Chocobo Racing 2.55

[Crimsonforce]

So.. the adjustments they made about the regularity of specific items showing up --- I just got hit by 4 meteors in a row. Did they really go ahead and increase the chance to get that...?

I know my first race since this patch every chest EVERY chest had 4 Graviball all in a row.....

[zurecatherogue]

I used to log on for Chocobo Races everyday. They "were" so much fun for me. My FC always looked to me for info and help with chocobo racing. 2.55 has KILLED any desire I had to do chocobo racing. It feels like this increase in stamina loss while accelerating is a bit over-tuned. I mean my current chocobo has 4 star stamina and has a pretty high score and it feels like there is a bacchus water on me. I haven't seen a choco potion or stamina tablet in an item box in 4 races but the NPCs don't seem affected like the players. They are still like before, shooting ahead of you and passing through you even though there is "supposed" to be collision, (there sure is when I try to choco dash near one and they immediately pull in front of me and it is wasted). Chocobo Racing for me is now unbearable. These changes were way too much and has ruined it for me. It was fine as it was, there was no reason to change it.

[zurecatherogue]

((1000 character limit))

This "fix" to keep people from AFK farming was the dumbest thing they could have done. Now players who get smacked by RNGesus suffer this penalty. It should be for people who get a DNF. EDIT: "Just did a race where I got hit by 2 bacchus waters by the time we got to the 2nd item box. My Stamina after they wore off was 17% 17!!!!! My choco has 4 star stamina and over 400 in stamina. Seriously Square enix? This was necessary? I LOVED choco racing and now I won't set foot in it again unless they do a hotfix or something. This is ridiculous.

[RobinRethiel]

The race itself is much worse than before and you really need a top class chocobo (and feed it well) to compete, because they just buffed the not so brutal items and skills and kept the old ones.

The NPC don't care about this, doesn't matter if you slow, enrage or drain their chocobos, they are seven anyway and have all much more stamina (and speed) than you.

Must be pretty discouraging for new racers or those who don't got a near perfect chocobo. But well, at least some more MGP and XP (as long as you don't get crushed to 8th place - does not happen to me very ofter maybe 1-2% of races, if harder race is chosen, but my chocobo is a 3 4 4 4 4 chocobo, partly fed with grade 2 food).

Don't really get, why they buffed some things, like slow to 10 secs (well, at least not crushing), Silence and Shock even more or this insane Stamina Drain buff for Bachuus (see post above). It seems like this should compensate other skill buffs, like 15% less stamina drain or 6/9/12% stamina regain and so on, but really: now you NEED those to have a chance.

[Nightshade1]

I agree 10,000%. Previous to the patch chocobo racing was fun, now every race it seems that frenzy is 3/4 of the chests... and MANY times I've found myself getting hit by 2 of them in the first leg and having 0 stamina left before I'm halfway through.

These changes were excessive and ill advised.

[zurecatherogue]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees how bad all of this was. Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for an increase in difficulty, because let's face it, it was kinda easy to get 1st place with a good consistency. These changes however were just overkill. I mean if it affected the NPCs, which it really doesn't seem to have, then it would be easier. They seem to have the same stamina pools though and accelerating doesn't seem to hurt them much like it does the player. I mean if you take such a drain from trying to accelerate, then you have to back off it to avoid just draining yourself to 0%, then the NPCs pass you like your sitting still, then you HAVE to drain yourself just to get back to where they are while they still have 30% left on the last straightaway.

[JubjubTubs]

Not that Jubs doesn't agree 100% that going from comet spam 1 out of every 5 races was terribly annoying and incredibly stupid... to this, where every single race is getting blasted by mass gravi/waters that both have been buffed is even worse than comet spam. Doesn't even feel playable any more. Went from 'you have to fit Dash or dont play' to 'you HAVE to fit heavy/frenzy resist Vs, or it won't be remotely fun to play'. It's unbearable. The increased STA drain on top of the buffed frenzy effect... it's absurd, even for STA spec'd chocobos. And then on top of this! The potion/tablet rate has obviously been dropped in favor of MASS gravi/waters. So now it's just a whole lot of '0.00-derpin' across the line, whoopy... how 'exciting'. Every... single.... race, instead of just those all too frequent comet-spam races prior to patch. SE... do you guys even test your adjustments or do you make us pay you to test your adjustment, and you don't fix the problems for 2-4 months?

more >>>

[JubjubTubs]

<<<

Here's what happened. Jubs expected to see more people doing racing after needed and welcomed MGP/xp buffs. Saw some... didn't stick around. And now see'ing vets walking away from racing. If your objective was to bury racing into the ground and create LESS interest than before... mission accomplished, SE. Food for thought... don't make us pay you to test your gameplay changes, k?

FYI - Jubs don't have Dash spec'd, this isn't a Dash rant. It's a 'You guys can't balance sht right' rant. From Frontlines to this... never fails.

[Aphel]

I don't know about you guys but this patch made almost every ability relevant now.

Abilities that remove Frenzy
Choco Esuna - Removal
Choco Calm - Removes and gives you a TON of stamina (drawback being that it can be used only once unless refreshed). I remember restoring 100 stamina was equivalent to 1 stamina potion (~9%), so Calm III basically recovers 2 stamina potions' worth (!)
Level Head - Prevents

Abilities that remove Heavy
Choco Esuna - Removal
Choco Ease - Removes and gives you a crapload of stamina
Heavy Resistance - Prevents

Boosting Grav + Frenzy also affected the importance of Choco Reflect, and Choco Steal. There's greater emphasis on what items you should be leaving behind for your competitors. If anything, there's more viable ways to build your Choco now than ever before. Build it defensive, build it offensive. Budget your stamina so that you have spare for a stray Frenzy. Now that players can't sprint all the way, there's more importance in stats like Acceleration/Endurance.

No, Head Start + Chocodash + W doesn't guarantee you a win now. If you intend to be in first place from start till end, you better pack a defensive cooldown of some sort.

There's a ton of variety brought into Chocobo racing and I like it.

Edit: Also if I'm not wrong, they really did lessen the probability of the first item being a beneficial (stamina/hero) item. So you can't sprint and pray anymore. A lot of players were doing this pre-patch and it was brainless and so hard to catch up. SE really did listen.

[Alexiell]

more variety is great, i also agree that its more interesting if we cant just sprint from beginning to end. however, what can i do when npcs also run with perma-sprint speed the whole race? maybe im too stupid but trying to prevent the lathered state makes me slow down so much that i might as well go afk XD. perma-sprint + hoping for good items simply worked much better for me :P but ill try it again, maybe it works better now.