Puppetmaster Demand Thread

[Shinron-PUP]

I wanted to create this thread so that Puppetmaster have somewhere to consolidate all of our questions and demands. I believe by creating a main thread that highlights all the wants of PUP, the Dev team will be able to answer our concerns faster because they can focus on one thread instead of multiple ones. Please try to post, in this thread, anything that you believe is a current day problem for Puppetmasters that need to be addressed, and let's hope we get some stuff fixed and our questions addressed!

[Shinron-PUP]

Just to get the ball rolling, Here are some popular topics that puppetmasters have been discussing:
* Manuever Recast/Duration

*Increase in maximum amount of manuevers (four instead of three)

* Manuever Animation (Whether or not to have it)

* Decrease in burden generated by Manuevers (Overload)

* New Pet Frame/Head

*New Attachments

* New Animators

* What the hidden effects of Alternator is

*Addition of PUP to Relic

* Revamp of Overdrive

* Ravamp of Harliquin Frame

* Revamp of attachments

*New Job Abilities for PUP

* Addition of automaton enhancing armor

* Saving Attachment Pre sets in macros or similary to Blue Mage

This is a brief list, but please post any information regarding these topics, or even others.

***Disclaimer*** These are not necessarily things that I want to see fixed, these bullet points are problems that puppetmasters have simply discussed before in the past.

[Karah]

* Manuever Recast/Duration
This is actually a valid point, the duration, is lacking.

*Increase in maximum amount of manuevers (four instead of three)
I mean come on. Why not 12. They would have to retool the way every attachment works to cover 4 maneuvers.

* Manuever Animation (Whether or not to have it)
This is not a PUP only issue, this is a HIGHLY discussed problem across many jobs, JA delay.

* Decrease in burden generated by Maneuvers (Overload)
If they realistically decreased it any less, it wouldn't even exist if you use af3+2 body/collar/hands.

* New Pet Frame/Head
Pup has 5 different set ups... what could you possibly want as another one? a Dragoon?

*New Attachments
Another one, what attachment could you possibly want, they've given us nearly 100 already.

* New Animators
Alternator... nuff' said.

* What the hidden effects of Alternator is
Really? Just use the thing. And love it while we have it.

*Addition of PUP to Relic
Not gonna happen, just let it go, sphari is lackluster anyway.

* Revamp of Overdrive
A second legit point, yes, overdrive is pretty blah.

* Ra vamp of Harliquin Frame
Whatever possible reason for this?

* Revamp of attachments
Some attachments *could* use an adjustment, but that's mainly because alternator negated them.

*New Job Abilities for PUP
Any possible example? You want bergressor and zanhasso on every job?

* Addition of automaton enhancing armor
There is a ton of "pet" enhancing gear already, the alternator is simply amazing.

* Saving Attachment Pre sets in macros or similary to Blue Mage
This one could be worthwhile, pre-sets for each individual automation, it's probably too hard to actually do though.

[Shinron-PUP]

Actually the only things that really concerns me is Manuever duration and recast time. Everything else I stated has simply been on behalf of other concerns named by other Puppetmasters. The reason I'd like to bring attention to manuever recast timer is because after being a proud owner of Kenkonken, I can spam manuevers but it almost seems useless simply because I only have a 30 second window in which all three manuevers stay on. It's becomes so tedious spamming wind manuever 50 bajillion times on Ranger Pet and I think it could easily be fixed. If they can't extend the duration of manuevers, they can lower the recast time. If they made manuevers 3 second delay inbetween, we would instead have a 51 second window with three manuevers up and could quickly communicate with our pets if we need to switch to different manuevers. The 10 second recast delay was a handicap so that new puppetmasters wouldn't overload themselves quickly, I think it's time we take this handicap off... PUPs will learn how to work with lower recast timer on manuevers despite more frequent overlods if they over do it. We currently can't use our pet to our full potentially because we're spending all of our battle time just throwing up manuevers and it's a bit of a headache...

[Kristal]

Actually the only things that really concerns me is Manuever duration and recast time. Everything else I stated has simply been on behalf of other concerns named by other Puppetmasters. The reason I'd like to bring attention to manuever recast timer is because after being a proud owner of Kenkonken, I can spam manuevers but it almost seems useless simply because I only have a 30 second window in which all three manuevers stay on. It's becomes so tedious spamming wind manuever 50 bajillion times on Ranger Pet and I think it could easily be fixed. If they can't extend the duration of manuevers, they can lower the recast time. If they made manuevers 3 second delay inbetween, we would instead have a 51 second window with three manuevers up and could quickly communicate with our pets if we need to switch to different manuevers. The 10 second recast delay was a handicap so that new puppetmasters wouldn't overload themselves quickly, I think it's time we take this handicap off... PUPs will learn how to work with lower recast timer on manuevers despite more frequent overlods if they over do it. We currently can't use our pet to our full potentially because we're spending all of our battle time just throwing up manuevers and it's a bit of a headache...

