Controversioal Changes to Monk

[IruruCece]

Not a main MNK, but....
IMO if there is one issue with MNK positional, it is the fact that they just offer potency bonus.
You see DRG's Raiden Thrust? This is a positional bonus done right IMO. The type of thing MNK needs. It doesn't change your gameplay, but it is more visual and significant than a potency change.

Like, instead of True Strike being 30potency stronger from the rear, make it so that if you punch the rear, your next weapon skill is upgraded. And make those upgraded skills 30 potency higher and look badass. For example, make Tifa's dolphin uppercut part of it.

This is actually a good point imo and I think that maybe we could get a big hitter that you build up to through landing positionals.
So you build up to it with positionals instead of crits.

Or just do it for Forbidden Chakra, it'd make it less RNG too.

The problem with your idea here is that I'm pretty convinced that positionals are dead come 6.0. I don't want them to go, but the job's history suggests that they will.

Positionals have regularly been de-emphasized on the job with every expansion. We're where we are at right now because of SE's efforts to eliminate whatever pain points the community brings up, and for better or worse, positionals are regularly proposed to go the way of GL. As things stand, the job really does just have ONE meaningful positional, and given SE's own track record on doubling down with some honestly bad choices with the job for the past six years, I'm not exactly brimming with optimism for what comes next.

While I absolutely agree that positionals should be more meaningful, for Monk and for EVERY job that has them, players already complain about how hard they are to land under duress, and SE has shown that they would prefer to sacrifice meaningful moment-to-moment gameplay (even something as simple as moving a little to the left or right of an arbitrary, clearly marked part of a circle surrounding a mob) in order to try and appease people who don't even main ANY given role in the game.

Accessibility trumps everything in FFXIV, and people screech about being gatekept by basic gameplay mechanics all the time despite this. I know people who have dropped DRG entirely because they hated "being punished" for missing positionals. I know people who refuse to play BLM because dropping Enochian feels like "punishment." I've even heard people complain about NIN's bunny-no-jutsu and having their haste fall off. These are the people for whom SE made GL a trait, rather than something to manage.

"Locking" fancier animations AND greater potency behind properly landing positionals/putting some effort into your time with the game just seems to be asking for the same complaints here.