Personal LBs

[PotatoTree]

I wish that SE would add some personal LBs like how it's done in PvP. However, I'm tired of the whole "click button and win" LB. When you break a limiter, you need to have some drawbacks. For example, in Yugioh the spell "Limiter Removal" did just that, doubled all machine type's attacks but at the end of the turn they all die.

So for example, maybe in 8 person raids, personal LBs would be something like:

BLM:
A LB move called "Static Shock" that puts a 20s dot on the whole party that does damage. Thunder 1, 2, and 3 get proc icons (as in they are instant casts with full dot damage on hit), with recasts of 2s, 4s, and 6s respectively. Thunder 3 becomes aoe under the effect. So with LB active, you have to communicate with your party to do it at a time where heavy aoe damage is not happening. So more damage output from the BLM in that period of time, but at a tradeoff of party aoe damage. Also for that 20s, the BLM is rooted to his position, but can rotate.

SMN:
A LB that makes any aetherflow consuming move like fester/painflare cost nothing, and have no recast time. However, each time you use an aetherflow consuming move, the user takes 3k damage. So while the SMN can spam moves, they need to keep watch of the damage they are dealing to themselves so they don't kill themselves.

MNK:
A LB that opens all the gates, and gives 20s of Greased Lightning 5, doubles the potency of attacks, etc. However, after the 20s the MNK takes damage equal to 90% of their hp, and gets weakness + heavy debuff.

WAR:
A LB that holmgangs all enemies in a circular aoe around the warrior, followed up with a fell cleave on each enemy. Any allies including the warrior in the 10 yalm radius also takes the holmgang and fell cleave damage. Positional play would be important to not get allies caught in your "berserk".

WHM:
The LB consumes all mana, gives the WHM weakness, and takes away 90% of the WHM's current HP. It will restore the HP of all allies equal to the HP the WHM lost, along with give everyone protect and stoneskin buffs, and regen, and medica2 hots.

DRK:
A move that sacrifices 90% of their own HP, and as a result can either raise a target party member with no weakness, or transfer the HP lost to an ally to heal them, or do the equivalent HP loss as damage to an enemy. So the effect is dependant on what the DRK targets when the LB is used.

PLD:
A LB that can be used when the PLD is alive or dead. If the PLD is alive, it will transfer any defensive cooldowns the PLD has to a target, but make the PLD have the negative of any defensive cooldown transferred of the same duration (ie: target gets 20% mitigation from rampart, PLD gets increased 20% damage taken debuff). If the PLD is dead, it will raise the PLD, but give a debuff that cannot be removed after the raise. The debuff is that the PLD will instantly die if no defensive cooldown is up (like rampart, sentinel, etc.), so eventually the PLD will die and become double weak since he died twice.

That's just some random ideas I had for now, if you have a good idea I'd like to hear it too! The main point is that the abilities are "limit breaks" and are strong, but come with a downside. So the user either has to pick a good time to use it, or communicate with their group. Some abilties require the user to get their healers to pre-shield them because they will become weaker afterwards, some abilities are last ditch "oh shit" moves, and some are damage moves but make healing/dodging harder so they have to be timed right. I think overall the downsides are what makes the moves "fun", in that it would take some skill to use them to their full potential without killing yourself.

[Callback]

Lorewise, I always wondered why we never weaponized primalfication against the Ascians. We're somehow against the concept just because it's similar to "summoning?" So what? Louisoix "summoned" the Twelve. On character creation we choose one of the twelve as our personal deity, currently only for a meager elemental resist bonus. We should learn primal transformations for them. From observing Ysayle, it seems there are no serious drawbacks to the process. You retain control, it only consumes a small amount of æther, and there are no lasting ill effects when the transformation is cancelled.