It's 40 seconds for 3 maneuvers, since the first starts at 0, not 10.

Splitting maneuvers into their own recast would probably be the easiest and most effective. You could set up 3 maneuvers in 2 seconds, as long as they are different ones. Stacking 3 same ones would still take 20 seconds.

[Deifact]

I played PUP a few years ago but I'd love to get peoples opinion:

Why can't PUP maneuvers just be constant? So if you activate the automaton, use wind maneuver three times, assuming the automaton doesn't consume those maneuvers would it be overpowered for them to simply remain until overwritten/automaton despawns?

When I did play PUP, using maneuvers really ruined the job for me... the animation is too long and really ruins the flow of battle.

[Annalise]

It's 40 seconds for 3 maneuvers, since the first starts at 0, not 10.

Splitting maneuvers into their own recast would probably be the easiest and most effective. You could set up 3 maneuvers in 2 seconds, as long as they are different ones. Stacking 3 same ones would still take 20 seconds.

With the new testing of how the heat sink works, this would be pretty remarkable. Especially for Sharpshot and Spiritreaver. You could quickly water -> ice or wind, then ice or wind, then ice or wind. The water will basically near always prevent an overload even if you are spamming maneuvers.

In fact for anyone who is having burden problems, I suggest you A) attach the heat sink if you don't have it already to ANY frame you are using, and B) learn how it works.

On topic with the OP's stuff, the only thing that I really care about is longer maneuver durations. I don't care how they decide to do it (e.g. based on level, increasing job traits, based on the animator, just overall increase, etc.) just that it is done.

[Leatherman]

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120716022604/ffxi/images/d/d2/Pantin_Taj_2.jpg
Please give the Refresh to Master as well on this piece. For a half mage build. I would much appreciate it :D

[Kristal]

With the new testing of how the heat sink works, this would be pretty remarkable. Especially for Sharpshot and Spiritreaver. You could quickly water -> ice or wind, then ice or wind, then ice or wind. The water will basically near always prevent an overload even if you are spamming maneuvers.

You can do that already. For example on Spiritreaver, you could Dark > Water > Ice (as soon as Absorb-INT begins) > Ice > Ice (while nuke is casting). The first 3 maneuvers take 20 seconds, but with my suggestion it would only be 2 seconds, but the last two still take another 20 seconds either way.

[nyheen]

Manuever Recast/Duration i think the whole point of the Manuever Recast/Duration is to keep pup balance from what SE said back then. we already took asuran fists from mnk, they not going to take the speed also. Alternator + rigor already makes you an god.


*Increase in maximum amount of manuevers (four instead of three)
>.>

* Manuever Animation (Whether or not to have it)
same thing other dude said

* Decrease in burden generated by Manuevers (Overload)
overload is not even a problem anymore with +2 AF body

* New Pet Frame/Head
would be nice

*New Attachments

would want more space then new attachments at this point

* New Animators
Alternator?

* What the hidden effects of Alternator is
why did you ask for new animator if you already knew about the alternator?
and the hidden effect is kinda obvious if you use it

*Addition of PUP to Relic
relic is not going to happen, same as for geo and rune, your relic is the Kenkonken

* Revamp of Overdrive
would be nice but we got that from our Alternator

* Ravamp of Harliquin Frame
they could do something to this pet. maybe change it to an mnk pet?

* Revamp of attachments
some need to be worked on

*New Job Abilities for PUP
iam always open to new abilities

* Addition of automaton enhancing armor
i guess

* Saving Attachment Pre sets in macros or similary to Blue Mage
iam still waiting for this but you could change your pet in under 15 sec once you get the hang of it.

and i fail at quote

[Halldir]

With the new testing of how the heat sink works, this would be pretty remarkable.

In fact for anyone who is having burden problems, I suggest you A) attach the heat sink if you don't have it already to ANY frame you are using, and B) learn how it works.

Way to completely miss the OP.

Shinron is tossing the idea that there should be a way to set maneuvers as using them breaks the natural flow of fighting and therefore reduces the amount DPS.

If it wasn't for the long animation and delay after or a way to set maneuvers quick i.e separating timers or add a JA/attachment that creates a extended duration maneuvers.

