Please SqueEnix; fix Chocobo companions:

I used my chocobo while farming crystals for the relic. While doing this I realized how bad the AI for these birds is. As a BLM, I had my bird in healer stance to help heal me while I nuke everything down. This is where my agitation began. As a healer, the bird would prioritize healing itself, instead of ME. This led to me dying on boss type fates. These fates also led me to a realization... the bird literally has a death wish. I would position the fate creature between myself and the chocobo; however, after EVERY action the bird would attempt to return as nearest me as possible. Unless the chocobo is in tank/dps stance, you don't want it NEAR the front or around the mob so it doesn't take damage; BUT it insists on suicide, or killing me. This leads me to my final issue; BECAUSE you don't want your bird near the mob while healing you, you'd want to plant the bird safely away so that it can focus on healing you. BUT, you cannot. There is no command to make your bird stay where it is.

w-why aren't I invincible!?!?! FIX IT NOW SE!!!1

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Originally Posted by GMERC

w-why aren't I invincible!?!?! FIX IT NOW SE!!!1

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While I'm smitten with your sarcasm, I, too, see absolutely no reason why the Chocobos don't have control commands not unlike those which are used for Summoner pets. If the AI can't handle it, then just let me micromanage them myself.

yes healing stance chocobo suck, improve it, or let us choose where he has to stand

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Originally Posted by Klamor

While I'm smitten with your sarcasm, I, too, see absolutely no reason why the Chocobos don't have control commands not unlike those which are used for Summoner pets. If the AI can't handle it, then just let me micromanage them myself.

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http://i.imgur.com/M1c61u7.png

Egi are not living, breathing, thinking animals.

There is no reason for their AI to be so terrible. Maybe in the next expansion they'll give us some more fun stuff to play with regarding chocobos, and give us a customizable priority list like in ff12... Because right now these birds are nothing more than meat shields.

Totally agree

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Originally Posted by Rennies

There is no reason for their AI to be so terrible. Maybe in the next expansion they'll give us some more fun stuff to play with regarding chocobos, and give us a customizable priority list like in ff12... Because right now these birds are nothing more than meat shields.

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And what next? Make the DPS stance Chocobos do five times as much damage? Tank stance Chocobos nigh impossible to kill? It's almost like they're not supposed to replace actual players or something. Weird.

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Originally Posted by GMERC

Egi are not living, breathing, thinking animals.

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But chocobos are supposedly smart! Time and again we see them in quests and cutscenes, completely understanding human speech and commands. And they are the main animal in usage for all kinds of work in Eorzea, following their owners' wishes without any problem.
So why am I 100% unable to have ANY control over my chocobo that I have bonded with and trained for years?
If I gave it commands and it ignored them half of the time, that would be annoying too I guess, but not remotely as bad as not being able to tell it anything at all.

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Originally Posted by GMERC

And what next? Make the DPS stance Chocobos do five times as much damage? Tank stance Chocobos nigh impossible to kill? It's almost like they're not supposed to replace actual players or something. Weird.

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If they don't have a purpose beyond being meat shields then there is no point in even having them.

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Originally Posted by Atoli

But chocobos are supposedly smart! Time and again we see them in quests and cutscenes, completely understanding human speech and commands. And they are the main animal in usage for all kinds of work in Eorzea, following their owners' wishes without any problem.
So why am I 100% unable to have ANY control over my chocobo that I have bonded with and trained for years?
If I gave it commands and it ignored them half of the time, that would be annoying too I guess, but not remotely as bad as not being able to tell it anything at all.

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Fair enough, but the only thing bad about Healer Chocobos is Choco Medica. If you die with a Healer Chocobo out, it's almost 100% your fault. In this case, it sounds like the topic starter likes to bite off more than she can chew and thinks her Healer Chocobo will render any situation unlosable.

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Originally Posted by Rennies

If they don't have a purpose beyond being meat shields then there is no point in even having them.

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You're confusing "not being overpowered" with "not having a purpose".

How to fix: Leave your chocobo in free stance. It will AA and remain where it is, while throwing up chocobo regen/cure on you. For added bonus, give it a few dps skills so it can help you nuke enemies faster.

Your welcome. I haven't used a stances chocobo in ages.

The best way I found to protect my chocobo when doing Fates solo, is:

- to set the Chocobo to Free Stance
- Attack the target then circle it such as to place the boss between you and the chocobo.
- Then the chocobo will only be hitted by bosses that have a 360° melee attack or similar and that's not common unless you're going after the big 30 minutes fate bosses which are not supposed to be solo killed in the first place.

