The dev team did a fantastic job on the MNK rework. I love it.

[Kahnom]

I find positionals to be an exceedingly busy, non-challenging way to make gameplay more frenetic/interactive for the player.

Then pray tell, which job is busy but challenging and interactive for the player ?

[Mikey_R]

The fact that people playing on controller are saying they love new monk is hilarious to me and really speak volumes about how much easier and accessible the job has become.

Monk was never hard on a controller though and this is coming from someone who has played Monk from 2.0 on a controller. I suspect that poor action placement on the crossbar would be the biggest cause of the difficulty rather than the job itself, ie. placing GCD actions on the D-Pad.

[MellowMink]

The fact that people playing on controller are saying they love new monk is hilarious to me and really speak volumes about how much easier and accessible the job has become.

…What? Why would controller players loving to play as Monk be a hilariously bad thing? I hope there’s not an arbitrary rivalry between keyboard and controller players on these forums, because that would be pretty bizarre.

[Blutiful]

Monk was never hard on a controller though and this is coming from someone who has played Monk from 2.0 on a controller. I suspect that poor action placement on the crossbar would be the biggest cause of the difficulty rather than the job itself, ie. placing GCD actions on the D-Pad.

The first thing I thought of that dude's post saying "speak volumes about how much easier and accessible the job has become" was that he has no idea what in the hell he's talking about, controller support for this game is fantastic and there are people on the forbidden website playing on controller on any job and doing exceedingly well. Top percentile well. The only controller unfriendly jobs in this game imo were old SMN and old SCH, with pet management, and honestly, even then, you could perform more than adequately.

But anyway, so as to not derail too much, I actually think there are some positives to the rework. Big two being that Thunderclap is infinitely better than Shoulder Tackle, and Blitz is something monks have wanted for a really long time, and I actually like the execution of it. Also, they've never really known what to do with Riddle of Wind and Riddle of Earth, and they've been changed plenty of times each, and I think Riddle of Earth is neat the way it is. Riddle of Wind feels very, very underwhelming - there are a number of things they could do with it, and should.

Mostly, the reason I'm not playing Monk right now as a former monk main who leveled it this expac to play with the changes is that I don't feel busy enough. I think this current Monk could just do with more weaving and APM personally, but that's just my taste. The most I ever enjoyed the job was near-end-of-Stormblood tornado kick monk, and I've heard lots of similar sentiments from other monk players. I don't hate this iteration, but I do understand those that do, and will weigh in all I'd really want is more ogcds(since so many were shifted into being blitzes,) and a mini-rework of Riddle of Wind so it feels more...impactful. Movespeed? Temporarily further decreased GCD, since we now have two jobs doing the 1.5 GCD thing? Who knows, they could do lots of stuff besides "more autos," which is admittedly one of the most if not the most dull dps buffs I think I've ever seen in this game.

Oh, and Anatman is still just an emote, which blows. But hey, at least it looks cool.

[Sqwall]

…What? Why would controller players loving to play as Monk be a hilariously bad thing? I hope there’s not an arbitrary rivalry between keyboard and controller players on these forums, because that would be pretty bizarre.

I think what Theox meant was it's funny how bad the job was to play on Controller compared to Keyboard. And just the change of removing some positionals has made the class more fun to play on controller as an ultimate outcome. I for one play on controller exclusively and find it better to play now as you can focus more on what's going on around your vs. what your muscle memory wants you to do.

MNK is ultimately much more fun to play as it's not about what position I need to work towards, but rather what buff is close to falling off (disciplined, Demolish). Perfect Balance and Masterful Blitz ending with Formless Fist has fundamentally changed MNK playstyle completely for me and gives me a choice on what buff I need to refresh sooner. I have got my MNK to 574 and starting to eye Savage (behind since my static needed a MT which is 580), and after seeing P1s and P2s uptime. It's pretty clear that P1s I just won't be able to hit every single positional and there aren't enough true north charges to get me past everything. So some sacrifices are to be expected. P2s positionals don't matter, so yay. So go nutz and watch buffs.

I won't buy into the hyperbole going around the class, and that positionals were it's identity anymore. It's not productive. The potential for MNK is what i'm thinking about. Sure here and now it's fairly basic, but it's engaging and fun. The job needed a hard reset to make it work for everyone. I would rather it be inclusive then exclusive while only rewarding the very few that dare master it.

This leaves me hopeful for the future of MNK and I love that it's damage is up there with RPR. The job is fast and frenetic gameplay and leaves little room for downtime. To be honest and fair after playing for sometime. Honestly, and I also agree...it needs something to do while I wait for Perfect Balance to come off of cooldown, doing my 123,456 is fine...but again....every job has it's lulls in rotations. Maybe i'm wrong, and maybe this is the right amount of slow down for MNK given it's lengthy build up.

