String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

Because you're fallable, have proven yourself wrong, and a member of a clique within the community. As soon as I heard who you chose to speak for the NIN portion I was disappointed. When Nagi wasn't mentioned at all for NIN tanking, but Fudo Masamune path C was, I knew the video wasn't going to contribute anything meaningful. It wasn't entertaining. The mispronunciations were disenfranchising.

To then skip over a job you yourself made a guide arguing for the viability of was the breaking point for me.

You look like a hypocrite probably because you are. Your videos come off as you trying to feed your ego, but in that nice British way where they don't feel bad about doing it. Good points may be contendable, but that doesn't mean they are defeated.

Your arguable contentions are the musings of your echochamber.

@mhomho dude chill down and let's all get back to talking pup

I mean, I don't think Rua does pet strats in group content like, at all. That right there will have you missing much of what makes puppetmaster great as a tank. Pet strats maybe blur the line for what constitutes a tank but "throw pets at it" is still a valid strat for lots of stuff, including all 6 Omen bosses and many Ambuscade months. Puppetmaster trivializes certain other fights, too. Odin HTBF is best with PUP + SMNs IMO. One to be Feared HTBF. In fact, most VD HTBFs because the number of targets is one or low. Puppetmaster can tank and make a decent three course meal while doing it.

Keep in mind that if you're 5-stepping and the maton is dragging its feet with TP gain you could end up wasting several TP rounds waiting for it to close because it fell behind. Ideally you'll always want the maton to be able to keep up for smooth multistepping--at very least while you're still CPing to get to master.

Anyone got a BIS Asuran Fist gear set they can post? Thanks.

ItemSet 372129
- STR/WSD on Cape

There's isn't a whole lot you can do to improve Asuran Fists directly, so your best bet is to stack Accuracy to land all your hits and Attack to cap out your Damage Limit+ as much as possible. WSD in Earring (Ishvara) and Ring (Epaminondas's and Karieyh) are also an option, though they won't make a very noticeable difference--but they are useful if you are getting halfway decent Attack buffs from someone.

Substitute Fotia Gorget with JSE neck+1/+2 and armor pieces with Malignance for increased PDL if you are getting massive Attack buffs. On non-NMs (Idris) Frailty, Dia II, Berserk and maybe Chaos Roll will probably do the trick, but on harder content you'll likely need 1hr buffs including songs.

Not even sure where to begin here so I'll let Vince cover me.

Brilliant, sent you a PM.

Is Omen not group content anymore? I mean, sure Lute and some others can solo with trust most of it, but they aren't most players.

You're using a video from like 2017 when the gear was not the great and mobs like Omen Fu was a threat. How dumb are you to compare that to today's gameplay while half the jobs have Malignance and are invincible.

Might I add this was also before Su3 was added to the game, so before RUN got the biggest buff it ever needed with Turms gear to become the brick wall that cannot die.
Or where jobs like Monk and Sam got Kendatsuba.

Video was released in April 15th 2017. Su3 came out May 10th 2017. So yeah good post. Just because Ruau hurt your precious feelings so much you're trying so hard to make him sound like a hypocrite, when in reality times changed, opinions change. Stop being a snowflake.

And yes, PUP is *** dogshit for endgame stuff.
Good for people who are unaware of how to handle mechanics, useless for those who know how to get around mechanics.

Edit: For the people who may misunderstand where I'm coming from on my opinion on PUP:
I see it as a valid starter job, however it serves no place in endgame as there are just better options.
It was fantastic for Odin at first until we figured out insta KO was attack/defense based and that all changed fairly quickly.
People who play PUP for some reason try so hard to justify it for every little thing and it's really not cut out like they make it to be.
We get players like PUP, it could be a very fun job, but pls stop trying to use it with every strat and force it upon people.

So for you endgame stuff is just Odyssey?

Lilith isn't endgame? That gear isn't just handed out for free. Some people are still farming it.

LMAO is that Rua, tanking on PUP, which he said is not a viable endgame tank job? I had never seen that before.

Lilith is like mid-game. Content isn't hard. Although drops are fantastic. However, if a job needs 1 hours to solo E and N then it's not very good is it. Sure you can do it without, but the time it takes is just not worth it.

Monk can solo E in literally 3 minutes including calling trusts and applying Shell Crusher with no haste. N isn't much slower.

Truth is you guys don't do much research and talk ***. gtfo.

