Quote Originally Posted by wereotter View Post
Monk potency numbers look low... until you factor in that Monk is a job that's all about stacking buffs. So take Bootshine as an example. The tooltip says potency of 140, but then you have to take into consideration that monk has Twin Snakes, Fists of Fire, and three stacks of Greased Lightning all buffing that potency. So once that's all added in, the actual potency of the skill is 220, putting it well above the comparable ninja move, Spinning Edge, which is a potency of 150.

But to the point that the job doesn't seem to evolve, that's something I 100% agree with. I often feel that the developers don't really know what to do with the job. In general monk players get what they ask for, though sometimes the developers don't really know what we mean. So as an example two things we asked for after Heavensward were reasons to use other fist stances and party utility, so in comes Riddle of Earth, Tackle Mastery, and Brotherhood.

I do think that you're right that the best way to help monk evolve and allow us to get more moves and have more meaning (I'm still salty that monk was the only job in Stormblood not to get any new attacks) is to allow Form Shift to refresh Greased Lightning as we cycle through our forms. Treat it the same as Enochian.
I phrased what I typed poorly. Monk has low potencies, but as a buff Greased Lightning it’s one of the most powerful persistent buffs in the game. However even when stacked with other buffs, it’s not overpowering to the point where there needs to be situations where we have to lose it. All it does is bring Monks average combo potency up to a little above the average (where it should be relative Brotherhoods buffing ability).