S-TIER | BUILD MOINE OIL BARRAGE MARTIAL ARTIST (@Peuget2) | SAISON 5

Build Video

Build Overview

This Oil Barrage Martial Artist build is Peuget2’s 0.5 league starter for the Monk, and it ticks every single box for a successful league start: easy to play, very tanky, and capable of scaling in power from the very first ascendancy node all the way to the new endgame. The new Martial Artist ascendancy brings such a complete offensive and defensive toolkit that it transforms a simple leveling build into a true steamroller.

The core of the build revolves around Oil Barrage: your character transforms into a viper form and projects oil onto the ground. The brilliant subtlety is that the skill targets the ground rather than enemies directly. Combined with Ricochet, the Trick Shot and Split Shot notables, and the Dance with Death keystone, each projectile can fragment and hit the same target multiple times. This is where the bulk of the damage comes from — meaning you don’t need to stack multipliers on your support gems. With the full setup (fork, projectile nova, and ricochet), you literally cover the entire screen, and projectiles even continue bouncing off-screen from their targets.

The engine of the build is power charges. They are essential and, fortunately, very easy to generate thanks to Devour (you devour corpses or chill enemies marked with a blue bubble to generate charges). For mobility, starting around level 70, you set up a second weapon set with Whirling Slash at very high attack speed: this skill completely ignores your movement speed, allowing you to sacrifice the movement speed stat on your boots in favor of additional defensive layers.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Skill Gem Setup by Step

This build features 9 progression steps from leveling all the way to the final build. Select a step to see the corresponding gem setup.

Endgame (crit and CI) Act 1 (before Rend) Act 1 (Rend Transition) Act 2-3 (before oil barrage) Act 3+ (oil barrage NO tier 4 support) Act 4 (oil barrage Tier 4 supports) Interludes Weapon Transition setup Cartes Début

Endgame (crit and CI)

9 skills • 37 gemmes

Déchirure

Tir de barrage Oil Barrage

Rugissement féroceFerocious Roar

DévorationDevour

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Coup de lanceSpear Stab

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Héraut de la cendreHerald of Ash

Taillade tourbillonnanteWhirling Slash

Acte 1 (before Rend)

4 skills • 9 gemmes

Flèche de foudreLightning Arrow

Flèche paratonnerreLightning Rod

Héraut du tonnerreHerald of Thunder

Bombe de givreFrost Bomb

Acte 1 (Rend Transition)

4 skills • 10 gemmes

Déchirure

DévorationDevour

Héraut du tonnerreHerald of Thunder

Coup d'aileWing Blast

Acte 2-3 (before oil barrage)

4 skills • 10 gemmes

Déchirure

DévorationDevour

Héraut du tonnerreHerald of Thunder

Coup d'aileWing Blast

Acte 3+ (oil barrage NO tier 4 support)

6 skills • 16 gemmes

Déchirure

DévorationDevour

Illusion persistanteLingering Illusion

Coup d'aileWing Blast

Tir de barrage Oil Barrage

Héraut de la cendreHerald of Ash

Acte 4 (oil barrage Tier 4 supports)

9 skills • 25 gemmes

Déchirure

DévorationDevour

Illusion persistanteLingering Illusion

Coup d'aileWing Blast

Tir de barrage Oil Barrage

Rugissement féroceFerocious Roar

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Héraut de la cendreHerald of Ash

Interludes

9 skills • 25 gemmes

Déchirure

DévorationDevour

Illusion persistanteLingering Illusion

Coup d'aileWing Blast

Tir de barrage Oil Barrage

Rugissement féroceFerocious Roar

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Héraut de la cendreHerald of Ash

Weapon Transition setup

10 skills • 28 gemmes

Déchirure

DévorationDevour

Illusion persistanteLingering Illusion

Coup d'aileWing Blast

Tir de barrage Oil Barrage

Rugissement féroceFerocious Roar

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Héraut de la cendreHerald of Ash

Taillade tourbillonnanteWhirling Slash

Cartes Début

11 skills • 32 gemmes

Déchirure

Jet de lanceSpear Throw

DévorationDevour

Taillade tourbillonnanteWhirling Slash

Tir de barrage Oil Barrage

Illusion persistanteLingering Illusion

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Rugissement féroceFerocious Roar

Coup d'aileWing Blast

Héraut de la cendreHerald of Ash

Recommended Equipment

The great advantage of this ascendancy is that your best piece of equipment is partly free: thanks to Way of the Stone Fist, your gloves transform into an overpowered version that scales with your character level. Focus the rest of your gear on hybrid defensive layers and attributes.

• Gloves: the cornerstone piece via Way of the Stone Fist. The transformation can reach ~1100 evasion and ~600 energy shield, plus random mods (critical chance, power charge on critical, max resistances…). Pick up and test all gloves on the ground to see what they transform into.
• Glove bases: armour/evasion, energy shield/armour, or pure (armour or energy shield) — test based on the defensive profile you’re aiming for.
• Boots: no movement speed required (Whirling Slash ignores it) → prioritize life, evasion, and resistances.
• Belt: a Templar’s Belt works very well with Martial Master to gain Combo and feed power charges.
• Attributes: plan for strength and intelligence early on to be able to equip the talisman.
• Endgame: the Eye of the Chimera setup (expensive and highly sought-after by Monks) unlocks the full potential of the final ascendancy nodes.

