Staggering Palm Whirling Assault Monk Leveling Build

Build Introduction

If you like the idea of harnessing the power of the wind to stagger, stun, and explode your enemies with powerful combinations and ancient martial arts, this build might be for you! Using skills like Staggering Palm and Whirling Assault will allow you to dash around the screen as a highly mobile Physical Damage dealer.

This build was written and is maintained by Lollash. If you are interested in checking out more of his content, or have questions or feedback on the build you can find him here!

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Ascendancy

Select your first Ascendancy after completing the Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2. The trial is not difficult, so complete it within the level range of 20-30. During the early access of Path of Exile 2, the Monk can ascend as an Invoker, Martial Artist, or Acolyte of Chayula. You will be choosing Martial Artist for the smoothest leveling experience possible:

1. Runic Meridians will open up 5 Rune Sockets attached to your character, allowing you to gain a lot of generically powerful stats that you can curate based on your current needs: Resistances, Life, or even potentially very powerful new Runes introduced with the Runes of Aldur League. NOTE: To get the most power from this node, you will want to regularly engage with the new league mechanic in the campaign.
2. Way of the Mountain grants a stacking buff that will significantly lower damage from incoming hits and grant a boost to your damage. It synergizes with Staggering Palm and Whirling Slash because they very consistently crowd-control multiple targets per attack.
3. Way of the Stonefist is taken later, as its value scales with the quality of the Gloves you have equipped. By this stage, you should have been able to find, craft, or purchase a very good pair of Gloves to get the most out of this Ascendancy Passive.

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General Leveling Advice

Path of Exile II’s campaign can be quite difficult starting out, but with this build it will be a breeze. The most important thing by far in the early campaign is to CHECK VENDORS FOR GOOD EARLY GEAR. 

Look for the following gear from vendors:

1. Quarterstaves with (Until Hollow Palm Technique Keystone)
   • + Flat Added Damage
   • % Increased Physical Damage
   • % Attack Speed
2. Gloves
   • + Level of Melee Skills (Very Powerful)
   • + Flat Added Damage
3. Rings
   • + Flat Added Damage
4. Any Gear with Life, Evasion, or Resistances

Regal Orbs or Orbs of Augmentation can be used on these items that you find as magic. If you can’t find pieces from bullets 1 or 2 and find yourself struggling, consider buying them off the trade site using Exalted Orbs or gambling for them from the vendors.

Vendor bad magic or rare items you don’t need for gold, do NOT disenchant anything besides white items with sockets or quality. It is always worth Identifying rare items, even if you have to buy a Scroll of Wisdom during Act 1, as Rare items will always gain more value from being identified than a Scroll of Wisdom costs.

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Leveling Passive Tree

The Passive Tree below can be followed all the way through the campaign and into the endgame. Remember: You will need to choose which attributes to assign to each travel node based on the requirements of your gear and skill gems.

Skill Gems

Listed below are all Skill Gems that should be used during the leveling process. There may be a slight variation depending on which Act you’re currently progressing. Notes for each Act will be listed below the Skill Gem tool.

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Act I Notes

Monk has a notoriously difficult time in the early stages of Act 1. To alleviate this problem you will be using Entangle early to provide a strong area of effect slow, and to deal reasonable damage from range to set up for your Killing Palm. This will generate Power Charges, allowing you to use Falling Thunder for large bursts of high damage against dangerous, tanky enemies like Rare and Boss monsters. When fighting these monsters, your highest DPS option is Quarterstaff Strike, and if you feel comfortable you should close into melee range to damage the Boss when there are no additional enemies to generate Power Charges from for Falling Thunder.

This build truly comes online after you acquire a few Level 3 Uncut Skill Gems. First, Cut Wind Blast to replace Entangle, then Tempest Bell to increase your single target damage, and finally Staggering Palm to enable your full combo. Your bread-and-butter clear combo will be Wind Blast to prime for Stun, Staggering Palm to blow up the primed enemies, Tempest Bell to amplify your Single Target Damage.

In Freythorn you will get your first Uncut Spirit Gem and will be taking War Banner to be used during Boss fights for a very powerful Damage and Attack Speed steroid.

After rescuing Leitis from The Executioner you will get access to a guaranteed Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem and will replace Quarterstaff Strike with Tempest Flurry from this point onwards. While this will lead to lower stun build-up on Bosses, it will give you access to powerful Shock and deal more damage, as well as providing a range increase

By the end of the Act your play-pattern will look like this:

• For Bosses or Tanky Rare Monsters
  • Cast Wind Blast to Daze the enemy.
  • Use Quarterstaff Strike, and then later Tempest Flurry to build Combo and deal damage.
  • Cast Tempest Bell on top of the Boss, and try to to hit both the Bell and Boss with your attacks
  • Cast Staggering Palm when the Boss is “Primed for Stun”, which happens when the Stun Bar beneath the Boss health bar changes to a brighter shade.
  • Cast War Banner when it is charged up for a significant damage boost.
• For clearing through Zones
  • Cast Wind Blast to Daze and damage enemies, priming them for Stun.
  • Cast Staggering Palm to dash between mobs, killing and stunning them and stacking the buff granted by the skill.
  • Cast Tempest Bell to increase single-target damage against tanky Rare monsters, or in static encounter fights, such as when engaging with the new league mechanic.

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Act 2 Notes

After making it through Act 1, not much changes for the build. You will be adding Freezing Mark with Mark for Death to allow you to shred armour on Bosses, but otherwise your play-pattern doesn’t change. You simply continue to upgrade your gear, focusing on the affixes recommended in the Gearing Progression section, and upgrade and add support gems according to the Skill Gems section.

