Chocobo Companion: Job Customizations

[LuciBlack]

Maelwyn,
Very good rebuttal. I like what you said. It is true I would not rely on a Tank chocobo, but I just thought I would still include the option in my Theory as to not segregate the Tankers ;p
Even so, it is still a good idea if only the birds were more efficient than they currently are. Also, it is very true that IF we get the option in the future to take our birds into Dungeons, we will most likely have a Tank, and at least one Healer while the birds will be all for support. The most problematic issue with taking your bird anywhere will be that they wont care about dodging attacks, so they will inevitably take the most damage. Then again, I would think using your bird in a dungeon will be out of disparity or simply because some people don't like to run with Pugs. Players will always trump NPC's.
The most typical way that they would be used, for now, would be which was mentioned above, for Grinding mats or FATE's. For Grinding mats, they mobs typically do not take long to kill, so a straight up Attack/Hybrid would be most efficient. But, I am not gonna argue that a Attack/Healer/Hybrid would not suffice either to lessen the downtime between kills.
Also, your mention of Status effects due to Diminishing Returns was completely on my mind as a bad thing, when your trying to fight a specific way and relying on an RNG helper.

All of this needs to be taken into consideration when everybody decides on how to build their bird.

The only question you really need to ask yourself is: What do you want to use your Chocobo for?

[AylaYukihana]

The only question you really need to ask yourself is: What do you want to use your Chocobo for?

ATM there's not much you can use the choco for, its limited to being helpful in two ways: 1) help you mass slaughter some poor sheeps for fleece or 2) help you low-man boss FATEs.

@ Maelwys: Shadow Flare has a 5% chance to trigger slow. Having a slow is really useful, especially since the Choco's slow is very potent coupled with a 130 potency attack.

[Maelwys]

@ Maelwys: Shadow Flare has a 5% chance to trigger slow.

But is an AoE effect with no duration, meaning that as soon as the slow is inflicted, it lasts "forever" as long as the foe(s) stand inside the circle.

Having a slow is really useful, especially since the Choco's slow is very potent coupled with a 130 potency attack.

I agree that it's potent for a single-target slow, but would consider single-target slows in general to be of debatable usefulness.

The DoT is also "coupled with a 130 potency attack" - so (assuming that you can't take both and don't mind negatively impacting your Chocobo's hate-generation capability) it really comes down to whether you prefer a 20% slow, or an extra 120 Potency worth of damage in the form of a DoT.

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Personally I would consider the "best" abilities to be (in rough order of desirability):

1. Choco Cure (Rank 4 Healer Targeted Heal)
2. Choco Surge (Rank 7 Healer Healing Buff)
3. Choco Beak (Rank 4 Attacker DoT)
4. +10% Attack Speed Trait (Rank 9 Attacker, rated higher than +STR due to trait stacking)
5. +STR Traits (Rank 8 Attacker being the most powerful)
6. +15% Crit Trait (All trees equally desirable)
7. +MND Traits (Rank 8 Healer being the most powerful)
8. Choco Drop (Rank 1 Defender +Emnity Attack)
9. Choco Slash (Rank 1 Attacker Attack)
10. Choco Regen (Rank 1 Healer HoT)
11. Choco Kick (Rank 4 Defender +Slow Attack)
12. +HP Traits (Rank 3 Defender is just as good as Rank 9 Defender!)
13. +Acc Traits (Currently it's unlikely you'll use the Chocobo to fight extremely agile opponents)
14. The Rank 10 abilities (Healer tree first, then Attacker tree, then Defender)
15. The Rank 8 Defender tree's +Resistance Buff.
...
...
1001. Choco Rush (Rank 7 Attacker +Stun Attack)

If it wasn't for the Stun attack, I would go 9 Attacker/4 Healer in a heartbeat because the +STR and +Autoattack are both very powerful damage buffs.
Unfortunately due to concerns with DR, I really can't justify it.

If you could "disable" abilities in the future (instruct your Chocobo not to use them) it'd become very nice though...

Once he starts using his Enmity ability he seems to spam it and his hate skyrockets but waiting that long for him to get hate goes against why I want to use him in the first place (to help with soloing/farming and expedite kills).
Of course it also doesn't help that he can't keep up with increasing iLvl of the gear I have, obviously.

That's why I'd suggest keeping Defender stance to rank 3 - by putting the Chocobo into that stance temporarily you can force him to only use the enmity gaining ability.
But yes, the Chocobo just plain can't keep up with Gear creep. The minor stat boosts it gets are very low in comparison to the boosts you get from ilevel 70 or 90 gear.

Perhaps some form of gear-scaling-related buff is in order? (If buffs from Barding is off the cards, perhaps the Chocobo could gain 10% of your character's current gear stats? Hmm...)

BAH with these huge posts. my choco's L4 healer n i can solo any fate (besides odin n behemoth) with my PLDn choco

This.

Rank 4 Healer by itself is usually perfectly sufficient for keeping a Melee character upright, even in "Free stance", no Slow (or even the Rank 7 Healer buff!) needed
Anything after that is just "More DPS please!" to kill stuff faster - the DoT, STR/Crit buffs, etc. all help here.

The Rank 7 Healer buff makes the Chocobo's heals become more potent so it can spend more time DPSing and less time Healing.
The Slow would work the same way (potentially, if the Chocobo decides to use it) but to a much lesser extent.