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Limit Breaks - Useless or Unappreciated?Follow

#1 Mar 07 2015 at 9:10 AM Rating: Good
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I've been playing this game for well over a year now. I'm a 44 Pally, first and only Job/Class past level 12 (waiting on DRK), and while I love so many aspects of this game, there is one that I feel goes completely to the wayside: Limit Breaks.

For the entire length of my play through, those two bars up in the upper left corner of the screen have always been a mystery to me. Oh I've had people tell me that the effect is different depending on the Class that activates it, like a VIT increase if my Pally does, a full heal if the CON/WHM does, etc. But I have never seen it used, ever. I don't know if there's some cool animation or screen effect to it, I don't know if it's worth putting on the skill bar (PS4 player here) to have at the ready, and there seems to be no talk of using it for end game material either.

Why is this? Why ignore something that is named after one of the best character features of past FF games? Especially if the CON/WHM one is a full heal on the party? You say "I'm going to activate the Limit Break" and everyone in the party is like "Don't bother..." "Wait until we almost wipe!" "It's useless in this fight"

Is it really not worth the effort?

Side Note: Maybe it would be different if the Limit Break system was drastically changed to something the individual builds to instead of the party, and, like in past FF games, because a cool attack or special effect the one person can activate. Kind of like how XI had Weapon Skills, that was always like past FF game's limit breaks.
#2 Mar 07 2015 at 9:20 AM Rating: Good
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The limit break is situationally useful. That being said the only time a tank or healer limit break will ever be used is a level 3 limit break in very specific circumstances. Otherwise a dps will do it for some extra damage on a boss.

They definitely aren't useless.
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#3 Mar 07 2015 at 9:30 AM Rating: Good
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Limit Breaks are like Megalixirs in Single-player FFs.

You don't get them all that often (at least in the 4 man dungeons), and when you do have one, you usually think "I better save that until I REALLY need it..."

Then before you know it, you're on the last boss and you have 1 bar filled in, and by the time the 2nd bar fills in, the boss is about ready to drop dead and there's no real need to use it.

You wind up doing the entire dungeon without ever touching the Limit Break..... just like most players finish a Single-player FF game without hardly ever touching any Elixirs, Megalixirs, etc.

EDIT: Relevant link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooAwesomeToUse

Edited, Mar 7th 2015 10:32am by Lyrailis
#4 Mar 07 2015 at 9:51 AM Rating: Excellent
Part of the problem is that Limit Break isn't defaulted to your hot key, and there's really not an explanation of what it is outside of the hotkey which is buried in the Actions menu.

I got to use Limit Break 3 on bard once, raising the entire party. It's most convenient now that I'm leveling lancer.

A bard and a warrior both have 10% health indicators in the form of Misery's End and Mercy Stroke, and I think ninja gets Assassinate too. Not sure about MNK or DRG but none of the healer jobs or caster jobs get that kind of indication natively, nor does PLD. Generally, if the boss's health is below 10%, a DPS ought to use their limit break and knock it down another 5-8%. Limit break also stacks with damage bonuses (e.g. blood for blood) and debuffs (e.g. Virus), so you can hit nearly 10% if everything else is also on it.

Edited, Mar 7th 2015 10:59am by Catwho
#5 Mar 07 2015 at 10:41 AM Rating: Excellent
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Black Mage limit break 3 is a very satisfying limit break to use in the situations where you actually use it. Giant meteor from heaven FTW.
#6 Mar 07 2015 at 11:07 AM Rating: Good
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Altair wrote:
Black Mage limit break 3 is a very satisfying limit break to use in the situations where you actually use it. Giant meteor from heaven FTW.


So there are neat animations to at least some of them. Interesting.

