Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[ValStormbreaker]

Sooooo... I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but as someone who has been out of the PvP loop since this past patch, I only just popped back over to the Wolves Den Pier to find my 5.0 MNK PvP hotbar had some skills removed, and when I went back to look at what was changed, I saw Axe Kick was not only reintroduced, but the way the skill works was completely different than how it was before.

And I have to say, potency numbers aside, it's exactly what PvE MNK needs right now. I mean, yes, I would agree that MNK needs a total overhaul, but in the short term, if no other changes were to be made to the job, giving it this one oGCD would make a huge difference in several respects.

For those of you who haven't seen it, 5.1 Axe Kick is now an AoE which gives a GL stack for each target hit. In a single-target fight, it would be swapped in where Anatman is currently being used in the Anatman opener, giving one stack instantly. However, since it's an AoE, it could be used in dungeons to help us get stacks back very quickly, which might even be preferable to something like Wind Tackle or burning a PB if you drop your stacks, as against a trash mob you can potentially max your stacks out right away.

With a tool like this, in addition to Anatman which can be used for things like phase transitions as it was intended, who knows, maybe having an accelerated way to get stacks back might wind up making a mid-rotation tornado kick viable again. Or maybe not, who knows until we test it out. But I love the idea of it being universal between the single-target and AoE rotations, and I would be more than willing to give up the very silly-looking form shift spam for this in dungeon situations and as a 2nd GCD replacement for Anatman in single-target openers.

5.x MNK has been lacking in oGCDs compared to SB MNK, and many players want one or two oGCDs put back. Axe Kick and Somersault were two I have suggested for SHB MNK since early access, and this is the best version of Axe Kick yet. If SAM could get an oGCD back, I think in the immediate short-term, this is the best thing we could all ask for, as it's unlikely at this point we'd get a full rework until 6.0. The best part is, its animation, icon, visual effects and job effects are already in the game, it just needs to be moved over, making it a realistic, quick, and cheap/cost effective thing to implement into PvE. The actual damage output of it could have a small potency, something like a formless Arm of the Destroyer (80 potency to all targets), or even less for all I care, it just needs to do its job with GL stacks and it's pretty perfect in both single-target and AoE/trash mob contexts.