8.0 DPS Job Rework Workshop/Megathread. Goals, Design Principles, and Mock-Ups.

[Mikey_R]

My ideas for Monk for 8.0

As an intro, I have had these ideas for a while (so much so that I had to write them down to get them out of my head). The general goal for these idea is to take what we currently have and make minimal changes to, hopefully, change how the job feels and differentiate it from other jobs in the same group. Starting off with the main change to (most) jobs then going into Monk specifically, then finishing off with how they can change the level up move list, mainly the low levels.

Universal Job Changes

This should come to no surprise, but the 2 minute meta has to go. It was hated in EW and now even more in DT. The main thing it does is force jobs to have to burst every 2 minutes, if you cannot do that, you get left behind. This is a problem as it massively favours jobs that fit that damage profile, to the point where jobs have been reworked in order to better align themselves with this. What has caused the 2 minute meta? Temporary raid buffs. Most jobs have them and with the multiplicative of % based buffs (plus the massive potency associated with these windows), your DPS effectively doubles. Just from a full team of 5% damage increase from raid buffs you get a 21.6% damage increase (to complete the list, 3 = 15.8% and 2 = 10.2%).

However, raid buffs do not necessarily have to be about just a % increase. You can use them to provide utility back to the user, just like the secondary effect of Brotherhood. Take away the 5% damage increase and instead you get an AoE chakra generator where everyone is contributing to your own Chakra gain. So this is the first change to Monk and it is just getting rid of the damage increase from Brotherhood.

Monk

Going into Monk proper, I wanted to bring back one of the things that made Monk a bit different, and that was the more sustained DPS, however, I also didn't want to completely remove some sort of burst period. I also wanted Monk to follow that sort of 'adapt on the fly' philosophy. In my opinion, you cannot really adapt if you are constrained by something and Riddle of Fire being a period of damage increase in quite constraining. For my idea to work monk would have no damage% increases, so Riddle of Fire would need to be reworked, so I will talk about that later, Brotherhood has been adjusted as above. With these fixed periods of increased damage gone, Monk is free to use Perfect Balance whenever it wants, without consequence. Which leads into the next change, Perfect Balance being the 'burst window'. I wanted Monk's burst to be flexible for that 'on the fly' feeling, but I also wanted it to be short to kind of mimic, see an opening, take advantage quickly. This means, with the 3 GCDs in Perfect Balance and then Masterful Blitz, that is 4 GCDs I can call 'burst'.

However, it isn't much of a burst if most of it is still the same damage as your regular combos, so an addition to Perfect Balance is it adds a fixed potency to every GCD used under Perfect Balance. Again, I didn't want a % increase otherwise you necessarily start constraining it to specific GCDs to get the most out of it. The only exception here is Bootshine/Leaping Opo. Due to the fact they auto crit, there is some % damage scaling going on there, however, I think just that 1 GCD is fine and isn't too restrictive.

With that, that is the basic outline of what Monk could be. A more sustained DPS with a very short, but strong, burst window that is not fixed to any point in its rotation.

The next thing I want to talk about is the effects of the different GCDs. With DT, they changed Monk's GCDs from each bringing a buff/debuff/straight damage, to each just being Dragon Kick > Bootshine, but in Raptor/Coeurl form. There is no reason why either of the systems couldn't work with the adjustments above. Personally, I think I would prefer the Beast Fury, as long as they change it back to being a 1,2,3 stack. To me, for the short time it was around, it felt a bit more chaotic and kept me on my toes more. That was likely due to it messing with 10 years worth of muscle memory, but as I said, either system could work here. Same with positionals, whether we have them back or not is going to be defined by how much they change fight design and if it enough to warrant the removal of positionals.

Riddles

Riddle of Wind/Wind's Reply. In my opinion, fine as is, it is just an auto attack increase and doesn't affect any other damage, though giving Riddle of Wind some AoE damage could be an idea (more details in the 'low level' section below'. Maybe change Wind's Reply to also grant Formless Fist, one of the ways you can mitigate the impact of Bootshine/Leaping Opo in PB windows. Riddle of Fire is the bigger issue here. We don't want a % increase to damage as that goes against what we have built, I also don't think just having it provide fixed potency is good enough as that is just Perfect Balance. However, what I think we can do here is give Monk that ranged attack it always wanted (Edit: To be clear, this attack would still be on a cooldown and not spammable). Similar to Viper, in that Uncoiled Fury is a DPS gain, even at close range, Riddle of Fire would be a DPS gain at close range, but can also be used at range. Fire's Reply, then, would be comboed off of Riddle of Fire. However, whilst Riddle of Fire would have a set point it has to be used, you can still delay Fire's Reply so you have some flexibility with it.