Next time I'm up against Garuda when doing Duty Roulette, I'll probably remind the DPS classes to try hitting it.
#7Theonehio, Posted: Mar 07 2015 at 12:32 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Hm...
#8 Mar 07 2015 at 1:34 PM Rating: Excellent
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If you've been playing for over a year and your max is 44 PLD the. I doubt you've encountered instances where a LB is a battle changing event. In 4 man raids you get two limit bars only. Parties of 8 the "max LB" is unlocked. Once you unlock more than 25% of the content you'll see it being used more
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#9 Mar 07 2015 at 1:50 PM Rating: Excellent
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Even at lvl 50, if you're running a 4 man dungeon, the Limit Break is more of a time saver than anything else. Got a BLM or SMN? Use it speed up killing a large group of mobs. If not, let a melee DPS use it on a boss. Got 2 BRDs? Well, that's boring, since BRDs do the same healing limit break as healers.

Just last night, when I was doing Wanderer's Palace Hard Mode, I used our Limit Break on a group of mobs just after the 2nd boss, and we filled the first bar half way through the final boss. For "easy" stuff like 4 man dungeons, there's no need to save it for those "just in case" moments.

In 8 man or 24 man stuff, then it might be worth holding onto it just in case, and that's assuming that you're not doing really difficult content (like Coil) where your group's strategy might be to use a specific Limit Break at a specific time.

Given how Limit Breaks work their way into Coil, I'm fine with the way it is, as compared to something like FFXI. The true FFXI equivalent would be 2 hours. And some jobs had amazing, game changing 2 hours while other jobs had fairly worthless 2 hours. If you needed your 2 hour for a particularly tough fight, then you hope you don't wipe after using it, or you may find yourself having to wait a long time to try again.
#10 Mar 07 2015 at 4:53 PM Rating: Good
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deronguerra wrote:
If you've been playing for over a year and your max is 44 PLD the. I doubt you've encountered instances where a LB is a battle changing event. In 4 man raids you get two limit bars only. Parties of 8 the "max LB" is unlocked. Once you unlock more than 25% of the content you'll see it being used more


It mostly comes down to juggling college and 32 hour work weeks lol. During my two semesters of the year, I hardly touch XIV at all. Summer and winter break, on the other hand, I'm all over it.
#11 Mar 08 2015 at 9:44 AM Rating: Excellent
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Catwho wrote:
Part of the problem is that Limit Break isn't defaulted to your hot key, and there's really not an explanation of what it is outside of the hotkey which is buried in the Actions menu.

I got to use Limit Break 3 on bard once, raising the entire party. It's most convenient now that I'm leveling lancer.

A bard and a warrior both have 10% health indicators in the form of Misery's End and Mercy Stroke, and I think ninja gets Assassinate too. Not sure about MNK or DRG but none of the healer jobs or caster jobs get that kind of indication natively, nor does PLD. Generally, if the boss's health is below 10%, a DPS ought to use their limit break and knock it down another 5-8%. Limit break also stacks with damage bonuses (e.g. blood for blood) and debuffs (e.g. Virus), so you can hit nearly 10% if everything else is also on it.

Edited, Mar 7th 2015 10:59am by Catwho


MNK can cross class mercy stroke. The indicator is 20% not 10%. To be honest, I haven't found the indicator useful since they added the HP percentage to the mobs HP bar.
#12 Mar 08 2015 at 11:43 AM Rating: Excellent
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MNK can cross class mercy stroke. The indicator is 20% not 10%. To be honest, I haven't found the indicator useful since they added the HP percentage to the mobs HP bar.


The indicator isn't always accurate either. I've had it go off and still been unable to assassinate until a few more fractions of a percent of hp had fallen off the mob.
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#13 Mar 08 2015 at 12:40 PM Rating: Excellent
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Catwho wrote:
Limit break also stacks with damage bonuses (e.g. blood for blood) and debuffs (e.g. Virus)

Everything else I've read is that buffs don't affect LB damage. Here's on reddit thread where a group specifically tested Blood for Blood while testing for what does affect LB damage:
http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1oaflu/lb_damage_tested/

I did see one thread that mentioned how the snakes in Turn 5 took more damage from LB because of the increased damage taken debuffs they receive. So it's possible that the debuffs on a mob affect LB damage, but not buffs on players. I think that would make sense, as LB seems to be designed in a way that the effectiveness of it is based on the group (i.e. average weapon item level of the group) rather than the individual performing it.
#14 Mar 08 2015 at 2:01 PM Rating: Excellent
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Trick Attack's vulnerability up debuff definitely increases LB damage.

