Monk General Feedback for 0.5

I wanted to see if community has any feedback regarding Monk in general. I don't know if GGG will read this but I hope any future content creator might see this and incorporate into their vids for GGG to possibly see. Anyone can give their own own feedback but I will list some questions to help any viewers to give their piece:

1. How was your experience league starting as Monk?

2. What did you like most while playing Monk in 0.4?

3. What did you like least while playing Monk in 0.4?

4. If you could add changes for the Monk class (skills, Ascendencies, gear), then what would you want to add?

5. Are there any skills you'd like to see rebalanced or changed?

6. In the future, what additions or interactions would you like see introduced for Monk?

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1. How was your experience league starting as Monk?

Decent start while playing Monk. I could feel the changes from the Palm buffs and the change to lower the Frozen Locus crystal life. Even with those buffs, early levels are still slow up until you can finally get Ice Strike/Stormwave. I tried to use Wind Blast but didn't feel that great so I dropped it early. I didn't have enough support gems to experiment this league since they were very scarce.

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2. What did you like most while playing Monk in 0.4?

Whirling Assault has felt amazing in this league. Whoever was responsible for the changes for Whirling Assault, they need to keep at it since I enjoyed it a lot. In my previous leagues, Tempest Flurry with Quarterstaff didn't feel that great at clearing mobs but Whirling Assault made a huge difference.

Additionally, I liked using Ailith's Chimes on Mantra of Destruction/Hand of Chayula. Great alternative towards needing to slot in Cast on Crit or Reaper's Invo.

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3. What did you like least while playing Monk in 0.4?

Monk's league start still feels too slow. Of course I could easily solve this by just using a bow from stash (via making bow mule) but I prefer the fantasy of using a Staff throughout my experience. I just don't enjoy hitting mobs, cull with Killing Palm, and then use Falling Thunder. It'd be okay in the middle of the campaign where generating Power charges are easy but in the early levels where you dont have defenses and you want to clear mobs fast, it just doesn't feel good.

Also, I do think Monk feels too squishy and it doesn't feel like there's a good way to scale defenses besides stacking Energy Shield later on.

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4. If you could add changes for the Monk class (skills, Ascendencies, gear), then what would you want to add?

I'm aware that Chayula is getting another rework, so I won't comment on that. The things I'd like to add for Monk is having more defenses:

1. I feel like there needs to be more nodes like "One with the River" that increases defenses while wielding a Quarterstaff.
2. Maybe some Evasion conversion to Armor nodes and a Notable node that gives armor applies to Elemental damage while wielding a Quarterstaff in the monk passive tree?
3. I'd also like to see better ways to reduce slowing potency and curses as a Monk. Right now it seems like it's too far away to get slow/curse reduction without sacrificing a lot of offense.
4. It'd be cool if Block chance could be explored for Monk. I know Off-Meta Micheal mentioned allowing Monk's to use Magma barrier. I think Quarterstaffs should passively have Block chance but its a low rate and there's nodes on the tree that can raise it higher on the monk tree.

Another thing I'd like to see is more movement for the Monk. Druid's Pounce has been making it's way into some Monk builds. I think it'd be cool if Monk can get freeform movement skills that aren't tied to targeting an enemy (Palm skills). I think if it had a short cooldown, then it'd be possible to balance it into a smooth movement ability.

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5. Are there any skills you'd like to see rebalanced or changed?

GGG should do a passover the melee skills to make the skills smooth, snappy, and potentially cancellable into other melee skills. I have some suggestions for rebalance/changes:

Palm Skills (Killing/Staggering/Shattering/Hand of Chayula)
- The changes to the Palm skills definitely improved the gameplay flow for the skill. However, GGG still needs to look into the bugs of the skill as it can still whiff or make you stand in place.


Frozen Locus
- The initial lowering of the Crystal life for Frozen Locus helped with early clear. I do think that currently, the scaling of the Crystal life can be too much as it can outscale a player's damage output too quickly, making you too reliant on using Glacial Cascade to pop it. I recommend lowering the crystal life growth of the skill as it gets more levels so that players can be able to pop more easily with other skills. One thing that can also be done is changing the "Icicle" support gem to be Tier 1 from Tier 2 so that players can weigh using it lower the Locus's health or slot it with more damage/utility.

