MNK - How many positionals do you miss?

Hello,
I play as a MNK and i am getting really annoyed when it comes to the positionals.
The idea is nice, but in the end is really broken. Not to mention about the soloing when your damage is heavily reduced.
Yesterday i did the Titan EX, it was the first time that i got really annoyed about this mechanic. My rotation need to be on the flank when the next phase were plums, and i had to go back to join my teammates losing a lot of DPS. AOE to the side when i have to hit the side and again DPS lose. People says that MNK is the highest single target DPS, well i wonder how many positional do you guys miss when you cannot position yourself properly because of the mechanics?
The other thing is that bosses turns instantly 180 degrees to aim at random and again you miss positional.

Right now i am not really sure, i would love to hear some tips about it, it doesn't matter that i can hit the dummy for 500dps, when i cannot execute it on the bosses because of aoes, mechanics, insta turns.

first, how far are you standing to the flank/rear? there are spots behind the mob that you can stand and still be close enough in titan ex(for example) with barely any movement and hit all of your positionals except for when he turns. you dont have to be all the way out on his side, and you dont have to be directly behind a mob.

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Originally Posted by Resine

Hello,
I play as a MNK and i am getting really annoyed when it comes to the positionals.
The idea is nice, but in the end is really broken. Not to mention about the soloing when your damage is heavily reduced.
Yesterday i did the Titan EX, it was the first time that i got really annoyed about this mechanic. My rotation need to be on the flank when the next phase were plums, and i had to go back to join my teammates losing a lot of DPS. AOE to the side when i have to hit the side and again DPS lose. People says that MNK is the highest single target DPS, well i wonder how many positional do you guys miss when you cannot position yourself properly because of the mechanics?
The other thing is that bosses turns instantly 180 degrees to aim at random and again you miss positional.

Right now i am not really sure, i would love to hear some tips about it, it doesn't matter that i can hit the dummy for 500dps, when i cannot execute it on the bosses because of aoes, mechanics, insta turns.

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Well a lot of it comes down to being very familiar with the boss mechanics and how they move. This in conjunction with knowing how your tank handles their job will help to be able to anticipate movements so you can try to position yourself ahead of time. Riding the flank/rear line is going to be best since you will only have to do minimal movement.

Getting your positionals on Titan EX shouldn't be a big problem except a couple instances though unless you're dealing with heavy latency forcing everyone to stack for weights. Though I wouldn't suggest using any of the original 3 extreme mode primals as examples largely because of their mechanics. There's many many other fights where getting positionals shouldn't be an issue. Leviathan, Ramuh, and Shiva all in particular are easy to get your positionals on, and mostly just leaves misses to user error (which will always be a factor as well).

In general I'd wager most monks that raid are missing less than 5% of their positionals due to mechanics. Personally I find the bigger problem lies more with groups not want to adjust for melee positionals and just want to do it the one way they learned. Like frontal stacking in T9...if you are running monk and/or dragoon in that fight it's just a quick adjustment to change the stack point, but you still have tons of people that load up for frontal accuracy because their team won't adjust.

Do you guys move all the way around, or you just keep yourself at the peak?

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Originally Posted by Resine

Do you guys move all the way around, or you just keep yourself at the peak?

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Just ride the line between flank and rear. Minimal movements between the two positions.

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Originally Posted by Ricdeau

Well a lot of it comes down to being very familiar with the boss mechanics and how they move.

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Double true. DPS will rise as knowledge of the encounter increases, moreso than other jobs. You need to get a feel for both the pacing of the encounter to predict the turn as well as server latency--when the direction from which you're attacking isn't the same as what you see.

As for being displaced by AoE formations, you can:
a) suck it up
b) use ToD to offset the GCD long enough to get into position
c) take the hit and Second Wind/Bloodbath

Use your best judgment.

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Originally Posted by Ricdeau

Just ride the line between flank and rear. Minimal movements between the two positions.

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I think it might be added that it's okay to overcompensate if you're trying to outsmart an incoming boss turn (for pre-2.45 DRG this was really important; in 2.4 content things don't spin as often and post-buff it hardly matters). For the most part, using much more movement than necessary is a potential distraction from using your skills optimally and takes you further away from your next required positional.

When it comes to skills rotation, it should come naturally as muscle memory. If it does not, it indicates that you need more practices. When engage in a fight, you should only watch the fight mechanics and how the boss moves to move accordingly. After some practices, you should be able to foresee where he will face, when a certain mechanic is casting. Unless it can not be helped, you should avoid missing your position as much as possible if you want to optimise the job.