Chocobo Companions and You: A Guide

[Maelwys]

A Guide to Chocobo Battle Companions - AKA "Wrath of the Warchicken"

A number of people have been complaining about the lack of any kind of information/guidance on the official forums regarding Chocobo companions. There is actually a LOT of player testing and data out there, but it's all over the place in multiple subforums and difficult to find for those who don't have the relevant threads bookmarked. I'm therefore making an attempt to lump some of this information together so that I have one place to direct people towards when they ask me about chickens.

This is less of a structured walkthrough, and more of a Q+A.

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Section #1 : Why did the Chocobo cross the road?

Q: What is a Chocobo?
A: Seriously?

Have you never played a Final Fantasy game before? They're big yellow chickens that you can use as a mount. They go "Wark!" and love eating greens. Next question.

Q: What is a Chocobo good for in FFXIV?
A: Well...

After you first hit level 20 and join a Grand Company you can spend seals to purchase a Chocobo to use as a mount - you can then call this mount at any level on any job. Afterwards, you can do a quest at level 30 to allow you to bring this Chocobo into battle with you - again, at any level on any job. The way this works is that you use "Gysahl Greens" to summon your chocobo into battle for a specific period of time (or until it dies) - these can be purchased from a variety of in-game merchants.

Q: Anything else?
A: Yes.

There is talk of Chocobo Breeding once Player Housing is introduced. What this potentially entails is anyone's guess, but I suspect you will eventually have multiple Chocobo companions to choose from.

Q: OK... you mentioned a "Battle Companion"?
A: Yes I did.

It can get a little complicated... but in a (rather big) nutshell:

+ Your Chocobo starts at Rank 0 and can consume a portion of your Experience Points in Battle to raise it up as far as Rank 10. It will not gain any experience from Fate, Leve or Mission rewards, only monster kills (although kill chain bonuses seem to apply). Higher ranks require VASTLY LARGER amounts of exp to reach, and the summon duration from Gysahl Greens reduces for 90 seconds every rank (at Rank 0, the duration is 30 mins, at rank 10, it is 15 mins)

+ After your Chocobo reaches a new Rank, it earns SP which can be spent to learn abilities - Weaponskills, Buffs and stat-boosting Passives. You can pick abilities from three specialization trees: "Defender", "Attacker" and "Healer".

+ Each of the specialization trees gets a corresponding "stance" that you can put your Chocobo into. Putting your Chocobo into one of these stances will instruct it to only use abilities from the corresponding tree (also, a Chocobo in "Healer Stance" will not autoattack the enemy). There is a fourth stance called "Free stance" which allows the Chocobo to use all of its available abilities.

+ You cannot currently respec your Chocobo, but this is planned for a future update.

+ Your Chocobo's LEVEL is always the same as yours. if you are a level 35 Warrior, your Chocobo will be level 35. If you then switch to a level 5 Conjurer, your Chocobo will be level 5. Level affects the Chocobo's base stats, but not the abilities it has available.

+ You can equip costume pieces - "barding" - to your Chocobo. These do not affect stats and are basically vanity items.

+ YOU CANNOT USE YOUR CHOCOBO WHEN QUEUEING FOR THE DUTY FINDER. Currently, summoning the Chocobo when you are in the queue will kick you out of the queue. This is because the Chocobo companion counts as a second party member. This is a known issue, and will hopefully be changed sooner rather than later.

+ Eventually, there may be some kind of dedicated instanced mission(s) that you can bring your Chocobo into. There was talk of them trying to fit this in for ARR launch, but it got sidelined. I'd be surprised if it wasn't brought back eventually.

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Section #2 : How do you like your Chicken?

Now, to break it down a little bit further... the main thing you want to think about for Chocobo companion is how you are going to spend your SP.

You gain SP every rank your Chocobo reaches. The amount of SP gained corresponds exactly with the rank: when you hit Rank 1, you will get 1 SP. When you hit Rank 7, you will get 7 SP... etc. This means that at Maximum Rank, your Chocobo will have amassed a grand total of 55 SP.

55 SP is *just* enough SP to take every ability in ONE of the specialization trees.

Purchasing lower rank abilities unlocks higher rank ones in the same tree, so you can't just choose a bunch of higher-rank abilities and skip over the lower rank ones - you need to gradually work your way along each tree.

