itt: let's whine about chocobo race balance

[Gallus]

Not always you can dodge briar. When you are clustered, I've been occasionally brutally comboed by the one behind me casting heavy and another one sprinting to my ass with briars, you are heavied, blocked and briared, absolutely nothing you can do when this happens, do not claim the opposite lol. The only solution to this is:

1 - Not have horrible luck like me.
2 - Avoid getting clustered.

The second one however isn't much of a solution, because if you slow down at the beginning to prevent getting clustered with the other chocobos, there are always the 1-2 chocobos with head start + choco dash that just get too far and then they are practically unreachable, so slowing down at the beginning is an almost guarantee you won't even smell the first spots.

[CodeCass]

I love to wine and Chocobo Race! I prefer a nice Riesling whilst I guide my chocobo on to victory!

[Sho86]

Whenever I try to run with the cluster I typically regret it, usually for the same reason of briar spam. My experience only goes up to G3/R100 races, but either trying to stick to a wall on first box or hang back barely behind the cluster works best for me. When I hang back even the ones with head start are not entirely unreachable, unless they get lucky hero-dash back to back etc.

Otherwise after the first box, some start to save stam, others burn it, and I weave through when there are clear openings. Every bird is different but usually if someone at that time tries to briar me, I have enough accel/cunning to dodge after the first hit, or not get hit at all. That all said, I typically just stick to the wall on first box, as everyone is tunnel-vision on the cluster they don't care about the noob who forgot to pick up the item. xD

[Torvald]

The more you play, and the more observant you are of who gets what item, the more you can avoid briars. Powerful items like briars ensure that skillful play (and some luck) will balance chocobos with better stats. Otherwise the better stat chocobo will always win, and that would make for a pretty boring game.

[Honourlessichi]

Bars water can be a game changing item ver been hit by 3 in a row? It increases the rate at wich your Stamina depletes because of the Heavy lathered state.
Gravity ball, is not powerfull but, it will determine a win for you at the later Ratings 100+
the NPC's are insane, raced Speed Racer yet? Before your even close to his stats it is 1 of the only ways to beat him.

I guess i could be biased,my chocobos are in their lowest possible tier they can race in until forced into the next and are pretty good breeds,so both the water and gravity ball have never ever cost me a race,despite being hit by them multiple times.

[Estellios]

I think Bacchus' Water is kind of a dud since a lot of people winning the races that I've done seem to be able to just sprint the entire way through negating its effects. My chocobo is only R30ish though so feel free to correct me if Stamina management (when caltrops aren't involved) is more important in higher ranks.

My chocobo learned Choco Steal and it seems kind of bad. Most of the items in races are best used immediately so no one holds on to them, and on top of that it's only a 50% success rate. I feel like it should put a buff on you that has a chance of stealing an item used while it's active and possibly place the stolen item into an extra item slot separate from the normal one.

[Welsper59]

I think Bacchus' Water is kind of a dud since a lot of people winning the races that I've done seem to be able to just sprint the entire way through negating its effects. My chocobo is only R30ish though so feel free to correct me if Stamina management (when caltrops aren't involved) is more important in higher ranks.

My chocobo learned Choco Steal and it seems kind of bad. Most of the items in races are best used immediately so no one holds on to them, and on top of that it's only a 50% success rate. I feel like it should put a buff on you that has a chance of stealing an item used while it's active and possibly place the stolen item into an extra item slot separate from the normal one.

3/4 of the time that people end up getting it, the water does at most, minimal "damage" to the target. If it's combined with something though, such as the Heavy effect, it REALLY makes you suffer. Likewise, if someone times it when they're around another racer using Briar and they're running, ooh the mayhem.

Steal is unfortunately in the same boat as the water in how highly situational it is (partly due to the RNG of successfully stealing). The NPCs have successfully stolen Dash and Hero tonics from me before, all while I was trying to spam the item immediately after getting it lol.

[Lascivar]

The counter to any item is to simply know who has what and to use that effectively to your advantage.

That being said, Tireless does prevent damage from Briars and negates the stamina damage from Meteor. Hero Tonic prevents any and all debuffs, including being lathered.

Also locking down people's items with the Distract ability is a good way to screw them, particularly when you know there's two item drops coming up that are in close proximity and you're preventing them from using both.

[Aphel]

My chocobo learned Choco Steal and it seems kind of bad.

Choco Steal III is 90% rate and it makes for very exciting, strategic gameplay. Had a Heavy powerup on me and I crept up to the guy in the front who was waiting to unleash his Briar on me. Quickly Heavied him + steal his Briar and smacked him with his own medicine. There's a lot of combos you can do with it, unlike the silly Dash-dash-dash ability that requires little skill yet nets you a win easily.

[sfxsigma]

Does anyone know what determines the amount of stamina Briar's Caltrop will drain? I don't understand why sometimes I'll see people lose between 5% and 10% when struck and others will lose anywhere from 20% to 30%. I thought maybe it was the duration of contact but I've lost up to 30% despite making quick evasive action. I don't really mind the frequency it appears, but I do mind that there's no apparent consistency in how it performs.

Briar, like Choco Shock/Silence, is an aura skill that remains active for a few seconds once it goes up. It's not just avoiding the initial pop with Briar; if you stay in it, or leave and come back in, you'll suffer additional stamina damage. It's probably something like 10% per second based on my eyeballing it.