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Limit Break: An Introduction
This section of the website is an adaptation of our original doc and aims to give a general understanding to all properties relating to Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy XIV.
This includes Limit Break (in the following “LB”) Gauge generation, as well as their attributes.
Limit Break Showcase Video
Limit Break Gauge
Limit Breaks can be generated and executed as long as there are at least 4 players in a party.
In a 4 player party the minimum amount of LB gauge that can be generated is one bar, and the maximum two allowing for LB1 and LB2.
In an 8 player party the minimum is two bars and the maximum three allowing for LB1, LB2 and LB3.
Internally 1 LB bar is filled when 10,000 units of LB gauge has accumulated with all three bars summing to a total of 30,000 LB units.
At the point that a LB bar is filled, a distinct audio notification is played and the bar flashes orange. When this happens, any channelled LBs that may be in progress at the time will be interrupted.
ACT and XIV Plugin presently track and log LB units allowing for FFLogs to display the LB bar in Replay mode and in Events view.
Limit Break Types
Only non-limited PvE Classes and Jobs have access to their role specific LB action types. This in turn determines the damage scaling and whether the action is single target, or AoE with a particular range and shape.
Below you will find a summary of the LB actions, however, they will be gone into more detail here.
Melee DPS
Melee DPS LBs are high damage single target actions that are the ideal use case against single bosses.
They lose priority the moment targets available reach 2 or more, such as in dungeons against trash pulls where you would Caster or Ranged LB a cluster, or against multiple targets in raids.
While Melee LB 1, Braver, and Melee LB 2, Bladedance, are shared among all Melees, their Melee LB 3s diverge as follows:
- DRG = Dragonsong Dive
- MNK = Final Heaven
- NIN = Chimatsuri
- RPR = ? (Coming in Endwalker)
- SAM = Doom of the Living
Caster DPS
Caster DPS LBs are targetable AoE circular actions that are ideal to use against 2 or more targets. Caster LBs feature the longest cast time and animation lock totals.
While Caster LB 1, Skyshard, and Caster LB 2, Starstorm, are shared among all Casters, their Caster LB 3s diverge as follows:
- BLM = Meteor
- RDM = Vermillion Scourge
- SMN = Teraflare
Blue Mage, as a Limited Job, cannot use LB.
Ranged DPS
Ranged DPS LBs are rectangular beam AoE actions that are also ideal against 2 or more targets. While slightly weaker than equivalent level Caster LBs they resolve more quickly.
While Ranged LB 1, Big Shot, and Ranged LB 2, Desperado, are shared among all Ranged, their Ranged LB 3s diverge as follows:
- BRD = Sagittarius Arrow
- DNC = Crimson Lotus
- MCH = Satellite Beam
Tanks
Tank LBs are instant cast AoE mitigation actions that apply a short duration % mitigation shield to all party members within range centered around the tank using it.
While Tank LB 1, Shield Wall, and Tank LB 2, Stronghold, are shared among all Tanks, their Tank Job LB3s diverge as follows:
- DRK = Dark Force
- GNB = Gunmetal Soul
- PLD = Last Bastion
- WAR = Land Waker
Healers
Healer LBs are AoE heals to all party members within range centered around the healer using it.
Healer LB 1 and 2 heal for a percentage of a given player’s max hp. Healer LB 3 is special in that it not only heals players to full, but will revive all dead players within range to full HP and full MP without Weakness or Brink, unless the player died with one of those statuses already present.
While Healer LB 1, Healing Wind, and Healer LB 2, Breath of the Earth, are shared among all Healers, their Healer LB 3s diverge as follows:
- AST = Astral Stasis
- SCH = Angel Feathers
- SGE = ? (Coming in Endwalker)
- WHM = Pulse Of Life
Limit Break Damage
Limit Break damage is a unique damage type (type 8: Limit Break) that cannot critically strike nor direct hit but is subject to the ±5% damage roll variance. It uses its own unique formula separate to the general damage formula for player actions.
Being a unique damage type, LBs are not influenced by any player physical, magical or general party buffs or debuffs, but can be influenced by encounter specific, enemy affecting buffs or debuffs, such as a Vulnerability Down or Vulnerability Up, or Ravana’s stances. The other exception is within Eureka where Elemental bias and Elemental Level Difference against a target will scale LB’s damage.
Job level of the player performing the LB does not matter, but acts as an ilvl constraint due to minimum required levels in order to use gear. A Lv. 1 player with a weathered weapon will deal equivalent LB damage as a Lv. 80 player with the same weathered weapon.
The average item level (ilvl) of the party’s mainhands, floored to the nearest integer, is the only LB damage factor. No other gear has an impact on it.
For example:
- 8/8 players with raid i535 weapons, the LB will use i535 for the damage.
- 7/8 players with raid i535 weapons and 1/8 with a tome i530, the average will be i534 and thus the LB will use i534 for the damage.
Broken weapons do the same damage as a non-broken weapon at the same ilvl. NQ and HQ weapons do the same damage due to having the same ilvl.
How much damage a weapon at a certain ilvl does is likely determined by a server side lookup table, that we have not confirmed, however, it is a work in progress and you can help us figure this out!
In order to determine the damage of an LB at a certain ilvl, the true (median) damage value of a LB has to be found. This is possible by observing the full damage range.
Limit Break Potency
LB in terms of Player Potency values makes very little sense as a concept if you compare it to something like Player Potency due to what is stated in the LB Damage section above.
Comparing relative strength of different types of damaging LBs makes more sense.
For example, Caster LB 1 = 0.6 * Melee LB 1, or Physical Ranged LB 1 = 0.9 * Caster LB 1.
The often cited LB potencies that can be found online on various sites, dating from action descriptions from ARR and back when BRD’s was Healer LB, are not correct. They do not match any observed relative damage values.
Since they predate Heavensward and the numbers for Physical Ranged LBs are wholly estimated, it is very possible that they are not used anymore.
How Can I Contribute LB Damage Parses?
Data collection for LB damage is incredibly slow. Prior to Explorer Mode Dungeons, all that we had available to us were the occasional LB data point from FFLogs reports without necessarily knowing what the party average weapon ilvl is. Now we do have a better alternative available to us with Explorer Dungeons and the ability to repeatedly cast LBs at the striking dummies that can be summoned.
However, despite this boon for testing, the sampling rate for LB data collection remains very slow, even with chain casts in Explorer dungeons.
Having friends who are not busy can improve this considerably for Ranged and Caster LBs as they can also spawn striking dummies to multiply the rate of sampling for each additional dummy. The instances have a 90 minute timer which hinders the ability to gather data over the long term.
With how large the full damage ranges are, in particular at highest ilvl values, this is a very time consuming process where observing enough swings solo could take weeks, if not months, of non-stop data logging just for one ilvl data point. As such, for a handful of individuals, solving enough data points to devise a semblance of a truly accurate LB vs ilvl damage formula is an impossibility.
We at Allagan Studies welcome interested individuals to contribute and crowdsource more data to solve this puzzle together as a community.
Check out our pinned post in the LB Data Dump channel in the Allagan Studies Discord for more information.