Monk has too many Positionals

[IruruCece]

Admittedly, I dont play monk

Admittedly, I don't play summoner, but not because I dont want to... But rather because their summon rotations throw me off the job so much! Ive tried to play it so many times now and I just wind up like a chicken with its head cutt off trying to manage my summons OGCDs for better dmg output. I love the way it looks but does dang near every optimal rotation have to have so many OGCDs to use?

Jokes aside: not every job is for everyone. Summoner isn't for me, but I don't want the devs to make summoner be for me, because what I want out of a job isn't necessarily what people who love summoner want out of a job.

[Vespar]

Wait, what? Trick Attack gets used on cooldown every minute, with Suiton providing the Hidden buff so NIN can TA.

Anyways, MNK positionals are fine. It's supposed to be fast and mobile, positionals allow for that by making the player move to get that optimal DPS. And again, if you're looking for a simpler Melee DPS then there are other options.

Admittedly been a while since I played NIN and I had forgotten about Suiton.

That said, I appreciate the folks not flaming me. The constructive criticism is appreciated though! I know I suck at MNK!
I really wish I didnt. Its super disheartening though trying repeatedly to learn this class. I made it to 50 before on another character, and was trying again to learn it on this one, and Its just super friggen confusing!

You start to understand the rhythm and flow, especially if you find a comfortable way to lay out your skills on your hotbar.

Ive had a hard time with this to be honest. I'd welcome some hotbar layout ideas if anyone has them. Maybe that would change it. Ive never really found a layout that worked for me yet beyond putting tiny sticky notes with "F for Flank" or "R for Rear" on my screen above each action.
(No joke I actually tried this)

[Caitsithhh]

Admittedly been a while since I played NIN and I had forgotten about Suiton.

That said, I appreciate the folks not flaming me. The constructive criticism is appreciated though! I know I suck at MNK!
I really wish I didnt. Its super disheartening though trying repeatedly to learn this class. I made it to 50 before on another character, and was trying again to learn it on this one, and Its just super friggen confusing!

It’s not hard with practice. Will come naturally.

I recommend practicing you’re opener at SSS first til second nature. Then on a striking dummy try to go ten minutes without a mistake. Reset if mistake. Then once that’s down see if you can do 15-20 minutes without a single mistake. Rinse and repeat!

[Rilifane]

You can hit the consecutive positionals on DRG while using jumps that lock you for the better half of your GCD so it's entirely possible on MNK aswell. If you're standing at the right spot, switching between rear and flank is only a tiny step.
Bosses will occasionally turn, move or get pulled somewhere else and preparing or reacting accordingly simply requires fight knowledge just as a DRG or NIN needs to know when it's safe to get animation locked, a BLM when they will have to move etc. and if you happen to miss a positional... so be it. It's not like other classes can play 100% at peak efficiency either. They all have things they need to account for, for MNK it's more positionals.
Not every class has to be for everyone but if you really want to learn it, asking for it to be made easier isn't the way to go. "Make it easier" really shouldn't be your first instinct when there's other things you can do and not every class has to be equally accessible for everyone.

I second practicing on a dummy. It immensly helps to get the skills down to muscle memory which makes it a lot easier to react to mechanics.
Play around with differend keybindings to see which feels most comfortable to you. Frequently used skills need to be easy to reach. Same with skills that are part of a very busy phase even if you don't use them every few GCDs.
It may take several sessions with a dummy and a couple of hours until you really figured everything out but that's not unique to MNK. It takes time to find a layout that works for and that particular class. Adjusting some UI elements may help aswell. Something many players do while learning a class is making an extra hotbar scaled bigger than the rest with cooldowns that they place somwhere centered so they don't forget their oGCDs while still trying to get the general rotation down.
If you notice certain mistakes happening frequently, see if you can adjust your keybinds and UI to make avoiding them easier.

[Morzy]

You are certainly not alone. For some people positionals are a no-go when it comes to Monk.

I remember when I first started Monk. I was so terrible (: but practice does help! The job itself is very fast so it can be hard to keep up AND do positionals! For some people this is what makes Monk fun!

[IruruCece]

You can hit the consecutive positionals on DRG while using jumps that lock you for the better half of your GCD so it's entirely possible on MNK aswell. If you're standing at the right spot, switching between rear and flank is only a tiny step.

GAWD, I feel like people who complain about Monk positionals specifically ignore this. Proper positioning is as important to Monks as it is to BLMs, just in different ways. BLMs need to position themselves in such a way that they minimize the amount of movement they need to perform to handle mechanics that will stop their casts cold. Monks need to position themselves in such a way that they can hit their positionals as often as possible, while also being prepared to deal with mechanics designed to force them to move to safety.

If you're a Monk that isn't positioned correctly, you're going to make hitting positionals that much harder for yourself, and at that point that's not the fault of AoE spreads on the ground, that's on you either because you made a mistake or because you simply didn't know better. It happens, it sure as heck happened to me all the dang time!

[Kolsykol]

I am curious, do people who have issues with this boost the Job?
Positionals are introduced so gradually that I wonder if people are just boosting the job.

Not necessarily referring to the OP but just in general.

[Garet]

It is pros and cons which is nice about this game.

Monk may have more positionals but as others have mentioned it flows more fluidly compared to other jobs as well. Monk's stances, which includes positionals, also makes monk's attacks very versatile. You can literally go from aoe combo into single attacks because of the way their mechanics works and you almost never misses a combo as well because accidentally pressing the wrong string is almost impossible since it will not allow you to press them without being into those specific stances except for boot shine and dragon kick.

Dragoon and Samurai though despite having less positionals will get punished severely by missing a string or pressing the wrong button since they will need to restart again from the very beginning of their combos. Imagine as dragoon you are on your second combo then pressed the wrong third combo, you literally lose the rest of your combo string and start froooom the very beginning ugh.

For me the challenge for monk is not positionals but rather reflex memory. I kind of have poor memory so remembering when to reapply demolish etc is hard without looking at my buff debuff bars and that kinda makes it stressful for me on complicated fights where we need to think and act fast. I could do the all flank and all rear combo to make monk simpler buuut will be sacrificing how monk is suppose to play to maximize dps. But if you are not into min/maxing then the all flank and all rear combo still does decent dps to be honest.

Happy Gaming

[Jirah]

ah yes, should the jobs be skewered to please everyone? or should they just focus on being what they do not all jobs need to be so accessible didnt we pay the price the last 2-3 times this happened?

[wereotter]

The job has a learning curve to play proficiently, just like every other job in the game. This job has its steepest learning curve around hitting positionals and getting the flow of how your forms change the flow of your rotation. But as was stated, this is made easier once you just know how the boss's hit ring works. They tell you exactly where the rear ends and the flank begins.

I picked up the job back in Heavesnward and it took only maybe a week practicing for it to click and I was able to go about hitting the right position on the boss with the right move. Also remember that unlike it's other melee counterparts, monk has a VERY empty kit outside of its positional requirements. It doesn't have a trick attack window to plan around, multiple jumps to weave into combos, sens and kenki... it just has its chakras that generate randomly. If the job had the positions removed it would immediately become the most boring job in the game to play.