Additionally, I'd like to see if when a player does the Frozen Locus roll animation, they can jump over small mobs and small ledges akin to disengage.


Glacial Cascade
- This skill is somewhat decent in the early levels but falls off once you're lv22 and able to get Stormwave. I think the wave damage should be increased as it's too reliant on the end burst when clearing packs. I'd like to see it potentially getting a mid-spike or scales with additional spikes as it gets higher skill ranks. Hopefully this gets a buff/rework to be useful later on in the campaign or endgame as PoE gets more leagues.

Staggering Palm
- One thing I'd like to see is to make it that this palm skill uses combo to give it's Wind Projectile buff rather than needing to hit a stunned enemy. It looks very clunky to set this up and with a combo mechanic instead, players will focus on clearing mobs and then staggering palm to gain the projectile. If GGG were to do this, then I'd like to see Staggering palm do a AoE shockwave on its target to make up for the change.


Wind Blast
- Didn't feel that impactful in the early game but didn't get to test this enough. Maybe it could use a small touch up? Would be helpful if this skill could generate combo like maybe 1 combo + 0.75 combo per additional mob. It'd also be cool if Wind Blast could blow away Ignited/Shocked/Chilled ground and it adds to its Wind projectile damage. Also improving Staggering Palm would definitely help this skill out.


Vaulting Impact
- Needs the Whirling Assault treatment. And also needs to either dodge damage during it's windup or have fortify. This skill moves too slow, damage too low, and the AoE is pitiful. Hope this skills gets some much needed love. I also have an idea with Wave of Frost that could make this cooler.


Wave of Frost
- In it's current form, Wave of Frost doesn't serve that much of a role. I'd recommend reworking Wave of Frost into a free movement skill similar to Druid's Pounce skill. It'd of course have a cooldown to balance making it smooth to use. This would add a much needed travel skill to Monk's toolkit that doesn't require an enemy to be targeted. Another thing that can be added to this is to make it that if you do Vaulting Impact at the end of the Wave of Frost movement, then the slam would be a cold infused impact.


Siphoning Strike
- Siphoning Strike doesn't seem to serve any role too. I think it should also be reworked into a lightning movement skill parallel to my Wave of Frost rework suggestion. It could also have an interaction with Vaulting Impact or other skills.

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6. In the future, what additions or interactions would you like see introduced for Monk?

The additions I'd like to see for Monk in the future:

- Chaos skills
- More defenses for Monk
- Fire themed skills? Or maybe infuse your Wind Skills with Fire via a new Keystone
- A Chaos reaping skill where you collect the essence of dead mobs and you can use it to unleash a Chaos whirlwind or explosion

bump, i added my feedback in case people were looking for inspiration

I agree with most suggestions here, but several notes.
- Staggering Palm working from stunned enemies is fine and provides both tool to heavy stun elites / bosses and buff your damage while bursting the stunned enemy. Changing it to be combo based would ruin its synergies with non-strike skills that don't build combo (like Storm Wave), so it should be kept as is and maybe get a tool to convert its damage type from physical to elements to make it better synergize with some non-physical builds.
- Wave of Frost could use buffs, but I'm not sure that it needs to become a movement skill. Its current mechanic synergizes with Glacial Cascade where it propels you backwards while freezing enemies and provides about right distance to shatter them with Glacial Cascade's final spike. Turning it into a movement skill would remove this synergy, so likely should not be done and Frost builds could just get their own new movement skill (like Freezing Dash).
- Siphoning Strike can still be used to build Power Charges by lightning builds that use skills that shock, but don't build combo (like Storm Wave) and don't synergize much with Ailith's Chimes (which you also need to get and in SSF it is not that easy). As such it is decent and might just need buffs to make it worthwhile using instead of just spamming Storm Wave and does not need to become a movement skill either. Lightning builds already have one - Gathering Storm - so if anything it could just use boosts to its non-charged dash to become more reliable and usable as a movement skill.

