New patch and still no positionals back on MNK!

[Adonan]

Man, I wish I could experience what MNk was like in ARR and HVN. If I were to avoid YouTube videos and just go off a guess, it would be the old positionals, greased lightning, and a metric crap-ton of oGCD abilities. You would hit the opener of Bootshine, Twin Snakes then Demolish for the damage buff and DoT, then hit an oGCD. You then start again with Dragon Kick, followed by another oGCD, then True Strike with another oGCD, and finally Snap Punch punctuated with another oGCD.

The difference between this and what we have now, or rather, had in ShB, is that the cooldown for the oGCDs would be so short, that you could literally weave one inbetween each GCD after your opener. Or maybe they weren't short, but there were so many that you could still weave one between each oGCD all the same. I know that sounds like a lot for many people, but that would be the best possible version of MNK for me. Having to pay attention to positionals and combo finishers to keep up your Greased Lightning while also weaving oGCDs between each GCD would be one hell of a time.

I assume the old MNK was nothing like that, but I hear they were a lot faster and more hectic than they are today.

[Mikey_R]

I assume the old MNK was nothing like that, but I hear they were a lot faster and more hectic than they are today.

HW Monk had Internal Release (crit chance up), Howling Fist, Steel Peak, Shoulder Tackle The Forbidden Chakra and Elixir Field as oGCD attacks, cross classed Blood for Blood (do more damage, take more damage), they had to keep track of Touch of Death, which was a formless, 30s DoT to keep track of, Cross Classed Fracture (DoT) which was a DPS gain when used right, Invigorate to restore TP (think of a weapon skill MP equivalent) and the first use of Perfect Balance was to get your GL3 buff up. Tornado Kick was an oGCD that took away all of your GL stacks to do damage, not generally worth using unless the boss was going away and you couldn't get back on him before your GL stacks fall off and, of course, positionals on all GCDs except Touch of Death and Fracture.

Compare that to now, Steel is now a low level Forbidden Chakra, Howling Fist is a low level Enlightenment, Elixir Field and Tornado Kick are now Blitzes, Blood for Blood has been changed for Riddle of Fire, Internal Release is just gone, along with Touch of Death and Fracture, TP is gone, so no Invigorate (this is a good change IMO) and positionals have been removed on all but 2 GCDs. Shoulder Tackle was changed to Thunderclap, but I do not think gap closers should have damage in the first place, so this didn't bother me.

One thing I will criticise HW Monk for is the AoE damage, Four Point Fury did not exist and Arm of the Destroyer was really weak. Felt bad.

As you can tell, there was alot more to manage in HW and I'm sure, if we had HW Monk as a base, add in some QoL we got in later expansions, it would be a fun job to play again.