Monk Rotation, Openers, and Abilities (Patch 6.5) - FFXIV

Among the melee jobs in Final Fantasy XIV, Monk might sound challenging for players who are just dipping their toe into endgame content. But if you’re willing to study Monk’s skills, rotation and opener, you might see that playing this job is easier than you thought. In this guide, we take a deep look into what you should know about the job, its rotations, burst windows, and openers. For an all-around look at the job, refer to our Monk Job Guide for details. 

Monk rewards you for practicing rotations and learning the fight. Besides that, this job comes with good utility that all groups trying to clear their first Savage tiers or running weekly clears will be grateful to count on. In case you think this is not the job for you and would like to learn more about others, be sure to check the Reaper and Dancer rotation guides.

The basics of the Monk job

Playing Monk is a matter of understanding and practicing the job up to the point where muscular memory will give you room to focus only on the mechanics of each fight. The path to get there is, however, quite demanding. First, a good Monk is always concerned with uptime, which means staying close to the boss as long as you can to deal damage. In addition, Monk has two positionals: Demolish must be used behind the boss, while Snap Punch from their flank. Learning the fight is key to making your life easier regarding uptime and positionals.

 The job has three important mechanics to always keep in mind. The buff Leaden Fist becomes available every time you use Dragon Kick in the Opo-opo form and it increases the potency of your next Bootshine. The Disciplined Fist is another buff that increases 15 percent of damage dealt by you and it lasts for 15 seconds. Lastly, Demolish is one of the Couerl form skills that leaves a DoT on the enemy you hit.

Among the melee jobs in FFXIV, Monk isn't the most selfish, bringing two incredible utility abilities that are useful during prog and when running for clears. To assist healers in encounters, you can always use Mantra to increase how much HP healing abilities recover for the whole party. This skill has only 90 seconds of cooldown, meaning  you can constantly use it to help healers cap the party’s HP before a mechanic or recuperate after numerous deaths occur. At the same time, Brotherhood is a massive party-buff that you can use to increase the damage dealt by you and other party members. A good Monk studies the fight and talks to the rest of the group to know when is the best moment to use both skills.

Monk’s rotation

Jobs in FFXIV have single and multiple-target rotations and Monk is no different. While the latter is quite simple, the former involves a larger number of skills and requires attention from you to memorize them. In both cases, Monk uses a three-combo rotation, making following the right sequence extremely important to take the most out of this job. 

The single-target rotation has variations but all of them respect the order of the three forms: Opo-Opo, Raptor, and Couerl. In most situations, you will use an Opo-opo skill, followed by a Raptor skill, and finish with a Coeurl skill. There are two skills for each of these forms when it comes to the single-target rotation, so you need to interweave one with the other in most cases. For the Opo-opo skills, this means you should always use Dragon Kick before the Bootshine rotation because of the Leaden Fist buff. However, the other two might be a little different.

Because Twin Snakes (Raptor) activates the Disciplined Fist, and Demolish (Couerl) leaves the DoT, you want to only use them when necessary. For example, you can start a fight using Dragon Kick, followed by Twin Snakes, and finish with Demolish. But, in your next rotation, you only go for Twin Snakes again if the Disciplined Fist buff will last seven seconds or less, and Demolish should only be reapplied if the DoT will last four seconds or less. If these are not the cases, you should use True Strike (Raptor) and Snap Punch (Couerl) instead. 

When facing multiple targets, your rotation changes to a different three-combo rotation. Still following the form orders just like its single-target counterpart, the multi-target rotation goes as follows: Shadow of the Destroyer, followed by Four-point Fury and finishing with Rockbreaker. You may consider using Demolish instead of Rockbreaker, but it’s situational. You should use this rotation, however, only if you’re facing a group of more than three enemies. Otherwise, it’s better to use the single-target rotation. 

