Monk 3.0 CHAKRA UNLEASHED

[Ninster]

I'm not normally a fan of going to these threads early on (especially since I have Monk at 53 right now), but I have a question regarding Form Shift.
What's the best use of it? Go straight for the Greased Lightning buff, or is there any benefit for starting with Twin Snakes? I'll admit I haven't paid much attention to other monks.
Also, if I'm forced into a position (due to ground AoEs and tanks that won't move out of them) what do I use for least dps loss?

[Aeliott]

I'm not normally a fan of going to these threads early on (especially since I have Monk at 53 right now), but I have a question regarding Form Shift.
What's the best use of it? Go straight for the Greased Lightning buff, or is there any benefit for starting with Twin Snakes? I'll admit I haven't paid much attention to other monks.
Also, if I'm forced into a position (due to ground AoEs and tanks that won't move out of them) what do I use for least dps loss?

Vast majority of the time you'll be shifting to Coeurl. It's the best form to open with since Greased Lightning is the best buff AND speeds up the application of all subsequent ones. It's also the safest form to switch to on downtime since naturally it will refresh GL faster which is by far the most important thing to keep up. That said, sometimes it may be unnecessary to skip right to Coeurl. You may have plenty of time to refresh GL inside that window and refresh Twin Snakes beforehand - it's a bit of an advanced technique though as you really need to be sure of the timing.

To start with I would say just shift to Coeurl for a significant amount of downtime, then as you get more comfortable with things look for timing windows where you could reapply Twin Snakes first instead without dropping GL3. It mainly comes down to knowing the fight and exactly how much downtime there actually is. If you'll only be away for a few seconds you can probably forget shifting forms and charge up Chakra which you get at 54.

If you're unprepared for a pull and haven't shifted to Coeurl, I would say just do it once to get to Opo and go Shift -> Tackle -> DK -> Twin -> GL since it's better than starting in no form at all. For important bosses, you can also pop Perfect Balance right away to bypass shifting forms and still get by okay.

[Zamii]

...
Also, if I'm forced into a position (due to ground AoEs and tanks that won't move out of them) what do I use for least dps loss?

i presume by this you mean that you cant access the flank/rear of a target
if this is for some reason the case, even if its only 1 position that you cannot get to, keep going with your rotation as if you could get the positional requirement, the potency loss on skills isnt large enough to justify altering the rotation, however more often than not, you will still be able to hit all positional hits even if a ground aoe is close to the boss, just that the safe area for that positional may be much tighter.

[RocheKat]

I'm not normally a fan of going to these threads early on (especially since I have Monk at 53 right now), but I have a question regarding Form Shift.
What's the best use of it? Go straight for the Greased Lightning buff, or is there any benefit for starting with Twin Snakes? I'll admit I haven't paid much attention to other monks.
Also, if I'm forced into a position (due to ground AoEs and tanks that won't move out of them) what do I use for least dps loss?

If I am about to put up a new touch of death/fracture I use those if I have to miss a positional... usually that is enough but if I don't need to use those I just use the attack anyway. Most bosses you can get your positional attacks in even if they turn once you learn how and when they turn.


For example if you are on the bosses left flank and he starts turning around the other direction then chances are his rear is about to be near the tank so you can move to the tank for those. Same situation but you need flank attack then you move towards what is normally the rear... when he is done turning you should be in the correct place.

VERY important note: the game checks for position when you start the attack... not when the animation finishes. So if you need to switch from flank to rear or rear to flank you should be moving as soon as you attack. If you wait around until the animation is over you are going to miss the position or you are going to delay the ability and reduce your dps.

As has been pointed out Form Shift is situational. Coeurl form should be the goal anytime you will lose GL or if have lots of downtime and need to restack Gl from scratch. Basically its Meditation vs form shift when you disconnect from a boss. I only form shift enough so that i can make it back around and keep my stacks unless I know I am going to lose them and if that is the case I go all the way to Coeurl. Any time not spent form shifting is spent building back up meditation stacks.