Thread: How should Monk 4.0 have been done?

Originally Posted by Deithwen

I don't really understand your question. You mean, your rotation changes slightly every 0.04 GCD, but to the core, at least on a dummy, your rotation won't change a bit if you want to play optimally. I don't think there is a rotation to be the least affected by being forced out of melee range, because if done properly, you can come back in a GCD, so you can continue your rotation where you stopped it, and if you can't you just stack a few chakras until you can get back to the fight.

The rotation is pretty much set in stone : opener, refresh DK, refresh TS, refresh demo is needed or Snap punch then Bootshine, true trike, refresh demo if needed rince repeat. The only thing that differentiates top level monks right now is uptime (being able to deal max damages and do mecanics, need perfect timing), CD management and AOE management (oh and ast giving balance).

As your modular varies (the amount by which you would have to clip or delay DK/Twin/Demo/ToD/Fracture at 15/18/21/30s), the relative value of DK and Twin, especially, change, such that it can be more worthwhile to let either fade for a certain amount of time than clip them. For example, at a single GCD lost, DK/Twin fade costs 29 potency; allowing this to fit in an additional Boot/True per DK/Twin window instead of clipping 2 GCDs early (to avoid 1 GCD delay) awards ~83 and 55 potency. The priority system remains, and where manipulable the goal is for your GCDs to align with a given duration's fade (reapplying instantly before server leniency removes the effect from the reapplying strike), but ultimately as attack speed changes and through the use of stanceless skills per DK/Twin/Demo, what is optimal will vary between clipping and delaying. Every .04 GCD, you will see at least one GCD necessarily shift per BFB in order to better match your windows, and an additional rotational variant becomes viable (though some are dependant on multi-DoTing, such as rotations that would drop DK from Twin, Demolish, and the following DK at 44 potency cost for an extra 83 potency via Bootshine which must fall outside one's oGCD refresh timings).

Even on a dummy, these make differences visible across either your rotational strings themselves or in GCD sync with your CD windows, adjusting what is optimally applied within. It's not much, but it does happen to be more than any other class by the mere fact that Fracture is so TP-inefficient that it must be used sparingly and therefore can be fit to the duration, neither it nor Touch of Death break your combos, and your combos themselves have shorter intervals than most. (Compare to DRG's 5 per effective combo until a 2.33 or 2.22 rotation.)

To clarify though (and I will revise it in a moment), I meant this hypothetically: When WOULD the rotation feel different, to you.

For me, it feels faintly different about every 20th of a second second, as this still provides an extra hit per burst cycle, and significantly different after a fifth and quarter of a second. But, I'm hung up on fine details.