Sorry to see you go Chunli and I truely cant say that I blame you. You were a great spokesman for Dragon Monk issues. Good luck to you in whatever you may do.

Agreed, an ability like this should have a 30 sec reuse or something at best. It would be useful supplement to our reguler AEs which build Jin anyways (although slowly), AE AE AE, Dragonbreath, AE... IF it werent on such a long timer but as it is most our good finishers are tied to reuses and stuff like Dragonbreath are even worse, with long reuse and high Jin costs... the only thing its lacking is an energy cost... lmao. Maybe they can add 500 energy cost to it in next patch to make it balanced.

Are you F'ING kidding me!? How can they keep screwing this stuff up?? If you ADD a 5 freaking minute timer to a 50th only line that only does equal damage to a line ANYONE can just do over and over with NO timer, how can you even begain to consider that a useful change? Energy costs on secrets?? Unnoticable change to AoE damage? Is this a gd joke? I too am usually a patient person, but even a saint would be furious by now if they played a monk. All this broken stuff comes right after they destroy our most useful evasive ability too... awesome. Please tell me they are aware of the broken sh*t they pushed to the live servers at least...

So I notice they added the Armor Chink weakness to Eagle Claw. Relatively minor request to other issues, but something that would be cool to check on... Quinn is there any chance you can check to see if they are considering adding more Weakness/Exploits to other Monk attacks, pretty much all monk styles base opening attacks (ones not tied to reuse at the least) should cause a weakness and exploit something. As per our original design we should be capable of creating the widest range of vulnerablities for others to exploit. Attacks off the top of my head that should have weakness/exploit that makes sense:

Feet of the Fire Dragon: Burning+, Vulnerable
Dragon Rakes its Claws: Flesh Rend+, Bleeding
Whirling Storm: Dazed+, Chilled

Also, stating the obvious but if they increased secret duration each to 45 sec at 90 sec reuse, it would make it more of an upgrade. Since currently you can chain secrets, under new timers you should be able to also. Nice work keeping us updated btw Quinn, much appreciated.

I agree Kazeneko, at 40 as a Dragon Master Monk fighting a +1/+2 level three dot with Aum Ti up and a rare windblade I would end up with downtime, usually losing like 30 to 40 percent health with RiTW 2. Then I would rest/eat/meditate, and begin again, but the downtime seemed reasonable. I was able to kill a red con three dot with maximum Jin and fighting more offensively, iron hand, secret, rare wraps, storm dragon stance; pop RiTW regen up end then let loose with a combination, wait for endurance and refresh RitW, repeat- use ignore pain if needed.

I still took a beating though and it was more taxing than fighting an even or blue con for example, and certainly not worth the extra effort from an experiance pov- but it was nice knowing it was possible. Also, RitW isnt entirely helpful versus spellcasters, so you still take a beating from them reguardless if they are spaming nukes. In the above fights it was versus non skeletal mobs, I dont think fighting a skeleton is an accurate gauge of your skill as a monk since you will naturally do much more offensive damage- I can backfist skeletons for like 2k for example, its alot less on a living mob unless you crit consistantly...

As for four dots, I could take on grey con four dots 10 to 12 levels lower without too much trouble, providing they didnt get lucky with attacks, even still they could get lucky and pop you a few times for 500ish damage. I beat a non skeletal green four dot one time, but I used both my racial heal and my ignore pain.

RitW was nice for failed feign attempts also, or for a rough pull, or for fd flopping into an area to get corpses. Its not going to be much useful in those situations should the proposed change occur. They definately went overboard on its "nerf".

Like other have said just look at the soloability of other classes and you will see how unneeded such a dramatic nerf was/is for RitW. Sure there was alot of ways they couldve "toned it down" if they felt it was beyond their vision of its intended strength, but they didnt, simply adding a long reuse to limit its use has obliterated every bit of what the skill was useful for and seems quite frankly like a sloppy fix. If that was indeed its intended timer, perhaps it is time they rethink the usefulness of the ability in the scope with our class, much like our other "intended" abilities are going through changes, it may well of been underpowered or broken in functionality when they came up with that number.

Most the stuff is pretty nice, Chunli pretty much voiced my thoughts about the Dragon related things already... again all in all nice to hear they are working on things... but I definately think they went WAY overboard on the nerf to RitW, I fully expected it to get tuned down or a bit of a timer added just so it couldnt be used to keep perma dodge mode on... but again as others have said a 2 minute reuse is pretty close to worthless for a 13 second ability. Its just mind boggling.

Swaying Step shouldve always had its reuse removed AND you should still be able to attack while its active without breaking it. As for RitW a more appropriate change wouldve been moving it to a 30 second reuse while reducing the dodge bonus a little bit (35 or so) OR a sizable reduction in the dodge bonus but a more consistant duration; for example have it grant 30, 45, 60 second duration at rank 3 with a 2 minute reuse while lowering the dodge bonus to 25 percent (half as effective as before).

Thats how I figured it would be when I first got it, I was suprised to find out it really just throws you upward slightly and forward a decent bit when clicked. I also really like the ability and when you get use to it, it is really nice for traveling. I think it would be pretty cool if they added a slightly lower level version that was more of an upward jump - exactly like the guy that tosses ya over the fence at that lighthouse on Thestra. Call it like "Leap of the Clouds" make it a level 24 ability with around a 15 Endurance cost.

