Limit Break Gauge Generation
LB gauge units can be generated actively and passively.
All pre-Shadowbringers content works under the same rules for LB generation, while Shadowbringers content received tweaks to the active LB generation.
All forms of LB generation scale in some way with how many LB bars are available in the duty.
Passive Generation
As soon as an encounter starts, LB is passively generated by a certain amount of units per 3s or tick.
Factors that affect Passive LB Generation:
- Total number of available LB bars (Positive)
- Number of duplicate jobs (Negative)1
- Number of non-standard compositions (Negative)2
Factors that negatively scale with LB generation incur a penalty for each violation.
e.g. solo healing and solo tanking counts as 1 penalty each and both penalties apply in the same party in a 1 Tank 1 Healer 6 DPS composition.
For 3 bars, the amount of LB gauge gained per tick is 220 > 170 > 160 > 154 > 144 > 140, going one step down for each penalty.
You can see the details in the following table:
1Only applicable in duties listed under “High-end duty”
2A standard composition is 2 DPS - 1 Healer - 1 Tank in a four-man party. It is 4 DPS - 2 Healers - 2 Tanks in an eight-man party.
With no penalties it would take nearly 7 min to fill up to LB3 passively. With one penalty it would take 2 minutes longer.
For Dungeons or general light party duties, the passive amount is adjusted to 75 gauge units per tick for one bar and 180 for two bars. It would take one bar 6m 42s to fill passively and two bars 5m 32s.
Do keep in mind that passive LB generation is not the only source of LB gauge.
Active Generation
Active LB generation falls into five distinct categories:
- Critical Health Recovery
- Surviving Lethal Damage
- Interrupts/Silences
- Killing Adds
- Resolving Mechanics
Since these have been tweaked since Shadowbringers, the following will be divided based on content. Keep in mind that any pre-Shadowbringers content still uses the pre-Shadowbringers values.
Pre-Shadowbringers Content (<5.0)
Critical Health Recovery
Critical health recovery generation describes an event where a player has less or equal than 10% of their maximum HP and receives a direct heal, which results in LB gauge generation.
When successfully healed in this HP range with a direct healing spell or ability, the group is awarded with 200 LB gauge units per bar, for up to 600 gauge units. This has no cooldown and is awarded on a per player basis.
Pets cannot generate Limit Break this way with heals.
Surviving Lethal Damage
Surviving lethal damage generation describes an event where a player survives damage that is equal or exceeds their current HP due to on-player mitigation or shields.
Effects that lower an enemy’s damage through an enemy debuff, like Addle, Feint or Reprisal, do not count for it and can lower the damage enough to miss the “Surviving Lethal” threshold.
This gains the group 500 LB gauge units per bar, for up to 1500 gauge units. This has no cooldown and is awarded on a per player basis.
Interrupts/Silences
Interrupting casts with stuns or an interrupt ability such as Head Graze can award a certain amount of LB gauge. The amount granted depends on the duty. It is possible that it awards no gauge units.
Killing Adds
Killing adds can award a certain amount of LB gauge. The amount granted depends on the duty. This was seen in A12’s Add Phase in Heavensward, or in Shadowbringers in The Seat of Sacrifice Extreme, where killing the adds grants enough gauge for Tank LB3.
Resolving Mechanics
Resolving mechanics generation describes an event where players are awarded a certain amount of LB gauge units since they did a mechanic successfully.
The amount of LB granted varies on a duty basis. Examples of this include the first “The Game” in O3s that awards 5000 units, or the Level Checker intermission in O11s.
Shadowbringers content
Critical Health Recovery
The amount of gauge units generated per LB bar was adjusted to 100 for critical health recovery from direct AoE healing actions and abilities and 200 units for single target.
The LB gauge will no longer fill when non-healer jobs use healing actions. That means the maximum amount per person is still the same 600 units, for single target heals.
Surviving Lethal Damage
The amount of units per LB bar was adjusted to 100 for surviving lethal damage due to on-player mitigation or shields. Invulns don’t seem to count for it.
Effects that lower an enemy’s damage through an enemy debuff, like Addle, Feint or Reprisal, do not count for it and can lower the damage enough to miss the “Surviving Lethal” threshold. This means the maximum generation per person equals 300 gauge units.
Other Sources
LB Generation from interrupts and silences, killing adds and resolving mechanics all appear to be unchanged.