You brought up a video from 2017... 2017... when PUP was even then used as a niche tank. Not much has changed since then so you've pretty much proven my point. Thankfully there will be some more nuanced thought going into the follow-up.

You would actually have a point if the majority of player tanks didn't constantly rely on hacks and bots just to be able to deal with many mechanics in the first place.

It's always funny when mediocre players think they are hot ***just because they let JA0, Anchor or React deal with all the dangerous or limiting mechanics for them while they just mindlessly zerg down monsters. I remember those Ambu threads (well past the point Su3 was added) where the first thing people did was pass around React scripts just to be able to tank or beat fights. And that absolutely included people who were considered by others as "aware of the mechanics" and/or "good tanks" like you.

Of course people would think themselves badass when they're using the most overpowered jobs with cookie-cutter strategies and heap cheats on top of that. But playing the game on easy mode doesn't make you good.

Sure, stuff like that is sadly part of the game and likely to stick around, but that sure as hell isn't in any part thanks to RUN or other jobs being intrinsically better. In many cases PUP can easily deal with those mechanics without resorting to cheats. And that matters to some people even if it doesn't to you.


Still waiting on that proof of RUN soloing D-VD Lilith. Can't find any videos of MNK soloing Normal either.


Says the self-proclaimed troll who apparently has nothing better to do than shitpost in the guide thread for a job he doesn't play. It's honestly embarassing to watch.

Which was?
You're saying PUP isn't a tank, then trying to back peddle to save face by saying it's a niche tank as it's always been. PUP is used in Dyna-D for fetter pulls? (Someone get footage of it please.) You admit it's a niche tank. Guess what? A niche tank is a tank.

Didn't wanna quote whole thing, too long.
Ok so I have every right to talk about dealing with mechanics. I beat every bit of content, all 4 master trials, Tumult curator all Omen without using gearswap, Anchor, Ja0, etc. I know what it's like, I only recently converted over.

And if you really want a solo vid for D-VD, sure. I just haven't played recently, and when I do it's to speak with Ls and catch up. As you can probably tell from my AH history. Not much going on no more. I didn't think I'd have to "prove" anything. Thought I done that enough to solidify when I say something is soloable, it actually is with how much I proved how godly RUN soloing is.
If you do want the D-VD rune solo or N Monk solo then just say because I don't see a reason why that needs to be proven, It's not like I'm claiming soloing Kirin is possible. It's *** Lilith lol.

And I used to play PUP, before I discovered how overpowered and enjoyable rune and monk were. I just lost interest in it, if I'm honest.

Obviously it's possible to actually tank these things vanilla, otherwise the game would be basically unbeatable by design. And those AV and PW days of old are long past.

Hence I was talking in general terms about the majority of tanks needing to rely on that stuff just to perform. If SE suddenly started banning for it left and right people would be jumping ship to PUP for certain fights almost instantly.


Yes, actually. I do want to see a video of RUN soloing VD because frankly I don't think your Trusts will even last through the first phase.

I don't know you and after seeing all your posts here I have zero reason to take your word for anything. I'll gladly eat my words and apologize if you do manage to solo VD because it would be genuinely impressive.


As I said, I don't think people should be treating PUP like a "true" tank job because the job wasn't fundamentally designed as one and was instead patched to become one (in some ways opposite of NIN). However, it's nonetheless entirely viable as a tank for a ton of content even if it isn't the most efficient.

Even if it doesn't fit your playstyle that doesn't make the job dogshit.

Well let me introduce myself to you. I solo everything on RUN and MNK and was one of the first to solo mobs like Vir'va, 3 man Kirin, solo dps WoC while tanking/DDing, Tank and DD Black and White without a main healer, only GEO heals on RUN, and other stupid stuff people shouldn't try if they are wanting to win, only experiment.

As you can probably tell, I troll, I say random ***out of boredom.


I agree with this and I have said this before. I just go on and give people ***because there is people (not naming) who shove the job down people's throats and try force them to acknowledge the job more than we need to.

And
I'll post a D for sure. I say D-VD because D is doable, but I haven't tried VD on RUN, but people have told me they have done it which I see no reason not to believe. I don't know why someone would lie to me about that.

I'm fully aware RUN and MNK are extremely powerful and capable of far more things than people think. Even MNK was actually good for SB strats before the HTH update, it just didn't put out the numbers people wanted for speed. However, soloing and lowmanning certain content, even as a pioneer, doesn't automatically mean your word is gospel in every situation.


