Criticism on Stormblood's Monk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Waaltar

Is Steel Peak completely pointless and/or useless now? I can't come up with a reason to put it in a rotation or even keep it on the hotbar. Am I missing something?

As near as I can figure...leaving it there as a form-independent instant 150 atk with 40s cooldown is maybe supposed to be the replacement for haymaker? Haymaker was much better for solo play because it had no cooldown; you could use it whenever you dodged an attack, and you'd get a bunch of dodges with featherfoot or against low level mobs and you could spam it. I mean you still didn't really need to use it, but at least it made sense. This new steel peak with 40s cooldown just seems pointless to me.

---

It's free 150 pot attack and you should use it whenever it's ready, it's very much useful. Just not as good as it used to be.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Waaltar

Is Steel Peak completely pointless and/or useless now? I can't come up with a reason to put it in a rotation or even keep it on the hotbar. Am I missing something?

---

Steel Peak is an OGCD - it has its own independent cooldown. You're supposed to use it between the GCD (shared cooldown) attacks, not instead of. Look at some rotations or something online to see how people use it. As a monk you should be doing 1 GCD (e.g. bootshine, true strike, snap punch etc) and while waiting for the gcd to come back you use an ogcd ability (non shared cooldown) e.g. internal release, elixir field, steel peak etc.

Guys to be honest. Despite the lost of potency, I don't actually see where Monk actually lost DPS. Im a lvl 70 monk now with a ilvl of about 282 and I'm hitting as hard as ever. I don't think monk dps was ever really that dependent on high potency but in overall damage buff in general, and we have plenty of that. I believe that if you use ACT in a party and find that monks are doing more damage then SAM it would be because SAM damage is based on the potency of its attacks whereas monks overall damage is based on its buffs to all its attacks. Its true we will never hit a 42k on a single skill but SAM will never auto attack as hard as a basic GCD either, nor will they ever combo 14k to 16k hits back to back to back.

So yeah, just relax

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dmon121kill

Guys to be honest. Despite the lost of potency, I don't actually see where Monk actually lost DPS. Im a lvl 70 monk now with a ilvl of about 282 and I'm hitting as hard as ever. I don't think monk dps was ever really that dependent on high potency but in overall damage buff in general, and we have plenty of that. I believe that if you use ACT in a party and find that monks are doing more damage then SAM it would be because SAM damage is based on the potency of its attacks whereas monks overall damage is based on its buffs to all its attacks. Its true we will never hit a 42k on a single skill but SAM will never auto attack as hard as a basic GCD either, nor will they ever combo 14k to 16k hits back to back to back.

So yeah, just relax

---

Most of the criticism (if any) isn't about doing big numbers, I'm fairly certain most MNKs don't play MNKs to see massive crits and such. It's about the stuff we got in relation to the stuff we lost and the fact we still have several skills that are absolutely useless and how all of this affects the feeling of playing MNK.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dmon121kill

Snip

---

Well, we still have a good(ish) DPS :) the thing is, SAM and casters have a better DPS than us now (trust me, if you find 'good' SAMs in a fight, they will certainly push higher DPS than you). But, tbh, I don't care if MNK aren't on top of the DPS list anymore, we have now a 'small' raid utility and a good sync with BRD/DRG/SCH, wich is what we MNKs were asking for.

I wouldn't be so sure. Lets break it down into potency. SAM strongest attack is about 820 potency, but SAM has no buffs expect the %50 potency buff. MNK has Forbidden Chakra at a potency of 220 which is extremely low compared to SAM strongest attack. Looking at this you would think well shit, SAM is beast and monk is weak. But that's not true at all. By the time SAM dish out that one attack, Monks would have possible dished out on average 3 forbidden chakras at a collective potency of 660. Not as high as 820, but if you are being a good monk you are keeping up your buffs and debuffs which are an additional 50% increase in damage. That 660 becomes 990. With SAM however that 820 can get that 50% potency and become 1230. however, if you play you rotation right with your monk and your raid party are on point, you can get all 3 FC with the riddle of fire buff and pump that 990 up to a potential 1287.

Keep in mind that monks buff applies to all of their skills and auto attacks.

