Animator's Workshop: A Puppetmaster's Guide 2.0

Ouch. Well i pretty much suspected that. For SR are you going SS/VE or SS/HQ? It's a bit hard to go against Teodor on SS/HQ due to his endispel.

SS/VE. Nothing outside of August's 1-hit 9999 damage move, the stupid *** shark or tree using doom should pose any threat at all to your puppet.

Palloritus is fine with a melee strategy. But yeah, PUP is useless for Putraxia/Rancibus.

On a different note... Abjuration gear update made the PUP WS gear that was already good even stronger. At a quick glance, a few notable NQ pieces:
* Rao Kabuto (NQ) got another STR+5 Acc+13 Crit+1%
* Rao Haidate (NQ) got an extra STR+5 Atk+13 STP+2
* Ryuo Sune-Ate (NQ) got another STR+5 Atk+7

The Ryuo head we discussed last page got... not really a great boost, Acc+5. Which is something, but still lacks the good stuff like TA and/or Crit from Taeon or Herc.

So now that we know this wasn't going to be the end-all, be all of the game after the last update, any chance of taking over/making a new and updated guide. I really love the setup the blu guide has, differentiating the different sets in tiers for us not-so-lucky pups, both with master and auto gear.

I'm pretty good with math, but i don't know much about the statistical aspect of game calculations, let alone all the gear that constantly is coming out or I'd help out as much as I could, but there seems to be enough people who do know a lot more about it than I do, and honestly, having a new thread (or just taking over the gear section of this one would be ideal). Just saying "Hey, you need this gear, this gear, and this gear and you'll /pwn the game" is great and all.... but... yeeeeeah.

Also, no pet LS's (to my knowledge) on Cerb, so that doesn't really help much.

So as it stands, I'm still in process of getting gear for my -(M/P)DT sets. due to lack of not being a bst, geo, brd, blu, or various others, my JP is lacking at around 200 JP. Depressing, I know.

I've asked before and didn't really get much of a response that helped, so I'll reach out again.

I'm trying to find at this point some middle of the road gear that I can eventually upgrade as I can. I'm basically wearing full taeon that serves towards full auto damage/acc.

My PST set is pretty nice, so im not worried much on that, MDT set is lacking. Hard.

I practically have no SP gear swap. I TP in full taeon..

Long story short: I'm severely behind and due to lack of, well, anything, I cant really accomplish much. Some gear sets would be awesome as I continue my journey to become the very best, like every other pup ever was.. <dun dun, dundun>...

Oh, I also do have Rao head, hands and feet, all C15.

Master/Auto TP Gear is follows: (Yes, I know hybrid sets are not that great. Gil is an issue ><)
-Ohrmazd (DMG+17, Pet PDT -3 [changing due to Fey -5DT], Pet R/Atk +11)
-Taeon head: (Tri. atk +2,Pet Mag Acc+4, Haste +5)
-Neck: Asperity Neck
-Earrings: Steelflash/Bladeborn
-Taeon body: Str+6, Tri Atk+1, Pet R/Acc +23
-Taeon hand: Tri atk +2, Pet R/Acc+23
-Rings: Epona/Rajas
-Back: Dispersal Str+1, Dex +2. MA +18, Pet TP bonus +480
-Belt: Windbuffet
-Taeon legs: Tri Atk +2, Pet R/Acc +7
-Taeon feet: Tri Atk +2, R/Acc + 24

Pretty much my shitty WS Set also. :\

Any help would be appreciated. I want to really become better, and I'm struggling due to lack of help/ability to do much of anything.

Thanks in advance.

I'm not sure what you trying to ask, but if you want to improve your PUP to be fun and usefull to play i would suggest the following:
Get 1200JP asap, that is a game changer for PUP tanking.
Until you get that, you can safely tank Apex mobs for CP, with Campaign going you'll be getting 30K-50k CP per kill in MB party, that is at least 50jp/h depending on setup. Apex mobs require quite a bit of accuracy at least 1100 iirc. So i suggest you leave pet for only tanking and SC with trust or other PT member. Joahim recomended or COR/GEO.
For NM battles to get clear you can contribute by tanking, but your options are limited until you get 1200jp. Or by doing DD. Alot of mobs have nasty AE so you can either use ranged puppet or melee frame wich is quite good at surviving that. For that you will need Pet Acc/Haste/DA. In my opinion it is better to augment Taeon set ether to TP for master or Pet DT or combination of both since only Taeon and Rao+1 allow you to get -4%dt per piece.
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/340112 that is my pet DT- set, with Rao to PathC and Taeon for -4%dt.

