Limit Breaks: Should they really be shared?

Let's face it, everyone knows the consequences of using your Limit Break in a dungeon or raid, and even in a FATE when you're not told to can come with some heavy social degradation.

So the questions to discuss here:

• Should Limit Breaks be shared?
• Is there more fun to the player experience if Limit Breaks weren't shared?
• If Limit Breaks WEREN'T shared, should they be less effective?

My personal opinion is that they shouldn't be shared. I believe everyone should be able to use their own Limit Break but it should be less effective. For example, this would prevent 2 BLM's just destroying the Inferno Nails on Ifrit (Hard Mode) or any other kind of similar possible exploit. I know it would make a few aspects of a fight a little more difficult but that IS the idea behind "Hard Mode", is it not?

I just like the idea of Limit Breaks being used on an individual basis as currently the only classes that can really utilize this are BLM's for AOE, DRG's for Single-Target, and Tanks for "OH NO!" moments... I think it'd be more appeasing to the player base for us to all be able to utilize the Limit Break on our own terms and not be socially-crucified for doing so because it wasn't the "proper" time. Just an idea, an opinion, and something to talk about.

This topic was beaten to death on the beta forums, personal limit breaks would just become watered down flashy weapon skills, and the games flashy battle effects was a topic beaten to death also.

99% of the time this topic comes up it boils down to someone complaining they wanted to use the "big flashy" and didn't get to because it was better for another role to use it (Not talking about Ifrit HM, fully aware that can be done without a caster, just idiot proof with one) or they "accidentally" used it and wiped the group.

I'm for keeping them as they are, some fights hinge on proper LB usage and certain actions by the party accelerate LB bar gain (stunning certain attacks, killing certain targets in time, etc), changing this would just make it a spamfest of flashier weapon skills and would require a lot of fights to be completely rebalanced due to this. Just imagine all the melee trying to stun Ifrit's attacks for their 1/3 of an LB bar segment resulting in dead mages due to stun resistance building, then blaming the designated stunner with a practically useless LB in that fight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cadwgan

Just imagine all the melee trying to stun Ifrit's attacks for their 1/3 of an LB bar segment resulting in dead mages due to stun resistance building, then blaming the designated stunner with a practically useless LB in that fight.

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Omg XD Cadwgan you just made me serious chuckle. I can see your point man, I totally do. In that case you are right :)

[1/3]
I think the more bars of LB you have, the more it should work like weaponskills from FFXI. i.e. 3 bars is three people chaining their limit breaks together. Can chain the same break 3 times or different ones. i.e. BLM -> BLM -> DRG for some moderate-strong AOE and a decent little chunk of melee damage as well, plus certain effects for chaining certain LBs together, just like old weaponskills. The reason I want this (before you go "But LBs take FOREVER to cast! Three people out of combat for 10 seconds instead of one!") is because I think the more people that participate in the chain, the quicker the cast and subsequent animation are. If two BLM use up 3 bars, it should be twice as fast as one BLM doing it. Plus, with the additional effect (Which only comes if you use three people.) you could get a technically more efficient LB that gets everyone back to combat quicker. However, if you still wanted to cast a level 3 with one person, it'd work exactly like it does now!

[2/3]
There'd be plenty of stuff to work out and balance properly, obviously. If you just shoehorned this in without balance it'd be super OP as opposed to a good strategic move, but I think it could work. Also, I think current LBs need a revamping anyway. The tank LB, level 1 2 or 3, are all completely worthless for 99% of content. Non-DPS LBs shouldn't just be "oh shit" buttons. They should be able to contribute to the fight as often as a DPS LB can. For example, a healer LB at level 3 could put HoTs and damage absorption shields on the entire party after a full heal, and at level 3 not only would these be strengthened, but it could be a powerful MP regen tool for a few seconds.

[3/3]
The tank LB could be damage absorption for the group at level 1, damage absorption for the group + strength way down on all targets for level 2, and a groupwide Hallowed Ground for level 3, for a shorter duration than real Hallowed Ground, obviously. These are just spitballing ideas, so people coming in with lists of "why this random idea you just came up with wouldn't work" wouldn't really address the point of this post, which is to say non-DPS LBs need uses outside of "Everyone needs to res and we don't care if our last healer will die doing his 14 hour cast, and continues to kneel there praying 8 seconds after everyone has been alive."

Also, fuck the 1000 character limit. Whoever came up with that has no idea what the fuck a forum's purpose is. The daily posting limit as well. Square Enix and the internet mix so fucking poorly.

It would be nice if the dev learn something form Fellowship Maneuvers of LOTRO. Or even those old FFXI skillchain & MB are better then the LBs we have now.

I hate the fact that they are shared. There is also no interaction between players with them. I'd suggest making it similar to skill chains in ffxi where we can build off of each other to do more damage.

I actually don't mind that they're shared (and this is coming from someone who primarily tanks so I hardly ever get to use mine unless there's a huge "oh crap" moment and we can't just DPS limit the thing to death) but it does strike me as a little odd that the Archer's limit break is a heal... Especially considering just how potent Archer damage is at the moment.

An AE uber doT would be a pretty cool effect for Archers, considering they do get a goodly number of DoTs as it is.