Animator's Workshop: A Puppetmaster's Guide 2.0

What kind of gear/attachments are you using solo?

I'd like to point out a problem with the guide part.

The RNG frame setup they have posted under the 0JP part isn't possible without 100 JP. The attachment values for their set up is too high for it.
Light - Optic Fiber(1) Optic Fiber II (2) Auto-Repair Kit II (3) = 6/5
Earth - Armor Plate IV (5) = 5/4
Wind - Drum Magazine (2) Turbo Charger (2) Turbo Charger II (3) = 7/6

The rest of them are at or under the elemental values for attachments.

Well my phone ate the last post. I'll fix when I get home. Unless anyone else wants to. It is a community guide

How does Tank PUP prevent the PUP from wsing and killing SCH skillchains? I saw the post/discussion on it once but having a hard time finding it.

This is kind of a problem sometimes, especially on less evasive content and with puppet getting continually better due to newer stuff like Visucius's Mantle level+1 or stronger base stats from Animator P.

But, the best tips are:

1) Remember you can use Tactical Switch to steal your pet's TP when it's nearing 1000 and a SC is imminent. Then you can zero out your own TP with a quick weapon unequip/swap. Obviously the downside is that this relies on a JA with a 3min timer, so it's not always up.

2) If you're tanking in a heavily SC-dependent setup, try to be conscious not to unnecessarily gear (or use attachments) in a way that will help puppet TP generation. As in, avoid acc, store TP, double attack, haste, etc.

This is actually one reason that more often than not I tend to use Taeon 4/5 (with DT-4%, Regen+3, and Meva+20~25) over Rao and its DT-/Acc/HP combo.

3) Speedloaders CAN help avoid killing SCs, but aren't 100% reliable. Generally, the puppet will attempt to wait until the last second of the SC window to close a SC with Speedloaders equipped, and will often even be helpful by following a SCH SC with a multi-step Lv.3 Light/Dark for further bursting. But while the puppet AI is smart enough to use this good timing more often than not, it does still screw up some SCs and make your SCH hate you a little bit. And if your alliance mates are trying a multi-step SC... yeah, your puppet's gonna screw that up.

4) If all else fails... have a warning macro ready for when you know an important SC is coming soon but your pet is nearing 1000tp. "HOLD WS, STUPID PUPPET IS GONNA MESS UP YOUR SC", that sort of thing...

Realistically, it's not usually going to be a big issue on stuff like Escha T3+ content or 135 UNMs since TP gain is slow enough that you can handle most stuff with Tactical Switch and maybe only occasionally have a puppet messing up a SC. But certain less evasive mobs or lower level content (say, Ru'Aun T2s or lower) can be a real struggle to keep from gaining TP too quickly no matter what. I guess the saving grace is that this stuff isn't really so hard as to make it a win-killing mistake, just might waste an occasional SC. On the really hard content, your pet will struggle to get TP fast enough to outpace your Tactical Switch timer anyway.

Dev comments several months back (like... some time in the Spring of 2016 IIRC) mentioned they might consider future automaton changes to help alleviate this problem. That was before Speedloaders, which kind of help at least sometimes, but I'm still holding out a little hope that they might remember to revisit this. Honestly, even a simple change like reducing the Tactical Switch cooldown time would be a huge help. As of course would something like an attachment that prevents WS usage.

? why arent you just using an inhibitor, then having over 800 tp yourself? if you do that, the automaton thinks you're going to ws soon and simply holds tp until you ws or go below 800. i'm not sure if this applies if you have speedloaders as well (as it might decide to sc with other party members) but as far as i know, inhibitor and 800+ tp on the master stops the automaton from wsing completely until you do something to change it.

and if you're trying to avoid the auto wsing you probably wouldn't need speedloaders anyways. :p

The Inhibitor trick is cool but from my experience doesn't work perfectly.
What you say is true but, even if with a lower priority, an Automaton with Inhibitor will try to SC even with other source of potential "open" SC.

It happens less often when master is above 800, but sometimes it still happens.
Or at least this used to be the case long time ago way before speedloaders got added, not entirely sure this is still the case.

When I last tried it several months ago my Automaton would occasionally try to SC with SCH or other melees even when my TP was >800.

Second this. Tried using Inhibitor recently on Onychophora and the automaton SC with Sch every time it hit 1k TP with master above 800.

Inhibitor certainly doesn't work reliably, the puppet will usually still try to close SCH SCs even if the master does have TP.

And Inhibitor even makes the problem worse, since it gives store TP to the puppet (I really, really, really wish they would just change the Inhibitor to be a Store TP attachment, with no WS logic at all - especially since we now have much better SC logic attachments with Speedloaders)


Well, the point is that the puppet is sometimes going to get TP anyway, even if you're trying not to. Speedloaders make it wait until the end of the SC window to close a chain, meaning that your SCH can get their whole chain in before the automaton jumps all over it... and then the puppet will try to follow the SCH SC with a multi-step lv.2/3 SC (which can actually be pretty useful). The problem is that it's still not completely reliable and you are still going to end up with some ruined SCH SCs. It works frequently, but the margin for error is still too high for my liking (especially if you're using only one SCH, strategems are way too precious to be letting the auto kill even a couple of SCs in a fight).

If only we had direct control of when autos cast spells WS and use JAs /dreams

This is wrong, as other people have pointed out. Having over 800tp only stops the Automaton from using a weaponskill freely after it has 1k tp. If the master has 800tp, the Automaton will ONLY weaponskill to make a skillchain.