It's a lot to go into. If noone else has posted by the morning time when I wake up, I'll come back and edit this post to try and give some reasonable changes to your gear, Jiko. Too bad you aren't on Quetz :/ I could give you some real help if you were.

@Gorath: As far as the set goes, Im only missing Rao legs, Isa belt (people dont seem to want to do that delve...), and the SoA ring. Im definitely doing the best I can with JP, but its extremely slow going as nobody wants a pup in their parties on Cerb. I've tried :\

@Tru: If it wasnt for the friends I have here, I'd transfer in a heartbeat. a lot of the people i play with, i've played with for years, so just up and leaving them would be selfish of me.

I really do appreciate all your help with this. I know its dumb of me, cause I should know what I'm doing by now gear wise. I know its a lot of time to go through and I wish there was something I could do to repay you for your guys help :(

Anyone knows who drops this? http://www.ffxiah.com/item/20507/comeuppances

This does

And to be clear: that's the UNM version of Pandemonium Warden, so it's quite a challenge! The H2H use the old Shenlong's Baghnaks model, so it's a fittingly difficult task to get the current ones, just like 75cap it was really tough to get the PW H2H (though the UNM stuff is certainly easier than 75cap PW).

Silly question, I've been working on JPs practically solo the entire time, around 210 or so atm. Whats the top 3 abilities I should be focusing on? I was doing martial arts, overdrive and heavy artifice; wondering if there was something else I should be focusing on more.

Thanks in advance.

Just curious if there's any specific merit fight that has a higher % on Divinator or are they all about the same? Getting extremely tired of doing these (up to 0/90ish) and not seeing crap. Highest I can do is normal solo, so I either come thf or use Lion for TH. Tried to get people for D/VD but could only get 1 person.

About 30? or so tries ago, SE did the cruel joke of having Divinator drop... Divinator II -.- Really?

Divine Might II is the only HTMB that has a higher drop rate for Div1-2 and Seraphicaller. We usually get 2-3 of those per run.

Meh, guess I'll stick to soloing then lol If I can't even get ~5 others for any other fight, I doubt I can get 6+ for DMII


Edit: 0/117, I give up, done with this bs, I'm sick of these bcnms, divinator just won't drop and NA/EU on Siren is pretty much dead of people doing anything so it's impossible to find people for D/VD to actually get the drop -.- I don't mind a grind, but this is ridiculous.

Might be time to retire pup. First time having to do that since 06, seeing as an i115 automaton is really hurting when trying to do things lately, not to mention the other problem of no one doing anything, so anything from Escha t2 (can't even finish t1s in zi'tah, stupid tiger/taurus) to Rao gear and beyond is just unobtainable for me. Better h2h than ohtas? LOL not happening. Divinator? Nope. Acc gear? Nah. Pet dt/pdt-? ...

Never before in 11 years of XI have I had this much trouble doing anything and it's not even due to a lack of people, it's just no one's doing anything / interested in doing anything. XI just feels horrible atm. Took a break? Good luck getting anything done! The rare times something actually does happen, all my jobs are utterly useless in it, due to not being able to get delve/escha/etc gear so I don't do worthless dmg. Vagary? Oh, you want me blm? Ok sure, I'll just do a 200 t5 mb... Bst you say? How about missing every single ws when unleash is up or just doing craptastic 100-300 dmg. Sad part is, they're not even completely gimp, mostly 115-119 stuff, no spark gear. Still can't do crap.

/rant

For non-Kenkonken PUPs, Martial Arts is easily the best JP and will make a huge difference in your DPS any time you punch things.

