Quote Originally Posted by BucklesTrespen View Post
I've recently come back to my Monk after shelving it for a few months to focus on gearing my Dragoon. Since getting back into the swing of things I have had a few thoughts I'd like to add to the (ever-growing) pool of thoughts/suggestions scattered across these forums.

The first thing that hit me? Holy heck - we have a lot of buttons to press during boss jumps / mechanics. I got to thinking (and counting on fingers) and we have anywhere between 1-5 Chakra to build as well as X form shifts to cycle so as to land us in Coeurl within 10 seconds on the boss landing - in further addition to possibly Riddle of Earth then finally Fists of Fire. That's many buttons to press...

While playing my Dragoon I have to press 1. Blood of the Dragon IF the generously long 20-30 second timer on it threatens to fall off.

Ninja's have 4 to press I think to just reapply Huton - Jin/Chi/Ten/ACTIVATE!
(NOTE: Jin/Chi/Ten/ACTIVATE is way faster than building 4 Chakra given the 0.50 CD)

Samurai - I don't play but several in /shout say they just hold Meditate which is a channeled ability? Maybe someone can elaborate (while staying on point).

So I toyed with the idea of changing Form Shift to a 90s cooldown ability that has the singular effect of allowing the use of any weaponskill for 10 seconds. With this change, the skill retains its original purpose entirely (to help keep GL up), but eliminates the annoyance of having to press this skill eleventy-one times to achieve that purpose.

Think about it:
-No more spamming Form Shift pre-boss pull while we try to gauge when the tank will pull.
-No more panicking to get into Coeurl form when the tank throws up a 5 second pull timer (while running towards the boss).
-No more spamming/juggling Form Shift/Meditation during jump phases, trying to time Coeurl form for the landing.

The lengthy cooldown means it can't be used as a method to get into GL 3 any faster than we can with it's original design. It would have a slightly positive relationship with Tornado Kick because we could theoretically Tornado Kick, Snap Punch, Form Shift, Snap Punch - taking us back to GL2 - which I consider a good thing given Tornado Kick is currently woefully underused. However, this won't always be beneficial - again, given the lengthy cooldown.

I want to offer my other suggestions, and may edit them in at a later time (since there is A LOT about this class that doesn't sit right at the moment), however let's address things one-by-one and seek simple solutions to cumbersome / awkward mechanics within the job.

So, all our other problems aside, what do you fellow Monks think of this suggestion. Is this a step that could be taken in a future QoL pass on the job?
I think it would be way more interesting to have Form shift the same GCD as Meditation (1.2s), and shifting from Coeurl to Opo opo would give GL the same way using a skill in Coeurl from gives it.

That's quite a mess prepull, the GL stacks could then be "combat only", to avoid 10 shifts prepull over 12s for the 3 stacks of GL, but that would allow a WAY better conservation of GL at will during boss jumps, out of melee range or forced /sit.

What you propose, is just an other Perfect Balance with no identity. Form shift itself is not bad, but it's slow and offers nothing more than a thin security. We don't need 10 skills mimmicking the same role (I'm looking at you, Perfect Riddle of Meditate-kick)

But clearer abilities offering different benefits, in different situations, with no competition between them.

FC could also offer a GL stack, making it a good recover if PB is not up, shifting during the boss jump to coeurl form then hitting demolish and FC for an instant 2 GL stacks. A quite good recovery.