Overview
A wide-angle Martial Artist breakdown that pairs an ascendancy patch-note diff with multiple league-start paths and a planned endgame build. The video covers the two notables that were updated in the latest reveal (Martial Adept and Martial Master), the buff and nerf comparison across every other Martial Artist node, the new behaviour of Hollow Palm Technique, and a glove-by-glove preview of the Fist of Stone conversions GGG demonstrated. It closes with a four-stage league-start plan that bridges into an Ice Strike Bell Monk endgame setup.
League-start options are deliberately kept open: Glacial Cascade, Twister, Lightning Arrow, or Grenades all stay viable through the early acts, with a pivot to Hollow Palm + Storm Wave around level 22. From level 41 the call is between Ice Strike, Whirling Assault, or staying on Storm Wave depending on what gear lands. Endgame goal is Ice Strike Bell Monk with Way of the Stone Fist, Runic Meridians, Way of the Mountain, and a delayed swap into Hollow Resonance for the boss kill window.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Four viable league-start skeletons means you can pivot off whatever you find rather than committing on day one
- Hollow Palm was effectively buffed by the patch — projected ~23.5% more attack speed vs. ~17.7% previously
- Fist of Stone conversion examples preview real chase mods: power charge on crit, 10% quality, 30% AoE for attacks, 21% cooldown recovery
- Ice Strike Bell endgame leverages the buffed three-bell Hollow Focus + Hollow Resonance double-bell stack for shatter clear and 10M-burst single target
Cons
- Several notables were nerfed in the patch (Hollow Resonance from 224% to 187%, Way of the Mountain’s mitigation from 70% less to 40% less)
- Hollow Palm now replaces unarmed base damage instead of adding to it — a 2-5 damage loss across levels, small but worth budgeting for
- The bell-heavy single target relies on Tempest Bell + Elemental Weakness setup that takes a few seconds to plant before the kill window
- Plan stays fluid until launch, so day-one viewers need to be comfortable adapting their leveling skill at level 22 and 41
Key Skills
- Glacial Cascade / Twister / Lightning Arrow / Grenades — interchangeable acts 1-3 league starters
- Storm Wave — Hollow Palm pivot around level 22 for campaign clear
- Ice Strike — primary endgame mapping and bossing skill on the bell variant
- Tempest Bell — three concurrent bells in 0.5, ancestrally boostable, the core power-charge generator
- Hollow Focus + Hollow Resonance — the two-bell endgame engine that always-crits its triggers
- Shattering Palm + Herald of Ice — the alternate one-click shatter clear shown in the GGG preview
Gear & Anointments
Four-point ascendancy plan: Way of the Stone Fist first for the gloves transformation, Runic Meridians second for the five rune sockets, then Hollow Focus and Hollow Resonance for the bell stack. Way of the Mountain swaps in once Tempest Bell freeze interaction is online (freeze counts as immobilize for Mountain’s Teachings). Bell Belt of the Monk is the cornerstone belt; Fist of Stone gloves rolled with cooldown recovery and power-charge-on-crit are the chase target. Specific uniques to be confirmed against the live Mobalytics guide.
Endgame Notes
The endgame plan is Ice Strike Bell Monk. Mapping uses Shattering Palm + Herald of Ice for one-button clear, with Hollow Focus + Hollow Resonance providing burst on dash impact and Mountain’s Teachings stacking through frozen enemies. Single target swaps to Ice Strike with a buffed Tempest Bell plus Elemental Weakness curse — the GGG showcase posted a 10M burst on pinnacle Zashi with this setup.
Credits & Source
Breakdown credited to Scorpius. See the source video for the full notable-by-notable patch comparison, glove conversion table, and four-stage league-start plan: PoE 2 0.5 Martial Artist Monk - Full Breakdown & League Start.