A Monkey Guide For Monks (FFXIV)

I am living proof that apes can play video games.
This video was approved by at least 2 monk players.
Class Guide Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLOA2RG8q_mrkqApuZDESbhEdLGKGz4Hc6
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:24 - An Update of Sorts
2:14 - Unlock The Job
2:42 - The Positional Job
5:27 - How Buttons Works
7:24 - The Fists of Fists
8:03 - Self Promotion
8:32 - Dungeon Crawling
11:04 - The Opener
12:23 - Bumpy Rotation
13:45 - Perfect Balance V2
14:34 - Smooth Rotation
16:26 - Cooldowns
17:39 - Other Utility
19:21 - Conclusion

[@adreamer5920]

Man. It would be awkward if my favorite classes were Dark Knight, Scholar, and Monk

[@laughingseagull000]

The beacon of despair

[@Sei_Something_Smart]

Name checks out.

[@crunchyfrog917]

Same!

[@Alexnaru1010]

I main MNK and SCH and I'm over like damn I just thought it was me.

[@trickster562]

I did MNK, DRK, AST. He almost got me.

[@FelbyIkendy]

i did a dungeon with my free company and i said "well i just missed my 4th bootshine positional in a row" and immediately one of my friends was like "lets gooooo"

[@SticktheFigure]

On the one hand, I've been happily playing monk since I started 14 during Heavensward. On the other hand, I have playdough for brains.

[@WhitePilledSanctuary]

Smoother than Warrior? Blasphemy.

[@NoFaceOrGun]

@@WhitePilledSanctuary War main resent 'dis.

[@dantelundell9386]

Hello??? Frend????

[@jason6191]

reject sam return to monke

[@pforgottonsoul]

since i fucking hate positionals, no i don't think i will.

[@brandonforrester7342]

@@pforgottonsoul someone tell this guy that samurai also has positionals, so does the other melee dps.

[@pforgottonsoul]

@@brandonforrester7342 like 2, monk has many more.

[@pforgottonsoul]

@Sonny Cabilatazan still that means additional CDs i have to keep track of though, i like to keep my rotations relatively simple.

[@JustSkram]

Only chads play monk

[@Zohnedout]

My man made an entire Monk guide without once mentioning Greased Lightning. What a madlad.

[@Dewkeeper]

Greased what now? Gee you mean that passive stat buff? Now why would anyone care about that thing. *cries in monk job identity*

[@n-aera]

It almost feels like we have a job gauge

[@haziqtheunique]

@@Dewkeeper To be fair, maintaining that "job identity" during downtime actively made the job worse. "Oh, there's a Monk in the party?? Time to put a whole ass cutscene in the middle of this high-end raid because having a sick ass transition is worth wasting the player's time in endgame content, and making the Monk drop Greased Lightning 4 is a bonus! Oh, and have a phase where the boss leaves the arena to go jerk off in the bathroom and make the Monk use Anatman or Form Shift over & over to keep their stacks up. Non-resource ranged actions for melee?! Those are for Ninja, you sonuvabitch!" That said, it sucks to basically have nothing to do during downtime other than stack chakras. Or use Anatman to maintain Twin Snakes even though you just got through clipping it before you left the boss.

[@colonelmustard7718]

Now he gets to do another guide without mentioning positionals

[@NPCNo-xm2li]

Tank: *spins the boss like a beyblade* "mOnK hAs poSiTiOnAlS?

[@RagnellAvalon]

I dead-ass had a tank do this to me in freaking Sastasha after I made the mistake of asking them to try and hold it still

[@chaos_blue1089]

and sometimes (read: like every high level instance) the boss just does it on its own

[@Tuchulu]

You're like the bootlegged Sseth Tzeentach of FFXIV and I do mean that as a compliment

[@AeontheWeeb]

His intonation reminds me of his old league of legend guide videos. He has the same monotone deadpan delivery lol. Current Sseth sounds a little different, actually has emotion.

[@Hypercat0]

Sseth would be so proud.

