Asking here, because internet search was too varied and often out-of-date:

What I had thought to be the general guidelines of LB usage seem to have been borked slightly (bear in mind I'm just talking dungeons, mostly just the MSQ stuff and a few off-the-cuff Dzamael Darkholds, nothing much beyond that right now). For the record, my limited knowledge of LBs goes thus:

Melee DPS have single target/priority on bosses where adds are not a known issue; used when it won't bugger up your rotation thereby creating DPS loss, and when the lock isn't going to have something eat your face off;

Caster DPS is for when it's more expedient for mobs to be burned and have been placed in a nice circle, and/or tricksy adds in a boss phase which have also been arranged into a nice circle.

Ranged DPS when it's the month of Sundays, but has use on single boss targets if there's no adds to worry about, your other DPS is a caster/asleep/??? and LB says "pls use me, ty"; or... never had any other situations where I've had to think about it, but perhaps if there's adds arranged over a long column space and ...(halp!)?

I'm not concerned about the tank or healer LBs in this basic dungeon content, because if I see those, things have likely gone south already.

I main a bard, so LBs have never been too much of a concern, but as I'm levelling up a DRG (and also using a small army of DRG alts as sacrificial minions), I've seen ranged/caster LBs shot off on the second boss of the dungeon without any prior discussion, and the result has been the LB(2) not charging in full for the last boss. This is bugging me, as I've been more inclined to leave LBs for the melee DPS if I bard, unless they request otherwise.
In one recent instance the LB didn't seem really worth it as far as I could tell (caster LB in Sastasha, where the captain is just with two of his pals and then runs off), and then again in Brayflox (bard on the Tempest Biast; our collective DPS output didn't seem all that, so maybe that's why they did it? I wouldn't BRD LB there, so not sure).

I know these aren't really gamebreakers, but I really thought there was some sort of procedure to follow and these instances don't feel quite right. And so, what you all think some basic rules of LB decorum would be of great use, even if it's for later, harder content (as I go into those things every now and again, albeit only on BRD). I'm fully okay with learning new stuff, especially if I've had it wrong before!

Cheers, and much thanks for any help/advice! <3


TL;DR: When do I DRG (or other melee) LB, when do I use BRD (or MCH) LB, when do I use caster LB, and if the bar doesn't charge up fully to the second bar on the last boss is it okay for me to (quietly) gnash my DRG teeth (just to myself) and just use what's there anyway (damage is damage, after all)?