Small QoL Improvements For Monk That Are Easy To Implement

[MrArca9]

There's been a lot of discussion on bettering monk, from changing TK completely to modifying anatman. However those changes would likely need extensive play testing before implementing. Here are two changes for monk that could help immensely without requiring extensive testing.


Adding the following to Perfect Balance:
Grants the opo-opo form at the end of its duration

Adding the following to Form Shift:
Refreshes twin snakes timer when used under the raptor form


Why I feel these are good, but not breaking:
Perfect balance ending formless always gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I either have to use bootshine without a guaranteed crit hit, or use dragon kick without it granting leaden fist.
Form shift refreshing the twin snakes buff is huge for downtime between mob pulls. This will aid in not having to refresh twin snakes EVERY wall to wall pull. Reward the player for maintaining their form.

[Shurrikhan]

The first can be a pretty huge buff, honestly -- one I'd like, but perhaps excessive nonetheless if given without any compensation.

Personally, I'd go for it, Anatman granting GL per GCD (instead of per server tick, for sake of consistency), and Brotherhood applying to all damage but would accept a nerf to Bootshine / Leaden Fist or whatnot to compensate.

[SpeckledBurd]

The Perfect Balance change would definitely smooth out the gameplay issue that dropping into a formless stage causes, but it's also unambiguously a sizeable buff. It basically replaces a Formless Dragon Kick (200 potency) with an in form Leaden Bootshine (~450 potency) every 2 minutes.

[Shurrikhan]

The Perfect Balance change would definitely smooth out the gameplay issue that dropping into a formless stage causes, but it's also unambiguously a sizeable buff. It basically replaces a Formless Dragon Kick (200 potency) with an in form Leaden Bootshine (~450 potency) every 2 minutes.

Then, is that QoL + numeric buff worth a roughly equal numeric nerf elsewhere? And which one would you recommend?

[SpeckledBurd]

Then, is that QoL + numeric buff worth a roughly equal numeric nerf elsewhere? And which one would you recommend?

There's so few sources of purely single target potency on Monk other than GCDs and autoattacks at the moment that the only real options are like, True Strike, Snap Punch, or Twin Snakes by a token amount (probably like 5-10 potency) such that it adds up to bout 200-250 over two minutes. Most other nerfs would cause a weird interaction somewhere (IE, nerf Autoattacks and GL4 becomes the undesirable stance so we're back to Fists of Fire full time, Forbidden Chakra is RNG so it isn't a reliable means of nerfing the job).

If the devs implemented this I wonder if they even would see it as a buff, they seem to perceive PB as strictly a utility cooldown rather than a means of gaining additional Leaden Bootshines. It does invite the alternative option of just killing Leaden Bootshine as a concept entirely, bringing back a blunt debuff since we're the only job that uses it, and redistributing the potency from Leaden Boot across everything else as close to evenly as possible such that an additional Opo-Opo move wouldn't be a significant gain.

[Shurrikhan]

There's so few sources of purely single target potency on Monk other than GCDs and autoattacks at the moment that the only real options are like, True Strike, Snap Punch, or Twin Snakes by a token amount (probably like 5-10 potency) such that it adds up to bout 200-250 over two minutes. Most other nerfs would cause a weird interaction somewhere (IE, nerf Autoattacks and it GL4 becomes the undesirable stance and we're back to Fists of Fire full time, Forbidden Chakra is RNG so it isn't a reliable means of nerfing the job).

If the devs implemented this I wonder if they even would see it as a buff, they seem to perceive PB as strictly a utility cooldown rather than a means of gaining additional Leaden Bootshines. It does invite the alternative option of just killing Leaden Bootshine as a concept entirely, bringing back a blunt debuff since we're the only job that uses it, and redistributing the potency from Leaden Boot across everything else as close to evenly as possible such that an additional Opo-Opo move wouldn't be a significant gain.

That I'd also be fine with, especially if it would give us a competitive option of Double Boot at medium to high SkS, ideally at mild benefit above a certain SkS threshold and mild loss (equatable to that of a particularly small positional bonus) below that threshold.

I'd just like for DK not to affect DoT damage in any way, just as before, thus given a grace GCD on Demolish, from which one could only gain a pittance (previously 7 potency) anyways.

Double Boot/Double True have been rotational options since ARR at higher SkSs, though at minor enough benefit that even a single strong ability and an autoattack would nearly negate the would-be net benefits. That closeness between the two options offered us more positional freedom via rotational freedom. It'd be good to have some of that back in place of simply nullifying positionals two-thirds of the time.

[MrArca9]

Then, is that QoL + numeric buff worth a roughly equal numeric nerf elsewhere? And which one would you recommend?

I would say because of the bonus Dragon Kick gives, you could reduce it's potency slightly and it wouldn't effect overall flow since we still need to use for every bootshine.