Best Monk starter build in Path of Exile 2

GamesRPGPath of Exile 2Best Monk starter build in Path of Exile 2When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Monk build - Fighting monsters

Jump to:Best Monk skillsStat prioritiesPassive skillsGear

Thebest Monk buildinPath of Exile 2does not exist, at least not until some stat-crunching savant divines how to snap the game over their knee. Until then, you must be like water, adaptable and ready to react to anything, ideally with a swift dodge-roll. Arguably the most technical of the melee classes at launch, playing the quarterstaff-swinging Monk is a reactive, aggressive game where you must draw power from your foes and turn it against them. You’re fragile but capable of incredible violence, if you know when and where to strike.

While every class in Path of Exile 2 has the means to grow in strange directions, borrowing active and passive skills from other classes, the Monk begins with a lot of very strong synergies and obvious skill combos. For a new player, getting the most out of these is going to be your ticket to survival through your initial adventures into this exceedingly cursed world. So here’s a run-down of some smart picks and usage tips to get you into this intimidatingly complex action RPG, if you’ve chosen to walk the demanding path of the Monk.

Path of Exile 2 Sorceress build: Making magicPath of Exile 2 Warrior build: Shock and awePath of Exile 2 Mercenary build: Hail of boltsPath of Exile 2 Witch build: Summoned army

Path of Exile 2 Sorceress buildPath of Exile 2 Warrior buildPath of Exile 2 Mercenary buildPath of Exile 2 Witch build

Path of Exile 2 Sorceress build: Making magicPath of Exile 2 Warrior build: Shock and awePath of Exile 2 Mercenary build: Hail of boltsPath of Exile 2 Witch build: Summoned army

Best Monk skills and support gems for the early game

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Monk build - Lightning

Here are a set of skills that I would recommend picking up early and learning to master, along with some ideal support gems to maximise their monster-mashing potential:

Falling Thunder

Once you’ve got a way to fuel it with Power Charges, it becomes one of the strongest attacks in your early arsenal, and potentially later, too, doing heavy damage and firing a fan of ground-crawling lightning bolts that grows in size based on how many charges you use. With three charges, it’s potentially a screen-clearing nuke. As for how to build those charges (and make them last longer with Perpetual Charge), your next skill should probably be…

Killing Palm

Tempest Bell

Hitting it with elemental effects will spread those as well, making it an easy synergy with almost everything the Monk has. With Ruthless and Magnified Effect, it becomes an easy and reliable way to do wide-scale AoE damage and really boost stun buildup. Smart positioning will also let you smack enemies and the bell simultaneously, doubling the damage done.

Staggering Palm

Another strangely technical skill, this one works a bit like Killing Palm, but highlights enemies that are close to having their stagger bar broken, shattering it immediately. As well as being a satisfying knockdown, this then temporarily upgrades your basic attacks into projectile moves for a few seconds, with Scattershot turning it into a room-cleaning spamfest—break one enemy, then mop up the remainder.

If you’re going for an all-physical melee build in the early game, Brutality makes this even deadlier.

Having a rapid melee attack that staggers enemies goes a long way in the early game. Plus, strikes with basic quarterstaff attacks build combo, which is used for activating Tempest Bell—the quicker, the better, and firing off projectiles from Staggering Palm. Plus, having a rapid basic melee attack lets you beat on that bell all the faster, dealing more damage at minimal resource cost. This is something you can switch up once you’ve got an elemental focus in mind and mana costs under control, but in the early game, going all-physical is good, reliable damage.

Lingering Illusion

The Monk is a master of dishing out damage up close, but not so great at soaking it up. You’ll be dodge-rolling a lot, looking for opportunities to strike in your opponent’s attack patterns, which is why fast attacks are helpful. Lingering Illusion makes this a little bit easier—this buff skill (using up the 30 Spirit points that you’ll get for clearing the forest canopy boss) makes your dodge rolls leave behind an after-image that enemies will sometimes target instead of you.

Better still, if they hit and deal enough damage to destroy your echo (paradoxically easier the less max HP you have), you get a Power Charge, which you can then funnel into Falling Thunder for a big AoE hit even when you’re on the back-foot.

Monk stat priorities

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRegular stats1. Dexterity2. Intelligence3. Strength

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Regular stats1. Dexterity2. Intelligence3. Strength

That said, if you are using Flicker Strike to spread damage taken and help generate extra power charges, it can paradoxically be better to have lower overall health so your after-images are destroyed easier.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDefensive stats1. Energy shield2. Evasion3. Life leech

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Defensive stats1. Energy shield2. Evasion3. Life leech

As a melee character with long, high-commitment attacks, you’re going to have to go all-in. A good energy shield stacked up from multiple pieces of gear will soak up most hurt, especially once you get some boosts to its recharge time. Evasion will mitigate the amount of hits that you take, too. But sometimes you’re just going to get dinged up a little, and won’t have a huge HP pool to compensate for that.

