Overview
This is the fully kitted, final form of a Martial Artist Monk that clears maps through a herald chain reaction rather than raw skill hits. Whirling Assault is the button you hold, but most of the screen dies to Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder explosions. The trick is Concussive Runes: socketed into both heralds, it turns heavy stuns into a runic shockwave that counts as a non-herald attack, so every stun sets off another herald explosion and the chain keeps spreading through the pack.
Because cold damage cannot stun, the build leans on main-hand lightning stun build-up to land those heavy stuns, while cold damage handles chill and shatter. The creator lists rough entry thresholds for yellow T15 maps: about 6,000 lightning and 4,000 cold DPS on Whirling Assault, 80%+ crit chance, ~4,000 lightning DPS on Herald of Ice and roughly 900% lightning stun build-up on both heralds. Juiced Delirium or Grand Expedition needs more.
This version adds Mageblood and other mirror-adjacent pieces and was used to farm Abyss (Preserved Craniums, Elven overlords) and juiced Grand Expedition in groups. Cheaper earlier versions of the same build exist on the creator’s channel.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Herald chain explosions clear whole screens, including several Abyss pits at once
- Very tanky: ~8,000 ES, high evasion and deflect, capped resists, roughly 170k effective HP
- Infinite power charges from the Whirling Assault support trio (Living Lightning, Elimination, Elite Chimes style setup)
- Swaps to Falling Thunder for group Expedition, Flicker Strike for bosses
Cons
- Hard stat gates — below the thresholds the heralds simply do not chain
- Extremely expensive at this stage (Mageblood, ~500 div slow-immunity rune, high-end quarterstaff)
- Needs at least ~300 ward because each Concussive Runes proc costs ward
- Herald damage drops off on maps with high monster elemental thresholds
Key Skills
- Whirling Assault — main channelled attack, crit source and power charge engine
- Herald of Ice / Herald of Thunder — linked with Concussive Runes + Stun for the chain explosions
- Flicker Strike — single-target swap for bosses
- Falling Thunder — replaces Flicker for juiced group Expedition
- Ghost Dance / Wind Dancer — energy shield recovery and evasion layers
Gear & Anointments
- Polcirkeln is the one required unique: chilled enemies can be shattered as if frozen, which makes Herald of Ice proc far more reliably
- Quarterstaff with flat lightning/cold (ideally fire too), crit chance and stun build-up; +melee skill levels are a bonus
- Gloves with +2 melee skills and flat cold/lightning to attacks — Martial Artist converts flat elemental damage into extra damage as cold and lightning
- Morior Invictus or a rare Grand Regalia with resist runes, a Trinity amulet, and a ring with flat elemental damage plus mana leech
- The amulet is anointed for an extra power charge; Mageblood is the luxury upgrade
Endgame Notes
Farming used one unique Abyss tablet plus two rare Abyss tablets with desecrated currency and monster rarity mods, adding a Delirium tablet on city maps. Next upgrades named by the creator: an Against the Darkness timeless jewel with extra cold and lightning damage, a Voices for more energy shield jewels, and a better quarterstaff and ring.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Rynze. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: Poe 2 - Monk build - Martial Artist Whirling Assault - Flicker Strike - 0.5.5 Final.