Summary
And with that, fairly simple and easy changes that can be applied to current Monk that will, hopefully, make it stand out from the rest. As a recap:
-Remove all %damage increases.
-Perfect Balance now adds a fixed potency to GCDs used inside it and it becomes a mini burst.
-Riddle of Fire changed to be a ranged combo attack.
-If keeping Beast Fury, change to 123, however, can go back to buffs/debuffs easily as well.

Everything from here on will just be lower level things and then what they can do later on, assuming they stick to just levelling up, so if you do not care about that, you can finish here.

Low levels

For the most part, I do think Monk is pretty good as you go through the levels, however, I do think there are 2 things I would change. The first is Masterful Blitz at level 50, however, it is a watered down version compared to level 60. Doesn't matter what you do in PB, you always get the same attack, in this case, it can be Celestial Revoluton. We aren't gaining any Nadis here, it is literally just to make PB more useful at the lower levels and get people used to using it. Here is a fairly low risk mini burst you can do.

The second, I would like to see the Fists return and to do that, I will make them lower levels of the Riddles, of which I will break them down one by one:
-Earth: This is an easy one, there are already 3 effects on Riddle of Earth. Fists of Earth will be the simple damage reduction, later on, with Riddle of Earth, it can add the regen and then finally, Earth's Reply bring it to how it is now. Fists of Earth should be fairly low level, level 10 looks to be fairly sparse, so I will add it there. Riddle of Earth is a bit harder, I don't think it should come before level 50, but Earth's Reply is level 64 and I don't really want to push that back further. 62 would be too soon, so I would propose 56. It might be too strong for HW, but I don't think that is going to matter much. That leaves the final levels at levels 10, 56 and 64.
-Wind: Little bit harder, Fists of Wind used to be a movement buff and Riddle of Wind doesn't have 3 effects, so we cannot just break it down and a movement speed increase I don't think is exciting enough on it's own. It did also used to give GL4, but since we are effectively always in GL4 (and I don't think we need a GCD speed increase) that isn't an option either. Earlier in the post, I mentioned an AoE attack, this would be cantered on the Monk and it is just extra AoE DPS from Riddle of Wind so it doesn't feel as useless as it does now. With that, level 35 should be when Fists of Wind is available, this is the increased attack speed and a slight movement speed increase, level 72 is then when it gets the AoE damage and finally, level 96 for Wind's Reply (which potentially, could also grant Formless Fist).
-Fire: The hardest one as we are literally changing it completely. Fire's Reply is fine as is, so it is what we do with Fists of Fire and Riddle of Fire. I know I mentioned ranged attacks earlier, but it could also be a melee attack that combos into the ranged attack. Either way, Fists of Fire should be single target, Riddle of Fire would then be AoE, like Fire's Reply. Fists of Fire would be learnt quite late in the level 50 range at level 45, Riddle of Fire then at 68 and finally, Fire's Reply at 100.

After level 100
Now, this is where the fun comes in. APart from the obvious upgrade to Dragon kick, Twin Snakes and Demolish, there is one other aspect of Monk that has not been upgraded, and that is Perfect Balance. My proposal would be, if you have a Solar and Lunar Nadi, Perfect Balance gets upgraded (call it, Perfectly Balanced or something). What this then does is put you in a new form, which changes your GCDs into a new attack. All Opo-Opo attacks will be the same, all Raptor attacks will be the same and all Coeurl attacks will be the same. They will be AoE so as to be useful in those situations. Now, ideally, I want a system that forces the use of all 3 attacks, of which there are 2 simple ways to look at it. Either just allow free choice and allow players to do it in whatever order they want, or maybe look to Dancer and force a specific order via RNG (there could be other options of course). If you use each one once, it powers up Phantom Rush's potency, mess it up, and the potency increase is less.

