Footwork was a fun ability, but it's never been particularly useful.
It has been for a short time, mostly around the lv80 cap, when paired with certain combinations of gear and an OAX h2h, it could turn MNK into what possibly was the strongest DD at the time.

Before explaining how to "fix" this ability, we should find it a new purpose.
Footwork shouldn't be a JA we use whenever it's up to maximize our damage, but something we activate situationally when we see fit.
My idea concerning this is that Footwork should be an ability that turns MNK into a 2hands weapon job, at the cost of a slightly lower overall damage output.
Slow, single attacks on each attack turn, that do a lot of damage.
This perspective is similar to the original one SE probably intended when they created the JA, but it's clearer, and of course it creates a possible incoherence with the use of OAX weapons: if you're supposed to have a JA with slower and stronger attacks, it doesn't make sense to try to multiply those attacks thanks to OAX mechanics.
And tbh I think SE never intended OAX weapons to work during footwork.


Proposed adjustements:
  • When the JA is activated, the job gains the benefit a 2handed weapon job would get (i.e. STR>att and DEX>acc conversion ratio, use of Hasso, use of Last Resort etc)
  • "Occasionally Attacks X times" stats on the main weapon won't be reflected in kick attack rate
  • "Kick attacks +" stats (currently present on legs, earring and neck pieces, possibly more in the future) gets converted into +Kick base damage, at a 1:1 ratio. The same happens to Kick Attacks from Job Traits (currently up to 20).
  • No other weapon skill will be useable aside from Dragon Kick and Tornado Kick.

This would bring us to a base damage of 144 (+20 from traits, +10 from gear), which is not broken but is a considerable amount.
The number of attacks on each round will be reduced but they will do more damage.
The delay would be fixed to 480 with no other way than haste to reduce it.
In addition MNK would be able to get full benefit from /SAM and /DRK (future fixes) subjobs, not to forget the additional accuracy and attack (furtherly increased by the % bonus from footwork) granted by the 1:1,5 conversion rate for STR and DEX.
The overall damage resulting from this would be inferior to that of using normal H2H, but the difference will be much smaller than it is today, and in some rare circumstances it could be actually better.