As for missing additions for Monk / Invoker:
- Notable passive to make its attack damage and attack speed boosts also affect spell damage / cast speed to make hybrid Invoker builds (like those that use Elemental Expression / The Soul Springs Eternal and need to scale both attacks and spells) more viable and competitive with pure attack builds.
- Adding some Fire based attacks to match Invoker's theme of mastering all 3 elements (represented by effects like Unbound Avatar and Elemental Expression). It is odd that he can produce fire explosions and boost fire damage / Ignite in Unbound Avatar too without knowing a single skill how to imbue his weapon with fire.
- Adding matching fire based notable passive(s) to Invoker like I am the Wildfire in the middle between I am The Blizzard and I am The Thunder (which could do something like gain 10% damage as Fire Damage and Ignited enemies have a chance to explode on death for X Fire Damage in Y meters radius) to provide branches for all 3 elements to pick from and reach Unbound Avatar.
- Buff Unbound Avatar since its effect seems undertuned - it is barely better than Elemental Archon (and for some effects like increasing chance of ailments it is actually worse) that is not an Ascendancy skill and requires much less build-up and investment to function. Unbound Avatar could accordingly use a buff.
- Sunder My Enemies could use an additional or alternative effect. It is a non-optional node to access Elemental Expression and its value gets completely negated by builds that use Rakiata's Flow (which invert enemy elemental resistance) or Exposure / curses (they lower enemy elemental resistance to or below zero and don't get any benefit from it either).

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- Staggering Palm working from stunned enemies is fine and provides both tool to heavy stun elites / bosses and buff your damage while bursting the stunned enemy. Changing it to be combo based would ruin its synergies with non-strike skills that don't build combo (like Storm Wave), so it should be kept as is and maybe get a tool to convert its damage type from physical to elements to make it better synergize with some non-physical builds.

Hmmm.. The reason why I suggested the change to a combo is because the gameplay loop of staggering palm doesn't seem that rewarding. After the nerf to the Nova Projectiles and Hollow Palm attack speed, the play rate has fallen off dramatically. I think SPalm could still heavy stun but I'm wanting it to gain its wind projectiles (and its duration) off of combo spent. Additionally, that's why I also made the suggestion to have Wind Blast generate combo, so that it can synergize with Staggering Palm better.

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- Wave of Frost could use buffs, but I'm not sure that it needs to become a movement skill. Its current mechanic synergizes with Glacial Cascade where it propels you backwards while freezing enemies and provides about right distance to shatter them with Glacial Cascade's final spike. Turning it into a movement skill would remove this synergy, so likely should not be done and Frost builds could just get their own new movement skill (like Freezing Dash).

Wave of Frost has saw nearly no use in 0.1~0.4. Your example, while technically correct, doesn't actually play out because nearly all people drop Glacial Cascade for Stormwave since Stormwave has more consistent and higher damage output than Glacial Cascade. Also, the setting up of the Wave of Frost into Glacial Cascade would take more time than just firing off potentially 3 uses of Stormwave.

Changing it to a movement skill would be a buff as it can still retain properties of freezing hit along the travel similar to how Pounce can with Freezing Mark locked into it.

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- Siphoning Strike can still be used to build Power Charges by lightning builds that use skills that shock, but don't build combo (like Storm Wave) and don't synergize much with Ailith's Chimes (which you also need to get and in SSF it is not that easy). As such it is decent and might just need buffs to make it worthwhile using instead of just spamming Storm Wave and does not need to become a movement skill either. Lightning builds already have one - Gathering Storm - so if anything it could just use boosts to its non-charged dash to become more reliable and usable as a movement skill.

Right now, Gathering Storm is in a good place and I don't want it to be changed up from where it currently is. It doesn't see as much play as say Falling Thunder or Flicker Strike but it does have very high damage output and is a good contender.

I've checked onto poeninja to see if people are using the Siphoning Strike and it barely has any playrate. Profane Ritual is picked up more often by Monks to gain Power changes. And players might opt instead to use Combat Frenzy/Resonance for a more lax way of gaining charges. So couldn't Siphoning Strike still retain it's power charge building property while becoming a movement skill? Currently, when using the skill you dash to targeted enemies. If it was made into a free movement skill, you could still hit shocked enemies along the dash to gain a power charge. It'd be a universal buff and see more playrate overall.

