Controversioal Changes to Monk

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

I think that having your damage be reduced because of forced downtime in fights is silly, which is why the original Greased Lightning had to go.

Correct. it was a issue, if not THE issue, and the reason why Monk now has a new trait... If it would interest you, I did post a concept that I had theory-craft, about a way to fix the original Greased Lightning, to solve the most big issue, plus some other ideas of my own, over on page 10...
You can take a look at it, if you want.

I would definitely like to see more depth to the Chakra system however. Perhaps increase the Chakra to 7, and once you reach 7 and use The Forbidden Chakra/Enlightenment, it changes the "type" of your Chakra. So for example, have 7 light chakra by default, and then change to the 7 dark chakra by using Forbidden Chakra/Enlightenment. Every time you change you gain a temporary buff depending on what type of chakra you change to. Perhaps it doesn't have to work like this entirely, if at all, but definitely some added depth would be welcome.

I have yet to theory-craft my own concept for a expanded Chakra resource system, to be honest...
I do like the initial read of your concept, though. It looks good.

What would you change about the Fists then? Just leave them as is and have 2 of them never be used meaningfully? Fists of Earth, outside of low lvl content where you're forced to use it, I've only seen used if your tank dies and you happen to pick up aggro, at which point if you don't have Riddle of Earth, Bloodbath and Arm's Length, chances are you Fists of Earth won't be making a difference anyways. Fists of Wind is pretty much a "move around cities faster" button, and it's not even that much of a difference. Buffing their numbers doesn't seem healthy at all, so I guess just remove them entirely? In which case why not just give Fists of Fire the Greased Lightning treatment and make it a permanent trait?

Alright, now for the paragraphs... To be blunt, and honest, I would delete all three Fists of actions, and both Riddle of actions, as I do not remember any where in the identity of FFXIV Monk being "elemental brawler", so the existence of these three magic actions and two riddle spells, makes little to me. My opinion is not shallow, though... I have ideas for how to re-work all five actions, so that Monk does not in particular just lose, may just change, and may even gain.

First, a side-note: As I did mention before... I would like to see more variation and options in the GCD rotation.

Fists of Wind: I would convert this into a action on the GCD, another punch action that requires one of the forms, and the effect of this action would be that it inflicts a DoT, and grants a passive self-buff to the Monk, that at the least would increase movement speed. This aligns with what I did post earlier... Monk with three DoTs, Demolish, the old Touch of Death returns, and this new one. Both the DoT and the buff will have a martial arts aesthetic feel, instead of magic, though.
just because I can, and for the sake of the action's animation not being lost, I had a thought that the action could keep the original animation, and just have a punch added to it, while the is-this-magic(?) energy explosion part of the action, would have a explanation in that the execution of this new WeaponSkill would have a 100% chance to grant one Chakra to the Chakra resource pool.

Fists of Earth: I would convert this into a action on the GCD, as well.. another punch action that requires the forms, and the effect of this action would resemble the original action, but in a manner that feels more like martial arts, than a magic enhancement... This action would either grant the Monk a stacks-style passive self-buff, which would guarantee that the Monk parries the next #(some number) of instances of damage taken, or a duration-style passive self-buff, where-in the Monk parries all instances of damage taken within its duration, whether that be a direct attack or indirect attack, physical or magic... There-for still damage reduction, but with a martial arts aesthetic.

Fists of Fire: this is the complex change, for balance and non-loss sake... I would still convert this into yet another punch action on the GCD, but it would have no additional effect, and just be a basic fancy punch. The catch here is that I will move its damage-increase buff to a different place, in the form of this new WeaponSkill would have a more high than the rest potency, similar to Leaden Fist, and I would "all-around-the-board" give a slight increase to the potencies of various Monk actions.(BootShine is excluded from that, it already has Leaden Fist)

And the pure power behing Leaden Bootshine is one of the issues with Monk.

Side-note: So, uh... Would this Fists of Fire re-work concept, and idea to convert its effect, of mine, perhaps.. solve that Leaden BootShine problem?

Also, another side-note: All three new WeaponSkills mentioned above, would be on the GCD, but they would also have CDs, while being WeaponSkills, these CDs there-for would be reduced by Skill Speed, as well... I have yet to theory-craft this part of my concept into alignment with the Monk rotations, though, so what those CDs would be is up for debate...

Next, the Riddle of Earth: My idea is to convert this action into a ability that costs Chakra, so that it has a explanation of being Chakra-power, rather than it seems to be a magic spell. I would leave it to still have the same effects, but make the damage reduction a little more strong, a increase from 10% to 15%, and make the Damage reduction and positional nullification separate effects, so that the Monk does not lose the damage reduction buff as fast as in just three GCDs later.
Also, I would change the name of the action/ability... The name of this new ability would be Heightened Awareness.

Last, the Riddle of Fire: as a action that is so much of a damage buff, that I have the full intent to delete, I thought a lot about how to not make this a loss for the Monk, and came to the decision that I would merge this ability into and with the re-work and expansion of the Chakra resource. I am still to theory-craft the specifics, but my thoughts are along the lines of a new Chakra Spender, similar to Enlightenment or The Forbidden Chakra, that would be a high-potency attack; of which also grants a temporary passive self-buff, that increase the Monk's damage dealt.
Also, as with Riddle of Earth, I would not carry over the "Riddle of Fire" name, and give the new action its own name.