Rank 7 Def/Healer Chocobo Aggro Capability

So I'm a good ways into ranking up my chocobo. Rank 7 currently. 21 pts in Defense and 6 in Healing. I keep him in free stance. His defender attacks spike his aggro but it doesn't hold for very long (I am a bard after all). I did notice though... when he pops regen on me, his aggro see-saws with mine and he does take a few hits while the mob switches targets. He doesn't pull off me for more than a hit at a time.

I do however think that when he gets cure, he may be able to cure, regen, and emnity strike just enough to take two hits at a time before I overtake him. Or even!!!! Maybe quelling strikes will allow him to tank at rank 10??

Edit:

Got to Rank 8. Now I have Choco Cure. He is able to solo lvl 49 enemies now. I auto attack tag one and let him kill it while I kill another. Has sped up farming mats.

Healing (even overhealing, which tends to happen with Regen abilities) tends to build up hate quite a bit.

Once you get a few points into Attacker Stance you may notice a bit of a difference too: more Weaponskills and +Str%/+Crit = more damage output = more enmity.
The DoT attack at Rank 4 (Choco Beak) looks to be the best DPS ability, so it's probably the best outside of Choco Drop for building Hate.

I'm still a few ranks under you; wish the Chocobo rank exp requirements scaled with player level instead of being hard-coded. Higher ranks appear to pretty much require you to exp-chain mobs as a level 50!! :mad:

Very cool man, I'll use my next points at rank 8 to get the Dot, then the heal at rank 9. Dont really need his heals yet. I have about 400 kills to rank 8, which is about 90% there

So are you finding its better overall to spread points out instead of focusing on one tree? Haven't used any of mine yet because I just can't decide what I want him to be with the restriction haha.

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Originally Posted by MartaDemireux

So are you finding its better overall to spread points out instead of focusing on one tree? Haven't used any of mine yet because I just can't decide what I want him to be with the restriction haha.

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I can't see any benefit to focusing in one tree.

Really, unless you desperately desperately want the last AoE ability (which the stupid AI will doubtless use at the wrong moments) it's looking far better to go hybrid. Example: Spending 10SP in the 'Defender' tree for extra STR and Weaponskill attacks will get you a more effective "Damage Dealer" companion than spending that 10SP on taking the last ability in the 'Attacker' tree.

About the only thing that wouldn't benefit from going Hybrid would be a dedicated Healer Chocobo that was never going to ever leave Healer Stance. And even then, they'd be able to last a lot longer in a fight (15% more HP!) by spending a few points in other trees.

Ah I see very interesting. Wasn't sure if the end abilities were noticeably useful or not. Thanks for the input!

Another benefit to taking the 1 and 4 pt skills in each tree is that you are able to use him with any class and have him do a good job of supporting you. Each stance for each type of playstyle.