Well, talking about potencies is something nice. But, you're forgetting one thing, we're dependant on RNG now, and SAM's not. You can see more than 200DPS differences between two runs where you handle the same mechanics mostly because of your luck on your chakras...
Ok now, do you know a famous parser everyone is using ? (ACT to not mention it) Cause with this tool, you can see actual DPS, and not some basic theorycraft upon potencies.
Then, on Susano Ex with this comp (WAR/WAR/SCH/WHM/DRG/MNK/SAM/RDM), wich is a nice comp for a MNK. Having my Demo up all the time, loosing GL3 only 1 time before sword phase ( you can't avoid it). Doing most of my positionnals correctly, AND having some luck on my chakras charging during BH, the SAM of our group was still higher than me easily. I will add i'm not the best MNK ever, but I'm sure I know my job.
So, as I said, we still have a good DPS, but, the truth is that we're not the single target top DPS anymore (sorry but almost everyone agree on SAM being top DPS in the whole forum). Even the SSS dummy's HP are showing this if you need any more facts.

you're arguing that due to Mechanics SAM is higher DPS not that monk can't keep up. Ok, I get that argument. So this is basically an SMN vs BLM type of argument where it's solely situational. I can agree with that actually. I will admit that dealing with new mechanics is rough on our sensitive DPS requirements, but that's just a matter of adjustment. This, in my opinion, makes the MNK class more difficult to manage in these highly active fights, but much more rewarding. And I'm sure ACT measure DPS just as good as any other app. Hell, aggro will tell you what DPS is doing the most damage at that time. Haven't you learned not to follow the trend? I believe at one time everyone was saying that Dragoon was top DPS. Then NIN when they 1st arrived. Truth be told, all of this is new and there is not enough adjustment period to determine what DPS class is on top.

So just wait and see. I have yet to come across a SAM that out dpsed me. But, who knows.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dmon121kill

So just wait and see. I have yet to come across a SAM that out dpsed me. But, who knows.

---

Well, you were ilvl282 with your MNK this morning, so I guess you don't have THAT much experience against some SAM outside of roulettes...

EDIT : I mean, don't get me wrong, I truly enjoy MNK and its DPS. But I truly think it will be hard for us to keep up with SAM at the moment. (as much as it was for DRG and NIN to keep up with us on 3.5)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fireselecta

Well, you were ilvl282 with your MNK this morning, so I guess you don't have THAT much experience against some SAM outside of roulettes...

EDIT : I mean, don't get me wrong, I truly enjoy MNK and its DPS. But I truly think it will be hard for us to keep up with SAM at the moment. (as much as it was for DRG and NIN to keep up with us on 3.5)

---

yea, i agree. I saw someone do 40k+ damage (single hit) with SAM, and I do not think that we can keep up to that as an MNK. however MNK is not bad still.

they say it is possible to achieve 4.5k+ dps with it... so there is that.

While I don't think MNK is as non-viable as it was in 3.0, I completely agree with OP. The class abilities contradict each other and nothing in Stormblood builds on anything pre-Heavensward. It's just gutted to promote this overdependency on chakra and party-makeup. It's forced "synergy" at best, half-assed development at worst.

Tackle Mastery alone feels tacked on, and Deep Meditation feels reworked to ensure MNK can't always depend on it since the way many, including myself, asked for it to work, functions as it should in PVP (every coeurl form move or reapplication of GL3 builds 1 chakra).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sarutobi_Daritobi

yea, i agree. I saw someone do 40k+ damage (single hit) with SAM, and I do not think that we can keep up to that as an MNK. however MNK is not bad still.

they say it is possible to achieve 4.5k+ dps with it... so there is that.

---

40k crit is an outlier and not the norm. The highest I myself have hit was 32k and that was one time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Leonus

40k crit is an outlier and not the norm. The highest I myself have hit was 32k and that was one time.

---

Nah man, haven't you read all the other Forum posts about how strong Samurai is? I'm only level 62 and every GCD I use is a 40k crit

/s

Real talk. I've yet to lose to a Samurai on my Monk. I was completely wrong about this job, we're extremely strong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by edgefusion

We've definitely lost our top spot on the chart. If this is to be believed we're not even 2.....or 3, or 4, or 5. In Heavensward people didn't want us because although we had the personal DPS we didn't bring the raid utility. In Stormblood we don't have the personal DPS and we don't have enough raid utility.