With an additional MA+45 (20x2 from JP, and 5 from 550JP Gift), getting capped magical haste, and using no MA gear, you'll be somewhere from right around capped delay reduction on a delay+96 weapon to slightly under on the lower delay options. If you're ever not getting capped magical haste, you're not going to reach delay reduction cap without KKK.

Adding more MA once you're capped does reduce TP/hit. If you're barely over it's insignificant, but it does matter if you're substantially over. That's why Kenkonken, which has a whopping MA-50 on the weapon, changes the discussion (basically, you probably want something less than capped magical haste if using KKK).

Aside from MA... I kinda like Repair (making Repair give MP to automaton in addition to HP). Can be pretty useful for mage puppets, including Harle/Soulsoother tank. Overdrive's not bad either.

EDIT 12/30: or for pet tanking, Automaton HP is good both for general survival and for enmity retention (lower CE loss), plus additional regen from higher HP (ARK regen amount based on % of total HP).

So path A is best for rawhide vest for TP correct?

Path D, for more Triple Attack. A makes for a solid WS piece though.

Is it better to augment it for tp or ws?

For prioritizing, choose Path D/TP body first. For WS it's still a rather close call between them (path A STR+7/DEX+10 versus path D TA+2% - A probably wins most situations, but it's close). For TP, D is significantly superior. Plus, even with all things being equal it's almost always preferable to generate TP faster and have more WS frequency than to have modestly stronger WS average.

Honestly though, if it's not that hard for you to get, a second Rawhide Vest on path A is useful too. Less so for PUP using STR WS with Pummel/Smite than some other jobs (like BLU for an extra DEX+10 on Chant du Cygne), but still a nice tool.

Also notable that Rawhide Vest holds up very well even considering Sky/Reisenjima armor which is a lot harder to get.

* NQ Ryuo and Rao bodies are both very good for Smite/Pummel too, but no better than sidegrades and arguably slightly worse at least situationally (e.g. Ryuo has more Acc and crit+4%, but loss of TA+2% on Rawhide). And significantly harder to get.

* Herculean Vest with really good augments is potentially better for either TP or WS applications, but it requires the major challenge of beating Reisenjima T3 mobs. And augments really need to be good:

- Rawhide A: STR+37 DEX+45 Acc+15 Atk+15 TA+2%
- Rawhide D: STR+30 DEX+35 Acc+15 Atk+15 TA+4%
- Herculean (base): STR+28 DEX+34 Acc+15 Stp+3 Crit+3%

Herc would need Acc and a nice TA augment (probably at least TA+3) to win for TP. And you'd mainly be looking for STR and WS Damage for WS. Rawhide's still arguably next best choice for either TP or WS.

If anyone else knows a different body I'm overlooking, feel free to chime in.

With the current state of PUP's best role being a tank, I often find myself using /WHM. Nothing else really does helps a ton on the backlines, so /WHM provides several little perks:
* -na/erase on party members
* Occasional cures
* SS/Blink for some personal security
* Reraise/Raise
* Um... Tele to Reisenjima, and Snk/Invis?

Anyway, as I was sitting around contemplating life while Pamama tanked NMs last night I started thinking about optimizing my cure set! And here's the set I came up with.

Has capped (50%) cure potency (set below is actually over cap at 54%) and 29% cure potency received (cap of 30%, which could be done with another Taeon piece but I don't find that worth the inventory). Potency+79% self-cures!

Yes, you could optimize for stronger cures on others by using as much MND and Healing Skill as possible, but honestly, capped potency is enough optimizing for me personally :)

ItemSet 341124
Augs: Taeon Chapeau has cure potency received +7% (Leaf augment)

Some alternatives:
Weapon: Iridal/Chatoyant Staff (pot+10%, but I don't really love swapping weapon)
Body: Heka's Kalasiris (pot+15%, refresh, sphere: refresh)
Ring: Janniston (Cure pot II+5% for cap of 55%, if you happen to have this because you chose SoA reward for WHM)
Ring: Lebeche (pot+3%, quick magic+2%)
Back: Oretania+1 (pot+6%), Solemnity (pot+7% and DT-4%), NQ Tempered/Oretania (pot+4%)
Feet: Skaoi Boots (pot+7%, but comes from a Reisenjima HELM NM so not the easiest to obtain), Taeon Boots (potency received up to 7%)

Yes, I know this is a very niche set that you may not find worth the inventory space if you're not constantly on PUP/WHM, and that's fine. For me, I'm actually on /WHM a ton these days in lowman stuff where it's arguably kinda useful (and I also use most of this gear in my BLU cure sets anyway), so thought I'd share!

