Make the Monk great... again?..

[Exiled_Tonberry]

It's really just the META right now. Creator was too easy and people blew through it in a couple weeks. They realized they didn't need mantra or stuff like Cure III so they are kicked aside in favor of more DPS. Content atm rewards fast DPS so much too so that not helping at all. Being able to skip Lapis Lazuli and Soar is wonderful for both clear runs and farms, and bringing jobs that specialize in dmg utility makes that easier.

Perhaps in 4.0 we'll have a lot more damaging mechanics that will call for quick and strong healing that will make use of mantra and cure III, who knows.

@Risvertasashi: DRG currently is only 50-100 DPS away from most Monks. Monks could go for a little dmg utility and still be where they are right now. It's not like piercing debuff and Battle Litany are suddenly going to become weaker. It'll just be a harder choice to make, which is how it should be.
You should feel like you're giving up one set of important utility for another, and right now no one misses Monk at all.
Not bringing a Ninja is missing slashing debuff, enmity control, TP restoration and dmg up.
Not bringing DRG is missing piercing debuff which lowers BOTH Bard and MCH DPS. No battle Lit is missing out on aoe crit up which is insanely strong.
Not bringing Monk is out on mantra, which no one needs or cares about.

The weight of utility is extremely off balance.

[Xyno]

The weight of utility is extremely off balance.

Exactly. The utility of DRagoon and Ninja skills never fades, but Utility of Mantra fades very fast, when the party gets a little better gear or doesn't exists at all (utility)!

[CookieMonsta]

Exactly. The utility of DRagoon and Ninja skills never fades, but Utility of Mantra fades very fast, when the party gets a little better gear or doesn't exists at all (utility)!

Actually, MNK was pretty strongly favored in A8S for the longest time because of a combination of how brutal the heal check was, the fact that DRK was unfavored due to Rocket Punch being physical and the fact the final tornado phase was nigh unskippable (cuz Mantra can buy you something like 2-3 extra jwaves which matched or outweighed DRG's superior DPS contribution).

While DRG promised more DPS in A8S, it was much much harder to execute therefore the whole meta was revolved around either high risk, high reward DRG-Nin comps or lower risk, consistent Nin-MNK comps.