Best PoE 2 Monk Build in Early Access

Path of Exile 2 is already generating immense interest among players, with its diverse classes offering incredible flexibility and unique mechanics. The Monk stands out as a prime example of a class that combines mobility, powerful damage, and dynamic gameplay. One of the most impressive builds in the early stages of access is the hybrid Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk. This PoE 2 Monk Build merges devastating lightning and ice attacks, creating a perfect balance of speed, survivability, and elemental damage. In this guide, we’ll explore Monk gameplay, skills, the passive tree, and optimal gear to help you make the most of your journey in PoE 2.

General Monk Gameplay in PoE 2

Path of Exile 2 is already generating immense interest among players, with its classes offering incredible flexibility and unique mechanics. The Monk stands out as a prime example of a class that combines mobility, powerful damage, and visually impactful gameplay. One of the most impressive builds in the early stages of access is the hybrid Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk. This build merges devastating lightning and ice attacks, creating a balance between speed, survivability, and elemental damage. In this guide, we’ll delve into Monk gameplay, skills, the passive tree, and optimal gear to help you make your journey in PoE 2 as efficient as possible.

• InvokerInvoker is an Ascendancy focused on enhancing elemental attacks and managing effects such as freezing, shocking, or igniting. It also improves synergy with power charges, increasing their utility and frequency. This Ascendancy is perfect for players who want to deal significant elemental damage while controlling enemy states effectively.
• Acolyte of ChayulaAcolyte of Chayula focuses on chaos damage and mechanics tied to mana and health. Its abilities allow for the conversion of elemental damage into chaos damage and the use of mana reserves to amplify attacks. This Ascendancy is ideal for those who want to experiment with unique mechanics and play in a non-traditional way.

The Monk in Path of Exile 2 is a versatile choice, suitable for players who enjoy classic melee combat as well as those who want to explore more complex mechanics.

Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk – OP Early Build

This guide will cover an impressive hybrid Path of Exile 2 Monk build that combines two powerful elements — lightning and ice. This hybrid nature makes it one of the strongest PoE2 Monk builds, thanks to its incredible speed and high elemental damage.

The build is inspired by the classic concept of an ice Monk but includes unique refinements and tweaks that make the character exceptionally powerful and mobile. Lightning-fast attacks, freezing abilities, and exceptional combat flexibility turn this Monk into a true destruction machine.

The perfect blend of two elements not only boosts damage but also adds variety to gameplay, making it effective against all types of enemies. This build is an excellent choice for progressing through acts, clearing maps, defeating bosses, and, most importantly, staying relevant in endgame content.

Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk Skills

Let’s take a closer look at the skill setup for the PoE 2 Monk build utilizing two elements.

The first skill to acquire is Tempest Flurry. This is the cornerstone of this Monk build, and it’s what brings it to life. It provides lightning-charged attacks while advancing you toward your target. This not only adds mobility and strong attack damage but also looks visually stunning. To complement Tempest Flurry, we add the Crescendo support gem, which occasionally allows for a double finishing strike with increased damage. The second support gem, Primal Armament, is a simple yet effective gem that boosts weapon elemental damage by 25%. The third gem is Martial Tempo, which increases attack speed.

The second key skill, Charged Staff, works excellently in combination with other abilities in the build and provides solid AoE damage. We enhance this skill with the Frost Nexus support gem to strengthen ice-based abilities and slow enemies. Add Persistence to extend the negative effects on enemies and finish it off with Ice Bite, which adds cold damage.

Tempest Bell is a classic skill choice for almost any Monk build, and ours is no exception. It deals significant damage that increases with each use, making it a great pick at all stages of the game. To enhance Tempest Bell, we use the Close Combat support gem for increased melee damage, Rage for additional attack power, and a third gem of your choice. In our case, we’ve gone with Ruthless, which works well with our combination of attack speed and damage.

The next skill to include is Hand of Chayula, which is crucial for bosses and tougher enemies. To enhance it, equip the Hypothermia support gem to freeze bosses and reduce their resistance. The second support gem, Freezing Mark, makes enemies even more vulnerable to cold. Additionally, when a marked enemy dies, it explodes, dealing significant damage to nearby foes, which is perfect for clearing levels.

Following that, we have Shattering Palm, further enhanced by the Magnified Effect support gem. Lastly, but certainly not least, include Ghost Dance supported by Fast Forward. Thanks to its high evasion rating, this skill will effectively restore your energy shield, greatly increasing survivability.

We complete this PoE 2 Monk build in the skills section with Herald of Ice, enhanced by Elemental Focus, Cold Mastery, and Cold Infusion, providing massive cold damage. This combination leaves no chance for bosses or large enemy groups alike.

A crucial aspect of this build is energy replenishment. For this, Combat Frenzy paired with the Profusion support gem is essential. This skill combo allows you to gain energy charges from frozen enemies—and with this build, there will be plenty of them.

