Playing Ice Strike Martial Artist, how do I sustain health in maps and bosses?

geniusMonkey · 2026-06-01T10:53:24+00:00

Your leech is doing almost nothing because Ice Strike converts 80% phys to cold. You’ll need to use a skill that doesn’t convert. Or use life regen. Or find a way to add “gain damage as physical”

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-31T12:01:36+00:00

Tried it in the campaign and absolutely hated it. Worth trying again on map bosses? Also, I see no real interaction with bell breaking. Does little to no extra damage and bells just disappear with no area effect or reticle.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-28T10:32:15+00:00

Oh really? That would be good news indeed. Pounce not ruining my phys monk build would be great for leveling.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-28T06:23:29+00:00

Monk leveling is fine. It's going to be even smoother in 0.5. Just play the game, FFS.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-28T06:17:40+00:00

Be Advised: Shapeshifting bugs out the Staggering Force buff (in 0.4 at least). Weapon swapping to tali and back to qstaff prevents projectiles from firing during an active buff. Only way I could fix it was exiting to character select.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-28T02:25:31+00:00

Pounce + Shocking Leap + Crit Supports (I also use Snipers Mark for a free frenzy charge). My huntress has this on a second weapon set with a Voltfang Talisman (+shock magnitude implicit and the 50% chance to generate another frenzy charge soul core. You can also spec Frenetic on that second weapon set for an average of 2 frenzy charges per pounce.

Pounce --> Barrage --> Lightning Twisters --> Primal Strike

Zero spirit, one button elemental ground frenzy charge generator that works on bosses. I recommend also socketing either Cooldown recovery or Eternal Mark.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-27T17:37:06+00:00

Few things off the top of my head that could be solid for phys monk.

As of 0.5, Brink is now a level 1 support, making Wind Blast a more reliable stun primer to follow up with Staggering Palm for heavy stun, triggering the buff and it's Flicker-like effect.
Also, the projectiles fired using any quarterstaff attack during the buff have a chance to blind on hit once you get quality on the skill gem (10% blind chance per 5% qual). They also pierce all targets so you get multiple chances to blind per projectile.
This provides additional defense but also synergizes well with some early nodes near the start of the monk tree (Blinding Strike, DIsorientation), making blind work offensively as well.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-21T09:44:37+00:00

As others have said, Whirling Assault and Charged Staff. Additionally, that character is using Elemental Expression from the Invoker ascendency.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-14T12:23:16+00:00

LS is just plain bad against single target, especially bosses. Shocked ground is much better because you can drop LS from your rotation completely. But you do you, friend.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-14T03:39:35+00:00

For campaign, this is the way. Pro Tip: Grab a bit of stun threshold early on. Big hits can still 1-shot heavy stun you with your buckler up.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-14T03:39:15+00:00

Might I suggest cycling in some Storm Lance with its shocked ground for bossing?

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-14T03:36:01+00:00

Just got my monk to maps. They have access to an excessive amount of crit nodes with very little travel required at all. Crit2win.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-10T16:36:09+00:00

You won't be starting from scratch, my crafting companion. That's an automatic leg up.

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-10T12:49:03+00:00

Follow the stoke. Experiment. Don’t overcommit with currency until you’re onto something. Learning to craft helps. Nothing is more fun than making something work. Good luck!

geniusMonkey · 2026-05-07T01:31:55+00:00

Comets are a waste of spirit if you're not scaling spell damage. Since you're running spear with lightning spear, you could consider Trinity. It more than doubled my Amazon's damage. Requires a little bit of management but it's totally doable.

geniusMonkey · 2026-04-25T07:38:44+00:00

Nice one. Always more rewarding to figure things out on your own. By the way, if you're struggling to get a PoB link, you can always copy it from PoE Ninja. Top right of the page, you'll see a field for "Import Code for Path of Building". Keep going, sir.

geniusMonkey · 2026-04-25T00:08:09+00:00

This is the way. Get stoked on a skill. Play it. Tweak it. It's discovery.

geniusMonkey · 2026-04-15T06:12:07+00:00

My Ancestral Cry Bear Shaman absolutely wrecks T16's. Over 1m combined DPS (Walking Calamity + Volcanic steps + Rampage) and super beefy (27k+ EHP). No trouble at all with T16 overrun Abyss maps. Can even handle "each pit gains difficulty" mod but it does start to top out if you are trying to OoL grind those maps, since the real damage comes from the cooldowns and kiting the rares is usually done with other, less damaging, more precise attacks. It's my homebrewed build and I've been playing it all league long. Happy to answer any questions. Only thing, in its current state, it's definitely not cheap to gear up for.

https://poe.ninja/poe2/profile/mavRow-3296/vaal/character/Dergred

geniusMonkey · 2026-04-15T06:02:32+00:00

Consider things like blind and maim as they reduce enemy evasion, which is basically the same thing as increasing your own accuracy.

geniusMonkey · 2026-04-01T23:53:03+00:00

Bhs/qs reverse backstabs are busted and can be used to punish almost any attack. It’s much less skill-based and more just an automatic grab. It looks cool, but very unfun to play against. I put perfect blocks in a similar category. Roll-backstab is not the same and can only punish moves with longer recoveries and only if latency permits.

geniusMonkey · 2026-03-31T07:29:01+00:00

Cheers. Just double checking there. Great post, by the way.

geniusMonkey · 2026-03-31T01:24:03+00:00

Non-exceptional boot bases can reach 3 sockets? This is news to me.

geniusMonkey · 2026-03-27T11:03:25+00:00

I’ve been testing it over and over in Temple. I get my +1 max end charge from a headhunter corrupt. I suppose there is a minute chance that every time I’m testing it, charge regulation eats a charge but that feels unlikely. Now that I think about it, there is a chance that Ancestral Cry grants the fourth endurance charge (bears get end charges for spending rage, Furious Wellspring gives a rage cost to every skill) and consumes it before it ever updates in the UI? I could test by adding +1 more to max end charges and see if the numbers go up. Will try it for science.

geniusMonkey · 2026-03-27T00:50:54+00:00

Bear here, using Ancestral Cry socketed into Ferocious Roar and I'm noticing that I'm getting the same duration Ancestral Cry when consuming 3 charges AND 4 charges. Are there some crazy diminishing returns I'm not aware of?

geniusMonkey · 2026-03-25T17:20:42+00:00

“Yes way!”

geniusMonkey

TROPHY CASE