Golden Bell is a Channel. You can’t use any skills while channeling.
Anyways @OP, I’m also looking to make a Monk. Most likely, I’m going to make a bruiser-esque monk.
Lets start from the top,
Cleric
I am not a fan of going into the cleric tree after the initial, forced, cleric1. Safety Zone is a single tile area for its effect, making you stationary. In a situation with small numbers, I can see it being amazing. However, in dungeons vs. a lot of adds, it’s not going to hold up too well. Divine Might got a nerf, and is only worth going into for 1pt now, and fade is also worth one point. However, I would just look for someone that’s going an actual healer if you want to utilize those skills. For a self-sustaining monk, I don’t think it’s worth.
Priest
If you go priest, you need to go at least till Circle2. It’s more Bruiser oriented than the other routes. You get a Flat DEX buff from Monstrance(why you only put 1pt into it apparently, because it doesn’t scale with skill lvl), a %Phys.Def buff from Aspersion, and On-hit flat dmg buffs from Blessing, and Sacrament. On top of that, Revive acts as a great survivability card, allowing for x-sec of invuln. after reaching 0%HP, and Mass Heal is a 20% max hp AoE heal, on a 30sec CD. Overall, probably the best bruiser route to go.
If you chose to go Circle3, Stone Skin offers a buff to Block Chance. Apparently, only really useful to shield-users. So, Clerics, and Swordsman. Otherwise, it’s pretty much useless.
Krivis
Krivis is really focused towards DPS, with buffs from Stigma, and Zalciai. Otherwise, it’s focused towards Fire.Res, Hp.Rec, and -Acc for enemies on their Torch, and increasing the # of buffs your allies can have. Def. seems to have more in the way of damage, than Bruiser capabilities, but does offer some sustain with torch. It’s just torch is stationary.
Paladin
Finally, a physical damage spell! As well as, a nice elemental Res. aura, and a great HP.Regen aura. Between Priest3 and Pally1, it really comes down to what you want Sustain, and ele.res? Or +5lvl cap on priest skills+ maybe picking up stone skin.
Sadhu
This is allows you to use your abilities at range. Prakriti also allows you to have mobility to either gap-close, or gtfo. Doesn’t have anything in the way for sustain, but helps with mobi., Damage, and debuffing enemies.
These are my Monk Builds that i’m currently trying to decide between.