Stances and abilities:

*** Defender ***
1 SP: "Choco Drop" 150 Potency Attack with +Enmity
(This is your Chocobo's primary means of pulling hate)
3 SP: "Enhanced Strength" +5% Str Trait
6 SP: "Increased HP" +10% HP Trait
10 SP: "Choco Kick" 130 Potency Attack, +20% Slow for 12s
15 SP: "Enhanced Accuracy" +5% Acc Trait
21 SP: "Enhanced Crit Rate" +15% Crit Rate Trait
28 SP: "Choco Guard" 15% Damage Reduction for 15s
36 SP: "Enhanced Strength" +5% Str Trait
45 SP: "Increased HP" +10% HP Trait
55 SP: "Choco Strike" 150 Potency Cone Attack with +Enmity

*** Attacker ***
1 SP: "Choco Slash" 150 Potency Attack
3 SP: "Enhanced Strength" +5% Str Trait
6 SP: "Increased HP" +5% HP Trait
10 SP: "Choco Beak" 130 Potency Attack, 20 Potency DoT for 18s (250 Potency total)
15 SP: "Enhanced Accuracy" +5% Acc Trait
21 SP: "Enhanced Crit Rate" +15% Crit Rate Trait
28 SP: "Choco Rush" 130 Potency Attack, Stun for 5s
36 SP: "Enhanced Strength" +10% Str Trait
45 SP: "Increased Attack Speed" +10% Attack Speed Trait
55 SP: "Choco Blast" 170 Potency Cone Attack

*** Healer ***
1 SP: "Choco Regen" 25 Potency HoT for 18s.
(The AI can keep this up nearly permanently on both you and the Chocobo)
3 SP: "Enhanced Mind" +10% Mnd Trait
6 SP: "Increased HP" +5% HP Trait
10 SP: "Choco Cure" 300 Potency Heal
(Used when you or the chocobo drop below ~50% HP in Free Stance or ~80% HP in Healing Stance)
15 SP: "Enhanced Accuracy" +5% Acc Trait
21 SP: "Enhanced Crit Rate" +15% Crit Rate Trait
28 SP: "Choco Surge" +30% Healing Potency for 30s
(Very high uptime. Has a downtime of ~10 seconds)
36 SP: "Enhanced Mind" +15% Mnd Trait
45 SP: "Increased HP" +5% HP Trait
55 SP: "Choco Medica" 150 Potency Heal PBAoE

Since the highest-rank abilities in a tree cost the most SP, a player should consider very carefully if they want to spend all their points in one tree, or invest in abilities from different trees.

Passive "Traits" (such as +HP%) stack across trees. Selecting a stance will make your Chocobo unable to use weaponskills/abilities from other trees, but it will keep all passive stat boosts.

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Section #3 : Everyone Loves Nuggets

The above are the raw facts when it comes to Chocobo Companions.
Now we delve into the murky realms of player testing and carefully considered opinion...

Q: What about the builds? Is it better to go FULLY into one tree or mix + match and build a hybrid?
A: It will always be better to go Hybrid except for in very specific circumstances.

Let me qualify that statement, because it conflicts with the 'common sense' view that you should always try to specialize into chosen MMORPG roles:

Firstly, there is an achievement for hitting Rank 10 in each stance. if you value achievements over battle performance, by all means invest solely into one tree.

Secondly, "Hybrid" builds have more abilities, greater damage potential and higher stats than "Pure Stance" builds. This is because higher rank abilities cost more SP to make them available. For the same SP cost, you can get Rank 10 in one stance, or Rank 9 in that stance plus Ranks 1-4 in a secondary stance.

A Chocobo will always have all their passives available to them regardless of stance, and whenever you put them into "Free Stance" they gain access to all of their learned weaponskills and abilities.

If the Rank #10 abilities were jaw-droppingly good, I would recommend specializing into a single stance... however, they are AoE and Cone abilities with mediocre Potency. You cannot trigger them manually, and the AI is notoriously bad at using AoE/Cone abilities sensibly. In all likelyhood you will not gain much benefit from taking a Rank 10 ability, and they cost a MASSIVE percentage of your total SP to learn.


Q: Is there any point to using anything other than "Free Stance"?
A: Yes, sometimes. It depends what class/job you are playing.

Putting your chocobo into "Healer Stance" will cause it to heal you sooner and slightly more frequently (due to Cure being used on cooldown, instead of occasionally having to wait for autoattack or weaponskill animations to finish). This is more useful for Ranged classes than Melee classes, because a Chocobo in Healer stance will follow you around instead of autoattacking... meaning that it will get hit a lot more regularly by enemy Cones and AoE attacks and end up having to heal both you and itself.

Putting your chocobo into "Attacker Stance" or "Defender Stance" will cause your Chocobo to never use its heals, so you could theoretically get slightly better DPS out of it. Although the tradeoff is that your chocobo would lose access to any "Defender Stance" Weaponskills if you put it into "Attacker Stance", and vice-versa.

Usually, you will likely want to keep in Free Stance unless you desperately need extra healing.


