Animator's Workshop: A Puppetmaster's Guide 2.0

Thanks for the idea!

Changing this value to false didn't work for me for removing the burden window. I did figure out a work around for now. I made a macro that calls a script that executes the autocntrol equipset change then wait 10s then uses the hide command for the burden window.

At least now it goes away after I swap attachment sets.

With AP4, OF1, OF2 and 1 light maneuver, 0 earth maneuvers, how much -PDT is actually given?

A. -30%, assuming AP4 is -20% w/ no Earth maneuver, adding OF1 +20% and OF2 +30% for total 50% increase. (Per String Theory Guide, and Alzula's Optic Fiber Spreadsheet)

B. -25%, assuming AP4 is -20% w/ no Earth maneuver, adding OF1 +10% and OF2 +15% for total 25% increase. (According to text on Optic Fiber pages on bg-wiki, I believe it implies no additional bonus is given by optic fiber beyond the base amount if the maneuver of the other attachment isn't active)

or

C. Something else and I'm totally off base.

I saw this touched on a few pages back, but I'm trying to sort out some conflicting info I've heard and read recently. Thanks all!

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/String_Theory

That is the info I had been going off of too. A conversation with an LS member as well as this from the the bg-wiki Optic Fiber page had me questioning things though.

"Increases effectiveness of other attachments.
The initial bonus applies to all equipped attachments, while the bonuses from multiple maneuvers only affects attachments of the same element as active maneuvers.
The performance increase is always rounded down."

I'm not sure where this came from originally though.

I was skeptical about this too, but OFs will enhance AP4 and other attachments even if you only have Light Maneuvers active and not the respective element.

I tested it not too long ago with 1000 Needles from cactuars to confirm.

So been working on pup again for fun, but find myself struggling, at times, with attack speed or trusts going all out dumb. I cant search threads anymore, so the question is for solo cp farming on apex what are some recomended trust set ups? Issues im having: Khoru simply doesnt haste on a nice priority, you can be down without haste for sometimes a good bit (there are times i find myself noticing it a lot and wondering when he will cast it)
This leaves King, which has a benefit and hinderance, king will burst off of the light SC's, this means you can die bc he aoe's lol, or problem 2 he runs out of mp and then ulmia goes all full ballad mode. I am struggling finding a nice balance (this same problem is both at the bats in Ra'kaznar and normal camps) Does Sylvie give pups haste bubble? Is she worth it? Thanks in advance

Arciela 1 is your best priority haster and doesnt waste her mp on garbage stuff outside of slow/para, but wont haste/refresh others, so if haste is your main issue theres your trust, problem is youll lack consistent dia via king and i think koru. Not really much ive found you can do to avoid the brds going into ballad at some point unless your healers/possible tank trust never dip too low.

Yeah I was finding King was the biggest culprit in most cases him trying to nke all the Light SC's with Firaga.... lord that caused some problems lol

yeah kings awful if you plan to spam any fire ele sc, sadly koru's not a whole lot better since hell waste loads of mp on distract/frazzle2, which in the case of frazzle might not land on bats but hell just keep right at it. That said sylvies a great trust to have if you think you dont need a healer, as for your question in regards to haste no youd get fury/frail and thats it on pup

Ok so over the weekend I have been on a journey to CP, the vast majority has been solo on apex mobs, and have a few additional questions. I have got my trusts worked out to a reasonable level and Can do the Outer Raz bats without much trouble. However I am noticing something seems odd to me and trying to find a fix, sometimes, specifically on the 5 step double light SC, the auto seems to just stop SCing after the 3rd step, will have tp and just sit there Unsure whats causing it. Starting to wonder if its chat spam from the trusts? IDK any ideas would be appreciated ill list attatchments below (I am not even 500jp yet)

<frame>sharpshot frame</frame>
<head>valoredge head</head>
<slot01>turbo charger ii</slot01>
<slot02>turbo charger</slot02>
<slot03>coiler</slot03>
<slot04>coiler ii</slot04>
<slot05>attuner</slot05>
<slot06>inhibitor</slot06>
<slot07>inhibitor ii</slot07>
<slot08>speedloader</slot08>
<slot09>auto-repair kit iii</slot09>
<slot10>optic fiber ii</slot10>
<slot11>optic fiber</slot11>
<slot12>speedloader ii</slot12>
Trusts are: august, joachim, ulmia, koru, yoran

Things that could cause issues:

1) August interrupted the skillchains
2) Maton didn't get TP in time and the skillchain window closed
3) You could be using the wrong WSs for 5-step, which normally are: Shijin Spiral > Armor Piercer > Victory Smite > Armor Shatterer > Victory Smite

If you are CPing on Apex Bats in Outer Ra'Kaznar, it's very likely your Automaton isn't capped on Accuracy even with Koru's Distract II. You may need to equip the Target Marker, unless you're TPing in mostly Tali'ah gear instead of multiattack stuff.

