Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Rika007]

It peeves me even more that our most damage dealing skill: Bootshine, is among the more generic looking skills in the game. Why Bootshine as our go to damage dealer? Why is it stronger than Elixir Field? It is literally a level 1 skill and has no visual effects on it at all because of it. Would it really kill them to have at least like, one throwaway trait similar MCH that permanently upgrades our GCD animations? Call it Greased Bootshine or something, I don't know.

Visual appeal is a HUGE factor when people are drawn to a class. DRG, SAM or MCH come to mind. Hell, you could argue that MCH has a playerbase at all because it is a cool looking job despite the amount of problems it faces. Meanwhile MNK keeps locking all of it behind terrible skills that sacrifice play feel or damage, which like you said, no other job in the game does this.

It feels like a huge slap in the face to the people who only ask for cool looking abilities.

You bring up a really good point and honestly even thinking about it, just looking at it's base rotation abilities, if IRC... is Monk the only job from 2.0 that has had no visual upgrades or new abilities at all to the base GCD rotation? Dragoon got Fang and Claw and Wheeling Thrust. Ninja got Armor Crush. Paladin got Royal Authority and Goring Blade. Bard received visual upgrades to all three of it's primary GCD abilities. Every caster and healer class has received new or visual upgrades to it's primary GCD spam ability (the healers multiple ones). Heck even Machinist has received an entire visual overhaul to it's entire GCD line-up. The only one I can think of that may also not have received one is Warrior, but at this point Fell Cleave happens so often it basically counts.

Meanwhile all Monk has got has been situational BS. Pretty crappy overall.

[AbelArchaniEA]

And shouldn't have to wait 'til 6.0 or later to get it.

Not constructive at all .... fail post

[Ramura_Sono]

Not constructive at all .... fail post

Pot. Kettle. Black.

[Noctisnine]

You bring up a really good point and honestly even thinking about it, just looking at it's base rotation abilities, if IRC... is Monk the only job from 2.0 that has had no visual upgrades or new abilities at all to the base GCD rotation? Dragoon got Fang and Claw and Wheeling Thrust. Ninja got Armor Crush. Paladin got Royal Authority and Goring Blade. Bard received visual upgrades to all three of it's primary GCD abilities. Every caster and healer class has received new or visual upgrades to it's primary GCD spam ability (the healers multiple ones). Heck even Machinist has received an entire visual overhaul to it's entire GCD line-up. The only one I can think of that may also not have received one is Warrior, but at this point Fell Cleave happens so often it basically counts.

Meanwhile all Monk has got has been situational BS. Pretty crappy overall.

Problem is not just the special effects but also the sounds, they are very lackluster. This next expansion they are working on should have one big focus, to make monk really cool even if they have to take inspiration from games like black desert online.

[AnotherPerson]

I originally liked Form Shift when it became unlocked at lv 52, but from lv 54 to lv62 it competes with Meditation while in phase transition since it takes a while to cycle into getting Greased Lightning refresh. However, even though the Form Shift animation is really nice, it takes too long to maintain Greased Lightning otherwise.

I do believe the Chakra system needs to be reworked a bit - giving monks the Chakra Gauge at lv 30 and changing it so they can get up to 7 chakra by level 50 and 14 by level 60 would be a good addition. Until lv 54, monks is really just a pugilist with a couple more skills in their GCD rotation. All they do manage greased lightning a bit more, and it feels awful because there's nothing else in their kit besides using their GCD positionals and a gap closer.

I do like Fists of Wind giving mobility, and Fists of Earth can be used when tank dies - but it's very situational and thus rarely used. Why not just tie these two into the Chakra gauge as well? It works well storywise too - making us better than the average monk as per SB Monk Storyline due to incorporating Pugilist training into the monk.

Fists of Earth increases Chakra every 6 to 12 seconds in combat (each Greased Lightning stack reducing charge time by 2 seconds) in addition to giving a 10% damage reduction.

Fists of Wind can refresh/maintain Greased Lightning permanently while giving the movement speed buff when 3 or more chakra is open. Fists of Fire is moved into the Chakra Gauge and automatically activates when 5 or more Chakra is open. In addition, Fists of Fire gives monks a chance to open Chakra when using weaponskills. Meditation can be given at lv 30 and charge only up to 5 chakra out of combat to be able to keep both Fists of Fire and Fists of Wind active. However, the Forbidden Chakra will be split into a separate skill so we can't obtain the ability before learning it.

That way, monks have a reason to use in Fists of Earth but can swap into Fists of Wind when needing to maintain Greased Lightning out of combat. Fourth Greased Lightning stack becomes a trait by lv 76 and does not require to be in Fists of Wind Stance.

