How I would "fix" Monk

My first revision to this.
Monk overall needed a buff to GL retention, Chakra and TP Managment, and different abilities taken away and others built upon. No pot nerfs whatsoever and no Demo nerf. Specifically, ToD doesn't leave. Personally I wouldn't remove Mutilate or Phebotomize either, it serves no purpose. Same with Steel Peak/Leg Sweep, no reason to remove the stun or take Leg Sweep away from DRG and also would lower the cooldown to the DRG standard of 20s, same with Jugulate. All the melee have stuns that do varying things, no reason to change that to be a role action thing. With the pot buffs of DRG and NIN it's not necessary, honestly I'd buff them a little higher, give them higher levels of TP regen, and lower some cooldowns on established moves but this is about MNK not the other mdps. It wouldn't take much to balance them to what I'm doing here and I wouldn't change much from their current additions tbh. To start, ignore the removed move list so far. Assume MNK at 60 with no cross class. And I'm relatively not changing too much from the MNK additions given already.

Specific Changes to functions:
- Stances timers either removed or set to match GL timer.
- GL and Chakra visible on buff bar along with Gauge.
- Gauge shows Fist stance by background color or color of GL stacks.

Established Move Changes:
Fists of Earth/Wind/Fire
Fists of Earth and Wind removed. Fists of Fire added to traits as a 5% flat damage increase. Fists of Wind added to traits as a 5% movement increase. Fists of Earth added to traits as a 5% physical defense increase.

Touch of Death
Returned at same duration and potency.

Demolish
Returned to same duration. I'm not aruging for clipping and whatnot. I just don't see the reason to take potential damage from any move like this.

Arm of the Destroyer
Gone. I was going to go with what I had. "Potency increase to 100, 120TP cost, Removed Silence replaced with 1s Bind." But, it's unncessary and not needed.

One-Ilm Punch
Gone. There's no fixing this move if it's always going to be relegated to Form 2 and a high TP cost no matter the effect. 4I'd like to trade it for Somersault but I already have ideas for GL retention.

Shoulder Tackle
Stun effect removed and replaced with 3s Bind

Steel Peak
Cooldown reducted to 20s, Regains Stun effect

Howling Fist
Cooldown reduced to 30s

Perfect Balance
180s cooldown reduced to 120s. With the addition of Shatter Kick (Axe Kick), there's no reason to decrease it to 90s.

Heavensward Added Moves (50 - 60):
Forbidden Chakra
Still uses 5 stacks. Potency pushed to 300. oGCD, Instant, no cooldown.

Purification
Uses 3 chakra, not 5. Not that it really matters, you still lose FC but it doesn't make sense to work that way when it's only giving you 300TP. And My Deep Meditation rework makes alot more sense of this.

Tornado Kick
Tornado Kick's potency is increased somewhere between 500-640. But it's a flat rate potency. Meaning it is not affected by any player or enemy buff or debuff. It will always do it's potency on a direct hit no critical. Still restricted to GL3 and you will lose GL on use.

Stormblood Added Moves (60 - 70):
Deep Meditation (trait) - lvl 62
Deep Meditation gives +1 chakra for every reapplication of GL3. Normal Meditation still works the same way, no changes.

Elixir Blast (weaponskill) - lvl 64 (Replaces Tackle Mastery)
Exilir Blast is a one-handed ranged Ki Blast that gives the monk a ranged weaponskill. An Instant GCD with a TP Cost of 70, a range of 10y, and a pot of 70 with a 30s Dot for 15 Potency.

Shatter Kick (ability) - lvl 66 (Replaces Riddle of Earth)
180 potency, instant oGCD, 90s cooldown. Grants Greased Lightning 3 on activation. This will make TK viable every 90s or a quick way to get to GL3 after a long phase change if PB isn't up or you can't form shift through the way too long phase transitions.

Secret Arts of the Fist (ability) - lvl 68
An increase of 15% damage but you take a Pyretic effect that ticks for 1500HP (or a low percentage like 2-3%) every weaponskill used. Essentially another version of DRG's Blood for Blood, only it's not an "if" you take damage, you will take damage (debating of whether it should kill or not or just decrease HP) 20s duration, 80s cooldown

Brotherhood (ability) - lvl 70
5% party damage increase, 15y range, 90s cooldown. Instead of RNG chakra building it will build another chakra on GL3 reapplication to compliment Deep Meditation. So in Brotherhood every Deep Meditation will build +2 chakra.