That is my general feel for what I think could be done to improve Monk and (potentially) make it stand out compared to other jobs. Feel free to comment and make suggestions, the only thing I wold be like people to be considerate of if they do suggest changes is the fundamental principle that underlines the whole thing, and that is no forced, fixed burst windows. I should be fairly free to use what I want, when I want, other than that, go ahead.

[Shurrikhan]

My ideas for Monk for 8.0

Just some quick feedback/ideas:

What has caused the 2 minute meta? Temporary raid buffs.

Tbf, it's equally the alignment of the skills that fall therein. The more potency in window, the more DPS a buff can generate in bonus. The greater the multipliers, the more DPS said potency can generate in bonus. They're two sides of the same coin.

But, as alignment will increase the difference between the whole and the sum of its parts and narrow job composition down to that for so long as DPS checks do not force varied CDs (nigh impossible with such a large gear range and output variance due to skill expression, at least the latter of which we certainly don't want to remove), that's effectively the same thing, yes.

Even just one raid buff per likely party composition will still maintain that, though. I.e., as long as any one among, say, Divination or Battle Voice (thematically damn hard to dispense with completely) are likely to appear in a given party... the 2-minute meta will remain to be aligned with insofar as one can align with them, regardless of whether you remove Starry Heavens, Searing Light, Battle Litany, Embolden, Brotherhood('s damage bonus), Radiant Finale, Standard Finish('s damage bonus), Mug, or what-have-you.

However, raid buffs do not necessarily have to be about just a % increase. You can use them to provide utility back to the user, just like the secondary effect of Brotherhood. Take away the 5% damage increase and instead you get an AoE chakra generator where everyone is contributing to your own Chakra gain.

Aye, party-scaled potency. Though, this ultimately just punishes you for having fewer than 8 people (generally, though with some diminish returns possible if there's an ICD on the effect and likely generation would exceed said ICD), at least until you have likely enough conditions for which to have meaningful variation in the timing of Brotherhood (e.g., a period of time over which your allies hit far faster, especially if there's no ICD or said ICD is accordingly scaled).

However, what I think we can do here is give Monk that ranged attack it always wanted.

Don't we have that through the flexibility of Reply of Wind and, to a lesser extent, Reply of Fire (best used right after Opo-opo)? Or, if allowing for overcap, through Meditation.

Heck, at the original 320 potency on TFC (528 effective potency), Meditation was doing 264 ppgcd while the likes of Piercing Talon was doing 132 and Throwing Dagger at 110, iirc. It was by far the strongest ranged (as in, not needing to be in melee) attack in the game with the added benefit of not even needing a target and therefore usable during boss jumps.
(The problem was simply the same Shoha / Meditate later faced. Overcap from in-combat RNG reducing the number of uses available during downtime.)

Wind

Why not just let it go a step further with attack and movement speed?

Just a spitball, but... Let's say GL were returned (though maybe taking just 3-4 GCDs to ramp up instead of 7-9) and gave an effect or effect-set for each element: Damage from Fire, Attack Speed and Movement Speed from Wind, and Mitigation and Attack Power from damage personally nullified from Earth, up to 20% each (25% for the chosen one)?

:: To reduce the opportunity cost this would otherwise cost you from using Tornado Kick, those stances then might cause you to always retain the whole of that element's effect (e.g., in Fists of Wind, you'd rank up through +0/7/14/20% damage and mitigation, but always have +25% haste) or, say, gain half its maximum from the start (+13/17/21/25% haste).

<snip>

Not direct feedback, but just some probes:

Assuming the removal of most raid buffs and, say, Battle Voice again only affecting Foe Requiem and thereby mostly just caster/healer burst....

How would you feel if Blitz was just... an MP spender, that spent a % of remaining MP (with a certain minimum cost) for accordant damage that you could use whenever?

Using the GL example from before... what if Riddle of Earth, Riddle of Wind, and Riddle of Fire were consolidated into one skill dependent on present stance. Each would double the effect of the chosen Fists of ~~ stance and shuffled a rank each of the other stances (Fire would be 35%/10%/10%, each with an added twist (e.g., Riddle of Fire could charge up its Chakra attacks, Riddle of Wind could create a wind-clone that would store your next action and allow you to later copy it as an oGCD, and Riddle of Earth would generate Attack Power based on damage nullified). If there were some way to entice rotation of at least Wind and Fire in flexibly-timed windows by which one can capitalize on or set up for the other, would that kind of Riddle of ~~ finally allow a RoF to be more appealing even as a %damage skill? Would that allow for, to your mind, a more interesting RoW?