Q: What about Tanking? Can my Chocobo Tank?
A: No. It can take the occasional hit, but it has low HP and really can't hold hate.

The best "Hate-pulling" setup would probably be to take the first three abilities from Defender stance, the first two from Healer Stance, and the first nine from Attack Stance. Then put your Chocobo into Defender Stance. Doing this would grant your Chocobo access Choco Drop (for attacking Emnity) whilst boosting its Autoattack Rate and HP/Damage stats up as high as possible. It should be noted that I really don't recommend this setup.

The main problem is hate generation. Even in Defender Stance, the chocobo will rotate all available weaponskill abilities instead of favouring Enmity-Boosting weaponskills, so the only way to get it to spam 'Choco Drop' on cooldown is to make it only have Choco Drop available.


Q: So if it can't hold hate, what good is it? I'm squishy!
A: It is good at two things: killing stuff, and healing you.

The Chocobo AI seems to work as follows:

Step #1: - As soon as the player engages a mob, start autoattacking that mob. (Unless in Healer Stance). Do not stop attacking this first mob until it dies or I am put into into "Healer" or "Follow" Stance.
Step #2: - Is there a weaponskill or buff ability available? If so, use it. (appears to like rotating weaponskills rather than spamming the same one over and over again)
Step #3: - Did the player or myself take any damage? If so, and they do not already have Choco Regen applied, then use Choco Regen.
Step #4: - Is my HP bar or the Player's HP bar below the Cure threshold? (~50% for Free Stance, ~80% for Healer Stance) If so, cast Choco Cure.

From the above, you can see that the Chocobo will focus on one mob until that mob dies, and will heal you or itself in between using abilities/weaponskills.

The Chocobo does less DPS than a dedicated player DD, and has less healing potential than a dedicated player Healer. But it is respectable in both categories; and generally will be better at both than, say, a Paladin.

A Chocobo in Free/Healer stance will try to always have Choco Regen on you, and its Choco Cures start at about ~380HP at level 50 (Rising higher with Rank 7's "Choco Surge" buff and Rank 8's "Enhanced Mind" passive) and are on a fairly short cooldown - roughly 8 seconds between Cures. It will NOT Cure you unless your HP is below the % threshold for its stance - so there is no danger of overcuring.

The short version is that a Chocobo will help you kill stuff faster, and will keep you alive for longer. but you cannot rely on it to hold hate for you.


Q: OK, OK... so how should I build my Hybrid Chocobo?
A: It depends.

If you are a dedicated healer, there is not much point in having a Chocobo that can heal. I would recommend spending 10 SP into Defender Stance, and 45 SP into Attacker Stance. This would give your Chocobo access to the maximum number of Weaponskills and damage-related passive boosts.

If you are NOT a dedicated healer, you should always aim for at least 10 SP in "Healer Stance" This will give your Chocobo access to "Choco Cure", which is a major step up in helpfulness from "Choco Regen".

Technically you could put 10 SP into Healer stance, and 45 SP into Attacker Stance, and very nearly have "the best of both worlds" - a Chocobo that when in Attacker Stance will output very high DPS and ignore healing, and when in Free Stance or Healer Stance will try to keep you and itself alive (sacrificing a little DPS when in Free Stance due to Cure spam). You would however lose access to two decent weaponskills and a few minor stat boosts from not taking any of the abilities in the Defender tree... so it would not quite be "maximum" DPS, just very close to it.

If you want a Chocobo that is a good "all rounder", I would recommend putting 6 SP into Defender Stance, 28 into Healer Stance and 21 into Attacker Stance. This boosts the healing potential of your Chocobo considerably, gives your Chocobo access to a wide variety of weaponskills and passive stat buffs (nearly equalling the DPS output of the above "the best of both worlds" build), and allows you to put your Chocobo into Defender Stance in order to spam Choco Drop (to attempt to pull hate) when needed.

There are two weaponskill abilities to be careful of: Choco Kick (Defender tree rank 4) and Choco Rush (Attacker tree rank 7). These have a Slow and Stun effect respectively; and can cause Diminishing Returns to kick in on an enemy if a player is also using those debuff effects. If you're trying to stun a particular boss ability, then Choco Rush could become VERY annoying.


Q: What abilities should I take at each rank?
A: This is really down to your primary job and personal preference.

