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PoE 2 Build

ICE Sub-Zero Monk Leveling Build

Monk

Invoker

Creator

Starter

0.1 Early Access

By italianspartacus

Updated on Jan 6, 2025

Jan 6, 2025

Build Overview

"As the Snow Falls, So Will You..."

This Monk Invoker Build is modeled after Sub-Zero, the lead singer of the famous cover band: Mortal Kombat. While I wanted to originally make this a 100% Cold build, we will be utilizing a few lightning abilities to add ranged power to the kit.

Our bread and butter will be Ice Strike and Wave of Frost to give us tons of Cold & Freezing damage with Charged Staff and Falling Thunder for some impressive nuking potential!

Build Variants

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

End Game

Act 1

Utilize this portion of the build to take advantage of Act 1, which should be your first 15 or so levels! We'll focus here on Glacial Cascade and Frozen Locus for the lion share of our damage, with Killing Palm to generate Power Charges and Falling Thunder to give us room clearing bombs.

You'll also be using Tempest Bell for heavy single target damage (Bosses, Rares, Uniques)

Equipment

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

End Game

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

Each item will have an affix priority listed for it, with generalizations across all armor pieces for the exception of Boots!

Weapon:

For your weapon, you're going to want to focus as much as you can on an increase to Physical Damage as all of our Attack Skills will use our weapon's physical damage AND then convert it to Cold/Lightning Damage. So the higher this is, the more damage we do. Socket more Physical in here or a specific element if you want!

+ Increased Physical Damage %
+ Add (#) to (#) Physical Damage
+ Attack Speed % (Aim for 7%+)
+ To any Element
+ Melee Skills (Careful as this increases mana demand)
+ Life leech on hit/kill
+ Accuracy Rating

Armor:

For all of your armor pieces, focus on Increased Evasion & Energy Shield %, and then whatever resistances you need to fill the gaps in your character. Boots should have 10%+ Movement Speed! And gloves can have attack speed if you missed it on the weapon

+ % Increased Evasion and Energy Shield
+ Energy Shield
+ Evasion
+ % Any Resists
+ Max Mana
+ Max Life

Jewelry & Charms:

This is honestly dealers choice, just socket your Jewelry in to fit any gaps in your resistances. Focus on any stats that are going to help with what you're lacking currently

Elemental Resists
Max Mana
Intelligence/Dexterity
% Increased Cold/Physical/Lightning Damage
+ Spirit (Amulet)

Skill Gems

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

End Game

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 5

Dex 30

Int 25

Expand all

Falling Thunder

Frozen Locus

Tempest Bell

Glacial Cascade

Killing Palm

Quarterstaff Strike

Herald of Ice

Gem Priority

+12

We'll focus here on Glacial Cascade and Frozen Locus for the lion share of our damage, with Killing Palm to generate Power Charges and Falling Thunder to give us room clearing bombs.

You'll also be using Tempest Bell for heavy single target damage (Bosses, Rares, Uniques)

Passive Tree

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

End Game

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

How it Plays

This build is amazing at clearing through waves of monsters. You could simply hold down Ice Strike and literally swing your way to victory, but then it pivots to tons of additional lightning damage from Charged Staff .

This will turn you into a mystical monk cold buzz saw of Doom.

How it Works

The biggest focus for this build is stacking ailments across both Shock and Freeze, and we do that using Charged Staff / Falling Thunder for Shock, and Ice Strike / Wave of Frost / Herald of Ice for Freeze. These ailments give us INFINITE CHARGES from Combat Frenzy.

This all feeds back in on itself because the Charges allow us to use Charged Staff and then we empower Falling Thunder with those charges for critical nukes and critical times.

Keep in mind, Charged Staff will imbue every single Monk attack with the lightning wave that it shoots - so every ability will benefit from it.

Mapping Rotation:

Use Ice Strike until you have max Charges (3-7 depending on your level and where you're at with the passives).
Cast Charged Staff to empower the staff
Use Wave of Frost when initiating new waves to freeze large portions of them
Glacial Cascade is used at range to give us some punching power across both elements

Single Target Rotation:

Open with Freezing Mark / Hypothermia
Use Ice Strike until you have max Charges (3-7 depending on your level and where you're at with the passives).
1. Conversely, wait until you've built 4 Combo Points on Tempest Bell
Cast Tempest Bell and focus on hitting the BELL to damage the monster
Cast Charged Staff to empower the staff
During Ranged phases, use Glacial Cascade
And when you need to push the Boss into the Frozen state, shoot Wave of Frost