Monk Needs a Complete Rework

[Mahrze]

Also here's a fun check in that everyone loves to hear, now that the clear rates for jobs week to week for Savage have normalized, Monk is once again the least played job in everything other than TEA. Not because it's weak, but because its design in Shadowbringers kept its problems and pleased basically no one.

Which is no surprise from the census back in feb from Lucky bancho? Isn't MNK the least played overall barring BLU? And even then not by much in difference?

[Sora_Oathkeeper]

I'm never surprised that MNK is the least played in all content (barring some Ultimates). I'm certain MNK has been the least played DPS job since HW minus a brief moment in SB where it was slightly above MCH. The job's become stale since HW as no interesting mechanic has been introduced. DRG got BotD upkeep which is rewarded with LotD, while not much of a mechanic is at least a gauge that ramps up and allows a decent burst phase. NIN has Ninki management and while not the most intuitive at least has some decent skills attached to it. Ninjutsu feels engaging and is super nice when you can chain Ninjutsu together when out of melee range. I haven't played SAM since SB but my wife has it leveled and even that seems somewhat improved rotationally.

There's nothing engaging about GL or Chakra stacks 6 years (4 for chakras) after their inception. To me personally neither feel like a mechanic, I have no control over chakras and GL is so easy to maintain now that there's no thought needed. If you lose GL it's because 1) The fight forces you too. 2) You died. Or 3) you fell into the trap of using TK when you shouldn't have. Neither 'mechanics' have evolved in the slightest. Keeping GL has been made easier but outside of that there's almost no interaction with the gauge itself. The job is just boring now which pains me to say because I love martial artists in other games because the aesthetics resonate with me. It almost feels like they've palmed all 'engagement' into the same positionals we've been doing for 6 years and given up on any other form of engagement. I think MNK's numbers are as high as they are currently because they're at least still really good DPS wise. Just a shame that after 6 years MNK has had next to 0 evolution.

Rework when please SE?

[Ultimatecalibur]

It almost feels like they've palmed all 'engagement' into the same positionals we've been doing for 6 years and given up on any other form of engagement. I think MNK's numbers are as high as they are currently because they're at least still really good DPS wise. Just a shame that after 6 years MNK has had next to 0 evolution.

Monk has been doing the same 6 postional weaponskill rotaion since ARR and lost 2 of its single target alternate weaponsskills. Monk has kind of devolved in its rotation rather than evolved.

[Sora_Oathkeeper]

Monk has been doing the same 6 postional weaponskill rotaion since ARR and lost 2 of its single target alternate weaponsskills. Monk has kind of devolved in its rotation rather than evolved.

100% agree. Rotationally we have devolved and while everyone had at least one thing gutted from their pre-existing moveset except cross class skills MNK has lost the most; Howling Fist, ToD, Fracture (though a CC skill was still valuable on MNK) and Internal Release are the big ones. And then we lost minor skills like Featherfoot, Haymaker and OIP and while I don't miss them as such because they were bad, there was no reason not to rework Haymaker/OIP into something that COULD have been useful and relevant for more than a handful's worth of content. 7 skills total gutted from MNK, 4 of which saw use in every fight. Definitely a de-evolution in terms of rotation. Wonder what we'll lose next.

[VentVanitas]

I won't be surprised if they take away elixir field in the next expansion. I'm noticing a pattern that they just do not want us to have any fun/cool looking skills at all, or gate them behind caveats that ruin our rotation and damage.

Speaking of, why is MNK the only job that has skills that actively punish the player for using them? I don't think there's a single other class out there with moves like that. You can argue "using X on Y job would offset our rotation-" but none are actually programmed to penalise you for using them like TK and SSS. It doesn't add depth or skill, it just makes it so that no one is going to use them.

[wereotter]

I feel like they just aren't putting love into the job and they don't know what to add.

It doesn't help that other titles in the series don't really give much inspiration either, monk was always just the hit hard job with not much else going on.

I don't want them to make another dancer clone... but the only thing that I could think of that might make the job feel more fresh again would be to add blitzes like from FFVI. Enter in the right combo of moves to do a big damage attack, and perhaps they could upgrade over time or change based off fist stance. But as I mentioned, entering in a combo of moves is basically dancer/ninja now... and there would need to be a different way to add that in.

Either way I agree, the job needs help, they've gutted out too much from it, and now the job is kind of dull to play.

[Tracewood]

A few months ago, I'd be in disagreement on how MNK is handled, but after coming back from the ease and fluidity that is SAM, MNK is just not fun anymore. The biggest issue I've found is with Greased Lit just such a hurdle in long fights, constant boss transitions in the same battle, or tanks who wait too long to pull. I think a fix would be for Perfect Balance to just automatically give you full stacks of Greased Lit, and then it's up to you to keep it up. They may increase the timer again for balance sake, or take away the stanceless bit from it.

That new kick move? Make it off global cooldown but on a longer timer, and more potent. (and only available when you have full stacks of GL)

If PB gives you full GL, it should theoretically make Tornado Kick far more useful, so you don't have to stress over regaining stacks.

[VentVanitas]

Going from SAM to MNK is honestly such a downgrade. There is no surprise in how it is a largely more popular job than it. It always has something to build up or build towards. Whether it be Kenki, Sen or Shoha. What does monk even have? Chakra? You don't even have control over how you obtain it since it's stuck behind two layers of RNG. There is literally nothing to do when playing MNK besides waiting for Brotherhood/Riddle of Fire/Perfect Balance to come off cooldown. Between that, it's hitting the same 6 weaponskills (since 3 are dedicated to AoE only) for about 90 seconds.

[Sora_Oathkeeper]

Job survey for 5.25 was released today:

https://imgur.com/a/ymqa7ju

To no one's surprise, MNK is bottom by a fair way. Now, the data is limited with only 126 responses, but that data in itself also says that not many people are playing the job. It's a small sample but in relation to other jobs seems about right from what I've seen ingame, on reddit and on these forums.

Original reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...urvey_results/

[SpeckledBurd]

Looking at the Data on Monk a little closer and comparing it to the previous survey, the overall percentage of Monk respondents who are satisfied is down by about 12%, the number who are indifferent on the job is up 10%, and the amount dissatisfied is up 3%. In general it was a shift towards dissatisfaction across the board with greater numbers of players who were extremely dissatisfied and overall drops in extreme or even moderate satisfaction.