[CLASS BUILD] The Mortar Monk - bombed AoE disabler and atomizer

[Boeroer]

This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. There will be a video in the near future where we talk about this and other builds. Please check it out. I will post a direct link to the video right here as soon as it's online. This is build 4 of 5 from that collaboration.
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This build is mainly meant for inspiratation. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. 
I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post
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ahira of the Opalescent Dais (or just "Pod" for friends) hails from the vast Ixamitl Plains, where the endless savanna meets the sky, the winds carry both whispers of the past and the promise of the future and the goats drop... droppings. Raised among the Nalpazca monks, Pahira was drawn to their unconventional practices: their mastery of body, mind and corny jokes through the use of rare herbs and potent elixirs. Where others saw addiction, Pahira saw clarity.
Her years in the Nalpazca order taught her to harness the latent power within her body and soul, but she sought more than simple balance. Combining ancient martial techniques with alchemical enhancement and explosive ordnance, Zahira became a deadly force. Her training with blunderbusses and hand mortars allowed her to rain destruction across the battlefield with thunderous precision, stopping enemies in their tracks.
With these abilities she moves like the wind, delivering stunning and detonating shots to entire groups of foes before they can even comprehend her presence.
Now a wanderer, Pahira follows the call of adventure, seeking new knowledge, better flintlocks, ancient secrets and the perfect substance to push her abilities even further.

"Boom! Here comes the Boom!
Ready or not, here comes the girl from the plains
Boom! Here comes the Boom!
How you like your scattered brains?"
- Pod hovering cross-legged in the air while tuning in for the... boom -



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The Mortar Monk
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Difficulty: PotD
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Solo: untested
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Class: Nalpazca (or vanilla, Helwalker)*
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Race: Human (or any)
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Background: Ixamitl Plains (or any) - Scholar (or any)
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Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommendation):
MIG: 15 (14 +1 Human)
CON: 08
DEX: 15 
PER: 17 ★
INT: 18 ★★
RES: 05 (3 +1 Human +1 Ixamitl Plains)
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* with usage of the blunderbuss modal "Powder Burns" even a Forbidden Fist variant would be viable 

the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod

Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies  - (!=important, r=recommended)

01. Swift Strikes (r) | Blunderbuss (!) + Scepter
02. Arms Bearer | +1 Alchemy (->3), +1 Insight (->3)
03. Dance of Death (r) + Two-Weapon Style (!) | +1 Alchemy (->4), +1 Survival (->1)
04. Long Stride | +1 Alchemy (->5), +1 Survival (->2) | Pistol
05. Stunning Blow (!) + Lightning Strikes (r) | +1 Alchemy (->6), +1 Survival (->3)
06. Combat Focus | +1 Alchemy (->7), +1 Metaphysics (->4)
07. Duality of Mortal Presence (! INT) + Enduring Dance (r) | +1 Alchemy (->8), +1 Insight (->4)
08. Thunderous Blows | +1 Alchemy (->9), +1 Survival (->4) | Whatever
09. Stunning Surge (!) + The Long Pain (r) | +1 Alchemy (->10 ), +1 Metaphysics (->5)
10. Uncanny Luck | +1 Alchemy (->11), +1 Insight (->5)
11. Turning Wheel (r) + Improved Critical | +1 Alchemy (->12), +1 Survival (->5)
12. Rooting Pain | +1 Alchemy (-> 13), +1 Metaphyics (->6) | Whatever
13. The Dichotomous Soul (r) + Accurate Empower | +1 Alchemy (->14), +1 Insight (->6)
14. Penetrating Empower | +1 Alchemy (->15), +1 Survival (->6)
15. The Pain Persists | +1 Alchemy (->16), +1 Metaphysics (->7)
16. Resonant Touch (!) + The Razor's Edge (r) | +1 Alchemy (->17), +1 Insight (->7) | Whatever
17. Great Soul | +1 Alchemy (->18), +1 Survival (->7)
18. Lasting Empower | +1 Alchemy (->19), +1 Metaphysics (->8)
19. Whispers of the Wind (!) + Prestige (r) | +1 Alchemy (->20), +1 Insight (->8)
20. Empowered Strikes | +1 Alchemy (->21), +1 Survival (->8) | Whatever
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Items (!=important, r=recommended)

