Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Mahrze]

How is that, exactly, when it has not been treated as a mechanic save for precisely two times? Back in ARR it was a significant skill gap component for which MNK was rewarded with optimized damage bordering on or exceeding that of optimized BLMs. The only other time was during the later half of SB, during which it also inadvertently enforced a TK playstyle at lower SkS levels due to the sheer power of its timeable burst in an era swamped with large performance gaps from raid buff optimization alone but at least made intelligent, synergetic use of its toolkit. Those are the only two times, and the only two directions, in which the devs have ever tried to really make a core gameplay loop out of it, and neither of those required any additional bloat or skill-spam be devoted to its use, unlike the Form Shift spam between fights we see to day atop Anatman, SSS, and TK all competing for a part of play so underwhelming that its interactions are niche (Anatman, TK, SSS) or pure gimmick/anti-QoL (Form Shift spam).

There is no requirement that GL not be rewarding. It already has been, and that's been when taking only a slim part of the opportunities available to it.

I don’t see how you can write all that and not realize that GL is being forced as a mechanic. In ARR the gimmick was GL because it was the make or break thing for MNK, it game MNK its identity. SBs TK rotation was something the community did, not the developers, they likely didn’t even think the community would come up with something like that. Keep in mind that when people complained about the 3 tackle issue and asked instead of GL4, they disagreed because “GL4 would be too powerful” as per QA back in 2017, and it wasn’t until they gutted MNK of extra oGCDs that they decided to remove the speed nerf from RoF.

Q: The new monk skill “Riddle of Fire” is a very powerful buff, but because the effect increases the GCD, it is very stressful to play. Monk had a feeling of speedy combat, so if adjustments are possible, please implement them.

A: We considered Greased Lightning IV, but felt it would become too fast and widen the gap between player DPS even further. We understand that you may feel more stressed about the recast time increase rather than the buff itself; however, I’m sure players will see the effect of this from prolonged battles, such as those from Omega: Deltascape (Savage). Despite this, if we do receive more requests, then we’ll consider it; however, we believe it’s somewhat complete, so we would appreciate if you could first try it out.

in ShB as is we both are aware that they still treat GL as a gimmick/mechanic when we got 2 skills relating to it and one anti-qol change to the most spammed skill we have to “adjust” for the usual “GL loss”.

As you can see GL (and its buffs by association) has always been treated like one since you don’t have a choice when it comes to GL, the times when its optimal to “lose the stacks” are so rare that it makes TK almost not usable nor the requisites tied to it any less “intuitive”. GL gives MNK both damage and speed and by design you never want to lose it, and even if speed was removed, the damage buff it gives will still make it something you don’t want to lose.

Like what? Give me something more than just Foul or Chakra-but-with-even-more-RNG and I'll probably be quite invested. But until then, GL retaining its speed component, a Dragon Kick rework, a bit of internal potency balancing, and that GL speed component finally being played around as part of the core experience is all that's needed in order to return branching rotational options that can turn Monk's stale, unvaried rotation into something capable of tremendous nuance, tactility, and flexibility, so I'm naturally going to want GL to retain its speed component until your alternate version it offers something better than a nuanced, flexible, and tactical rotation. Tornado Foul is not that.

I wasn’t giving you tornado foul or chakra a la carte. Nor am I asking you to be invested. You’re advocating for a nuance that at this point doesn’t exist. The problem why many of us can’t agree is due to how many directions they can take MNK forward all can be 50/50 at best.

Chakras are make or break due to RNG reliant, pushing a “BRD” approach to give them some form of guaranteed proc and SE will land the nerf hammer on MNK hard and fast. Some others talk about 7/14/Light/Dark chakras and while that *could* be an interesting idea, but at best I see them giving us something like RDM to gain “light” and “dark”. Even “Meditation” atm feels like an unnecessary button to press while not in combat when you could just have TFC available by default.

Positionals were made near non-existent with 80%+ uptime to negate them through 2 abilities with the one that matters the most is the one associated to Dragon Kick + Leaden Fist. you at best need 10-15 seconds of bothering with positionals to maintain “perfect” uptime.

The Fists have never really worked outside of staying in FoF unless “something” happens that allows you to swap to the other. And the forms are basically a way for them to gate a “dance sequence” to a branching 6 skill loop that we look for some nuance in, with Form Shift rn being the biggest offender in spamming a button because you “have to”.

And then the subject at hand, GL. Somehow treating the stack you get from it as a resource you have to make the choice on betting it on TK (which only matters before the end of the fight or a long transition (which I only really use at the end of a fight and I am aware I am not a top tier MNK)) but if the transition is shorter than the 16s, you don’t release GL because of how valuable it is.

And what would I propose? A full rework. Idk how but all of these imo just don’t seem to hold any weight in value and are just there because MNK “needed” something it make it “different” from the rest.


Addendum: MNK as it stands is not a brawler by any comparison. It just punches things. Its a PUG pretending to be a MNK. I'd rather see MNK be a brawler with a high risk/high reward approach not by "losing" its main source of power. A brawler than focuses on sustained damage rather than a "burst phase" every 60/90/120s like every other DPS. Sustained damage that is rewarded because you know how to use your skills effectively. A brawler that has the speed to move in and out and having the tools to make the risk be rewarding for the mobility.