Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described that support overriding a beam monitoring pattern for control channel transmissions based on channel conditions between a user equipment and a base station. A base station may select a beam monitoring pattern for transmitting control channel transmissions, which may include a pattern in which two or more beams are used for control channel transmissions. In the event that a first beam of the beams used in the beam monitoring pattern meets certain metrics, the use of one or more additional beams according to the beam monitoring pattern may be overridden and transmissions continued using the first beam. The metrics for continuing use of the first beam may include channel quality metrics, a number of consecutive successful transmissions using the first beam, one or more other metrics, or any combination thereof.