Weapon Set 1: Hand Mortar (! - +Blinding Smoke, +Legendary) + Fire in the Hole (! - +Chain Shot, +Legendary)
Weapon Set 2: Kitchen Stove (r - +Thunderous Report, +Frantic Reload) + Xefa's Empirical Explication (r - +Inexplicable Mass, Open Choke*)
*Open Choke's reduces range doesn't matter if you use the blunderbuss in the offhand and use Full Attacks like Stunning Surge: only the range of the main hand matters then. It also doesn't matter for Whispers of the Wind

Head: Heaven's Cacophony (r - more INT = bigger AoE)
Back: Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak (! - stuns all enemies during Whisper of the Wind)
Neck: Charm of Bones (r + mopre INT = bigger AoE
Armor: Aloth's Armor (! +Legendary - 15% bigger AoE size)
Waist: The Amazing and Truly Incredible Instant Potion Belt (profit from free potions + extremely high Alchemy)
Hands: Mortification Bindings (r - more Mortification points for Lightning Strikes and Dance of Death)  
Rings: Ring of the Marksman (r), Ring of Overseeing (r - 10% bigger AoE)
Boots: Boots of Speed
Pet: Loki (r - 15% bigger AoE size)

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What is this build about:

• combine the high INT-bonus (+AoE size, +durations) of the Monk with the AoE of Hand Mortar and Fire in the Hole (Serafen’s blunderbusses), giving you huge coverage. You want the biggest AoE possible (within reason - also include items like Aloth’s armor and Ring of Overseeing and Loki as pet which will stack on top of the INT-induced AoE improvement)
• mortars are blunderbusses which can use Powder Burns: add another AoE attack
• Stunning Surge refunds your Mortification cost (and gives 2 wounds, too!*) when it critically hits. Two mortar shots with huge AoE have a very high chance for a crit (if you hit enoug foes) - so you can use that ability very often without paying for it most of times. If you add Fire in the Hole's enchantment Chain Shot, which adds a projectile jump which includes tha AoE your chance will be even higher. It is an extremely potent disable/CC effect: AoE stun with a very long duration - because the base duration is also boosted by the Monk’s INT
• later you can combine the AoE of mortars with the (kind of) AoE of the Power-Level-9 ability "Whispers of the Wind": you will turn invisible, jump from enemy to enemy and fire three (five with Poweder Burns) AoE explosions at each of them (often jumping back to enemies multiple times depending on the amount of jumps you can do, which depends on your Power Level)
• combine that with Ajamuut’s Stalking Cloak: it stuns enemies if you are stealthed or invisible. Whispers of the Wind does make you invisible during its execution. All enemies that get hit will get stunned automatically
• add Resonant Touch to this already very potent mix: doing an 5*AoE*AoE attack multiple times (Hand Mortar AoE + Fire in the Hole AoE + jump AoE + 2* Powder Burns) leads to a very high number of weapon hits. On top of that the Hand Mortar has the enchantment "Blinding Smoke", a cone attack which causes a mild CC effect. But it counts as proper weapon attack and will cause Resonant Touch to add a raw damage stack. This means a TON of attack rolls will happen against each enemy which all can add a Resonant Touch. If your enemies are not yet dead from Whispers of the Wind, they will be after you use Resonant Touch to turn the stacks into raw damage. With enough enemies, usually nobody survives
• it’s fireworks and explosion all the time at that point - and it’s spectacular
• you can use vanilla Monk, Xoti (not ideal but works), Helwalker or Nalpazca. With Powder Burns even Forbidden Fist would work. I opted for Nalpazca because this is a ranged Monk and is not supposed to get attacked much - so it might lack wound generation. You do not wait long after a Whispers of the Wind attack to be able to trigger Resonant Touch so you need fast wound generation even while invisible. Nalpascas can add their drug-induced wound generation to Dance of Death’s wounds, making it easy to have enough wounds for WotW and Resonant Touch at most times.

*thanks @Elric Galad for reminding me about that additonal awesomeness
 

Issues:

• the mortars are not working well against singular tough foes. For those you need to switch to normal blunderbusses (which works great with Stunning Surge and Resonant Touch again).
• normal blunderbusses do pierce damage only - so you need another alternative against immune/resistant (single) foes. Luckily the Long Pain is a great alternative. Summon your ranged fists for single enemies who are resistant to pierce damage or even vulnerable to crush damage.
• rel. squishy for a Monk - have an escape plan to fell from melee enemies who cannot get stopped by a stun.
• you cannot make use of all the good melee stuff a Monk usually offers
• is best if you can amass a lot of enemies in one space. It’s not suited for parties who like to spread out and scatter all enemies.
• powder burns in combination with los RES leads to a long distracted debuff. If you don't want that don't use Powder Burns. Also best to turn off when allies are near sine Poweder Burns does friendly fire. Whispers of the Windand the mortars themselves do not. 
• you have to use drug in fights, else your wound generation will be bad. Luckily drugs last a long time with high Alchemy and if you are a thorough collector you will have no problem finding and buying enough drugs for every encounter. If you are still unsure, pick Helwalker or vanilla Monk.
• Empower works not well with Whispers of the Wind: you will get additonal jumps bc. of the higher Power Level, but all the Empower passives, including Empowered Strikes, will not work for the actual jumps. So it's a bit wasted here. Instead I use Empower with its great passives (including Empowered Strikes) with Stunning Surge: very high duration of stun, guaranteed crits even against the most defensive enemies, overpenetration guaranteed. It's a great way to start a fight, giving you and the party plenty of time to set things up while the enemies are stunning for a long time. After taking Empowered Strikes one could retrain out of Penetrating and Accurate Empower and use some other abilities such as the defensive passives or whatever seems helpful. 
• I believe Turnung Wheel doesn't add a burnung lash ro ranged weapons without using the Community Patch
• with the Community Patch Blinding Smoke will no longer trigger Avenging Storm. However, you can remove that nerf from the mod easily.
• with the Community Patch the number of stacks from Resonant Touch on an enemy is capped (I believe 25?). It's still plenty and o problem if you "relase" the stacks frequently enough (deal the raw damage). You can remove this nerf as easily as the one above.
   

Why is it fun?

• it is impactful even early in the game. You will get Stunning Surge rel. early (the beauty of single class). You don’t need Whispers of the Wind to have fun and have a great impact - although Whispers of the Wind is the ultimate goal.
• it’s the most spectacular thing to unleash in battle - both visually and in terms of sound - especially if you combine it with Avenging Storm (see Heaven’s Cacophony helm) in tough encounters
• it’s outright OP once you get Whispers of the Wind - but it somehow doesn’t get old.
• if you pick the right voice you will hear a LOT of hysterical laughter - because you will cause countless crits. I had Konstanten with me and he also does laugh a lot. I had a constant smile on my face because of MC and Konstanten laughing so hard all the time
• profits a lot from teamwork: if the party can help to set up the enemies perfectly (lure with spells, pull together, good engagement tank) you can end many encounters with one or two uses of WotW and Resonant Touch. It’s a bit like a game inside the game: how do I lure/collect as many enemies as possible in a spot for WotW in order to explode them all in one go? A good tank who holds enemies is great, a Wizard with Pull of Eora is great, a Priest with Call of Rymrgand and so on. Works extremely well with an Arcane Archer’s Imbue:Eora and Web (see Pindown Poet build).
• it promotes great party teamwork and that is fun for me, too.

 

Hope you enjoy!
Cheers!

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PS: some gifs I made when testing this build initially:

Whispers of the Wind:

WotW + Avenging Storm:

Empowered WotW:

Another Avenging Storm/WotW test:

Edited September 13 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

What makes builds fun for me?

• they are powerful/impactful (enough) - there's no fun if your character feels like a millstone around the party’s neck
• they don’t need late game gear to function - although getting late game gear to improve them can be a motivation. But having to wait forever in order to make your character click for the last hour of the game can be frustrating
• you don’t have to wait for late game abilities for them to be fun to play ad impactful (same as above) - although having the goal of reaching a great high lvl ability can add to the fun and motivation. Even at lvl 20 (if you have DLCs installed) there's still a good amount of game left to enjoy the highest lvl abilities
• they don’t need a lot of repetitive setups in every fight - that's not as much of a problem if that’s easy to script though (although I personally don't like to use the AI with my MC) but for example: if you need to manually switch several grimoires at the beginnig of the fight the fun will not last and you will stop doing that quickly. If your character's performance relies on that switching you most likely won't feel okay with this character
• No overpowered 1-trick ponies (at least not too early in the game). It’s okay if that happens in the late game, but it ruins the playthrough if you can win every fight with the same trick and the same character - while the rest of the party is only there to watch (looking at you, Grave-Calling Berserker/Beckoner)
• Good reactivity - it gets frustrating if the character plays like a slowpoke but would profit a lot from being more reactive. This can also mean using a reloading weapon is better than using a recovery weapon (reloading can be stopped for other actions, recovery cannot)
• fits the party - best if it fits a lot of party compositions and doesn't need a party build around it. But sometimes that can be fun, too. Anyway: it's no fun to use a build which mechanics don't blend into the others'
• not too much micromanagement - but also not too little. For companions low micro can be great - for my MC I like to (reasonably) micromanage and use active abilites manually.
• this leads to plenty (or even unlimited) resources. I personally like it if resources can be refilled somehow or costs can get refunded. Can also mean the resources are fixed but there are great abilities that aren't too expensive
• general versatility - being good at/useful for more than one single thing
• craftiness/creativity of the build (something to be proud of when a build idea does indeed work)
• out-of the ordinary/original (there's not much exitement when taking a well-trodden path)
• good character story (at least in my head) so it’s not a blank slate. An emotional connection does help a lot. And no - the silly stuff I write at the top of my build posts are not the stories I use.  
• thematically coherent and somewhat believable
• stylish/cool/badass
• good/entertaining sound effects (surprisingly important!)
• good vfx (without crashing the game or destroying the performance)   