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Originally Posted by Blacktestament7

Specific QQL Changes to functions:
- Stances timers either removed or set to match GL timer.
- GL and Chakra visible on buff bar along with Gauge.
- Gauge shows Fist stance by background color or color of GL stacks.

Established Move Changes:
Fists of Wind
I'd change Fists of Wind to 5% movement and attack speed but not to balance the Fists, just to have it make more sense. The other fists stay the same, no changes.

Touch of Death
Returned at same duration and potency.

Demolish
Returned to same duration.

Arm of the Destroyer
Potency increase to 100, 120TP cost, Removed Silence replaced with 1sec no penalty Bind.

One-Ilm Punch
Gone. I'd like to trade it for Somersault but I already have ideas for GL retention. There's literally no way this move can ever work imo.

Steel Peak
Regains Stun effect

Perfect Balance
180s cooldown reduced to 120s. With the addition of Shatter Kick (Axe Kick), there's no reason to decrease it to 90s.

Heavensward Added Moves (50 - 60):
Forbidden Chakra
Still uses 5 stacks. Potency pushed to 300. oGCD, Instant, no cooldown.

Purification
Originally I was going for a 3 chakra, 300TP. Not that it really matters, you still lose FC but it doesn't make sense to work that way when it's only giving you 300TP. And My Deep Meditation rework makes alot more sense of this. Now, I'm wondering should Purification be changed from a TP regen to a Health Regen or Self Cure of some kind since MNK's second wind took a hit being made a role action. Either/or. The TP helps the

Tornado Kick
Tornado Kick's potency is increased somewhere between 500-640. I'm not too concerned with the cooldown, HW's or SB's, but there has to be a better trade-off for the move to expend GL3 other than a "Well S**t" moment. I thought about it adding a debuff like Trick Attack or something but with another added move that's unnecessary and adds far too much utility with the addition of Brotherhood. So the 10s cooldown can stay but only to keep the "Well S**t" conditions.

Stormblood Added Moves (60 - 70):
Deep Meditation (trait) - lvl 62
As for added moves and traits. Deep Meditation stays but is reworked. Deep Meditation gives +1 chakra for every reapplication of GL3. In doing so, there's no reason to use meditation during combos for that dps loss and you still build up to a big hit like WAR's Fell Cleave. Normal Meditation still works the same way, no changes. I thought about having it work like Aetherflow and it give an immediate 5 stack but then it's not a climb and throws this ability off balance heavily. Best keep Meditation the same. At the most maybe make it so that it works like Aetherflow out of combat but that's at best a quality of life adjustment and I don't think it's necessary.

Elixir Blast (weaponskill) - lvl 64 (Replaces Tackle Mastery)
Instead of the Tackle Mastery trait, MNK gets a weaponskill replacement for losing fracture with a twist, Elixir Blast. Exilir Blast is a one-handed ranged Ki Blast that gives the monk a ranged weaponskill. An Instant GCD with a TP Cost of 70 and effects based on which Fist stance the Monk is in.
- Fist of Earth - a range of 0 - 25y and a potency of 100 with a 2s Stun effect.
- Fist of Wind - a range of 0 - 10y and a pot of 100 with a 10s Bind effect.
- Fist of Fire - a range of 0 - 10y and a pot of 70 with a 30s Dot for 15 Potency.

Shatter Kick (ability) - lvl 66 ("Replaces" Riddle of Earth)
Original Riddle of Earth, relatively gone. Now this won't happen but my idea fixes a few glaring issues that's plagued monk for a long period of time. Instead of a separate Riddle of Earth, MNK will get Axe Kick moved to PvE with a few changes to keep it relatively balanced. Renamed to Shatter Kick, It's no longer an AoE, it does 140 pot, and does not apply pacification. It's an oGCD with that applies GL3 instantly with a 90s cooldown. This will make TK viable every 90s rotation.

