String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

Nezha and I used to duo this pupx2 way back when taeon gear first came out. He would tank with valor/whm head, sub rom and back line. I would /run and dual dps with valor/valor while subbing RUN for fire resistance.


Gear is much better now, and overdrive is much stronger now (because of gear), so I’m assuming it’s doable.

I would /run, and then just make skillchains with master and pet for shantoto 2 to burst off of.

I tried it a few times on D solo with trusts going /sch for sleepga on the first wave, using BLMaton with varying results. He takes a lot of damage from darkness based magic damage, but I could never find trusts that could consistently open decent skillchains. Had mixed success with Ark GK and Karaha-Baruha of all people if I remember correctly. Going with a dt/melee setup is probably a lot less hassle these days.

Finally got my Kenkonken. Just got do magian trials, oboro, and then R15 but I got some questions. After AM3 is up what TP are you all doing with Stringing Pummel at when doing dyna with melee only buffs? 1k/2k? Or should I only be using Stringing Pummel at 3k tp for AM and then go back to Howling Fist?

yep

Hmm I usually find that the multihit plus the additional damage from R15 on every hit of Stringing pummel to out perform almost every other WS with or without AM3 /shrug

I mean idk SP seems to be kinda weak. It avg around what 24k? But maybe I overestimate Howling on PUP and its as weak or weaker when you try to spam it.

Maybe do SP when you are very close to 1000TP and use Howling when you overtp to like 2000 or when you are not attack capped.

Yeah, from my experience spamming SP is much better damage than spamming HF at 1k unless Attack is an issue. HF only seems to outperform R15 SP at higher TP values and only when you actually get that multiattack proc on it for the massive fTP transfer. But the majority of the time SP is just a lot more consistent and it adds up.

But I only ever play DD PUP with good buffs, so that really favors SP overall.

Got some pup tanking questions

Looking at the string theory guide, the turtle set has a heat capacitator 2. Why is it there? Im assuming to get tp for ws to generate hate with?

Analyzer or steam jacket seems to be for a better default?

Looking at general usage, Analyzer and steam jacket seem to me more useful then hc2 and the regulator.


Another quest, i entered dyna baskok, engagded my pup on a statue and the statue spawned the mobs and they all engagded my pup. But the pup died really Quick.. What did i miss? Was in turtle with dt gear taeon, not perfect gear but didnt expect it.

Pretty weird, i can hold 2/3 pack of mob without any problems.

I notice a bug in dyna with pet, if your team is killing a red one boss, Don't pull a classic one, all the mob go to the boss hate list not your pup.

Honestly, I'm not sure why it's there either, but I assume the same as you. But non-bruiser tankmaton damage is pretty meh, so it's not a huge benefit.


Really depends on whether you're going for a pure turtle setup or a bruiser, but yes. Steam Jacket is a very solid attachment for general tanking purposes as many enemies often use only a single element and it'll nerf that magic damage more than almost anything else.



Not sure why that happened. Maybe lag messed with your equipment sawps and your maton didn't have capped PDT and much less MDT than normal. I usually run double Armor Plates on turtle matons so I don't have to worry about random swaps accidentally getting my maton killed.

I honestly don't remember the last time I used a Heat Capacitor II, let alone an Analyzer or a Steam Jacket in my puppet tanking setups......IF EVER.

Thanks for the feedback.
I would like to propose a new turtle standard for tanking.

Food: Bean Daifuku

Default turtle tank - light / fire / water

Soulsoother Head
Valoredge Frame
Strobe
Strobe II
Flashbulb
Armor Plate IV
Mana Jammer IV
Mana Jammer III
Auto-Rep. Kit IV
Optic Fiber
Optic Fiber II
Barrier Module II
Steam Jacket
Analyzer


Attachment swaps

Physical orientation:
Mana Jammer III -> Galvanizer (counter) or Armor Plate III

@Aerix Would you share your DynaD setup?

So what attachements do you think are useful then for pup tanking if you are not using an analyser and steam jacket.

My setup for supertanking is the following, when holding hate doesn't actually matter:

- Soulsoother Head
- Valoredge Body
- Strobe 2 (for pulls)
- Mana Jammer 4+3
- Steam Jacket
- Auto Repair Kit 4+3
- Optic Fiber 1
- Galvanizer
- Armor Plate 4
- either Analyzer+both Barrier Modules (if the physical damage is going to be severe) or just AP3+BM1+Regulator for safety if I know I'll be equip swapping to cast spells as PUP/WHM or so which would made the maton lose a lot of DT

2xLight/1xFire if pulling, otherwise triple Light for maximum Regen. Gnafron's, Rao+1, Overbearing ring etc. for as much max HP as possible.

This setup is not meant for actual tanking, just for surviving for as long as possible.