Either just allow free choice and allow players to do it in whatever order they want, or maybe look to Dancer and force a specific order via RNG (there could be other options of course).

The latter sounds like it'd feel rather degenerative if in a context where Twin Snakes and Demolish durations were returned.

[Mikey_R]

'Raid buffs'

Yes, there is a deeper conversation that can be had around raid buffs and their effects, I mainly wanted to set the environment that my Monk idea was based around and give a quick explanation as to why.

Aye, party-scaled potency. Though, this ultimately just punishes you for having fewer than 8 people...

How many people choose not to take Monk or Reaper into Criterion Savage Dungeons or say they are an issue? I do not know but I haven't heard of it being a major concern (though I could be wrong). Any other 4 man content this shouldn't be a concern.

Don't we have that through the flexibility of Reply of Wind and, to a lesser extent, Reply of Fire (best used right after Opo-opo)? Or, if allowing for overcap, through Meditation.

Heck, at the original 320 potency on TFC (528 effective potency), Meditation was doing 264 ppgcd while the likes of Piercing Talon was doing 132 and Throwing Dagger at 110, iirc. It was by far the strongest ranged (as in, not needing to be in melee) attack in the game with the added benefit of not even needing a target and therefore usable during boss jumps.
(The problem was simply the same Shoha / Meditate later faced. Overcap from in-combat RNG reducing the number of uses available during downtime.)

Admittedly, Fire was the one I struggled with in making a change that fit in what I wanted to achieve. I should be clear though, I was meant to say it was a ranged attack with a cooldown, so it cannot be spammed. I think that alone potentially changes the dynamic involved as you cannot just sit at range and spam the attack out, like you can with Piercing Talon etc. Meditation would then be similar to Viper's Writhing Snap, with the benefit that you can still Meditate even if the boss is untargetable.

Why not just let it go a step further with attack and movement speed?

Because increasing GCD speed just another way of increasing damage gains by making your attacks come out faster. It's the same dynamic as early ShB, what is better GL3 and FoF or GL4 with FoW.

Just a spitball, but... Let's say GL were returned (though maybe taking just 3-4 GCDs to ramp up instead of 7-9) and gave an effect or effect-set for each element: Damage from Fire, Attack Speed and Movement Speed from Wind, and Mitigation and Attack Power from damage personally nullified from Earth, up to 20% each (25% for the chosen one)?

:: To reduce the opportunity cost this would otherwise cost you from using Tornado Kick, those stances then might cause you to always retain the whole of that element's effect (e.g., in Fists of Wind, you'd rank up through +0/7/14/20% damage and mitigation, but always have +25% haste) or, say, gain half its maximum from the start (+13/17/21/25% haste).

Which you could do, but you create a situation, especially between FoF and FoW that will come out on top as mathematically better. So whilst it is a nice idea, I don't see it really working out.

Not direct feedback, but just some probes:

How would you feel if Blitz was just... an MP spender, that spent a % of remaining MP (with a certain minimum cost) for accordant damage that you could use whenever?

Then Monk would need a way to build up MP and it would effectively be a build and spend when full, unless damage is linearly proportional to the MP spent so that it doesn't matter. However, the bigger thing here is that by de-coupling it from Perfect Balance, you turn it into just another attack with no real meaning behind it.

Using the GL example from before... what if Riddle of Earth, Riddle of Wind, and Riddle of Fire were consolidated into one skill dependent on present stance. Each would double the effect of the chosen Fists of ~~ stance and shuffled a rank each of the other stances (Fire would be 35%/10%/10%, each with an added twist (e.g., Riddle of Fire could charge up its Chakra attacks, Riddle of Wind could create a wind-clone that would store your next action and allow you to later copy it as an oGCD, and Riddle of Earth would generate Attack Power based on damage nullified). If there were some way to entice rotation of at least Wind and Fire in flexibly-timed windows by which one can capitalize on or set up for the other, would that kind of Riddle of ~~ finally allow a RoF to be more appealing even as a %damage skill? Would that allow for, to your mind, a more interesting RoW?

