Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Shurrikhan]

Outside of purely mechanical or gameplay problems, this is probably my biggest gripe with MNK. There is no aesthetic progression or consistency. Someone had already pointed out in another thread that Elixir Field, while looks cool, makes absolutely no sense. If we learn EF that early, then why does it take us two expansions to essentially do the same move, but sideways? (Enlightenment)

I've never been a fan of Elixir Field. It looks like it should be this fitting decisive "all in" spender of some granular resource, where one benefits in certain ways from having so rapidly spent that resource or from having emptied it, but instead it's just... mediocre free damage.

Heck, it makes me wish MNK would go more down the "action" route and have positionally dependent skills. No target and mid-jump? You get the EF we have now. Targeted? Enlightenment? Targeted, mid-jump? A combination of the two that allows you to vault away. Etc., etc.

[Kolsykol]

I've never been a fan of Elixir Field. It looks like it should be this fitting decisive "all in" spender of some granular resource, where one benefits in certain ways from having so rapidly spent that resource or from having emptied it, but instead it's just... mediocre free damage.

Heck, it makes me wish MNK would go more down the "action" route and have positionally dependent skills. No target and mid-jump? You get the EF we have now. Targeted? Enlightenment? Targeted, mid-jump? A combination of the two that allows you to vault away. Etc., etc.

The name itself doesn't even make sense to me lol.
'' Elixir Field ''. Wat?
I thought I was a Monk, not an Alchemist xD...

I don't mind the jump into the air and all that, but I think it'd be cool too if instead of jumping into the air and doing it your character did more of a Hadoken move and the beam went forward instead.
Heck, I want a Shoryuken move too lol.
I mean cmon, there's so much to draw from just looking at fighting games as inspiration.
Or Chun's Hyakuretsukyaku.

There's such an endless amount of reference material to be inspired by, far more than with other classes.

[Shurrikhan]

The name itself doesn't even make sense to me lol.
'' Elixir Field ''. Wat?
I thought I was a Monk, not an Alchemist xD...

Sadly, even the only version named differently, the Japanese, amounts only to "Blue Energy Cannon". I mean, really?

With the power of, something... maybe Chakra... maybe Ki... maybe Greased Lightning... I get to use a 220-potency AoE once every 30 seconds via a big Blue Energy Cannon?

[SpeckledBurd]

Sadly, even the only version named differently, the Japanese, amounts only to "Blue Energy Cannon". I mean, really?

With the power of, something... maybe Chakra... maybe Ki... maybe Greased Lightning... I get to use a 220-potency AoE once every 30 seconds via a big Blue Energy Cannon?

Elixir Field is actually an odd, probably overly literal translation of a concept related to the same Chinese mysticism/martial arts that the ideas of Chakras and chi come from that could also be translated as "Sea of Chi".

Honestly anything would have been a better name for it like "Roaring Wave Fist" or "Silent Roar" like Ivon Coeurlfist's Hadoken move was called. I'd also throw the same criticism at "Enlightenment", because nothing says spiritual realization like firing a laser out of your hands.

[Sora_Oathkeeper]

It's actually a really odd, overly literal translation of a concept related to Chinese mysticism/martial arts that the ideas of Chakras and chi come from that could also be translated as "Sea of Chi".

Honestly anything would have been a better name for it like "Roaring Wave Fist" or "Silent Roar" like Ivon Coeurlfists Hadoken move was called. Though I'd also throw the same criticism at "Enlightenment", because nothing says spiritual realization like firing a laser out of your hands.

Surprised they didn't just call it Aura Cannon since that's Sabin's move in FF6 and looks practically identical. Plus Aura Cannon sounds a lot more cooler than Enlightenment- which seems like it would suit a better name to Anatman.

[Ultimatecalibur]

You don't seem to be getting what I was getting at. Having 9 GCDs fighting over each other for usage will not solve or fix anything with MNK. Brotherhood's Buff of giving you chakras from other player's weaponskills would cause your proposed 3 skills to be detrimental due to the RNG of it and in standard rotation would throw off any sort of rhythm/harmony that the GCD skills we have at current provide. The core rotation of MNK has almost never been an issue and throwing new GCDs into the mix would only muddle things and in practice would be an utter nightmare to optimize/execute.

I think you are far over estimating the difficulty of execution/optimization (save for on paper) and interference in rhythm/harmony.

All the addition of these 3 skills would do is create a simple priority system based on current Form and number of open Chakra. Open Chakra is something that the gauge makes highly visible already even when you only currently need to be aware of 2 states (5 open and less than 5 open). These new skills would only add a single new state to track: less than 3 open.

Opo-opo Form:

• Is Leaden Fist not up? Dragonkick
• 0, 1 or 2 Chakra open? New Skill 1
• 3 or 4 Chakra open? Bootshine

Raptor Form:

• Is Twin Snakes not up? Twin Snakes
• 0, 1 or 2 Chakra open? New Skill 2
• 3 or 4 Chakra open? True Strike

Coeurl form:

• Is Demolish not up? Demolish
• 0, 1 or 2 Chakra open? Snap Punch
• 3, 4 or 5 Chakra open? New Skill 3

Brotherhood is only active 15s every 90s. The remaining 75s Monk is constantly at the whims of RNG to determine when the next Forbidden Chakra comes up (and even with Brotherhood they are still at the whims of RNG). It could be within 5 gcds or the Monk could be waiting for in indeterminate amount of time if RNG really doesn't likely them, but on average a monk is waiting about 17 or 18 gcds per FC.

Bootshine (Leaden Fist) not being the only thing keeping this class alive DPSwise.

Solvable by pushing the average potency of the Raptor Form and Coeurl Form rotations up to around 250 potency.

which seems like it would suit a better name to Anatman.

Anatman is the concept of no true self and therefore no true duration which explains Anatman freezing GL.

[SpeckledBurd]

What you're proposing is to "fix" Monk's core GCD loop, one of the few parts of the job that doesn't need fixing, for basically no satisfying end. You're adding new weaponskills to the rotation, but in a way that's going to be broadly un-intuitive to most players with the only goal being mitigating the RNG of Deep Meditation/Chakra. Deep Meditation and RNG Chakra are both aspects of the job most players think need to be completely removed rather than something we need a bunch more niche skills to mitigate.

It frankly doesn't sound fun to play or even satisfying. It just seems like more Niche weaponskills on a job that has way too many of those specifically to avoid fixing a bigger problem.

[Shurrikhan]

...

Is Chakra, short of having a ton more, and more interesting, mechanics added to it, even worth redesigning our weaponskills around, though? While, in principle, I'd like to see more weaponskills, this 1-2, 3-4, or 5 Chakra 'check and pop' arrangement somehow looks less interesting, even, than what we have now.