In this video, I walk you through all of the weaponskills and abilities that the Pugilist, and later the Monk, learns in the first fifty levels of the game. I explain and show examples for every action, and elaborate on when and where to use what, so you can safely approach the contents of the game. I also spend some time on clarifying on positionals, which is especially important for the Monk. If you find things are going a bit fast, or maybe a bit slow, I do recommend pausing or skipping ahead. I do imagine there are some points where you may benefit a lot from pausing though!
As your rotation evolves, I make sure to present you the rotation you need to follow.
During the summary at the end of the video, I also present you a simple rotation if you feel like the optimal rotation is making your head spin. This alternative rotation will do less damage than the optimal one, but is much much easier to follow.
For information regarding GCDs, oGCDs, Weaponskills, Spells and Abilities as well as Animation locking and Weaving, refer to my guide on these aspects:
https://youtu.be/4jZ9j7ti0Nw
For information regarding movement and movement abilities like Fists of Wind and Shoulder Tackle, refer to my guide on those aspects:
https://youtu.be/2xHqdJ96St0
For a rundown of all Role Actions in the game as of Shadowbringers, refer to my guide on those:
https://youtu.be/RXOF7wbahAY
Music used:
Neath Dark Waters: An extended version of this song can be found here: https://youtu.be/7Dv5Ps1ehF4 , but be aware that it may contain spoilers for Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers specifically.
Chapters:
0:00 Level 1-10 and Positionals
2:56 Level 11-20 and Twin Snakes
3:58 Level 21-30 and AoE and DoTs
5:41 Level 31-40 and Movement
7:07 Level 41-50 and Perfect Balance
9:05 Summary and Easy Rotation
11:16 Fun Fact
source
Yay! Thank you so much for this!!! This has cleared up so much for me!
Really nice and easy, appreciate the video. Hopefully we get 50-80 đ
Thx man I was literally confused at 50
wow thats complicated XD I just want punch things lol
Welcome to Endwalker! Here are any significant changes related to this particular guide:
Fists of Earth/Wind/Fire: These three abilities have been removed entirely.
Level 1: Bootshine no longer has a positional requirement to the guaranteed critical hit property.
Additionally, Forms now last 30 seconds instead of just 15!
Level 4: True Strike no longer has a positional requirement for extra potency.
Level 15: A higher level mechanic has been added early on! Meditation, while being an ability itself, still incurs the GCD, but only for a single second instead of the default value. Using Meditation grants you one stack of Chakra, up to a maximum of five. If you are not in combat, using Meditation just once grants you all five stacks immediately.
When you have five Chakra Stacks, Meditation turns into Steel Peak, an ability you can use between your GCDs, a so-called off-Global Cooldown or oGCD for short. Effectively, you should use this on cooldown, but given the way Meditation works at this level, your only opportunity to generate Chakra stacks is while you are out of range to attack, or not in combat. Simply put, if you are too far away from the boss, you should use Meditation repeatedly until you are in range. If you have five stacks, use Steel Peak for some free damage!
Level 18: Twin Snakes no longer has a positional requirement for extra potency.
Level 35: Shoulder Tackle has been replaced by the ability Thunderclap. This enables you to, in a similar fashion, dash to an enemy or ally. It comes with two charges, so you can use one, and keep another for later. Given that it has ZERO offensive value, you can use this for its utility of movement whenever you want or need to!
Level 38: You learn a trait that makes Critical hits from Weaponskills have an 80% chance to grant you one stack of Chakra automatically. While this does not change your rotation at all, it does mean you should prioritize spending Steel Peaks as fast as possible when it is available, so as not to waste any possible Chakra you miss out on because you are already capped on stacks!
Level 40: At this level, you now learn Howling Fist, which is an AoE alternative to Steel Peak. Howling Fist is better than Steel Peak on 2 or more targets.
Level 45: Four-point Fury now applies the same buff as Twin Snakes, instead of only extending it. This means you no longer have to worry about applying this buff at the start of AoE combat, as Four-point Fury handles this easily on its own!
Level 50: Dragon Kick no longer has a positional requirement for extra potency.
Also, Perfect Balance has been changed to instead have 2 charges, on a cooldown of 40 seconds. Using Perfect Balance then grants you 3 charges of the effect seen in the video, instead of 6. At higher levels this ability becomes a much much more central part of the Monk, but that is not yet the case!
Role Actions: Feint now additionally reduces magic damage, so you can use it almost at any time and always have some benefit.
ASMR
I have put up an Endwalker version of this guide, which among other things addresses Meditation and Steel Peak: https://youtu.be/_U0H6KVh82I