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As for missing additions for Monk / Invoker:
- Notable passive to make its attack damage and attack speed boosts also affect spell damage / cast speed to make hybrid Invoker builds (like those that use Elemental Expression / The Soul Springs Eternal and need to scale both attacks and spells) more viable and competitive with pure attack builds.
- Adding some Fire based attacks to match Invoker's theme of mastering all 3 elements (represented by effects like Unbound Avatar and Elemental Expression). It is odd that he can produce fire explosions and boost fire damage / Ignite in Unbound Avatar too without knowing a single skill how to imbue his weapon with fire.
- Adding matching fire based notable passive(s) to Invoker like I am the Wildfire in the middle between I am The Blizzard and I am The Thunder (which could do something like gain 10% damage as Fire Damage and Ignited enemies have a chance to explode on death for X Fire Damage in Y meters radius) to provide branches for all 3 elements to pick from and reach Unbound Avatar.
- Buff Unbound Avatar since its effect seems undertuned - it is barely better than Elemental Archon (and for some effects like increasing chance of ailments it is actually worse) that is not an Ascendancy skill and requires much less build-up and investment to function. Unbound Avatar could accordingly use a buff.
- Sunder My Enemies could use an additional or alternative effect. It is a non-optional node to access Elemental Expression and its value gets completely negated by builds that use Rakiata's Flow (which invert enemy elemental resistance) or Exposure / curses (they lower enemy elemental resistance to or below zero and don't get any benefit from it either).

Good points.

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Hmmm.. The reason why I suggested the change to a combo is because the gameplay loop of staggering palm doesn't seem that rewarding. After the nerf to the Nova Projectiles and Hollow Palm attack speed, the play rate has fallen off dramatically. I think SPalm could still heavy stun but I'm wanting it to gain its wind projectiles (and its duration) off of combo spent. Additionally, that's why I also made the suggestion to have Wind Blast generate combo, so that it can synergize with Staggering Palm better.

Becoming combo based it would lose synergy with many skills like mentioned above (that don't build combo) and require them to spec combo building abilities / supports to use Staggering Palm even if they don't want them. As such it should remain attached to heavy stunning enemy (as all Monk's offensive attacks build heavy stun) and could just use buffs to duration or value.

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Wave of Frost has saw nearly no use in 0.1~0.4. Your example, while technically correct, doesn't actually play out because nearly all people drop Glacial Cascade for Stormwave since Stormwave has more consistent and higher damage output than Glacial Cascade. Also, the setting up of the Wave of Frost into Glacial Cascade would take more time than just firing off potentially 3 uses of Stormwave.

Changing it to a movement skill would be a buff as it can still retain properties of freezing hit along the travel similar to how Pounce can with Freezing Mark locked into it.

That is right, but should be mainly solved via just making Wave of Frost -> Glacial Cascade combo more rewarding to justify ever using it over 3 Storm Waves. Your point though has given me an idea - Wave of Frost could receive additional functionality and now move you in the direction you are moving while still unleashing the wave - that would keep its current gameplay loop (propel backwards into Glacial Cascade shatter) and could add new usages for it like engaging into enemies (if you are moving forward when using it) and immediately freezing enemies to follow with Ice Strike or other melee abilities.

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Right now, Gathering Storm is in a good place and I don't want it to be changed up from where it currently is. It doesn't see as much play as say Falling Thunder or Flicker Strike but it does have very high damage output and is a good contender.

I've checked onto poeninja to see if people are using the Siphoning Strike and it barely has any playrate. Profane Ritual is picked up more often by Monks to gain Power changes. And players might opt instead to use Combat Frenzy/Resonance for a more lax way of gaining charges. So couldn't Siphoning Strike still retain it's power charge building property while becoming a movement skill? Currently, when using the skill you dash to targeted enemies. If it was made into a free movement skill, you could still hit shocked enemies along the dash to gain a power charge. It'd be a universal buff and see more playrate overall.

This could be decent, but would look odd with second part of Siphoning Strike where Monk siphons shock from target if Monk has already dashed much further away. They could solve that with animation tweaks though.