Overview
This is a Monk taken down the Invoker ascendancy, built around the Hollow Palm Technique and the Way of the Storm Fist. The creator pitches it as the most fun league starter they have run, and the appeal is simple: once the second ascendancy point is in, it collapses into a near one-button playstyle. You channel Hollowform with Whirling Assault socketed in it, hold down a single key, and let the clones clear the screen. The engine behind it is a charge loop — the Octavian Callus unique gloves grant power charges to allies in your presence on hit, so while your clones connect with enemies you keep your charges topped off permanently. With charges always up, the clones replay your hits and the build effectively runs itself through maps.
Damage is physical and armour-break based rather than elemental. You take flat damage on rings for a small bump, lean into area on the tree, and push armour break plus physical scaling so that fully shredding an enemy’s armour layers on extra physical damage taken. There is no elemental conversion to manage, which keeps gearing cheap and the rotation honest.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Effectively a one-button playstyle once the second ascendancy node is allocated
- Extremely cheap to start — the key gloves run only two or three Exalted, and the rest of the gear can be campaign drops
- Hollow Palm means no weapon hunting; the author was still palming from around level 13
- Strong evasion-based defence — nearly 8K evasion at level 65 with the reworked evasion and deflection systems feeling good
- The Hollow Keeper wheel adds reduced curse effect and reduced non-damaging ailment effect (chill, freeze, shock), great for mapping
Cons
- Relies on a specific unique-glove interaction that the creator admits may not be intended
- Chaos resistance is easy to neglect early — uncapped at level 65 in the showcase
- This is an end-of-campaign / early-mapping snapshot, not a fully optimised endgame build
- Body armour and several slots are openly described as placeholder gear
Key Skills
The core is Hollow Palm (granted by the Hollow Palm Technique ascendancy) with Whirling Assault socketed, leveling alongside you and unlocking its final socket around level 90. On that setup the author runs Whirling Assault with Armour Break and Heavy Swing, plus a damage link they were still slotting in. A separate weapon-set carries Rend with Prolonged Duration: with a power charge up you press Rend once for a 50% increased damage window that carries over into the Hollowform channel. The defensive/utility cluster uses Ghost Dance (with Cooldown Recovery), Charge Regulation, and Wind Dancer — Charge Regulation is free damage since you sit on power, frenzy, and endurance charges, granting more crit, evasion, energy shield, and skill speed. A handy trick: tap Hollowform once and dodge roll, and the clone will finish the whirling slash regardless, repeating it per power charge.
Gear & Anointments
The one mandatory piece is the Octavian Callus gloves, sought purely for chance to grant a power charge to allies in your presence on hit — that single mod drives the whole charge loop and the gloves are cheap. The same gloves also hand out evasion and energy shield per level, which is where most of the build’s defence comes from. Beyond that the author runs whatever rare gear the campaign provided, prioritising evasion, energy shield, resistances (mind the chaos res gap), and a little movement speed on boots. Blind via the clones, and possibly Pocket Sand, is flagged as a strong future defensive layer. Other specific uniques to be confirmed against the source video.
Endgame Notes
This is captured as an end-of-campaign update heading into early mapping, so treat the ratings as a starting point. The author notes plans to push it further, fix the uncapped chaos resistance, add Blind for the accuracy/evasion shred on enemies, and possibly rework the support links once more sockets open up.
Credits & Source
Build credited to Peuget2. See the source video for full gameplay + commentary: The Most Fun League Starter Build That I’ve Played! Martial Artist Build Guide | PoE 2 0.5.