Skillchain elements are actually a debuff(basically) on the target, they have absolutely nothing to do with the player other than that they inflict it. The automaton reads whatever debuff the target has on it, and if it has a weapon skill that will chain and make a skillchain, it uses that. The importance of that is that 800tp doesn't tell the Automaton to not skillchain unless the master does, it tells the automaton to only use a weaponskill that will result in a skillchain.

Has anyone given kite tanking this a go yet?

What is this? The current months Ambuscade? You could probably do it, but it wouldn't be very easy and there isn't any particular reason to do it.

our pet has extra really super omega bad emnity. At best you would need to wait for 1 voke, 1 flash bulb before you start the kite. That our use heady artifice with 20/20 jp in it. But if your gonna burn a SP, you might as well solo VD and use rng head so you can use might strikes with overdrive.


I dont really see /blu being a good option either. Since you would need to steal hate then feed it. and you dont want to peel hate and have it in rane.

I say that because the kiting method seems to cancel out the quenching hammer ability which has done quite a bit of damage to many a automaton.

My only concern about kiting is -ga spells and lack of DD from automaton contributing to hate management.

On Asura, PLD or RUN kiting with a BLU/BLM for Subduction seems to be the preferred method while all the DD just burn the hell out of it. Fights seem to take a minute average.

Dustin, I'm thinking you mean Harlequin head - which is my preferred setup. My concern is the limited amount of consistent runs due to using 1 hr. abilities vs. the benefit of going 6/6 for higher gallantry and not expending 1 hr.

I presume you mean the spells hitting the master? That's the first major drawback to kiting, the puppet is right behind you. The second is that you have to get into Hammer range to redeploy to use provoke and flash... Wait a minute!

OH snap, I think I have your solution for you. It's pretty simple, actually.

Way back when I suggested using /BLU to build enmity on the master, then to dump it onto the Automaton. Honestly, it was somewhat effective. But in a situation where the tank isn't going to get hit, it doesn't matter that much. So instead of the way we originally used it, we're going to do the reverse.

If you are properly geared and job pointed, you can drop a full strength Provoke, then a Flash and have some solid enmity. Because the Puppetmaster needs to no buffs, it's actually sort of ideal to, at the very start of the fight, build three fire and deploy. Change one to light to activate Flashbulb and get some more hate. Once your gravity mage pops that off, use Ventriloquy. Retrieve your puppet and start kiting.

Make sure lockstyle is off so you can blink out through JAs. Rune Fencer has the best JAs for generating enmity. If you get to the point where Ventriloquy is up again, just pop it again for another boost to your enmity. It doesn't really matter if the master of the puppet has hate.

Right, I don't want to get destroyed by spells intended for my automaton. Not something an initial role reversal can't handle of course.

So ultimately it's the opposite of how I tanked the gnole, I assume I would also need to get a flash off from myself before I'm fully in kite mode.

Last month I would provoke > vent > 3x fire provoke > flash etc etc.
That was a learning month for tanking melee parties.

Haven't kept up to date my pup in a while, what is the ranking of 119 animators?

P+1>P>Div>Z

Thank you.

Tru, would you mind sharing (in a bit more detail) you're general strategy for this run? For example, what's the attachment setup you used on your puppet? Also, did you stay in a full pet DT setup the whole fight or did you switch to a DD setup at any point? Additionally, what sets do you think are required in order to successfully pull this off? I took a look at your AH profile, but I think most of the PUP sets you have listed on there are from pre-ambuscade era.

Apologies in advance if you already did a detailed write up of your solo somewhere else. Please feel free to link me to if this is the case! Thanks!

I solo it as well on a regular basis (3-4 times a day).

I typically stay in full -DT gear (rao x3, anwig, pirtre body+1).
Domesticator earring
rimice earing
SoA pet ring
vrar ring
isa belt
ambuscade cape (pet haste/acc/atk)

basically the pet - dt set here (i just dont have rao body or shepeard chain), and i havent made a taeon tanking body yet.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Puppetmaster!_A_Community_Collaborative_Guide

For the pet i use the set listed at the bottom for Ambuscade Tank _ Frog. You either go ve/ve or ve/rng.


Few notes, pet wont hold agro without overdrive up. Run in with water/fire/light and 1k tp. Deploy and run >40 away. Activate over drive. Use dawn mulsums during chain spell/q hammer as needed. With analyzer, once chain spell ends each q hammer does barely half its hp, and it should regen to full without anything else.

i use akamochi, and typical dont switch out of tank set. I wouldnt recomend it until after chain spell, then you can switch to pet dd set as desired.

Without strobe/flash bulb its a kiting fight and a pain in the butt, but with overdrive you can use an extra dd attachment to speed it up. Usually dies with 40 seconds left on over drive.

Thanks very much Dustin! Going to give it a shot this evening.

Looks like they are beefing up H2H so we dont suck as much!

I dunno, H2H damage seemed alright to me, the problem was more in the H2H WSs rather than the H2H damage itself, or am I wrong?

Well yes, non ws dm is pretty okay, but i assume their post ment WS as well. Why beef up just auto attack and not weapon skills?

Adjusting H2H DMG calculations so that they are on par with other 2hd weapons(which they basically are) will fix the WS issue while also providing a metric shitton increase in auto attack damage. Might be time for me to actually start punching things again on PUP.

now if only pup got smite