Final Heaven on Ifrit HM without TA: ~41000
Final Heaven on Ifrit HM with TA: ~45000

Same party both times, so I'm happy attributing that to TA's 10% damage taken debuff.
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#15 Mar 08 2015 at 6:06 PM Rating: Good
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Yep, LB benefits from debuffs but not buffs. It's damage is mostly based on party combined weapon ilvl. (Which is why it's pretty obvious when your group is geared to the teeth vs a bunch of fresh 50s with level 32 weapons even if you and your ilvl135 weapon is doing the LB.)

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#16 Mar 09 2015 at 4:54 AM Rating: Decent
Archmage Callinon wrote:
The limit break is situationally useful. That being said the only time a tank or healer limit break will ever be used is a level 3 limit break in very specific circumstances. Otherwise a dps will do it for some extra damage on a boss.

They definitely aren't useless.


100% to this.

They are useful if crap hits the fan, can't tell you how many times I've seen a "almost wipe" situation where 3 bars of me using LB as BRD has saved the nearly entire dead party.

Tank uses LB if high damage is coming.

I would like to see perhaps two choice LBs for jobs BRD getting a DPS and the current LB. Cant get everything I want though.
#17 Mar 09 2015 at 6:43 AM Rating: Decent
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They work fine but I'd prefer individual limit breaks like FFVII, granting access to better weaponskills. Battle system could use more depth.
#18 Mar 25 2015 at 11:10 AM Rating: Good
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I recalled waaaaay back before 2.1 being yelled at repeatedly to use my LB, when I had no idea how to activate it. All was good on the next round.
#19 Mar 26 2015 at 4:54 PM Rating: Good
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Lonix wrote:
[quote=Archmage Callinon]I would like to see perhaps two choice LBs for jobs BRD getting a DPS and the current LB. Cant get everything I want though.


I truly wish they would do this... sucks so bad with duty finder when it sets up all DPS in the group as BRD. I'd ask for it to be situational (ie, all BRD DPS = DPS LB, Any other DPS in PT = Heals LB) but that would cause confusion for a lot of folks I guess.
#20 Mar 27 2015 at 1:09 AM Rating: Decent
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I dont do Coil, so that might be it, but i've never seen remarkably large numbers comming from the limit break.

I've seen a boss lose a chunk of HP from it, but never has it made me go "Wow, that's not something we couldn't have done with an extra 10 seconds of DPS"

I dont see the glamour of them personally. But that doesnt stop me from using them if i'm ever on a DPS job. It's a chunk of "free" damage after all.

But yeah, i fully support the motion of making all jobs have a DPS LB available at all times on top of what they already have. I cant count the times where i was the last person alive in a dungeon, and i could easily have defeated the boss if i could have unleashed some LB damage.
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#21 Mar 27 2015 at 8:37 AM Rating: Decent
KojiroSoma wrote:
I dont do Coil, so that might be it, but i've never seen remarkably large numbers comming from the limit break.

I've seen a boss lose a chunk of HP from it, but never has it made me go "Wow, that's not something we couldn't have done with an extra 10 seconds of DPS"

I dont see the glamour of them personally. But that doesnt stop me from using them if i'm ever on a DPS job. It's a chunk of "free" damage after all.

But yeah, i fully support the motion of making all jobs have a DPS LB available at all times on top of what they already have. I cant count the times where i was the last person alive in a dungeon, and i could easily have defeated the boss if i could have unleashed some LB damage.


There has been a lot of times a LB has saved a wipe, especially doing events or learning parties. Ofcourse with people who are very experienced its an extra but again it's supposed to be situational.
#22 Mar 27 2015 at 8:49 AM Rating: Excellent
We had a tank use LB3 and save a WoD raid from a wipe the other day.

We'd failed to get enough people at the meteors so people were already half dead or mostly dead, and the Cloud had eaten too many of her little baby storms. We were going to be obliterated when she did Flood of Darkness. Tank used LB3 at just the right time; the remaining dozen people that were still alive were able to recover and finish her off. It was perfect.
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