The problem with Monk isn't positionals (opinion piece)

[wereotter]

So I don't really get why you'd say MNK feels like playing NIN, let alone only as of now. (Arguably, HW MNK and HW NIN or 5.0 NIN and 4.3 MNK, or perhaps even HW DRG and 4.3 MNK, played a bit alike in what they were required to manage, but now?)

For a long, long time, ninja was just stand behind the boss doing the spinning edge, gust slash, aeolian edge combo without moving or doing anything else. Maybe every 40ish seconds you move to the flank to do an armor crush and then nothing else again until you do a trick attack burst. It was incredibly boring to play. Monk, now with the removal to constantly be moving is basically the same. Sit on the flank, and every 18 seconds you move to the rear for one GCD to do demolish then just sit on the flank again, doing nothing until riddle of fire comes up. The movement for positional requirements on monk wasn't engaging according to some, but it kept you at least somewhat engaged in needing to move every 4-6 seconds.

The problem is more of the same as why I stopped playing it in the later part of Shadowbringers when greased lightning got removed and the job got reworked. Job feels hollow and boring now, and its current state simply isn't fun to play. Not sure why you're suddenly defending it..... unless you're just trying to be a contrarian? You've made the same basic assessment as I have in other threads.

[Shurrikhan]

The problem is more of the same as why I stopped playing it in the later part of Shadowbringers

Ahh, my mistake then. I thought you were treating this as a problem new to Endwalker (or, since it's previous gutting).

unless you're just trying to be a contrarian?

I'm just finding the whole "Monk rotates like a tank now" / "can be played with one brain cell" stuff that's been popping up all over threads these last few days unhelpfully hyperbolic.

Sorry for reading that vibe into your words when you instead had a far more specific meaning in mind. It was wrong of me.

_____________

To clarify/recenter: Yes, we've had similar thoughts on Monk. I just do nonetheless think this version is slightly better than what we had in early Shadowbringers (though, I was not a fan of the Anatman opener, so that skews things a bit) and certainly better than late Shadowbringers. As such, it has solid B- tier gameplay to me, but I'd also put even NIN, probably the second best of the melee at the moment, imo, at barely a B. (SAM I'd put at an A or A-). My frustration with Monk is how easily it could be better and seems, just from the kit, to want just that little, fruitful bit more.

[wereotter]

My frustration with Monk is how easily it could be better and seems, just from the kit, to want just that little, fruitful bit more.

This is exactly my feeling too. The job is SO close to being fun to play and just missed the mark, which is really frustrating for me. I do think that they can fix it, hopefully within the next couple patches.... it's just disappointing that they said they were gutting it in Shadowbringers to set a new foundation for the job, and then what they added on to that foundation just doesn't feel like it belongs. So perhaps my own reaction is also connected to the fact that we had several months to look forward to what new monk would be.

Also no hard feelings about the rest, can be hard to read intent over just text

As for me, so far reaper has been the more enjoyable melee since it's got the faster pace while still retaining the need to at least occasionally watch your positionals without having the issues I have with some of the others. Dragoon could be fun, but for me just has a major button bloat problem. I like to keep my single target rotation on a single hotbar, and that's simply not possible on dragoon. Samurai used to be fun for me, but when hagakure got nerfed, the need to more frequently use iajutsu started causing me to get major headaches and get physcially sick in the most extreme cases. Which just leaves ninja... which while I finished leveling, I haven't really dug too deeply into, preferring to spend more of my time on reaper and summoner.