After reviewing the skills, you can already imagine how this character will play. If you’re wondering whether it’s possible to create such a powerful build with ranged attacks instead, we recommend checking out the Best PoE 2 Ranger Build in Early Access, which delivers an incredible amount of elemental damage while combining mobility and flexible gameplay.

Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk Passives Tree

Our passive tree will be built around damage, and we’ll start it as follows:

We will progress toward our best PoE 2 Monk build by taking the upper nodes. Our attacks are very fast and quite powerful, making the critical strike chance and critical strike damage nodes an excellent choice for this build.

A crucial part of our best Path of Exile 2 Monk build is selecting the Shattering node, which perfectly synergizes with our freezing abilities. To reach Shattering, we first need to pass through The Power Within, a node that boosts critical strikes based on our accumulated energy charges.

Next, we move downward to pick up Essence of Mountain, followed by Lust for Power. The former grants additional cold damage, while the latter increases the number of charges and provides a 5% chance to fully replenish all charges upon gaining one. This translates to even more critical strikes being added to your build.

As we progress further, our next step is to take the Subterfuge Mask node, which fits perfectly with our gear build. After Subterfuge, we move on to Harness the Elements, which will significantly increase our elemental damage.

Now we make an important move by prioritizing the major node called Falcon Technique, which grants 1% increased attack speed for every 15 points of Dexterity. This node will progressively make you faster with each level. After that, we pick up Proficiency, which provides a flat 25 Dexterity from the start. This not only boosts your damage and attack speed but also increases your attributes, allowing you to equip more powerful gear and upgrade your skills by eliminating stat deficiencies in the build.

Next, we should move slightly downward to pick up the Reaching Strike node, which enhances melee combat by increasing its range and damage by 25%. After that, we head back upward to address mana issues. Start with Manifold Method, which allows you to leech mana from enemies you hit, and solidify this with Serrated Edges, which grants critical strike chance and bonus damage against strong enemies. Additionally, Manifold Method applies status effects to enemies, further amplifying your overall damage. The numbers on paper are impressive, but in practice, it feels even better.

Let’s continue with our passive skill tree in the PoE 2 Monk Build. The One with the Storm node synergizes exceptionally well with Falcon Technique, providing additional charges. Meanwhile, One with River grants increased critical strike damage and extra cold damage.

Our next goal is to progress toward Spectral Ward by passing through Overflowing Power, which provides additional energy charges—a significant benefit for our build. Spectral Ward, in turn, will enhance the strength of your energy shield based on your evasion.

Finally, for now, we’ll take the Resonance node located on the right. A crucial node to pick is Thin Ice, which increases your damage against frozen enemies by a massive 50%.

Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk Ascendancy

We are an elemental Monk, so our Ascendancy choice is, of course, Invoker, and here is the progression we will follow.

Lead me through Grace will grant you additional energy shield, which will also scale further as you enhance your armor.

Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk Items

When it comes to gear, let’s start with your weapon. You’ll need a staff with the highest possible physical damage.

The explanation for this is simple: your physical damage is converted into lightning damage, which is then further transformed and enhanced into cold damage. This process is amplified by all your abilities, resulting in incredibly powerful strikes that allow you to traverse the Atlas with ease.

For armor, you’ll want gear with stats that boost energy shield and evasion, as these will enhance your survivability and sustain. As always, make sure to prioritize resistances, which can be supplemented through gear.

For boots, aim for ones with increased movement speed as the primary stat, with secondary stats like regeneration, resistances, and other situational bonuses. As for gloves, look for stats that provide flat damage bonuses, specifically cold and/or lightning damage, to further amplify your offensive capabilities.

How to play Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk in PoE 2 Early Access

This build is incredibly straightforward to play and, most importantly, falls into the medium category in terms of complexity and cost. However, every minute spent investing in this build pays off multiple times over. All you need to do is generate energy and spam Tempest Flurry and Charged Staff. For boss fights, simply add Tempest Bell when appropriate and make sure to use Hand of Chayula.

With this combination of skills, support gems, and passive tree optimization, you’ll annihilate everything on the map. What may initially seem like a questionable hybrid build quickly proves to be one of the best PoE 2 Monk builds.

Conclusion

The Invoker Lighting/Frozen Monk is a versatile build that showcases the full potential of the Monk class by combining two of the most powerful elements. Its skills, passive nodes, and optimized gear create a synergy that makes this build one of the strongest in the early stages of the game. Its effectiveness shines across all phases, from act progression to challenging endgame content. With consistent damage, high attack speed, and control mechanics, this build is an excellent choice for both newcomers and seasoned players looking to master a new class in Path of Exile 2.

If melee combat appeals to you but the Monk feels too complex, I recommend trying the Warrior and exploring the Best PoE 2 Warrior Build in Early Access, which combines fun and power with great tank potential. Experiment, adapt the build to your playstyle, and make your Monk even stronger and more exciting!