Monk Identity and Blitz ?

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

Max 4 stacks of GL, each worth and only worth 5% Attack Speed. I could dig it.

The conditions for gaining GL could use some clarity, though. I don't really get the point of changing it from just being applied on any Coeurl skill, except perhaps to nerf Perfect Balance. The same goes for GL acquisition "neither grant[ing] the full Greased Lightning stack duration, nor refresh[ing] the duration to the full duration." Given that, I don't know what is meant by a duration "up to a maximum of 60 seconds."

I was very specific with my choice of words, as the literal intent of that change is to break Monks' built-in loophole, but not delete that loophole.

Just as Riddle of Earth and True North allow the Monk to ignore positional requirements, Perfect Balance and Form Shift, the latter now Formless Fist, allows the Monk to ignore form requirements and ignore any sense of the "combo bonus" lock, or in Monks' case, form reliant bonuses.

You yourself, my dear intelligent kitty, had lain out the fundamental problem for me, when you did type the concern that the more Monks can do this,
the more that Monks' basic form shift rotation will be made, for the most part, irrelevant in the end.

It baffles me that most Monk players just argue about positional requirements all of the time, when two things that are both more important to Monk's identity, are under threat; be that Greased lightning, already a brutal loss, or the way that monks' forms and form shift is the core of its rotation, which gives it a very unorthodox sense of "WeaponSkill combos". That aside...

The clarification, I: I broke the loophole. The original Greased Lightning stacks activate from "the third hit of a WeaponSkill combo", the Coeurl form actions. This allows both Perfect Balance and Form Shift to skip the basic form shift rotation, jump straight to a Coeurl form WeaponSkill, and gain Greased Lightning stacks. This loophole to skip the form shift rotation and "WeaponSkill combo", to me at least, is a antithesis to Monk, as the Pugilist story makes it very clear that the fundamental identity of Greased Lightning, is a reward for the execution of Monk's unorthodox "WeaponSkill combo".

The reason why I chose to shift Greased Lightning off of the Coeurl form actions, and into the form shifts, is to break the loophole. Greased Lightning stacks no longer activate from the execution of a Coeurl form WeaponSkill, and instead now activate from the form shift after those actions, so long as the Monk had gone through a proper form shift rotation:

The only way to gain a Greased Lightning stack, is to enter Raptor form, and shift forms from there, Raptor to Coeurl to Opo Opo, unto which the third action, being Demolish, Rock Breaker, or Snap Punch, will activate a Greased Lightning stack, when the Monk shifts form again, Opo Opo to Raptor.

What does this mean?

The Clarification, II: if the Monk uses Perfect Balance or Formless Fist to skip straight to a Coeurl form action, those two will still have their loophole effects on the action, BUT.. Greased Lightning will not activate. Greased Lightning requires that the Monk enters Raptor form, and form shifts Raptor --> Coeurl --> Opo Opo, as a prerequisite, before the Opo Opo --> Raptor shift activates Greased Lightning.

The loophole is broken, Monk only obtains Greased Lightning the way it is meant to activate.

On the visual HUD side, imagine a indicator that is a Blitz / Dancers' Dance steps hybrid... the Greased Lightning meter shows active Greased Lightning stacks and tracks their duration, but it also has a second part, that tracks how the Monk has gone through the form shift rotations, sort of akin to locks and keys, of which indicates when Greased Lightning will activate; sort of like the Dancers' "finish", but the indicator spends the locks' keys like Blitz does.

I apologize for that had not been more clear... As for the acquisition of Greased Lightning stacks itself...

The clarification, III: Remember for me, for a moment. The original Greased Lightning would jump straight to its maximum duration, 16 seconds, the moment it activates. I chose to remove that and slow down the duration build-up. Consider what I did type above, and imagine for me... every Opo opo --> Raptor shift, after a proper form shift rotation, The Monk activates Greased Lightning, gains a Greased Lightning stack, up to a maximum of four, and that will have a duration of 10 seconds, up to a maximum of 60 seconds.

[...]will neither grant the full Greased Lightning stack duration, nor refresh the duration to the full duration.[...]

[...]Instead, the first Opo Opo-to-Raptor form shift activates one Greased Lightning stack with only 10 seconds on the Greased Lightning stack duration.[...]Every Opo Opo-to-Raptor form shift after the first, will activate another Greased Lightning stack, up to the maximum of four, and extend the duration of Greased Lightning stacks by only 10 seconds, up to the new maximum duration of 60 seconds.[...]

What does this look like in a actual rotation? Allow me to type out a example of the flow, then...

First rotation: Dragon Kick - Twin Snakes - Demolish, 2.00GCD / 6 seconds: Greased Lightning I activates and lasts 10 seconds.

Second rotation: Dragon Kick - True Strike - Snap Punch, 2.00GCD / 6 seconds: Greased Lightning I - duration: 4 seconds, but now.. Greased Lightning II activates, and lasts for(+10 seconds) 14 seconds.

Third rotation: BootShine - Twin Snakes - Snap Punch, 2.00GCD / 6 seconds: Greased Lightning II - duration: 8 seconds, but now.. Greased Lightning III activates, and lasts for(+10 seconds) 18 seconds.

Fourth rotation: Dragon Kick - True Strike - Demolish, 2.00GCD / 6 seconds: Greased Lightning III - duration: 12 seconds, but now.. Greased Lightning IV activates, and lasts for(+10 seconds) 22 seconds.

Fifth rotation: BootShine - Twin Snakes - Snap Punch, 2.00GCD / 6 seconds: Greased Lightning IV - duration 16 seconds, and now... Greased Lightning IV still active, but now lasts for(+10 seconds) 26 seconds; up to a maximum of a 60 second duration, which the Monk can reach 9 rotations later, at the end of the 14th rotation.

Does that make sense? I think that it does...? =w=;

[...]I do kind of hate how something like this and the new "Perfect Blitz" would work together to make the standard rotation feel largely irrelevant, with only oGCDs (especially this and PB) giving any real punctuation to the job.[...]

since the only way to gain Greased Lightning stacks, is to go through the normal combos and do proper form-to-form shifts, this would make the standard rotation and normal combos important and relevant, so I hope that it would resolve your issue and ease the concern.

As I did type before, I had already thought that the form shift rotation made irrelevant was a issue, and we just share that same conclusion, so when you did type that, it made me think that you have a similar manner of thought along the same lines as mine; of which I had already thought of a way to deal with it, hence my offer to share my idea with you.

All of that said, as I do realize how drawn-out this post has become, I did also read the rest of your post, and will work on my response to the rest, next...