Overview
Hollow Form is the reason to click Monk at 0.5.5 league start, and part of the case for it is economic: with most of the content-creator field pointing at Gemling, picking the Monk sidesteps the gear rush and the price spike that follows it. What you get in exchange is a build that generates near-endless Power Charges, spends them on clones of itself, and lets those clones walk ahead through a map deleting packs before you arrive.
The engine is the Martial Artist’s Way of the Stone Fist, which transforms your equipped gloves into a Fist of Stone base and gives them a new modifier set. That unlocks a pair of level-16 Tempered Mitts whose modifier grants a charge to allies in your presence on hit — so every clone that connects feeds a Power Charge back to you, which fuels more Hollow Form, which generates more clones. The loop is self-sustaining, and the creator is blunt about the dependency: no gloves, no Hollow Form, no build.
Timing matters more than gear here. Hollow Form and Way of the Stone Fist both come online after the second Trial in Act 3, which is the moment the character converts from a conventional leveling setup into the real build. Swapping earlier is technically possible in Act 2 but the creator advises against it — you have the gloves but not the machinery to use them.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Enabling gloves are level-16 commons that cost almost nothing at league start
- Scales far into the endgame — the showcase runs 9–10.8k energy shield in T16 maps
- Tight arenas are its best case, and 0.5.5 reworks both Ritual and the Trial of Chaos
- Runs well on a mediocre weapon; a 449 quarterstaff still cut through T16 rares
- Avoids the Gemling gear rush and the league-start economy competing for it
Cons
- Hard-gated on a single glove base — without it the build simply does not function
- Doesn’t fully exist until the second Trial in Act 3
- Movement speed is the weak axis compared to a Gemling
- Not the pick for heavily juiced Expedition in its current state
- The high-end showcase leans on Head Hunter, which is a long-term goal, not a starting point
Key Skills
- Hollow Form — the ascendancy centrepiece; converts Power Charges into clones
- Way of the Stone Fist — transforms equipped gloves and unlocks the charge-generation loop
- Hollow Palm Technique — the passive that roughly quadruples Act 1 damage once you drop your weapon
- Glacial Cascade — the leveling skill, detonating planted locusts for wide clear
- Frozen Locust — planted alongside Glacial Cascade for the level 1–14 clear pattern
Gear & Anointments
Leveling runs Glacial Cascade plus Frozen Locust from level 1: plant the locust, hit it with the cascade, and everything nearby dies. Path straight toward Hollow Palm Technique — reachable around level 14, roughly by the Act 1 boss — then drop your weapon and let the unarmed scaling take over.
The mandatory pickup is Tempered Mitts (level 16 requirement), equipped at Act 3 alongside Hollow Form. For a weapon the creator singles out Nazir’s Judgment, a quarterstaff usable from level 28; the Runeforged version (three sockets, via the Verum anvil after part of the Expedition quest line) is the upgrade, but the plain version carries the whole endgame on its own. Later the build opens up extra socket and helmet-anoint options thanks to Hollow Form; specific anoints are to be confirmed against the source video’s written companion guide.
Endgame Notes
The build is pitched as scaling to the highest tiers of content — the showcase runs T16 maps with roughly 10,800 energy shield and Head Hunter buffs, cutting through crit-resistant rares. Ritual, Ultimatum and the Trial of Chaos are called out as strong farms because their tight arenas suit the clone swarm. The stated exception is heavily juiced Expedition, where the build is not currently best in class.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Travic. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: Hollow Form Martial Artist League Starter for Path of Exile 2 0.55! My Plans For The New Patch..