String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

the +8 would be for 99% hit rate instead of 95%

Incoming noob question! I just came off a 10 year break, played for a few months until my HD crapped out, and now back 4 months later. Granted I imagine some of these sets(and sets from the guide on BG) are outdated, but I see Shulmanu Collar for RNG auto. Does pet: acc/attk also give pet: racc/rattk? Trying to knock the dust off the ffxi formulas buried deep in my brain! Thanks!

It gives both, yes

Is that just for specific pieces or does all pet:acc/att also give racc/attk? And if yes, are other pet classes the same?

Supposed to be. But only items created after a certain date.

They love to overcomplicate and halfass everything.

What does the current Armor Shatterer & Armor Piercer gearset look like? Both the BG guide and the String Theory guide on FFXIAH only show a set for Arcuballista, Daze & Bone Crusher. Please note I do not have path D Nyame.

Piercer is the same tp bonus as daze/arcu. Shatterer is just repping the tp bonus pieces with pet racc/atk pieces

Different Question.

What is VE automaton base damage at lv60 is it just like a lv 60 sword, around 40?

Just want to know how much of an increase plug 1/2 are
30~54 No plugs
40~74 Plug 1 (Fire+Light+Wind)

Is there a way to get the automaton to stop skillchaining during overdrive? I'm not using thunder maneuver or speedloaders and it's still self-skillchaining instead of just spamming bonecrusher.

Take off speed loaders and inhibitors, both will prompt the puppet to SC

For the Frog ambu I've been using this shitty set

ItemSet 393597

Cape is Pet Att/Ratt/Acc/Ratt +20 and Haste+10
Legs and Feet are Att/Ratt+25, DA+5%, DT-4%

With this set and Beast Roll from /COR and Kusamochi the fight is over with like 25 secs left on Overdrive.


I've been wondering about Mpaca Feet over Taeon but I never tried honestly.
I'm using Mpaca Hands simply because I don't have Pet Taeon

Kara+3 head is my default head option when Overdrive is up, but to be fair, while that's a very nice damage boost with Sharpshoot Frame, I'm not sure it's gonna be that great with Valoredge. I haven't even checked which WS my Automaton uses on the frog lol


So with that said, I'm looking for tips to improve damage, other than extremely obvious things like Xiucoatl R25 etc :-P

Hey Sechs,

just one thing I noticed: in the pinned guide, most if not ever sets caps out pet haste. I feel ths would be a bump in dps.

For ref. I use: Expansion hat + -10% dmg and 5% haste, mantle as yours with 10%, and Klousik(sp) sash +1 for +9. Other than that double attack and Xiu, on the top of my head.

Edit: Also, Mpaca boots are +1 automaton lv iirc.

Yes in my default Pet boost set I use Anwig Salade over Karagoz+3, and that caps my pet haste. (10% cape, 10% weapon, 5% head)
I wonder why I'm using Karagoz+3 during Overdrive... Maybe I did some calculation that the additional pet haste you get from OD allows me to reach capped haste without Salade?
I honestly forgot lol, I created these sets such a long time ago...


Yeah exactly. I mentioned them but I wonder how they would fare compared to Taeon, hmmm...

I feel like you "Could" swap both body and hands to Taeon, and boots to Mpaca. Then again, that means upgrading two taeon pieces... Pick your poison.

Overdrive gives 25% haste

Yeah it's magic haste though, still subject to the 43.74% cap.
So, yeah, I'm 5% below gear haste cap in my set above.

I guess in some sharpshoot setups it still comes up on top in terms of overall DPS, but definitely not here with Valoredge where my Automaton is likely spamming Bone Crusher because of the Light Maneuver being up.
So yeah, Anwig Salade should definitely outperform Karagoz Cappello +3. Except maybe if I need the acc but I doubt I do.

Shouldnt be overly difficult to get the rimeice earring or change the belt to anything else, 4 or 5 practically free pet haste belts on the ah

Better options than giving up tpbonus

Yeah but the thing is that TP bonus is completely useless on stuff like Bone Crusher, alas =/

What attachments and head/body you running with? At some time I made an "ambuscade" set but something seems off. Not sure if i have the right pet set up, or if something is weird with my attachments.

Yes, they will get skillups as your ML increases.

Mana Jammer 3,4
Optic Fiber 1,2
Inhibitor 2
Turbo Charger 1,2
Magniplug 1,2
Auto Repair Kit IV
Flame Holder
Attuner

Water, Fire, Light maneuvers

I drop Magniplug 1 for Inhibitor 1. But other than that, as stated above ^^. Reason for this decision personally is because I value the STP+ more than just raw damage because automaton is still shy on magic haste of about 3.75% and ODVE set for me has no STP really.

