Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Shurrikhan]

They need to make the positionals ONLY for bootshine.

So the most positional-based class should become the least positional-based class?

[Sqwall]

So the most positional-based class should become the least positional-based class?

I agree with Navnav here and would say the positional's are completely arbitrary and force you to play one particular way. The only way to be optimal for monk is to dance around the mob like a meth head, and to insult us they give us True North and Riddle of Earth to negate all this.

Don't tease me by letting me bypass this completely with skills. Just take it out of my job or lessen it's reliance...as true north does. I like the idea of making leaden fist not requiring a positional.

[VentVanitas]

I agree with Navnav here and would say the positional's are completely arbitrary and force you to play one particular way. The only way to be optimal for monk is to dance around the mob like a meth head, and to insult us they give us True North and Riddle of Earth to negate all this.

Don't tease me by letting me bypass this completely with skills. Just take it out of my job or lessen it's reliance...as true north does. I like the idea of making leaden fist not requiring a positional.

Actually, the only way to be optimal on Monk is to be padded by half your party by making them go specific comps. With or without positionals, we're always disadvantaged to other DPS because they don't have to be handheld by a DRG, DNC or SCH just to access their basic resource gauge.

Regarding positionals themselves, I'd rather they be addressed later when we actually have something to do on MNK besides wait for Chakra procs and hitting said positionals.

[Renkei]

Actually, the only way to be optimal on Monk is to be padded by half your party by making them go specific comps. With or without positionals, we're always disadvantaged to other DPS because they don't have to be handheld by a DRG, DNC or SCH just to access their basic resource gauge.

Regarding positionals themselves, I'd rather they be addressed later when we actually have something to do on MNK besides wait for Chakra procs and hitting said positionals.

Monks do best when they are padding a physical damage heavy comp with no casters.

[Shurrikhan]

I like the idea of making leaden fist not requiring a positional.

That was the opposite of his idea, though? He wanted all positionals removed except for Leaden Fist/Bootshine.

Personally, I see positionals as core to the Monk experience.

I'd sooner sacrifice the rigid sequence of forms, with a (softer) rotation impelled in other ways that nonetheless allows us to adapt our rotation to the positionals we can presently use. That way we'd also always have access to our 9 form-based weaponskills, rather than wasting two-thirds of their buttons at any given moment when outside of PB.

Voila, you've got 24/7 positionals apart from SsS, but the greatest flexibility of any job by which to deal with them. Identity remains. Frustrations mostly gone. Remove Riddle of Earth and True North as they're no longer needed. You get access to 6 more of your (previously locked out) buttons and 2 others are no longer necessary; that's a massive increase to button-efficiency.

Honestly, if I were allowed something more ambitious, I would likewise remove positionals entirely. They don't make sense. But I would not remove dancing around the target as a consequence of other mechanics, namely force and focus. If you kick a humanoid's legs out from under them at the same time your ally swings a greathammer through their helmet from the opposite side, dude's gonna spin. If the enemy's focused on an ally to his left, and he's got a gap in his armor accessible from his right with certain attacks, those attacks are going to be effectively twice improved because you're ideally getting through his armor and he's not noticing you well enough to shift his stance and turn it into a glancing blow. But that requires undermechanics beyond units just being cylinders whose primary metric you eventually deplete -- not really the goal of XIV and its barebone systems.

Actually, the only way to be optimal on Monk is to be padded by half your party by making them go specific comps. With or without positionals, we're always disadvantaged to other DPS because they don't have to be handheld by a DRG, DNC or SCH just to access their basic resource gauge.

No reason we can't just fix that too.

Change Chakra to relative potency-based generation, say... every 3k potency dealt generates a point of Chakra with DM1, and that's reduced to 2k with DM2 (spitball figures). Progress towards the next point of Chakra is shown via a bar. This includes the effects of Determination, Twin Snakes, Greased Lightning, and so forth in addition to critical and direct hit multipliers, so while it'd favor damage buff multiplicity from raid buffs like every other job, it won't favor critical or direct hits any more than any other job.