[@DirtiestJoe]

He reminds me of max0r and oboeshoe person

[@GarrusN7]

He reminds me of casually explained a lot.

[@KAllistaire0]

I dunno if people have watch this guy but, he reminds me of Senza personally

[@TehOneh]

I suffer through being a monk main but my reward is getting to say "i'll just punch things" when the party is discussing strategy

[@tristand2854]

"I plan to punch it in the butt...with moogles" *whips out murderous mogfists*

[@pepekovallin]

"ninja, pay attention to your mudras, white mage, let me fucking die if I use living dead, and monk... Smash them"

[@ElGrandeCumerDeTexas]

wake up babe new misshapen chair job tutorial

[@FireWarrior2500]

I started the game using pugilist and still main monk to this day, and I say this is a good guide for anyone looking into starting Monk. Pretty much exactly what I've come to learn while playing. I still miss Greased Lightning though... even when losing it to mid-boss cutscenes.

[@thegamer101n]

Bonus tip: you don't have to be outside the ring to land a positional you can still be inside the ring to land it as long as you're in the right spot this is good if the boss is massive like e12 and you need to be as close to the healer as possible. Friendly reminder how much the team hated monk at one time. Maintaining grease lightning buffs. A 15 second buff that could only be refreshed with rock breaker, demolish or snap punch. So if the fight had midboss cutscenes (eden sheeva,puppets bunker, lakshmi) YOU LOSE YOUR BUFF and you end up having to use perfect balance to refresh it instead of a good burst window. Also bonus tip: you'll get more sympathy commends as a monk

[@tristand2854]

Lol, sitting here with my 400 commends between 2014 and 2018 as a monk main

[@swagnius]

As a DRK and SCH player I felt this.

[@superkami8618]

I started as a SCH main... then swapped to DRK but still heal on SCH. and honestly was thinking of learning MNK soon... I feel you, brother

[@MrJeha95]

Why is it so bad to level tho

[@pookie6659]

@@MrJeha95 mostly about the class being pretty boring without more high end skills

[@geltric4779]

@@MrJeha95 They continually remove buttons from the classes and deliberately ignore how painful it is to play the classes at anything but max level for the expansion. The biggest issue with this is the fact that level sync exists and forces you to play with the janky setup. It's so bad for some classes.

[@RitzyBusiness]

You mean the warrior reskin? I used to love DRK, but this warrior wannabe sucks. A lot of people who disliked DRK before, but would play warrior, now like DRK.

[@c00lcar5]

That gameplay of Eden's Promise: Umbra made me laugh so hard. Watching the positional dps panic as platforms threaten to fall was amazing.

[@WTFscareME]

Monk main here, he’s right im addicted to heroin

[@MysticLuka]

that rush every time i hit a rear bootshine with dragon kick active is just so gooooood

[@Mounthuapleb5890]

I mean..you look like it.

[@WanyeInJapan]

Dude your guides are so good and entertaining! Your channel is gonna blow up soon for sure! :)

[@JinofWoo]

You understand everything that I hate about current MNK as a former MNK main and I love you.

[@SolPhantasmagoria]

It's true, I used to be famous. Then I started to play Monk. Naturally, I ended up in substance abuse. All of them.

[@ExorcistX999]

I main monk since I first started the game and I've no regrets :). Thanks for the guide

[@EWVxx]

Look forward to your SMN guide!

[@sleepyhorse9817]

I watched a video of you while I was high out of my mind of you explaining how you got your name and my god it was the funniest thing I ever heard sober me saying thanks for that experience

[@bigmike5549]

I feel so attacked with this guide 10/10 would watch again

[@Xuen]

Subbed and liked keep up the great work I love the humor and everything. You have a really good thing going man just keep trucking and I'm sure you'll go far keep it up

[@nicholaslongaker7065]

Enjoying your channel. Hope you reach 10k soon.

[@ravencheetah3]

i've been waitin for this one

[@taftur8597]

I love playing monk, feels like Im a kid with ADHD on a sugarrush. Fisty bois rise up

[@anthonydelfino6171]

Gimme that .75 sec GCD!

