Feel like Chocobo Companions are due for a buff

Possibly due to the great level crush of 6.0, possibly due to zero attention since 2.X.. Chocobo companions are quite overdue for an upgrade.

They are simply worthless at this point. My healer chocobo cannot keep me alive in the 80s and they're adding very little dps as a free stance.

Only thing they definitely contribute is frame lag and Aetheryte congestion.

It's either time to get rid of them altogether, as the lack of attention seems to suggest they want to, or it's time to bring them up to snuff.

Mine didn't have issues keeping me alive all the way to 90 unless i got way in over my head. Even then it kept me afloat for a while. As GNB it keeps me alive while i mass pull fates. And why get rid of them? You can just not summon yours you know?

I'd like to see it get a talent tree revamp, there's still accuracy in there for crying out loud

hmmmm? my rank 20 chocobo is still as effective as it has ever been...

I tried fate grinding without my chocobo as a reaper. Had some sticky retreats. Summoned him and went from 2-3 enemies at a time to full wave spawns.

In my experience they're still effective. However I can agree it'd be nice to have some more progression for them, It's been ages since I needed to interact with his skilltree and training.

I honestly keep forgetting about having my chocobo out most of the time. Maybe when I start working on the FATE stuff in EW I'll remember it, but most of the time since I maxed it, I leave it away

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Originally Posted by Reimmi

I'd like to see it get a talent tree revamp, there's still accuracy in there for crying out loud

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They definitely could use an update at the very least... Since I don't think they've touched them since they made them not count as party members, which was definitely an improvement for them.

My Chloe does an excellent job for me as a Bard main, or any of the other jobs I'm working on.
Even when dealing with pack-mobs or even "boss" type FATE mobs when solo.
The trick for over all survivability is to manage the Chocobo's stances on the fly, switching them around throughout the fight if/when necessary, mostly allowing for tanking and off tanking between you and your Chocobo.

I would also like to see a rework of the chocobo talent tree.

an update, sure. but not nearly as useless or lag inducing as the OP seems to imply

did most of the ShB fates with mine, and have done the same same so far in EW without any bad experiences. but then I dont tend to psycho pull large packs of things, so, might be part of it

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Originally Posted by Brownondorf

hmmmm? my rank 20 chocobo is still as effective as it has ever been...

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I've actually noticed mine is better at tanking now. It use to be entirely useless at it. Now it's only really bad at it lol.

It still works just as well as before when healing. I still very rarely have to heal myself when I got my chocobo out.

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Originally Posted by Korbei

Possibly due to the great level crush of 6.0, possibly due to zero attention since 2.X.. Chocobo companions are quite overdue for an upgrade.

They are simply worthless at this point. My healer chocobo cannot keep me alive in the 80s and they're adding very little dps as a free stance.

Only thing they definitely contribute is frame lag and Aetheryte congestion.

It's either time to get rid of them altogether, as the lack of attention seems to suggest they want to, or it's time to bring them up to snuff.

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They need a revamp!

I personally want them to continue on with it. It's not been touched since ARR.
We should have different companions, more items for them, rework the talent tree maybe?

I want a Paissa companion lol.

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Originally Posted by Jybril

I personally want them to continue on with it. It's not been touched since ARR.
We should have different companions, more items for them, rework the talent tree maybe?

I want a Paissa companion lol.

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The original plan was Maggie (The magitek Reaper you get from Preatorium) was going to be a companion you could swap parts around on. But that was obviously dropped.

SE has a nasty habit of adding new 'mini games' and then abandoning them. See chocobo racing, breeding, (scrapped probably) fighting arena, gardening, submarine and airship ventures, Grand companies and squads, Diadem 1, 2, and probably 3. Theres probably more I don't even remember existing.

Clearly we need to arm them with lasers!

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Originally Posted by Penthea

I've actually noticed mine is better at tanking now. It use to be entirely useless at it. Now it's only really bad at it lol.

It still works just as well as before when healing. I still very rarely have to heal myself when I got my chocobo out.

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I think tank choco could use some basic changes and then healer stance could also use a few AI changes, like not sticking next to you for example.

No I want to keep my chocobo, it is not going to the deep fryer

The tank chocobo is pretty worthless, it never manages to hold enmity at all any time I've attempted to use it, even as a healer.

Healer stance is already pretty iffy, since it forces the chocobo to stand directly next to you, it won't even cast until it repositions and just eats up every single aoe known to man. It then prioritizes itself, but still manages to slowly die through some fates because of the large amounts of aoes.

Like I know they're not supposed to be total replacements for players but they're in a pretty sad state.

i'd at the very least definitely like some Skill tree changes for them, as it stands lots of the skill points are just eaten by worthless stuff like accuracy and it hasn't been touched since ARR

they could update the ai for it a bit

My chocobo functions, but I would like an update to it.