As per the QoL improvement mentioned last page, you can now use TFC at any time; Meditation is purely passive, generating a Chakra's worth (3k, then, sadly, down to 2k) of "Chakra-potency" per half-GCD, generated continuously (i.e. if the server tick is 20 Hz, then 150 or 100 Chakra-pot per tick) starting from the moment you're off the GCD. (It's still obviously worse than using each GCD as soon as possible, as two Chakra per GCD nets you under 150 potency, whereas Twin does 170 and has vast additional value through its damage bonus.)

Now, have Brotherhood duplicate your Deep Meditation mechanic and spread it over all allies in range. Doesn't matter whether it's healing or damage, physical or magical. They unload their shit and you get to unload yours in spades. Heck, if you really wanted to cheese the meters, you could have your WHM spam (AoE) heals during it for its sheer raw potency (and to align the fight end to everyone's CDs).

[Ramura_Sono]

Monks do best when they are padding a physical damage heavy comp with no casters.

Monks the only dps still tied to crit for resource generation, so it does best when padded by DRG (Battle Litany), Dancer (Devilment) and SCH (Chain strategem) in addition to wanting a physical heavy comp to maximize on Brotherhood's chance of generating chakra from weaponskill usage. Brotherhoods value is also lessened in a comp containing hybrid damage jobs like NIN/PLD.

Monk does best when it's being padded more so than any other job.

[Shurrikhan]

I'm preparing two mock-ups, one with all forms' skills permitted in any given GCD (using a softer system of rotational enforcement) and the other with only 4-5 weaponskills shown at a time, each based on its Form. They are still in progress, but here are the suggested QoL changes in common between them.


Shared QoL Changes

Universal changes

• Reapplications of the same (de)buff will now add a portion of the replaced duration to the replacement.

  Technically, it retains the half-power / square root of the former duration if over a second remains, and the exact duration if under a second remains. This is enough to be potentially significant without obliging early reapplications.

• Now that (with the changes below) no jobs have critical-hit-based procs, Critical Hit has been reverted back to a chance of damage increase only. The critical hit modifier has again been set to 1.5x. However, excess chance will now be converted into additional potency; i.e. a 120% chance of 150% effect will instead acts as a 100% chance of 160% effect. In this way, Critical Hit is not wasted on Bootshine (nor its Drake's Fist and Dragon's Fist variants via Dragon Kick, as mentioned below)

Greased Lightning made more central but less all-or-naught.

• Greased Lightning now falls off one stack at a time. With each stack depleted, the next is refreshed to full duration.
• Greased Lightning now increases Damage, Damage Reduction, Movement Speed, and Attack Speed by 5% per stack. The remaining 5% Damage bonus per stack is now granted via the Greased Lightning trait itself, thus totaling the same result but without requiring the ramp-up. Tornado Kick potency will be revised accordingly.
• Greased Lightning duration reduced to 12 seconds.
• Greased Lightning can no longer be maintained via Form Shift.

Stances QoL-ified

• Stances can no longer be turned off, only swapped between. Animation uptime costs greatly reduced, allowing them to each be clipped after their first iconic movement.
• Fists of Earth and Fists of Wind have each been moved to level 20. By level 20, Fists of Wind is activated by default upon changing to Pugilist/Monk. They are consolidated to a single key. Pressing this key will swap between them.
• At level 40, while Fists of Fire is not added to your hotbar, Fists of Wind and Fists of Earth each act as dynamic keys: toggling either "off" will swap back to Fists of Fire, thus saving a hotbar slot.
• The internal cooldown shared between Fists of Earth, Wind, and Fire has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• The animation times of Fists of Earth, Wind, and Fire have reduced slightly and may now be clipped after their first iconic movement (i.e. drawing the arm back for Fists of Fire, the first half-turn for Fists of Wind). Their added visual effects will continue to progress without the physical movements if clipped.

Stances' benefits now noticeable

• Fists of Wind now increases the maximum Movement Speed provided by Greased Lightning by 5%, and provides half that maximum regardless of its current level. The remainder is still generated proportionately with each level.
• Fists of Earth now increases the maximum Damage Reduction provided by Greased Lightning by 5%, and provides half that maximum regardless of its level. The remainder is still generated proportionately with each level.
• Fists of Fire now increases the maximum Damage bonus provided by Greased Lightning by 5%, and provides half that maximum regardless of its level. The remainder is still generated proportionately with each level.
• New trait added: Fluid Form - For every 5 seconds spent in any one of Fists of Earth, Wind, or Fire, the effect of the others will be doubled for 1 second, to a maximum of 60 seconds of charge (5 seconds of use). This allows a brief burst of free Sprint or extreme mitigation.

