[SSF-HC] A Chonks story. Seeking help, advice and wisdom. A self made build.

Gear/Gem showcase: https://outplayed.tv/path-of-exile-2/Ly4ND5

Mapping showcase (Radiated extra dmg t15): https://youtu.be/qL5VoJDHLYc

Crafting our 1300/487 chest piece: https://outplayed.tv/path-of-exile-2/O2GNwj

Maxroll skilltree: https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/0p67o0j2

For the map, I wanted to pick something that showed a bit of everything, close quarters endurance/damage and clear etc. The pace of play shown is slightly higher then I would normally push it, but didn't want the video to go to long. I went back for the expedition for example.

This is a long post and for now, it's just a story so be warned. Eventually a tldr will be added. This is overall however, just a placeholder for now to be edited when I can. Am starting this thread while I'm at work and I have limited time usually so I'm unsure how much I'll be able to add but we shall see.

So, story starts with the desire to make a Chonk. The aesthetics of the class I find to be really interesting. Along with it's low play rate and it's chaos infused sort of playstyle I was curious as to wether I could make it playable in end game using some sort of attack based gameplay. Chaos abilities are extremely limited as is and I was hoping to get something I think to be unique.

I didn't have a plan though so just made a new monk and just browsed all the abilities in the game. I first reach endgame in ssfhc with a simple icestrike monk, some of the most arpg fun I've ever had so I wasn't against the idea of exploring quarterstaves further.

I browsed all the xbow, bow and mace abilities first though and couldn't find anything that stuck out, so just decided to level with a stave and play around with new abilities as they unlocked.

Enter staggering palm.

Never seen anyone use this ability, shoots wind projectiles when you heavy stun an enemy with it, "how sick is this?" I thought. Have always loved shockwave like abilities (think wow warrior, icc era if anyone knows)

Thought process then goes something like,

- I want to shoot lots of these

- How sick would it be to pair it with charged staff

- OK I want to shoot lots of both of these so I need a delivery system

- But I need to heavy stun enemies

- Enter wind blast, "this ability is also sick"

- OK so wind blast to prep enemies for stun

- Now we need to deliver as many of these as possible, but I need power changes for charge staff..

- Google lightning to cold conversion poe2.. found brotherhood topaz ring.. I know they're not that rare and sure enough, hit it 1 for 1 with the only chance orb I have

- ok so now we are generating charges for charged staff, staggering palm is throwing force, how can we try incorporate the chaos abilities bit more

- pretty simply using mantra of destruction, linked with culling strike, activating mantra, bell with gem links, inc aoe, expanse. Culls everything and fully stacks chaluya flames easily. We attack super fast so we can stack combos easier and keep it rolling, giving us many chances at the increase chaos dmg from chonk tree as well

And now we have arrived to the present. I'll add videos and a max roll path eventually.

We are currently clearing t12 maps, slowly looking for gear upgrades. T12 is about as hard as we can push until we get some better gear, damage feels good but our weapon is pretty lackluster and we don't have enough defences yet to push further.

Aiming for fourth ascendancy in next day or 2.

Having an absolute blast though, build feels so insanely fun. Let's hope i can stay alive.

ALSO, looking for help, I'd like to increase the aoe clear of the build and have done some experimenting but haven't found a good solution yet. Eventual thoughts might be to incorporate enough flat cold to just replace brotherhood with a porc and use herald of ice but if I can avoid that route I'd like to. Would be cool to try to get staggering palm to do enough aoe blitzing to clear screens attack straight forward but I'm unsure if possible. I've tried salvo/fork to start but not enough yet

Tldr; Using stagg palm to generate extra projectiles paired with charged staff and tempest flurry to produce alot of attacks which in turn produces more projectiles. Using tempest bell with cull to produce more chaos damage/insta stack to 10 flames when clearing. More APS = more chances to proc reality rending (extra added chaos damage). Using brotherhood topaz ring to turn our lightning damage into cold to produce power charges/more defense in terms of freeze etc. Using wind blast to prep enemies for stag palm.

Change log,

01/05
- Added mapping showcase
- Added gear/gem showcase
- Added current maxroll skilltree
- Added crafting video of chestpiece
- Added brief tldr

My Chalupa is running around with Charge infusion, Scavenged Plating, and the Crown of the Pale King + Briarboots to retaliate with critical chaos thorns against all hits.

Staggering Palm is also my bread and butter. The heavy stuns I get with it fully break armor and stack Endurance charges. Hand of Chayula w/ Sniper's Mark and Killing Palm get me the Frenzy & Power balls. Eventually I want to work Volatility into the mix for more scaling on my Chaos thorns and even MORE floaty balls! My survivability isn't good enough for that yet. It's been fun tinkering with it, if not a bit frustrating


edit: This is in Standard. I wouldn't dare try a thorns gimmick in HC lol

Yeah sadly in hc, especially ssf, the tools we have to work with are limited cause we have to survive first lol.

Updated the guide with a first look at alot of stuff!

Still going strong, absolutely loving it :))

Edit: Also now that I have the gems on display if anyone would like to help please do! I am no poe scientist and I am not entirely sure if alot of the supports I have are performing optimally compared to what is out there.

Does the Volt support do a lot of work for you? I'm assuming its for the added Lightning -> Cold damage. Staggering Palm's projectiles always Pierce, so that should mean its impossible for them to Chain. I also use Ricochet but my monk doesn't dip much into elemental damage so I use the support that makes 3 projectiles per swing instead of the 1.

"so that should mean its impossible for them to Chain"

Literally had no clue LOL

I haven't been able to come to a consensus as what the best supports for stag palm are. Stag palm will most likely be what I 6 link next, I have the perfect ready to go but not a greater.

Edit: So I went and had a look again as to what we might use instead, the support "retreat" seems to work. Not only does it seem to not remove any of the damage you do (wether you are in melee range or not) but I believe by it's wording it should give a straight 25% more buffed to the projectiles of stagg palm.

Greaters are no longer a requirement for using a Perfect jewler's orb. You can use a greater orb even if you have no lessers