Quote Originally Posted by SpeckledBurd View Post
The problem with that logic is it ignores that the devs have admitted to not having much of an idea of what to do with Monk moving forward from expansion to expansion while also saying they were convinced that Monk in ARR was a complete job. In practice that's meant that glaring problems with Monk's kit have gone unchanged for long periods of time because it performed "Fine" and the devs could ignore it and completely rework Machinist/Summoner/Bard for the third time in a row. Tornado Kick is still identical to its implementation and the only time it was useful was an accident. Purification stuck around through Stormblood, as did One Ilm Punch. Arm of the Destroyer was terrible forever and only got changed this expansion as part of a wider change in AOE buff across the board.

I'd posit that the Fist Stances aren't part of the Jobs identity right now and they never have been. Decoupling the Riddles from the Fist Stances actually de-emphasized them. They're currently a set it and forget it thing as they've always been. They're also demonstrably not something the devs have any brilliant ideas for because we've seen them make the same mistake two expansions in a row with Tackle Mastery and Enhanced Fists of Fire/Riddle of Wind by wasting traits on it. They're just something that's stuck around forever because of the combination of Monk being perpetually the last on the devs list when it comes to designing it because it's always "fine" and even if they aren't a big problem, they need to go and stop wasting slots and traits.

As for your way of fixing them, as I mentioned, the devs actively de-emphasized them by decoupling the Riddles from the Fist Stances and I don't think forcing Monk to slow down (again) and stance dance just so it can use Riddle of Fire is a good interaction at all. It actively draws away from one of the few good things about Shadowbringer Monk by taking you out of GL4.
Remember that you're discussing the job with someone who hasn't mained it in years, but for some reason has a lot of ideas on how they would nerf it and change it to make other folks who also don't main the job happy for some reason.

There has been an absurd rash of this kind of thread on the forums, and not one of them has been productive.