Animator's Workshop: A Puppetmaster's Guide 2.0

I feel like Mana Converter went a little crazy in the last patch, although I didn't play with it too much. Maybe it was Optic Fiber II that did it?

Either way, my puppet wasn't converting today in the same way that he normally does.

I feel like something's wrong with strobe and strobe II, or flashbulb, with optic fiber II combined with them (OF I wasn't equipped so i could at least have auto repair kit III equipped). in WRK my automaton was consistantly losing hate to...well, everything. my trusts, other people... this might be normal on colcabb who has hate reset, but yumcax? he was losing hate to apururu for curing, shantotto for nuking... normally he holds hate so firmly that nothing short of death or certain tp moves, or an almace blu with a geo and cor can rip it off. <.<

I think that Yumcax does reset enmity, frequently.

OK, who complained that damage gauge II sucked? because it totally doesn't. the cure recast reduction is very noticable, especially paired with mana booster, optic fibers, and damage gauge I. my automaton was casting cures back to back... to back... to back... i counted 6 before he ran out of mp and i had to reactivate because it was kind of a panicky moment with deus ex automata. in fact, the problem seems to be a universal recast timer of 5 seconds between casts? regardless he heals far quicker now than he used to. I imagine a fast cast and cure potency set combined with this would really help him out.

granted he still curebombs, but it was an informal test and i was taking lots of damage so maybe that was just him freaking out. <.< in fact, he was casting cure V more than VI because cure VIs recast wasn't up for a couple cast, lol. I actually only had both damage gauges and optic fiber I equipped at first, and couldn't tell a difference between that and both fibers, but it's possible there is one and i didn't notice.

regardless with both gifts you could equip both damage gauges, both vivi valves, and optic fiber II. probably tactical processor would be good for this frame as well, as would power cooler.

What happens if you use a typeII animator with Harletank?
Automaton constantly moves to keep distance from NM who will follow Automaton because it goes hate producing an uneffective endless cycle of moving around.

Or does the automaton reach a spot where he's far enough from the nm and stops moving?
Asking because if it works it could be a good option to avoid TPing and hence WSing (breaking SCH SCs)

If the automaton has hate they don't try to run away.

So basically it would produce no result at all.
Well... if you're say tanking Teles with 2x Automatons, at least one of them could avoid TPing I guess?
Could it be "useful" in that situation?

Has anyone else noticed maneuvers giving them +7 stats now? I tried a few different animators, taking off optic fibers and putting them up while naked except for Divinator/P/Z. All gave +7 to stats. How long has this been like that?

Hidden effect I'm guessing?

When I get home later I'll grab a regular lv1 animator and see what happens.

By the way, how did the science go after I went to bed?

uh? pretty sure +7 to stats with maneuvers has been around for a looong time now. it actually goes up by +1 every... 15? levels? something like that.

Probs. I've literally never bothered to look at them. I haven't in years. I'm sure that I HAVE looked and just ignored that the number was different.

How does supertanking work with PUP in Ambuscade?
Take for instance the latest two fights, Intense and Normal.
Is PUP tank viable?

I'm not sure how it works with pets and zone-enmity etc.
Anybody tried? I'm curious, would love to test PUP in there.

Did it on VD regular because no tanks were around. It wasn't bad, but the adds were everywhere. The main Acrolith did pretty much no damage to my Automaton.

I'm just returning from 2010 and currently gearing up / JPing up, etc. One thing on the current to do list is Ohtas, and I'm curious what the easiest way to farm Plutons, Beitetsu, Riftborn Boulders solo on PUP is.

Any tips would be great.

I was doing Ouryu on Easy with little effort and got a Divinator(Right before they announced the P :(), but I assume one of the fights is probably easier on PUP.

If you're just returning, the best way to farm them would be to do something else entirely (Salvage, Dynamis, etc) and use the money to just buy them.

Agreed.

Best option is to buy the Plutons (or Riftborn Boulders, they're generally cheaper) so farm gil using other means like Salvage, or Dynamis.

Question... with all the recent changes, new animators, attachments, etc... what sort of frame/attachment loadouts are people using for DD puppets?

I've used tanking puppet a vast majority of the time in the past year, so I'm a little behind on optimal sets. And especially if people have figured out the changes we can make since Optical Fiber I+II (i.e. both Turbo Chargers and OFI+2 = capped haste with 1 wind/1 light?)