Riddle of Earth/Wind/Fire (ability) - lvl 68 (Riddles made into one cooldown, or three buttons that force you into stance. Doesn't matter to me personally but I guess it's the difference in a two button hit vs a one button hit)
Now Secret Arts, Riddle, or whatever. I personally far prefer Secret Arts as a name but again whatever. Now this is where Fists come into play. Whatever stance is used when Riddle is used it gives different cooldowns for 18s. These all work on activation meaning Riddle of Earth isn't an on-hit condition. I'm not in the habit of cultivating stupidity like getting hit on purpose or walking into an AoE. I also wanted to make it so that in order to use a Riddle it requires forethought, Fire would be used most of the time but with how some builds go through TP, Wind is useful when Invigorate is down and Purification isn't worth the dps loss. Earth for phase changes and moving through mobs. All 3 have their uses imo.
- Riddle of Earth - Earth's Reply with the 10% defense increase but instead of a GL refresh a GL pause. On activation it pauses GL until it falls off. 30s duration. While paused MNK does not receive GL benefits. Effect ends on fall off or switching Fist stance and GL continues. (does not affect Brotherhood GL stack, explained later)
- Riddle of Wind - Wind's Release, reverses the effect of GL and lowers TP cost by 20%. Meaning GL3 - 30% attack speed increase and a 15% attack damage increase. Essentially with this cooldown the monk changes from the current way of fighting to all speed, little power but alot of TP regen if needed. (Would be used to build GL and/or chakra fast if lost or keep it)
- Riddle of Fire - Fire's Impact, an increase of 15% damage but you take a Pyretic effect that ticks for 1500HP (or a low percentage like 2-3%) every weaponskill used. Essentially another version of DRG's Blood for Blood, only it's not an "if" you take damage, you will take damage (debating of whether it should kill or not or just decrease HP to >1 and never kill)

Brotherhood (ability) - lvl 70
Brotherhood acts relatively the same but along with building on chakra it builds on Greased Lightning. Still does the 5% damage increase but no change and it's only physical damage. Instead of RNG chakra building it will build another chakra on GL3 reapplication to compliment Deep Meditation. Along with chakra, Monk will receive a GL+ effect that gives you a secondary stack of GL for those 15s that increases attack speed by 10%. 90s cooldown. Chakra was reworked since you have assured building from Deep Meditation and this should make it go faster but raid damage unchanged since the goal wasn't to get rid of the move but rework it into something that didn't make you dependent on others to sustain damage. The Monk with my setup doesn't need the extra damage it needs help with sustainability and consistent damage.

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Your ideas would make monk insanely overpowered if applied with the potency suggestions. I can't go through them all because I'm at work but for a few...

Touch of Death won't be able to come back with Riddle of Fire in its current iteration. I miss all the dots across all the classes but for monk specifically ToD was our strongest attack and if it came back it'd be ultra crazy powerful because we'd be able to apply it twice during RoF (once at the start of RoF probably with Internal Release and once at the end to snapshot). That's just way too much power for a single GCD.

The Fist stances need to be removed now that we have the Riddles - which are far more interesting than a toggle that is 99.5% set to Fists of Fire. I and others have suggested this and given they removed the Ninja poisons in favor of traits I feel they should do the same and make FoF a trait acquired at level 20 or something.

Demolish duration would be helpful but given the loss of ToD and Fracture it'll clip either way, especially with RoF throwing a spanner in the works.

Arm of the Destroyer and One Ilm Punch flat out need to leave PVE and migrate to the PVP toolkit in their current forms. I do like the idea of buffing AotD to a higher potency with no additional effect silence or otherwise, but I feel any potency buff to AotD would make it overpowered given our attack speed, crit rate under Internal Release and potential numbers under IR and RoF.

Steel Peak should have the stun, I agree - and Shoulder Tackle should not have the stun. It sucks that our gap closer and a move with a potency attached also has a stun effect - it screws with diminishing returns and can lead to having to remove Shoulder Tackle from our rotations (2.0 Ifrit for example).

Perfect Balance at 2 minutes is perfect! I see a lot of people asking for 60 or 90 seconds but that is OP. 120 means we can't line it up with every RoF which will probably make it become a part of our rotation. 120 is the sweet spot. 100% agree with you here.

Forbidden Chakra is fine at the current potency. Instead of using it 1-2 times per phase per fight we get to use it A LOT more and I feel the lower potency is a fitting change. Monks are already able to perform very well so I'd be wary about suggesting flat out potency changes because the potency of our abilities isn't the root of our problems.