Thanks Aerix, I spent several hours there yesterday, fairly certain it was somethng with timing, generally my acc wasnt bad, both pup and I could SC (although i later found initial 5 step was way more likely to have issues) My best was CP chain 31 but I was solo so was kind of impressed I even got that. gear is a wip but my tp set with pet engaged was this:

range="Animator P",
ammo="Automat. Oil +3",
head="Tali'ah Turban +1",
body="Tali'ah Manteel +1",
hands={ name="Herculean Gloves", augments={'Accuracy+5 Attack+5','"Triple Atk."+3','STR+10','Accuracy+14','Attack+3',}},
legs={ name="Samnuha Tights", augments={'STR+10','DEX+10','"Dbl.Atk."+3','"Triple Atk."+3',}},
feet="Tali'ah Crackows +1",
neck="Shulmanu Collar",
waist="Moonbow Belt",
left_ear="Telos Earring",
right_ear="Cessance Earring",
left_ring="Epona's Ring",
right_ring="Niqmaddu Ring",
back={ name="Visucius's Mantle", augments={'DEX+20','Accuracy+20 Attack+20','Pet: Haste+10',}},
Still working on the gear also yes Target Marker with thunder up wa incredibly useful, ended up sticking with thunder, wind, fire

Yes that was the SC i ws using, he choked a lot after my first VS I tinkered a lot with gear, I actually tested a few dif setups from either guides or just ***in my own head, this seemed to work the best for me food used was Shiramochi or Marine Stewpot (Still tinkering with foods to use I am still really new to this pup thing in the modern era) Going to tinker more tonight just got 5/5 SU3 set so adds some options

another edit: Also found EV to generally be better, and if she did interupt the SC the auto or myself could extend it and make it work for either light or darkness

Not saying you shouldn't fight Apex Bats, but have you considered fighting Apex Eruca or Crabs? At your current gear level, you ought to be able to kill them much, much faster for better exp/time, even if you get similar chains.

Their Defense boost abilities are also completely negated thanks to Armor Shatterer. And you'll be able to skip Thunder Maneuver to increase Haste/STP with a Light Maneuver instead.

Try them and see if you can 5-step reliably.

Thanks Aerix, ill give them a shot, I was sticking to bats mainly for the auto WS being piercing right? At least that was my thought pattern, I noticed the triple bats seemed to aggro and didnt like that to much bc well im human i make mistakes lol, I didnt think of crabs but i might try that and didnt even know of crawlers.

Tend to avoid crabs personally as they love to time bubble curtain/scisdor guard at the worst times

For what it's worth, if you don't have any mules to buff you, this is typically the most useful trust party setup I've found for solo CP:

• Amchuchu - tends to interrupts skillchains the least, but can't self-cure. Mnejing is also good for Crabs due to the built-in Dispel. Use AAEV for more healing/heavy magic damage or August for heavy physical damage and if you love interrupted skillchains. If you feel confident in your survability, you can use Sylvie (+Ygnas preferably; cancel their Haste 1 for Koru's 2) or Qultada for buffs instead.

• Joachim - caps haste with March (along with Haste II), heals, and reduces incoming damage with Elegy. Ulmia works too, but she alternates between March/Ballad a lot no matter the situation. RIP Cornelia.

• Koru-Moru - standard buffer; Haste/Refresh for everyone along with Dia III/Distract II

• Yoran-Oran - solid healer with good MP maintenance; doesn't Haste 1 so he won't block Koru-Moru's Haste II

• Shantotto II - your BFF. She'll double MB each of your skillchains (2x5-9k~ damage) while you are 5-stepping, absolutely destroying mobs left and right. Single biggest contributer to killspeed for a PUP. She'll interrupt/close your skillchains relatively often, but then she'll MB those too.

Despite the fact that no guide gives much credit to Harlequin after 99, it can be a really good dps option with really fast TP gain. Knockout and Slapstick are really good skills with potential to put out high damage with the right build (i.e. Flame Holder).

I've really only used Harlequin on Sang Buaya to test this until today. I'm just going to give some quick examples. Windower, Gearswap and Autocontrol are used.



ItemSet 360382

The kill time is similar to a Sharpshot build and gains TP just as fast.

Another option for those savvy enough to try it.