Tentative/Optional: Stances worth rotating.

• The following is slightly a-traditional, as stances since ARR have been a matter of sacrificing damage for utility rather than a combination of both utility and rotational advantages as per 1.x. The Greased Lightning Movement Speed and Damage Reduction makes it doable, however, while still mostly fitting a traditional framework, in order to reduce their sense of button-bloat (albeit at some added apm requirement).
• Fists of Earth, Wind, and Fire cooldowns increased to 10 seconds (scaling with Skill Speed), but they gain a second charge at GL2 and a third charge at GL3. This is to allow for a reasonable number of opportunities to swap between them in combat without allowing their use to excessively bloat APM.

• Fists of Wind

• Increases the maximum Movement and Attack Speed provided by Greased Lightning by 5%, and provides half that maximum regardless of its current level. The remainder is still generated proportionately with each level.

• Fists of Earth

• Increases the maximum Damage Reduction provided by Greased Lightning by 5%, and provides half that maximum regardless of its level. The remainder is still generated proportionately with each level. Your Attack Power is increased by 50% of the damage thus absorbed, fading continuously over up to 6 seconds.

• Fists of Fire

• Increases the maximum Damage bonus provided by Greased Lightning by 5%, and provides half that maximum regardless of its level. The remainder is still generated proportionately with each level.

Tentative/Optional: [Notes] Stance-based Gameplay

Previously, "stances" were at best something to turn on as you swapped to Monk, and would possibly swap to and back from if the situation somehow desperately required it (which was nearly never). Now, instead, you will have reason to swap them about rotationally, speeding through oGCD-less low ppgcd gcds with Wind and maintaining Fire for oGCD-laden or high-ppgcd gcds. You cannot quite do this every rotational string, so use them sparingly to align rotation and so forth. This would not stack with the above "Fluid Form" changes.

Greased Lightning IV ("Riddle of Wind") revised as not to worsen ramp-up.

• Riddle of Wind trait replaced with the Move Like Lightning, which instead merely increases the benefits from each stack of Greased Lightning by one third. Thus, you still get the effects of GL4, but without the added ramp-up requirements or increased punishment to Tornado Kick.

Providing Greater Instantaneous Mobility

• In addition to the greater passive movement speed, Riddle of Wind returns, this time as a zero-potency movement skill usable whenever Shoulder Tackle is on cooldown.

Riddle of Wind can be used at any time within that 30 second period, to a maximum of one use, and has variable effect based on targeting and proximity:

• Used on target outside of melee range, it dashes up to 20 yalms to their position, similarly to Shoulder Tackle.
• When used from within melee range of the target, it instead backsteps to 10 yalms away from them.
• When used without a target, it dashes 12 yalms forward in your current direction of movement.

(To prevent accidental double-hits, it cannot be queued until the Shoulder Tackle animation has resolved completely.)

Chakra de-RNGed and made more bankable and convenient.

• You now hold up to 7 Chakra, because lore-numbers.
• Chakra is now generated granularly, based on relative potency dealt, requiring 1400 | 1000 relative potency per point of Chakra after Deep Mediation I | II. There is therefore no RNG beyond that of damage-dealing itself. Note, however, that this relative potency calculation specifically ignores your own Greased Lightning's damage modifier, as not to effectively double-dip and thereby making GL unintendedly punishing to drop while also giving greater value to Brotherhood as used in groups.
• Meditation is now entirely passive. It continuously generates potency (i.e. with every server polling tick) while you're off the GCD, to the effect of 1000 "Chakra-potency" every half-GCD. Note that while this is very efficient melee-downtime ppgcd for a melee, it's still far inferior to making consistent use of your GCD.
• The Forbidden Chakra and Enlightenment can now be used at any number of Chakra, dealing 75 and 45 potency per Chakra, respectively. The cooldown on each has been reduced to 2 seconds.
• Brotherhood now duplicates your Deep Meditation mechanic and splits it over self and all allies within range. Regardless of party size, or even solo play, you will now get nominally double your Deep Meditation effect over the period. However, because your Greased Lightning's damage modifier is ignored it will tend to perform best under a high number of skilled allies, as your own contribution will have reduced weight.
• To compensate for the vastly increased damage potential for the Monk itself, the physical damage raidbuff component has been removed. Thus, you no longer have to worry about being in range of everyone or about your composition.

