Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[ValStormbreaker]

Part 2

I prefer being able to fit in as many abilities within the PB window as I can based on my skill and what I'm capable of doing at the speeds I'm capable of playing. Suggesting we force PB into a strict 6 GCDs would take that away from players like me, in order to make it accessible for players who aren't good enough to do it on their own, ping or no ping. That devalues actual skill and practice, and neuters the job further. No thank you!

Also, the fact that SE allows MCH’s...

How Machinist is designed is a mutually exclusive topic from how Fists of Fire works. We don't even know that the same people were responsible for the same decisions between both jobs. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

About the chakra gauge...

Wu Xing doesn't mean "five chakras," it means "five elements,". They are conceptually tied to the idea of chakra points on the body, and the system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts in various Far East Asian cultures since it flourished in the Han Dynasty.

The reason it's not going anywhere is because it's of cultural relevance to the Far East Asian player demographic, and we're talking about a Japanese publisher. The likelihood that this will change because you want an alteration to the chakra system is small.

I don’t think Sora meant TK being...

I understand what she meant. It's still antithetical to the identity of the martial artist job. In fighting games, meter management is a thing you need to handle yourself. Making it a "reward" for keeping GL stacks up for what is pretty much the recast time of a True North is once again taking away a big chunk of agency from the player.

Whether or not you want to accept it, the double tornado kick opener is actually still possible in SHB. People have posted about this on these very forums before, myself included. It's extremely fun to do, too, and it is still viable for content, even if it isn't optimal. The problems with it which make the effort in pulling it off not worth it are only two things, 1) it's not powerful enough to justify dropping stacks, and 2) the 10-second recast time causes GCD clipping in specific situations. The solutions to this are very simple: buff TK and reduce its recast time by two seconds.

Then, those of us who actually ENJOY the opener and WANT to use it again have the option to do so. And pulling it off at high speeds requires skill, finesse and precise timing, so being able to do it feels like a reward for having skill. Suggesting making it a proc for doing something as braindead as not dropping stacks for 45 seconds not only removes the feeling of it being rewarding, it restricts how often it can be used and inhibits variety of gameplay. Again, this hurts the job further and restricts player agency by overly simplifying it.

[ValStormbreaker]

Part 3

Like you said...

MCH wasn't completely revamped mid-expansion into what it is now compared to Stormblood. If you want to have that discussion with MNK, save it for when 6.0 is around the corner, since it's not productive to have it in the here and now when there are more straightforward alternatives you're infinitely more likely to get.

Tying chakra generation to positionals is a taller order from a programming perspective than perhaps you're willing to give credit for. It also isn't a completely thought-out idea, since it means every 5 GCDs I'll have tFC and that not only causes balance problems, it disrupts the rhythm, beat and flow of the job's rotation, especially with how it plays on a controller. All the double-weaving MNK has is in the same sets of pairs, and that is what gives the job its waltz-like 3-beat structure. All of a sudden, what sounds like a simple idea on paper to you winds up opening a can of worms that just makes things more unnecessarily complicated and affects other parts of the job. You can't suggest stuff like that in a vacuum, you have to think of how it affects the package.

What you would like, in essence, is what I've been suggesting since before 5.0 then, and that's the inclusion of Somersault. It's a cool-looking oGCD that deals damage and gives a chakra, allowing for players to offset the sting of RNG with a bit more control. This way you're not stuck at 4 out of 5 chakras and get unlucky with RNG before your burst window runs out with nothing to do.

I can't stress this enough... I think if we could only ask for two major changes, and what we got was 5.1 Axe Kick from PvP and Somersault (with adjusted potencies, of course), rotations will be affected such that 90% of the problems people obsess over would minimize into non-issues and hair-splitting gripes. We'd get two oGCDs, have the GL stack issue solved, and have a bit more control over chakra, all while looking cool doing it. And the icons are already done and the animations are already made so there's very little time or cost needed to implement them. The only other thing I'd do is to buff TK and shave 2 seconds off its recast time and MNK is pretty much back in good shape and fun to play.

Couldn't ask for a simpler or more elegant solution if you tried.

But asking for things like trying to reinvent how chakra gain works and making TK into a skill that procs, and all that... that's just getting into "reinventing the wheel" territory and makes things more complex than it needs to be. If this is the nature of the suggestions that MNK mains have been giving over the past few years, then it's no wonder these suggestions aren't being implemented, because compared to "buff TK and slap two seconds off its recast time, and move these two pre-existing PvP moves into PvE," we're getting a bit lofty and leaping into "easier said than done" territory. Keep it simple, and you're more likely to get what you want sooner rather than later.