---

This. We have neither. I wouldn't mind letting go of pure dps and leave that spot for SAM as long as we get the promised Raid utility. As things currently stand, we got neither. Our DPS took a massive hit compared to other melees, as we only took nerfs in them and the loss of DoTs that helped us regulate our stance timers without losing GCDs and without clipping DoTs and buffs. I know all classes lost stuff, but those that did, got buffs in other things, whereas we didn't. Mathmatically we are inferior to how we were in heavensward... and this would be FINE if it was the price for actual raid utility.

As Brotherhood stands, the concept is nice mind you; but 5% in a short aoe to PHYSICAL dmg only every 90 seconds for 15 seconds is a joke. Not just from the 'buff' it is, but from the lack of affecting the monk itself. The chakras only proc from weaponskills too, instead from abilities. It would be fine if we got overlfow of chakra... we won't lose dps from too much of it. We will from too little.

We are no utility and no raid buffing. It blows and needs to be looked at. And don't even get me started on the 'new abilities'...

Since i have gone through MSQ as mnk and hit 70 the only things i can think of that could make a possitive change for monk; If we could take all we get from tackle mastery and give it to steel peak, Reason being steel peak doesn't feel like it does much anymore other than damage (which i don't have a problem with) and it feel like most if not all our utility is all on our gap closer which already has one good purpose.

I would have preferred a similar design to BRD and their Ballads than what MNK currently got.
If Fist had been altered to change the way certain abilities acted, instead of just Shoulder Tackle, it would have made for a much more interesting playstyle. Things like making Arm of the Destroyer apply something akin to Shadowflare or Doton while under the effects of Fist of Earth, having One Ilm Punch guarantee a Chakra Stack under Fist of Wind, etc would have made for a much more rewarding playstyle. Alter Tackle Mastery to Form Mastery that makes reduces the Cooldown on Fist Stances to 1.5 Seconds as well as unlocks these altered abilities so that we could change stances within the GCD period of our abilities.

Riddles need a complete overhaul.
Earth should be an AoE group damage reduction on casting with GL refresh as a result of damage taken
Wind should be added and grants a Skill/Spell Speed or a reduction in oGCDs
Fire should just be a flat Damage buff for the MNK without the slow effect.
Brotherhood just apply the buff to everyone. Casters, the MNK themselves, everyone.

I really dislike SE' way of balancing things.
They can either go way overboard, or so little it doesn't matter. There's no middle point with them.

We asked for Monk utility, because everyone at the time offered it in spades.
So they give it to us, at the cost of our entire identity and still not enough utility to matter. It only effects physical damage dealers, not even yourself, 5%, 15seconds (which I would like to mention is the exact same duration and buffing power 3.0 AST dished out. You know, the too weak version of AOE balance?). No one's going to want this...Trick Attack effects everyone, Battle Litany effects everyone, WHY does brotherhood only work for physical damage dealers?!

How long would it take for SE to even talk about the issues that people have with these classes?

Steel Peak is like some kind of non-cancerous tumor just dangling off the job now. Yeah it isn't hurting anyone but it's there and really ugly to look at. Barely more than a bootshine once a minute for no reason.

Think one ilm punch is for aoe stuns after aotd into rock breaker

Still super salty about it. Though I'm still gonna level my Monk.... in case they fix it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Orbiaus

Think one ilm punch is for aoe stuns after aotd into rock breaker

---

one ilm punch is single target, and unless you are on perfect balance, you can't stun multiple targets because is locked behind raptor form

I think Monk is okay as it is, besides Tackle Mastery (of which the purpose is an enigma through and through) and the restriction of Brotherhood to physical damage only. I should mention that I did a 4-man run yesterday with WAR, RDM and AST, and when I popped brotherhood, the WAR gave me two Chakras a few times. Yes, there were also one or two times that I got hardly any Chakras, but for the most part I did. Granted, it might correlate with the fact that he pulled huge and did a lot of AoE (I haven't really checked how AoEs influence the procs of Brotherhood and Deep Meditation), but it was still enough. Had Brotherhood given the buff indiscriminately, I would have gotten like twice the amount of FB, making the DPS over the top. So, in essence, I think Brotherhood is somewhat fine. Although I would appreciate it if at least the damage buff of +5% was given to everyone (maybe including the Monk themselves) to give us at least some viable raid utility besides a melee heavy composition.

