MCH and Monk - Why is underplayed?

People don't play MCH because it has a really high skill floor combined with being super vulnerable to latency, that and in my opinion the gameplay is extremely clunky and hectic in the worst possible ways. MNK I feel people just burned out on considering how little it has changed, but it's still fun to play, so not sure why I don't see it more often.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Capn_Goggles

People don't play MCH because it has a really high skill floor combined with being super vulnerable to latency, that and in my opinion the gameplay is extremely clunky and hectic in the worst possible ways. MNK I feel people just burned out on considering how little it has changed, but it's still fun to play, so not sure why I don't see it more often.

---

Hardly anyone used to play it in 2.0, nothing changed for them in 3.0 or 4.0 so of course no new players would want to use it.
Honestly Monk is such a disappointing job right now, while everything else is advancing and improving, they sit still gaining gimmicks like Tackle Mastery instead of something exciting.

I will be a monk forever

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Exiled_Tonberry

Monk's unpopularity simply comes down to it being underwhelming, really.
Its just so....bori to look at, and aesthetically they have both going for them against icon jobs like DRG and SAM.

It doesn't help that they haven't changed since ARR.
While DRG had more combos, abilities and mechanics added to them and Ninja had their Ninjutsu tightened up and things added to them, Monk is exactly the same. No new combos, no new mechanics. Just boring oGCDs that you press every now and then.

---

Would take Monk aesthetics over gun-fu any day.

I feel like the main issue with Monk is that it seemingly lacks any notable surprise, depth, dynamic macrorotation, etc., until playing at very high levels or at very high Attack Speeds.

Similarly, Machinist's issues stem mostly from just how dependent it is on all CDs remaining synced up not just for damage, but for functionality, how at odds different parts of that toolkit are, and how esoteric their "best use" styles seem to be without a parser and literal hours of testing, practice, testing, practice, and yet more testing, or the ability to reasonably math everything out.

Both suffer from bloat, but at least Monk's is bloat due to the skill being highly situational. Machinist's is rotational.

MCH is highly dependant on all your timers aligning (along with the stars and the planets) to make the most of its DPS. This is further cemented with the overheat mechanic and flamethrower. Every minute (or so) you need to flamethrowever > overheat > blast all your CD and WS in the most efficient manner to maximise DPS. Failure is harsh on MCH. Death and mechanics can be your downfall as it will mess up your timings. The Job however is very flashy and I love the aesthetic. In fact I found it a joy to play until I got Flamethrower....then it requires a lot of practice...and prayer that your latency isnt so bad...

MNK is still okay but underwhelming. The core bits of monk havent changed since ARR and there are only some CDs and QOL changes related to maintaining its 3 GL stacks. Brotherhood is not really much of a game changer and is still outclassed by trick attack/battle litany (which have been strong since 2.0/3.0. Given NIN and DRG are so strong in the two melee role slots, MNK is kinda left in the dust. Not to say that you can't clear content with MNK. It's output is very strong as long as you have as much uptime as possible on the boss...not hitting things is fatal to monks. Losing your stacks isn't quite as bad as it used to be (with perfect balance changes and Riddle of earth if you get lucky) but losing yours GL stacks still sucks a lot for monk.

Can't speak for MCH because I've never played it but I like MNK to a certain extent. I don't care about raiding, metas or the comps that people keep bringing up because it really takes the fun out of things. Play what you like and enjoy the game!

But anyway, MNK is a fast-paced, high damaging DPS class that relies on positionals. It's not a bad class to play but it's rotation gets a bit boring after a while. Each positional combo has a basic 1-2-3 combo that you can mix up a bit by moving to the side or behind the enemy to maximize damage. There's a few buffs and self heals as well as oCDs that you can throw in in-between combos and AoEs that make pulls a piece of cake.

Overall, the only gripe I have with it is that it just gets boring after a while (to me at least) and the tackle mastery is kind of stupid. Some people may not want to play a guy/girl who "just punches things" compared to a spell-slinging sword wielder or a high-flying spearman either. It could come down to aesthetics as well. *shrug*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phileas

MNK is still okay but underwhelming. The core bits of monk havent changed since ARR and there are only some CDs and QOL changes related to maintaining its 3 GL stacks.

---

I don't know that this is entirely the problem. I look at Dragoon and can see your point as the rotation on that job has become pretty complex, but then I look at the rotation for ninja, and the core rotation for that job has only had the addition of Armor Crush since ARR, and people still play that job.

Monk does need something interesting to shake up its rotation, but doing so would be a pretty massive overhaul, and I'm not confident in the ability of Square to do it without breaking the job and making it entirely unplayable. But we'll see how that goes come 5.0, I guess....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

...suffer from bloat, but at least Monk's is bloat due to the skill being highly situational.

---

Something that SB was meant to fix.

I main MNK and I find it thoroughly enjoyable. Everything else just seems bland when it comes to melee with the exception of Dragoon.

Another issue with the MCH, it's if you died, good luck to make your come back because of the heatgauge and the CDs of FT and the one that give 50% HG.