Animator's Workshop: A Puppetmaster's Guide 2.0

does this apply only when auto is out and engaged on a mob, or just activated period (Standing around)?

This only effect duration, not potency? - only having three of the same ele maneuvers up would increase potency?

Only when engaged. Just being out would be waaaaaaaaaaaay too easy.

Yes only duration. Not sure what you mean by potency there really. Each maneuver adds so much base stats and attachments have specific values given based on number of that maneuver

Well duh but that's a heck of a lot extra regen. Yes the initial boost is nice and the main point but even say rao+1 that translates into about 60 extra hp (note this is assuming only 20% hp bonus from frame/arks could be a tad more or less) while say the repair 8 augment listed on for herc would be 128 over the course of the 2 minutes and would actually recover more before repair is even back up again. And of course the 4 alluded to before don't have hp those slots at all anyways (well except the addon pants) so not even a trade off for those

Sure it's somewhat situational of whether you want overall more healing or need some extra right now.... but generally speaking I find if my auto is taking so much dmg that it needs a little bit more extra initial repair or will die way before repair is back up again... it's probably gunna die anyways. Also some fights nowadays I use it almost as often to cure status ailments as actual hp since often if there are ailments I really need to heal the mob is either dealing them out fast enough maintenance might not be enough (looking at you kyou and your sometimes enpetrifying 5 times in a row) or sometimes it's a mob with annoying statuses that isn't doing too much huge chunk dmg so can just stick with repair for statuses and have the extra regen to keep it topped off.

That said screw spending all that time at Oseem to make a repair set. Definitely just sticking to the others

anyone have a updated gearswap i can use? thanks

Do the effects of speedloader and speedloader II stack? And do OF I and II affect it? BG Wiki doesn't have them listed as affected attachments, but I'm not sure if that is accurate.

Yes they stack though I seem to remember there seeming to be some kind of cap on it though it's kind of weird. Not sure on OF... the list on bg wiki should be accurate in the sense that things on it should work but as it was started way before a lot of these attachments came out some have yet to be tested/added to the list and it's often just assumed that probably yes

Got it. Thought so but wanted to make sure :D

So I am currently solo CPing on Apex Raptors in Moh Gates - how quick should the kills typically be for PUPs? I feel like the battles possibly drag on a little too much. Tank/support trusts only so our SC doesn't get interrupted.


Both me and the auto are building TP fast enough to 4 step together which is great, but maybe the damage is a little low or I am doing something wrong? Or maybe that's just the typical kill speed. Not sure.

As I said 4 step Light SCing with my auto (Shijin > AP > Dragon Kick > AS), the light damage at the end varies anywhere from 10k to 18k (the highest I noticed). I typically have to go through 3 or maybe 4 of these just to kill 1 raptor.


VE/SS
Optic Fiber I/II
Inhibitor I/II
Speedloader I/II
Turbo Charger I/II
Coiler I/II

Maybe it's as simple as I don't have Victory Smite yet and that is contributing a lot to the damage, but with the auto closing the SC I don't think it would make up for seemingly thousands of damage. Armor Shatterer hits from my auto anywhere between 3.5-5k.


It almost feels like I'd be better off chain burning in the other gates zones (I found a pretty good spot). Kills are super fast but obviously not nearly as much CP/kill.

If you are comfortable with your skillchain speed. You can go with

Howling Fist or Raging fist > Arcuballista > HF or RF > Armor Piercer > Smite > Armor Shatterer. As Apex Mobs generally die from magic damage, skillchain damage is the way to go solo if you're not bursting.

Just noticed you said you don't have Smite. DK works there too

Shantotto II, if you're not using her you should be.

I'll give that a try!


Yea I wish I had Shantotto II :'( When the heck are they bringing her back?


Are there no other useful trusts that will MB consistently?

Yeah with multistep skillchaining shatotto's dps is pretty crazy. No other trust really does anywhere near the magic dmg even while spending 10X the mp

just to confirm, no automation skill goes past 424 cap right?

I kept track of what i did for skilling up. Figured maybe it will help someone some day. Note however this was purely for skill, nothing else. And i was just using what ever equip i had handy. Which in this case was ambuscade pet acc+ gear, and bst gear that i had. This all is by no means the best way, jsut one that worked for me as i hadnt played pup before and didnt no what i was doing when i started this. Also i was still in the middle of getting attachments. So there are probably better combinations.

