Is it time for a pass at companions?

[Jojoya]

Look, I understand what companions are and what they were intended to be. That being said, the bird is STUPID. Literally, Im playing a tank, bird is healer and is literally up my bum the entire time. Makes no sense to stand in front of the mob I'm tanking....0

Can we at least have a place feature (like you have with pets) so we can place our companion elsewhere while playing a melee range class?

or at least upgrade their AI to match trust NPC AI (if that's even if possible) and only if they are actually dodging stuff and not moving in a script

if we cant have either of the two, can we have a different range setting for when the companion is on healer mode? at least 3-6x the current distance? An optional setting? for the love of god, I cant take it

I agree that it's silly for a chocobo in Healer stance to always be right next to us when they don't have a problem with healing at a distance when in Free stance. They should remain in one place once combat starts unless we move out of range and they need to get closer.

It's also pretty silly that they'll stop healing us just because we're slightly higher or slightly lower in elevation (no line of sight issue) but if we stand right on top of them they'll go back to spam healing.

An improvement to the AI would be welcome. At the very least if it's supposed to be following me, have it stop casting to move when I move.

Can't you get your chocobo out of the AoE with the follow command? I mean, it's a PITA but it's there. Genuine question since I've never really tried and don't use the chocobo as often as I should.

I agree it would be better if the chocobo could behave more autonomously like the trusts do, though.

There's a bit of a delay before it obeys a follow command when it's too close to you (which it always is during Healer Stance).

The one advantage is that they do take greatly reduced damage taken from AoEs in most cases. The real problem is the status effects some of those AoEs apply (like the ones from Bad Breath). I can be in a Morbol's face when it starts casting, immediately move to the far side to avoid it and my chocobo will still be sitting there trying to decide if it should also move if it's in Healer Stance.