PoE 2 Best Hollow Palm Ascendancy & Builds (0.3)

With patch 0.3, Path of Exile 2 introduces the Hollow Palm Technique, finally enabling true unarmed builds and giving players the hand-to-hand experience they have long wanted. In this guide, we will talk about the fundamentals of Hollow Palm, the best ascendancies to use the new keystone passive skill, and the best builds to set up with it for both leveling and endgame content.

What is the Hollow Palm Technique & How It Work in PoE 2 0.3?

Hollow Palm Technique is a keystone that allows you to attack as though using a quarterstaff while both hand slots are empty. This means you forego all weapon and shield stats, including attack speed, crit chance, and flat attack damage. Instead, your unarmed attacks gain physical damage based on the skill gem’s level, so your skill gem effectively becomes your weapon.

Leveling up your skill gem directly increases your physical damage, which is a big advantage since you don’t need to rely on weapon drops during the campaign. Additionally, Hollow Palm grants 1% more attack speed for every 25 evasion on your equipped armor, and 0.1% base critical hit chance for every 10 energy shield on your equipped armor. These bonuses are calculated from the stats on your gear pieces, not your character sheet’s totals.

With moderate gear, such as 1.8k evasion and 700 energy shield, you can reach a 75% more auto attack speed multiplier and over 12% base critical chance, which is higher than most quarterstaffs can achieve. Unarmed attacks also now have a 5% base crit chance, further boosting your potential.

Hybrid defenses become especially attractive, since stacking both evasion and energy shield improves your offense and defense at once. Deflection, a new mechanic, provides a chance to deflect damage from hits, reducing the damage you take, and scales best with hybrid gear.

PoE 2 Best Class Ascendancy & Builds for Hollow Palm Technique

Here’s a full ranking of every ascendancy for Hollow Palm builds in PoE 2 patch 0.3, based directly on their synergy, tree position, and unique contributions to the playstyle:

1. Invoker Monk (S Tier)

Invoker brings a lot to Hollow Palm builds, especially with Lead Me Three Grace, allowing you to focus on evasion and energy shield without wasting stats. Bonuses like I am the Blizzard, I am the Thunder provide extra elemental damage, and Sunder My Enemies lets crits ignore monster elemental resistance. The synergy with Hollow Palm’s high crit chance and attack speed is excellent. Invoker is right at the top for endgame Hollow Palm setups.

Best Hollow Palm Invoker Monk Build - Elemental Shattering Palm Build

Invoker Monk with Hollow Palm can scale both attack speed and crit chance through gear, stacking evasion and energy shield. The main skill, Shattering Palm, is a standout for mapping, thanks to its chain-exploding mechanic. You dash to an enemy, strike, unleash a wave of cold, and debuffed enemies explode on death, clearing packs quickly.

Elemental Expression and Choir of the Storm can be used for extra elemental effects, and new tools like Thunderfist gloves (providing Crackling Palm skill and flat lightning damage) further boost performance. For single target, you can use any quarterstaff skill, Charge Staff, Ice Strike, Flicker Strike, The Bell, or Flurry, since Hollow Palm enables all quarterstaff skills while unarmed.

Check out how to set up the Hollow Palm Invoker Build in PoE 2 0.3

2. Acolyte of Chayula Monk (S Tier)

Chayula Monk stands out as the top choice for Hollow Palm. This ascendancy underwent a complete overhaul, introducing mechanics like Ravenous Doubts for volatility stacking and Consuming Questions for proliferating ailments with chaos damage. Embrace the Darkness received a buff, and Grasping Void now provides Void Illusion for extra explosions. With all the attack speed from Hollow Palm, Chayula Monk can stack high volatility and chaos damage using skills and ascendancy nodes. The ability to pick remnants and sustain through energy shield leech makes this one of the best options for both leveling and endgame.