Aerix basically nailed about 99% of what I use with the exception of the Analyzer. Instead, I use the Dispel or Absorb-Attri attachments in case the NM I'm fighting has ways of buffing itself. Or I attach the Resisters if the NM has a tendency to cast debuffs.

Do these abilities land reliably enough on worthwhile NMs in Taeon DT gear since that is the current topic of discussion? BG says it’s Macc-based which we won’t be wearing.

If it is not 80%+ chance to land I find it hard to win over Analyzer. Plus it needs a dark maneuver. I’m still learning PUP so I could be off base.

Resists don't happen often, at least for me.

With regular tanking sets I'd prioritize Disruptor/Regulator as well, but when supertanking there's usually so much stuff hitting the maton that an individual mob buffing itself doesn't really make a difference anyway. Plus cycling in a Dark Maneuver over Light means losing a lot of Regen for 30s.


Honestly, I'm not even sure if MACC plays a role as these attachments are a bit weird. I don't think I've ever seen Regulator miss (although Disruptor may have), but depending on the mob the maton will either use both, neither, or only one of them but not the other.

The last part is what makes me believe that some conditions other than MACC are at play, otherwise the maton wouldn't sometimes use only Disruptor or only Regulator on certain NMs. If one attachment had significantly more base MACC then that one would always be favored, but that's not the case from my experience. They're both also Dark based, so elemental resistances shouldn't be a factor, especially since they work well on mobs like Odin Prime.

One example off the top of my head is Cait Sith. If I recall correctly Regulator works, but the maton never even attempts to Dispel with Disruptor. Stealing buffs is nice on paper, but when your maton is also DDing it can be unfortunate to steal Enlight as it heals Cait with every hit.

Good stuff. Thanks guys.

Interesting bit on Caitsith that a dark based dispel wouldn’t be prioritized

Unity Augment

Blistering Sallet +1
+45 acc/+45 macc
crit hit rate +10%
str/dex +25

BiS for Stringing Pummel/Victory Smite now? It loses on some STR/VIT and desperately needed attack compared to Rao +1 head but 6% more crit might go a long way?

Depending on gear, dDEX and overflow TP we're already WSing with 60-70%+ Crit rate or so. Going by diminishing returns it's not really a major improvement, if any at all, considering the loss of STR/VIT/Atk.

However, Blistering Sallet +1 has a decent amount of extra DEX and Acc on it, which SP/VS sets could definitely use. So in my book that makes it the winner.

Blistering Sallet also has DA+3%, don't forget.
As small as 3% is, it has a pretty big impact on WSs like Stringing Pummel and Victory Smite, with FTP transfer properties.

I haven't tested on paper but I'm 99,9% confident Blistering is unquestionably gonna beat Rao Kabuto +1 even in Att uncapped situations.

Hell it gets close to Adhemar+1 path B on MNK, no way Rao Kabuto +1 is gonna win, imho.

VSmite yes, SPummel not so much. With Kenkonken's AM3 you're already getting 7 or 8 hits almost every WS.

Of course it's still a small bonus that probably makes the lower STR/VIT/Atk negligible, which is nice.

I didn't take into account AM3 and I didn't take into account that Pummel has low base FTP and 2 more hits than Vsmite.


Did some small tests, with ~70% crit rate in WS set.
With AM3 up and att uncapped Blistering Sallet +1 is slightly ahead of Rao+1 B but we're talking about like... 15 dps difference, so they're practically the same.
This difference is a bit larger and in favor of Blistering if you remove AM3, but it's still very very small, almost insignificant.


With capped attack AND AM3 off the difference becomes somewhat more noticeable, in favor of Blistering Sallet, but if you turn AM3 on the difference goes back on being insignificant, with Sallet barely above Sao+1



tl;dr
I think they're pretty much on par. Sallet+1 will be more expensive than Rao+1, at least for a veeeery long time.
If you wanna get it just for Stringing Pummel, then don't please lol

As I said, the extra Acc makes Blistering interesting rather than the other stats.

Ashame the lack of pup pet options in the unity gear :(

;)

You mean PUP pet options. There is quite a lot for SMN and BST I think.

summoner has a ton of unity gear:
Shomonjijoe
Asteria Mitts
Assiduity pants
Llamasu mitts
probably Hike Khat for pdt now.

Bst, I think the only pet unity gear i use is handler's earring +1.
the other unity gear I use for bst is all master enmity + gear... which is kinda niche for bst.

I don't even use handler's for puppetmaster. so yeah, puppetmaster severely lacking for useful unity gear.

I'm bored and playing around with pup; are there any good nodes put together for what pup gear sets look like these days? i figure the basics of JSE, and a few pieces of the hiza/taliah gear, but is there anything else big for them?

Just general options for pup. I was hoping to get some new pieces for any of my sets but that doesn't seem like it's happening this update