Full Stormwaker
Attuner
Inhibitor I/II
Speedloader I
Amplifier II
Tranquilizer III
Mana Channeler II (to reduce casting spam)
Coiler I/II
Optic Fiber I/II
Mana Tank IV

Adjust as you need.



Spiritreaver/Stormwaker

Mana Tank I/III/IV
Optic Fiber I/II
Shock Absorber III (can replace with Mana Channeler)
Turbo Charger II
Amplifier I/II
Loudspeaker III
Power Cooler
Mana Channeler II



I just want to show there are alternate ways to accomplish your goal.

Hi Psylo. So is this considered the new best tank set? I'm still on the 4/5 Rao+1 and anwig set

ItemSet 358101

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Don't mind if I take this one!

Your Pet: DT set is excellent as it also includes a lot of Pet: Accuracy. Since damage dealing also contributes towards enmity generation, any accuracy you can provide your Auto is good. Your puppet will definitely take hits, but an overzealous DD (or a BST pet) will strip hate right off your Auto.

This is why, IMO, Psylo's set is better in the long run. While it doesn't have as much Pet: DT as your set does, his set has Pet: Enmity+ along with a lot of Pet: Accuracy. Any Flash, Provoke, or melee damage his Automaton does will generate much more enmity, and will give other DD an opportunity to go ham a little bit more.

*****Ninja Edit*****

I should also add, however, that if you're a newly leveled 99 PUP and are still working on Job Points (say below SU3 level), your set is great. Then once you have access to SU3 gear, get the Heyoka pieces in Psylo's PUP DT set.

I'm not sure why you would go with hybrid sets for tanking instead of just going full DT/HP for actual tanking (higher HP decreases enmity loss when taking damage) and swapping into full Heyoka+1/Domes. Earring/Rimeice for voke/flash. Sure, Enmity+ while dealing damage is also a nice boost, but unless you use a bruiser tank with Turbo Charger/Attuner, it isn't going to put out very big numbers. Plus you can always swap into your Enmity+ set for WS anyway, making fulltiming a hybrid less useful.

Of course, if swapping sets is too much of a hassle, that's a different matter entirely.

This. If there's any concern with keeping hate, you're going to do better by ensuring capped xDT- for anything other than hate generating abilities (Strobe/Flash, for which you will ideally swap in pet enm+ gear). Less damage taken, and to a lesser extent, HP+, are far more reliable ways of keeping hate than the puppet meleeing.

Though really, there's only so much a puppet can do even in ideal situations to keep hate off strong melee DDs. PUP does great when tanking for mage parties, some ranged or pet setups, and when playing with melee DDs who are underbuffed or generally lower quality (not meaning "low tier" jobs, I'm talking players who might not be geared to elite levels on [pick a melee job]). But if I'm fighting with a bunch of strong-*** well-buffed melee DPS jobs, I'm gonna prefer a PLD or RUN tank over a PUP anyway. Situational.


And this. Besides, IDK what situations other people are in, but I usually prefer my tank puppet NOT to have extra accuracy (or STP, multiattack, etc.). Usually when I'm tanking serious content, if I could use an Acc-500 attachment I honestly would. Less TP feed, and less puppet screwing up player-planned skillchains. Puppet getting TP tends to add more annoyance to me than it adds benefit (ooh, I parsed 1.8% of the alliance instead of 1.1%... and probably decreased party SC damage by several %). It's especially annoying when you're in a party with magic bursting mages (which is really one of PUP's ideal tanking situation) - you don't want your pet to be the reason for a wasted MB volley.

Only thing that would change this for me and make me want TP more on a tanking puppet is if they added something like a puppet WS that significantly helped pet enmity gain/retention (and could be easily forced for a tank; say, always prioritized used with majority of fire maneuvers up). PUPtonement!

Note that this doesn't apply to niche things like:
- soloing with a Speedloader-equipped puppet to finish a SC off your own WS
- Overdrive-enhanced pet zerg with a bunch of puppets (and maybe BST SMN pets) just spamming damage
- Some sort of specific situation where you want puppets to be the primary tank AND primary damage source (e.g., that one Poroggo Ambuscade that wrecked everything but a puppet)

But my assumption is that those situations aren't what we're generally talking about here; we're talking about tanking what I presume is endgame-ish content with at least some other players on non-pet DD jobs.

So assuming Harlequin is viable, I have a couple of questions:

1. Why were your overall DPS numbers so low? I just went to Dho Gates to parse myself with the same trusts (but I replaced Qultada with Moogle), and with Sharpshot Automaton and AM3 I had a combined DPS of 3324 vs. your 1506 and ~44s kill time vs. your ~1m30s. That's without Chaos/Fighter's Roll and it seems like you have decent gear, so I don't see why there should be such a huge difference.

