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PoE 2 Build

DonTheCrown's Cold Monk Leveling

Monk

Invoker

DonTheCrown

Verified

Starter

By DonTheCrown

Updated on Jan 15, 2025

Jan 15, 2025

Build Overview

This build is extremely powerful because it locks down your enemies with quick freezes that last a long time. Even bosses are vulnerable to being Frozen and we can just lay down the DPS while they are stuck doing nothing.

Endgame Variant

Equipment

Set 1

Set 2

Weapons you want damage prefixes and attack speed/crit/levels on suffixes. Try to upgrade your weapon regularly.

Armor Evasion/ES is probably the best once you can run Ghost Dance but Evasion gear is fine. Try to get life on your gear!

Venom Draught -> Stun | Chaos Res

Skill Gems

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 25

Dex 45

Int 60

Quarterstaff Strike

Item

Ice Strike

Tempest Bell

Elemental Invocation

Wave of Frost

Hand of Chayula

Herald of Ice

Killing Palm

Unbound Avatar

Early Game
Use Glacial Cascade and Frozen Locus. Glacial Cascade is rather strong early on but needs to be used at range, once you get Ice Strike you can switch supports over to that.

Frozen Locus to freeze enemies and then Glacial Cascade them to death. Eventually you get Wave of Frost and can switch to that instead.

Spirit
Elemental Invocation costs 60 Spirit so you might need some spirit on your gear to run it with all the supports on Herald. Chest and Amulet are good spots to look for this.

Jeweler's Orb Priority
Level up Ice Strike first always and then Elemental Invocation and Tempest Bell. I'm not sure it's worth 5-linking anything past this due to the cost of the 2nd orbs.

Skill Breakdown
Ice Strike - Main Damage
Elemental Invocation - Use this to ring the Bell like crazy with Ball Lightning!
Hand of Chayula - Use to apply curse/mark instantly, you must place Hypothermia into the support spots on Hand of Chayula in order to add Heightened Curse
Wave of Frost - Freezes enemies almost always
Killing Palm - Good for Finishing Bosses
Unbound Avatar - Ascendancy Skill
Tempest Bell - Best boy, this thing gives a lot of damage and some extra attack range, I also get Rage from having it down. Note that any skill can hit this including Ball Lightning!

Passive Tree

main:

122

set 1:

set 2:

Attribute Nodes
For traveling stat nodes you're going to need 113 Int for but always prio whatever stats you need for gem upgrades.

Leveling
Leveling
Take the Notables near the start -> Flow Like Water Flow State Mindful Awareness Step Like Mist Essence of the Mountain Crashing Wave and then proceed out towards Whirling Assault and Coming Calamity while taking any side nodes you think are important. Skip Throatseeker until you have more crit chance.

Ascendancy order
I am the Blizzard
...and I Shall Rage
Lead me through Grace... - if you need spirit
The Soul Springs Eternal - if you have spirit on gear

Big update on the tree! Turns out elemental penetration is not really great against most enemies and for bosses you can just curse them. We get a lot of crit with this tree and still freeze enemies very fast for defenses. Going to be investing more in Evasion moving forward for tanky factor.

How it Plays

Use Ice Strike to close the gap with enemies. Drop Tempest Bell to help do more damage and use your Elemental Invocation to engage ranged enemies before they can hit you or to nuke elites/bosses. Wave of frost is a solid 'oh crap' button that will freeze a large area. Hand of Chayula will apply our curse and mark which makes enemies easier to kill.