Quote Originally Posted by Size View Post
I also feel like I'm losing some time in repositioning, and wondering if this is made up by the booshine crit and impulsedrive spam.
1. If you ever delay your attack to reposition you are virtually always losing DPS. There are certain thresholds where this is not the case ("I lose only 0.00001s repositioning"), but for the vast majority of the time, it holds true. For example, by the time you notice your positioning is costing you GCD time, you're way past that point and should have pressed a button.

One general rule for a Monk is similar to a caster's ABC's (Always Be Casting): always be pressing an attack button. The positionals for Monks are moderately important, but they are not critically important. Always look to position your next attack, not your current one, because you should already be executing your current attack.

2a. If your positioning is completely random, Bootshine > DK (as long as the DK buff is up) because DK without flank is 100 and BS without rear is still 130.

2b. The mental attention required to analyze this condition will probably cost you more damage in the long run. Typically you just want to press DK again if you are uncertain on positioning. Each player manages this differently however*.

3. Impulse Drive has very limited use cases that are isolated to immediate direct burst damage or high DPS burn where the last 1% DPS matters to you, even at the cost of all your. For anything else, ID is not a good idea.

4. In a practical case, just wait until the fight is a little stable before you Bootshine.

if it is more efficient (especially TP wise)
ID is horribly inefficient from a TP perspective. In terms of TP, your basic priorities are:

1. Use a Monk purist set of attacks.

2. If you have excess TP to trade for damage, add Fractures with Demolish during cooldowns like BFB.

3. If you have more excess TP or need more DPS, add Fractures every Demolish.

4. If you still have more excess TP or you still need more DPS, add Impulse Drive.


* The way I run my Monk is pretty simple:

1. I attack with a priority of: SP TW DK.
2. Check for Demolish, if no DM / DM is about to expire, plan to use DM. If I am using Fracture, I tie the FR with DM.
3. Same for TOD.
4. Use oGCDs.
5. Compensate for mechanics.
6. If the fight is stable and DK debuff is >8s, plan to Bootshine-True.

If I have any uncertainty at any point in the fight, do #1.

Personally, the only time I'd ever use ID is for Twintania short conflags and I don't run my MNK on T5 so I don't have practice with ID. Anything else seems silly.