Overview
This Patch 0.5 plan turns the new Monk Martial Artist ascendancy into a flexible leveler that snowballs straight into a Falling Thunder + Mantra of Destruction endgame. The headline is the Stone Fist / Marshall Adept / Marshall Master combo: every attack — not just unarmed strikes — generates combo, combo is retained across weapon swaps, and Mantra of Destruction recovers energy shield. That removes the historic limitation of combo-based Monk builds (no weapon swap, no charge skills, always one wrong button away from losing your combo) and unlocks rotations that previously were not viable.
Leveling is split into three phases. Act 1 is a generic Monk start with maces or whatever flat-damage weapon you find — early Monk passive nodes are deliberately generic, so it does not matter. From Act 1 through the early acts you switch to Glacial Cascade + Frozen Locus + Herald of Ice, then trade Glacial Cascade for Storm Wave at level 22 for a more stable lightning + shock rotation. Once the second ascendancy node lands, Storm Wave generates combo and the Bell rotation comes online: storm wave twice → place bell, repeat, with up to three bells down at once.
The endgame plan layers Eldritch Chimes onto Mantra of Destruction. Delayed Gratification raises Mantra’s combo cost to 20 — perfectly matched to one full combo bar — so each Mantra cast spends Chimes’ power-charge gain to instantly cap you at five charges (six with the consumption node). That makes a fully-empowered Falling Thunder available on a short, deterministic loop instead of the awkward charge-fishing the skill normally demands.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Martial Artist generates roughly double the combo per hit and keeps it through weapon swaps, removing the combo-fragility that normally blocks creative builds.
- Falling Thunder finally gets a reliable, two-to-three-button power-charge loop instead of needing dedicated charge-generation jank.
- Storm Wave + Frozen Locus is a strong leveling combo that translates directly into the mapping setup, so there is no awkward respec window.
- Weapon-swap freedom enables Rain of Arrows + Hailstorm Rounds experiments on a level-one bow for automated combo generation and bell triggering during the campaign.
Cons
- Quarter staves are noted as one of the weaker leveling weapons, so the early acts are spent on maces or whatever generic base drops first.
- Staggering Palm uptime is awkward outside of bell placement and may not be worth keeping up reliably during mapping.
- The endgame setup gates on Eldritch Chimes + Delayed Gratification + the Bell ascendancy node — until all three are online, the rotation is noticeably weaker.
- Many of the late-game flex picks (Holo Focus, Ghost Dance vs Hell of Ash, full CI vs Evasion/ES hybrid) are explicitly “figure it out during the league,” not pre-solved.
Key Skills
- Mantra of Destruction + Eldritch Chimes + Delayed Gratification — single-cast power-charge generator that snaps you to five charges per Mantra.
- Falling Thunder — six-power-charge nuke and the main endgame single-target payoff.
- Bell (Hand of Chayula or equivalent) — placed off two basic attacks, then triggered by Storm Wave for the campaign single-target rotation.
- Storm Wave — primary leveling spell from level 22 onward, deals lightning damage so you can shock without depending on flat lightning rolls.
- Rolling/Woven Assault — main combo-generation tool in maps that feeds the Mantra → Falling Thunder loop.
- Glacial Cascade + Frozen Locus + Herald of Ice — pre-22 leveling shell, with Frozen Locus solving early clear and Herald providing extra explosions.
Gear & Anointments
The priority on every Act 1-4 piece is “+2 melee skills” (or “+2 Hollow Palm/+2 cold/+2 lightning” depending on what you are playing) plus as much defense as possible. Stone Fist is the named must-have endgame glove. Around Act 4 the creator recommends gambling Hefty Quarter Staff bases at level 45 — that base scales well enough to last you deep into the mapping setup. End-game defenses are flagged as Chaos Inoculation preferred, with a pure Evasion + Deflection hybrid called out as a viable alternative.
Endgame Notes
The target rotation is Rolling Assault to build combo → Mantra of Destruction (with Chimes generating five power charges) → Falling Thunder to spend them. Charged Staff and Staggering Palm both proc combo on sword hits so combo is never a bottleneck. Infernal Cry is dismissed as not worth a slot unless it enables a one-shot. Bell placement remains the secondary single-target option for any fight where Mantra/Falling Thunder is on cooldown or you want to layer additional damage.
Credits & Source
Build credited to cArn_ — see the full Path of Building tree, gem links, and rotation walkthrough in the source video: original guide on YouTube. Live build coverage on twitch.tv/c_.