Monks can get another skill - Fist of Rhalgar - that activates all 3 Fists skills without a chakra requirement and gives the player 3 stacks of Greased Lightning. That way there can be an incentive to use Tornado kick and use up all the Chakra without worrying about losing Fists of Fire buff.

[Silverneck]

I just wish the devs would give us feedback on monk. Like saying hey we are seeing the feedback on the forums and working it into our design.

I also dislike when they make comments on jobs like we see people complaining about a job but the players aren't providing any solutions. When did it become the player's responsibility to improve the job? I thought it was we criticize and they make creative solutions that the majority enjoy.

I mean IMO they flat out lied about improving monk in shadow bringers and there as been radio silence on any of the issues since.

[Sion_Atlasia]

I mean IMO they flat out lied about improving monk in shadow bringers and there as been radio silence on any of the issues since.

Personally, this is what I find most disappointing. I don't have anything to offer in regards to monk's current design, as many in this thread have already pinpointed the issues and offered interesting solutions.

But to vent my own thoughts; I've been playing monk for years (since Heavensward) and will continue to do so, but Shadowbringers has been a particularly hard pill to swallow. I was in sheer disbelief with how monk launched in 5.0. "How could this have happened? Surely it was tested before being shipped, right? What happened to the promises?". Monk has always been neglected and I thought launch 4.0 monk would be the worst of it, but this one really stung. It felt like a bad joke, almost malicious to me.

The adjustments in 5.05 were greatly appreciated but there's still much more that can be done. Broken trust can still be repaired. And as the OP said, we shouldn't have to wait until 6.0.

[SpeckledBurd]

I mean IMO they flat out lied about improving monk in shadow bringers and there as been radio silence on any of the issues since.

The adjustments in 5.05 were greatly appreciated but there's still much more that can be done. Broken trust can still be repaired. And as the OP said, we shouldn't have to wait until 6.0.

For all that the 5.05 changes were appreciated, they were also almost entirely addressing old complaints in a completely not-timely manner, some of which even dated back to ARR.

-Mantra having a range bigger than a thimble has been requested since ARR.
-Form Shift refreshing Greased Lightning was requested in Heavensward.
-Meditation not requiring spamming out of combat has been requested since Heavensward.
-Riddle of Fire's slow was the biggest complaint about Monk in Stormblood.

The only new problems they fixed were:

-Form's increased to 15 seconds, which addressed a system wide change for 5.0 they forgot to implement on Monk.
-Riddle of Earth needing an entirely new effect because Form Shift was going to replace it while actually being effective.
-Meditation and Enlightenment requiring you to be in combat which fixed... I'm not sure what? It was probably done to prevent using a Forbidden Chakra at the beginning of a fight and immediately getting another one or something.

They were the sort of changes that would have been made for launch if the devs had actually been taking peoples feedback from Stormblood for its Shadowbringers iteration. But the mere fact that Riddle of Fire kept its slow when it was universally hated is pretty indicative of the devs not taking feedback at all.

[Heidrek]

Personally, this is what I find most disappointing. I don't have anything to offer in regards to monk's current design, as many in this thread have already pinpointed the issues and offered interesting solutions.

But to vent my own thoughts; I've been playing monk for years (since Heavensward) and will continue to do so, but Shadowbringers has been a particularly hard pill to swallow. I was in sheer disbelief with how monk launched in 5.0. "How could this have happened? Surely it was tested before being shipped, right? What happened to the promises?". Monk has always been neglected and I thought launch 4.0 monk would be the worst of it, but this one really stung. It felt like a bad joke, almost malicious to me.

The adjustments in 5.05 were greatly appreciated but there's still much more that can be done. Broken trust can still be repaired. And as the OP said, we shouldn't have to wait until 6.0.

I'm gonna echo this because it says exactly what I was gonna say. When I looked at the list of things that were removed versus what was added in Shadowbringers, my exact thought was 'What is the design philosophy here?' I know that the TK rotation was not universally loved but I happened to be a massive fan of it and am sad that we don't have anything like that to replace it. I will also continue to play the class because it's still the most fun to me (warts and all) but I would very much like see a rework for the next expansion. There's a missing sense of evolution as well as shortcomings in realize the (to me) enjoyable lore and background of the job.

[Lihtleita]

Fist stances need to go imo, a passive buff change you only need to press 1-2 times per encounter is just taking up hotbar space. I doubt anyone even uses fists of earth.
Something should also be done about the conflict between our skillspeed and the standstill that is SSS and anatman, its pretty much the feeling RoF had during stormblood.