Also, if you're in a fight against a truly deadly mob where there's legitimate risk of your puppet getting hit hard you might want to refrain from swapping out of pet tanking gear. But for most stuff, an occasional quick swap into curing set isn't gonna be very significant.

PUP/WHM is my fav too, PUP surprisingly can get decent gear refresh and using Role Reversal is a free and extra heal for autos, so you'd want to cure yourself after that anyway.

If you're just looking at Stringing Pummel and Victory Smite, Abnoba Kaftan is what I use. My spreadsheet has it a bit ahead of Rawhide A and a tiny bit ahead of Ryuo +1. Rawhide A is still really nice and works for more jobs though, plus it's easier to get.

Good call. Yeah, Abnoba is indeed nice. Also a much bigger challenge to get from a T3 Escha-Ru'Aun mob, so plan accordingly. Rawhide still holds up very well especially considering the ease of acquisition though.

If whatever you are fighting doesn't dispel and you don't already have either a scholar or Red/White mage/scholar, /sch is pretty ideal. Protect and Shell II means you can use your full enmity build against more ***. If you have trusts, you can even cure/na the puppet.

Unfortunately our Yagrush WHM got banned, but if you want to see some silly ***, A PUP tank with a Yag WHM behind it is neigh unstoppable. Right now anyway. Immune to death/charm AND you can cursna it? Telling mechanics to go *** themselves.

I'm not too familiar with /SCH, can you expand on how this works? I assume you mean something about how accession (or Yagrush) currently interacts with pets/trusts, but not really sure of details. I vaguely recall hearing what sound like accession bugs to allow you to hit automaton, but never really played with them (and surely those will get fixed some time... right? XD Then again they just figured out Flashbulb was "not working as intended" quite recently!)

For cure/na, you'd still need someone in range to AoE the spell off of, right? Nice when possible, but many of my situations it's only the puppet up close, and a lot of backline mages/support. Though perhaps some stuff like Escha lowman NMs with a couple friends and a couple trusts. Would something like Brygid be particularly good for this if you have available trust slots, seeing as how she can't die?

Also, by "full enmity build" what exactly do you mean? Free you up to use more fire maneuvers and maybe use Enm+5 feet (which otherwise kinda blow). I already use both Enm+ earrings, and I'm guessing that's not too uncommon, and most of the time I'm already able to roll 2 fire manuevers. But maybe slip in 3x fire from time to time with pro/shell, or relying more on repair, etc.

I guess /SCH storm benefits would also potentially help your mages too. So that's something, and even with a real SCH in party or others going /SCH, if you can help put storms up it would free them up to do other stuff.

And at any rate, for any /mage sub the cure potency sets above still apply. Quite attainable to make a capped potency set for PUP/mage these days for whenever you might be tossing out a cure.

Hmm - Feb update notes:

Puppetmaster
・Adjustments to repair
・Adjustments to the range in which abilities can be used

Sounds like bst masters 'fix'.

Repair/maneuver/tactical switch/ventril from 10 yalm away incoming!

No surprise.

Nobody is safe from the nerf cannon after someone whines about something they disagree with~

As our bst cousins suffered so :\

A range change will matter 0% to most anything you do on PUP. If Repair's potency is lowered, it will be annoying but that's whatever. I VERY rarely use Repair anyway.

We already use Beastmasters in everything, and with stoneskin/blink/whatever you can survive long enough to pop in, use a maneuver, retreat. It'll still be the same thing. Every five minutes you'll have to actually do something. Much better than BST's every 10-20 seconds. Probably won't even have to reapply maneuvers more than once for the majority of fights.

Sucks though, Role Reversal from the other side of the planet is always fun.