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What is the best way to use LB whilst having T17 2PC?

Particularly on Maidens / Thogar.

Offtopic, do you use LB or Blast Wave for Hans?

Nothing changes with the set bonus on Maidens, Thogar you can double spread LB once the adds are all grouped up.

LB is the way to go on Hans and Franz.

LB is the way to go on Hans and Franz.

Why LB? There are significant portions of the fight where only one of them is up, so BW would seem to be the better option.

I'm just going off of personal experience, I've seen better results with LB than BW. Most of the top parses are running LB as well. Also remember that you're not just getting the cleave damage, but DoT damage on two targets, however low it is. Applying and spreading a new LB right before they split helps.

By double spread do you doing doing something like the following?

On main target: LB, IB, wait 5-6 seconds, LB again, IB after adds explode.

With 3 targets like Maidens, and can't you do some kind of triple LB setup?

Doublespreading to a very large group of adds like on operator or beastlord.

Doublespreading to a very large group of adds like on operator or beastlord.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by doublespreading, could you explain?

LB -> IB spread -> Switch to a different add with LB on it and IB spread again (requires 2pc)

LB -> IB spread -> Switch to a different add with LB on it and IB spread again (requires 2pc)

What exactly does this do?

According to Simcraft it's still the same in BRF as in HM:
On two targets, BW and LB deal the exact same amount of damage when both targets are permanently together, meaning the explosions always hit both targets (just simmed it again to be sure).
This is definitely not the case for Hans and Franz so BW should come out ahead (although I played LB too, no clue why ).

LB -> IB spread -> Switch to a different add with LB on it and IB spread again (requires 2pc)

Wouldn't this just overwrite the existing Living Bombs - with a duration the same as before?

Yeah, I don't understand that either. I'm not sure he's saying that it applies 2 separate sets of dots, each LB counting separately? Because from one of the 'tricks' posted by the Komma in the combustion guide recently, that is exactly what's happening when you IB twice on prismatic before combustioning.

LB -> IB spread -> Switch to a different add with LB on it and IB spread again (requires 2pc)

Wouldn't this just overwrite the existing Living Bombs - with a duration the same as before?

Nope. The living bombs benefit (weird word to use since its not a benefit) from pandemic. What I think the OP is asking is what is the best way to use your two charges of IB without extending the other living bombs too much, not sure though. I personally don't hold IB in any way to not extend the auxiliary living bombs but I do make sure I don't spread a fresh living bomb to targets with a living bomb that is about to explode. This is because although living bomb benefits from pandemic when you spread via IB, they don't explode if you extend the time on the living bombs from under 3.6 seconds.

One thing I have been curious about though is if the pandemic is always 3.6 seconds based off the base duration or if it can be less if you spread a living bomb with less than 12 seconds. On the target lb is spread to, it shows the duration of the dot to be less than 12 seconds, so is the pandemic less than 3.6 for this lb? This would extremely rarely change what I do and not matter at all, but I'm curious and like knowing how these things work.

It's based off the base duration of the DoT, so it's always 3.6s for LB.

Something that I've been doing is trying to increase the amount of LB explosions I can have by spreading a LB, then reapplying LB on my target. When the original spread LB has exploded, I spread the LB on my target back to the adds. This means I have an explosion every ~8-10 seconds.

I assume that what is meant by 'doublespreading'?

With 2PC you can surely increase the amount of LBs you have active that have different duration remaining values? Meaning you could have even more explosions. Obviously you're capped by the recharge time of IB, but with bursty cleave you can have 3 explosions in rapid succession. To do this you need to keep track of 3 targets though which is hard to do if everything has the same name and either you are moving or the adds are moving so that your nameplates move about.

Am I explaining myself clearly?

Something that I've been doing is trying to increase the amount of LB explosions I can have by spreading a LB, then reapplying LB on my target. When the original spread LB has exploded, I spread the LB on my target back to the adds. This means I have an explosion every ~8-10 seconds.

I assume that what is meant by 'doublespreading'?

With 2PC you can surely increase the amount of LBs you have active that have different duration remaining values? Meaning you could have even more explosions. Obviously you're capped by the recharge time of IB, but with bursty cleave you can have 3 explosions in rapid succession. To do this you need to keep track of 3 targets though which is hard to do if everything has the same name and either you are moving or the adds are moving so that your nameplates move about.

Am I explaining myself clearly?

Yeah, basically the goal is to get as many LB explosions as possible. Take Beastlord as an example. Cast LB about 5 seconds before adds spawn, IB when they get close, LB explodes after a couple of seconds, refresh and respread, LB explodes as they die. The majority of the damage you're going to see from LB is the explosion, so look to maximize that.

In regard to your third paragraph, don't respread LB with IB until all of them have exploded, otherwise they'll get the duration added on, but they won't explode. Even maintaining LB on 3 separate targets and spreading from each individually carries the risk that you'll refresh it on the other two, negating the benefit you were trying to gain, and costing a GCD from casting it initially.

You're right, I didn't think about any of our 3 LB holders having another LB spread to it.

Something that I've been doing is trying to increase the amount of LB explosions I can have by spreading a LB, then reapplying LB on my target. When the original spread LB has exploded, I spread the LB on my target back to the adds. This means I have an explosion every ~8-10 seconds.

I assume that what is meant by 'doublespreading'?

With 2PC you can surely increase the amount of LBs you have active that have different duration remaining values? Meaning you could have even more explosions. Obviously you're capped by the recharge time of IB, but with bursty cleave you can have 3 explosions in rapid succession. To do this you need to keep track of 3 targets though which is hard to do if everything has the same name and either you are moving or the adds are moving so that your nameplates move about.

Am I explaining myself clearly?

If you apply lb to a target that doesnt have it applied on them you can have 2 explosions every 12 sec + 2 globals and bypass the 3.6 second pandemic you would have if you reapplied lb to the same target. Not a big difference but something to try to get used to I guess.

It's based off the base duration of the DoT, so it's always 3.6s for LB.

Yeah I know, just wasn't sure if it considered the base duration to be less than 12 when it is spread to a target with less than 12 seconds on the dot. Thanks for clarifying.

Since this is a discussion about living bomb, is there a better way to track it on secondary targets? Specifically on fights like Thogar or Beastmaster, my nameplates show debuffs but only once I've targeted the mob, which makes it hard to know when to spread a new bomb. Optionally, I could just watch for the explosion spell effect, but there's already a lot of that going on during those fights.

Does anyone have a better option?