I agree. Monk is currently in the 'lol' position that drg and pup used to enjoy. They are so pathetically weak that I am not even sure how to fix the job. Surely, giving Monk "Accuracy Bonus V" and decent weapon skills would help but it doesn't fix the actual problem: Mnk, Drk, Drg, Sam and War: are so pure as DD that they can't do anything else. This is an inhering problem of FFXI when it comes to job balance and party dynamics. Jobs are too specialized and it is really hard to 'share' positions without being bold a break something with the job dynamics.

You can see that there are 4 positions in FFXI: Healer, Tank, DD and Support. Jobs that can do only 1 thing really well tend to be the bangwagon of the month while jack-of-all-trait jobs tend to stay somewhere in the middle - I will get this guy if I can't get the specialists.

Attempts to change this dynamic of DD, Support, Healer and Tank were half-baked or just didn't turn out well. Ninja as evasion tank, War as a meat tank, Rdm as a front line DD, Dnc as a healer/tank/DD...etc.

What I would suggest is to allow jobs to actually go into a full blown "Stance" job abilities that can actually fulfill the a particular job into a position. Every job needs to be able to fulfill 2-3 of the 4 roles. Sch worked out well as a healer but Whm got threaten because Sch was stealing the only role Whm had: Healer. If Whm could function well as a support buff job with a 'Stance' job ability then there wouldn't be a problem.

However, SE needs to prevent certain amount of abuse with the "Stance" and should not be afraid to buff a job to match or even slightly stronger than others. You don't want a WAR to switch from attacking into tanking mode in a flash - that would defeat the purpose. I would like to see Warrior with extremely strong defense that can block/parry most attacks similar to a Pld but unable to deliver smashing damage. Or perhaps a WHM with full-on I can cure myself from everything and just tank everything as long as his MP holds. I would love to see a Monk curing and maybe buffing a party like a Bard does with his Chi abilities but that would make him unable to attack.