Monk rework suggestion.

[Shurrikhan]

I disagree that the Fist stances are fine. They're pointless bloat skills that you could honestly remove or convert into traits and it wouldn't change anything about how the job plays because you just set one stance and forget them. By all rights they should have been removed or turned into traits like Kiss of the Wasp/Viper were during the Stormblood action rework because they've had that problem since 2.0.

As for suggestions I'd suggest keeping the jobs core the same. GL4 and 3-Stage Form combos are fine concepts on their own, but everything that's been added to it, or many changes that have been made systemically have been a detriment to how the job feels. To fix some the problems with the job as I see them at the moment, here is what I would propose.


1. Turn the Fist Stances into traits, because they basically are anyway. Replace at least one of them with some sort of Mobility action that doesn't have damage attached to it. Honestly turning Fists of Fire into a weaker damage buff cooldown as OP suggested that upgrades into Riddle of Fire eventually would give the job some of the engagement that it's now sorely lacking at lower levels, but it could just as soon vanish.

2. Convert Tornado Kick into our Chakra AOE skill at 220 potency to all enemies nearby us. It would be the same potency as Enlightenment, but it gives TK an actual use and it allows us to actually have an AOE use for our gauge at a reasonable period instead of 10 levels later than most jobs. Right now as a button it is worse than another Niche addition to our kit, it actively makes the devs terrified of making our ability to recover Stacks decent because we might use it for a damage gain which is what made the job so miserable to play at launch.

3. Return Howling Fist as it was in Stormblood (60 second Cooldown, moderate AOE damage) at low levels. Have it upgrade to Enlightenment when we normally get it. This gives us a CD at low levels which we now entirely lack and actually makes it feel like there's a gain of strength at later levels instead of regaining what they ripped out of our kit.

4. Fundamentally change how Chakra is built so we gain it at a steady pace, such as whenever we refresh Greased Lightning and cut the RNG. This was the biggest complaint about the job after Riddle of Fire slowing us in Stormblood so naturally they doubled down on it instead of fixing it this expansion and we don't like it any more now than we did two years ago. Currently for Monk to perform at its best it needs a Scholar, a Dragoon, and a Dancer as its partner to receive their crit buffs. The literally fixed this for Bard this expansion, but chose not to for Monk because reasons.

5. Change Brotherhood so it's no longer Physical party member dependent and lacks RNG. A major point of the design for Shadowbringers was to reduce party synergies but Monk is still held in a strangle hold by crit dependence and Physical party members dependence. Potentially just have it grant Monk a stack of 3-4 of a buff that will give it a free Forbidden Chakra allowing every RoF period to be consistent rather than having to pray that we get procs, or have it proc off spells (and Ninjutsu) as well.

6. While Six Sided Star isn't useless, it's pretty underwhelming as a level 80 skill. It's good for short disengages but for such a cool animation I'd like to actually be able to use it more. I'd suggest making it a reward for Upkeeping GL/Refreshing it X number of times so we're rewarded for good play.

7. Anatman's only good point was that it was better than Riddle of Earth on Launch, but with the 5.05 changes this skill is really only good for gaining Greased Lightning stacks after a long phase but only when you can't hit the boss which makes it good for literally like two fights total. It needs an entirely new effect, be it into an upgrade to Formshift somehow to make it less spammy, or just a skill to grant full Greased Lightning immediately.

Hmm, I really don't want at least half of these changes. They effectively...

1. Remove, rather than fix, something that could instead be a powerful and unique tool.

   It's kind of like removing Trick Attack if Suiton were to only uniquely Blind the enemy instead, rather than allowing Ninja to Trick Attack any Suiton-affected enemy. Sure, it's bloat right now, but only because we've literally never tried to make it not bloat. GL4 certainly was no such attempt; it was just a pitiful excuse for having removed our ramp-up skill that allowed TK to actually be a thing -- "What do you mean we made GL even more punishing to ramp-up yet removed Riddle of Wind?! It's right there!"

2. Remove Tornado Kick's effect and Howling Fist's animation past level 72, both of which I like.

   Yes, I liked Tornado Kick for doing the unique stuff it did. Turning it into Enlightenment, and then replacing Enlightenment with a simple potency upgrade or cooldown reduction to Howling Fist, is not that.

3. [This I'm fine with.]
   
   
4. [This I'm fine with, depending on how it's done.]
   
   
5. Replace Brotherhood with straight up TFC spam rather than, say, having anything to do with Brotherhood or combined attacks, i.e. largely removes Brotherhood except as an animation and insofar as Monk would still have a rDPS buff, maybe.

   What would be so wrong with just having it also apply to Spells? There, physical-locked issue over. If you want less RNG, have it start at a higher chance and its chance diminish with each proc. But, have it still feel like its a party skill, at least. I'd sooner lose the damage buff, moving that rDPS back into Monk's pDPS, than lose that.

6. Replace SSS with a GCD that would almost certainly awkwardly affect its rotational string or a Shoha-like oGCD, i.e. removes SSS except as an animation.

   Why? Just... why? All SSS needs to be more useful are (1) more frequent and significant effects to snapshot or (2) more reasons by which to vary our rotation intentionally. Removing it from player control into a mere 'reward per X of Y' system isn't remotely SSS.

7. [This I'm fine with, depending on how it's done.]

   ...Except that I'd rather it not replace Form Shift spam... in that I'd prefer that Form Shift spam not exist in the first place as a means of maintaining GL. Hit a GCD to freeze GL, regardless of movement, until your next action? I'd be mostly fine with that. Though, I'd much prefer a shorter CD on Perfect Balance than for Anatman to just further relegate it to Leaden Fist duty.