[@stormblade3408]

@@anthonydelfino6171 I'm sorry what the fuck?? Man I can't wait to have my monk in endgame.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

@@stormblade3408 Oh it's nowhere near that fast.... I just want it to be. I think the fastest I've ever been was about 2 seconds GCD

[@stormblade3408]

@@anthonydelfino6171 Oh ok, thank god, that's what I'm at, can you imagine the sheer APM of a 0.75 monk player tho XDD

[@ghozter1]

@@stormblade3408 a 1 second gcd would be nutty, for monk or ninja. Having played wow’s gcd I wish it could happen, all though most of the times with all the mechanics going on, positionals, rotations, off-gcd’s 2.0 sec gcd isn’t that bad. But imagine the pace of 1 second or lower oof

[@BlumenCT]

I remember when I started Pugilist (my second class ever) the tooltip said something like "Pugilist doesn't use Weaponskill combos, instead it uses forms you rotate through" which looking back felt like a flat-out lie because for all intents and purposes they're just combos. I know they aren't technically, but it's ultimately like a 3-part combo with 3 options for each part. This would be really cool if the devs had not scrambled to shove all the positional and form-specific workarounds they could into your kit, which highlights that you could just be NOT doing all that nonsense. But I guess that's why the positionals got a damage buff in 5.4.

[@BlumenCT]

That said Monk feels incredible now and I would say this is the best time in its history to play it.

[@johnzhu8693]

I believe it was because missing a positional would break the combo back in 1.0, and if you put that with a job like monk....

[@lorenzore1238]

i love this. it inform me and make me laugh a bit. it just make me keep watching

[@dankslurpee]

You are the combination of Casually Explained, Shmolty, and FFXIV I needed

[@Banisteriopsis]

I don't have time to watch this video right now because my life is on fire... But I'm so confident in it's flawless execution that I'm hitting the like button blindly and leaving a comment to boost those algorithms... Don't do me wrong MC.

[@dataecto6135]

"This video was approved by 2 Monks" so every mnk player huh?

[@tristand2854]

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

[@Febrezeaire]

Ever since I discovered your channel I kinda been watching a lot of your vids

[@squidy3603]

Im glad I haven’t played another dps class so im content with maining monk. I just punch things that it

[@Lynmaru_]

God tier thumbnail as always

[@solowdg5331]

This video is absolutely awesome. I really enjoyed this. Now time to let you down. Monk is my absolute favorite class right now and I cannot wait to see how it gets in Endwalkers

[@acegreenstara2366]

One day I will get my warrior one and won’t shut up until it happens lol

[@anthonyseverino8292]

Jesus this class sounds painfully hard to master

[@Starpotion]

Emphasis on painful

[@XxLeatonSxX]

youre doing great thanks for the fun videos haha wow anyway keep it up forever

[@Bedrick]

This vid makes monk seem so fun, gotta try it out. This is coming from a DRG main and I love positionals

[@YDG666]

Despite of the boss spinning around or tank spinning too I do enjoy playing MNK just because of the positions mechanic makes me more active playing instead of a ranged static DPS or usual mellee fighters

[@lordemeth1802]

That's one of the other reasons I like monk you actually have to be involved instead of just standing there and using skill after skill it was killing the game for me and I only been playing weeks

[@FriedPlacentaBurger]

In the US, cars did previously have another pedal next to the breaks that would operate the high beam lights.

[@FatesChosenHero]

As a Monk main since Heavensward... I will approve this video too. So, that's at least 3 Monk players. XD

[@TakiyaToku]

this is gold ^^

[@eight08life15]

The way you do your gcds is pretty much what I did back in ARR days. On controller my flanks were on the directional right to down to left. And my behind one were on the face buttons O to X to □

[@trigger493]

As a MNK main I approve this, good job!

[@hamptonwooster]

Also I formally nominate my recent new main, NIN, as tribute

[@Zikiru]

When I first played this game, Pugalist was my first class. I was pretty self taught how to play this role. And everything you just said so far fits into my playing style.

