monk optimisation

[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.

[Shirai]

Alright, very clear! Thanks!

[Rochetm]

What they said... that is exactly why I don't use DoTs early on (except Demolish).

[Butcherb0y]

I guess I have been doing it all wrong.

On the start of boss fight I'd start with:

IR/BFB>PB>Dk>Spx3{at this stage I have GL3 up}Dm>Frac>ToD>Hf>Steal Peak( all moves under IR AND BFB). That's how I start, plz rate. So from my understanding at above post, that it will b better to IR BFB DK SNAKE DM(gl1) instead of building gl3 up first at start?

[Allyrion]

I guess I have been doing it all wrong.

On the start of boss fight I'd start with:

IR/BFB>PB>Dk>Spx3{at this stage I have GL3 up}Dm>Frac>ToD>Hf>Steal Peak( all moves under IR AND BFB). That's how I start, plz rate. So from my understanding at above post, that it will b better to IR BFB DK SNAKE DM(gl1) instead of building gl3 up first at start?

Your starting is fine, actually. Though HF and Steel Peak should be spaced out since they are off the GCD and should be placed between other abilities.
Same for IR/BfB actually.

My preferred starting PB starting:
PB --> Twin > SP x3 > DK > DK (IR) > Twin (BfB) > Demolish (Steel Peak) > Touch of Death (Howling Fist) > Fracture
Dragon Kick > Twin > Snap Punch

The brackets mean I used those abilities during the GCD of the one before.
This rotation also has Twin snakes buff up for the dots and only loses the Dragon kick debuff during the dots which don't benefit from it anyway.

Your rotation will have a cycle where you don't have Dragon Kick because after your rotation above, you will dragon kick again right? But you will not be in a stance because directly after PB, you will have have no stance.
It's good to always try to keep up your buffs and to have them all running together too. Our damage is multiplicative after all.

[Butcherb0y]

I guess I have been doing it all wrong.

On the start of boss fight I'd start with:

IR/BFB>PB>Dk>Spx3{at this stage I have GL3 up}Dm>Frac>ToD>Hf>Steal Peak( all moves under IR AND BFB). That's how I start, plz rate. So from my understanding at above post, that it will b better to IR BFB DK SNAKE DM(gl1) instead of building gl3 up first at start?

[Butcherb0y]

What's an ideal way to start boss?

[AegisXI]

For perfect balance I read different opinions on the use of it. It can be used at the beginning to stack up to GLIII, or use it once u have GLIII to spam snap punch. If possible can someone clarify which one is better option to do?

[Size]

Personally I hold PB for high damage spike requirements. It probably works out higher to use PB at start on a dummy, but in real boss fights where you are fighting multiple targets and losing contact with boss etc, I found that you really only get to use that start mechanic maybe once and then you can end up losing all your stacks 5 secs later anyway because you have to dodge an aoe or fight mechanics. Therefore I find it more useful to save it for when you have a boost CD ready and know you'll have ample time to spam it on the mob. Garuda, Titan, ADS are all examples of this kind of fight.

I also use IR and BfB separately to boost damage through my entire rotation. I used to stack them but I think its more efficient this way. I haven't had an opportunity to test with a parser, but mathematically it should provide more advantage as monk has a more accumulative damage effect.