That said, personally, for the all-rounder build mentioned above I'd recommend the following:

+ Rank 1 (1 SP) - Rank 1 Healer (HoT) [0 SP remaining]
+ Rank 2 (2 SP) - Rank 1 Defender (Enmity WS) + Rank 1 Attacker (WS) [0 SP remaining]
+ Rank 3 (3 SP) - Rank 2 Healer (MND Trait) [1 SP remaining]
+ Rank 4 (4 SP) - Rank 3 Healer (HP Trait) + Rank 2 Attacker [STR Trait] [0 SP remaining]
+ Rank 5 (5 SP) - Rank 4 Healer (Cure) [1 SP Remaining]
+ Rank 6 (6 SP) - Rank 3 Attacker (+HP Trait) + Rank 4 Attacker (DoT WS) [0 SP remaining]
+ Rank 7 (7 SP) - Rank 5 Healer (Acc Trait) + Rank 2 Defender (STR Trait) [0 SP remaining]
+ Rank 8 (8 SP) - Rank 6 Healer (Crit Rate Trait) [2 SP remaining]
+ Rank 9 (9 SP) - Rank 7 Healer (+Potency Buff) + Rank 3 Defender (HP Trait) [1 SP remaining]
+ Rank 10 (10 SP) - Rank 5 Attacker (Acc Trait) + Rank 6 Attacker (Crit Trait) [0 SP remaining]

Your Chocobo should start becoming noticeably helpful from rank #2 and be a complete beast from rank #6 onwards.

Note: Since it appears to take a very LONG time to get from Level 9 to Level 10, you could swap the level 9 + 10 choices around depending on whether you want more Survivability or more DPS earlier.


Q: COOL! Anything else?
A: Yes. Lots of people love numbers. But it's a game. Have FUN!

[ShackledDreams]

Great post! Hadn't given much stock to the Chocobo companion, but I may have to give it a second look. Especially with the aforementioned prospect of raising new breeds of Chocobos ect. In any case, lots if useful information here.

[WhoIsTheGuest]

Hmmm...you forget to mention one critical benefits of Chocobo in Final Fantasy:

Q: "What is a Chocobo good for in Final Fantasy?"
A: "Emergency Ration."


Okay I am just kidding, don't hate!

[aswedishtiger]

uhm this is great and all but... where do we level this thing at?

[Kirosuu]

isnt its sound kweh instead wark?

[Maelwys]

uhm this is great and all but... where do we level this thing at?

Anywhere you can find mobs to kill that give you experience points.

If you're running solo, you can hit Chain 5 or 6 on enemies that are a few levels above you reasonably easilly. If running with two or more, you can hit Chain 10 or higher.

Experience Point chaining harkens back to the old days of FFXI. It's not as quick a means of experience point grinding as running Fates (for you) but for the Chocobo it's currently the fastest method. If you can find a zone that has both Experience point-granting enemies and Fates, you can do both at once and Chain5/6 enemies inbetween Fates.

You can check its progress and spend points to choose abilities via your Companions tab (open your Character Window, then click the small Chocobo icon to the right of your name)

isnt its sound kweh instead wark?

If memory serves, it's "Kweh" in the original and "Wark" in most English translations. I usually go by the Chocobo dance scene in FF7 where you had to talk to the Chocobo in order to get the Choco-Mog materia!

[AylaYukihana]

Are you positive the speed debuff is on DR? Because if its anything like other spell debuffs, it isnt affected by DR. Only short CCs like stuns, binds, sleep, etc are DR.

[Maelwys]

Are you positive the speed debuff is on DR? Because if its anything like other spell debuffs, it isnt affected by DR. Only short CCs like stuns, binds, sleep, etc are DR.

As far as I'm aware player-inflicted slows such as those inflicted via the Lancer "Feint" WS are on Diminishing Returns - see here and here. I see no reason why the Chocobo version would be any different... it's possible that it's on a long enough cooldown that it won't inflict DR upon itself, but it would affect slows from other sources and vice-versa (Spirits Within's silence effect works this way).

Longer-duration debuffs like Blinds (Flash) and Sleeps are subject to DR - it's not just the shorter ones like Stuns.

[AylaYukihana]

Having 20% slow debuff is very nice, because it scale versus the enemies very well, whereas the weak DoT attack just doesn't scale versus tougher opponents. I would lean towards picking up 4 skills in defense tree to get the slow debuff, can see it being very handy in helping you versus FATE bosses and such when there's few around. If you think about it, a boss being slowed = less damage taken = choco's heal/regen is more effective and/or used less often (more time for it to dps).

7 in the healing tree is a must, the 30% healing buff is very good.

As to the attack's having an Internal CD, I don't think so, because I've seen many times, back to back usage of the same WS, in a short period of time. Whereas, other times, the bird goes for a long duration between WS spam.. its too random.

[Marxam]

Does anyone know how much exp% goes to the chocobo? 5%? 10%? Also I heard talk that you need to gain exp from mobs and can't be lvl 50 (no exp at 50; therefore no exp for chocobo to take from). Is this true or false?