It's more like "If you've got a BRD with you, use Kicks."
Nothing suggests that Kicks do not stack with elemental stances.
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It's kinda FF staple for Monks to have a skill to activate their kicks, like dude from FF4 he had an kick command but had an option to kick. Besides most monks in FF don't usually kick much.
Doubt we'll be able to both kick and use elemental stances simultaneously, simply because it sounds fairly unbalanced to be able to use any two AA stances at the same time.
Not sure if this was mentioned, but I think it would be cool if kicks drained MP from the target. Could be small penalty, like less DPS or less TP gained per kick, but could help augment MP maintenance.
A Job having higher DPS than it's class counterpart? Bullshit!
Call it whatever you like. It's not like I'm pulling this out of my donkey.
The skills on the action list quite clearly state when they cannot be active when a certain other buff is active (ie. the elemental fist skills). Even on other classes, mutually exclusive skills are quite clearly noted.
The MNK buff that adds kicks to AA however, does not say any such thing. An extremely close range fighter like the MNK having very high DPS? Noooooo... doesn't make sense at all....
Oh yea, on top of the elemental stances and the kicks, MNK is the only job that gets an Auto-Haste.
Like others mentioned, unlike Fist of Fire/Earth/Wind, the kicks don't mention that stacking with stances isn't allowed.
If it can stack, I'm curios how stance + kick + attack speed buff would work as monk. Considering the sucker punch combo is getting a 3rd action with monk abilities, the combo will become even more useful than before.
EDIT: Regarding aesthetics. This is the forum that someone suggested for job gear to have a cosmetic version and a stat version.