The problem is, you are still creating windows where it is beneficial to put Perfect Balance, whether it is under FoF or FoW. Even if Perfect Balance lined up so that you were forced to use one in the 'less desirable' fist, you would still aim to put as many in the favourable one as possible. This is reminiscent of how it currently is, where you want to put 2 PBs inside the even RoF and keep 1 PB in the odd RoF. It goes against the entire framework of what I wanted to achieve with Monk.

The latter sounds like it'd feel rather degenerative if in a context where Twin Snakes and Demolish durations were returned.

By this point, I was just spit balling ideas to try and make the PB window more interesting so that it wasn't just a simple all Opo, or all different. The Dancer-esque system would work with Fury, but another system might work better with the buffs. At this point, the post was turning into idle musings.

[Shurrikhan]

<Re:Tani feedback to Mikey_R Monk ideas>

Hiding feedback again in order not to cause excess scrolling time between original posts:

Just two points I want to focus on most:

Because increasing GCD speed just another way of increasing damage gains by making your attacks come out faster. It's the same dynamic as early ShB, what is better GL3 and FoF or GL4 with FoW.
+
[You could allow for a choice between Damage and Attack Speed], but you create a situation, especially between FoF and FoW that will come out on top as mathematically better. So whilst it is a nice idea, I don't see it really working out.

They're not exactly the same, though, especially so long as you return timers to Disciplined Fist and Demolish, though there may, yes, be a best choice in each GCD.

Skills with high individual damage are best used under damage buffs. Everything else is best used under speed to increase the portion of uptime spent on stronger skills, because amping the weaker skills by 5% is not worth as much as getting through them 5.3% (actually quantized by durations, but this is just a spherical cow) faster and thereby increasing the portion of stronger skills that are then further amplified.

Like, if we want the stances to be choices at all, then we're going need to have...

1. branching paths that still ultimately (though in complicated fashion) have a best answer or
2. clear best answers across a 60- or 120-second period (due to Blitz, Disciplined, and Demolish line-ups), or
3. at minimum, preferred stances for each action (Wind for low-pppgcd [personal potency per gcd] skills, Fire for high potency-GCDs where oGCDs in gap are obviously included),
   or...
   
   
4. as before, Wind and Earth are dps losses used only as a last resort and rarely able to make any real difference to survivability or mobility anyways (unless you amp the hell out of them, risking making Earth OP overall, or redesign them to use a sort of granular resource)...
5. at which point, you might as well have Wind and Earth consume MP and remove Fire altogether, or
6. turn Fists of Fire into your granular Riddle of Fire phase -- perhaps only affecting beast skills or adding flat potency if worried about them being overly obligatory for oGCDs and/or Blitz or applying some other way to force stance-rotation, such as, idk, ramping drain costs from staying in a given stance too long.

Whatever the case, adding that allows for some small-gap skill-expression akin to Shadowbringers positionals for those who like a stick-shift feel that's less hamfisted and not nearly so wasteful as Shadowbringers' stances.

Then Monk would need a way to build up MP and it would effectively be a build and spend when full, unless damage is linearly proportional to the MP spent so that it doesn't matter. However, the bigger thing here is that by de-coupling it from Perfect Balance, you turn it into just another attack with no real meaning behind it.

Just a thought, not necessarily for the same exact context. Meanwhile, that MP generation could come from, in essence, standard rotation, such that you can have a rushed rotation creating burst phases and conserve phases between. Granted, the last thing we'd want is even more Opo-opo spam, so, it'd have to be for a different structure anyways. Hmm...

How many people choose not to take Monk or Reaper into Criterion Savage Dungeons or say they are an issue?

Not many. My point, though, was just that it's a raid-scaled skill that at best gets up to, well, flat potency damage that'd normally be the baseline, and is sort of the opposite of support thematically (everyone supports the Bard, instead of the Bard supporting others).

[Mikey_R]

Hiding feedback again in order not to cause excess scrolling time between original posts:

Just two points I want to focus on most:

They're not exactly the same, though, especially so long as you return timers to Disciplined Fist and Demolish, though there may, yes, be a best choice in each GCD.

Skills with high individual damage are best used under damage buffs. Everything else is best used under speed to increase the portion of uptime spent on stronger skills, because amping the weaker skills by 5% is not worth as much as getting through them 5.3% (actually quantized by durations, but this is just a spherical cow) faster and thereby increasing the portion of stronger skills that are then further amplified.

Like, if we want the stances to be choices at all, then we're going need to have...

