Quote Originally Posted by Mahrze View Post
And it still isn't. GL being treated as a "mechanic" is exactly why MNK doesn't change.
How is that, exactly, when it has not been treated as a mechanic save for precisely two times? Back in ARR it was a significant skill gap component for which MNK was rewarded with optimized damage bordering on or exceeding that of optimized BLMs. The only other time was during the later half of SB, during which it also inadvertently enforced a TK playstyle at lower SkS levels due to the sheer power of its timeable burst in an era swamped with large performance gaps from raid buff optimization alone but at least made intelligent, synergetic use of its toolkit. Those are the only two times, and the only two directions, in which the devs have ever tried to really make a core gameplay loop out of it, and neither of those required any additional bloat or skill-spam be devoted to its use, unlike the Form Shift spam between fights we see to day atop Anatman, SSS, and TK all competing for a part of play so underwhelming that its interactions are niche (Anatman, TK, SSS) or pure gimmick/anti-QoL (Form Shift spam).

There is no requirement that GL not be rewarding. It already has been, and that's been when taking only a slim part of the opportunities available to it.

Quote Originally Posted by Mahrze View Post
GL can be much more by leaving the speed gimmick penalty out of it. Make the speed a passive trait and stop messing with how people expect the job to be fast. GL being only "power" related would still be a mechanic people would want to optimize since it would focus on what everyone wants in any number: do more damage.
Like what? Give me something more than just Foul or Chakra-but-with-even-more-RNG and I'll probably be quite invested. But until then, GL retaining its speed component, a Dragon Kick rework, a bit of internal potency balancing, and that GL speed component finally being played around as part of the core experience is all that's needed in order to return branching rotational options that can turn Monk's stale, unvaried rotation into something capable of tremendous nuance, tactility, and flexibility, so I'm naturally going to want GL to retain its speed component until your alternate version it offers something better than a nuanced, flexible, and tactical rotation. Tornado Foul is not that.