I've spent tons of hours trying to contribute meaningful data or (hopefully) useful advice to this thread in an attempt to help people improve or tweak the way they play the job. The whole controversy about whether PUP is a real tank or not bothers me far less than people posting useless filler into an already large thread.

I would have hoped that someone like you who wrote a RUN guide would be able to understand that instead of adding to the problem. You even defended that new THF guide the other day.


Some people very likely overreacted with regard to Ruau's videos, but considering that PUP as a job has always had a rough time since it was first introduced it made pretty much all of its players extremely passionate about it. Which I don't believe is a bad thing because the job is simply genuinely fun and completely unique in the history of the FF series. Who cares if that makes us snowflakes? Live and let live.

When well-known players just completely trash the job in the context of its one niche it has been largely appreciated for then it's obviously not going to go over well.


I mean, now that Monberaux is a thing I can sorta believe D being possible. Honestly, it might even be possible with PUP and I was considering trying that in the future (with and without Monberaux).

But VD? I still very much doubt it. From my experience Ygnas and Yoran-Oran have a very hard time staying alive with all the AoEs going out. Valiance and OfA are insanely good, but they don't last forever.

I get it tbh. But I did kinda give up on maintaining a guide since people didn't seem interested, but I neglected to think about the time people put into guides and all and it is a lot of effort and when I do my "trolling" It does get out of hand tbh. And you are right, I don't think it's right I ***on (the way I did) what may be someone's favourite job for fun.

I don't get why people are upset. They said "PUP isn't a good tank" not "PUP isn't a good solo/Lowman job". That's not saying the job is bad, but saying the job isn't designed to be in certain role.


That's a pretty bold statement lol.

Playing RUN without GS isn't hard. If SE bans GS people will just read a vanilla macro guide and continue to play RUN anyways.

Protip; No matter what you say, no matter what context you frame it in someone is going to argue about it.

You need 45 qualifiers for every statement.

PUP is a tank.

45 qualifiers;
Can pup tank this mob? how about this mob? not that mob? but that mob? is it faster? is it better? is it safer? whos in your party? is it optimal? if it's not the best it's not a tank. But it tanks? But not better than this. So valoredge can't hold enmity over a bis war with mighty strikes? lolitsnotatankthenduh.

New rule; everytime you make a statement you have to list every situation where it is and isn't applicable. is and isn't optimal. and how much time it "wastes" by being less than optimal vs all other options.

You're arguing speedrun strats with casual lemmings.
It's exhausting.

Funny thing is that none of the career PUP on this forum actually disagree with Shiraj's point. They all actually agree that PUP is a hybrid job and a niche tank.

They just decided to brought up 100 other different points for the sake of it. There's absolutely nothing to argue about and entire discussion should be done 3 pages ago.

The problem is that NIN and WAR were put in a tank video, where PUP was not. I actually don't have a problem with ninja in a tanking video, because it IS a tank, but it's far more niche than puppetmaster. It's used in far fewer situations, but it meets the standard of a tank job- mitigation through self-buffs and an enmity-boosting stance and self-buff. PUP has mitigation (the highest!) and both enmity-boosting attachments and abilities.

Warrior... is not a tank job. It has some mitigation through shield blocks if you do axe/shield or sword/shield. It has one enmity JA that gives a short-lived VE spike. It's a dps that can tank low-level content through damage and survive in hybrid gear.


This is a good point that I didn't think of. PUP doesn't require JA0, Anchor, or React like most of these cats are using for their solos. Another point I'd make is that puppetmaster solo is more consistent. You rarely if ever get screwed by a bad MEVA roll... because you generally don't care about non-Doom status ailments or damage to begin with.

Then you guys could have suggest different categories for "tanks" in the video.

Jobs that are made to be a tank: RUN PLD.

Hybrid jobs that have "tank" as one of their available roles: PUP NIN BLU

DD jobs that can do tank builds: DNC WAR DRK MNK etc.

But no you guys went on with pages of pissing contest instead lol.

You mean those pages that were created in no small part because you double-, triple- and even quadruple-posted all over this thread just to argue with people?

True strike

SAM is being left out and literally has a tanking stance.

The casting penalty hurts it in today’s game but SAM has been a solid hybrid tank for over a decade.

Pls no. Can we just drop this topic, please?