We would only need a reliable æther source, some type or auricite crystal to carry as a form of "æther battery." This could fill maybe once per IRL hour rather than with duty progress, and would act as the "personal LB" you seek. The transformation would confer stat buffs for its duration, and a one-time use of a special ability based on the deity and current role. For example, Halone would be a more traditional LB, performing a damaging spear strike as DPS, raising a shield for a self-damage resist as tank, and creating a glacial barrier around a target to heal while providing brief invincibility, yet disabling the unit for the duration, as a healer. Menphina, on the other hand, may give DPS the ability to briefly buff an ally, diverting a portion of the caster's damage dealt into bonus damage for the ally to discharge as they attack. Tanks would charm enemies within an area, as an AOE provoke, and briefly prevent them from attacking. Healers may place a global regen effect under the moonlight.

Every deity could have a fitting set of 3 abilities. Always good, but in different situations. Players may need to be given an option to allow them to change affiliation, but all abilities should be balanced and well-suited to the role.

[Jonnycbad]

Then they'd have rebalance all content to take into account the extra DPS/HoT/Damage reduction from personal limit breaks...and the end result is the same difficulty as we have now, but then it's just another resource to manage on top of everything else (rotation, DoTs, Potions, cooldowns etc).

[MagiusNecros]

Personally every player should have their own LB meter. Every other FF game had every character with their own Limit Break or special mode. It increases based on the role, Tanks take damage, DPS dealing damage and Healers sending out heals. You know the way it should be. And don't give me your balance garbage either. You know how often a Tank class uses their LB? Exactly. TeraFlare or Meteor on a single target which is most endboss encounters? Unheard of.

Why it's spread out through the whole party and shared as a one time use in most content is beyond me.

And if every class had their own unique animations and LB abilities it would add a lot of flavor. Instead of ST damage, AoE damage, straight line AoE damage, you take reduced damage for 8 seconds.

Speaking of potions, items being relegated to cooldowns of 4 minutes and above is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Should be 30 seconds to a minute at most. Get out of here with that crap.

[xJimmehx]

^This, so much. this X 99999. Limit breaks aren't fair. Give everyone a chance to use theirs and just make the individual LBs much weaker than the Group LB and even remove the group LB. if you have 3 dps, just make all three of dps LB's = the same as a single group LB when combined. Plus if someone misses it doesn't waste an entire LB3 lol.

[Soldowner]

As a dedicated DRK, why in the world would I ever sacrifice a whooping 90% of my health to use Raise or to damage an enemy? One denotes that somebody's playing poorly and the other...isn't really my job. As a Tank, I don't want to become squishy to hit something.

[Leigaon]

I always wanted this. I felt like the level 1 LB were something that could be done by a individual Limit break bar. You could tweak each one to make it a bit different but not over powering. Keeping it simple.

Healers - Same level 1 LB but WHM gives a weaker HoT for 10s, SCH a small % barrier for 15s, and AST increasing party buffs on players by 10s. None of this would be ground breaking but would be great to use.

Ranged - Same Lv1 LB, I would change brd and mch to AoE not LoS. BLM & SMN's leaves either the mob in a resistance / evasion down state for a few seconds. Bards and MCH give the party a unique buff for a few seconds. With the lack of unique stats, I would say either an increase to Determination or a MP & TP restore for a short period.

Tanks - Longer duration of dmg reduction. PLD could have a curing potency boost to nearby members, DRK casts darkness to blind everything for 10s, WAR gets a bloodbath.

Very hard to think it up without going "well that's going to be too powerful" but it would just be to give people that feeling "yeah this feels like something the job would do"

Good ideas, I hope others elaborate more unless it's already been discussed.

[Immut]

tradition is the worst justification for anything.

[Tint]

That's just some random ideas I had for now, if you have a good idea I'd like to hear it too! The main point is that the abilities are "limit breaks" and are strong, but come with a downside. So the user either has to pick a good time to use it, or communicate with their group. Some abilties require the user to get their healers to pre-shield them because they will become weaker afterwards, some abilities are last ditch "oh shit" moves, and some are damage moves but make healing/dodging harder so they have to be timed right. I think overall the downsides are what makes the moves "fun", in that it would take some skill to use them to their full potential without killing yourself.

i think the most "fun" will have the healer who has to safe the **** >.>