Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Maffis]

I kinda wish they made the elemental stances more meaningful. Like switching between them gives different buffs that maybe allows us to use TK in Fire Stance without losing all GL-stacks. I want SsS to have a real purpose too since Form Shift already helps us keep GL-stacks and you can Meditate on downtime. SsS doesn't have a real purpose. But I have read a suggestion to allow it to be used at 15y range when in Wind Stance and I really like this one.

[silverdragontyr]

There really needs to be radical changes or Mnk is going to be very boring. If all they do is make GL a trait; Then Mnk will literally just be cycling six weapon skills and some buffs when they're up. Is any other dps so basic and hollow?

[Gameovers]

Making a GL a background skill I think is good but isn't needed really thinking about it. But I'm not gonna say no to it. The real issues are what the poster on the last page mentioned. The fact that so many skills cancel each other out and make them pointless and or are already pointless to begin with. TK I'm talking to you buddy. anaman being a bad skill over all in my opinion and needs to be deleted. The stances need to be either gutted or made into something actually useful. Like wind keeps it speed buff, but fire gives you a massive crit buff that matter and maybe extra charka, and earth makes you again a massive active tank with a bit of speed deceased, but your movement won't matter and you get 15 secs or 30 secs of being a mini tank. Or maybe super armor. So it just takes more hits to down you. Yeah I think super armor would be fun for earth. TK shoul be pat of the rotation or be like Sam's super move. You build meter for it like sam and then you can unleash it like a super move.

Pretty much just make monk's moves actually useful and not dead buttons you don't press because it kills your groove.

[silverdragontyr]

Putting Earth stance as a mini tank is kind of useless as a majority of content it's either not needed, or if it is you're already screwed. If straight effects it should be no knockback when on, but no damage buffs. So it's something you want to switch in and out of. Wind suffers same issue that, alone a temporary move speed buff is not needed because you can just sprint for the short time you need it. Fire giving crit rate is a good idea, I'm just not sure what wind would be. I'd be apprehensive of two different damage buff stance like wind giving attack speed because someone will crunch the numbers and the worse of the two will again never see use. It would need to be something that would actively be used in raids and trials, but also not overstep what another stance already does.

[VentVanitas]

The Fist stances are a tricky problem. With how they currently function, if their focus is to have usage in combat, one will always be used over the other. (Unless you want MNK to cycle through them like some weird BRD clone, personally I'd rather not though) If they have use outside of combat or in downtime, they won't be used period. This is why certain people here have just opted for them to be removed altogether and I can see why.

Imagine what we could have back with that borderline hotbar decoration gone. Howling Fist, Steel Peak and Touch of Death, anyone?

Also, 69 pages. Nice.

[Gameovers]

How about change the stances to just Ki?

[MartaDemireux]

It could be made so that completing the current GL combos activates the fist buffs instead - once GL becomes a trait. They could even make use of the MP bar to portray the channeling of Aether into their fists.

Demolish could activate Fists of Fire. When used, FoF could increase Direct & Crit Hit rates by a lot while draining MP with each GCD use in lieu of a buff timer. Six-Sided Star could maintain its current position as a GCD time extender to 5s with a high potency but cost no MP during FoF and be given a longer-than-GCD personal cooldown (like Drill/Air Anchor).

Snap Punch could activate Fists of Wind. When used, FoW could increase movement speed, recover MP and activate Tornado Kick which has a short cooldown, is oGCD, and restores a set amount of MP with every usage.

This would allow MNK to retain its current combos while adding in some BLM-like back and forth - the balance of which makes sense for a monk, kind of like the Taoist Yin and Yang. It would feel a little busier with switching on the fists between GCDs.

Rockbreaker could activate Fists of Earth. When used, FoE could
decrease damage taken and reduce Enlightenment's Chakra cost to 3 charges. It would be a buff beneficial to AoE situations and focus on the meditation side of Monk.

Riddles could be altered so that it is one button: Riddle. In FoF it becomes Riddle of Fire and increases one weaponskill's potency by a lot. In FoW it becomes Riddle of Wind and allows you to ignore positionals for a short while. In FoE it becomes Riddle of Earth and grants you some HP shielding like Stoneskin. Each time you use a Fist, Riddle's recast is reset so that you have one use per Fist. There could be a trait that gives Riddle 2 charges at higher levels.

Anatman's name meaning actually is the opposite of its effect - anatman buddhism basically is the idea that there is no one permanent unchanging soul but rather the soul is made up of 5 ever-changing essences. Perhaps it could be reworked to function with Chakra similarly to Improvisation or be merged with Brotherhood somehow for a new effect.

In the end we'd see a better (or more bolstered) representation of "The Three Teachings" of Buddhism (chakras), Taoism (balance) and Confucianism (riddles) in MNK than we have currently.

[Jirah]

snip.

Melee using MP? Out of ALL the melee jobs MNK? I’m not too comfortable with that as MNK biggest issue is it’s clunky design removing GL and adding on MP management creates a whole other can of worms that might just be worse especially tying Fists stances behind them and limiting MNKs material by its loose symbolism. This is FFXIV I don’t know about you but I don’t really care if they are THIS faithful to the jobs inspiration.

[MartaDemireux]

Melee using MP? Out of ALL the melee jobs MNK? I’m not too comfortable with that as MNK biggest issue is it’s clunky design removing GL and adding on MP management creates a whole other can of worms that might just be worse especially tying Fists stances behind them and limiting MNKs material by its loose symbolism. This is FFXIV I don’t know about you but I don’t really care if they are THIS faithful to the jobs inspiration.

It's actually a call back to the way Fists used to work originally, believe it or not! They all used to simply drain MP in the exact same way Foe Requiem did - trade MP for a buff.

That said, it wouldn't be true MP management. Think of it like FoF having the MP bar ticking down instead of having a traditional buff timer ticking down (except it only ticks down when you use a GCD action). FoW would be used directly after and would refill the MP bar (I accidentally deleted that part) through normal gameplay in lieu of having a recast timer for the FoF buff - it would fill slightly faster with Tornado Kick usage when it's learned in lieu of having a traditional recast timer reduction trait. It would sort of echo PLD's MP management in a world where they only had 1 spell that used MP. More symbolic than anything and requiring about as much thought as MCH's Queen usage.

[VentVanitas]

It's actually a call back to the way Fists used to work originally, believe it or not! They all used to simply drain MP in the exact same way Foe Requiem did - trade MP for a buff.

That said, it wouldn't be true MP management. Think of it like FoF having the MP bar ticking down instead of having a traditional buff timer ticking down (except it only ticks down when you use a GCD action). FoW would be used directly after and would refill the MP bar (I accidentally deleted that part) through normal gameplay in lieu of having a recast timer for the FoF buff - it would fill slightly faster with Tornado Kick usage when it's learned in lieu of having a traditional recast timer reduction trait. It would sort of echo PLD's MP management in a world where they only had 1 spell that used MP. More symbolic than anything and requiring about as much thought as MCH's Queen usage.

If you want MNK to have a resource gauge to spend, then Chakra should be made more robust. It has no need to use MP and that's exactly why it stopped using it. MNK has so little identity as it is, let's not blur it even more by making it a magic job.