1. branching paths that still ultimately (though in complicated fashion) have a best answer or
2. clear best answers across a 60- or 120-second period (due to Blitz, Disciplined, and Demolish line-ups), or
3. at minimum, preferred stances for each action (Wind for low-pppgcd [personal potency per gcd] skills, Fire for high potency-GCDs where oGCDs in gap are obviously included),
   or...
   
   
4. as before, Wind and Earth are dps losses used only as a last resort and rarely able to make any real difference to survivability or mobility anyways (unless you amp the hell out of them, risking making Earth OP overall, or redesign them to use a sort of granular resource)...
5. at which point, you might as well have Wind and Earth consume MP and remove Fire altogether, or
6. turn Fists of Fire into your granular Riddle of Fire phase -- perhaps only affecting beast skills or adding flat potency if worried about them being overly obligatory for oGCDs and/or Blitz or applying some other way to force stance-rotation, such as, idk, ramping drain costs from staying in a given stance too long.

Whatever the case, adding that allows for some small-gap skill-expression akin to Shadowbringers positionals for those who like a stick-shift feel that's less hamfisted and not nearly so wasteful as Shadowbringers' stances.

The original point was to prevent any situation where you would be forced to have a burst in a specific point in your rotation, so it does go against the initial design direction. Even with stating to have a 'clear best answer across a 60- or 120- second period' is what I was trying to avoid. Break away from that standardisation that has plagued jobs since EW. Now, I'm not saying this idea couldn't work, however, I do believe this sort of idea should be the foundation of the job and then the rest of the job built on top. This way, you can bring in the individual elements together and have it feel complete rather than trying to ham fist it into my design which would have 2 different ideas kind of fighting and opposing each other. The more complete ideas we can have for jobs, the better at the end of the day.

Not many. My point, though, was just that it's a raid-scaled skill that at best gets up to, well, flat potency damage that'd normally be the baseline, and is sort of the opposite of support thematically (everyone supports the Bard, instead of the Bard supporting others).

Thinking about it, wouldn't all raid buffs also suffer with less people? So in essence, Brotherhood and Arcane Circle is no different. I also like the distinction between 'everyone supports the Bard' and 'the Bard supports everyone else'. With most jobs following the 'Bard supports everyone', having more jobs break away from that and instead going along the lines of 'everyone supports the Bard' is another direction a job can take to make it stand out from others.

- Make Hyoton into a 60 second dot with good potency! (Could maybe add a raiju stack, too)

Not really a Ninja user, but isn't the fact Hyoton synergises with Kassatsu to make Hyosho Ranryu give a use to Hyoton?

Or even return Mutilate and Shadowfang on one of said combos...

As long as it uses Dancing Edge's animation.

Or is the community still on a hate-binge for DoTs (per which the concept itself is inseparable from any dated intuitiveness of XIV UI in general -- including effect caps and lack of any decent effect display filtering) that may hold it back presently)?

For me personally, a DoT shouldn't be added just for the sake of having a DoT. The DoT should have some influence in how the job is played in some way or be interacted with in one form or another. As an example, Hignbana. Again, not a high level Samurai player, but it is from my understanding that how you exit the burst phase and your GCD speed influences how you prepare for the next, which is mostly based around the timing of Higanbana, or, going back to an older version of Bard where the DoTs were the ones that procced Repertoire and also had the chance for a double proc if both DoTs crit etc.

[BedtimeBear]

I'd like healers to engaging in solo/non-instanced duties. I know some of it does exist but more of the damage fuels this heal ability or healing fuels this damage ability.

[yuurei94]

I'd like healers to engaging in solo/non-instanced duties. I know some of it does exist but more of the damage fuels this heal ability or healing fuels this damage ability.

This was essentially the High Elf Archmage career in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. There was a balance gauge that would be aspected to one side between damage and healing. So, if you were casting a lot of offensive spells, it would fill towards the offensive portion which would in turn allow you to cast a strongly reduced GCD heal, thus resetting the gauge.

Archmage also had three specs divided between healing ,DPS, and a mix between the two/more utility, but it was a very well designed career/class.