Personally I would like to see Perfect Balance set to 35-36 cooldown timer. That extra bit of time shaved off would line up SLIGHTLY better with Riddle of Fire. I don't think adding a charge is correct, or shortening the CD timer for RoF is correct either. But shaving a tiny bit of time off of Perfect Balance could be the trick to making it jive a "slight" bit better. Again, I could be wrong...but that's what I would do.

[AziraSyuren]

The fact that people playing on controller are saying they love new monk is hilarious to me and really speak volumes about how much easier and accessible the job has become.

I am a controller player and literally better at the game than you.

[MellowMink]

I also prefer there being less positionals now; them being at just the ends of combos is totally fine for me, although I’m sure that some will have different preferences, which is fine too. I’m also less likely to call True North now, which I previously used often in certain fights.

[wereotter]

I think what Theox meant was it's funny how bad the job was to play on Controller compared to Keyboard. And just the change of removing some positionals has made the class more fun to play on controller as an ultimate outcome. I for one play on controller exclusively and find it better to play now as you can focus more on what's going on around your vs. what your muscle memory wants you to do.

I'm going to offer the opposite opinion here... never played on keyboard so it's not a point of comparison as to which is easier or harder, but I never had problems adjusting for positional requirements on a controller on the job and have been maining the job since 3.2 when I initially just picked it up to get mantra for ninja. So for someone like me who never had any problem moving for my attacks, the removal of that requirement actually has for me made the job less fun to play than it used to be. I still do them just because I don't see any benefit to stop and train myself to not move. I can register mechanics and move for my attacks at the same time.

The job still feels a bit hollow to me. Blitz didn't add enough to the job to make up for what all has been removed (OGCDs, positionals, greased lightning) I don't want all those back, but there's just not much going on with the job these days, especially if you compare it to any of the other three melee jobs. Not just that, but to an earlier comment that the job still feels like a level 70 job... it feels bad that monk is the only one that didn't get any dedicated new attack at level 90. We just got an existing attack upgraded for more damage and flashier animation, in fact monk doesn't get any new dedicated skills after you hit level 74. I can't think of any other job that caps out at that low a level.

[Sqwall]

I'm going to offer the opposite opinion here... never played on keyboard so it's not a point of comparison as to which is easier or harder, but I never had problems adjusting for positional requirements on a controller on the job and have been maining the job since 3.2 when I initially just picked it up to get mantra for ninja. So for someone like me who never had any problem moving for my attacks, the removal of that requirement actually has for me made the job less fun to play than it used to be. I still do them just because I don't see any benefit to stop and train myself to not move. I can register mechanics and move for my attacks at the same time.

The job still feels a bit hollow to me. Blitz didn't add enough to the job to make up for what all has been removed (OGCDs, positionals, greased lightning) I don't want all those back, but there's just not much going on with the job these days, especially if you compare it to any of the other three melee jobs. Not just that, but to an earlier comment that the job still feels like a level 70 job... it feels bad that monk is the only one that didn't get any dedicated new attack at level 90. We just got an existing attack upgraded for more damage and flashier animation, in fact monk doesn't get any new dedicated skills after you hit level 74. I can't think of any other job that caps out at that low a level.

Fair enough. I never had a huge issue on controller either, but I will admit. It is QoL for me personally as I grew tired of the the positionals, and they always felt "tacked on" to give you something to do. I digress. The amount of control on a keyboard and mouse over a controller is purely speculative, and probably more about comfort over accessibility. Can I keybind more abilities to a 5 button mouse...of course. Can I rotate my camera and hit a button at the same time, yes. On controller it is more (not completely) cumbersome to rotate my camera to say...idk...look for snakes in zodiark EX and take my fingers off of circle/X/Triangle/Square for a second, then yes that is a slight detriment. Where in M/K you can just right left click and turn, while mashing 1,2,3.

Again...subject. Nevertheless, I have grown accustomed to playing on controller and just fine, progging p2s, cleared p1s. No means a "perfect player", but it is doable. IMO I believe M/K has a clear advantage just due to shear options it offers.

I aim to pug savage with MNK out of raid/loot locks just to see how it all shakes out, but I can say this. MNK is way more fun than it has ever been for me. Agree or Disagree it matters not to me. I'm clearing content and I don't have DPS meters....nor does my static require a certain level of DPS. Just ilevel....which the game already imposes on everyone wanting in Extreme/Savage content.

[Mikey_R]

It is QoL for me personally as I grew tired of the the positionals, and they always felt "tacked on" to give you something to do.

technically, isn't everything on a job there to give you something to do? Why have a combo when you could have 1 button you can spam to get the same PPS, why have High Jump leap to Mirage Dive which leads to LotD, why have Mudras etc. Everything is there to give you something to do, positionals is just something else to give you something to do and whilst you might think they felt tacked on, others might not. Yes, they are there to give you something to do, but it is a different something than doing actions, or memorising the Mudra combos etc.