Chocobo Companions and You: A Guide

[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.

[Maelwys]

Having 20% slow debuff is very nice, because it scale versus the enemies very well

Initially I was actually leaning towards taking the Slow myself for much the same reasons (less damage taken) however there are a few problems with the way it's implemented.

+ Firstly, taking Choco Kick actually reduces the (already poor) Tanking capability of your Chocobo. This is because it will spam all available abilities, and using Choco Kick instead of Choco Drop doesn't pull any enmity. IF the Chocobo was able to simultaneously hold hate and keep an enemy Slowed, then I would consider it to be much more useful.

+ Secondly, you are correct that Slows reduce incoming damage... but it only impacts the rate of standard autoattacks (which Tank classes largely laugh at and Ranged classes end up kiting) and due to the way Chocobo AI works the debuff is usually only going to be affecting a single opponent. It's very unlikely that you're going to die from autoattacks from a single standard trash enemy, and Bosses and other tougher foes are often slow immune.

+ Thirdly, as already mentioned, is the diminishing returns angle. Having two sources of a debuff can easily mess up a debuff rotation. Perfect Slow debuff timing obviously isn't as vital as with Stuns, but it can still become annoying if someone is used to a specific rotation (I'm thinking of Lancers here).

+ Finally, combined with "Choco Rush" (the Stun) it has the lowest damage potency (130) of any of your Chocobo's attacks. Therefore any time your Chocobo uses the slow instead of another Weaponskill it loses DPS - so if you are in a situation where you won't gain any benefit from the debuff, the attack could be wasted.

Note that I'm not saying "Don't take it" - almost every debuff is situationally useful - but if you are going to take it, be aware of the downsides!

Personally, if there was enough SP to take Choco Kick and still have enough left to grab Healer Rank 7 and Attacker Rank 6, I might consider taking it. I almost never have my Chocobo "Tank" and have no other sources of Slow. Unfortunately, it's the weakest link in an already-strong lineup so was the obvious choice for me to drop...

the weak DoT attack just doesn't scale versus tougher opponents.

I'm not so sure about that.

Choco Beak (the DoT ability) is the highest potency attack your chocobo has available. The initial 130 Potency is the same as Choco Kick (so even if it spams it and the DoT doesn't stack with itself, it's not doing any harm) but the DoT effect is quite strong and has no danger of negatively impacting anything. It's therefore practically never going to be "unhelpful" to have the Chocobo use it.

If the DoT lasts for the entire duration, it grants 20 potency every 3 seconds over 18 seconds, so 120 additional potency total. However even if the chocobo spams the attack back to back and overwrites that DoT, you would still get at least 1-2 DoT ticks between attacks, bringing it up from 130 potency to 150-170 Potency (Choco Drop and Choco Slash - your "main" attacks are both 150 potency). So it's still going to be your most powerful ST attack even when spammed.

And there's one last thing to consider... if you get into trouble and your Chocobo needs to start spamming heals, or you manually swap it into Healing stance, the DoT will still be ticking...

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

Agreed. Healer Rank 4 is going to be the first major milestone, but if you have the SP available, it's never going to be a bad idea to take it to Rank 7.

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.

Try clicking the regen off and see how long it takes for the Chocobo to reapply it.

There's definitely some kind of internal cooldown in place there (the same goes for Choco Cure - even in Healer stance it can't quite spam it back-to-back) but I agree that it's very tricky to get decent numbers for the attacks because of the behaviour of the AI.

[AylaYukihana]

Initially I was actually leaning towards taking the Slow myself for much the same reasons (less damage taken) however there are a few problems with the way it's implemented.

Currently due to design, Choco is only useful for normal mob grind (which is a horrible way to level up) or FATE bosses. It cannot be used in dungeons or anywhere which you would critically require assistance. Thus, the only time where its "needed" would be to help you solo or low-man FATE bosses.

This is where its slow debuff and healing power is very useful, not its weak DoT (20 per tick is meh) or its tanking ability (it can't tank anyway, not enough aggro nor enough armor/HP to bother).

If you want the 15% crit buff at rank 6, you've reached rank 7 in the Healer tree to unlock the 30% heal buff anyway, so 6 into the defender tree also gets you the accuracy and the 15% crit buff.

The choco AI rarely use WS back-to-back so it doesn't make a difference if you have 2 WS or 4 WS available, its going to use one WS every ~6 seconds (on average). But I have seen many times, choco uses Kick, then immediately follow up with another Kick.. theres no individual WS cooldown. It appears to be a random timer (maybe random 2-10s) to select a random WS and use it. Healing is based on a different AI.

[Maelwys]

Currently due to design, Choco is only useful for normal mob grind (which is a horrible way to level up) or FATE bosses. It cannot be used in dungeons or anywhere which you would critically require assistance. Thus, the only time where its "needed" would be to help you solo or low-man FATE bosses.

Agreed

(Though I'm still sore that they cut the promised "full replacement party member" aspect of Chocobo Companions before ARR launch and am hoping for dungeon content at some point!!)