Best Hollow Palm Acolyte of Chayula Monk Build - Volatility Unarmed Chayula

The Volatility Unarmed Chayula build in POE2 (0.3) centers around the Hollow Palm Technique to use quarterstaff skills without equipping a weapon, relying on physical damage scaling based on skill gem level, and stacking attack speed and critical hit chance through high evasion and energy shield values on gear. The new Chayula ascendancy overhaul enables you to gain volatility when inflicting elemental ailments, with volatility stacking up to 200 for a massive boost in chaos damage over a 10-second window, and with consuming questions and unraveling, chaos damage can also inflict freeze, ignite, and shock. Volatility can be stacked quickly through both mapping and bossing, especially by leveraging skills like mana tempest and ember fusillade, and the build easily maintains high chaos damage during boss fights by entering combat with high volatility stacks and inflicting ailments to keep them up. Chayula's mechanics combine with wither scaling for even more chaos damage, and defensive layers include hybrid gear for evasion and energy shield, as well as the potential for deflection. With strong synergy between volatility, chaos ailment application, and fast unarmed attacks, this build is designed for very high boss and mapping damage while also offering flexible defensive options.

Check out how to set up the Hollow Palm Acolyte of Chayula Build in PoE 2 0.3

3. Ritualist Huntress (S Tier)

Ritualist stands out due to its extra ring slot and Mystic Attunement, which effectively gives you nearly two extra rings even when unarmed. This means a substantial boost in flat damage from rings, making up for the lack of weapon stats. Ritualist nodes like Unfold Finger, Mystic Attunement, and Corrupted Life Force all contribute to a flexible and powerful Hollow Palm build. Access to early Hollow Palm and massive flat damage scaling place Ritualist firmly in S tier.

Best Hollow Palm Ritualist Huntress Build - Ring Stacking Hybrid Unarmed Ritualist

The Hollow Palm Ritualist build in POE2 (0.3) is chosen because rings and amulet are extremely good when you're going unarmed, and with the new keystone that removes your weapon, you don't need a weapon, so it's going to be an extremely good league starter. The damage scales on your levels instead of the weapon that you find, which gives you pretty linear leveling without too much problems and avoids the risk of terrible damage if you never find a good weapon as a quarter staff player. Early progression involves taking all these damage nodes towards blinding strikes, crashing wave, and flow states, along with all the skill speed and attack damage, while advancing toward Hollow Palm around act three. The build adapts to the best leveling skills, with contagion and unearthed being strong choices at level one, and can utilize support gems like chance to poison or lightning infusion for extra clear. Attack speed in killing palm just feels so much better to move around, making fast movement and survival smoother, while defensive priorities include always choosing gear with life on hit and other sustain, since just life on hit is probably very very good due to the high number of hits. The Ritualist ascendancy’s synergy with powerful rings provides a strong foundation, and the unarmed setup means you never suffer from bad weapon drops, resulting in solid damage and reliable sustain throughout the campaign and into endgame.

Check out how to set up the Hollow Palm Ritualist Build in PoE 2 0.3

4. Deadeye (A Tier)

Deadeye brings some useful toolkits, such as mark effects for repeated casting, stacks of critical weakness for more crit chance, and options for power charge generation. While not as synergistic as the Monk ascendancies, Deadeye’s changes this patch allow for strong crit scaling and herald chaining. It’s not quite top tier, but it’s a solid A.