I've never had problems leaving the choco in free stance. As long as I don't let it take aggro and I keep stuff pointing away from it (so it doesn't get AoE'd) it heals me just fine.

Maybe the issue lies with healer stance - though I would wonder why the choco is healing itself in the first place. They don't do that in free stance unless they're hurt. Which leads me to believe that it's less to do with the choco and more to do with you doing a poor job of keeping hate from it. Unless healer stance is flat out broken I guess.

The issue lies within the AI itself. I can circle around the boss as many times as I want. As soon as the bird casts 1 thing; it then rushes back as close as possible to me.

I can do enough damage by myself; so I then want the bird to ONLY heal. Ergo if it won't stay out of harms way and prioritize healing me first... then yeah, it's superfluous.

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Originally Posted by Klamor

While I'm smitten with your sarcasm, I, too, see absolutely no reason why the Chocobos don't have control commands not unlike those which are used for Summoner pets. If the AI can't handle it, then just let me micromanage them myself.

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They are Pets now mechanically, so it isn't out of the realm now. I agree with you a management system would be welcomed.


Hell I would be happy if it was smart enough to attack who attacks me without waiting for me to hit back.

well u just have to predict the front aoes and move away in time so it dosnt hit the chocobo :P it isnt that hard :P

Maintain Free Stance whenever you don't need healing. Turn on Healer Stance if your HP drops below whatever self-prescribed threshold you self-prescribe, then go back to Free Stance and turn the mob again so the companion is outside the frontal cone.

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Originally Posted by Cenerae

I've never had problems leaving the choco in free stance. As long as I don't let it take aggro and I keep stuff pointing away from it (so it doesn't get AoE'd) it heals me just fine.

Maybe the issue lies with healer stance - though I would wonder why the choco is healing itself in the first place. They don't do that in free stance unless they're hurt. Which leads me to believe that it's less to do with the choco and more to do with you doing a poor job of keeping hate from it. Unless healer stance is flat out broken I guess.

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In healer stance the chocobo want to be near it's owner. That mean in front of the enemy where the AoE will hit it.
A change where the Chocobo don't follow it's owner in healer stance should solve the problem.

They're not supposed to be as good as an actual healer.

As it stands, they're already plenty useful in soloing FATEs and the like. You can't solo everything but most things.

One thing that has always annoyed me & that's the lvl10 Chocobo skills. I maxed by bird out not long after it was possible to get all 3 skill trees to maximum but quickly realised that having the lvl10 skills active was a bad idea. I used a Regan Pepper & reset all trees to 1-9.

The lvl10 skills seem to be prioritised over the more useful skills & result in the bird pulling mobs randomly using AoE or putting a pee weak HoT on itself whilst not using the more powerful heal spells.

TL;DR - Chocobo lvl10 skills are broken & have always been. Turn them off.

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Originally Posted by AmiBeau

The issue lies within the AI itself. I can circle around the boss as many times as I want. As soon as the bird casts 1 thing; it then rushes back as close as possible to me.

I can do enough damage by myself; so I then want the bird to ONLY heal. Ergo if it won't stay out of harms way and prioritize healing me first... then yeah, it's superfluous.

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The chocobo won't do that when in Free stance, it won't come back to you excepted if you cast stuff like a Sleep spell on its current target, as a chocobo won't attack anything CCed.

Even in Free stance, the chocobo will heal you in priority. But a chocobo cannot spam heal non-stop, it has some sort or recast timer on all its skill although I never paid attention to the exact duration. So if you see him doing attacks while you are in need of heal, it is simply because it does not have any heal skill available to be used yet.

PS: I don't what rank is your chocobo, but it is weak initially, but as you increase its rank, it will become quite resilient. Also if you just started leveling your chocobo and that you're doing Heavensward fates solo, then it will be hurt badly if attacked because Heavensward fates are stronger than ARR ones.

My chocobo is rank 11 I believe. The issue isn't so much that the bird's dying; it's that even if it only has a sliver of health missing; it will choose to heal itself; instead of me at only 80% health.

I myself can dodge the attacks of the mobs; however, because the chocobo is suicidal; it keeps coming near me... I just want to park the bird like 8 meters away and keep it only healing me. Instead, I have to worry about not only myself, but the bird too.

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Originally Posted by AmiBeau

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We've already given you the answer you desire, which is Free Stance. Besides, why do you need to be healed if you're at 80% compared to the choco's10% or less? You don't need to be at full health constantly.

I tend to keep my bird in free stance, and I never really had any issues taking most enemies solo. boss fates in Azys La when i was farming fire crystals by myself were the best cause it was faster than the other ones.