The Chocobo Blues

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...19f12c9b8b10f7

This is a riot.

"As a result, we have also increased the gained experience points for the companion while setting the limited job as blue mage. "

"a lot more players than anticipated have been leveling along with their companions, "

Increase Chocobo exp per kill by 100 times... INTENTIONALLY... expect people to not use this? I'm so lost.

Leveled my chocobo from 8 to 10 over the past few hours. Better bet I'm getting it to 20 before the hotfix

How is this affecting overall game balance? I'm confused.

Wait 100 times xp for companion? Wasn't planning on leveling BLU, but now I kinda want to so as to speed up my companion leveling. When is the hotfix?

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Originally Posted by ElazulHP

Wait 100 times xp for companion? Wasn't planning on leveling BLU, but now I kinda want to so as to speed up my companion leveling. When is the hotfix?

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24th, so a little over a week

considering ive been playing this game since 3.0 and my chocob is still only 14, how is this affecting game balance? and why does SE hate leveling our chocobos at an acceptable rate?

Game balance with chocobos? lmao sad

Ha. Expect to see onion prices skyrocket.

Time to unlock BLU and power level my birb to 20 I guess, he's at 19 bless him ;w;

Take advantage of it while you can. My chocobo has been max level for years, so I'm glad I don't feel like I need to rush on this opportunity.

I just remembered that you don't even get anything with a rank 20 chocobo, there's not even an achievement. So I don't understand why the exp hasn't been buffed a long time ago.

Where are the best spots to farm for chocobo experience? I am at work and can't check :(

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Originally Posted by Madamepancake

Where are the best spots to farm for chocobo experience? I am at work and can't check :(

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In general, the higher level the mob the better, so under normal circumstances you'd want to kill things in SB zones. This temporary boost only applies to BLUs though so just kill whatever mobs you'd be killing anyway.

Also don't forget about feeding. With a clean stable each feeding is worth 1% of a level up to rank 10, and .75% from 11-20. It may seem small, but it adds up over time, especially as your chocobo gets higher rank and .75% of 3 million is still a lot of exp in one go.

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Originally Posted by ElazulHP

Wait 100 times xp for companion? Wasn't planning on leveling BLU, but now I kinda want to so as to speed up my companion leveling. When is the hotfix?

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Watch out, you better have a healer chocobo, otherwise you will get reported for "griefing".

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Originally Posted by Madamepancake

Where are the best spots to farm for chocobo experience? I am at work and can't check :(

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You want to kill things close to your level for efficient exp. Kill FATEs are wonderful for this because the mobs are plentiful and go down fast. But basically, you should be taking your Bo along with you for everything. Training and the weekly bonuses, Bosom Buddies 1 and 2 will provide you with the exp spikes, and you should be utilizing them.

Other than that, just know it takes a really long time to max out a Bo. Just keep at it.

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Originally Posted by Andevom

How is this affecting overall game balance? I'm confused.

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As someone with a Level 20 Chocobo, I can tell you right now that I'm not breaking the game in half and would have been very glad for a faster leveling system like BLU is presently providing.

I don't get it..... most people barely even use their chocobos once they max it out. How exactly is this hurting the balance of the game??? Chocobos basically only exist to help you clear overworld mobs solo.

Chocobo is an excuse. If the party member is a non blue mage they also get the large xp. Someone tested this when a lvl 20 blue mage and lvl 20 arcanist fought a lvl 30 open world mob.

This is the chance get mine finally to 20
Hes been lvl 19 for so long

Won't help my chocobo. It's been level 20 since arr.

My Chocobo has also been lvl 20 since ARR (I trained it while converting gear for the dreaded materia step of the ARR relic) and I will say this: Don't nerf the chocobo exp, or don't nerf it too much.

It already costs a lot of time/money to level the chocobos with Thav. Onions. And then the extreme grindiness to even get the exp to lvl 20? It's too much for too little (since a fully level chocobo doesn't do much except kill overworld mobs slightly faster, or heal for not that much, which is barely useful when you are lvl 70, and hardly useful when leveling, since HoH/PotD/Roulettes are faster than anything in the overworld).

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Originally Posted by Nora_of_Mira

and why does SE hate leveling our chocobos at an acceptable rate?

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I've been asking myself this for years. It's not like it makes us gods in the open world. If SE nerfs the exp we're getting now down to pre-BLU levels I'm going to be pretty miffed. Will you just let us finish the horrible grind, SE? I'm begging you. Faster chocobo leveling upsetting the balance of the game? I'm gonna call BS.

Wait I'm confused so currently when in BLU the chocobo gets a lot more xp and now they're going to Nerf it? Or is it the other way around it's nots getting a lot and they're going to buff it?

It currently gets a ton of xp when you run around as BLU but next week they're going to get rid of that so the companions level up with their normal snail pace

Oh that sucks I don't see why they need a Nerf I always felt like they leveled to slowly for something that isn't super OP

Yeah, I'll add my voice to this as well, the chocobo nerf seems incredibly dumb. It really doesn't have an effect on balance and it takes a god-awful long time to even level your chocobo - so I dunno what the devs are smoking when they approved this to be put out. I'm also confused at how they somehow underestimated how many people would be playing BLU on patch day. Something about that just seems off. But then again, the Stormblood expansion has featured a whole lot of dev decisions that have been very nonsensical, almost on Activision-level headscratchers.

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Originally Posted by KaivaC

Yeah, I'll add my voice to this as well, the chocobo nerf seems incredibly dumb. It really doesn't have an effect on balance and it takes a god-awful long time to even level your chocobo - so I dunno what the devs are smoking when they approved this to be put out. I'm also confused at how they somehow underestimated how many people would be playing BLU on patch day. Something about that just seems off. But then again, the Stormblood expansion has featured a whole lot of dev decisions that have been very nonsensical, almost on Activision-level headscratchers.