Clearly either method works.

Soulsoother Head, Valoredge Body. Fire, Water, Light.

If running solo, I suggest /cor and give yourself a beast roll even though its gimped, it still helps. Use King of Hearts as he puts Dia III on ASAP. Then simply disengage and run your 30+ yalms away (I find its 30 yalms from Automaton... not frog) Afk and chill. Should be dead before OD wears if you have a reasonable ODVE set. I usually have 50 seconds (+- 5seconds) left on OD when frog goes down.

Feels a lot like pet meva update really did a number for us, specifically remember running soulsoother head with both jammers in a toughguy taeon focused tp set the last time this ambu was around. Automaton breezing through this time with ~1m30sec left on OD depending on bone multi and shredder crit procs using the following:

/rdm for DiaII so I can be lazy/safe and not have to engage for trust. Going back to /cor, I must have got lucky trying sub rdm, didn't see Providence in a handful of runs yesterday but 2 out of 3 attempts today without a roll popped adds.

Valor/Valor
optic fiber ii
optic fiber
auto-repair kit iv
flame holder
magniplug
magniplug ii
attuner
inhibitor ii
turbo charger ii
turbo charger
coiler ii
mana jammer iv

TP
ItemSet 393614

Manually swapping for Bone>>Shredder, position self with automaton between master and froggo, able to see dmg in log at ~30.2 yalms away from puppet to anticipate WS swaps.

Bone Crusher
ItemSet 393615

String Shredder
ItemSet 393616

Since Quenching Hammer is centered on the target, you can be behind the frog just within 30 and still see automaton actions

This was mentioned in the past

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/53890/frog-ambuscade-v1/2/#3445386

Umm out of boredom and just wanting to experiment with different attachments and frames. Skalds above attachments and sets work great. But I tried using Harlequin head, which had some very interesting results. It enables you to still use both mana jammers if you want which the valoredge head does not allow. But combining Heady Artifice with Harlequin Head boosted my damage greatly for 45 seconds of the overdrive. was seeing 40k+ and 50k+ Bone Crushers and guaranteed crits on String Shredder from Mighty Strikes being up.

I tried this with mana jammer 3, then with coiler 2, and speedloader 2. Speedloader is a waste, didn't notice anything worth reporting on skillchain damage being different. Coiler 2 was okay i suppose, extra DA is alright. Second Manajammer makes you very tanky while still dishing out the heat from Mighty Strikes being up.

Highly recommend Harlequin head and using second SP as well. Not that its a race, but this alone shaved about ~25seconds for me

I usually triangulate so they're both just over 30' away. I tend to lean on the sound cues when I'm swapping gear manually. It's also comforting to see the QH so you know you're not gonna get bopped if you have to run in and repair.

How much time was left on Overdrive with Harlequin Head? One time I did the usual VE/VE but with Inhibitor I and II (instead of using something like Coiler II or Steam Jacket substituting for Inhibitor I) and had 80 seconds left on OD (2:00 between Overdrive timestamp and Necronura death)

Yeah Harlequin head is about the same for me. +- ~5 or 10 seconds I suppose. My Set for String Shredder certainly isn't optimized and the example I am giving is for solo. /COR for gimped beast roll and using king for Dia 3. I usually have about 1:20ish left on OD. 1:30 or so if the frog is friendly on tp moves and such or perhaps that's just better DA procs and crits on more ws's for the entire fight. I just thought it was fun seeing bone crusher hit for 40k and 50k+.

Harlequin Head/Valoredge Frame. Optic fiber 1 and 2, ARK 3, Attuner, Flame Holder, Inhibitor 2, Magniplug 1 and 2, Manajammer 4, Coiler 2, Turbo Charger 1 and 2.

Can easily swap coiler 2 off for manajammer 3 if automaton is taking too much damage in whatever set you are using, but I found your typical ODVE taeon set with other misc stuff was sufficient for DT without.

I ended up with 53 seconds left and my gear is pretty average (I posted it a few posts above), I don't swap on WS, I'm ML37 and last but not least I don't have Xiucoatl which, alone, should provide quite a massive difference in damage.

So I'm really curious how the *** am I so close to you guys. Granted that 53 seconds left was on my best attempt and it's definitely not my average.



Edit:
Nvm, I just remembered that 1) Xiucoatl only works on the first hit and Bone Crusher is multihit and 2) on that run I had a COR friend giving me Beast Roll, plus I had Kusamochi up. Sooo... yeah, I guess that explains it.