Monk Identity and Blitz ?

[VirusOnline]

As for positionals being part of a Monk's identity, probably not, however it has always been a key part of how the job plays in the same way that one of the key features of Black Mage is finding that spot to stand still on.



Monk used to be a quick attacking crit machine between guaranteed crit on Bootshine and Internal release increasing critical rate. It was also the highest DPS which was balanced by GL stacks and doing positionals. You want the high damage, you have to work for it.

Over the years it has lost Internal Release and so it wasn't as much of a crit monster as it was before, Lost GL management and is now no longer the highest DPS. All Monk has from it's inception from ARR is it's positionals. As Monk players, we are literally holding onto one of the last things that made the job unique and stand out from the rest and, to top it off, Monk hasn't gained anything else unique to try and offset what was lost. Want positionals lessened? Give me a reason to want to lose positionals, don't just take them away for the sake of taking them away.

I agree. And that was MNKs identity. GL speed + crit. So fast that even NIN mains have a hard time keeping up at full GL.

And that's the issue in bold I'm pointing out. It's apparent that SE no longer cares about positionals or MNKs last dying identity. It will be lessened whether we like it or not for this expansion. And hopefully because they want to completely redesign it.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like the positionals. Always have. It makes it unique but after 6,7 years of a stagnant MNK that has slowly been drained of its core identity - if one is given the ultimatum of a class redesign vs. hanging onto an archaic last stand I'll risk the redesign. The thing about BLM is that its immobility is not all it's known for. If a redesign allowed for full positionals but make it so that it's not it's only identifying factor - even better. Gameplay of a class is only part of how we come to love a job. The other part is the animations, perhaps its lore, its ability themes, etc. Right now MNK is the weakest of near all of these areas. As for positionals, though it may not be a 1:1 comparison, DRG is a close tie for it and thus lessens the positional "is our unique identity" even more.

[Sqwall]

Now, don't get me wrong. I like the positionals. Always have. It makes it unique but after 6,7 years of a stagnant MNK that has slowly been drained of its core identity - if one is given the ultimatum of a class redesign vs. hanging onto an archaic last stand I'll risk the redesign. The thing about BLM is that its immobility is not all it's known for. If a redesign allowed for full positionals but make it so that it's not it's only identifying factor - even better. Gameplay of a class is only part of how we come to love a job. The other part is the animations, perhaps its lore, its ability themes, etc. Right now MNK is the weakest of near all of these areas. As for positionals, though it may not be a 1:1 comparison, DRG is a close tie for it and thus lessens the positional "is our unique identity" even more.

I echo this completely and you said it better then I could have I suppose. When GL was taken out and all that was left was positionals and chakra...that was the nail in the coffin for old monk. Without the need to constantly worry about GL anymore, left us chakra and positionals. GL was monks identity, and the whole job centered around it and it's upkeep. Now things have changed and job is going in a new direction (thankfully), and the fact that some postionals being removed as well as GL mechanic getting reworked tells me just how much SE cares about those aspects of Monk. Positionals just aren't that important so they were lessened to make way for something new and different.

I think in a perfect world we could have a postional heavy job, we really could. But if it were to be enjoyable it would REALLY have to focus completely on positionals as it's core design. Literally making every postional fullfilled grant buffs, gauge spender, dot potency, critical hits, etc. And you would ONLY get those rewards for ONLY completing those positionals. Missing a postional would mean your DoT is less powerful, not getting a buff, not getting gauge, etc. THAT would be an identity a positional job should employ. MNK just didn't commit that way....so postionals are not it's identity. Chackra, Blitz, Crit chance, and fast gameplay are now. This is a good direction.

I have thought about if we added postionals to RDM 3 melee combo, would change it's identity? Absolutely not...it's still RDM. Adding postionals didn't change anything about White Mana/Black Mana, verflare, verholy, scorch. They would all be the same. Now if you added postionals that are required to be completed to verflare/verholy gain x3 of it's respect mana, and scroch always crits. THEN they class would be very different. MNK doesn't really offer that outside of minor potency increases...I still get leaden fist regardless if I DK from the rear. I still get twin regardless if I hit from the rear. I still get Demo DoT if I were to hit it from the flank.

[IruruCece]

It's apparent that SE no longer cares about positionals or MNKs last dying identity.

Clearly, given that we're borrowing elements from other jobs and catering to people who don't even main the job and will probably be playing something else before they even finish the MSQ. Nothing about Blitzes sounds remotely good on paper to me outside of the fancy animations. Given the increasingly negative reception to the "glow up" MCH got from people who play it more seriously than I ever have, I'm firmly in wait-and-see mode.

SE repeatedly ignored core issues with the job (chakra generation and useage, GL retention, capstone ability slowing us down for no good reason, the riddle of fire slowdown). Arguably, they never gave a single solid cow patty about Monk's identity beyond the fact that it "had GL", hence why so much of ShB's new kit was dedicated around maintaining it seemingly without any real understanding of how those abilities would be used during actual gameplay. And if they'd truly given a damn about GL, perhaps it might have been kind of them to make it so the buff didn't drain away every time they decided to flex their PS3 engine's graphical chops during a mid-fight cutscene.

The argument about positionals is particularly frustrating in that SE repeatedly de-emphasized them to the point where players openly brag on these forums about missing all of them but bootshine, because bootshine, our level 1 button, is our STRONGEST combo button. To the point where our BURST phase is about setting up opportunities to spam it! This is why the removal of GL was never a "good start." It was a dart thrown at a board, and everything else going wrong with the job was plainly ignored because it's more obvious than ever there was nobody among the devs who was giving the job the same sort of attention that everyone else was receiving.

If Endwalker can't even address the problem with Bootshine, the job deserves to languish in mediocrity no matter how many fancy anime backflips and teleports our Blitzes add to "~the aesthetic~".