What I have seen quite a few times here in this forum are suggestions/demands on how to change the Riddles, like reducing the damage increase on RoF but getting rid of the slow down. This is a valid point imo, and I can see why people want it. Me personally, I don't mind the small breather that gives me nice burst damage. Or RoE's refresh is bad (which I agree with!).

What I cannot agree with is people suggesting that RoW should give us a speed buff. I understand where the people are coming from, but imo, I don't need to go faster EVEN MORE. I'm plenty fast on my own (currently 1,99 CD). And not only that, but it would lead to design and gameplay flaws (/challenges):

The Riddles work by putting you in the respective stance, which makes sense (and personally, I like it that way). Hence, RoW would put us in Fist of Wind. This means that Fist of Wind would need a new effect (e.g. increased skillspeed or damage) to become valid. If not, RoW would give us skillspeed but reduced damage since we're not in Fist of Fire anymore. This seems like a bad trade-off since it's supposed to be a buff, and not something that, in effect, doesn't change the damage output. So either, the new buff of Fist of Wind, too, is +5% damage, which would make a distinction between Fist of Wind and Fist of Fire obsolete (though some people have called for getting rid of different fists altogether). OR it is something else that would balance the lack of these +5% damage, since again, you can't do RoW without being in Fist of Wind. However, giving us a Riddle that increases speed ON TOP of a Stance that increases speed seems overkill and unnecessary. And nothing feasible or not highly complex besides increasing skill speed or damage comes to mind (or into consideration), tbh.

Assuming SE gave a new effect to Fist of Wind, it would beg the question: Why would Monk have two different offensive stances? It would make sense if FF14 was a game that gives us variation and customization on how to play a job, but that's not what this game is about. And frankly, it's what gave them the chance to make a decent game because they could allocate resources to other things besides class design. Having two offensive stances would require a ton of rework of the whole monk rotation and design, which imo it doesn't need, and would make it highly (and unnecessarily) complex.

Of course one could make the Riddles be buffs that work without the bindings to the respective stances. This would be a valid idea, but honestly, just plain boring and uninspired.

What they could do, however, is this:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SargentToughie

Riddle of Wind could be our GL3 refresh, either restoring it to maximum duration upon usage, or freezing the countdown for an arbitrary amount of time, or until an arbitrary action is taken... Maybe something like throwing it on a 60 second cooldown, and letting it freeze your GL timer in place for 10 seconds or something? It would massively increase flexibility, and basically erase that frustrating feeling in a dungeon run when the tank's just a bit too slow and your stacks drop in between packs.

---

This would solve a lot of problems:
1) the idea of the Riddles putting us into the respective stance would still work. You would switch into RoW and Fist of Wind whenever you don't need to be in your damage stance or a little before you receive damage, for which you would use RoE to refresh GL3 to its maximum duration again. This would give us another/more advanced way of refreshing/keeping GL3 up.
2) we could get rid of Tackle Mastery (which, in essence, is synonym to Riddle of Wind anyways)
3) all the stances would have a specific purpose: Fire offense, Earth defense, Wind movement and GL3 upkeep
4) the fear of losing GL3 while the tank pulls a lot of mobs is mostly gone
5) it wouldn't change the current design or gameplay for Monks at all since you would only replace one (useless) trait with a (useful) active skill that you only use in special cases/outside of battle anyways
6) it would finally give a purpose to the movement speed increase of Fist of Wind: GL3 is frozen, so you want to move faster to get to your desired monster to start your combos again.

Yeah. Riddle of Wind should be an ability and have some sort of effect on either GL or Tornado Kick. Tackle Mastery... As I've said before, I'd rather see it just be good. Maybe Earth be a bind (No dispel on damage) or wind deal no damage for a huge cd reduction. It'd fit with Riddle of Wind helping our GL.

Really, just too many useless abilities. Just make them viable/reasonable in some way, SE. Our damage is fine, just a wee bit more tuning of overniche skills would go a long way for Monks of every level.

Riddle of Earth: This should lock your current GL stacks for ~15 seconds allowing you to actually make use of Tornado Kick without losing the stacks. Give it a weaker damage reduction component for the party to stack with Mantra and make your healers happy.

Riddle of Fire: I like this as it is - allows for double weaving and does obscene damage. I don't want a boring monotonous buff like BFB that's click and forget. Also acts as a TP regen.

