Chocobo Skill build philosophy

[Maelwys]

Anyone doing anything similar, or come to similar conclusions?

Would've replied to this yesterday but had used all my daily posts (darn SE's silly limits!)

I came to much the same conclusions a few days ago in this thread - the last ability in each tree just seems like a waste of 10 SP, so it's looking better and better to go Hybrid.

Regarding your suggested build above, I can understand the reasoning behind going 28 points into the Healing tree, but I'm unconvinced that the chocobo will be smart enough to use short-uptime buffs (such as the +Healing Potency, or the +Damage Reduction buffs) effectively. So If I was going to go 28-deep it'd probably be in the Attacker tree. (As you noted above, the Stun attack's debuff may indeed interfere via Diminishing Returns if you have your own stun, but even if DR kicks in, you will still be able to interrupt enemy abilities and casting via using your own stun ability.)

That said, to me there really doesn't appear to be any benefit gained by going 28/21/6 instead of 21/21/10 (aside from using up the last few spare SP). The Healing Stance appears to perform perfectly well at 10 SP, and the +Slow attack from Defender Stance helps both you and your Chicken's survivability (and given the AI, it's likely going to be far more reliable for that purpose than the 28 SP Attacker Stance's Stun).

The only real reason I can see to go higher in the Attacker tree would be to take it all the way up to Rank #9 for the Attack Speed buff. (and indeed going 45 Attacker/10 Healer looks to be a reasonable setup as a companion for "Tank" classes - it remains to be seen how an extra 5% STR + 10% Attack Speed would stack up against an extra 5% Acc + 15% Crit rate for damage output)

I'm currently aiming at 21 SP Defender/21 SP Attacker/10 SP Healer. It seems the most versatile setup, can work well in any stance, doesn't rely on Chocobo AI making timely use of abilities, and doesn't really lose much (if anything) in terms of Single Target damage output

[Sapphidia]

Regarding your suggested build above, I can understand the reasoning behind going 28 points into the Healing tree, but I'm unconvinced that the chocobo will be smart enough to use short-uptime buffs

Yep I can definitely understand that. However, it seems the chocobo healing buff lasts -30 seconds-. That seems an inordinately long time for a self buff, and I'm not sure of the recast but given how much my choco Gromit likes to spam heals I'm sure he'll use it on cooldown. I'll need to try it of course, all of this is conjecture - if it turns out the healing buff is seldom ever used then I definitely agree with your sentiments on the slow/stun option.

30 second duration though seems like a really really good deal and I'm -hoping- for at least 50% uptime in combat. We shall see though, if it's cast once every week then I can see 10 points in the healer tree being the only thing worth it.

[Maelwys]

I'll need to try it of course, all of this is conjecture - if it turns out the healing buff is seldom ever used then I definitely agree with your sentiments on the slow/stun option.

Yeah, I've also found my Chocobo to be really good at keeping "Regen" on both itself and me, and fairly decent at cycling heals.

I could see a healing potency buff being useful if the uptime ratio is high (provided that someone actually needs healing!) but since the trend for similar abilities such as Divine Seal appears to be a Duration:Recast ratio of 1:4 (or even less - see Convalescence and Mantra!) I suspect it'll have a recharge time of at least 120 seconds, which would work out to an average of 7.5% extra Healing Potency over time. Probably less than that, given that the Pet AI is very unlikely to decide to recast it immediately.

Therefore, at the moment I'm leaning towards the 20% Defender Stance's slow being slightly more effective in terms of ongoing mitigation.

Though as you mentioned above, at this point all of this is conjecture!
I'd certainly be interested to hear your findings on this if/when you manage to get the Chocobo levelled up that high (in both Healer Stance and Free Stance)