In Act 2, you will gain access to the Trial of the Sekhemas after traveling through the Traitors’ Passage. This build has no problem clearing the Trial early, so you can do it as early as you want to gain access to your first 2 Ascendancy Passive Points. You will Ascend as a Martial Artist, and allocate the Runic Meridians passive, granting you 5 new Rune Sockets that are attached to your character. You can immediately fill these with any Runes you have found so far, giving you powerful stat buffs.

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Act 3 Notes

Much like Act 2, this build just keeps on going. Your rotation won’t change, and you will still experience very limited resistance throughout the Act. One thing to keep in mind is that engaging with the League mechanic may provide you with exciting new Runes to socket into the slots provided by Runic Meridians. Otherwise, just continue to upgrade your gear, and check the Skill Gems section to make sure you upgrade, replace, or add new Support Gems as you find them.

In Act 3, you will gain access to the Trial of Chaos. This particular Trial has a very large potential difficult range, as the challenge you will encounter is influenced not only by the choices you make between each room, but also the random Boss you encounter at the end. Many players find it easier to wait and complete this Trial later in the Act rather than when first encountering it. When you do Ascend you will be allocating the Way of the Mountain passive for some additional offense and defense.

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Act 4 and the Interludes

The final steps of Skill progression happen in Act 4 when you get access to a Level 11 Uncut Skill Gem and cut a Whirling Assault. This skill replaces both Tempest Flurry and Wind Blast in functionality, allowing you to rapidly hit enemies from a significant range, applying Daze on hit from your Passive Tree. Remember to check the Skill Gems section to make sure you have the correct Support Gems socketed into each of your Skills.

You can complete the Interludes in any order you choose, although in the third Interlude you can kill Lythara, the Wayward Spear to gain 40 Spirit permanently, allowing you to add Wind Dancer to your skills for some additional defensive scaling.

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Rotation

1. Use Whirling Assault as your primary damage tool against all targets.
2. Use Staggering Palm frequently to stack its projectile-granting buff, and against Primed for Stun Boss and Rare monsters.
3. Use Freezing Mark to enable the armour shredding effect of Mark for Death on Bosses.
4. Use Tempest Bell against tanky Rare or Boss monsters when you have the Combo to do so.

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Gearing Progression

This build equips item upgrades during the campaign according to a stat priority list. You will want to regularly upgrade your Quarterstaff, identifying every one that drops looking for affixes from the list below. Then use your crafting currencies to try to improve any that already have good affixes. Remember, you can always equip a new weapon and check the tooltip DPS value in your skill gem screen to see if its a better

For defenses, focus mostly on improving your resistances and maximum life values, but pay attention to pieces with particularly high evasion and energy shield.

Offensive Gear

Prioritize the following stats to improve your offensive power.

1. Gloves and Amulet with +Level of Melee Skills
2. Gloves and Rings with +Flat Added Damage
3. % Increased Attack Speed

Defensive Gear

Prioritize the following stats on armor and jewelry pieces to improve your defensive power.

1. + Maximum Life
2. % Resistances
3. Evasion or Evasion/Energy Shield bases with matching Modifiers

Augments

Socket Runes into your gear to help bring your missing resistances to the base cap of 75%, or to help with meeting attribute requirements. For your Quarterstaff, runes that add flat damage are best in the early campaign, and later on runes that grant % increased physical damage are better. Exactly when this happens is highly dependent on your weapon.

You can Salvage gear you would otherwise vendor that has sockets at the Salvage Bench to obtain Artificer’s Orbs to put extra sockets on your gear. This will allow you to frequently use these orbs to add sockets to your best gear pieces, and socket more resistances to make the campaign even easier!

Leveling Uniques

This build is entirely League-Start / no-budget viable. But if you do have extra currency, pick up these uniques for a twink leveling character.

Boots

• Wanderlust – Excellent boots with Move speed and immunity to slows, usable from Level 11.

Helm

• Goldrim – Tons of resistances, usable from Level 10.

Chest

• Foxshade – Grants Movement speed and Evasion, usable from Level 4.

Amulet

• Surefooted Sigil – Increases dodge roll distance, and Evasion after dodge rolling. Usable from Level 8.

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Return of the Ancients Mechanics

With the Return of the Ancients update, and its accompanying Runes of Aldur League, there are a ton of new tools being introduced that will dramatically change up itemization. One of the additions is the introduction of powerful runes available at low levels that grant powerful stats for specific builds.

If you are struggling with your character or are running low on currency, you should consider engaging with this mechanic often to earn targeted rewards to help boost your power.

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Campaign Buffs

Throughout the campaign, you will encounter several opportunities to gain permanent buffs for your character by completing side-quests. You should choose the following buffs for the Invoker:

• Valley of the Titans Altar (Act 2)
  • 30% increased charm charges gained.
• Venom Draught (Act 3)
  • 25% increased Mana Regeneration Rate.
• Eye of Hinekora (Act 4)
  • Resistances from all three Tattoos.
• Solitary Confinement (Act 4)
  • % increased recovery from Life Flasks.
• Qimah Pillars
  • These can be changed at will, so you can choose Resistances to help early and later swap to global defenses, movement speed, etc.

For more details, check the guide on Campaign Difficulties and Permanent Stat Bonuses.

Flasks and Charms

While leveling, you will find several flasks and Charms. Upgrade your flasks as you go along and if you fail to find flask upgrades, check vendors to buy them with gold.

Modifiers to look for on your flasks and charms:

• Health and Mana Flasks
  • Prefix: Increased Amount Recovered
  • Suffix: # Charges gained per second
• Charm: Stone Charm, Thawing Charm, Staunching Charm

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Changelog

• May 29th, 2026: Guide created for Path of Exile 2 Early Access (Patch 0.5)