Monk still needs a complete rework

[Vyrerus]

I was Monk in ARR. After the first few melee buffs, that was Monk's time in the sun. It didn't have animation lock to deal with, but it only had a 12 second GL, and Shoulder Tackle couldn't be used unless you were at least 10 yalms away from the monster, but no further than 19. Something like that. I don't remember the precise yalmage, but it was awkward. It had the highest personal DPS, but it offered little raid utility outside of lowering magical raid wide damage and increasing healing received with Enhanced Mantra at healing crunches. PB was on like... a 3 minute cooldown, so you just used it for the opener, but only if you knew you wouldn't lose stacks within the first three minutes. Basically, in all fights, it would lag behind DRG's starting spike for like 80 seconds, and then its DPS would overtake DRG. The time of two melee DPS lol.

Over the years they kept giving GL more and more time. First bumping it to 14 seconds. Then later bumping it to 16 seconds. MNK was actually at a decent spot in Heavensward due to still having the highest personal DPS (at least after GL got its buff to +10% dmg), but the playerbase mindset got really on board with the "meta." Queue all the, "Delete MNK" memes.

Stormblood gave it Brotherhood... the devs trying to give it "utility" in the form of the weirdest buff ever that didn't even do anything for MNK, particularly if with all casters. Riddle of Fire was welcome. Tornado Kick saw some use here at the end of the RoF spike, but still didn't feel good. I didn't keep up with it much by this point, because I was bored of it, and it felt clunkier than it had in the past, despite not really much changing.

Shadowbringers gave us the Anatman opener, which I didn't like at first, server ticks and all that. But MNK was extremely strong, and topping the parse in the first Eden Savage tier was fairly effortless in my groups. My raid leader said it was disgustingly powerful and needed to be nerfed. Oddly though, other than Anatman, nothing about the job had changed conceptually, and even though I was enjoying the power, it felt stale. THey also took my favorite oGCD, Howling Fist, away.

Now it just feels weird. Like it got shot with a tranq dart. I mean, sure, it's nice not having to work constantly just to keep up, but it's stale beyond getting to use Tornado Kick, the animation for which was not planned for constant use, so you never get to see it. It feels like I'm playing the job wrong, even though I'm not, and I just find no enjoyment in it.

As far as the elemental fists go, they never changed until Stormblood, where they were each associated with their Riddle. Each Riddle skill forced you into one or the other, so they at least all saw use. I still kinda miss the extra tackle from Riddle of Wind sometimes.

[Jirah]

Man I was holding for a lobotomy for MNK but making a melee a dumdum job like most of the Ranged isn’t easy unless you throw out positional and just have a single rotation do everything.

Yes MNK still has its tight positionals and needs more attention but I do like the PB and Form shift changes a lot. I fear Brotherhood will be nerfed somewhere down the line

[Realism_Snide]

I like the changes as well, but I am worried that it is becoming homogenised with sam and nin. If they are going the route of "focusing more on chakra", it would become the third melee job who's other gimmick is "build up a gauge, and then spend it"

[MartaDemireux]

I'd prefer it if they kept the fist elements but had them relate to Chakra and be temporary buffs, like riddles. Give them the WAR Berserk treatment so to speak.

Fists of Fire could give the standard DPS boost, eventually upgrading into Riddle of Fire which could give some Chakra when used, too.

Fists of Earth could function exactly as Riddle of Earth and eventually upgrade into it with charges and directional ignoring added. Maybe grant 1 Chakra if damage is taken while RoE is up.

Fists of Wind could increase movement speed for a short period and upgrade into Riddle of Wind which could give Chakra a temporary overflow for high generation phases.

Then, with these abilities giving chakra, we could add in more abilities that use the resource. Perhaps abilities that are altered by previously used Fists/Riddles - kind of like how the stances altered Shoulder Tackle in SB (but not exactly like that again).