Monk rework thoughts

[hballamco]

Thanks to SpeckledBurd and Shurrikhan for their valuable feedback. I've refined the rework. Please let me know about new adjustments.

[Shurrikhan]

Thanks to SpeckledBurd and Shurrikhan for their valuable feedback. I've refined the rework. Please let me know about new adjustments.

• FoF still feels relatively forced across high-per-execute-potency Weaponskills and any globals with a damaging Ability. Given how frequent those are, I suspect most Monks will want to merely stay in FoF 24/7. FoW also cannot be used consistently for alternative rotation loops at transitional SkS thresholds because Leaden Fist does not consistently align with Demolish. I'd again recommend adding an oGCD-affecting component to FoW -- ideally a fun one.
• I don't understand the purpose of the "(500 if player lands 12 direct hits while this ability is ready)" clause on Tornado Kick and Blaze Kick. Moreover, I'd prefer to see the two kicks differentiated. Your Fissure Kick will likely be useless or obligatory.
• I'm still not sold on SSS being a Shoha-knockoff.

[hballamco]

• FoF still feels relatively forced across high-per-execute-potency Weaponskills and any globals with a damaging Ability. Given how frequent those are, I suspect most Monks will want to merely stay in FoF 24/7. FoW also cannot be used consistently for alternative rotation loops at transitional SkS thresholds because Leaden Fist does not consistently align with Demolish. I'd again recommend adding an oGCD-affecting component to FoW -- ideally a fun one.
• I don't understand the purpose of the "(500 if player lands 12 direct hits while this ability is ready)" clause on Tornado Kick and Blaze Kick. Moreover, I'd prefer to see the two kicks differentiated. Your Fissure Kick will likely be useless or obligatory.
• I'm still not sold on SSS being a Shoha-knockoff.

Hey Shurrikhan, that's true, I don't think someone would trade FoW current bonus for SkS interruption. So, I'm thinking of adding 5% crit. hit bonus to FoW instead of haste. What do you think? As for Blaze and Tornado kicks, my concept is to give a player the feel of challenge that might affect his/her sub-stats build instead of pure potency ability although I do think there is something better to do with them. I think Fissure Kick would be extremely powerful if you think about raid-wide AoEs (E5s > Judgment Volts, E6s > Infernal Howl, E7s > Empty Wave, etc.). Thus, a player would technically plan to switch to FoE just before an AoE and cast Fissure Kick then switch back to whatever he likes or maybe stay. For SSS, my brain was squeezed too much to come up with this result XD any suggestions?

Thanks a lot.

[FoxCh40s]

Does anyone else find it odd that the community can come up with such in depth analysis of the job, with insightful reworks (usually just as one person), but an entire companies worth of employees cant seem to even do anything meaningful with the jobs abilities or additions?

[hballamco]

I have made a change to the chakra system. When a player gets all chakra stacks, increase critical hit and direct hit rates by 5% (might be better to make it 10% but I'll see what you guys think). Now, you won't have to worry about exceeding chakra stacks as keeping them would give you the mentioned reward.

[Shurrikhan]

I have made a change to the chakra system. When a player gets all chakra stacks, increase critical hit and direct hit rates by 5% (might be better to make it 10% but I'll see what you guys think). Now, you won't have to worry about exceeding chakra stacks as keeping them would give you the mentioned reward.

This is unnecessary. As long as you generally can't randomly proc another Chakra within the same or immediately following GCD, there's no need for an 'at cap' buff. Moreover, while I tend to like resource priorities, any that potentially reduce APM without being attached to a far broader, cohesive mechanic are far less desirable.

[Shurrikhan]

Hey Shurrikhan, that's true, I don't think someone would trade FoW current bonus for SkS interruption. So, I'm thinking of adding 5% crit. hit bonus to FoW instead of haste. What do you think? As for Blaze and Tornado kicks, my concept is to give a player the feel of challenge that might affect his/her sub-stats build instead of pure potency ability although I do think there is something better to do with them. I think Fissure Kick would be extremely powerful if you think about raid-wide AoEs (E5s > Judgment Volts, E6s > Infernal Howl, E7s > Empty Wave, etc.). Thus, a player would technically plan to switch to FoE just before an AoE and cast Fissure Kick then switch back to whatever he likes or maybe stay. For SSS, my brain was squeezed too much to come up with this result XD any suggestions?