This is where its slow debuff and healing power is very useful, not its weak DoT (20 per tick is meh) or its tanking ability (it can't tank anyway, not enough aggro nor enough armor/HP to bother).

I agree that the Healing provided by the Chocobo is undeniably useful in those situations, however I find the exact opposite concerning the slow debuff. This is because for "normal" Fate Bosses their autoattacks are weak and/or kitable (it's the special abilities that I want to avoid!) and "hard" Fate Bosses tend to be immune to CC effects. It might technically be helping, but it's such a small benefit that it's unnoticable.

I still disagree concerning the DoT. Whilst 20 potency taken by itself might indeed be "meh", that 20 potency reoccurs a LOT over time and comes on the back of an initial spike hit of 130 potency. Essentially there is never going to be a case where your Chocobo would deal more damage by using another sub-rank-10 weaponskill instead of the DoT. As such, it is far from weak: any time the Chocobo uses it, that Fate boss we're talking about will die a little bit faster... and if you're just farming trash mobs for drops then the extra kill speed could come in quite handy.

If you are in the unlikely situation where you are very gradually dying from a Fate Boss's Autoattacks then the Slow might be useful, assuming that the boss is not immune to Slows and that your Chocobo decides to use it. But in such cases, I would suggest an alternative tactic: take the DoT and "stance swap" - use Attacker Stance until the DoT is applied, then switch to Healing Stance in order to have more regular Cures whilst the DoT deals damage.

If you want the 15% crit buff at rank 6, you've reached rank 7 in the Healer tree to unlock the 30% heal buff anyway, so 6 into the defender tree also gets you the accuracy and the 15% crit buff.

Agreed. Assuming that you never want to be able to force the Chocobo to only use Choco Drop, the only difference (besides the HP Passive) is whether you want a DoT or a Slow.

However as shown above, I place greater value on the DoT than the Slow...so given insufficient SP to take both, I will always opt for the DoT. I appreciate that YMMV.

The choco AI rarely use WS back-to-back so it doesn't make a difference if you have 2 WS or 4 WS available, its going to use one WS every ~6 seconds (on average). But I have seen many times, choco uses Kick, then immediately follow up with another Kick.. theres no individual WS cooldown. It appears to be a random timer (maybe random 2-10s) to select a random WS and use it. Healing is based on a different AI.

Largely true as well - the behaviour I have observed so far would suggest that the Chocobo has a short global cooldown on ALL attacks (albeit slightly longer than our own 2.5s version) but has longer ability-specific cooldowns on certain buffs (such as Choco Regen, or the Rank 7 abilities). I've also observed a tendency for the Chocobo to rotate different attacks rather than spam one back-to-back; particularly if it has multiple attacks in the same tree.

I would however maintain that there are benefits to having more than one or two Weaponskills available - if the higher-rank Weaponskills are greater DPS (like the DoT) or provide some form of useful utility (like the Slow) compared to the basic Rank 1 150 potency attacks... or if taking them unlocks access to valuable buffs (such as the Rank 9 Attacker tree's +10% Autoattack Speed passive)

[Solfleur]

We get such a limited number of points to spend on our companions which at this point can not be done over; a little heads-up would have been nice. Not everyone has time in their lives to spend poring over every single tidbit the great and powerful Yoshi-P lets slip from his gilded lips...which it often takes weeks to translate in its entirety to those not in Japan anyway!

Ugh.. this is just one of those "very last straw" kind of days as far as this game build goes. So much could have been done so much better with such minimum effort--it's just AGGRAVATING as all hell. If I do my job wrong premature infants DIE, but I guarantee I make several zeroes less in salary per year than these bozos do! Thankfully I also make fewer (zero and counting) mistakes, given the stakes are so high. If people cannot do the job right, they should take themselves OUT of the job.

I thought that was the time honored Japanese way.

[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?

[Maelwys]

Does anyone know how much exp% goes to the chocobo? 5%? 10%?

It's higher than that. Can't check in-game at the moment, but very rough numbers are that with Rested EXP and food I'll usually get a little more than double what my Chocobo gets per monster kill. I can check in-game later tonight.

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?

You can still earn EXP for the Chocobo whenever your main character is at level 50. However the rate of exp stays the same as before - the chicken doesn't get any "extra" exp so the amount your character would usually take is wasted.

[Marxam]

An exp counter would help alleviate the problem. ex. "exp 2000/19500" <-- Is that so hard to do SE?

[Solfleur]

I cannot get my legacy choco to equip any of his four, no this one has three, barding sets--in mount mode. I summon him to fight and everything's fine, but to ride, totally vanilla...grrrr!

To answer the obvious question: yes, I do know how to switch out armor sets, as I've been swapping out pieces with my other two characters. I've seen others riding with BLM barding so I know that's not the issue.

Sorry for off topic question. On-topic, I prefer the slow-buff heal/protector build too and hope they expand the skill tree/utility range beyond (literally LOL) emergency rations unless they can "regen" those vestigial wings 'course.