[ShimAoki]

MCH - I would honestly love to see mch become more of a situational dps with a variety of tools in it's kit that can benefit different fights differently, I'd turn queen into an GCD skill like summoners summons and bring back both the turrets, one is a single target dps and enemy debuffer and the other would be a aoe target dps and ally shield buffer when a gauge is used.
Nuke the battery gauge and get rid of it, make it so that you can only have one of the turrets out at a time, bring back the turrets actions, like make it so that I have to press a button to make it apply the debuff, tie that to a "promotion" gauge where you have a limited amount of promotion skills you can spend on your turrets to make them use skills otherwise they just auto.
Remove the 123 combo and replace it with a single button that's 1.5 second gcds like heatblast to maintain the high apm feeling during downtime of skills, I'd keep the ogcds but I'd bring back old gauss barrel that modifies certain skills into casts or adjusts the potency of skills, I'd bring back the ammo gauge as a limiting factor for how many of the 1.5 second gcd's you can cast, Overheating would become a mechanic where you can expend infinite ammo until you become overheated in some way, similar to stormbloods era, that could allow for some cooldown skill's to return to mch kits and allow flamethrower to gain heat as a walking channel cast. I'd make the tools like drill, air anchor and chainsaw become walking cast skills with unique effects like pvp (I really liked the other persons take on this in this forum discussion aka heavy, slow, stun and pierce). I'd like to see pierce become a mechanic in pve, basically imagine if bosses shield themselves sometimes and only the jobs that can do piercing damage can do some damage in that window and after a certain amount, they break the shield and boss takes more damage for a small amount of time.
As for a new skill, I'd love mch to get a defensive bunker that they place on the ground, any allies standing in the bunker gain a defence boost, imagine a defensive version of leylines. I also would love to see mch get a movement skill since the other pranged have some sort of movement option.
With these changes I'd reposition mch as a versatile support job over a "selfish" job like it is now. I'd definitely want it to keep dismantle or have it enhance, I'd also love to see tactician and the pranged aoe defence skills work together.

They'd know what to do with this information if they even read the forums, but these are kind's of job changes I'd love to see the next expansion get, something to make every job have its niche again in situations and just have the charm of the job fantasy its trying to portray.

(And obviously for the love all things holy, rework auto crossbow and if wildfire is staying, make it actually feel like a rewarding 2 minute, its so bad and clunky)

[Caldra]

I really like Ninja, I just think the job is really clunky and unflexible right now!

First problem: Button bloat!
Ninja has a lot of useless skills that do not need a button for.

- That's why my first change would be to remove Meisui as a skill and just add the effect onto Ten Chi Jin (next Bhavacakra deals bonus damage)
- Remove Hide and just add the passive trait that all mudras reset out of combat. -> Add Trick attack/Kunai's bane ready to Suiton/Huton

These would be the savest, must have changes I'd love to see! Next I have a few ideas, that would make ninja more flexible and less punishing in its rotation:

- You do not lose Raiju stacks after using other melee skills, instead you can use them whenever you want. (Max 3 stacks)
- Remove Forked Raiju and make Fleeting Raiju into a ranged attack.

And now to my personal, probably highly unlikely change, that I'd like to see:

- Remove Bunshin, remove Phantom Kamaitachi (not needed anymore if Raiju becomes ranged), remove the Kazematoi stacks on Armor crush!
- Instead add 5 bunshin stacks to Armor crush!

The melee rotation would be Spinning edge, Gust slash, Armor crush, gain 5 bunshin stacks, then Spinning edge, Gust slash, Aolian edge, Spinning edge, Gust slash again, that would use up all 5 stacks and then you can use Armor crush again for permanent clone action!

And for my last change, I would like to change the mudra Hyoton, which currently does nothing in pve content.

- Make Hyoton into a 60 second dot with good potency! (Could maybe add a raiju stack, too)

With all these changes you have 4 less buttons (Hide, Meisui, Bunshin, Forked Raiju) and one new mudra (Hyoton) to use in your burst window instead of a raiton!
And a very much more open rotation like Viper, the other "ranged" melee job, which they already share their gear with!
They would lose their gap closer (which was rarely used anyway), but ninja can now just use their new ranged raiju to close the gaps with just running (Nin has increased movement speed anyway) or with Shukuchi.

Anyways these would be my changes for Ninja, the class (that I have played) that needs a rework the most!

[Carighan]

I'd go a step further even and remove the second main combo entirely, add the effect to a specific Mudra, like you say, Hyoton is open for it.