Yeah, this change was made ages ago... I actually remembered that it was the last version update before Abyssea, because it was part of a pretty significant PUPdate - the first time we got an increase in H2H skill (to B+, from C where it had been since job launch. March 2010 (!!!) update notes in case you're interested.


Also, buy Riftborn Boulders, they're cheaper than Pluton/Beitetsu (at least on my server, and I think that's the case everywhere - may want to double check). If you get some Plut/Beit, can sell them and put the funds toward Boulders.

As far as pure efficiency in acquiring plut/beit/boulder, agreed that buying em and earning money elsewhere is fastest. But worth noting that if you're after Rem's Tales anyway to 119 any JSE gear (for any jobs), you can kill two birds with one stone and do any Ch6-10 fight. For a newly returning PUP, you might find high tiers fairly difficult... but if you have any friends who are interested in doing any high tier fights, tag along! Plut/Beit show up in personal spoils, and you can get chapters and maybe some gear out of it. Tenzen is one that I know a lot of people still spam, because it's a fast zerg = for quick gil from the upgrade items. Also drops a couple of still very useful items (Ginsen, MB neck).

"Newly returned" = About 2 months, so while I'm not super geared or anything, I have some gear. Some Hercs, Some Taeon, etc.

I've definitely done some Dynamis for money, but I was just trying to do some high tier solo for funsies, and to get used to doing more challenging things solo. I was able to get Ouryu down to about 50% solo, but then he hit me really hard. He's kind of a pain due to the flying, but I was hoping for some ideas of other targets.

So people in my LS are trying to get me to level PUP to help tank some T4s when we get there as I currently main tank things on RUN.

Could anyone post some up to date Gear Sets for PUP tanking or is it still Awing Salade, Rao and Taeon(With DT/Magic Eva and Regen Augs for Pet) gear?

Same ***. We don't get new gear.

I've got ~1300JP and would like to try and cap them out during the next week solo on Apex Eruca - what attachments and maneuver setups are optimal for the puppet for this with the new ones available, assuming I use a tank puppet and VE/VE for KKK Pummel -> Shredder Darkness chains?

For solo CP? I wouldn't use a "tank" puppet, I'd just use a trust tank and equip the automaton for full DD. With KKK and Speedloader, using VE means that basically any Stringing Pummel will result in the puppet closing darkness (assuming the puppet gains TP near your own rate, which it should be able to do no problem).

In this kind of situation, I'd run a constant wind/thunder/light maneuver setup and equip the automaton with something like:

Optic Fiber I&II
Auto-Repair Kit IV
Turbo Charger I&II
Stabilizer IV
Target Marker (though maybe could replace with a Coiler II)
Inhibitor I&II (for the Store TP)
Speedloader II (for the improved SC logic and some extra damage)

Toss whatever on for the last 2 slots. Speeloader I, Tension Spring IV, maybe an Armor Plate IV or something if you're finding the puppet taking too much damage (seems not terribly likely), etc.

For gear, I generally find the puppet still keeps up adequately even without capped gear haste, and if you're using KKK + a CP back, you're very likely not capping gear haste. Without CP back I currently like to run 21% automaton haste (Ambuscade cape + Klouskap Sash + Thurandaut Ring) in my "hybrid" set and otherwise gear for master, but you could maybe also toss on a Rimeice Earring or something. I don't really feel like stuff like haste+5% Taeon pieces are worth the loss to the master, and the puppet seems to keep up fine without it. Even at only 11% haste from my set with a CP mantle equipped, I've found the puppet does fine keeping up with very little waiting for it to have TP to finish my SCs.

Obviously for non-KKK PUP things are a little different and you can also get 10% pet haste out of Ohtas, though for KKK the master+puppet OA2-3x from AM3 is fine to make up for the haste loss. Non-KKK PUP may also be more interested in trying Sharpshot puppet too though, and going V.Smite > Armor Piercer (?) for light.

Of course, you'll get way faster CP in a party with SC+MB setup. Either pet tanking, or master DDing as part of a SC (in which case you prob want to use a different puppet, I actually kinda liked WHM for some healing support to free up backline jobs to do more nuking if you don't have a dedicated WHM).

So I just got Pup to 99 and 100JP. Having a blast with it.

I have a question about gearing and stat weights for the puppet.

Empy Legs have all Combat Skills +. Is Skill + better or equal to straight accuracy/attack. I have Naga Hakama currently with Acc/RAcc+ 20. Would the Empy legs beat this?

Thanks for any help.

Skill is 1:1 for attack, and roughly 1 skill = 0.9 acc (varies a bit by total skill level, from 0.8-1.0). It's more or less something you can think of as nearly 1:1 for most comparison purposes.

