I am overall satisfied with the current league :) A Monk's perspective

I've done almost 4 toons so far (3 on the end game, 1 about to finish the campaign), and I am overall glad with the whole experience (despite the challenges that we've had along the way).

My only feedback so far is for the Monk (sorry, can't stop playing this class since 0.1):

- Glacial Cascade: Cannot freeze since 0.2, but maybe the devs / GGG could consider giving it a chance to chill? It doesn't have to be as strong as Permafrost Bolt's Chill magnitude (that one is really good, considering it's range as well), but at least make GC feels like it's an Ice skill? (so far it feels like a earth-type boulder skill instead).

- Wave of Frost: Compared to other aoe or almost aoe skills, the cone is by far the issue - most skills have an area-wide hit at least, but the WoF comes with a cone-shape, that often times misses the other mobs since they are moving towards you - you also have to adjust your trajectory so you could hit as much mobs as possible (not favorable on extremely juice maps or abyss / rituals - a big downside for its defense purpose)

- Freezing Mark: At this point, this feels like a missed opportunity to be reworked or replaced? WoF is an early freezing skill, and FM is supposed to support freezing further - except it's a single skill, and can later be outshined by Shattering Palm / Ice Strike for freezing. Since 0.1, this skill personally is almost forgettable.

- Siphoning Strike: - Single-strike skill, too conditional I guessed? It's supposed to do great damage if you meet its condition (shocked mobs first), but the Tempest Flurry / Storm Wave often times have already killed the mobs before you could take advantage of this. As for bossing, TF/ SW will still do enough to 1v1 even without using this skill.

- Vaulting Impact: - I think the animation speed needs to be calibrated or reviewed? No matter how I pushed the attack speed esp for this skill, it still feels slow - which is fine for immersion but the problem is, while you're flying to slam, most mobs are busy damaging you (I have some moments where I almost died just because I was flying to slam).

- Mantra of Destruction: - Good buff, but hopefully it's not lock for strike skills? I just lately realized that Glacial Cascade, WoV, SW and Vaulting Impact can't generate a charge for this, but if this is how it's intended then I guessed it's fine for now.

- Hand of Chayula: - A single-target skill, compared to the rest of the palm strikes that can do multi-hits if mobs are near, this one feels a little too exclusive overall (maybe this one is fine).

- Tempest Bell: - not sure what happened since 0.3 but it feels clunky to place the bell :/

All in all, It feels like almost half of the Monk's skills (in totally) are either too conditional, too dependent, or too restrictive for their purpose, thus sometimes it is giving you that feeling that the Monk somewhat lacks more 'engaging' skills, and is left with the usual skills of Ice Strike, Tempest Flurry, Falling Thunder, Wind Blast and Storm Wave.

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Other notables:

Chonk /

Void Illusion - Tried it again, and it's now a hit-or-miss scenario. Boosting its potential is too niche to build (very specific unique can only make this skill work really well esp for offense). Overall this is starting to become or looked like a niche ascendancy gimmick if preferred.

Invoker /

Unbound Avatar - It felt underwhelming. Trinity seems to be doing better in comparison.

Protect Me from Harm - Not really sure if anyone's even using this (since 0.1).

Invoker overall might feel a little bit mundane on future leagues with its current ascendancy format: Its main highlight is either go Ice or Lightning, plus go crit ele if desired. The other is the ES boost, and other than that, there's not much room for external or potential build varieties.

Chonk on the other hand.. welp, by the time the Shadow comes into play, this Ascendancy might feel a little bit dead, esp if the Shadow would do better as a potential Chaos melee class.

LAST, final Note: I've realized that the Monk lacks the "Increased damage if Ailment is applied" nodes << which is present on the other classes. On this league, I tried getting those nodes (from the ranger area down to Druid - a painful process tbh) and noticed that they are very effective for the case of Ice / Lightning build / skills of the Monk. Hopefully, this would be considered on future leagues? - and ALSO: is it possible to have the 'Increased damage for 2-handed weapon' nodes as well? I also tried this and surprisingly, it compliments the overall skills of the Monk :)