The Monk is a melee-centric class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) that harnesses natural might and can ascend into an Invoker or Acolyte of Chayula. Check out more information on the Monk's ascendancies, class guide, builds, skills, playstyle, and whether you should pick the Invoker or Acolyte of Chayula for the Dawn of the Hunt update!

Monk Ascendancies

The Monk has two available Ascendancy classes for the Early Access, with another Ascendancy coming soon. Below is a list of the confirmed ascendancy classes for Monk:

Invoker

The Invoker is a Monk ascendancy class that is attuned to the elements, promoting further use of elemental attacks and elemental ailment buildup. Invokers can specialize in Ice or Lightning damage, increasing their chosen element's skill damage or potency.

Invokers can also transform themselves into Unbound Avatars, dealing more damage and increasing the elemental ailments inflicted on enemies.

Invoker Ascendancy Overview and Skills

Acolyte of Chayula

The Acolyte of Chayula trades their Spirit resource for Darkness, an alternative resource that can be utilized to deal and absorb damage.

A key ability for Acolytes is Into the Breach, allowing them to peer into the realm of the Breech Demons where they can see and collect the Flames of Chayula, granting them life, mana, and damage boosts.

Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy and Skills

Which Ascendancy Should You Pick?

The Invoker is the Meta Pick

As of patch 0.2.0, the Invoker ascendancy is still the meta pick, having more players than the Acolyte of Chayula. The Invoker offers straight buffs to defenses, elemental damage, and critical strike bonuses, making it easier to build than the Acolyte of Chayula which revolves around Darkness and Chaos damage.

As of the moment, the Acolyte of Chayula subclass is underperforming as an Ascendancy due to its damage scaling and Mana Leech leaving much to be desired. While the Acolyte of Chayula's survivability potential is higher than the Invoker, it limits the player and leaves much to be desired in terms of damage scaling.

Monk Class Overview

Class Summary

The Monk
Attribute	Dexterity/Intelligence
Weapon	Quarterstaff

The Monk is a complex class that combines dexterity and intelligence to move around the battlefield with a mix of flowing physical attacks and elemental spells.

Intelligence and Dexterity Focus

The Monk is an intelligence and dexterity-based class, focusing on applying elemental damage while having high mobility during combat. The Monk is a melee fighter that specializes in mobility over brute force.

Monk Builds

Monk Leveling Build

Lightning Monk

Lightning Monk NEW
	Focus: Leveling, AoE, Burst Damage, Lightning
Summary: The Lightning Monk leveling build makes use of Tempest Flurry with Tempest Bell to clear mobs and bosses with ease. The build uses Lingering Illusion and Siphoning Strike to keep Charged Staff active.

Leveling Builds

Monk Endgame Builds

※ Search for specific builds of an ascendancy by clicking the icons below the search bar. Select the latest patch for the latest builds, but click on the earlier versions if you want to see Legacy builds!

Search
	Please select

Build	Patch
Ice Lightning Invoker Focus: Endgame, AoE, DPS, Crowd Control, Bossing	0.2
Storm Wave Invoker Focus: Leveling, Endgame, DPS, Burst Damage, Bossing / Mobbing	0.2
Mana Stacking Acolyte of Chayula Focus: Endgame, AoE, Lightning, Tank, Mobbing	0.2
Ice Lightning Acolyte of Chayula Focus: Leveling, Endgame, Crowd Control, DPS, Burst Damage	0.1

PoE 2 Best Monk Builds

Monk Skills

All Quarterstaff Skills

Quarterstaves are the default weapon for Monks in PoE 2, however you can still choose any weapon to obtain any skill for your Monk. Listed below are Quarterstaff skills that were mentioned and showcased during the ExileCon Monk showcase:

Tier	Skills
1	Falling Thunder			Killing Palm			Glacial Cascade			Frozen Locus
3	Staggering Palm				Tempest Bell				Vaulting Impact
5	Wind Blast				Ice Strike				Tempest Flurry
7	Wave of Frost			Freezing Mark			Siphoning Strike			Storm Wave
9	Charged Staff				Mantra of Destruction				Hand of Chayula
11	Whirling Assault						Shattering Palm
13	Flicker Strike						Gathering Storm

List of All Gems

All Monk Persistent Skills

Monks have 9 Persistent skills each of which grant passive buffs that are extremely helpful to any build.

Tier	Skills
4	Herald of Ice				Herald of Thunder				Ghost Dance
8	Barrier Invocation				Lingering Illusion				Elemental Invocation
14	Cast on Dodge				Charge Infusion				Reaper's Invocation

List of Spirit Gems

Recommended Skills

Skill	Effect
Tempest Bell	Build Combo by successfully Striking Enemies with other skills. After reaching maximum Combo, use this skill to cause the Bell on your staff to grow to massive size as you drop it on the ground. The Bell damages enemies on impact and can be Hit by your skills, creating a damaging shockwave. Elemental Ailments applied to the Bell cause its shockwaves to deal extra damage of the corresponding type, and Hits which would have caused Knockback increase the area of effect of the shockwaves.
Combat Frenzy	While active, grants you a Frenzy Charge when you Freeze, Electrocute, or Pin an enemy. This can only occur once every few seconds.

The best Quarterstaff skill for Monk is the Tempest Bell as it is extremely useful for mobbing and boss fights. The Bell allows players to reflect damage in small area, essentially multiplying any damage dealt in any given scenario.

Most Monk builds also use Combat Frenzy with the Resonance keystone in the passive tree for a fast and reliable way to gain Power Charges.

How to Play Monk

Chain Skills Together

The Monk is played by chaining skills together to create a fluid combo with skill interactions that provide bonus damage, ailments, or crowd control effects.

A sample of a skill chain interaction is by collecting Power Charges through Killing Palm to unleash a more powerful version of Falling Thunder.

Requires Positioning for Survivability

Monks require advanced positioning to survive as they cannot take damage well. Unlike the Warrior class, Monks cannot face-tank a ton of damage and live, instead Monks need to create space between themselves and their enemies for their survivability.

Focuses on Evasion Rating During Leveling

Monks focus on stacking their Evasion Rating to avoid damage from most enemy strikes in the early stages of the game. After Monks ascend, they can combine their Evasion Rating with either Armor or Energy Shield.

If the Monk ascends as an Invoker, they combine Armor and Evasion Rating to increase their Physical Damage Reduction. If the Monk ascends as an Acolyte of Chayula, they stack Energy Shield for their survivability or an increase in Chaos Damage.

Uses Lightning, Ice, and Wind Elements

Monks can easily gain access to Lightning, Ice, and Wind skills from their Quarterstaves. Majority of Monk builds revolve around the focus on Lightning or Ice skills, and some prefer to mix both elements.

Monk Names

Fitting and Funny Names

Listed below are fitting and funny names for your Monk. Let us know in the comments if you have more edgy or funny ideas for Monk names!

• Jin
• Sotei
• Jaghatai
• Po
• Henry James McMuffin
• Simply Kyle
• Grinding Gear James

Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) Related Guides

List of Classes

List of New Classes

List of Early Access Classes

Class	Ascendancy Classes
Huntress	Amazon Ritualist
Mercenary	Tactician Witchhunter Gemling Legionnaire
Monk	Invoker Acolyte of Chayula
Ranger	Deadeye Pathfinder
Sorceress	Stormweaver Chronomancer
Warrior	Smith of Kitava Warbringer Titan
Witch	Lich Infernalist Blood Mage

List of Upcoming Classes