Monk class is shaping up to be a strong contender in Path of Exile 2, offering a mix of offensive and defensive capabilities. With unique skill interactions and Charge generation mechanics, Monks excel in both single-target and area-of-effect (AoE) damage scenarios. This guide will highlight key Ascendancy choices and skill combinations to help you optimize your build.  

• Monk SKills & Combos
• Monk Ascendancies
  • Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy
  • Invoker Monk Ascendancy
• Invoker VS Acolyte

↖ Monk Skills & Combos

So first off let's start with the skills, we will focus on the skills that our consider promising and combos that should work. 

↖ Monk Ascendancies

Ascendancy is at the center of how a character is constructed in terms of construct and mechanics. Although this hasn't been fully done for all the passive skills for the Monk class in PoE 2, we can evaluate what has been released for the Acolyte of Chayula. 

↖ Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy

Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy is around chaos resistance, mana, energy shield usage and stuffing themselves with damage. Some of the passives are a trade off, nonetheless the ascendancy hands out interesting and unique defensive and even offensive perks that can be used with fitting specific builds.

Summary:

Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy serves a satisfying combination of offensive and defensive features, thus making it useful for almost all Monk builds in Path of Exile 2. Some of the main advantages are:

• Instant mana leeching provides a solution to the problem of mana energy management.
• Darkness mechanics in addition to energy shield recovery further help in providing additional defensive layers.
• Giving chaos damage a boost of as high as thirty percent.

But other passives have a huge cost; you could lose spirit and have no energy shield recovery as well. This ascendancy has its perks but one needs to plan out all the details in order to benefit the most out of this ascendancy.

↖ Invoker Monk Ascendancy

The Invoker Monk Ascendancy not only brings in harsh critical strikes but also incorporates elemental damage into the build. However, if played effectively, this build can be of a monstrous potential. 

Summary:

↖ Invoker VS Acolyte

Key Takeaways:

• Invoker Monk: This class is great for a high damage output with crits and elemental effects but does require more investment in defenses as it does not have strong survivability nodes. 
• Acolyte Monk: Enjoys a bit more defensive playstyle so does not warrant much risk which is a much better option for new or survivability priority players. 

If you want to play with a different playstyle in terms of twinking the damage output while staying alive then the Acolyte Monk would be the right choice. All these Ascendancies are different with distinct advantages which serve the purpose of making the class have different playstyles even if the class restriction remains the same.