The Monk in Season 4: A Revival or More of the Same?

There was once a time when the monk class was one of the most feared in all of FF7FS; red fist was seen as “OP”, “cheap”, and “didn’t take any skill”… those were the days… Recently blast gadgets, tornados, and so much more have made the ways of the fist nothing more than a mere inconvenience. Now there is a glimmer of hope in the form of a complete skill rework but do these changes return my favorite class back to prominence?

Let’s take a look at the new skills:

• Chakra Manawall - this skill basically combines the two old ones in ‘Chakra Field’ and ‘Manawall’ so now you will cast a (much larger) wall to shield you as well as giving you a healing field.

• Vigor - a completely new skill, this nullifies blow-away attacks (includes materia spells), reduces damage taken, and increases the recovery effect of ‘Inner Trait’.

Let’s start with Chakra Manawall, as much as I love the fact that it combines both old skills letting you have cover and heal, I equally hate the fact that the wall is freaking massive! I always ran Chakra Field because it gave the ability to save potions until end game and I could retreat from a tough situation, hide and heal. Well, there’s no hiding now, the wall easily gives your position away. This might not be a big deal in teams, as you can use only as needed (and you can be healed by another’s cure), I find it crippling in solos.

Vigor seems to be the new “go to” for those returning to the class, and although it is a very powerful skill, I don’t see it as “OP” as I’ve heard many say when first tested. What I do see is a beautiful compliment to an end game red fist attack as there is now nothing that can get in the way of you charging at the opponent (other than bullets, don’t run right into the line of gun fire, please be strategic!); even fireballs won’t make you flinch.

I feel that when the update first dropped there was a lot of talk of the Monk being great again but in the short time since, I see them being used as sparingly as previously (in solo at least). I really like the new reworked skills but don’t see them as game changing for the class; when I’m playing casually I’ll run Chakra Manawall for the heals and when I’m going sweat-mode, I’ll throw on Vigor for the extra end game pop. So overall, positive changes but us Monk mains will still be a proud few.