The Worst Iteration of Monk. What could be different?

[Shurrikhan]

Honestly I think I'm alone in this but I don't really like the reply abilities like at all. Like I hate them so much I don't plan on playing monk at all especially since I would have to meld sks for it so it would mess up Samurai and slaying jobs.

I disliked them at first because their formless GCDs were essentially wasted, but once you get used to it being an excess feature "useful" only in dungeons... ehh, it's whatever. Perhaps if RoW extended your own active buffs (not externals) by 2s or something it'd feel better, but either way, you're losing what you could do before only because there's a better option now, even if that option may feel less iconic / more of a tack-on.

...Granted, I generally swap to solely maining Monk/Sam only once I can theoretically meld enough Skill Speed to go past needing to Hagakure anyways... which has now been made rather different from the Tsubame changes more so than anything RoF and RoW have caused.

- (Skill) Speed Addict

[koko-on-da-forumz]

Honestly I think I'm alone in this but I don't really like the reply abilities like at all. Like I hate them so much I don't plan on playing monk at all especially since I would have to meld sks for it so it would mess up Samurai and slaying jobs.

You're right and you should say it.

The replies are boring, they really add nothing except another GCD in burst. The animations are fine, but like what are we doing here? It's basically no different from the healers getting another finisher on their burst button.

[SpeckledBurd]

Honestly I think I'm alone in this but I don't really like the reply abilities like at all. Like I hate them so much I don't plan on playing monk at all especially since I would have to meld sks for it so it would mess up Samurai and slaying jobs.

I actually agree with you. Mechanically I think they're fine, if they are a little bit boring.

Thematically though I don't really care for them largely because the elemental theming on Monk has always felt kind of out of place and is really just a relic of 1.0 design where the Fist Stances originated. Monk largely operates in the realm of hand to hand anime martial artists, and while that can involve mastery of the elements in some settings, in XIV elemental mastery belongs to mages. Launching a Fireball with Fire's reply or a Wind Blast with Wind's Reply really doesn't suit Monk's fantasy or aesthetic compared to if fire's reply launched a gigantic Aetheric Coeurl head and Wind's Reply launched a flurry of aetheric fists.

[Ramiee]

I gave 2 reasons why I hate them.

1. They mess up the flow I enjoyed about EW Monk, I had it set up that the few oGCDs were on my mouse buttons and my key presses were just the combo skills. I would constantly be pressing them and unlike other melee jobs I wouldn't have to constantly jump around to weave or press a bunch of inputs. I found the flow of it very fun. Now wind and fire reply just come in as GCDs and mess with this slow state.

2. I don't like monk having ranged moves on monk, mostly related to fire reply. I liked that monk had no ranged actions it really made me want to learn what I could greed with and I actually tried to use six sided star sometimes to disengage while doing as much damage as I could. Now if I have fire reply and need to disengage I'll just use that, I know some people really want a ranged attack on monk for uptime while disengaged like other DPS. But I just think not having it was one of the last few things that made monk special, the job really did feel like a true melee and you had to do your best to get uptime. It was especially fun on unreals with the smaller hitboxes in EW.

[VentVanitas]

my major issue is with Wind's Reply, even if it is near identical to Fire minus the Formless Fist buff. it doesn't salvage Riddle of Wind as a skill at all, it's still the absolute most whatever button on the job and I still find myself forgetting it exists even now when it's tied to a 900 potency attack (also Wind's Reply is barely audible. it sure as hell doesn't sound like a high potency nuke when all of our basic combo skills are louder than it).

we're almost 7 years away from Stormblood's release at this point in time and yet Squenix literally cannot resist the urge to repeat the enhanced Shoulder Tackle problem every expansion. honestly they need to just do away with this elemental Riddle theme already.

[RyuuZero]

I want 100 Fists

to be the lvl100 Skill
I mean.. you gotta be kidding me.. in Dawntrail.. we get to lvl100, we get Mad Max Glamour.. and Monk doesn't get 100 Fists !??!?!?

[Sunhwapark]

The elemental replies are weird, I like the functionality of the fire reply giving formless - but ultimately it feeds into the opo slap fest even further.
I don't hate them, I just find it odd that they decided to make them ranged moves, Imo monk was fine without having any, so I'm not sure who those abilities were designed for.

[Shurrikhan]

my major issue is with Wind's Reply, even if it is near identical to Fire minus the Formless Fist buff. it doesn't salvage Riddle of Wind as a skill at all, it's still the absolute most whatever button on the job and I still find myself forgetting it exists even now when it's tied to a 900 potency attack (also Wind's Reply is barely audible. it sure as hell doesn't sound like a high potency nuke when all of our basic combo skills are louder than it).

we're almost 7 years away from Stormblood's release at this point in time and yet Squenix literally cannot resist the urge to repeat the enhanced Shoulder Tackle problem every expansion. honestly they need to just do away with this elemental Riddle theme already.

I mean, late Stormblood Enhanced Shoulder Tackle was baller, though? The problem was they didn't go far enough, especially in its context, since they can never quite decide whether they want Monks to have different styles of attack (which might encourage more animation and gameplay work and a deeper job) or solely follow the post-ToD/Fracture waltz (interrupted only by PB-Blitz).

Agreed that we tend, apart from the miracle that was Blitz within an EW rotation, to just get overly timid gimmicks ill-fit to their contexts, though.

[Orbitaldoll]

Played monk since ARR so gonna be honest here. Monk has been nerfed in some pretty heavy ways in DT. Strength of this job has always been it's ability to hit fast so pairing that with speed stat gave job an edge against other dps jobs, and it's unique dps inputs enabled it to surpass even meta dps jobs, granted it required near flawless execution and play. This is what made the job so fun for me, its ability to surpass other dps jobs by putting effort.

I honestly do not understand why they took away dot from demolish. Just pumping base damage to skills do nothing since monk's current dps rotation is still on a long timer, regardless of whether you follow Lunar or Solar path. Monk's highest damage pre DT always came from it's ability to hit fast, aka auto attack paired with buffs. Demolish's dot only added to it, making auto attacks easily highest dps skill of monk during longer fights.

I've been trying monk in latest savage raids, and despite having better gear, no way it comes close to meta melee dps like Viper, Ninja and Dragoon that I have on the side. Furthermore, the lack of ranged attacks REALLY hurt the dps in higher tier raids, especially now that Monk's dot is also gone.

Is Square's answer to every problem is just adding bigger numbers? Because despite doing that, monk's damage is very sub par due to how their dps rotation is timed and demolish's dot paired with fast auto attack used to bridge this gap. But now the job feels like a hollow shell, one that can't even stand toe to toe with top 3 melee dpsers regardless of effort poured.

I love the job, and fact that so few people played it added a unique flavour to it for me. But now it just feels extremely underwhelming to play.

[Eremite]

One massive help would be to make Riddle of Fire a 55s cooldown instead of 60s (or make it affected by SkS). As it stands now, you need very low ping and extreme attention to avoid drifting your 2m buff.

Having some kind of a ranged attack would be nice... I don't know how they've managed to go this long without adding one.
Most other melee can spam some kind of ranged attack when having to go out (DRG: 150 potency, VPR: 200 potency, NIN: 120 Potency + gauge, RPR: 300 potency and gauge). The best we can do is build chakra at around 80 potency each for when we get to go back in (unless it caps).

Just feels bad to play at the moment. I feel like I'm working my ass off to keep up with rotation and avoid drifting Brotherhood to get outdone by other jobs with a much more braindead rotation. :/ This tier being extremely melee unfriendly with PF strats doesn't help.