Path of Exile 2: The Monk Build Concept
As fans of Path of Exile 2 eagerly await more substantial news about the game, a sense of frustration looms. While Grinding Gear Games (GGG) has offered glimpses of the game through a few teaser clips, such as the mercenary shooting a grenade followed by a laser beam, it's been a while since anything of substance has surfaced. Many players, including myself, are itching for more content and details to speculate on. In particular, I've been especially intrigued by the Monk class, which, while not fully revealed, has piqued my interest based on the footage available.
Rather than waiting in uncertainty, I've taken it upon myself to theorize about potential build concepts, skill interactions, and gameplay loops that could emerge with the Monk in Path of Exile 2. While this isn't a full-on build guide (because, let's be honest, we’re still in the dark about many specifics), I want to share some of the ideas I've been mulling over regarding how the Monk might interact with various skills, creating a playstyle that revolves around fire, lightning, and explosive effects. Let’s dive into these concepts and break down how they could shape an exciting and dynamic Monk gameplay experience.
The Foundation: Explosions and Empowering Attacks
At the heart of the Monk build concept is the idea of causing chaos through explosions, ignites, and powerful empowered attacks. This concept is about creating an efficient mob clearing build where your regular attacks are amplified by elemental interactions, with fire and lightning forming the core of your damage output.
The central idea here is to create a gameplay loop that involves triggering explosions and igniting enemies, while also using lightning abilities to enhance your regular attacks. So, let’s break down some key abilities that could shape this concept.
Gas Arrow: Aerial Explosions for Crowd Control
One of the standout abilities for this Monk concept is Gas Arrow, which fires an arrow into the air that then rains down and creates a flammable cloud. When fire is added to this cloud, it explodes. This fits into the explosive nature of the build and would allow for efficient crowd control.
To optimize Gas Arrow’s potential, we could pair it with supports like Faster Projectiles and Multiple Projectiles, which would result in the rapid spread of clouds that immediately disperse and create explosions across a large group of enemies. This would make the build very effective for clearing large packs of mobs quickly.
Infernal Cry: Taunting and Empowering for Explosive Damage
To take this idea further, we could pair Gas Arrow with Infernal Cry, a war cry that taunts enemies, drawing them closer to the player. When used in conjunction with Gas Arrow, Infernal Cry would highlight enemies, setting them up for a massive explosion. Additionally, Infernal Cry’s mechanic grants empowered attacks, giving 25% of the damage as fire damage, which would help further ramp up the devastation.
The synergy between Gas Arrow and Infernal Cry sets the stage for massive burst damage, and the interactions between fire and explosion mechanics are key to the playstyle. When mobs are grouped and highlighted, it sets up a great opportunity to detonate them with explosive skills.
Wind Blast: A Swirling Firestorm
To continue the theme of explosive interactions, Wind Blast could become a crucial part of the build. Wind Blast is a skill that swipes the Monk’s weapon back and forth, knocking back enemies while also building stun on them. By incorporating Added Fire Damage into the skill, we can ignite enemies as we knock them back, setting the stage for even more explosions and burning effects.
Adding Ignite Chance to this would increase the likelihood of triggering ignites, while Inevitable Critical could ensure that the fire damage consistently triggers. The interesting part of this combo is that Mana Flare could trigger fire damage on critical strikes, using mana to generate additional fire damage, which fits nicely into the overall damage amplification.
Killing Palm: Chain Reactions for Explosive Deaths
One of the key abilities for setting up deadly chain reactions is Killing Palm, a skill that would add an additional layer of explosive damage. When a killing blow is struck on ignited enemies, there’s a 60% chance for the enemy to explode. This chain of explosions could be devastating, especially if we consider adding Ignite Proliferation, which would spread ignites from one target to nearby enemies.
Thus, after causing a few explosions with Gas Arrow and Wind Blast, Killing Palm would trigger even more explosions, creating a domino effect of destruction. The synergy between these skills would result in a devastating playstyle, making it not only satisfying but also highly effective.
Charge Staff: Powering Up with Lightning
After dealing with explosive fire damage, we can use Charge Staff, a skill that consumes power charges to unleash lightning-based damage. Given that we’ll have a steady source of power charges from various interactions (e.g., Killing Palm and Profane Ritual), Charge Staff becomes a natural fit to amplify the lightning side of the build.
By pairing Charge Staff with Empowered Damage and Perpetual Charge, we can ensure that the skill lasts longer and recharges faster, allowing us to make full use of the power charges. This opens up new possibilities for lightning-based attacks in a build that already revolves around high amounts of elemental damage.
Whirling Assault: Lightning and Fire in Close Combat
As we continue to combine elemental effects, Whirling Assault comes into play. Whirling Assault is a melee skill that deals damage while also applying shocks to enemies. Using Stormfire Support, we can prolong the shocks inflicted by the skill, ensuring that enemies are continuously shocked as the Monk whirls through them.
The addition of Shock Chance and Shock Proliferation ensures that we maximize the effectiveness of this mechanic, spreading shock effects to nearby enemies and increasing their damage taken. This makes Whirling Assault not just a tool for dealing damage but also a critical component of applying and amplifying debuffs.
Staggering Palm: Gaining Endurance Charges and Breaking Armor
One of the unique aspects of the Monk is Staggering Palm, which allows the player to dash to an enemy and strike them with an unarmed attack that stuns them. When the stun lands, the Monk gains an endurance charge, which is a key mechanic for amplifying Infernal Cry’s effectiveness.
If we combine Staggering Palm with Devastate, which breaks the armor of stunned enemies, we trigger an explosion that converts 100% of physical damage into fire damage. This adds another layer of explosive potential to the build, reinforcing the fire-centric theme.
Profane Ritual: Generating Power Charges
Another key component of the Monk’s toolkit is Profane Ritual, which grants power charges from the consumption of corpses. By supporting this with Corpse Conservation and Spell Echo, we can double the number of power charges generated from a single corpse, giving us a steady flow of charges to empower skills like Charge Staff and Whirling Assault.
Full Gameplay Loop: Explosive Interactions and Elemental Amplification
When we put all of these skills and interactions together, we create a devastating gameplay loop that revolves around explosions, elemental damage, and empowering attacks. The key components are:
1. Gas Arrow triggers initial explosions.
2. Infernal Cry groups enemies and empowers attacks with fire damage.
3. Wind Blast applies fire and ignite effects while knocking enemies back.
4. Killing Palm sets off chain reactions of explosions from ignited enemies.
5. Charge Staff uses power charges to unleash lightning damage.
6. Whirling Assault spreads shocks while dealing damage.
7. Staggering Palm stuns enemies and provides endurance charges to fuel Infernal Cry.
8. Profane Ritual ensures a steady supply of power charges from corpses.
This cycle creates a dynamic and fluid playstyle where explosions and elemental effects continually feed into one another, ensuring that enemies are rapidly cleared and that even boss fights can be approached with a steady flow of power charges and elemental buffs.
Conclusion
While Path of Exile 2 is still in development, the Monk class shows immense potential for creating a fun and explosive build that revolves around elemental interactions. The combination of fire, lightning, and physical damage offers a dynamic gameplay experience where players can experiment with skill synergies to maximize their damage potential. Although much is still unknown, the possibilities for this Monk build are incredibly exciting, and I can't wait to see how these ideas come to life when more information is revealed. Until then, I'll continue theorizing and waiting for the next Path of Exile 2 showcase to fuel my anticipation.
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