I put my level 11 Healer Chocobo in Healer Stance and never have a problem soloing Fates, even bosses, as a Bard. I don’t even have to kite anymore. Sometimes I don’t even summon the chocobo because I’d rather kite.

I wouldn’t mind a revamp, but saying they are useless is not factual.

It needs an update on talents and thats about it imo.

In dps stance they usually do about half the dmg I do as a tank if I'm hunt farming, not a bad increase for a pet thats cheap to bring out

The only major gripe I have is that the healer chocobo will not heal you unless it is able to stand still, but its AI prioritizes staying within five yards of you over trying to heal you so if you're trying to kite enemies or fighting multiple enemies that are forcing you to move with AoEs it spends a lot less time healing then it should.

I'm definitely of mind to agree. Not necessarily because I want them to be stronger, just that the companion system hasn't changed since... well, since it began. Obviously some additions have been made, but the companion system itself hasn't. It just feels a little more outdated than other things. That said, buffing them may not be the right word for me, but rather just updating it in some meaningful way. Perhaps a better talent tree system, different companion types (models, roles, etc), dungeon access, etc.

I mean, we have the proven Trust system now and even the uhh... the new accompanying system thing. So the addition of different and better AI functioning companions isn't exactly unrealistic. Likewise to companions, Squadrons could use some love to that somewhat outdated and clearly forgotten feature.

Dunno about you, but my lvl20 Choco on offensive stance with tier 2 attack buff is doing more damage than some of the people I meet during FATES lol.

I think our birds are fine.

They've been ignored since Heavensward.

A 4th ranged spec would be nice.

The ability to tell them to stay is damn near mandatory at this point because the times my Bird Buddy has died because he thinks he has to be RIGHT by me when he's healing is ridiculous.

That or just make them immune to all damage if they can't get the AI to be decent.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

The only major gripe I have is that the healer chocobo will not heal you unless it is able to stand still, but its AI prioritizes staying within five yards of you over trying to heal you so if you're trying to kite enemies or fighting multiple enemies that are forcing you to move with AoEs it spends a lot less time healing then it should.

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Basically this ^^

Only thing can think of that they should is defender mode for the chocobo.

I want new skills for our birds.
Choco Meteor or something.

New classes for Chocobo! :D

Black Mage, Red Mage and Dragoon! You know, cus of their barding.

If anything, it'd be nice if they allowed us to use "skins" basically what I mean is use ANY of our Mounts for combat, under the template of the bo stats.

I just keep the dps chocobo for the badass dragoon armor, it does deal quite a bit of damage too including stuns, really nice when doing fates, especially if your a healer you can just heal your choco, or while tanking.

I’d like a new tree but no new levels so I actually get to make choices on what skills they have active again.

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Originally Posted by van_arn

I’d like a new tree but no new levels so I actually get to make choices on what skills they have active again.

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I'm down for this route really. Customize your chocobo to actually fulfill a role of your choosing instead of just being an everything at all times mediocre catchall. We have the respec peppers anyway so if you do it wrong or want to swap there's options. Why not make it so you can make a competent full healer or significant damage dealer or AOE buddy?

Improved AI would be wonderful. The framework exists given Squadrons and Trusts. At the very least, it'd be nice if my Chocobo didn't run in and instantly die during A and S rank hunts. Keeping an eye on them to micromanage things is also rather awkward, given how many people show up for hunt trains.

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Originally Posted by Krotoan

I'm down for this route really. Customize your chocobo to actually fulfill a role of your choosing instead of just being an everything at all times mediocre catchall. We have the respec peppers anyway so if you do it wrong or want to swap there's options. Why not make it so you can make a competent full healer or significant damage dealer or AOE buddy?

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This was sorta a thing back in the original FF14 1.0.....
You didn't have a Chocobo companion, but you could get a "real" Path Companion that you could choose from a selected race/gender/job set of NPCs as your partner in adventuring moving forward in the game fairly early in the story line. https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Path_Companions
The problem, however, was you as the WoL could change jobs, but your companion could not. Their job was what you had chose when you paired up, and stayed such into the end game. You also couldn't "hire" a second one or replace the one you had chose.... so depending on the situation, you could be a healer job needing a tank, but your companion isn't a tank, and such.

The fix in ARR 2.0+ was to replace the static job companion with one that can be a healer, a tank, and a DPS, and once ranked up to max, switchable on the fly and effective in all three jobs, the Chocobo companion.

They should add the Path Companion back, it would be fun having a NPC companion that you can glamor and such, and maybe add in the gambit system from XII (basically you program the AI of the NPC with actions and priorities).

Maybe they can add some content like levelling the companion, or collecting more gambits for them like we collect TT cards.

My heal choco is such a helpful bird. If anything the changes made leveling it far faster than ever before. Too bad Thav Onions have quadrupled in price.