MonkIn 0.5 Return of the Ancients we are returning to Monk. Monk has been granted a new ascendancy in the form of the Martial Artist! With this new ascendancy and all the new skills this will be an exciting time to experiment.
CURRENTLY AS OF 5/27 POB IS NOT UPDATED TO 0.5 AS SOON AS IT UPDATES I WILL POST UPDATED POB HERE
POB - https://pobb.in/URcOTLUXEelL
NOTE BECAUSE A LOT OF THIS IS ALL NEW UNEXPLORED TERRIROTIY THIS BUILD GUIDE IS ESSENTIALLY EXPERIMENTAL. WHIRLING SLASH/TWISTERS IS A SAFE LEAGUE START APPROACH TO GET CURRENCY AND PROGRESS BUT ASCENDANCY POINTS AND OTHER THINGS WILL BE EXPERIMENTAL PROCEED AT YOUR OWN WILL.
The biggest thing to note with this build guide is it is designed to do one very specific thing. It gets you through the campaign and it starts you with early and mid game maps. 
Whirling Slash and 
Twister is a proven setup for the entire game including pinnacles so you could just stay on this the entire time. My personal plan is to play this build currency then explore new options with the Martial Artist.
When do we Ascend and what Ascendancy Points do we take?
-This becomes a very interesting question with the new Martial Artist and one that I am not a 100% sure on the answer. My current plan is as follows:
Act 2 - Way of the Stonefist - I am choosing this first due to the amount of power that was showcased in the trailer for the Martial Artist. I am hoping this + flat damage on rings will provide all the damage I need for the campaign
Act 3 - This is where things get interesting. We can take Way of the Mountain due to how strong Mountain's Teaching is since we will constantly be immobilizing enemies. The other option here is Runic Meridians. Time and time again GGG has told us to expect a ton of runes throughout the campaign. Knowing this by the time we get to Act 3 we might have access to some insanely powerful runes. Without seeing what we drop and how they affect each slot it becomes a hard call. Either option "SHOULD" be good here.
Ascendance Points 5-8 are a bit trickier. If we stay whirling slash twisters I think there is a huge arguement for taking Martial Adept and Martial Masters. I think there could be something insane here with generating combo points and swapping out one of our spears for a quarterstaff to do some crazy bell shenanigans. This is hard to say and will require experimenting. The other option is to take Hollow Focus and Hollow Resonance. Currently through tooltips it looks as though Spears count as both Melee and Ranged. If this does work the way I think it should having access to bells ALL OVER THE MAP and on our back can really allow us to do some crazy shenanigans while bossing and unleashing our 
Barrage Twister.
I will update more on the Ascendancy's after experimenting and exploring options
Down below you will find tabs from Act 1 all the way to end game. Make sure that you click on the correct tab for where you are in the campaign.
A lot of people also ask me about gear in the campaign. You only care to keep upgrading your spear almost every act. You also wants to upgrade your rings and gloves for as much flat damage as possible. The rest of your gear is just Life/Energy Shield/Resistances. As far as the unique items go 
Wake of Destruction , 
Skysliver and 
Tangletongue are extremely common (Unless something changes in 0.5) and should be easy to get. They may start expensive but should drop off really quickly. As for the offhand 
Guiding Palm of the Eye you can just grab any scepter with spirit to start to fit in all your auras.
DO NOT LEVEL UP YOUR 
Whirling Slash LEAVE IT AT LEVEL 1
PLEASE NOTE THAT 
Ghost Dance AND 
Wind Dancer GO ON WEAPON SET 1 AS YOU DONT ATTACK. YOUR 
Herald of Ice and 
Herald of Thunder GO IN WEAPON SET 2 SINCE YOU ATTACK WITH THAT.
You can put Ghost Dance and Wind Dancer on weapon set 2 if you have enough spirit!
Whirling Slash 
Twister is an absolute power house when it comes to mapping. This build is able to clear multiple screens and can 1 shot the boss utilizing its combo.
This build uses the following to make it an absolute monster:
Combat Frenzy allows us to create a large number of frenzy charges to power our skills
Barrage uses those frenzy to charge up our twisters to get a ton of extra damage
Whirling Slash lets us power us our twisters even more and doubles as a movement skill
Sniper's Mark allows us to mark big enemies for HUGE DAMAGE
and finally Twister. Once we use our Frenzy charges + Barrage and move to the boss using Whirling Slash we are able to unload a HUGE AMOUNT OF Twister devastating everything in our wake.
This build will be utilizing both Energy Shield and Evasion and when invested into should give us a very comfy defensive layer.
Note that we can do the following change to our glove slot:
We can use 
Sine Aequo for our gloves as they make immobilize 50% versus 100% these gloves are an ABSOLUTE POWER HOUSE AND WAY BETTER THEN I EXPECTED HOLY CRAP! Everything is always just insta frozen and its great.
We also get to utilize leech in our build thanks to 
Essentia Sanguis and help us sustain in harsher environments. <- With new leech changes testing with Essentia Sanguis will be required.
If you cant afford either of these gloves you can pick up 
Hand of Wisdom and Action. These are still extremely solid budget gloves and give you a ton of attack speed and movement speed!
****HOW TO LEVEL THIS BUILD******
At level one grab a Spear from the gambling vendor or from Renly! When you can make the weapon rare! Note you will need to upgrade your spear a few times in the campaign so that damage doesnt fall off!
You are going to want to grab the following skills Whirling Slash will come from the first skill gem when you get to town. Twister will come from the lost camp site that you find in the first zone. We will then make our way to the devourer and kill him, we do this so that we can get a support gem and a level 2 skill gem so that we can cut 
Frost Bomb. Frost Bomb is an amazing amount of damage due to the explosion + exposure it provides.
As you progress through Act 1 and level up you will eventually start to find some currency. When you do save it and try to buy
Wake of Destruction as fast as possible once your do you are good to go! NOTE ON LEAGUE START THESE BOOTS MIGHT BE A BIT MORE ON THE EXPENSIVE SIDE BUT THEY ARE INDEED COMMON AND WILL TANK QUICKLY. You probably want to live search them asap.
From here just Whirling Slash and Twister when you have 3 Salvo charges and watch the magic happen!
WEAPON SET INFORMATION
WEAPON SET 1:
Whirling Slash
Ghost Dance
Wind Dancer
Barrage
WEAPON SET 2:
Twister
Ghost Dance
Wind Dancer
Herald of Ice
Herald of Thunder
Combat Frenzy
BOTH WEAPON SETS (I KNOW THERE IN BOTH CATEGORIES BUT YOU CAN USE THESE ON BOTH AND BE OK)
Ghost Dance
Wind Dancer
Barrage