2. What were the Harlequin's average WS and SC numbers? It's hard to tell from the video because the chat is unreadable and the pop-up numbers are obscured half of the time.

3. What skillchains were you doing with your Sharpshot to only have comparable kill times with Harlequin? Because a 5-step with SS and AM3 puts out massive numbers thanks to the piercing bonus. I'm talking about 5k-7k WS with up to 16k Lights just from the maton, not counting the AM3 boosted WSs of the master.

4. How much do your Stringing Pummel/Victory Smite do compared to Backhand Blow? BB seemed to do decent damage, but I can't see it winning against your better WS options. And if you're forced to use inferior WSs on the master just to make the maton use its best one, you're not really gaining an edge anywhere. Of course, Shijin Spiral is also a terrible WS that we are forced to use as an opener, but at least it creates Lv2/Lv3 skillchains.

5. What were your actual Backhand Blow numbers and how did you gear for it? Going by the video, it looked like you were doing between 7k-9k per WS, but despite having fairly good WSD gear, I could barely break 5k-6k with it on a crit. Average was closer to 3.5k due to the bats' Attack Down.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer!

To be honest, I love accuracy on my automaton tank sets. In fact, I use Taeon with Acc/DA/DT a lot for Kei. The reason why is that PUPs actually make SCHs mostly obsolete in manaburn setups.

Bring 2 PUPs with bruiser tanking setups. Add a COR with Companion's Roll (and Drachen, if needed) and the Automatons will spam skillchains for you back-to-back-to-back-to-back. They will start the next skillchain as soon as the previous MB window closes, allowing BLMs to just nuke forever without having to wait on a SCH's stratagems. Double Valoredge will create infinite Distortions, VE+SS will make Lights and double Sharpshot will make Gravitation. You can also force Darkness with VE+SS by using Thunder Maneuver for String Shredder, but that requires a little bit of attachment tweaking and TP holding.

Of course, excessive Amnesia/Stun/Plague can ruin this, but at least for Kei it's a complete non-issue. The matons alone will keep his Regen mechanic completely in check.

Honestly, it's pretty awesome because you get two tanks and you never have to worry about interrupted skillchains ever again.


That is actually a great idea! I would totally love to have a WS like that on Valoredge, would allow it to do a nice chunk of damage even with no DD attachments (assuming it caps higher than normal Atonement, maybe like 5k-10k). And personally, I think Automatons are long overdue for new WSs with Lv3 properties... provided they don't ruin our multistepping OD zerg.

Thank you for this Siviard! What sort of changes should I expect using the Heyoka Set over my Rao set. I usually don't have a second pup to do things. I do a lot of Dynamis D things with PUP + SCH on the side so hoping this can increase my kill rate.

Has any attachments changed? Would you mind posting what you use for pup only setups with this master gear?

With your set (Kaldaek), and assuming -5% DT on Ambu cape. 1 Light Maneuver, both Optic Fibers, and AP4 (And VE Frame) you are at 89.5% PDT and 59.5% MDT. So over cap on both.

Could mix around some stuff so you maintain full DT cap and keep some enmity gear on.


Edit:

Might as well include that from what I calculated (sounds nerdy), Psylo's set is 82.5% PDT and 52.5% MDT based on same parameters.

So, which set would you recommend? I mostly use pup to tank things "auto only".. Generally hard content only.

Personally I prefer something more towards Psylo's set. If you were really hard pressed to cap PDT you could swap in Handler's +1 over Domes. Ear and be just a hair under pdt cap. The increase in enmity is really noticeable in longer fights. And the increase in the auto's Acc/Haste is a bonus.

Uh, wouldn't it stand to reason that MDT for pets also caps at 87.5%? Or did someone actually test it to confirm that pets are capped at 50%?

I've always been under the impression that it was capped at 50%. If testing has been done that would be cool to see.

You are correct
MDT also caps at 87.5% for pets

I believe the max pet dt- set for pup is 51% from gear alone.
another 21.5% for VE or Sharpshot bodies
or another 15.5% for Harlequin
(when including stout servant)

means you are at 72.5% mdt for VE or sharpshot
or 66.5% for Harlequin

None of the attachments actually get you MDT, but you get MDB instead which does are fine job of reducing magical damage.

If you truly want to cap MDT you need Shell V @ 24%
You can get it from either using Harley Frame and soulsouther head, to self cast it, OR you can steal it from a mob using Regulator.