Miscellaneous QoL

• Perfect Balance duration reduced to 8 seconds, but now has two charges, each with a 60-second cooldown. It now also leaves the Monk with access to all Forms on its next Form-specific weaponskill within 5 seconds of ending Perfect Balance.
• In the first mockup to be placed below, Perfect Balance merely removes even the softer limitations to rotating. In the second, Perfect Balance is altogether unnecessary and has been removed.

Dragon Kick reworked to soften DK-LF rigidity.

• Dragon Kick increases the critical damage bonus of Bootshine by 50% (increasing the modifier to 2x, up from 1.5x) for 15 seconds and generates Drake's | Dragon's Fist, increasing the potency of your next Bootshine by 75 potency each (75 | 150 in total).
• This means that Dragon Kick nets 225 bonus potency over a DK-Bootshine-Bootshine (+75 from Drake's Fist, and 150 from the extra 50% damage from each Bootshine) for a total of 1050 potency. Similarly, a DK-DK-Bootshine would generate a total of 1000 potency, but would have greater synergy with well timed burst multipliers on its 600-potency Bootshine (Dragon's Fist). So long as Dragon Kick is up for every Bootshine, you're relatively free to rotate in duos or trios, or even stack DK. (Ideally, restack DK when Dragon's Fist would time perfectly with RoF, when Opo-opo periods are highly split, e.g. by PB Demo-spread, SsS-TK-Anatman, or melee-downtime, or when positioning demands it.)

Now-unnecessary Abilities Removed

• Form Shift removed. The two mock-ups below both replace the need for it.

  Assume that if neither mockup below is used, Form Shift will go the way of Meditation. Every GCD's time off the GCD, you gain access to a further form (rather than moving into said new form) such that in 2 GCD's time you can use any weaponskill, allowing you to maintain pace over downtime at will and without conflict with Chakra generation. From outside of combat, likewise, one can start from any form, including an enhanced Opo-opo (if it's been more than 3 GCDs since the last form-based weaponskill), thus cutting down ramp-up by 2 GCDs if outside of PB.

• Riddle of Earth removed. Its anti-positional needs are already addressed by the mockups below, while Fists of Earth already gives enough mitigation.

  The first mockup allows you to pick skip ahead in your rotation in order to widen your range of positional choices, albeit at some cost; positioning and precise rotational mastery, therefore, are intertwined. The second offers no choices outside of your current Form, but has more choices per Form, with at least one flank and rear positional each. In either case, positioning then becomes something to master, rather than to bypass.

Currently Useless Abilities Revised

• Tornado Kick's cooldown now scales with Skill Speed. It no longer requires Greased Lightning III. Its base potency has been greatly reduced but now Tornado Kick's "damage increases proportionately with reduction to the global recast time"; the lower one's GCD, the harder it hits, and it receives twice the benefit from GL, making it still primarily to be used only in GL3 and in combination with GL-generating tools. This gives Fists of Wind and Fire an equal effect on its performance, making its oGCD gaps less crowded, and relieving its anti-synergy with high Skill Speed builds. (Exact potency will depend on the mockup below.)
• Six-sided Star buffed from 400 to 550 potency (may revise to as little as 530). This is enough to place it roughly just a positional short of average ppgcd (nearly 570 in optimal double-True rotation) or a 40-potency loss in total, and usable every other rotational string if Demolish would otherwise clip or be delayed by two ticks. Additionally, it may be worth using, depending on rotational sync, at the tail of any CD-based buff periods. It should now fit as a capstone ability, especially in combination with Tornado Kick and Anatman.
• Anatman is now again oGCD, but now ticks per GCD's time spent since actuating the ability rather than on the 3-second server DoT/HoT/resource tick (which would leave it largely subject to lucky or unlucky timing). Additionally, it now reverses GL duration decline, rather than merely pausing it. Cooldown has been reduced to 10 seconds. Some QoL features have been added.