[@kush7138]

Yeah tje only confusing thing was trying to figure out how to get the rest of the skills. Since I play many other MMOs, it became easier to lvl up to lvl45 PGL until I got roasted that I sbouidve been MNK already. Like man I see that as a frat getting so high with PGL before MNK 😤

[@naitomea_st]

New monk player here, and as frustrating as it can be, positionals is what makes it fun for me. Cool concept dancing around trying to find the best angles and exploit "weak spots" like in a fist fight...Oddly, monk has been my favorite melee class so far. I've only tried sam (although not for a very long time, lv 65), ninja (lv 73) and monk.....but im also under level 50 right now so we will see how I truly feel about it when I hit 80 😂

[@wollyram6248]

In WoW monk is also the red headed step child, cursed class.

[@Verpal]

How can you curse red head if they don't have a soul?

[@wollyram6248]

@@Verpal It's already cursed.

[@adamradford8053]

This is an old tradition, stretching back to EverQuest Monk

[@HeroicLeigh]

As a Monk main I yeeted 6 sided star off my bar..... and call myself the backup healer for the sheer number of times Mantra has been MVP

[@Frostfang_Piglet]

Never had trouble leveling Monk. I enjoyed it all the way up to 80. First job I picked because I like hand to hand combat over using a weapon in hand (I use the glamour that makes the weapons invisible).

[@felixdumbravescu2725]

Fist of the Emprah master race

[@Guimu]

Monk is fun but I hate when boss suddenly turns around and I miss my bootshine crit :) I had no idea how to use perfect balance but now I do. Thanks!

[@grenyena9190]

TL;DR *Just play Samurai* 😂👌

[@MistaHoward]

Or ninja if you want a job that requires braincells

[@Endlessfin]

so i am a DRK Main and then started playing MNKey, if i want true suffering i have to play SCHOLAR as my healer class lol

[@koulfurno7271]

I started with Monk as my first class/job. And didn't try anything else, besides land/hand jobs, till lv 50. And I'll say it took a while to unlearn my combos and playstyles to play other classes.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

As a monk main when I read about that jank move every move rotation I immediately thought “screw that.” I just take the potency hit once every 90 seconds. The boss was probably going to spin around to look at the bard’s hat for a minute then anyway.

[@tristand2854]

Even if you ignore monks positional you'll still hit for 30.25k/32.5k potency every 25 full rotations. If you miss half those bootshine positionals because of spinning or mechanics you're at the same spot. I just play it safe, stay at the rear, and punch that butt.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

@@tristand2854 I do my positionals because that's what you're supposed to do to play the job, it's like the only real mechanic the job has anymore. I meant I just stick with the rotation from the previous three expansions.

[@SolidCakes]

Nice!

[@shd_samurai9676]

You are the definition of true chaotic neutral, Sir.

[@ComfyChrist]

I have been leveling my monk and put it at number 2 on my "least fun to level to 60+" list. Dark Knight is still queen of that list.

[@lucasrfma]

btw I think you can avoid sticking to the alternating gcds without doing a buffless bootshine by doing twin snakes, true strikex2, you *might* drop the twin snakes buff for one dragon kick that way depending on sks, but that's like a much smaller damage loss than doing a buffless bootshine

[@adanalindsley4071]

Me rewatching this and every other guide waiting eagerly for ninja

[@manuelka8271]

I don't even play monk but your videos are so funny and entertaining I watch it anyways

[@chaos_blue1089]

As a sprout Monk going through ARR and thinking of offmaining Dark Knight... I mean I just like the concept of going up to godlike entities and punching them-

[@enragedsun1826]

Yeah I was thinking about leveling a Monk..

[@baliche]

another general tip for melee dps is if you know which attacks don't give you debuffs for eating them, you can afford to eat them for melee uptime because you have plenty of tools to heal yourself

[@HaemoFangs]

sO,o, after watching this video, I will finish levelling my level 56 monk to 60 to get dancer now. Thsnk

[@Cassapphic]

In endwalker monk will get formless fist at the end of perfect balance but will have some other ability introduced to fuck up your rotation in some other way. Maybe it will spend one chakra to heal your allies for 300 potency on a 60 second cooldown.

