Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[SpeckledBurd]

I mean IMO they flat out lied about improving monk in shadow bringers and there as been radio silence on any of the issues since.

The adjustments in 5.05 were greatly appreciated but there's still much more that can be done. Broken trust can still be repaired. And as the OP said, we shouldn't have to wait until 6.0.

For all that the 5.05 changes were appreciated, they were also almost entirely addressing old complaints in a completely not-timely manner, some of which even dated back to ARR.

-Mantra having a range bigger than a thimble has been requested since ARR.
-Form Shift refreshing Greased Lightning was requested in Heavensward.
-Meditation not requiring spamming out of combat has been requested since Heavensward.
-Riddle of Fire's slow was the biggest complaint about Monk in Stormblood.

The only new problems they fixed were:

-Form's increased to 15 seconds, which addressed a system wide change for 5.0 they forgot to implement on Monk.
-Riddle of Earth needing an entirely new effect because Form Shift was going to replace it while actually being effective.
-Meditation and Enlightenment requiring you to be in combat which fixed... I'm not sure what? It was probably done to prevent using a Forbidden Chakra at the beginning of a fight and immediately getting another one or something.

They were the sort of changes that would have been made for launch if the devs had actually been taking peoples feedback from Stormblood for its Shadowbringers iteration. But the mere fact that Riddle of Fire kept its slow when it was universally hated is pretty indicative of the devs not taking feedback at all.

[Heidrek]

Personally, this is what I find most disappointing. I don't have anything to offer in regards to monk's current design, as many in this thread have already pinpointed the issues and offered interesting solutions.

But to vent my own thoughts; I've been playing monk for years (since Heavensward) and will continue to do so, but Shadowbringers has been a particularly hard pill to swallow. I was in sheer disbelief with how monk launched in 5.0. "How could this have happened? Surely it was tested before being shipped, right? What happened to the promises?". Monk has always been neglected and I thought launch 4.0 monk would be the worst of it, but this one really stung. It felt like a bad joke, almost malicious to me.

The adjustments in 5.05 were greatly appreciated but there's still much more that can be done. Broken trust can still be repaired. And as the OP said, we shouldn't have to wait until 6.0.

I'm gonna echo this because it says exactly what I was gonna say. When I looked at the list of things that were removed versus what was added in Shadowbringers, my exact thought was 'What is the design philosophy here?' I know that the TK rotation was not universally loved but I happened to be a massive fan of it and am sad that we don't have anything like that to replace it. I will also continue to play the class because it's still the most fun to me (warts and all) but I would very much like see a rework for the next expansion. There's a missing sense of evolution as well as shortcomings in realize the (to me) enjoyable lore and background of the job.

[Lihtleita]

Fist stances need to go imo, a passive buff change you only need to press 1-2 times per encounter is just taking up hotbar space. I doubt anyone even uses fists of earth.
Something should also be done about the conflict between our skillspeed and the standstill that is SSS and anatman, its pretty much the feeling RoF had during stormblood.

[Ruiknao]

I've been working on a document for the past while expressing thoughts shared by the community and myself regarding Monk's design, while showing several ideas on what Monk could have that might fix some of its issues. I recently finished it and posted it up on a separate thread for anyone that's interested. Or you can look at the document with this link (https://imgur.com/a/MNKeu1E).

Thread: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ts-Suggestions

[Sora_Oathkeeper]

Looks like we're getting a 2 part rework. A greased lightning rework in 5.4 and adjustments in 5.3. If they adjust some of the awful feeling skills right now such as TK, 6SS and Anatman, form shift spam etc.. that could possibly help until its full rework in 5.4. I feel kinda wary though with these devs.

[reyre]

Looks like we're getting a 2 part rework. A greased lightning rework in 5.4 and adjustments in 5.3. If they adjust some of the awful feeling skills right now such as TK, 6SS and Anatman, form shift spam etc.. that could possibly help until its full rework in 5.4. I feel kinda wary though with these devs.

So it seems, it feels kind of like NIN rework... To be honest at this point i will take almost anything, short of a actual nerf. MNK is in apretty rough spot even a potency increase would be good. NO it would not fix the fundamental issues that the class has nor would it make it any different BUT it will, at the very least, make it relevant, and that is a win i guess and we take those with glee.

[Sora_Oathkeeper]

So it seems, it feels kind of like NIN rework... To be honest at this point i will take almost anything, short of a actual nerf. MNK is in apretty rough spot even a potency increase would be good. NO it would not fix the fundamental issues that the class has nor would it make it any different BUT it will, at the very least, make it relevant, and that is a win i guess and we take those with glee.

Yeah, they specificially mentioned how NIN was reworked before leading into how MNK will be changed in the same aspect- adjustments in the immediate patch, followed by a rework in the next patch.

As for how they will choose to rework Greased Lightning I'm thinking they'll scrap the damage and speed buffs from it and put them as traits and turn GL into a resource which could fundamentally work like polyglot.

[Maltothoris]

Here are the specific adjustments.

- They want to make Monk's Greased Lightning a trait instead but since it'll take a lot of cost to complete this they want to implement this change by Patch 5.4

- Perfect Balance's cooldown will be decreased

- Form Shift will have one form reduced.

A little confused about the third one and lol at the second one. From the sound of it, it will either return to patch 4.2 where it was 60 seconds or would just be 90 seconds.

Also a little reprehensive about the scale of it be on the nin rework given how a lot of people loved the rework in 5.1 but I know a good amount of people who hated it.

Edit: the changes were taken from the ffxiv reddit discord.

[gumas]

^ i like that, basically you use certain skill to generate GL and spend it on certain skill, maybe tornado kick and six sided star? (both become OGCD with cooldown)

though in my mind i was thinking the damage and speed buff is still there, but you just need 1 stack of GL now instead of 3 or 4, so the play is to keep at 1 GL at minimum

edit: well currently form shift will restore GL duration to max after 3rd form (after ceourl) so maybe we just need to go until raptor?

[AncientCrystal]

So they confirmed MNK getting a rework? hecks yea!