Thanks a lot.

Using Crit is far worse than Haste, for two reasons:

1. It only adds 40-60% bonus damage relative to the percent revealed, as compared to ~84-93%.
2. Its value varies with crit chance buffs present.

Even if you had balanced it, though, it'd be worthless: you'd merely be applying Damage in Fire or Effectively Just Damage in Wind.

The whole point of stances is generally capacity variance that permit gameplay changes. Haste provides that through alternative rotations and Chakra banking. Earth can provide that by increasing how late and/or minimally one can move out of proximity-based AoEs. Fire, depending on tuning, would be the main stay from which you generally swap to Wind for about 40% of the time one Demolish string, and 60% the next string except where abilities are ready to be spent within the stances' shared cooldown. That's not to say that each of those capacities, and therefore opportunities, haven't been continually lackluster thus far, but there is at least an obvious concept to them that can be expanded upon. But if they're not going to amount to either gameplay or newfound unique capacities there's no point in designing a stance system at all.

My issue with your Tornado and Blaze kicks, besides their being identical and thus Tornado Kick is relative garbage for lack of a damage modifier, is that they again force Monk towards Crit. Wasn't the whole point of the Chakra change to eliminate that?

I'd offer some suggestions, but for now there's too little here to get a clear picture of the design direction you specifically want to go for, leaving any potential suggestions... haphazard/arbitrary.

Does anyone else find it odd that the community can come up with such in depth analysis of the job, with insightful reworks (usually just as one person), but an entire companies worth of employees cant seem to even do anything meaningful with the jobs abilities or additions?

To be fair, as soon as we get a truly in depth analysis or suggestion list, it's avoided like plague-gerbils.

[hballamco]

I'd offer some suggestions, but for now there's too little here to get a clear picture of the design direction you specifically want to go for, leaving any potential suggestions... haphazard/arbitrary.

Now I see your point. Based on your feedback, it would be logical to give FoF the priority over the other two while letting the secondary Fists shine at certain circumstances. FoE in my opinion, is good so far. FoW on the other hand, need to be valuable at some point which I'm not sure how to achieve that.

However, there is an idea which I'm fond of that came across my mind when thinking of a bonus to the FoW instead of the current haste or critical hit bonuses that could attract the player to activate it:

-This bonus requires a trait. I will call it "Like the Wind." Like the Wind: while moving, build stacks up to 100 (2 stacks per 1y).
It activates during combat regardless of the current Fists. While FoW is active, spend 10 stacks of "Like the Wind" to increase next GCD potency by 20 (meaning that 10 GCDs will get the bonus if stacks are at 100). That is in addition to the increase of the movement speed ofc. Hence, the player may stay in FoF while "Like the Wind" is building. Once stacks reaches 100, the player can change for the extra damage and then back to FoF.

As for the design, that is indeed a good question. I will state my logic as follows:

1-Fists, currently, has lost identity in my opinion (I have not used FoE since I learned FoF, and that is a total waste). I believe they are the core of the MNK's job and what shapes it. So far, FoF is the primary choice which is great yet I would like to see the other two stand as well and give some valuable gifts during different encounters.

2-In addition to let the Fists stand, giving each of them a unique Kick ability would make different aspects of the job blend nicely. (current Tornado Kick is a sub ability for sure which is not supposed to be as a level 60 ability) However and as you know, I'm still thinking of refining the Kicks potency bonuses.

3-Forms are also another signature of the MNK, yet one of them is nothing but a name. (hello raptor) So I decided to implement the chakra opening once a GCD with raptor form gets executed.

4-Chakras generation are currently chaotic. I do sometime use Boot Shine while The Forbidden Chakra is available which popped up just at the moment I pressed Boot Shine thus wasting a chance of opening a chakra. For that, I decided to remove the RNGs and added the chakra opening to the raptor GCDs.

5-Mantra, in my opinion, is less flashy or I should say simple. So I added some spices based on the activated Fists (another blending stuff) while decreasing the healing percentage.

6-GL stacks are now much obvious to control, whether to build or maintain them.

Thanks for your reply. (btw, the quote is short because of character limitation)