Edited September 12 by Boeroer

[thelee]

are you effin' kidding me?? stunning blow/surge doesn't have a melee weapon limitation?? i'm an idiot. i even have a xoti monk in my party right now that's trying to make stunning surge work (with limited success). aaaaaaaaagh

[Boeroer]

11 minutes ago, thelee said:

are you effin' kidding me?? stunning blow/surge doesn't have a melee weapon limitation?? i'm an idiot. i even have a xoti monk in my party right now that's trying to make stunning surge work (with limited success). aaaaaaaaagh

Haha what? I thought everybody knows that. Else playing a SC Mortar Monk would be so very bad until PL9.

 

Edit: Xoti's wounds-on-kill passive unfortunately only works with melee weapon kills so she cannot profit from mortars + Stunning Surge in that regard. But she can still use a lot of Stunning Surges that way.

Edited September 12 by Boeroer

[thelee]

16 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Haha what? I thought everybody knows that. Else playing a SC Mortar Monk would be so very bad until PL9.

that's why it's important to keep posting even seemingly redundant information. sometimes you miss stuff.

also that's what I literally thought SC mortar monk was about - sucking until PL9  

[Elric Galad]

Against 2 (or few, or spread out) foes, it must be emphasize how crazy WotW + dual "classic" blunderbusses into Resonant touch can be. Each WotW "bounce targets" virtually adds 120 base raw damages. I know this pales in comparison to what dual mortars can achieve (esp. with a Pull of Eora buddy, this is PoE2 equivalent of what Starcraft 2 players called Archon toilet). But it adds a layer of robustness to the build.

Dual normal blunderbuss + Stunning Surge is also nut vs single target. Remiember that Stunning Surge also gives you (undocumented) 2 Wounds when it crits.

Also WotW comes with a natural undocumented +4 PEN bonus and +16 accuracy which increases a bit with PL beyond 9, so lowish blunderbuss PEN isn't even an issue.

[Chaospread]

21 hours ago, Boeroer said:

good vfx (without crashing the game or destroying the performance)

Are you sure 100% about that?

[Boeroer]

45 minutes ago, Chaospread said:

Are you sure 100% about that?

Yeah well... if you add Avenging Storm my game will stutter a bit indeed. But I mean I have an i7 from 2016 or so...
At least it doesn't crash.  

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, Elric Galad said:

Against 2 (or few, or spread out) foes, it must be emphasize how crazy WotW + dual "classic" blunderbusses into Resonant touch can be. Each WotW "bounce targets" virtually adds 120 base raw damages. I know this pales in comparison to what dual mortars can achieve (esp. with a Pull of Eora buddy, this is PoE2 equivalent of what Starcraft 2 players called Archon toilet). But it adds a layer of robustness to the build.

Indeed. And also pierce immune foes are not a big problem because you can summon the Long Pain - which is actually very good, too.

1 hour ago, Elric Galad said:

Dual normal blunderbuss + Stunning Surge is also nut vs single target. Remiember that Stunning Surge also gives you (undocumented) 2 Wounds when it crits.

Yes! And oops - I even forgot to mention that wound generation in the build.
Unfortunately Stunning Surge is where the aforementioned Long Pain falls a bit short. But still great to have as a crush dmg backup (that doesn't need a separate weapon set). 

1 hour ago, Elric Galad said:

Also WotW comes with a natural undocumented +4 PEN bonus and +16 accuracy which increases a bit with PL beyond 9, so lowish blunderbuss PEN isn't even an issue.

 Örm... yeah (pretenting as if I knew these numbers)! <insert DiCaprio_even_better_meme.gif/>