Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[SpeckledBurd]

Out of curiosity, a quick question for anyone/everyone:

What are some forms you wouldn't mind a reworked Greased Lightning taking? Moreover, what gameplay loops and general feel must it still accomplish?

(Same question for other resources like Forms, Stances, and Chakra, if you find those similarly pertinent.)

Assuming the speed and damage modifiers from Greased Lightning become 100% uptime as "Greased Lightning becomes a trait" would suggest, Monk will need a new gimmick entirely. Chakra alone isn't interesting enough to carry the job. As it currently is designed it's super slow to build, it's basically uninteractive, and you're hard pressed to find anyone who actually has anything good to say about it. There's a lot of things they could add, for example the Sabin/Zell blitz-like mechanics we spitballed earlier in this thread is something I wouldn't mind seeing. However that's similar enough to Ninjutsu or Dancing that it's probably worth doing something more distinct. I'd say anything that has an interplay with Monk's form based combos would be a smart call as far as a new mechanic goes.

Chakra as I mentioned, is currently pretty much despised by everyone and has been since people actually got to try Deep Meditation. No one likes the double layered crit RNG. Nobody likes Brotherhood's RNG or how it's composition dependent. Nobody likes that you can only use it while it's capped causing overflow. It absolutely needs to be changed so that it builds consistently, such as by being attached to Coeurl form or Raptor form hits, and you need to be able to use those skills well before capping on it is a possibility. Obviously this isn't a new suggestion, it's something we have provided as feedback for literal years now.

Form Based combos are legitimately the best part of Monk and removing them would basically knock over the last core pillar of the job's identity. Future development of the job should make use of Forms more if anything. The only tweak they need is that the job should default to Raptor Form if it isn't in another stance.

Stances are pointless as they're currently implemented and have historically always been pointless. I'm sure there's something they could come up with to make them something we actually engage with rather than something we set and forget. However the developers have put traits onto the fist stances which have failed to do that for two expansions now and instead came up with some of the most pointless traits in the game for them. I'd rather see the Fist Stances be deleted from the game rather than risk them making 4.0 Tackle Mastery for the third expansion in a row and patting themselves on the back about it even though they're still 3 buttons you never hit.

Other stuff:

-Monk's mobility is the worst out of the melee and the 5% modifier to movement speed on Fists of Wind is so inconsequential it doesn't help at all. Give Monk a backstep and a 5-10 yalm forward Dash similar to En Avant, both should have charges and neither should do any damage.

-The potency difference between a hit and a missed Leaden Bootshine is absurdly high, and it's absurdly punishing to miss it as a result. It's functionally the same as missing nearly every positional a Dragoon would have in 10 GCDs. Dragon Kick should be turned into a second self buff that affects all outgoing damage instead of just hypercharging a positional, or the damage boost needs to be positional independent.