Path of Exile 2: Best Monk Build Guide

The Monk in Path of Exile 2 is a versatile and highly rewarding class that can be molded into various playstyles. This guide will walk you through the best Monk build, including recommended skills, support gems, passive skills, and ascendancy choices, to ensure you can maximize your effectiveness in both solo and group play.

Monk Overview in Path of Exile 2

The Monk is a hybrid class, specializing in both melee and ranged abilities, with a focus on lightning and air damage. While initially weaker in the early game, the Monk scales incredibly well as you level up, offering an extremely strong endgame performance.

When you start as a Monk, you have access to basic quarterstaff attacks, as well as elemental skills, including lightning and frost damage. In the early stages, it's recommended to experiment with different skills, but as you progress, focusing on elemental damage types like lightning and air will be your best bet. These synergize well with the Monk's high mobility, allowing you to dodge and position yourself efficiently during combat.

Monk Attributes

Dexterity: This is a crucial stat for the Monk, as it enhances your mobility and dodge chance. As a Monk, you'll rely on quick movements to avoid enemy damage while delivering lightning-fast strikes.

Intelligence: As a class that relies heavily on elemental damage, having sufficient Intelligence ensures you can cast your elemental skills without worrying about mana issues.

Best Monk Skills in Path of Exile 2

While the Monk has access to a wide variety of skills, the most powerful builds revolve around lightning and air skills, allowing you to deal damage at both close and long range.

Early Game Skills

Falling Thunder: A strong skill for clearing mobs. It relies on the Power Charge system, allowing you to unleash a powerful AoE lightning strike when fully charged.

Killing Palm: A quick and powerful skill that deals significant damage to a single target.

Staggering Palm: Similar to Killing Palm but with a higher chance to stun enemies, great for keeping dangerous foes at bay.

Glacial Cascade: This skill can be effective in the early game for boss fights, as it creates a line of frost on the ground that deals damage and can freeze enemies.

Core Skills for Late Game

Tempest Flurry: This is a combo-based melee skill that inflicts lightning damage. After completing a full combo, the skill releases an AoE lightning strike, making it a perfect replacement for your basic quarter-staff attacks.

Tempest Bell: This skill works best with a four-hit combo from Tempest Flurry. It summons a bell that deals air damage. When combined with lightning attacks, the bell deals lightning damage, amplifying your elemental output.

Whirling Assault: A great skill for clearing large groups of enemies. It provides high AoE damage, useful when surrounded by mobs.

Gathering Storm: A ranged skill that deals AoE lightning damage, perfect for thinning out crowds of enemies from a distance.

Flicker Strike: A mobility-based skill that allows you to jump between enemies, dealing damage on each teleport. This skill grants the Monk significant flexibility, enabling you to reposition quickly during battle.

Best Monk Support Gems

Support gems significantly enhance your core abilities, improving their damage, utility, or ease of use. Here are the best Support Gems for the Monk build:

Perpetual Charge (for Falling Thunder): This increases the number of Power Charges you generate, enhancing your ability to use Falling Thunder more effectively.

Lightning Infusion (for Falling Thunder): This boosts lightning damage, synergizing with the Monk's elemental focus.

Ruthless (for Tempest Bell): Increases damage per hit, making your attacks with the bell even more impactful.

Magnified Effect (for Tempest Bell): This increases the effectiveness of Tempest Bell, making it more powerful when using lightning or air-based attacks.

Life Drain (for Killing Palm): Helps you sustain health by converting a percentage of the damage dealt to life.

Profusion (for Killing Palm): Increases the damage dealt and gives you additional buffs to your elemental attacks.

Conduction (for Tempest Flurry): This allows your Tempest Flurry to chain, increasing its area of effect and making it more deadly.

Best Monk Spirit Gems

Spirit Gems provide additional buffs and unique bonuses to your Monk. Consider these when building your Monk:

Herald of Thunder: This aura grants additional lightning damage, making your attacks significantly stronger and more consistent.

Lingering Illusion: Increases your mobility and evasion, perfect for maintaining the Monk's elusive nature and ensuring you can dodge incoming attacks.

Best Monk Passive Skills

The passive skill tree is crucial for the Monk, as it enhances your core abilities and helps you fine-tune your build. Below are the key passive skills to focus on:

Conservative Casting: Reduces the mana cost of your elemental skills, ensuring you have enough resources to use your powerful attacks without running out of mana too quickly.

Killer Instinct: Boosts your critical strike chance, helping your lightning attacks deal more damage.

Flow Like Water: Increases your evasion and movement speed, allowing you to stay nimble and dodge enemy attacks effectively.

Step Like Mist: Boosts your ability to avoid damage, making the Monk even more elusive.

Essence of the Storm: Increases your elemental damage, particularly lightning, further boosting your offensive potential.

Immortal Infamy: Increases your defense and sustain, giving you more survivability in tougher encounters.

Best Monk Ascendancy: The Invoker

After reaching a high enough level with the Monk, you'll need to choose an Ascendancy. For this build, The Invoker is the best choice. Here's why:

I am Thunder: This passive grants extra lightning damage and a chance to shock the ground around you. It enhances the Monk's elemental prowess, ensuring that your lightning skills hit harder and have additional effects like shocking enemies.

Elemental Mastery: Further boosts your elemental damage, particularly lightning, synergizing perfectly with the Monk's core skill set.

Empowered Channeling: Increases your ability to chain elemental attacks, making your skills like Tempest Flurry and Falling Thunder even stronger in the later stages of the game.

Conclusion

The Monk in Path of Exile 2 offers a diverse and powerful skill set that rewards players who enjoy high mobility and lightning-based elemental damage. By focusing on skills like Tempest Flurry, Falling Thunder, and Killing Palm, you can build a Monk that is deadly both up close and from a distance. Pair these skills with the best support gems, passive nodes, and the Invoker Ascendancy, and you'll be ready to tackle the toughest challenges in the game.

If you're looking for additional help with Path of Exile—such as acquiring POE Currency or powerful PoE items for your build—there are plenty of trusted platforms to help you acquire what you need to fast-track your progress. Don't hesitate to explore options to enhance your gameplay experience and reach your full potential in Path of Exile 2.