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PoE 2 Build

DonTheCrown's Cold Monk Leveling

Monk

Invoker

Starter

Creator

By DonTheCrown

Updated on Dec 12, 2024

Dec 12, 2024

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.

Nerf Update: youtu.be/5OMji0ecj10
WIP: come by the stream!

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

Quarterstaff Strike

Item

Ice Strike

Tempest Bell

Elemental Invocation

Wave of Frost

Hand of Chayula

Herald of Ice

Killing Palm

Unbound Avatar

Comet Nerf Replaced
Working on finding a replacement, looks like Eye of Winter or Ice Nova - Spell Cascade - Spell Echo to make the bell go brrrrrrr

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.

Herald of Ice
~~Herald of Ice + Cold Infusion appears to raise the DPS of all your attacks, which may be a bug, but nice for now.~~
This is now no longer working, move Infusion back to Ice Strike.

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 - When you Freeze/Shock/Ignite you build up energy and you can press the button to drop down Comets on enemies. I prefer targeting ranged guys.
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 Comets!

Passive Tree

main:

122

set 1:

set 2:

Attribute Nodes
For traveling stat nodes you're going to need 133 Int for Comet but always prio whatever stats you need for gem upgrades.

Leveling
Grab all the big nodes near the start of the tree that are marked, these will help you out early on. Then you want to head towards the Staff and Herald Nodes on the far right (Martial Artistry and Coming Calamity). Pickup nodes along the way except Throatseeker, skip that til your crit is 40% or higher.

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.