RUN is not much sturdier defensively vs a MNK, the difference being in their ability to parry and large idle regen sets to cut the difference, along with phalanx/ss/blink.
Please don't weaken your arguments with this kind of silly exaggeration, that only hurts your credibility (and encourages some of the replies you're seeing that move away from truly relevant points). You make some reasonable points and I always respect your input even when I don't necessarily agree with all of it; I generally think of you as someone who is usually a pretty reasonable person. I really don't want to have to willfully ignore complete nonsense like "RUN is not much sturdier".
I'm not going to say that MNK can't turtle up enough to pull some Omen trash mobs, if you feel like doing that non-essential thing. But come on... RUN is working with a LOT more advantages than some parry and idle regen.
Even excluding the ~140mil Ergon weapon that most serious endgame tanking RUNs
prob have, you're discounting Battuta/Inquartata, insane elemental resistance and Valliance/Vallation, Foil, One For All/Liement, Pflug, a ton of Meva, Cocoon in the standard /BLU tanking sub...
What does it take to "gear Monk"? You mean su3 equipment and a rema?
To try to jump on a more...
productive? tangent:
This is actually one of the good things about MNK, it's one of the easier jobs to gear to a respectable endgame level, especially if you already have other jobs that use light DD & 'martial artist' gear sets. MNK reforged AF/Relic sets aren't really vital/must-have stuff (a few nice pieces, but nothing super essential), and most of the other gear is useful for other jobs. HQ gear is obviously better, but NQ stuff (Su3, abjuration, Moon- accessories) is fine.
You'd generally want:
- Adhemar head/hands, useful for a ton of light DDs (alternative: Kendatsuba)
- Kendatsuba body/legs/feet, also useful for people who use SAM or NIN (also viable: herc body/feet, Samnuha Tights)
- A bunch of multi-job accessories. Most people with DD jobs probably have most/all of the relevant stuff like Sherida/Brutal/Cessance, DD rings, etc. Maybe Moonbeam/Moonlight neck and Moonbow Belt are more uncommon since they're used for less jobs.
So, the MNK exclusive stuff really comes down to:
(1) getting either (a) a Relic/Empy/Aeonic weapon, or (b) one of the other weapons that are more or less on the lower end of the "RMEA-tier" (Comeuppances, Jolt Counters) which are still plenty viable for the kinds of things you prob wanna use MNK for. Since focusing completely on DPS isn't quite as huge of a consideration in cases where you be more likely to want to use MNKs (that's kind of the whole point of preferring use of MNKs), it's really not as significant as it is on most DDs to to lose a little DPS from using a weapon somewhat below the absolute top tier.
(2) maybe picking up a couple of accessories you may not have had on other jobs - Moonbeam Neck and Moonbow Belt, perhaps.
(3) an Ambuscade cape or two.
From the perspective of "hey I guess we can try some stuff with MNKs", I'll admit that the barrier to entry is a lot lower than most jobs for people to gear up and use a lot of their existing equipment. Getting JP/gifts is the biggest slog, really.
Now, I *still* have yet to see much of a compelling argument that RNGs aren't generally a better choice than MNKs if you're strongly considering using "safer" DDs. But hey, if people want to use MNKs for that kind of setup I guess it works. At a minimum, I guess I'd agree that RNG is harder to gear to endgame levels, with expensive RMEA making a bigger difference and a lot more niche gear needed (reforged relic hat/body/legs, AF head/body, ranged only accessories, WSD/MAB pieces that are generally not used for much more than RNG COR, etc.)