S-TIER | BUILD MOINE ICE MARTIAL ARTIST (@Medieval Marty) | SAISON 5

Build Video

Build Overview

This Ice Monk build was designed to blast through the entire Path of Exile 2 campaign and level up at breakneck speed, without a single frustrating moment. It relies on Glacial Cascade combined with the Hollow Palm technique, and takes full advantage of the brand-new Martial Artist ascendancy introduced in the 0.5 « Return of the Ancients » expansion. The concept is straightforward: freeze absolutely everything that moves, shatter entire packs, and delete bosses in seconds while comfortably staying at range.

The core of the build revolves around two skills that complement each other perfectly. Frozen Locus plants an ice crystal on the ground that enemies shatter as they walk past, dealing cold area damage — it provides constant clear that wipes white mob packs almost on its own. At range, Glacial Cascade serves as a powerful channelled nuke: just hold the button down to melt tight packs and bosses alike. Paired with the AoE burst from Herald of Ice, the result is a true two-button build you can play on autopilot while still being devastatingly effective.

The biggest advantage of this approach is playing a ranged Monk — and on a Monk, ranged is far more comfortable than melee until you are well into the Endgame. Since you freeze bosses, you skip entire phases and mechanics: they die before they ever get a chance to react. And because you use Hollow Palm, you don’t even need a weapon: no need to chase the perfect quarterstaff, since all your power comes from armour and accessories. One important note: this is a leveling and campaign build, not an Endgame build — the video’s creator plans a dedicated Endgame version once the new Martial Artist ascendancy has been fully tested.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Skill Gem Setup by Step

This build offers 4 progression steps from leveling through to the final setup. Select a step to see the corresponding gem setup.

Act 1 (1-15) Act 2 (16-28) Act 3 (29 – 41) Act 4+

Acte 1 (1-15)

5 skills • 11 gemmes

Déferlement de glaceGlacial Cascade

Terre geléeFrozen Locus

Bombe de givreFrost Bomb

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Bondissement

Acte 2 (16-28)

5 skills • 14 gemmes

Bondissement

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Terre geléeFrozen Locus

Bombe de givreFrost Bomb

Déferlement de glaceGlacial Cascade

Acte 3 (29 – 41)

7 skills • 19 gemmes

Bondissement

Bâton chargéCharged Staff

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Terre geléeFrozen Locus

Bombe de givreFrost Bomb

Déferlement de glaceGlacial Cascade

Frénésie du combatCombat Frenzy

Acte 4+

7 skills • 25 gemmes

Bondissement

Bâton chargéCharged Staff

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Paume fracassanteShattering Palm

Terre geléeFrozen Locus

Déferlement de glaceGlacial Cascade

Frénésie du combatCombat Frenzy

Recommended Equipment

Since we’re running Hollow Palm, there is no weapon to optimize: you are not carried by a powerful quarterstaff. All your power therefore comes from rings, gloves, amulet, and body armour. There’s no need to aim for perfect pieces during the campaign — just keep your gear up to date act by act at the vendors.

• Rings: the absolute top priority. Look for life to survive, and above all added damage to attacks (cold, physical, lightning, life). Anything that adds damage is worth taking.
• Gloves: cold and lightning damage. They become even more important with the Way of the Stone Fist ascendancy node, which transforms their base type.
• Amulet: resistances to all elements, Evasion, and optionally levels to melee skills — be careful though, that mod increases mana consumption.
• Body Armour: as much Evasion as possible. With Hollow Palm, the more Evasion on your body armour, the more attack speed you gain.
• Helmet: Evasion and life as the priority.
• Boots: movement speed first, then as many resistances as possible.
• Belt: maximum resistances.
• Sustain: life or mana on kill on any piece helps enormously when chaining packs.

