Monk - My Thoughts & Suggestions

[Recon1o6]

thoroughly impressed. I'd actually pick up monk again for the first time since 2.0

[AnotherPerson]

Making Greased Lightning a buff that doesn't need to worry about reaching 3 stacks to reach its maximum potential is good as well as the Chakra Gauge being more important to the Monk gameplay since Chakra is their main thing. I like Form Shift being a lv 15 skill for that reason - it can be properly maintained under lv 50.

A bit of issues - pugilist skills should get buffed to compensate for the loss of potency or get some more skills being introduced because those pugilist quests are actually pretty brutal even with 2-3 GL stacks and removing 20% extra damage buff will make them very difficult to beat unless you wore the best gear available in those solo instances (and for the most part, people who are starting out the game with pugilist as their first class will run into huge issues when doing their storyline quest).

I do believe having Blessing of the Wind's movement speed buff is better left at lv 34 or whenever you unlock the mobility buff. The blessing of fire however, makes things really tricky to use gates. With a 10% damage up on 2+ gates, then you never want to fall under 2 gates, or otherwise it translates to loss of GCD potency overtime as you rebuild it back up to hit 2 gates. This means using the DoT is discouraged unless the DoT severely overpowers the potency loss that makes it worthwhile to expend all the Chakra Gates up until you reach 2+ gates again. Essentially monks will trade a DoT potency for their 10% upkeep overtime.

I think there should be a bit more focus to GL though - Greased Lightning Gauge should be treated as a resource that can be expended in conjunction to monk specific skills instead of a 30-40% damage buff, and GL buff enables you to gain GL resources over time as long as it's maintained, sorta like Enochian. A big part of the storyline in SB is that monks end up adapting to Pugilist fighting style (aka Greased Lightning usage and pugilist skills) to have an answer for the anti-monk combat techniques. I do think monks should have a bit focus to GL for this reason.

I'm also laughing inside if and when monks get Hundred Fists because Hamon can already use it. Imagining Hamon reaching enlightenment to use Hundred Fists is hilarious in its own way.

[Sqwall]

I hope SE is reading this thread...

[wereotter]

Sad that after all that work, at least part of this is already out of date after yesterday's live letter announcements...

BUT I do really like some of the ideas in here. I love that you implemented blitzes without them just being another copy of mudras/dances. Though I think the system created might be a bit too complicated. People already look at ninja from the outside and see that system as being too complicated and too many options to remember, and I would worry that the system you created might suffer from the same issue. And if the skills you're executing when you do the rotation don't matter since you're just going through your rotation machine gunning skills, then why make 7 if they do little mechanically different?

Either way it's a great start to implementing that into the job.

[Shurrikhan]

Late to the party, but just want to say likewise that I love the ideas here and their presentation, and I hope the devs get a look at it. (Though it's likely too late for it to change their minds on much, if they try to blame a mechanics-gutting, oversimplified revision on a lack of player feedback or concrete suggestions, we can at least point them here.)

My own route, which grad school and full time work cut short of completion, went a completely different way, but I'd be just as happy to get this, especially with some further minor tweaks:

Points of possible improvement off the top of my head...

• Why bother with Greased Lightning at all at that point? 2.5 GCD, 2.5 GCD, 2.5 GCD, 2.0 GCD pre Form-Shift seems pretty... stark, and unnecessary. Plus... it'd then make Form Shift still obligatory as pre-fight pseudo-bloat or as dungeon downtime spam. Why have either?
• Can we do anything to improve the button-efficiency of the basic weaponskills? For instance, why not replace Greased Lightning itself with a sort of flow mechanic that prompts the standard rotation over time while still allowing for some flexibility? (For instance, maybe each new form adds a 5% Damage buff, stacking to 3 but allowing for a further 2 or 3 as safety margin; these are consumed based on how recently a form was used, such as a double-Demolish consuming 2 stacks.) And, heck, then we could trim Form Shift with zero loss in depth.
• The suggested Meditate design at present seems... odd, especially under that name.
• Anatman still seems a bit lackluster.
• Elixir Field seems like it should have more or more unique Chakra interaction. It's like you're purging your body of all its excess aether, after all. I get that we'll be losing APM from no longer firing away constant TFCs, but Elixir Field feels a bit misplaced to me as a rotational (now, merely almost) zero-synergy skill. I'd love to see it do something more interesting, especially if you're bringing back Steel Peak. Heck, I'd love to see Steel Peak do something more, too.
• I don't quite get the point of your Elements system here. It doesn't seem to add much of anything overall.
• I'm not sold on the Mantra change. I, too, want to see it do more than just provide bonus healing, but so long as the skills have to be used in sequence, this can be a bit awkward unless the duration is extended.