Brotherhood: Visually stunning. Make it affect us or allow the 5% damage buff to affect all types of damage. If anything we should be giving Direct Hit as a party buff with this skill.

Tackle Mastery: Nice idea, poorly implemented.

TL;DR - Needs tweaks to make already existing skills work out better or be usable (i.e. Tornado Kick, means to gain/maintain GL stacks, party/self buffs). I'm 100% for having a more supportive melee class that flourishes off the brotherhood theme.

I like that now that one-ilm punch is stupid you can't do anything against stuff like the new hunt mob with the shock/ice spikes. Was one of the coolest features of MNK, was also funny in PvP before it was a cell phone game.

Here's another suggestion (which I'm sure has been made, but I still can't stress enough):

Our form durations. Those need to be aligned with the new GL duration. I've already lost GL3 a handful of times because I had 1-2 seconds on it, went to refresh on the target... only to have my form drop prematurely. Maybe I need more time to adjust to this "new" Monk but that's a simple QoL that I don't see causing any sort of imbalance. It's like when MCH's ammo had a duration for, apparently, no reason.

IMO remove the form requirement of 1ilm punch and give it a cooldown shorter then the average stun.
Remove tackle mastery and replace it with a trait that upon gl3 refresh a 10% chance of allowing us to use TK for free.
Bake the effect of riddle of wind into FoW and increase the window that we can use the second shoulder tackle so it's viable for add phases. But honestly just give me the first two suggestions and I'd be perfectly happy with where monks are right now.

First off, remove Fists. I don't get why they want to push stance dancing when there's an obvious one you should always be in. Wind has zero purpose, Earth is pretty situational, and Fire is what you should always be in. Make Fire a trait like how Ninja poisons were
Change Riddle of Earth to give 10% damage reduction for 10 seconds and instead of refreshing you GL3, you cross-counter any attack with an automatic haymaker if the enemy is targetable and within range for 10 seconds. Using another riddle cancels the effect
Change Riddle of Wind to give a free Tornado Kick for 10 seconds and gives a mini sprint. I love Tornado Kick and want to use it more. Using another riddle cancels the effect
Keep Riddle of Fire the same. Using another riddle cancels the effect
Change Tackle Mastery to have a 50% chance to boost the potency of Forbidden Chakra back to 320 or just 25%

Truer words have not been spoken- we had this expansion absolutely stolen from under us, so they could give to a class catering to casual players, so that they can derp out high numbers with easy playstyle SAM. While thankful for the 5% damage increase of Brotherhood, we took such a hit on the our base damage it's ridiculous.


[Now, for those of you who want to moan and complain about the lack of line breaks, wow- why does everyone act like whiny brats when online? Please grow up, you're reading this online, with either a phone or PC, both of which offers an easy scrolling mechanism so you can literally move it line by line if reading is far too daunting a task for you. If THAT proves too difficult, follow word by word with your finger like you did in school. It's like you've never picked up a book before in your life, I got through the post just fine, as did many others. I almost never log on to comment but some people need to be remindeed that their shit does, in fact, stink.]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LilithThanheim

Truer words have not been spoken- we had this expansion absolutely stolen from under us, so they could give to a class catering to casual players, so that they can derp out high numbers with easy playstyle SAM.

---

I'm going to contest you on one of your points, and I'm saying this as a PLD main and someone who was very much looking into turning my secondary from DRG to MNK near the end of HW. SAM is a lot like BLM; it's easy/simple to get into and start learning, but it has a lot of CD juggling and planning to really churn out its massive DPS consistently. If you're going to gripe about SAM's big numbers, you may as well gripe about BLM. Simple on paper, difficult in practice. You have to make sure your Sen don't overlap, you have to make sure certain buffs don't fall off, you have to make sure that your dot doesn't fall off, you have your Kenki management, and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0SaUWg9NSQ

There's more that goes into generating the DPS than you're giving credit for.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Varathael

I'm going to contest you on one of your points, and I'm snip

There's more that goes into generating the DPS than you're giving credit for.

---

ITs indeed not as retarded as some people make it out to be, its just easier than the rest and the rewward is also higher than the rest.

Monk is both harder and less rewarding.

