Halp! When to Use DPS Limit Breaks?

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Originally Posted by Raldo

Which LB is stronger (or are they the same damage), Caster or Ranged? Also, if you know the answer to this, where are you getting your info from? I've looked for this answer a couple times and never successfully found it.

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I'll have to find the potencies again, for reference, so I'll update this with a source when I can find it, but caster has a higher potency. Ranged has a bigger area of effect to compensate.

Edit: Potencies for ranged physical limit breaks aren't published, so it's largely player experimentation that has shown that caster limit breaks are able to deal more damage. We know melee LB3 is a potency if 9,000 and caster is 6,150. It's currently believed that ranged physical is around 6,000 potency for all targets hit.

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Originally Posted by Raldo

2) If you have to choose between multiple people (of the same LB type) to execute the LB, it's better to have the weaker/undergeared person use it. This is because LB damage is based off of the sum of the entire party's weapons, so the weaker person would do the same damage as the stronger one, all the while you're letting the stronger person continue to do their DPS rotation instead of being stuck in LB animation. (Can someone please verify this info for me? I don't have an info source on this, and the last time I told it to someone they just laughed at me like I was wrong)

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So i dont have a source handy, but this is always more or less how i heard it too. It was either the sum or the average of the entire groups weapons, so the weaker person using it would be ideal.

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Originally Posted by Raldo

Which LB is stronger (or are they the same damage), Caster or Ranged? Also, if you know the answer to this, where are you getting your info from? I've looked for this answer a couple times and never successfully found it.

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So the answer would be that ive always anecdotally heard caster>ranged, with ranged getting better range to make up for it. But yeah, a quick search of a couple sites doesnt show potencies for the ranged LBs while i can find them for melee and caster.

Just popping back in; after reviewing the thread and the advice, I don't really have any more questions. I'm feeling more confident in firing off the LB when it pings if necessary, but am not going to stress about it if it interferes with rotation. I've run some dungeons since, and tested stuff out; haven't had the nerve to "steal" the LB from a melee when I'm ranged and they leave it late, but I'm not going to worry about it too much so long as I've done everything else I could do - I am, after all, still learning to play my main job and others.

Thanks again for the input here. I really appreciate it, and have bookmarked it for future reference! <3

if between p.ranged brd/mch and between m.ranged blm/rdm/smn..., let the brd/mch LB..., even if p.ranged LB is a bit weaker than the caster LB, it casts ca. 5 sec. faster

the casters usally have better aoe damage anyway, they can compensate when aoe-ing instead if LBing.., especially if you have a Blm

(Blm have strong aoe damage too, let them aoe instead .. and when Blm LB, they lose all their buffs too, astral and enochian..., kind of like Mnks, Mnks shouldn't melee LB if possible, let other melees LB if possible, Mnks lose GL, that can take long to get up again)

hated LBing on deltascape V3, had my T4 + proc and 2nd foul build up ready, but was forced to LB3 -_- (15 sec LB with animation lock) ... while the brd wansnt doing much aoe damage anyway..., could have just LBed too and kill enough adds, while I lost my atstal & enochian (+ 1 foul build up) everytime I LBed there..

..

ofc there are situations, where the caster "round" aoe is just much more practical or needed (UWU), .. but otherwise let the brd/mch LB instead of the casters when possible..

Just don't use it like a Drg did in Lighthouse yesterday. The player was so obsessed with using the lb before anyone else they decided to pop it during Disposal (like literally the moment the third bar filled, like he'd been waiting on it). Got himself and a few others killed because they couldn't see too well with the big glowy dragon blocking their screen and moved in the wrong direction.

So, basically pick a safe time to use it. You're locked in place for quite a while, especially for lb3. And they do blind the melee players (looking at you, Rdms!)

I just got berated by team members today for using the LB3 on Ninja when it came up during Byakko normal after the phase transition, due to it being "way too early". I judged the healers to be doing fine, no deaths or anything and it's not like Byakko gets suddenly way harder after that point, so I did it. Was able to get another Braver towards the end because of it. However, this goes to show that public opinion may differ quite a bit sometimes, so even if you go with all the advice in this thread, be prepared to get flak either way from people who have very set ideas about it.

On byakko... normal? If the healers were keeping up then theres no reason to sit on a limit in that fight. Those people were dumb. Taking flak from dumb people is a sign that youre probably doing something right(or something SO wrong that even they can tell i suppose, but not in this instance).

Generally speaking, I have always found that your window of opportunity to use a LB closes during the second boss fight. Ideally, you want to use it on a big trash pull prior to the second boss or at the very beginning of the fight so it can begin refilling asap, though it depends on the iLevel of the party. If everything is going relatively quickly, then its possible that you might not make back your second bar in time before damage gets wasted for the final boss - even if you use it right away on the second - so ideally you'd like to use it before that if possible. Also, most of the time it seems that people don't bother LB'ing until the final boss for some reason, so unless you're a bit shy at times like me, I think its safe to assume they might not even use it on the second boss as a melee and just go ahead and blow a hole in the trash pull beforehand if it looks worthwhile.


At the end of the day, LB is just a buff/skill with a long cooldown. No sense letting it go to waste. So if you can get it off twice or even three times during a dungeon, go for it and try not to worry too much about what people think. Its hardly a big deal even if you use it a bit ineffectively and anyone who tries to give you hassle over that in a normal dungeon has bigger problems that need addressing frankly.

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Originally Posted by Knahli

Generally speaking, I have always found that your window of opportunity to use a LB closes during the second boss fight.

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It doesn't.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

if it happens to fill up again before the last boss (even if it's immediately before the last boss) to AoE LB the trash again.

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In a typical last boss fight, the second bar will fill when the boss has so little HP left that a single bar would have killed him. But assume anyway that you would a second bar. A melee LB2 would not do as much damage as an AoE LB1 on 4-8 trash mobs. If there's no melee DD, an AoE LB1 on any trash group would do more damage than an AoE LB2 on the boss.

There is no such "closing" on the LB window. If there is a caster or ranger in the party, it is appropriate to LB any trash group of 4 or more. If there are only casters/rangers in the party, LBing anything that isn't a boss is better than LBing the boss.

Honestly, Limit Breaks are rarely even necessary and particularly in dungeons they are just a bonus if/when you use them. If you can't survive without a limit break, there are larger issues than when it was used. I don't feel as though it really requires planning or thoughtful communication unless you're running high-difficulty endgame content.