Cant say if Reed in the Wind I is required for RitW II, but it is useful for training it anyways even if it isnt. I had to go by myself to Dargun's to learn it so it was very helpful to have. You can go into defensive stance then opt for total defense versus one of the roaches with Reed in the Wind and Swaying Step, tank for a while until you get the "Your knowledge of Reed in the Wind has advanced" then feign death the mob. Jump up and go rest if needed, then repeat the practice until you advance or complete your lesson, killing the mob isnt needed. So can just keep practicing on a single roach. It usually takes like six updates or so before you actually learn the skill.

Another thing I DONT notice on that list is "Cloud Dragon's Ruse", the main draw of this ability use to be the fact that it would allow you a much greater crit chance on your next attack (which wasnt really noticeable), always opened up finishers (completely pointless now, an artifact of the old system) and a whoping 1 second stun heh, all this for 6 JIN and a 5 minute cooldown mind you and the ability itself dealt LESS dmg then Ashen Hand line, which isnt on a reuse.

They need to do something to this ability in the new system cause currently there really is no point to spend that amount of JIN when this ability does nothing that Ashen Hand doesnt already do, for much less cost. Id propose they increase the stun duration to like 10 seconds, make it a 100 percent critical chance (like an improved Dragon's Rage), and increase the damage on it by a good bit, they could make it also always open Counterattacks, cause thats something people might actually use as an alternative to a combination attack in a pinch (you might want a quivering palm debuff on tap for example or just use it for extra dmg in a pinch) and it makes sense because the attack is supposed to be a feint attack anyways. You might be able to justify the JIN cost and timer then.

-Hanzou Masamori

Since they changed crescent kick from the global refresh you can setup a macro which will chain it and another attack, providing you open up with the Crescent Kick. Two I find useful are:

/Cast "Crescent Kick IV"
/Cast "Boundless Fist V"

OR

/Cast "Crescent Kick IV"
/Cast "Iron Hand IV"
/Cast "Boundless Fist V"

The first one will build 3 JIN every click for 30 endurance cost; the second will build 3 JIN but use 2 JIN for activating (refreshing) Iron Hand, but resulting in a net 1 JIN gain.

As a follow up attack Dragon Monks can use this one:

/Cast "Jin Surge IV"
/Cast "Six Dragon's Strike III"

It will cost 5 JIN, but Six Dragon's Strike will return 1 JIN, total net cost 4 JIN. This attack will automaticly use Jin Surge on you and your allies, empowering the Six Dragon's Strike, which also exploits the Enraged weakness caused by the above Jin Building macro.

-Hanzou Masamori

I agree, this patch doesnt deliver for us Monks - it does however look like a good one for rogues. Im assuming they are still working on the monk tweaks to DPS, skills, stances... (along with everything else). Heres to next patch~

As a Dragon Style Master I dont have much more to add that Chunli hasnt already covered, secret and stance stacking, expensive AoE costs, broken stances, etc. Pretty much everything thats been on my mind. If the above issues get addressed soon Ill be one happy Monk. As a Dragon Monk Ive always felt our style specific AoEs should at least be somewhat efficient, since thats one of the marquee features of our style. Secret of Celerity also could benefit from a shorter reuse timer, its a nice burst damage asset but its far too limited atm by its timer, imo. That said Im really glad to see ya working with QTM, Talisker. I look forward to the changes in the coming week(s).

Im noticing what others are also regauarding Quivering Palm. It is currently not applying the debuff portion at all. Enemy damage output stays the same (I watched combat spam over a couple fights with even level 2 dots).

Combinations are much harder to land with the lowered critical rate that we have from the critical hit/dual wield changes. Since combinations are a large portion of our damage potential I believe Dragon and Drunken (Harmonious style already grants a critical bonus in their offense stance) monks should recieve a 5 percent critical boost on their offense forms to grant them their old chance at chains and finishers. They are offense stances after all.

I also think endurance costs on mastery style specific abilities and some counter attacks is something that has been overlooked with the recent tuning thats been done with melees. Mastery style specific abilities and some counter attacks feel far too costly in endurance currently, I would love to see their costs evaluated.

Originally monks were supposed to be the masters of creating weaknesses that their group members could exploit. I think it wouldnt hurt to apply more weaknesses/weakness exploit tags to more mastery style specific attacks, currently alot of form specific attacks are lacking them. Its not anything major imo, but it would go quite a ways to enhancing a dynamic that the class were originally touted as being the "masters of".

I have noticed the screaming also. Ive had it occur solo before and duoed with a Drunken Style Monk guildmate and in full groupd. He said he has never noticed that with his style. Im a Dragon Style Monk and when the scream occurs its seems almost like going "berserk" you character will play a loud "Aghhh!" sound effect then all chains will become fully available for a short time. Ive had my character shout twice before in quick succesion, the effect triggering it all seems pretty rare if it is completely at random and not part of some secret "combination".

For example in a fight sometimes I hear the "Aghhhh!!" scream and all reactions will become available, you can even do "Kick of the Heavens I" then "Thundering Fists I" then "Flying Kick" completely out of order if you want. Your only limit seems to be endurance for the short time the effect is active. I think I was in storm dragon stance in all the times I have had it occur. Anyone else experiance this?