This is why having a few percentage points of Life Leech on Kill is useful. Against little swarmy enemies you’ll get a ton of recovery just from diving in, but if your health pool isn’t huge to begin with, a little healing from a boss reinforcement wave goes a long way, especially as it means you won’t have to rely quite so much on your potions.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyOffensive stats1. Physical damage2. Lightning damage3. Cold damage

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Offensive stats1. Physical damage2. Lightning damage3. Cold damage

Almost everything you’ve got early on as a Monk scales off your basic weapon stats. Anything that boosts that, including iron rings, is a good call. Lightning damage will give your Falling Thunder skill a bit more oomph but that too scales from your basic melee. Make sure you’re always rolling with the best staff you can get your hands on.

Best Monk passive skills to grab early

The Monk has a lot of strong early options in their corner of the passive skill grid that’ll greatly increase your initial survivability, and also be easily respec-ed if you want to min-max more once you’ve got your engine properly running. Consider picking these ones with your first dozen or so levels:

Swipe to scroll horizontallySkillDescriptionFlow Like Water8% increased Attack & Cast speed, +5 Dexterity and IntelligenceStep Like Mist4% increased movement speed, 15% increased mana regeneration rate, +5 Dexterity & IntelligenceMindful Awareness24% increased evasion, 24% increased maximum energy shieldLife From DeathRecover 3% life on kill

Swipe to scroll horizontally

SkillDescriptionFlow Like Water8% increased Attack & Cast speed, +5 Dexterity and IntelligenceStep Like Mist4% increased movement speed, 15% increased mana regeneration rate, +5 Dexterity & IntelligenceMindful Awareness24% increased evasion, 24% increased maximum energy shieldLife From DeathRecover 3% life on kill

Between those four and the nodes you’ll have to take between them, you’ll get a significant boost to both attack power, attack rate, and the ability to patch yourself up mid-fight without relying too much on chugging flasks.

Further down the skill tree, consider hitting a few notable passives in the star-shaped cluster directly out from your starting point, including:

Swipe to scroll horizontallySkillDescriptionTenfold Attacks4% increased attack speed, 6% increased attack speed if you’ve been hit recently, 10+ to StrengthKiller Instinct30% increased attack damage when on full life, 50% increased attack damage when on low lifeImmortal Thirst15% increased maximum energy shield, 25% increased amount of mana leechedImmortal Infamy10% increased energy shield recharge rate, recover 2% life on kill, +10 to intelligence

Swipe to scroll horizontally

SkillDescriptionTenfold Attacks4% increased attack speed, 6% increased attack speed if you’ve been hit recently, 10+ to StrengthKiller Instinct30% increased attack damage when on full life, 50% increased attack damage when on low lifeImmortal Thirst15% increased maximum energy shield, 25% increased amount of mana leechedImmortal Infamy10% increased energy shield recharge rate, recover 2% life on kill, +10 to intelligence

Between those two clusters, you should be able to caveman your way through most initial problems, smacking stuff (and bells) with very large sticks. From there, elemental specialization is a good idea, especially once you’ve picked an Ascendancy class during Act 2, but getting your basic melee up to speed is recommended unless you’re feeling confident.

Best Monk gear

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

PoE 2 Monk build - Meditating Monk

Early on, the Monk is going to be a little bit squishy no matter how you’re kitted out. A mixture of energy shield and evasion will get you through the worst of times, but your ability to react to incoming attacks with dodge-rolls and making sure that you’re on the safe side of big boss attacks (usually behind, so fight up close) is key.

Damage and attack speed are going to be your bread and butter, so look for Act 2 base weapon types like theCrescent Quarterstaff, which has solid base damage and slightly higher attack speed. While theLong Quarterstaffoffers a bit more melee range, and being able to whack your bell a little bit faster makes all the difference.

What you will want to be doing is Disenchanting every unwanted magic or rare item that comes your way so that when you find a new base weapon type that catches your fancy (ideally one with a rune socket or two—the Iron rune’s 20% physical damage boost is great), you can slap a bunch of Whetstones on it, then boost it into a rare with as many buffs as possible. A little risky, but if you’ve been saving up, you should be able to try this a couple times.

Also if you’re lucky (or have the opportunity to trade for one),Crown of Thornsis a fun early-game uniqueTwig Circletthat synergises well with the Monk’s attacks while your attack rate is still relatively low. It gives you a hefty energy shield (very useful early on) and deals decent Thorns damage to enemies, but costs you 5 HP whenever you use a skill. If you’ve got a couple points of Life Leech On Kill, that’ll probably barely even register as a problem, but once you start to get into quick-fire attacks, you might want to consider upgrading to a hat that doesn’t try to murder you.

And lastly, a little pro tip, useful for all classes, but especially risky brawlers like the Monk: Go to the Options menu, hop over to the Interface tab and tick ‘Show mini life bar above you’. Now when death comes for you, you’ll at least have some advance warning. Good hunting.

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Best Monk skills and support gems for the early game#

Falling Thunder#

Killing Palm#

Tempest Bell#

Staggering Palm#

Lingering Illusion#

Monk stat priorities#

Best Monk passive skills to grab early#

Best Monk gear#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Best Monk skills and support gems for the early game

Falling Thunder

Killing Palm

Tempest Bell

Staggering Palm

Lingering Illusion

Monk stat priorities

Best Monk passive skills to grab early

Best Monk gear

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals