PoE 2 Monk Gameplay and Build Tips

As the upcoming Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) continues to evolve in its design, one of the most highly anticipated and hyped classes is the Monk. Known for their martial prowess, speed, and elemental connection, the Monk will bring a fresh, high-energy playstyle to the game. Among the most exciting mechanics within the Monk class is the Invoker Hollow Palm build, a playstyle centered around brutal close-combat strikes, heavy mobility, and utilizing a unique passive skill system to engage enemies in devastating ways.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about the Invoker Hollow Palm Monk build in PoE 2, from campaign gameplay all the way to endgame optimization. Whether you're a veteran PoE player or new to the franchise, this build will offer you a satisfying blend of strategy, power, and finesse. This will allow you to obtain more POE 2 Currency and other rewards in the game.

What is the Invoker Hollow Palm Build?

The Invoker Hollow Palm build revolves around the Hollow Palm technique-a key Monk passive skill that transforms your combat abilities into devastating strikes when unarmed. This style eschews the typical use of weapons, relying instead on raw hand-to-hand combat. Invoker, on the other hand, refers to a unique skill tree and passive node setup that complements the Monk's core identity, focusing on elemental effects, status ailments, and movement-based attacks.

In simpler terms, this build turns your Monk into a whirlwind of fists, elbows, and legs, delivering high-damage hits with a focus on speed, elemental effects, and powerful status ailments that cripple your enemies.

Key Features of the Invoker Hollow Palm Build

Before diving into the specifics of how to create an effective Invoker Hollow Palm Monk, it's essential to understand what makes this build tick:

Unarmed Combat: The Hollow Palm technique allows you to deal devastating damage without the use of weapons. Your Monk fights with their bare hands, leveraging unarmed scaling to increase damage based on your core stats, such as Strength and Dexterity.

Invoker Passive Tree: The Invoker skill tree offers specialized nodes that enhance your elemental damage, critical strike chance, and mobility, complementing the Hollow Palm's relentless assault.

Elemental Ailments: By invoking elemental power, the Monk can apply Elemental Weakness, Burning, Shock, or Frostbite to enemies, enhancing both damage and crowd control in both the campaign and endgame content.

Movement Speed and Mobility: A hallmark of the Invoker Hollow Palm build is high mobility. The build features abilities that allow you to quickly close the gap between you and your enemies, making use of dash, teleportation, and other speed-boosting effects to stay mobile in combat.

Starting Your Monk Journey: Campaign Phase

The campaign phase in PoE 2 is where you lay the foundation for your Invoker Hollow Palm build. You'll begin by focusing on survivability, damage scaling, and building out your core unarmed combat skills. Here's how to start your journey:

1. Picking the Right Class: Monk

In PoE 2, the Monk is one of the most versatile classes, and you'll want to prioritize physical and elemental skills right from the get-go. You'll begin with basic unarmed attacks like Striking Fist and Flurry of Blows, but as you progress through the story, you'll unlock more complex abilities to synergize with the Hollow Palm mechanic.

2. Core Skills to Focus On Early

As you begin your journey, focus on the following skills to maximize your effectiveness:

Flurry of Blows: This skill acts as your basic attack, allowing you to rapidly strike enemies in close proximity. It works well with Hollow Palm, where the faster you hit, the more you benefit from your unarmed damage scaling.

Striking Fist: A single powerful punch that can deal significant damage in the early stages. This can be especially helpful for tougher enemies.

Hollow Palm: Once unlocked, this passive allows your Monk to deal high damage with unarmed attacks. Your effectiveness will greatly increase as you build around this passive.

3. Passive Tree and Ascendancy Choices

At this stage, you'll need to start planning out your passive skill tree. Focus on the following areas:

Unarmed Damage Scaling: Prioritize nodes that increase your Strength and Dexterity to boost your base damage and attack speed.

Elemental Mastery: Look for nodes that enhance your elemental damage. This will help you with the invoker part of the build and allow you to utilize elemental status ailments.

Life and Defense: Don't neglect survivability. PoE 2 can be unforgiving, so focus on life nodes and some defense, such as evasion and armor, especially early in the campaign.

