I play monk too, and I have to say, it CAN be played such that you run to the bathroom every other fight. Or it can be played better. Monk has to worry about pulling hate a lot, especially off of a ninja tank (at least through the 50's; I understand nin gets better enmity gear later).
Setting up macros is a bit of a process, sure, but they're easy to manage in battle. It's annoying to carry an extra 6-8 slots worth of gear just for a good chi blast, but certainly manageable. Same deal with making judgement calls with regard to accuracy vs strength gear and stuff.
Is it the easiest job to play in FFXI? Maybe. That definitely doesn't mean that monks are poor players or don't contribute.
I do my homework, farm for my scorpion harness, and show up ready to play hard and party for a long time. I play my job abilities selectively to help manage hate. I know the SATA formation and when to voke for Utsusemi; after all, I can swap in my counter gear, hit Cstance, and chakra if things look bad. Of course, using Chakra is a judgment call, because with a cyclas, that's 200+ hp restored, and that can pull the mob right back.
And I play the job because it's fun.
The most annoying thing about monk is the politics of it.
QCDN will go through phases where everyone lauds the DoT of monk, but then there are phases like right now, where someone like Skaw shows up to really defend the job, and people get polarized about it and start thinking of monks as assholes who are out to show them up -- no offense, Skaw, but people are out to take shots at monk these days. Part of this is the constant tension between the melee DD classes, since no single job of them is necessary to a party's well-being.
But I love this job. I did my 13th and 14th charity runs of mission 5-1 yesterday; I love organizing events and going in swinging, and I love that while my job might not be perfect for much outside of 5-1, I can play it for just about any mission, look forward to chi blasting gods like a cannon, and farm and solo anything up to DC without using a two hour or sleep attacks . . . maybe not as safe as sleep, bind, nuke, but faster and more satisfying. I took the job on because I love the idea of hand-fighting in a medieval/pre-industrial setting, and I like the idea of a character who is a bit of a man apart. I'm glad that it's a job that continues to be effective, if not always godly, at anything I want to do.
And yes, our DoT in parties is pretty good. Sorry about the distortion thing, but we didn't band together and decide not to learn those moves til the 60's; that's the way monk is gimp. We can still beat the crap out of robber crabs, and if you help me get to the high 60's, I will destroy the evils before me for any quest or mission.
So quit bashing my job and the people who play it, and I'll see you guys in the game.