Tornado Kick at 500-640 potency is again too strong, especially with your other suggestions. I'm actually a fan of slightly nerfing its current potency but having it act like BLM Foul wherein for every 30 or so seconds we spend in GL3 we are granted a free use.

Everything else I can't address but I will say that your suggestions are over-complicating our problems and are themselves over-complicated in their solutions. We don't need a redesign as we are in a good spot right now - we just need a few number, % or function tweaks to remove the RNG and loss of GL.

My suggestions are simply:

Remove Fists of Fire, Wind and Earth.
Make Fists of Fire a trait.
Riddle of Earth stays mostly the same only now it refreshes GL when used and again when hit. This will give RoE a clearly measurable and predictable impact on our performance. The value of RoE should not swing depending where we are in our combo chain when a boss jumps away. This becomes a reliable skilll when a boss jumps away.
Riddle of Wind becomes an ability that increases our movement speed by 15% for 5 seconds and resets the CD on Shoulder Tackle as well giving our next Shoulder Tackle an additional effect that refreshes GL. This will remove the occasional need to pop RoE and stand in otherwise avoidable damage. Also it makes Riddle of Wind useful. This becomes a reliable skill when we need to run away or towards something.
Deep Meditation - direct critical hits have a 65% chance.
Brotherhood extends to all party members and gives a 5% damage and 5% direct hit buff as those are our two favorite stats (probably).
Tornado Kick - staying in GL3 for 30 seconds allows a free use of Tornado Kick akin to BLM Foul.
Hurricane Kick should replace Elixir Field because Hurricane Kick is bad ass and I don't know how I shoot lasers from my hands...

I thought I removed the line about pot nerfs but I'll revise it if it's still there. I have no problem with the pot nerfs (now) other than FC. FC is returned to 300 pot because I reworked the horrible RNG luck based system that is Deep Meditation. BLM has a dumb proc based system but it's workable, 1 proc, 1 free move. MNK has a proc based on you getting lucky 5 times for 1 move. that's insane. RNG favors the lucky and punishes those who aren't. MNK didn't need luck based throttling, it needed a consistent build to FC. Which is why I preferred the form 3 reapplication. As for the Tornado Kick, I made that potency in mind that I was making it a flat potency that ignores buffs. I know it can only be used in GL3 but I specifically wanted it no be able to have increases with TS, B4B, RoF, e.t.c.

I also reworked the riddles because they are all bad. Period. RoF is the least offensive but the MNK has no reason to be slowed down, the only reason the pot nerfs are there is to support that asinine 30% increase. No need for the increase to be that high so you don't need the slowdown. RoE is a move that functions off being premeditated yet is reactionary, and it fights against TD. Two moves shouldn't be that at odds against each other. RoW is just useless like the rest of Tackle Mastery.

- Fists serve a purpose but I don't care either way.
- I've no problem taking the stun of shoulder tackle.
- Either your brotherhood or mine, doesn't matter. Either is better than what's there.
- I changed Riddle of Earth for the sole purpose of not having to deal with phase changes outside of the norm ~15 secs. But either your RoE/RoW or mine's doesn't matter.
- Deep Meditation: No RNG. Period. Not arguing this.
- Tornado Kick would need to be nerfed like FC with that change if you're keeping it with what Stormblood has now.

Honestly, I agree with most of this, with a few caveats-
mainly, I think Riddle of Wind should be an AoE chakra spender, akin to Ivon's Hurricane Kick. The Direct Crit boost to Deep Meditation sounds alright, I suppose, but I'd rather gain a chakra with every use of Snap Punch under GL3, or every refreshment of gl3 (feels a bit much there though) in addition to the rng.

Theyre not going to add brand new skills after the expansion is released because that costs money to motion capture and animate. They've never done it before and I doubt they'll do it in the future. The best you can hope for is reworked properties of existing skills or possibly addition of traits.

Deep Meditation: 30% on Direct Hits, stackable with the crits.
Form Shift: Form shifting from Couerl refreshes Greased Lightning when in combat.
Riddle of Wind: Allows Tornado Kick to be used without consuming Greased Lightning

Forbidden Chakra: I see no reason why this had to be reduced, even accounting for BH, Deep Meditation, and Riddle of Fire. Up it back to 320.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

Theyre not going to add brand new skills after the expansion is released because that costs money to motion capture and animate. They've never done it before and I doubt they'll do it in the future. The best you can hope for is reworked properties of existing skills or possibly addition of traits.