Oh trust me, I agree. MNK, DRG, and MCH have to really work hard to generate what DPS numbers they do get, and they're on the lower end, which is honestly quite ridiculous. I'm immensely disappointed by how much DRG, my secondary from ARR through HW, was gutted by SB.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Varathael

Oh trust me, I agree. MNK, DRG, and MCH have to really work hard to generate what DPS numbers they do get, and they're on the lower end, which is honestly quite ridiculous. I'm immensely disappointed by how much DRG, my secondary from ARR through HW, was gutted by SB.

---

This most succinctly captures my sentiment as MNK and is the core idea SE needs to consider when deciding what to do. Being knocked off top personal DPS is fine as someone has to exist there and it is SE's arbitrary choice what that should be. But fights are getting very chaotic even when they're 'easy' for other jobs that can move and stand just about anywhere. If we perform great and still don't come out very close to the top it's quite dissatisfying. I could not try hard and squeeze out the same DPS? 5% damage boost every 90 seconds doesn't seem to quite cut it for the increased difficultly.

I agree with mostly everything here too... MNK main during HW and when stormblood comes out the new thing that's supposed to enhance the way it plays sort of falls flat-- riddles and tackles!

I like RoF... but the other 2, nearly useless/very very situational! Definitely needs to be reworked... and Tornado kick, come on! Please be useful!

Otherwise the job is perfect, runs so smooth. They nailed the class's core playstylr right at the beginning... But every day since it gets further and further away from being polished

I jumped ship otherwise SB preorder would have been a waste. Monk had a nice song with deep and meaningful lyrics that only a niche group bothered with. Sam stole mnks song remixed it and went platinum..Is how i feel.:(

Consider just how the dps comparisons rarely actually mention MNK, in these forums! It's always like, NIN, DRG and SAM xD

THAT is how much relevance we have as a class. Sad, but it is a truth laid bare across these forums, and clearly on SE's notion of what MNK should get or be or play as.

I will still play it, cuz i love the class; but it hurts to feel this abandoned not just by developers, but by the community. We are a null class, the community barely acknowledges us; specially now that we bring neither DPS, nor UTILITY.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fhyrr

Consider just how the dps comparisons rarely actually mention MNK, in these forums! It's always like, NIN, DRG and SAM xD

THAT is how much relevance we have as a class.

---

I completely agree with your sentiment. I love Monk, but they get so overlooked. Honestly when you factor in raid contribution they are near the bottom of melee DPS. Then add in nearly every boss jumping at least once when perfect balance is always down and just gets worse.

Monk is a blast to play, and will still use it for dungeons and easy content, but after HW and now the SB lack of meaningful changes, I gave up. I don't see them getting the attention needed to be competitive. It's time for me at least to put down the fists for the hard stuff.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vincentv

I completely agree with your sentiment. I love Monk, but they get so overlooked. Honestly when you factor in raid contribution they are near the bottom of melee DPS. Then add in nearly every boss jumping at least once when perfect balance is always down and just gets worse.

Monk is a blast to play, and will still use it for dungeons and easy content, but after HW and now the SB lack of meaningful changes, I gave up. I don't see them getting the attention needed to be competitive. It's time for me at least to put down the fists for the hard stuff.

---

Raw damage wise, in fights mnk is the second strongest melee.
When looked at, Nin is objectively better than Sam as well, high damage and all that raid utility. Nin won't compete with any class for a raid spot. Right now seems to be Mnk/Sam competing for a spot, poor Drg is hurting more than anybody. Far worse than people's perceived Mnk issue at this point.

I don't know if it's been pointed out yet, but Riddle of Earth is probably more useful than people are letting on. RoE was likely not designed for use during boss transitions (keep using Tornado Kick here), but instead to maintain GL and mitigate damage during targeted/unavoidable damage that forces Monks to stop attacking.

Take Lakshmi for example: When Hand of Grace/Beauty targets a Monk, they usually have to move away to properly position the AoE. So, they can now pop RoE to mitigate the damage and refresh their GL on-hit while using Form Shift and Meditation to minimize their DPS loss before returning to FoF and re-engaging Lakshmi.

My only suggestion (for Riddle of Earth) would be to reduce the cooldown to 30s (from 60s) and the duration of RoE and Earth's Reply to 10s each. That way it can be used more often to mitigate mechanics and refresh stacks.

But yeah, those elemental tackles don't make much sense.