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From what I've heard/seen, they're saying Chocobo because they don't want to advertise that party members get bonus xp, too. But that's the reason they're nerfing it.

... I forgot my Chocobo is a thing. The poor bird's been sitting on level 7 or something for three years. Going to try and level it these days now that we have a boost.

If this is buffed then I can't imagine how anyone ever leveled a chocobo before this. My chocobo has only gone up a level and a half.

This is actually something that benefits your overall game experience. One of the things I love about this game is that different aspects of the game interact with and are connected to one another. I can level a NIN, use it to stealth around Eureka to get a DRK weapon, use DRK to farm an extreme trial for a RDM weapon, use RDM for fast queues to the 24 man and get some left side gear from there. Being rewarded for playing BLU is very nice and to me makes it worthwhile.

Too bad the devs consider it a mistake and will probably remove the bonus...

My chocobo sits at level 3 since 3.5 years. I think I'll get over it.

I think the game balance issue they refer to is mostly regarding economy. Since chocobos are leveling fast and you need an onion to unlock each level after 10, price have jumped quite a lot.
Game balance is not battle only.

I've managed to level my chocobo from rank 4 to rank 9 just leveling my BLU. I'm going to keep grinding it out until they nerf it.

Interesting if the real reason has to do with them assuming it would be Level 70s powerleveling blue mages or groups of blue mages together with their chocobos or single blue mages with chocobos... and so they just gave the exp boost to the entire party rather than coding it specifically for blues and chocobos only. Hm.

This makes ... not sense.

Chocobo are meant to scale with the job you're playing. So it makes prefect sense that a job that gains a crap ton of EXP from mobs makes the Chocobo gain a crap ton from mobs.

Why do they want to gimp Chocobo growth? What's the point in making it harder to level them?

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Originally Posted by MerleSirlos

I think the game balance issue they refer to is mostly regarding economy. Since chocobos are leveling fast and you need an onion to unlock each level after 10, price have jumped quite a lot.
Game balance is not battle only.

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Then why not change it so that you don't have to plan out for a month to crossbreed a few Onions (provided you even have access to a decent sized garden)?

I planned for this by wish listing them and grabbing them cheap when I could before patch and even then they were so expensive on my server I only bothered to get 4.

Apparently, highlighting the chocobo xp gain is just the fig leaf covering the main reason for a patch - xp gain by non-blue-mage teammates..

Really Eorzens? Really? Are you guys looking for things to complain about?

The slug growth rate of Chocobos was not an issue previous to the implementation of BLU. I have not seen one thread about it in all my time here. Many posters here have mentioned that their Bo is under rank 10 despite being here since ARR. Don't put anything on the devs for neglecting your companion, they are merely patching an oversight on their part because there is no reason for them to grant more exp to berds so long as the rank is capped at 20. There also isn't much reason for them to raise the cap considering not many actually care about leveling their berds.

Just enjoy the increased exp while it lasts.

I expected it to take days even with this buff, but I'm glad to say my birb is maxed out and sporting that dragoon barding.

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

If this is buffed then I can't imagine how anyone ever leveled a chocobo before this. My chocobo has only gone up a level and a half.

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We put them in the chocobo stables and fed them roots every hour. Around rank 10 it takes 100 feedings to get a full level, I think it's about 150 feedings at rank 19.

And that was a million times faster than pulling it out and fighting stuff.

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Originally Posted by StouterTaru

We put them in the chocobo stables and fed them roots every hour. Around rank 10 it takes 100 feedings to get a full level, I think it's about 150 feedings at rank 19.

And that was a million times faster than pulling it out and fighting stuff.

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But then you just get a bird that doesn't know how to play its class.

Joking aside, other than putting the chocobo in the stables and cramming food down its throat, the challenge log is a big boost since it scales with your chocobo's rank. I also had mine's favorite food set to curiel roots for the extra exp buff, which was probably unneeded, but I just found a spot to grind and killed the 100 enemies for the weekly log. I think I was using a level 50 black mage in Northern Thanalan because the Garlean steel joints were a hot seller at the time. I just think that people don't realize just how much exp you can get from the challenge log. I think my chocobo was gaining about 200k exp around rank 19.

The challenge log is 15% of a level per week (5% from one, 10% from the other) plus however much exp you get from killing the 100+ mobs. With a clean stable a feeding is 1% of a level up to rank 10, and .75% of a level from 11-20.

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Originally Posted by DevonEllwood

But then you just get a bird that doesn't know how to play its class.

Joking aside, other than putting the chocobo in the stables and cramming food down its throat, the challenge log is a big boost since it scales with your chocobo's rank. I also had mine's favorite food set to curiel roots for the extra exp buff, which was probably unneeded, but I just found a spot to grind and killed the 100 enemies for the weekly log. I think I was using a level 50 black mage in Northern Thanalan because the Garlean steel joints were a hot seller at the time. I just think that people don't realize just how much exp you can get from the challenge log. I think my chocobo was gaining about 200k exp around rank 19.

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I am not certain of this, but something for those with non-max rank berds can look into: I am curious if the weekly bonuses are also based on your berd's level, which is always the same as yours. The bonus does scale with the chocobo's rank, but make sure that your current chocobo's level doesn't also affect it. IOW, if your level 70 and switch to a level 50 job and kill the last mob needed to get BB1 or 2, will it be reduced?

Just wanting to make sure no one denies themselves weekly bonus exp by accident :)

Wait, so if two Blue Mages are leveling together do they get an even further increase in exp? Then would their Chocobros get even more exp? Example: 2 blus get x2 exp 3 blus get x3 exp? O.O

Either way I'm considering this double exp week for our bos!