How can you continue to ignore monk completely?

[SpeckledBurd]

There are a lot of responses derived from emotion, opinion, speculation, assumptions, or suggestions for "fixes" that would make the job undeniably OP in this thread. The rotation hasn't changed. Greased Lightning is MNKs identity. The developers basically just said we're at the limit of speed and power they want us to go with GL, so in order to make it comparable with other classes, they had to mix up the rotations, (which really aren't different). SAM has no utility like where MNK was at in Heavensward, so it's kind of fair in a way for it to be top DPS, but that does not mean MNK isn't a powerhouse either. In some instances, yes, I've over taken some SAMs in 8-man content and I'm not one of the best MNKs out there by far.

Monk's rotation has changed. They shortened it when they removed Touch of Death and Fracture, but unlike Dragoon or Ninja we didn't have anything reworked to make up for our lost GCD (Ninja gets a second Gust Slash before using Dancing edge, DRG gets a second combo finisher on its combos through Lance Mastery). We're the only Melee job that just had our rotation shortened without something being slid in to replace it.

Greased Lightning is Monk's identity, yes, and Riddle of Fire eliminates the most tangible part of it by reducing the haste of it massively making the job feeling jarring every 90 seconds. Worse, it makes Demolish's timing rather awkward and can force clipping of it several times in the fight in order to ensure that it isn't dropped without giving us a way to delay it to prevent this without Fracture or Touch of Death. It's basically the exact same as Blood for Blood except using my Blood for Blood equivalent makes me feel like I'm punching underwater and I have less control over my rotation without Fracture and ToD despite now needing it more than ever because of the slowdown.

Brotherhood is at best, just okay. It's trash in 4-mans because of how unlikely it is for you to get paired with another physical job (I'm fairly certain the DF prioritizes queuing Melee with Ranged, so we've got a 3/5 chance of getting a caster and a 2/3 chance of getting a magic using tank) so at best it will only give you 2 or three chakras, which is less than you'll get from Rockbreaker spam. In 8-mans it's usefulness swings wildly with how many physical DPS are in the party which locks Monk into physical heavy party compositions for both personal damage and raid contribution.

As for Monks personal damage, I couldn't care less. If Samurai is the new "All damage, no buffs" class then good for it, I sincerely hope it doesn't fall into the issues Monk had doing that in Heavensward.

In pretty much every way I wish I could just play Heavensward Monk again, because Stormblood Monk just feels like a regression of it, not like it's progressed.