[@Makofueled]

Prophetic

[@ARGDevilDog]

You have a new sub.........I'm fukn dying on the earnings about playing has a monk "no? Still here? Okay" lmfao I'm going to watch all your videos hold my blunt.

[@PatrickOchoa8a]

I'm in no way a monk main, but would it be ok to just alternate the flank positionals and rear positionals? Like do the 3 Rears, then the 3 Flanks, and repeat? How much would that affect the DPS?

[@billsmith30]

I haven't played since 5.2 I think, and just started playing again. The most use I ever got out of Anatman was during Crown of The Immaculate when Greased Lightning still existed. If you timed it just right you could maintain your stacks through boss transitions, and I think the cutscenes halfway through. It doesn't matter that much anymore

[@steweygrrr]

Nailed how I feel about monk better than I can express because I am wholly unqualified to communicate with actual human beings. If they gave you formless fist on the end of perfect balance and made anatmen do... something I would be extremely happy with monk. As Drak says it feels like they have layed the groundwork for something to come and we're now waiting for the rest of it in 6.0

[@sixmajin6992]

I played as monk from ARR all the way til SB 5.4. I also found out I'm a masochist so hey it evens out

[@HalberdierHyperion]

So we've now seen how Monk looks for Endwalker: Aside from some potential weirdness in the opener, I think it looks fuckin' awesome. I've historically hated playing Monk and melee DPS in general, but this actually has me excited.

[@Pocchari]

Could someone explain to me why exactly this is the burst window? Because usually bursts are really straightforward and this is... anything but, honestly. I’m so confused. Or am I just too used to SMN/MCH/DNC?

[@bunnychan5604]

Monk gains chakra stacks from its traits for landing critical weaponskills

[@tsbulmer]

With how this video went, I'm very eager to hear what you have to say about EW Monk.

[@tristand2854]

Monk is love, monk is life, monk tank is best tank

[@hehadaname]

Yummy MNK video

[@jamesschofield9963]

Based channel

[@ReksNuadiah]

Opinion: Make ALL rear positionals also work when hitting the front It won't fix bosses turning halfway, but it'd make it fair because flanks have two sides but rear is only one, and the goddamn everything in this game turns on a dime in the blink of an eye faster than you can cry about missing Bootshine - but yet still leaves you plenty of time afterward to cry an ocean and wonder whatever it was you did to spite the devs in charge of Monk design

[@aidan8473]

Man I'm so glad that they "fixed" Monk in Endwalker. I love the Form Shift on the end and the Master's Gauge rework. It seems like they finally solved it fr.

[@geogeo3733]

I just started playing FF14 this month and made a lvl 50 monk. I'm enjoying it so far during the easier content but I think that once I get to the endgame the rotation will be too much to keep up with while also dodging a million aoe's. I'll probably make a Samurai if that's the case

[@lordemeth1802]

I started weeks ago and made a mistake and used a booster on Lancer and made him 70 made a Monk the next day and been loving it ever since i have no problem with positionals nor combos I think if a player truly enjoys a class they can make it work regardless of patch or how it performs endgame

[@scotch1148]

Bit late but, Samurai and Dragoon can be similar, Dragoon will still have a couple positionals if you enjoy the aspect of them with Monk, but it'll have a few longer combos and certain moves which animation lock, so you might get hit by AoEs if you aren't careful. DRG skills actually transfer well to SAM and vice versa because SAM also has 1-2 positionals and has cast times on certain moves, it's not quite an animation lock, but making sure you have a window to use a move is also something that DRG also does. I personally feel leveling Samurai is by far the most enjoyable experience, but that's just me, play what you enjoy.

[@metrovalleyeats]

I never thought about the fact that Arm of the Destroyer and Mantra are just the same but recolored and I've been playing monk for 2 years now, but I think that's gonna haunt for the rest of my life...