Best Hollow Palm Deadeye Build - Tailwind Lightning HPT Deadeye

The Unarmed Hollow Palm Deadeye build in Path of Exile 2 0.3 focuses on Deadeye’s Tailwind, which grants a lot of additional attack speed and stacks well with the bonuses from Hollow Palm Technique, providing both attack speed and critical hit chance. Early on, the build uses Lightning Arrow, Lightning Rod, and Storm Caller Arrow, with a recommended transition to melee skills around level 22, once the unarmed nodes become accessible. The Deadeye ascendancy offers a new way to apply marks with a meta skill, resulting in a very good uptime for marks and charge generation, while skill options like Storm Wave, Tempest Flurry, and Ice Strike allow for smooth campaign progression and flexibility between clearing and single-target damage. Gathering Wind is suggested as the first ascendancy for increased speed, followed by meta mark application and then investment into critical strike nodes as the campaign progresses. Maintaining a balance of intelligence and dexterity is important for skill requirements, and gear with high evasion is preferred early on for better attack speed and defensive scaling with Hollow Palm. Regularly upgrading body armor is recommended, as it provides the biggest boost to both evasion and energy shield, which directly affect the build’s performance. For sustain and resource management, Cannibalism, Clarity, and Vitality are used as needed, with Herald of Ash helping in the early stages. The build remains adaptable and practical, with updates expected as more information about the game becomes available.

Check out how to set up the Deadeye Hollow Palm Build in PoE 2 0.3

5. Gemling Legionnaire (A Tier)
Gemling offers plus levels and quality to all skill gems, which is valuable since Hollow Palm’s physical damage scales with skill level. However, it doesn’t provide much else for the build. Advanced Thermaturgy is underwhelming, but nodes like Implanted Gems and Crystalline Potential have some potential. Overall, this ascendancy is distinctly average for Hollow Palm.

6. Witchhunter (A Tier)
Witch Hunter provides flat damage increases, culling strike, and AoE clear. Nodes like Zealous Inquisition, Pitiless Killer, Decimating Strike, and No Mercy all add to the build’s offensive power. While it doesn’t have the same level of synergy as the best monk ascendancies, it’s still a strong choice for Hollow Palm on the right side of the tree.

7. Stormweaver (A Tier)
Stormweaver’s right-side tree position and nodes like Strike Twice and Shaper of Storms double shock chance offer some synergy. Heart of the Storm and Scouring Winds help generate elemental infusions, which can boost elemental quarterstaff skills. Stormweaver sits around B tier, better than some but not as good as the top options.

8. Blood Mage (B Tier)

Blood Mage brings very little to Hollow Palm. The nerf to Gore Spike and changes to Sunder of the Flesh require extra points for minimal gains. While there are minor boosts like extra damage when life flasks reach full charges, the ascendancy doesn’t contribute much to unarmed play.

9. Lich (B Tier)
Lich has some ascendancy power that could work with Hollow Palm, but most of its changes focus on spell damage rather than melee. There are minor synergies like Crystal Inlactory and Blackened Heart (for chaos damage per mana), but nothing that stands out for Hollow Palm. Lich is below average for this playstyle.

10. Pathfinder (B Tier)
Pathfinder offers some synergy and relevant nodes, such as Traveler’s Wisdom for passive points and Overwhelming Toxicity for poison scaling. However, most poison nodes require substantial investment, and the ascendancy lacks true synergy with unarmed play. Concoction skills could be thematic, but overall, Pathfinder is a C tier pick.

11. Chronomancer (C Tier)
Chronomancer isn’t bringing much to Hollow Palm. The ascendancy’s main strengths are rooted in time manipulation, cooldowns, and spellcasting. None of its highlighted nodes or mechanical identity provide any real support for unarmed melee scaling, hybrid stacking, or attack speed. There’s simply nothing here that’s going to help Hollow Palm builds reach their potential—no bonuses to evasion, energy shield, or attack speed, nor any direct synergy with quarterstaff skills. For Hollow Palm, this ascendancy is strictly in the tiny hands category, sitting at the bottom with the least compatible options.

12. Infernalist (C Tier)
Infernalist’s toolkit is all about fire and spellcasting, with nothing that really helps Hollow Palm builds. This ascendancy isn’t suited to unarmed melee.

13. Smith of Kitava, Warbringer, Titan, Tactician (F Tier)

All three of these ascendancies suffer from being on the wrong side of the tree relative to Hollow Palm. Smith of Kitava can’t accumulate enough evasion or energy shield. Warbringer is focused on block and totems, which are unusable unarmed. Titan gains from chest and small passives but lacks the tools for unarmed scaling. Their tree position and lack of synergy make them the weakest choices.