At the Ascendancy choice, choose an option that focuses on elemental buffs or combat mobility. Invoker will typically offer a set of nodes that enhance Elemental Affliction and damage over time, which are crucial for dealing with endgame bosses and large packs of enemies.

Mid-Game Transition: Taking on the Endgame

As you progress through the campaign and start entering more difficult zones, you will need to start optimizing your build for higher-tier content. This involves refining your skill choices, optimizing gear, and increasing your overall power. Here's how to transition into the mid-game and start focusing on endgame viability:

1. Gear and Weapon Choice

Since you will be unarmed for most of the build, gear becomes essential to support the damage and defense of your Monk. Look for gear that focuses on:

Attack Speed: Faster attacks directly translate into more hits, triggering more status effects like Shock or Ignite.

Elemental Damage: Focus on Elemental Damage mods for your gear to improve your elemental output. Elements like Fire, Cold, and Lightning will enhance your Hollow Palm's effectiveness.

Life and Energy Shield: Since your Monk is a close-range fighter, survivability is key. Look for life-based or Energy Shield mods to stay durable in tough fights.

2. Advanced Skills to Consider

Once you've started developing your Monk further, you can unlock and improve the following skills to further enhance your Invoker Hollow Palm build:

Flame Strike: This area-of-effect (AoE) elemental attack will deal Fire Damage to a group of enemies, making it perfect for crowd control while you move in to finish off enemies with Hollow Palm.

Thunderous Strike: A skill that inflicts Shock on enemies, dealing massive elemental damage while reducing their resistances.

Elemental Ailments: Keep an eye out for Elemental Ailment nodes and gear that increase your damage over time with elemental status effects.

3. Mapping and Boss Fights

The transition into mapping (the game's open-world content) and boss fights is where the Invoker Hollow Palm build really shines. Flurry of Blows, Thunderous Strike, and Flame Strike can quickly dismantle most enemies. You'll want to focus on movement and positioning for bosses, using your mobility to stay agile while stacking status effects on the boss. Also, incorporate Elemental Resistances on your gear to survive tougher bosses and environmental effects.

Endgame: Optimizing Your Build

As you hit the endgame, the focus will shift from damage scaling to creating a sustainable build that can handle some of the most difficult content in PoE 2. Here are some final steps to fine-tune your Invoker Hollow Palm build:

1. Perfecting the Skill Tree

By this point, your skill tree should be fully optimized to focus on unarmed combat, elemental damage, and life sustain. Consider the following:

Unarmed Combat Mastery: Prioritize Unarmed Scaling nodes to make your bare-knuckle punches as powerful as possible.

Critical Strike Chance and Damage: Max out Critical Strike and Elemental Affliction nodes for devastating effects.

Defensive Mastery: Make sure you have enough Evasion and Armor to survive at higher levels.

2. Final Gear Choices

For the best performance in the endgame, you'll need perfect gear. Focus on:

Critical Strike Mods: These will help you maximize the potency of your elemental effects, including Ignite and Shock.

Status Ailments: Items that increase Elemental Status Ailments (like Ignite, Shock, Freeze, etc.) will further boost your elemental damage.

High Life Regen: Focus on high Life Regeneration or Energy Shield for survivability during endgame content.

3. Endgame Boss Fights

For the final phase of your Invoker Hollow Palm build, your focus will be on elemental debuffs and status effects. Make sure to leverage Flame Strike for added AoE damage and Thunderous Strike to Shock bosses into submission. Use your Dash or Teleportation skills to stay mobile and avoid massive boss hits.

Conclusion

The Invoker Hollow Palm Monk build in PoE 2 offers a unique and thrilling experience for players seeking high-speed, elemental, unarmed combat. Regardless, having a sufficient supply of cheap POE 2 Orbs beforehand will allow you to familiarize yourself with the gameplay more quickly. With the right mix of elemental damage scaling, movement skills, and status ailments, your Monk will be a powerful force in both campaign and endgame content. By focusing on unarmed damage, elemental buffs, and survivability, you can master the invoker path and become a devastating powerhouse in the world of Path of Exile 2.