Monk’s Chakra and Beast Chakra Priorities

The Monk rotation in FFXIV involves more than the combos explained in the previous section. When playing Monk, you need to learn when to use your Chakra and Beast Chakra abilities. The two gauges Monk has display your stacks of Chakra and your Beast Chakra markers. You gain Chakra stacks in three situations. First, by using Meditation outside of combat, you can stack five Chakras upon execution. Second, you landed a critical hit with a weaponskill. The last possible source is from other party members who, under the effect of Brotherhood, have a 20 percent chance of giving you one Chakra when they land a critical hit of a weaponskill or a spell. Because Meditation is only used in moments of downtime or before pulling the boss, you can usually rely on the last two sources to stack Chakra. 

With five stacks of Chakra, you have access to the single-target skill The Forbidden Chakra and Enlightenment, a multiple-target ability. You should weave these abilities between your regular rotation whenever they pop since both are oGCDs. You should prioritize using The Forbidden Charak or Enlightenment over other oGCDs, such as Riddle of Fire, though. 

While the regular Chakra is pretty straightforward, the Beast Chakras demand a little bit more decision-making from you. When using Perfect Balance, each of your weaponskills grant you one Beast Chakra of the form they are related to. For example, Bootshine gives you an Opo-opo Chakra, while Demolish grants you a Coeurl Chakra. Depending on the combination of chakras you open, a specific ability becomes available. Combining three of the same Beast Chakra allows you to use Elixir Field, while with three distinct chakras, you can use Rising Phoenix. By combining two of the same chakras with a third different one, you have access to Celestial Revolution. These combinations also grant you either Lunar or Solar Nadi and your goal is to have one of each to use Phantom Rush. 

Even though you have three options of Beast Chakras abilities to use, you should focus on using Elixir Field for Lunar Nadi and Rising Phoenix for Solar Nadi. These two are better than Celestial Revolution, because they have higher potency, cause more damage, and they hit multiple targets, making them work in both rotations.

Monk’s burst window

After the opener and having gone through the aforementioned single-target rotation, it’s time to prepare for the Monk’s burst window split in two, the odd and even windows. These windows are related to the minutes when Riddle of Fire gets out of cooldown after the opener. The first odd window happens around one minute after the initial pull, while the first even window begins around two minutes after the beginning of the fight. This order goes on successively until the end of the encounter. Preparing correctly for them allows your most powerful skills to align with the other party members’ buffs. 

The odd window goes as follows:

1. Twin Snakes or True Strike
2. Demolish
3. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
4. Twin Snakes
5. Snap Punch
6. Riddle of Fire
7. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
8. True Strike
9. Snap Punch
10. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
11. Twin Snakes
12. Demolish
13. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
14. Perfect Balance
15. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
16. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
17. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
18. Phatom Rush
19. Dragon Kick or Bootshine

The even burst window goes as described below:

1. Snap Punch
2. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
3. True Strike
4. Snap Punch
5. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
6. Perfect Balance
7. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
8. Riddle of Fire
9. Demolish
10. Twin Snakes
11. Brotherhood
12. Rising Phoenix
13. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
14. Perfect Balance
15. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
16. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
17. Dragon Kick or Bootshine
18. Elixir Field
19. Twin Snakes
20. Demolish
21. Dragon Kick or Bootshine

Monk’s opener

When dealing with endgame encounters, the opener is quite important when it comes to the overall damage you cause in a fight. While there is more than one option of opener for you to use, some only apply in specific situations or after you master the job. In this guide, we are going with the one called Lunar Solar Opener since it can fit in most situations.

1. Form Shift (30 seconds or less before the pull)
2. Thunderclap 
3. Dragon Kick
4. Tincture of Strength
5. Twin Snakes
6. Riddle of Fire
7. Demolish
8. The Forbidden Chakra
9. Bootshine
10. Brotherhood
11. Perfect Balance
12. Dragon Kick
13. Riddle of Wind
14. Bootshine
15. Dragon Kick
16. Elixir Field
17. Bootshine
18. Perfect Balance
19. Twin Snakes
20. Dragon Kick
21. Demolish
22. Rising Phoenix

After this point, it’s important to, instead of beginning the rotation with one of the Opo-opo skills, go to Twin Snakes. Doing so will help you keep the flow of skills for the next burst windows.