---

General equip
animator can allow pup to get close range. Animator II can keep them at a distance. Use as required.
Ambuscade Tali'ah +1 set for pet acc+. Filled everythign else with pet acc+ or pet pdt- if unable. (I had bst gear)


magic
-----
soulsoother/stormwaker at start on urgnites
stormwaker/stormwaker mid skill on urgnites/melo melo
both have an aoe poison

attachments
percolator, heat sink
ARK3, optic fiber, damage guage
mana booster, mana tank II, APIII, Turbo charger II
(mana tank becomes insufficient as skill rises and higher teir spells are used)
keep light, water, drk maneuver up

At low skill the healing, buffing, debuffing abilities on whm head are useful. But as you gain skill and more blm spells become available, switching over to blm head can speed things up. Use trust to tank; magic automation doesnt do as well taking damage.

Trusts
tank, apururu, sakura, moogle
atma (if in abby)
minikin monstrosity
mounted champion
merciless matriarch

animator can work. Animator II might be better to keep them at a distance more often.



Ranged
------
Sharpshot head and body

Attachments
percolator, heatsink
ARK3, optic fiber
repeater, drum magazine, turbo charger2, AP2
Using light, water, wind maneuvers

Trusts
tank, apururu, sakura, moogle

This is a very slow going one compared to the others (at least for the first 1/3). Can do well, but expect some time on this one
Started with urgnites outside adoulin. Use animater 2 to keep automation at a distance. This should keep him out of aeo poison range. Around 250-350 the ranged attacks start getting fairly strong. And auto will kill off the urgnites fairly quick with amchuchu tanking. So if your afk or semi afk this could be an issue. Of course at this point (270~) my rnged auto could take on the uragnite on its own without a tank. The ARK3 attachment seemed to be all it needed, The uragnites venom shell was constantly having no effect. Im not sure if the auto becomes immune ir gets a high resistance at this point. But he wasnt getting poisoned. (Make sure you are still out of range of the aoe poison) [Note: on another character auto was getting poisoned even with the same set up; which take auto out in not much time. Might need to use tank and auto at range if this happens. Note2: might have been because i forgot to put maneuvers up.] Tho the fight lasted a little longer, the automation still killed off the uragnite fairly quickly; roughly 10 min. And will get shorter as he gets stronger. - Granted, you can still get good skill ups on them, you just need to be around to engage a new target every so often.

So i tried melo. Was pretty surprise when i turned around and saw that melo melo was dead. I could swear it was rly fast. But i timed it twice after that with amchuchu out. First took 9 minutes to kill (at 350~ skill), second attempt took 16. So it rly depends on just how much he wants to heal.

Tried having auto tank melo melo on his own. He got the nm down to 25% in 3 min before dieing. Activated again, mean while melo healed. 4 min after that (for a total of 7 min) auto killed melo melo. So i headed back to uragnites. No fear of dieing there and better skill ups anyway for rng.

For aby atmas theres not a ton of good options in this case. Rng Acc you shouldnt rly need. And you dont want Rnged attack+. So that really leaves haste and maybe a regen atma.

Note: if sending in automation on his own (without a tank) it will keep him in melee range; thus the auto will be doing ranged and melee dmg to the mob.




Melee
-----
Melee was what i started on. So i did 0-200~ on leeches off the Foret de hennetiel HP. Was still trying to figure out what i was doing then, so i dont rly have any info at that point.
200-300~ was acquired at some point while skilling up magic and ranged.

300-424
Valoredge head and frame
If you have gear with pet double atk augments, it might help with melee.

Attachements
Percolator, heat sink, steam jacket
ARK3, optic fiber
Armor plate, AP4
turbo charger, accelerator
coiler2
keep light, water, earth maneuver up

Once again i started on the uragnites. Auto is not resistant to there aoe poison this time. But between the armor plates dt- and ARK's regen, auto didnt rly take any damage. Automation was engaged directly with uragnite; no tank. With auto only doing melee and not melee+rnged, the mob should last a little longer then it did on ranged.