Gameplay Tips

• Manage your power charges: use Devour to devour corpses and chill marked enemies. Later, Lingering Illusion drops charges when the illusion dies.
• Aim at the ground with Oil Barrage: the skill targets the ground, which is what allows projectiles to split and hit the same target multiple times.
• Stubborn bosses: if you lose your charges, chain Rend then stun with Wing Blast to regain a charge and finish the encounter.
• Rend buff: Rend grants +50 % lightning damage for 13 s that stacks on top of Oil Barrage — use it occasionally during leveling.
• Act 4 = key milestone: don’t miss the granulated 5-link encounter before the act’s main boss to upgrade Oil Barrage to its endgame setup.
• Weapon swap: put Whirling Slash on your second weapon set for fast movement (requires a weapon — ideally a spear — with a high attack speed).

Why Choose the Martial Artist?

The new Martial Artist ascendancy is what makes Rend this build so powerful. Every node brings real value:

• Way of the Stone Fist (1st): the strongest node, available right from the start. It transforms your gloves into an overpowered version that scales with your level and inherits random mods (critical chance, power charge on critical, max resistances…).
• Martial Master: you generate Combo on all your hits, regardless of the weapon set. Excellent with a Templar’s Belt and later with Mantra of Destruction to generate power charges in bulk.
• Martial Adept: extra Combo on each generation and reduced energy shield recharge delay when you spend your Combo — in practice, your energy shield recharges almost instantly in maps and against bosses alike.
• Way of the Mountain (early endgame): offensive and defensive layer — increased damage, stun threshold, and hits that don’t exceed 30 % of your max life are reduced by 40 %. Ideal before transitioning to Chaos Inoculation.
• Runic Meridians (late endgame): lets you use runes as tattoos that provide the same bonuses as the ones on your gear. With the 150 new runes from 0.5, this node holds untapped potential still waiting to be explored.

Where Does Oil Barrage’s Damage Come From?

Looking at the support setup, you might think there are almost no damage multipliers. That’s technically true, but misleading. The secret lies in one detail: the more projectiles you fire, the more chances the same target has to be hit multiple times. The Oil Barrage gem explicitly allows multiple projectiles to strike the same target, and since it targets the ground rather than the enemy, you can exploit a very particular mechanic.

With Ricochet as a support, plus the Trick Shot and Split Shot notables from the tree, you get a 100 % chance for a projectile that lands beneath an enemy to fork into additional projectiles that hit that same enemy again — and also bounce off the ground. It’s the stacking of these forks that generates all your damage, without needing expensive support gems or large multipliers.

Leveling Guide: from Ranger to Monk

The leveling tip suggested here starts… with another character. You can of course level however you prefer, but here is the method tested by the author:

• Ranger Preparation: first create a Ranger to obtain a bow, a quiver and Lightning Arrow, then grab Lightning Rod as a reward from the first boss. Drop everything in the stash, disconnect, and make the Monk your main character.
• Act 1: level with Lightning Arrow. Around level 12, Devour becomes available — pick up Strength and Intelligence early for the talisman. Devour feeds your Power Charges which boost Rend, your main clear skill until Oil Barrage.
• Acts 2-3: Combo Devour + Rend while waiting for Oil Barrage, which comes a bit later in the game.
• Act 3+: Oil Barrage becomes available but, without Tier 4 support gems, reserve it for single target (rares and bosses). Lingering Illusion starts providing Power Charges automatically.
• Act 4: Tier 4 supports unlock Oil Barrage’s full potential. Pick up the Act’s granulated 5-link (don’t miss the encounter before the boss) to transition into the endgame setup.
• Interludes & Maps: chain the mini-acts with Oil Barrage for clear and Rend for the damage buff. Around level 70, set up the weapon swap with Whirling Slash, then farm your gear in the new endgame.

Passive Tree and Ascendancy Order

The tree progression is very gradual. In Act 1, take Flow State and Concussive Attack for damage. In Acts 2-3, add Dizzying Sweep, Killer Instinct, Frantic Rage and Power Charges. Act 4 brings Stupify (damage against stunned enemies), evasion, and the big projectile multipliers Split Shot and Trick Shot, up to the keystone Dance with Death.

Respect the order: don’t go for critical strike chance too early, as you will have very little of it at the start. When setting up the weapon swap, you will unspec many nodes to redistribute them across your two weapon sets: set 1 (Whirling Slash) receives all the attack speed nodes for the automatic set, while set 2 keeps the damage nodes. Since keystones do not work with the weapon swap technique, Dance with Death ends up as a « dead » node on set 1 — that’s fine because you also take attribute nodes there, which are valuable in the early game.

For the ascendancy order: start with Way of the Stone Fist (overpowered gloves), then Way of the Mountain (defense and damage before the Chaos Inoculation transition). Don’t rush the last two nodes: they only reveal their potential with the Eye of the Chimera setup. In the meantime, take Runic Meridians or Hollow Focus, then switch to Martial Master once your Eye of the Chimera is in place.

Skill Tree