[@Dnosirrom]

Been PUG since launch and MNK since it was available, and this video is 100% truth

[@Pokeater]

As a Drk main. I felt this. Also, since you are a new Monk here is another proper opener you may wanna try out. It's called a Boot DK Power Boost. And basically, all you need to do is. Dragon Kick, Bootshine, Dragon Kick, Bootshine, do this 3 times and skip Bootshine to do Dragon Kick Twice. End it with Form Shift then True Strike and Rock Breaker Q&A: "Why do Dragon Kick twice" It's because of Laden Fist and you can follow that up with Twin Snakes, and Demolish as your finisher. I hope this helps your experience as monk

[@aeridan.]

I'm just playing MNK for that level 70 AF gear glam.

[@mauricioos2294]

welp, looks like it's time for me to play monk

[@KillaManReaper2]

I dont use the weird monk rotation because I dont want to have to go from flank to rear so many times. I eat the very small dps loss of refreshing twin snakes way too early instead of straight damage from and I dont have a wonky rotation because of it. I would also like to mention that six sided star is really only a dps gain if you are away from the boss for 2 GCD's or more otherwise you will be left waiting for it to come back up. I rarely use it in current tier savage content. That isnt to say there arent places I could use it. There are probably some places you can use it in 12s and 11s, but I dont know of any in 9s and 10s. Feel free to correct me, I am by no means the best monk player.

[@cystarkman]

wow i have so much to look forward to in my slow journey as a pugilist lvl25. however my miner, goldsmith and now leather maker are so much fun. cruising around unmolested as a lvl 40 miner is nice. sadly I prolly have to progress story a bit now so i can get more storage space and sell stuff. sigh

[@FhtagnCthulhu]

MNK was my first main in FFXIV. I play samurai now.

[@Arcomist]

Started as a MNK, desired to level SCH as a healer, then a DRK as a tank, just got to 80 on MNK, now I see this, I suppose any other class will be a cakewalk

[@Legofps123]

Since early ARR I main Monk and Sch on my 2 characters I raid with. Absolute pain man

[@Xilibrius]

I find monks rotation difficult because it has a semi random element instead of a static rotation found in most other jobs.

[@darkrobroy14]

I am 3 day sprout and i am laughing whilst looking forward to these upsets 😅

[@Azeveco]

Hi! I'm new nd maining a Monk. Would love to see the rotation and some tips wirtten. Does any of you have it?

[@Uedukai]

You're hilarious dude.

[@LS-cp2to]

I main Monk, I'm literally watching this for entertainment alone. A masochistic, self-loathing sort of entertainment.

[@saphiren0050]

I know nothing about playing monk so forgive me for asking a dumb question. Given Riddle of Earth lets you ignore positionals, would it be useful in your "bumpy" phase to not have to deal with alternating positionals? Or would that mess with uptime/buff timing/some other important issue?

[@finalfantasy50]

only lasts for 3 attacks/6 seconds per every 30 seconds

[@Sammysnows]

altough i like the mnk changes but I'm kinda like the current mnk with all gcd having positional it feels like its more active job than doing 1 2 3 combo then go to flank to get positional or back then do 1 2 3 combo with no positional.

[@hashihime1703]

Ooga Booga I am from the future. Monk feels mega nice to play in EW play it.

[@HoboJoe10000]

You actually wanna twin snakes every third combo as it only drops off for that hit allowing you more use of your damage ability causing an overall dps increase. So it's actually every other for the first hit and every third for the next two and then adapting your PB phase. Yes, doing this properly leads to insanity.

[@hamptonwooster]

MNK changes for Endwalker that Yoshi P will add after he totally hires me: 1, Fix PB misalignment like you said. 2. Add another meter. If you hit around 6-8 positionals correctly in a row you get a flashy huge potency button to replace snap punch. To go even further it could buff your next demolish too?

[@finalfantasy50]

make the animation a flying dragon kick that avoids ground aoe attacks, make drg jealous