Boom! RoV done, got my Ohtas and fully augmented them, and just a few JP away from 100 JP Gift :D

What are the general feelings about the Foire +2/+3 set? The Tobe seems like a really good WS piece, none of the others jumped out at me though.

Hands are a maneuver macro piece. Legs are best for curing and dt. Feet are repair macro piece and nuking piece I guess

Thanks for responding to all my annoying questions =p

100 JP gifts are fantastic. With RNG auto on apex bats, I am able to kill them in two 4-step Light SCs (light SC is hitting for almost 40k damage now) by running Fire/Fire/Fire maneuvers (inhibitor 1/2, speedloader 1/2, attuner). Kills are significantly faster now :D

Are people still farming salvage using RDM auto?

I just did AR2 for the first time solo with storm/storm, pretty conservative attachments, and it took me about an hour.


Some of that time is due to me just getting my bearings doing it for the first time, and also because my auto magic skill wasn't/isn't capped and I learned Haste II about half way through the run.


I think some people are able to do it in half the time. What setups are they using? What attachments?

I used an STP ranger build to farm BR2. I believe at the time, the shortest run I had was 46 minutes.

*Edit*
Cerb floor I would swap to blm (with heat capacitator)

Shijin > Tactical Switch > VS > Thunder V for the kill shot.

Thanks Teuphist :) Gonna try that BLM on cerb floor method. My salvage runs are down to 40 min now :D


Also, I happened to get a Grove Abj: Legs but are Rao Haidate even worth getting being that I have Tali'ah Legs +1?


Damage Taken is even on both (NQ Rao is actually less). Haste is even.

Tali'ah has way more accuracy, not to mention boosts in ranged and magic accuracy for the auto. Rao has the attack + advantage and double attack +3% on path D.


Only thing I can see is augmenting on Path D and using it as a WS piece?

For pure tanking Rao +1 is still very good due to the HP+ for both the deeper HP pool and the extra Regen per light maneuver.

Also nice to have for those random nm moves that ignore dt. Eating a dancer fullers while cursed can still be pretty scary for example

Don't forget also: the less acc, the less WS; the less WS, the less your auto will interrupt a SC.

Or less frequency waiting for it to drop TP.

Either way.
Less accuracy is good for tanking.

Just glitch your auto into not wsing!!! SE officially doesn't care and has merely deleted reports of it in the threads lol

OK so lets talk STP

Got nice earring off Omen thingies, added up my max Stp only seeing in gear +75
Herc head/hands/legs/feet +10 each 40
Pitre tobe +1 +13
Varar ring x2 +5 each = 10
Penetrating cape +4
Enmerkar earring +8

Any other gear I am missing to add?

Well well the pup community.

:prepare for two dumb questions;

Dumb question #1: are there skill up pages for your automation skills? If no why not? SMn and geo have them and as for bst just need axe skill which they have.

Dumb question#2: so how many of you pups use the vibration mode alone in your moghouses on your pup?

Just hq rings I think.

No. Because it's not a player skill and think somewhere they've said something like it isn't worth the effort to figure out how to even do that. As far as geo and smn they gain skill only by using jas/casting spells while the auto is just skilling up while you afk so...

No idea what you are even talking about on 2nd one

More STP might not be worth it depending on losses from those slots. Quickly checked base tp/hit (naked, no inhibitors) and gathered all known values for attatchments below.
Should be able to work out exactly what you need for X-Hit with each number of maneuvers from this:

114 tp/hit base (melee)
105 tp/hit base (ranged)
Inhibitor: 5, 15, 25, 40
Inhibitor II: 10, 25, 40, 65
OF1: 10%, 20%, 25%, 30%
OF2: 15%, 30%, 37.5%, 45%

So, during OD with inhibitors you get 183 STP before gear.
322.62 TP/Hit (melee)
297.15 TP/Hit (ranged)

2 fire 1 light with inhibitors you get 97 STP before gear.
224.58 TP/Hit (melee)
206.85 TP/Hit (ranged)

1 fire 1 light with inhibitors you get 60 STP before gear.
182.4 TP/Hit (melee)
168 TP/Hit (ranged)

STP gear gives:
1.14 TP for every 1 STP (melee)
1.05 TP for every 1 STP (ranged)
Floor after adding up to reach your X-Hit.

Yes you do hehe