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Stoneskin II

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Originally Posted by AlphaSonic

Stoneskin II

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This is the absolute worst example to use.

"Turn on the aoe flag for Stoneskin and call it Stoneskin 2."

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

This is the absolute worst example to use.

"Turn on the aoe flag for Stoneskin and call it Stoneskin 2."

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It was an added skill mid expansion. It wasn't a lie =D.

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Originally Posted by AlphaSonic

It was an added skill mid expansion. It wasn't a lie =D.

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Technically it was added during a "realm reborn" which wasn't an expansion, it was simply the base game redone.

So hah, I can play that game too ;)

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

Technically it was added during a "realm reborn" which wasn't an expansion, it was simply the base game redone.

So hah, I can play that game too ;)

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I give up you won.

I wouldn't get my hopes up on SE adding new skills anytime soon; they had their chance already and failed miserably. Altering the skills we currently have would be the best bet, even if that won't be enough to fix all the issues with MNK, such as the several odd skills that serve no real purpose other than to be button bloat (Fist Stances, One-Ill Conceived Punch, etc.)

That being the case, I am greatly hoping that SE sees reason and alters a lot of MNKs current toolkit because it's a disjointed mess.

For starters, Riddle of Earth needs to be reworked to provide the extra mitigation upon activation instead of on being hit. The mitigation buff is completely worthless AFTER taking substantial damage and since the majority of players would immediately reapply FoF after the hit is over, it sees no real use either. The GL refresh has situational use but at the same time it encourages bad play habits by making players WANT to be damage to maintain their buff and that's not a good habit to enforce on any class, much less a DPS. If anything, I would like this to double the max duration of GL upon activation, instead of when damage was taken. It would serve the same function without the negative effect of encouraging taking needless damage.

One Ilm Punch and Arm of the Destroyer need so many improvements. Situational effects are terrible enough as is but to add to this is the problem that these effect can only occur during very specific moments in our rotation (correct form) and they become borderline useless. Remove the stun and silence from each of these skills. Up the potency of AotD so that it's just a flat out damaging AoE that is actually useful and add a DoT to One Ilm Punch to make it actually worth using and keeping up (reduce the TP cost as well since it shouldn't be needed now that the skill is going to be included in a standard rotation instead of a situational one).

Return the Stun to Steel Peak.

Tornado kick needs to do more than be just a big attack that we use whenever mechanics dictate we are going to lose GL anyways. It's in direct contention with Riddle of Earth in how we use our GL and as such, I feel I could live with Tornado Kick being more of MNKs raid utility by adding vulnerability or reducing the damage the target does. Extend the cooldown of TK to 90 seconds if you need to to prevent abuse but I really feel that if MNK needs to throw away a large portion of their damage on a single attack, that attack should be worth more than just a simple damaging attack.

Purification should be altered to provide 100 TP per chakra. While MNK isn't TP starved anymore, with my suggested changes for One Ilm Punch, it might not be a bad idea to maintain the TP restore of this skill, just as a precaution.

Riddle of Fire needs the slow effect gone, even if it meant lowering the potency of the buff. It goes against everything that has been established for MNK as a fighter that hits fast, not hard. It just doesn't fit into the theme of MNK at all and needs to be changed.

I want to know who gave the ok for Brotherhood to go out as it was because I want to slap them. A 5% damage buff that occurs once every minute or so that only affects physical damage, not including the MNK themselves, vs an AoE balance that grants a 10% damage buff to ALL damage and affects the AST that cast it as well. This is why MNK lost the majority of it's damage for? A shittier version of Balance? Really? Come on SE. Including everyone in the skill to gain 5% more damage is not going to break the game.

Tackle Mastery. Delete it. It's a pointless trait that should have never been conceived in the 1st place. I'd honestly take a CD reduction passive whenever a Riddle is activated over what Tackle mastery currently offers even if it was still a terrible passive but at least it would be more practical than what it currently is. I mean honestly, a knockback? On a Gap Closer? On a Class without a single ranged attack whatsoever? WTF were you think SE?