• A secondary, softer GCD radial will be shown over weaponskills to indicate when Anatman will complete its GCD generation. While GL is not maxed, queuing a weaponskill within a half-second of Anatman's completing a tick will automatically delay the action until after the tick has completed. As an intended "bug", its effect still lingers for up to another second after breaking the channel (except via a GCD skill, for coding reasons). To prevent excess apparent synergy with Tornado Kick, its cooldown does not begin to tick down until after its effect has ended.

Summary of Changes (without Tentative components)

• You no longer need a perfect comp.
• You no longer even particularly need to be in range of a most of allies to get good use out of Brotherhood.
• Dragon Kick, Tornado Kick, and Six-sided Star now each act as you'd expect from a capstone skill; they require mastery, but they have due, integral, and iconic reward.
• SsS and TK are now worth using macrorotationally, and Anatman is far less clunky.
• Your rotation is no longer basically just a bunch of filler to optimize around DK-BS Leaden Fist alternation.
• Accordingly, you can now time your back-attacks (True and Boot) together, easing flow.
• Due to universal changes, an early use of Twin Snakes will allow the next to last all the way through a Double-True rotation unless avoiding
• Skill Speed like the plague.
• Positionals are now to be embraces as a core rotation rather than bypassed where possible (Riddle of Earth removed, while broad mechanical replacements that'd make anything like RoE unnecessary are done via the mockups below).
• Greased Lightning is now a real mechanic, but far less punishing or awkward.
• Chakra no longer requires dumb luck; it's now instead a sensible mechanic.
• Meditation and Form Shift no longer require buttons.
• In total, you've saved 4 buttons, and yet have more depth and identity to show for it.
• Stances are now noticeable but also more streamlined.
• Perfect Balance is now more integral, frequent, and variably usable, but also more streamlined.

Notes:

• Bootshine will almost certainly have to be reeled back. The Dragon Kick change has the intended effect on rotation, but not on Bootshine's contextual power. (It's just as bad as Leaden Fist was before in that regard, making our very first skill still the largest center of power for the whole kit --which is honestly pretty cool, tbf-- but will at least allow for far greater freedom of use.)
  
  
• Fists of Earth's Attack-Power-from-damage-absorbed percentile (tentative/optional), and procedure, is still obviously spitball for now. Consider it merely a conceptual illustration.
  
  
• Fists of Earth and Greased Lightning may be further changed if too many complain that Monk passively has higher eHP than other melee once in GL3. It's difficult to think of a single scenario in which this would make a difference, and I'm sure the complaints will come. Perhaps more importantly, having GL grant benefits from every stance, while iconic, could have unintended TK interactions with extreme raid damage -- though, again, I can't think of any case where being reduced to normal eHP would suddenly cause death when the game does not currently rely on DPS defensives for a party to all survive.
  
  
• The potency-per-Chakra values may be further adjusted. At present, you'd generate a point of Chakra roughly every other GCD. (I know it seems like less, but that's just because of the massive gap between nominal and relative ppgcd in Monk's kit.)
  I'm just not sure if I want to increase base Chakra generation at cost to damage modifiers elsewhere -- allowing for more APM spent on TFC, for instance -- or not. APM has a vital place, but also a vital balance, in Monk gameplay. Much would depend on whether stances (such as via the tentative/optional changes mentioned above) were to play a part, adding another 4 actions per minute or so, optimized TK usage, and other similar considerations.

[Marxam]

Can you imagine if they made MNK a 1.5 gcd job with full GL?

[VentVanitas]

Can you imagine if they made MNK a 1.5 gcd job with full GL?

No thanks, we already have Machinist. I'd rather not have another job in this game with impossible weaving.

[Shurrikhan]

Can you imagine if they made MNK a 1.5 gcd job with full GL?

Only if they allow for oGCDs to be truly queued (ping-margined). Or rather, I can easily enough imagine it, but am therefore aware it'd be hell for any but the low-ping players. The first oGCD in a gap can "queue", but not in the sense that it actually queries the server in advance to reduce the effect of ping.

The odd thing is that it's apparently a matter of flipping a switch on ability categories. One need look no further than at the alleged feature list or a Youtube video on the lead XIV hack to see that it's thereby possible to allow queued oGCDs. So then... why isn't that just part of the base game, as not to cost players twice their ping in uptime with every oGCD (atop the base 600 ms standard lock or further)? One can only wonder.