Ice Strike Tempest Bell CI
Early Access – Day 56 – January 31, 2025
Monk and Ice Strike with the Tempest Bell sounded like one of the most beloved Class and Skill on POE 2 launch so I had to give it a try. Even if it’s not my game style, I understand the appeal, here is my experience.
I started my Monk (4th character) and followed this levelling guide which is basically a bow start with Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod until level 14 (when you can use Ice Strike) as I had heard that the ealy Quarterstaff skills were not great. Use Twink gear and buying a new good weapon every 10 levels made the levelling fast and smooth.
Then, I followed this Maxroll guide from Skryah / Zizaran until level 85, then swapped to a CI version following Behind Eyes Gaming YouTube video. I preferred the CI version better as it’s more tanky and more DPS, but it’s a bit more expensive! So on a league start scenario, I would follow again the Maxroll guide.
I levelled until lvl 90, killed the Trialmaster for my 4th ascendancy, didn’t do much bossing as it’s not as strong of a bosser than my Minion build. Most of my deaths could have been avoided with more caution and more skills. It is my favourite build to clear maps thanks to the big Herald of Ice explosions helped with the Polcirkeln ring and the mini Flicker Strike like feeling of the Ice Strike auto dashing.
| Bossing | ★★★ |
| Defence | ★★★★ |
| Mapping | ★★★★★ |
| Budget | ★★★ |
| Overall score | 15 |
What I liked
- Ice Explosions – love mapping with explosions, Herald of Ice + the Polcirkeln ring is a great combo.
- Mini Flicker Strike – In POE 1, I was not a big fan of Flicker Strike as it’s too fast and too impredictible to me, but Ice Strike does this auto dash which is just enough for me.
- Fast – Movement speed could always be better but again, the dash and explosions makes for a fast mapping style
- CI – Love CI builds, immune to Chaos, easier to scale an effective health pool with CI in this patch.
What I disliked
- Single target combo with Tempest Bell – Yes, the DPS is high but this combo requires that you place the bell well and sometime it’s hard to hit the bell as your character auto target the boss back.
- Mana issue – You need to invest into mana and mana regen as we don’t do a lot of physical damage so Leech is not helpful enough
- Dash – The Ice Strike dash is great but takes getting used to, I often ended up thinking I was close enough to the pack of mobs to start dashing and attacking but ended up being too far so you stand in place doing the attack animation while you get pummeled with projectiles. Can be avoided with being better at the game lol
- Expensive to scale as CI gear is this is a meta build
Would I play it again?
YES!
Path Of Building and stats
Sorry POB is not yet available
| Hard Core? | Not sure for me, but probably for good players |
| Solo Self Found? | YES |
| League starter? | YES |
| Levelling skill | Lightning Arrow + Lightning Rod until lvl 14, then Ice Strike |
| Budget | 6 div as per Early Access – Day 56 – January 31, 2025 |
| Death count | 14 |
| Level | 90 |
| Played | 1 day 8 hours |
Please visit this Google Sheet to see the main information and POB data I kept track of. You can more easily compare with other builds.
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