So Empy+1 and Naga legs are pretty close to each other from a puppet-only melee physical DD perspective, with Empy just slightly better... But Empy+1 legs are a MUCH better overall choice if you're planning to also punch things with your own fists alongside your puppet, since they have considerably better master stats.

The only piece of Naga gear I feel has a place any more are the hands - D path are very solid nuking gear with Macc/MAB+20, which can be beaten by Herculean Gloves with pet augments but that's gonna require some effort and luck. Of course, pet nuking is a pretty niche thing for PUP, so YMMV on whether it's even worth bothering with nuke sets...

As for general gearing strategies with master+puppet, usually when you're in a DD role it's best to focus more on master stats, and use attachments to buff the puppet. You'll need the accuracy and multi-attack more than your puppet will, and your overall damage split is going to be skewed more toward master over puppet. The one puppet stat that holds some importance in gearing for is pet haste, which you can get a lot of from a small number of pieces to try to hit 25% gear haste cap. For example, can cap pet haste in just 3 pieces: Ohtas (10%), Visucius's Mantle (10%), and a haste belt (Klouskap 8%, Hurch'lan 5%) - all of which also have very good master stats. In the case of Ohtas, it's your best non RMEA weapon anyway, Visucius with pet haste is 2nd only to a 100% master focused Visucius, and the haste/acc belts are pretty solid gear.

Analysis may change a bit if you're ever doing something where ONLY the puppet is meleeing for DD purposes (i.e. not tanking) and you're standing back. In that case, yeah just gear all out for puppet stats. But that's quite rare and in most situations where your puppet DDs stuff, you should be punching it too.

Actually doing this right now.

1) Use rng pet (head and body)
2) Use a trust tank, i use amchuchu, apururu, shant 2, koru, and ulmia
3)crawlers are strong to fire, but oddly enough that doesnt affect light skill chain dmg or shantoto2 dmg
4) rng does about double the dmg of ve/ve , ws for about 6k, skill chains for about 10k, ve is 3k ws, 4-5k skill chain

Your goal is to do vs -> armor shatter -> light, let shantoto burst 2-3 times, then repeat. Shantoto will burst for about 6k , on light or dark.

Attachment wise, i use a very different load out.

Fire/wind/light maneuver

Optic Fiber I & II
Auto-Repair Kit IV
Turbo Charger I &II
Coiler 1 & 2
Inhib 2
Speedloader 1 & 2 (for the improved SC logic and some extra damage)
ten spring 4

at 1200 jp, you should have over 1100 acc for you and pet, so no need for any acc attachments. I dnt even use food and sit at 95% acc

Sooo I'm curious, which setup did you use exactely to get >70k MBs on Apex mobs?
On crabs in Dho Gates I was getting like 25-30k max with food, the few times I was lucky enough to have him cast the right spell. Most of the time he was going with Thunder V despite SC being Darkness and double Amplifier.

Now my gear ain't nowhere near stellar of course but I can't see that being the only problem.

I'm likely using a wrong combination of attachments? Here's what I was using.
My lolgear during nukes has roughly the following pet stats:
Skill +43
Macc +62
Mab +83
INT +35

Plus the stats from Animator P and Food (was using macc one)
How can I make this build viable and take the place of a BLM? At least of a pug-level, awful BLM?

I'll only comment on this bit.

Amplifier only ACTUALLY triggers when a scan happens. It's like every 2.45 seconds or some ***I think. What happens is that if you deploy an Automaton while it has MP and is in range is that it's going to cast it's default spell. If you're using Ice Manevuers, it's going to be it's strongest nuke. If you are lucky, the piece of ***will scan at the same time you deploy and Amplifier will trigger and cast the right goddamn spell. But more often than not his scan will go off after he decides to cast Thunder, basically wasting those Ice Maker maneuvers. Tactical Processor helps, but that's dumb and unreliable also.

As shitty as it is, your best bet is to just make a light chain, burst thunder, deactivate, reactive, triple ice, go again.

Yeah noticed the Light SC vs Dark SC thing.
Alas everybody wants to make Darkness (honestly Light and Thunder works wonders on Crabs!)

But what was wrong in my other setup?
I bet some bad attachments combinations?
My gear ain't the best but it ain't supreme ***either? Why was damage so low?
What were people getting 70k+ using to reach such high values?


As it stands now even if I were to use Light SC in my party, damage would still be utter ***and unviable.