mechanics, giving you a seamless defensive synergy.

Consuming Questions

Effect: Makes energy shield recovery from mana leech instant as well. This is crucial for hybrid builds that rely on energy shields for defense while also using mana for skills. This passive ensures all your defensive layers (Life, Mana, and Energy Shield) are continuously sustained.

Embrace the Darkness

Effect: Removes all Spirit (no reservation skills), but grants up to 600 Darkness, which can protect your Life and Energy Shield against damage. This opens up the potential for a very tanky Monk build that synergizes well with Mind Over Matter and other passives.

Consideration: The downside of losing Spirit and reservation skills is significant, so you'll need to weigh the benefits carefully.

Waking Dream

Effect: Grants the Into the Breach skill, which spawns Flames of Chayula that grant life, mana, and damage. It's a versatile skill that could provide both recovery and damage, but more details on the exact values are needed for a full evaluation.

Grasp of the Void

Effect: Adds 1% of damage as extra chaos for every 20 unreserved darkness. This provides a strong damage boost, especially if you can stack darkness, making it a potential game-changer for chaos-based builds.

Synergy: Works well with Chayula's Gift and other chaos-related passives.

Invoker Ascendancy

The Invoker Ascendancy is geared toward hybrid builds that leverage status ailments and elemental damage. Let's break down the key passives here:

Faith is a Choice

Effect: Grants the Meditate skill, which channels energy shield for added defense. This skill is potentially strong but requires testing to confirm its utility in real combat situations. Combining it with other Channeling skills could make it a useful defensive tool.

I Am the Blizzard / I Am the Thunder

Effect: These passives give the Unbound Avatar skill, which triggers when you apply a status ailment like Chill or Shock. This skill transforms the Monk into an Avatar, greatly enhancing damage and status ailment effects.

Consideration: This passive shines in hybrid builds that focus on applying multiple status ailments at once. It's a high-risk, high-reward passive, as it requires stacking enough status effects to trigger the transformation.

...and Scatter Them to the Winds

Effect: Additional bonuses and passives are yet to be revealed.

Final Thoughts

The Monk class in PoE 2 offers a lot of flexibility, with options for both defensive and offensive builds. Whether you're focusing on chaos resistance with Acolyte of Chayula or leveraging elemental damage and status ailments with Invoker, the Monk has the potential for diverse and exciting playstyles. Both Ascendancies offer strong synergies for hybrid builds, while the Monk's skills cater to both beginners and experienced players alike. The combos explored in this guide are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are certainly more ways to optimize your Monk as more information and gameplay details emerge. Whether you're acquiring Flasks, Gems, or Endgame Gear, having a solid stock of PoE Currency can help you experiment with different setups and ascendancy options, enabling you to optimize your build faster and dive deeper into the game's mechanics.