Thread: Monk ignored for 4.1

Speed HAS been Monk's identity, Hamon even says it himself in the early Pugilist quests, "Rather than trying to deal great damage with a single blow, he pummels his foe with lightning-fast combinations." This clarifies beyond the shadow of a doubt that they truly had no idea where to put monk for Stormblood and that the homogenization of classes is a non-issue to them.

That's really debatable honestly, due to animations like Bootshine, Demolish and Dragon kick beeing multi hit. You can consider them as "a flurry of fast blows" as much as a high skill speed.

To me the worst is simply that GL increase damage as much as attack speed, which allways make the ramp up of a monk boring in content where it is often triggered, namely Dungeons, fates, potd, open world content.
The combo of a long ramp-up, making it deal only 2/3 of it's true GCD potential, with the high requirement of positionnals, is really annoying outside of group content, and can even be annoying in them. I mean, many dungeons have breaktimes during which you can loose GL even if you end your last combo with a snap punch, and no AOE to trigger riddle of earth.

During ARR/HW, the monk had the "hardest" gameplay due to need of positionnal and ramp up, making it the greatest rewarded in personnal DPS. Now the trick is, the SAM took it's place with low constraint, but nothing changed for the monk.

It remains the job with a ramp up tied to a 3min CD, positionnals on every attack accounting for 22% of the low potency strikes, but now with a lower DPS than what it used to be.

Originally Posted by Xaert

It's not much of a debate since there's a multitude of moves across the board that feature more than one hit in one skill. Rage of Halone is 5 slashes, Hard/Power Slash and Delirium are two hits and Carve and Spit is three, Heavy Thrust has a thrust and downwards slash, most of Ninja's basic rotation has more than one hit. By that idea, does it not also fit the idea of "a flurry of fast blows?"

The ramp-up is also a part of the identity, as I view it. Perfect Balance is highly indispensable in Monk's kit, mainly opener, and the large CD of it (albeit ridiculous) emphasizes just how critical it is to maintain GL3 once it's achieved, which is also why Tornado Kick is so disappointing in its intended use. The solo content matter of positionals is a non-issue, positionals are meant for party play in EVERY aspect of itself. Most everyone agrees on the effect of RoE reset being triggered on damage being counterproductive.

But you're right, the job remains mostly the same, which is the point of what people have been saying in this thread, at least. It's like people become upset when their favorite job shows no advancement.

This is really about everyone's view. I would have prefered one punch/kick animation (like twin snake, true strike and snap punch) with a really faster attack rate, than thoses swinging around like Dragon tackle, bootshine, demolish, and on a different instance : Forbidden Chakra and Tornado kick.

I view my monk as a big hitter with crucial and critical hits, more than someone that unleash an unmastered flurry of blows. But well, I play a roegadyn.. so...


About the positionnal, soloing as a monk is still boring, because the ramp up and positionnal mostly makes you half (78% of 66%) of what you can deal in group content. At least Fists of Eart / Riddle of earth could have eased on the solo side, with removal of positionnal for a cost of overall damage. The 3min CD on PB doesn't allow you to really ramp up GL while running from one mob to another, loosing stacks before having enough HP or beeing in range of the next ennemy.

One skill I enjoyed in the previous PVP, was Salto : 5s of perfect balance were enough to ramp up to GL 3 with a few form shift, and thus, not to be naked as hell constantly. I would have loved to have something like that, or a 60s PB to be able to unleash some power sometimes, out of group relevant content.

Why is the monk the weakest of the melee soloer, while carrying the picture of a martial artist ? I don't know.

This isn't about what we all would've preferred Monk to be, it's about what Monk has been and of what is comprised of it and where it needs to improve upon. We all have our own ideas of the perfect or ideal Monk, but what we have is what the Devs give. Monk WAS (and I will argue, still is) meant to be the flurry of blows of both speed AND power, not the heavy one hitter with the big numbers. That, in both body and soul currently, is Samurai for Melee and BLM for Magic/Ranged.

As for your positional stance, again, soloing is not the intended use of positionals. With soloing, if you're having trouble killing enemies, you're most likely undergeared, and that's a drastic statement since there's unlikely to be any difficulty soloing outside of FATEs, which are also intended to have multiple participants. Both RoE and RoW are ideal for soloing, if this is a point you're willing to accept, for the damage mitigation actually being useful if you'd like to sacrifice your general 5% increase from FoF, whereas RoW would function as the gap closer between sets of mobs. Either way, stance dancing between these is entirely up to how you want your soloing experience to be, regardless of how negligible or useful or relevant you want them them to be.

The ideas for a reworked Riddle of Earth are far and wide, whereas all it would need to be bearable is to proc on skill activation and not upon damage. Perfect Balance's CD has been a long controversial issue, and most of the Monk community is still in confusion as to why it hasn't been altered.

PVP and PVE are two totally different monsters to balance, and RoE and RoW feel like they were solely intended to be for PVP and were just incorporated into PVE for lack of better ideas. For the monk being the weakest of the solo squad, that's due to how to the Devs built Monk to be, for better or worse, which is why people want to see changes for their class that don't take away from the "finished" job and instead progress upon it.

tl;dr but the DRG changes are actually a small nerf, just much more streamlined for the execution/playability for the class

Also, if they ever seriously want to do something about DRG/NIN meta then they NEED to either give BRD/MCH their own piercing or remove piercing entirely, and balance trick attack. Monk is good right now, but literally nothing can compare to how good trick attack is when considering meta, and double ranged solidifies piercing home even harder.

Not only has Monks core rotation remained the same, the removal of Fracture and Touch of Death has made the class feel even more empty. Especially comparing to ninja who got a Ninki rotation added in to complement their core rotation.

Monk lost used abilities, kept useless ones and gained pretty much nearly nothing.

This isn't about what we all would've preferred Monk to be

That's a basic statement that isn't exclusive to anyone, and quoting hamon from one single quest won't make your statement "the thing it should have been" but "What I choose to see".

I'm not talking about difficult to kill anything, but boredom to have to ramp up only to kill the ennemy once it's done. You don't care about solo content or levelling ? Fine. Is your opinion the truth and core thing to follow ? No, neither am I.

Sorry if my mindset dilute your idea, but as every customer has the freedom to write here, same goes about everyone. Even self-made leaders of the "how common things are and were and should be".