monk optimisation

[Shirai]

Maybe a silly question, but why not get dots going while you are building up GL3 stacks?

If I am not using PB to build my GL3 I tend to open with them because by the time I have GL3 up they need to be reapplied anyway.
Is there some mechanic about them I am missing which makes it absolutely necesarry to only apply them when I have GL3 up?

[Wahou]

Maybe a silly question, but why not get dots going while you are building up GL3 stacks?
<nip> only apply them when I have GL3 up?

Dots have a high cost. If you know you will not miss technique points at the end of the fight (like every fight when you have downtime : Ifrit, Garuda, Titan, ADS), you can use fracture at the beginning of the fight. If you know you will get starved before the end of the fight(like caducee), your points should be spared, and used only when you have GL3 running.
Touch of death is a little different. The 30s duration is way longer than the time you need to build up your GL3. You should use it at the beginning of a fight only to be sure that damages will not tick while the boss is outside of the map (primal), or if the mob die too soon (coil 4 knights)

[Allyrion]

Maybe a silly question, but why not get dots going while you are building up GL3 stacks?

If I am not using PB to build my GL3 I tend to open with them because by the time I have GL3 up they need to be reapplied anyway.
Is there some mechanic about them I am missing which makes it absolutely necesarry to only apply them when I have GL3 up?

To add a little to what Wahou said - yes, ToD's 30 second duration is too long. It will be up for more than 10 seconds after you get to GL3.

The most important reason is that Fracture and Touch of Death do not move your cycle forward. This means, spending 4-5 seconds applying them is that much longer you will take to get up to GL3. Don't forget that our auto-attacks, which holds the majority of our damage, are affected by GL3 in both damage and frequency.
Coupled with the fact that they don't really do that much without GL at all, this is why you shouldn't start with them.
Hitting GL3 is our absolute highest priority (other than like...living).

As I said in my earlier post, the major exception to this is Demolish which is in the stance cycle. If you use it in the first cycle, it's more damage than you would've done with Snap punch. So in this case, it is a straight dps gain and gives you a GL stack. However, using it on the second or third cycle is not recommended as you will delay applying a GL3 demolish more than you should have to.
So ideally, you can use Demolish on the first cycle and when you reapply, you should have GL3 already.