In Path of Exile 2, the Monk class stands out for players seeking a balance between raw damage and agility. This melee powerhouse can deal exceptional amounts of damage while remaining fast, fluid, and explosive on the battlefield. However, like a true glass cannon, the Monk isn't known for its defense, so you'll need to strike hard and fast before being overwhelmed. Here's everything you need to know to master the Monk class in Path of Exile 2.

Path of Exile 2 Monk Overview

The Monk is a melee class designed for players who love dynamic, fast-paced combat. As a Monk, your primary focus will be on building combos with your abilities, dealing elemental damage (especially frost), and controlling crowds of enemies with powerful AoE effects. With skills that require constant motion and positioning, the Monk rewards aggressive playstyles while offering high rewards through devastating combos and elemental effects.

Although the Monk has high damage potential, it is not known for its defensive capabilities. This means you'll need to stay on your toes, constantly maneuvering, dashing, and using your abilities effectively to avoid taking damage.

The Monk offers two distinct Ascendancies that define how you will approach the game:

The Invoker: Focuses on elemental magic, allowing you to wield the power of lightning, fire, and cold to enhance your attacks. The Invoker can use its abilities more frequently than other Ascendancies and excels in both AoE damage and crowd control.

Acolyte of Chayula: A master of the Spirit of Darkness, this Ascendancy focuses on dealing with damage while absorbing power from the darkness. The Acolyte's playstyle is more versatile, allowing for both offensive and defensive utility, including life leech and energy shield management.

Monk Class Skills in Path of Exile 2

The Monk class offers an impressive range of skills that allow you to build powerful combos and control the battlefield. Here are the major skills you'll be using as a Monk:

Core Skills:

Falling Thunder: Slam the ground with your weapon to deal lightning damage to enemies in the area. This skill is excellent for dealing with packs of enemies and stunning them in place.

Glacial Cascade: Unleashes a wave of razor-sharp ice shards, slowing enemies and dealing significant cold damage. A great tool for both crowd control and damage against groups.

Killing Palm: A high-damage ability that allows you to instantly execute enemies below a certain health threshold. Perfect for finishing off weak mobs or low-health bosses.

Frozen Locus: Jump backward and create an ice crystal that can be damaged by both you and your enemies. Once destroyed, it explodes in an AoE burst of damage.

Tempest Bell: Drop a large bell on the battlefield. Hitting this bell creates an AoE shockwave that can be augmented with elemental effects. It's a powerful tool for clearing groups of enemies.

Vaulting Impact: Leap forward and slam the ground, releasing a shockwave that stuns any enemies hit by it. A great way to disrupt groups of enemies or buy yourself some breathing room.

Wind Blast: A knockback ability that pushes enemies away with a swipe of your weapon. Perfect for creating space or breaking up a dangerous mob.

Ice Strike: Imbue your weapon with frost to deal melee cold damage, applying freeze and slow effects to enemies.

Siphoning Strike: Dash to your target and strike. If the target is already shocked, the damage from this ability is increased, and AoE damage is triggered around the target.

Shattering Palm: Dash to an enemy and strike with an unarmed attack, covering them in ice shards that can later be detonated for additional damage.

Flicker Strike: Teleport to an enemy and deal lightning damage, allowing you to quickly close the gap between you and your target.

Tempest Fury: Unleashes a furious storm of elemental energy in an area around you, dealing massive damage to all enemies caught within the storm.

Wave of Frost: Send out a wave of frost that chills and damages all enemies in its path, providing excellent crowd control.

Storm Wave: Unleashes a violent shockwave that travels across the battlefield, dealing damage to everything it touches.

Freezing Mark: Mark an enemy to deal additional cold damage when hit. Ideal for stacking extra damage on bosses or hard-to-kill targets.

Charged Staff: Charge your staff and unleash a powerful elemental blast when fully charged, dealing massive damage to a large area.

Hand of Chayula: A powerful dark magic attack that summons the power of Chayula, absorbing the energy of fallen enemies and amplifying your damage.

Whirling Assault: Spin rapidly to hit all nearby enemies, dealing massive AoE damage. Perfect for clearing out groups of enemies.

Best Path of Exile 2 Monk Build: Frost Monk

The Frost Monk build is arguably one of the most powerful and effective builds for this class. By combining crowd control with elemental damage, you can deal with large packs of enemies and shred bosses with ease. This build focuses on utilizing Ice Strike, Shattering Palm, and Frozen Locus to maximize your cold damage output while freezing and controlling enemies.

Key features of the Frost Monk build include:

Elemental Damage Scaling: Focus on increasing your cold damage through the passive tree, gear, and Ascendancy choice (Invoker or Acolyte of Chayula).

Crowd Control: Use Glacial Cascade, Frozen Locus, and Shattering Palm to freeze, slow, and control enemies, making it easier to deal with large groups and high-threat mobs.

Single-Target Damage: With Shattering Palm and Ice Strike, you can easily take down tough bosses or rare mobs with powerful single-target bursts of cold damage.

Movement and Mobility: The Monk's mobility allows you to avoid incoming damage while positioning yourself for maximum efficiency. Use Vaulting Impact and Flicker Strike to dodge and reposition during combat.

How to Use the Best Path of Exile 2 Monk Build

To unlock and improve your abilities as a Monk, you'll need to focus on Skill Gems. These gems correspond to skills that you can use in combat, and they scale with your Monk's power. Here's how to make the most out of your build:

Skill Gems: Look for Skill Gems that enhance your elemental damage and melee attacks. Focus on gems that complement your primary skill, whether it's Ice Strike, Shattering Palm, or Falling Thunder.

Passive Tree: When navigating the Monk passive tree, focus on nodes that increase melee damage, elemental damage, and cooldown recovery. The more you can reduce the cooldown of your powerful abilities, the better.

Ascendancy Choice: Choose between Invoker or Acolyte of Chayula based on your playstyle. Invoker is great for spamming elemental attacks, while Acolyte of Chayula provides more versatility with life leech and additional defensive utilities.

Keystones: Select Keystones that boost your damage output or provide additional crowd control benefits. You'll want to balance offensive and defensive Keystones to ensure your Monk is both effective and survivable.

Your Monk relies heavily on elemental damage and melee damage scaling. Look for items that increase cold damage, lightning damage, attack speed, and elemental resistance. Unique items like Shimmeron's Touch or The Vertex can amplify your elemental abilities, while rare rings and amplifiers can boost your damage output or defense. Use your PoE currency (like Chaos Orbs, Exalted Orbs, and Fusing Orbs) to trade for high-end gear or unique items that can significantly increase your damage output and survivability. These can be acquired through in-game trading or by selling valuable PoE items in the PoE market.

Conclusion

The Monk in Path of Exile 2 is an exhilarating class, perfect for players who love dynamic combat, fast-paced skill combos, and immense damage. With the right build, especially the Frost Monk, you can control crowds of enemies and deal massive single-target damage, making you a powerhouse in both mapping and boss fights.