What Happened To My Choco Digging?

I've recently returned to XI after a long break. I decided to do a little digging for old times sake and for some reason it's digging speed and item rate are horrible... I used to be max level, digging was my top source of income. So what happened? I use a rented Choco if that plays any part and even though I'm unsure if digging is still a good way to make gil I spent a small fortune getting that skill up to max.

It's still decent, but you'll need to wait until the new years event in order to maximize your profits. At max level without the Black Chocobo Suit, I was able to pull up 1-2 Heavy Metal Plates every day. With the suit it goes to like 2-6 (depending on moonphase, I think).

Spend the time until then raising a custom digging chocobo. Max Rec and Disc, with Burrow and Bore is what I went with.

But what happened to it's skill? Does it skill down or something over the years if you don't use em or has there been a complete overhaul of the digging system since i played (2010)? I used to be able to pull up elemental ores and now I can't even get a single item almost with horribly long delay between digs. Same account, same character just a new version of FF installed. It's like I'm back to scratch with my digging and I don't get why.

I haven't heard of any deterioration. I hit max level back in late 2004ish I think and dug pretty consistently until around the time abyssea came out. During that time I raised a digging bird. Last year (so maybe 4ish years of a break from digging?) I came back and noticed no difference. Last week I also dug after a year break and also noticed no difference.

If you once were able to pull ele ores up and can't dig back to back without a wait something is definitely up and I would suspect it is character specific.

After reading the above post I did a search on the black choco suit. Here is what it says in the comments:

"Adds the ability to dig for rare items"

However, this seems to have the hidden effect. "Chocobo rank reduced to zero"

When used in conjunction with a Veteran Rank Chocobo the digging accuracy is reduced to that of a beginner.

Probably only of use by Characters who have never Chocobo Dug before.

So maybe check and see what you are wearing when you dig to ensure you aren't wearing anything that might cause this to happen.

Thanks for the suggestion Barber, I tried digging naked and still got the same results. I guess I could contact customer support but I wonder if they'll even bother or be able to do anything about it.