Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Sora_Oathkeeper]

A MNK rework could be broken down into what really needs to change to make the job more enticing to the players again. For most players, newcomers and all, MNK is a fast paced but overwhelming job because of:

- Constant positionals. All of which are from the same base combo string since level 50. No new animations, nothing. It gets boring. The loss of Touch of Death and Fracture can really be felt these days during our base rotation.

- Low buff timer on Greased Lightning, making it seem daunting.

- 2 fold RNG tied to Chakras

- FoF & FoW giving the same damage % increase (yes, I know FoF is technically 43% damage and FoW is 40% but faster under buffs). Honestly I've seen too many MNKs stay in FoF, I get that some players may not like "too much speed" but why is MNK the only job with this strange choice? MCHs don't get the luxury of picking a slower paced GCD on Heat Blast...

- Too many niche skills! The highest points of leveling a job imo is checking out all of the awesome stuff you get and then being able to use it. It gives the sense that the job is evolving and that it's getting stronger. MNK really doesn't get that and is actually abysmal to level until you can get Form Shift. Tack on to that, when you are fully leveled you now have to try and figure out nuanced min-max ways to use 6SS, TK and Anatman AND gain chakra during downtime all the while feeling bad that you just had your power AND speed completely gutted.

- Greased Lightning simply doesn't feel good to maintain as it once did. Maintaining GL3 in ARR and HW actually felt good, why? Because the payoff was that you were top of the DPS (until you factored in the ridiculously overpowered buffs the other jobs gave), but in terms of adjusted DPS. MNK was at the top with BLM and Greased Lightning felt an actual mechanic to allow that kind of DPS. The small timer, the big damage % increase, it was all worth it. All MNK needed back then was a 120s Perfect Balance instead of 180s and it would have been perfect for that Era. These days though? It doesn't feel rewarding, it's a ball ache. On top of the GL timer I've gotta get my chakras up, pay attention to how long a phase transition is, can I tornado kick? is there enough time for anatman? Should I 6SS or just meditate? Now I've gotta spam form shift for 10 years to make sure GL doesn't fall off... Etc... MNK has become a spam fest in downtime. That's really not fun imo.

My proposal:

If they want MNK to be engaging; Keep Greased Lightning, but make the haste a passive trait that is gained each time you unlock a new level of GL, keep GL purely damage based. If GL is going to be this low timer buff, don't make the punishment of losing it be so big. It could simply decrease one level. That would be fine, losing 20% haste + 40% damage is insanely punishing and the supposed reward for upkeep is 'being on par with everyone else, except BLM, SMN and SAM'. Reward me for keeping up this huge buff please Square! Free Tornado Kick? Yes please, just something, anything.

Remove the niche skills, make MNK more accessible to players. I don't need Form Shift, Anatman, Perfect Balance, 6SS, RoE and TK all to do something with Greased Lightning, whether it takes it away, extends it, keeps it, grants it, refreshes it etc... I just need a way to get it and maintain it. If we go the route of having a skill that expends it, just have it remove one stack, not the entire buff.

Remove Fist stances. Everyone says "yeah but what if we just made it so that this stance does this, and this one does this?". Unless they make them like BRD songs which you cycle between there will never be a valid choice, and to be honest I'm tired of the fist stances. They tried and failed in SB, they barely bothered to try in ShB and tacked on GL4 to Wind to make it relevant, but in doing so made Fire completely irrelevant outside of 0.1% of situations. Just remove them.

Add back one or two non positional and non-form GCDs. Heck, rework Six Sided Star to be one. Make it like Air Anchor or Drill, a big hit that doesn't require a positional with a CD attached but it's on the GCD and doesn't double your GCD... There needs to be a way to buffer our positional attacks for when we can't hit it. RoE is okay but it takes out any engagement in even trying to hit the positionals.

Add some more oGCDs and new animations to our core rotation. As someone that played MNK for 6 years, seeing some new animations used frequently as part of a rotation would actually be very refreshing. I love TK and 6SS but, seeing them once or twice a fight is kind of disappointing.

Lastly, rework chakra. Allow it to have an overflow and give it a consistent way of being built, for example positionals and an oGCD could give some.

These are just my ideas though.