Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Shurrikhan]

Ever since the granting of Tornado Kick all we have ever wished for is to put it on a long cooldown and remove the GL spending for using it.

I haven't. Not remotely.

In Heavensward, I asked then that TK's damage be increased slightly and PB's cooldown reduced slightly such that it could see combat use in fights that didn't oblige a high risk of losing GL. I liked that it was, for all intents and purposes outside of sustained combat, a finisher, given in compensation for our ramp up period. I much preferred that over simply scrapping the ramp-up, which was at the time a core mechanic (as it remained until Form Shift spam).

In Stormblood, I asked that the Tackle Masteries be used to give compelling impact in macrorotation, such as by one of them enabling TK in pairing with PB. I got that for a couple patches and I was able to enjoy it immensely, despite playing a ludicrous-speed build that received the second least possible benefit from TK. To that, I could only argue that oGCDs should see a compensatory benefit from SkS, either in the form of their recast timers (such as on short CDs where desync from the SkS-scaled GCD would otherwise cost them ppm and reduce fluidity) or in raw %damage as per Determination.

Ever since Tackle Mastery was given monks stare at the trait description and physically have a look of confusion on their faces. That was 4.0, it was changed LATE 4.4 sometime with wind tackle being the only useful tackle modifier that granted 1 GL. This was dumped in 5.0 and replaced with....nothing. We wish this back since we are always in Wind stand now anyway. Well I wish it was back anyway.

My face was merely mildly disappointed. "Why doesn't Earth Tackle at least have a self-knockback against enemies that cannot themselves be moved?" "Why isn't access to Riddle of Wind retained even after changing stances, so long as Wind Tackle is used initially?" That was it. Functional questions as to wasted opportunities. It was a good direction. It just didn't invest enough power (be it by function or potency) for it to feel compelling in and of itself.

Ever since Riddle of Earth, Fire, Wind were given we wonder why it changes our stance until we manually change back.

Why wonder? Riddle of Fire is what allows you to punch harder. Why would it be used with anything other than Fists of Fire? Swapping you to fire saved a stance cooldown, an oGCD gap, and provided further thematic distinction. Or, take Riddle of Earth. Its primary (albeit least important) effect was that it allowed you to retain the benefit of FoE even after having swapped out of it, or to double it if remaining in FoE. Again, I'd call it disappointing, largely because the stances themselves remained lackluster, but it doesn't lack for sense. It's far from puzzling.

Ever since Meditation was given we began spamming this stupid skill over and over and over. Man I hated that animation sound with a passion in Heavesward. SE owes me at least 2 new PS4 controllers, as the triggers went out during 3.0 for me. This was changed in 5.1 to just grant all 5 chackra out of combat something we wondered for years why it wasn't this way.

In HW I asked that one generate Chakra passively every half GCD after having not attacked for half a GCD, effectively removing the button as to allow for TFC to be freed and used at any amount between 1 and 7 Chakra for proportionate potency. We instead kept the button and the overflow issues in a typically half-baked solution, but yes, I too came to despise the sound of Meditation, so I'm right there with you on this.

Ever since Six Sided Star was given, ALL monks read the tooltip to this and just lowered their heads collectively. "DOUBLES THE RECAST TIME!????"......why?...what for?....to what end?

Clearly not all. I saw "doubles recast time" and thought "Oh, primarily a disengage; could be pretty useful." My disappointment was only that it was too lowly tuned to ever be anything more than a disengage.

Ever since Riddle of Fire was changed to flat 20% damage buff without slowing us down we start to feel like a DPS...finally!

Hitting briefly at the attack speed of most DPS, as to again be able to double-weave oGCDs during the period for which we'd bank oGCDs, didn't suddenly make Monks not a DPS. It just allowed us to double-weave while, admittedly, forcing us to swap over to an alternate rotation that required further considerations of sync. Personally, I preferred the speed variance it allowed, bouncing between a 1.82s GCD and 2.15 GCD with each synced perfectly to both Twin and DK, albeit via different rotational strings. The desync having no great solution in perfect uptime at particular Skill Speeds, moreover, was the exact kind of thing a properly tuned SSS could have solved.