14. Amazon (F Tier)
There’s not much on Amazon’s tree that helps Hollow Palm. The best you can do is stack accuracy and pick up crit nodes, but you’ll struggle for spirit and can’t benefit from projectile or penetration nodes. Amazon is the weakest option for Hollow Palm among the ascendancies.

POE 2 Best Hollow Palm Build Guide for Leveling & Endgame

Hollow Palm is one of the smoothest league starter setups, as you don’t need to find weapon upgrades during the campaign. Your damage naturally increases with gem levels, and hybrid gear is easy to source. Start with stacking evasion and energy shield on all armor slots for attack speed and crit. Pick up the Hollow Palm keystone early, reachable within about 12 points from the Monk start.

As you progress, focus on hybrid defense (deflection, evasion, energy shield) and offense (scaling skill level, crit chance, flat damage from rings). For endgame, aim for Thunderfist gloves, Original Sin ring, or Atziri’s Acuity gloves for extra sustain and damage. Use Shattering Palm for clear and swap to a high-damage quarterstaff skill for bosses.

Below we provide more practical advices and explanations for the Hollow Palm Build for both leveling and endgame:

1. Calculating Attack Speed and Crit

To determine your attack speed, divide your total evasion rating by 25. For example, with 1,800 evasion rating, you get a 75% increase in attack speed. With hybrid evasion and energy shield bases, you gain both survivability and offensive benefits.

For critical chance, divide your total energy shield by 10 and multiply by 0.1. With 700 energy shield, you get about 7% base critical chance, which is further boosted by any increased critical chance modifiers on your gear or tree. The base critical chance for unarmed attacks was updated this league to 5%. With enough energy shield, you can easily reach 11% or 12% crit chance before any scaling.

2. Leveling with Hollow Palm

At the start of a league, you might wonder how early you can use this setup. Level 16 is generally the earliest, as you can access base items around Act 2. At this stage, pure evasion bases are recommended because energy shield is tough to scale early and you might lack the intelligence needed for hybrid bases.

With low-level gear and no passive nodes allocated, you can still reach 784 evasion, giving you 31% increased attack speed. This translates to about 1.8 attacks per second by default. The main concern at this stage is the source of your flat damage, since you don't have weapon stats to boost your attacks.

3. Sourcing Damage Early

Without weapons, you can't rely on flat physical or elemental damage from your gear. Most skills, such as Tempest Fury, convert physical to lightning damage, but you need some base physical damage to scale. If the skill grants flat damage per level, you could expect scaling such as 10 flat per level, reaching around 200 at level 20, which could be decent for leveling.

If the skill doesn't grant flat physical damage, it becomes much harder to scale your damage effectively early on. This uncertainty means Hollow Palm may not feel as strong as some claim during early progression.

4. Endgame Considerations

Some players have already labeled Hollow Palm Technique as the best league starter, but this depends heavily on how physical damage scales with your chosen skill. If the base numbers aren't high enough, early leveling will feel weak. Additionally, rare and powerful items like Thunder Fist unique gloves are often mentioned as a core part of the build.

Thunder Fist gloves are likely to be very expensive and rare, especially if Hollow Palm builds become more popular. These gloves provide substantial flat melee crit and a unique lightning strike effect on attack, making them highly sought-after. At league start, they could be priced at 30 divines or more, dropping to around 6 divines later in the league.

5. Practical Advice

• Focus on stacking evasion and energy shield on all your armor pieces for attack speed and crit scaling.

• Use pure evasion bases early, as intelligence requirements and low early energy shield make hybrids less practical.

• Be cautious about investing too heavily in Hollow Palm at league start until more information about skill damage scaling is available.

• Don’t assume rare items like Thunder Fist will be accessible early; plan your build around more common gear options first.

• If possible, supplement your flat damage with rings or other gear, as early unarmed skills may lack sufficient base damage for smooth leveling.