Gameplay Tips

• Stay at range: align your attacks on bosses and melt them from behind. This is the safest and most effective way to play this Monk.
• Manage your mana: this build uses a lot of it. If you run into trouble, socket the Clarity I support into Herald of Ice for permanent mana regeneration, or invest a few passive tree nodes into mana regen.
• Save Freezing Mark for bosses: applied through Pounce, it makes the target much more susceptible to freeze and grants a cold damage buff when it triggers. Marking a new target removes the buff, so it’s best reserved for bosses.
• Use Pounce to reposition: jump into a pack to deal damage, or jump out when you’re overwhelmed.
• Activate Charged Staff from Act 3 onwards: once you have Combat Frenzy, your freezes generate charges that the Resonance node converts into power charges to fuel Charged Staff and apply Shock.
• Pick up keystone Hollow Palm Technique in your first jewel socket: this is the node that removes the need for a weapon and scales your damage with armor. If you find an exceptional quarterstaff during the campaign, you can remove it and the build plays almost exactly the same way.

How Hollow Palm Works

keystone Hollow Palm Technique is the cornerstone of this build. This node lets you attack as if you were holding a quarterstaff while both hands are empty: your unarmed attacks benefit from quarterstaff damage. In practice, you equip no weapon at all, and all your damage comes from your armor and accessories.

This choice completely changes how you scale. The more Evasion you have on your chest piece, the higher your attack speed; and the more Energy Shield on your armor, the higher your critical strike chance. Since this is a leveling build, we don’t go all-in on crits: Evasion and attack speed remain the most cost-effective stats. The big upside is that you never depend on a weapon drop — you can clear the entire campaign without once worrying about finding the perfect staff.

Charged Staff and Charge Generation

Starting in Act 3, the build incorporates a charge combo that is as elegant as it is powerful. When you freeze an enemy, Combat Frenzy generates frenzy charges every few seconds. We don’t use them as frenzy charges: thanks to the Resonance passive tree node (« gain power charges instead of frenzy charges »), they become power charges that fuel Charged Staff.

You might wonder what use a Charged Staff is on a weaponless build. That’s the whole trick of Hollow Palm: since your hands are treated as a quarterstaff, Charged Staff causes large lightning arcs to crackle at the end of your fists and adds lightning damage to your attacks. It’s an extra damage burst that also applies Shock, unlocking a whole range of bonuses on the passive tree.

The Martial Artist Ascendancy

The new Martial Artist ascendancy from the 0.5 expansion offers several nodes that integrate seamlessly into this build. The most impactful one is Way of the Stone Fist: the gloves you equip have their base type transformed into a fist of stone and their suffixes converted. Since we’re playing Hollow Palm without a weapon, the vast majority of our attributes come from gear — making our gloves significantly more powerful represents a huge damage gain. This is the node to pick first or second.

Two other options are worth testing during the campaign. Hollow Focus causes bells to appear around you without requiring combo charges: we pop them with Glacial Cascade for high burst damage — a real asset for a build that simply can’t generate combo while playing at range. Martial Master can also be interesting, but requires a four-point investment. As for the runes of Aldur, their effects haven’t been revealed yet and will likely come into play later. The starting recommendation: Way of the Stone Fist first, then Hollow Focus.

Passive Tree Progression

The tree is built primarily around attack damage, skill speed (which corresponds to attack speed), and mana regeneration — the latter is critical as this build burns through mana quickly. On the attribute side, pick up Dexterity wherever you can until the game requires Intelligence to use a skill, at which point you grab an Intelligence node.

Once keystone Hollow Palm Technique is taken, head toward the large clusters of damage and attack speed. Once Charged Staff and Combat Frenzy are in place, push up to the Resonance node to convert your charges, then shift toward lightning nodes once you start generating Shock. Several conditional bonuses shine here: 40% increased cold damage while Herald of Ice is active (which is permanent), 30% elemental damage if the enemy is frozen, 30% elemental damage if they are Shocked, and 25% mana regeneration against Shocked enemies. It’s this chain of bonuses that will carry you through to the end of the campaign.

Skill Tree