I could see an JA/Attachment like "Regulator/ion" that could induce master/automation slow for the tradeoff of extended maneuvers. That would balance the increased DPS from master and the devs happy for not overpowering a job.

I, myself like the 3 timers for Maneuvers. Add my overload gear, bang out 3 maneuvers, deploy, gear swap back to DD gear etc and go to it. Rinse repeat.

Overloading would be MY problem to control. And I like the post about 3 of the same would still take the same amount of time.


That would make it so that pup could possibly be involved in more end game activities.

Halldir from Odin

[Annalise]

You can do that already. For example on Spiritreaver, you could Dark > Water > Ice (as soon as Absorb-INT begins) > Ice > Ice (while nuke is casting). The first 3 maneuvers take 20 seconds, but with my suggestion it would only be 2 seconds, but the last two still take another 20 seconds either way.

I was talking in terms of your suggestion, not with how it is currently. So currently it cannot be done because there is the ten second delay between the water and wind/ice. I know you can throw water in the mix like that because I throw one in once in awhile on Sharpshot and never overload spamming three wind. (Wind, Wind, Wind, wears -> Water, Wind, Wind, Wind, etc.)

I was saying with your suggestion it would be even better because you would have less time with [Water, Wind, Wind] and more time with [Wind, Wind, Wind] while still getting the benefit of heat sink.

[Annalise]

Way to completely miss the OP.

Shinron is tossing the idea that there should be a way to set maneuvers as using them breaks the natural flow of fighting and therefore reduces the amount DPS.

If it wasn't for the long animation and delay after or a way to set maneuvers quick i.e separating timers or add a JA/attachment that creates a extended duration maneuvers.

I could see an JA/Attachment like "Regulator/ion" that could induce master/automation slow for the tradeoff of extended maneuvers. That would balance the increased DPS from master and the devs happy for not overpowering a job.

I, myself like the 3 timers for Maneuvers. Add my overload gear, bang out 3 maneuvers, deploy, gear swap back to DD gear etc and go to it. Rinse repeat.

Overloading would be MY problem to control. And I like the post about 3 of the same would still take the same amount of time.


That would make it so that pup could possibly be involved in more end game activities.

Halldir from Odin

Did you even read the OP? Did you see the nice bold Decrease in Burden Generated by Maneuvers (overload)?

Obviously that suggest (perhaps because of the alternator, or because people don't understand burden) that the OP or others are complaining about overload and that there is too much burden. I have an alternator and have yet to actually overload with it, while spamming ice and water maneuvers depending on frame. Why? Because I can effectively deal with burden.

I suggested using the heatsink because it makes burden decay faster.

Sorry for answering something that someone seems to be having a problem with?

[Shinron-PUP]

Actually I've been working on my mage set build recently and I can get refresh +8 via armor and (Refresh) spell and 1180 MP with /RDM and MP gear... Square Enix has been giving us a lot of mage gear, and I don't do so bad main healing delve pts with WHM pet and my MP build, so I wouldn't mind seeing more mage type armor, if they really intend for us to use mage sub jobs... Adding us to mage armor might have been a spoof too though lol.


http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120716022604/ffxi/images/d/d2/Pantin_Taj_2.jpg
Please give the Refresh to Master as well on this piece. For a half mage build. I would much appreciate it :D

Sorry that other reply was meant to leatherman

[Shinron-PUP]

It's 40 seconds for 3 maneuvers, since the first starts at 0, not 10.

Splitting maneuvers into their own recast would probably be the easiest and most effective. You could set up 3 maneuvers in 2 seconds, as long as they are different ones. Stacking 3 same ones would still take 20 seconds.

Ok I must admit, I'm kind of a wishful thinker so what if they made manuevers 3 second recast and seperated the recast of all manuevers? I believe that would absolutely solve the problem of manuevers being a hindrance during battle because like Halldir said, if we could just throw up 3 manuevers quickly before battle then focus on fighting instead of having to add manuevers during battle, it would make playing puppetmaster a lot easier while also increasing dps. I don't think this would make Puppetmaster overpowered, it would just fix a issue that is long overdue for fixing. It would allow us to adapt to things during battle instantaneously
EX) A monster begins casting thundaga III? You can throw up at least 2 water manuevers before he gets the spell off to reduce damage then switch back to whatever manuevers you were using previously

EX) Your pet has up three fire manuevers but has 100TP and you need him to use armor shatterer (Wind Manuevers)... Well you can throw up 2 wind manuevers quickly instead of watching your pet use arcuballista and /facepalm afterwords

EX Your pet just erased all your wind manuevers you had up with replicator and you're trying to keep three up for barrage turbine? Well instead ot taking 20~30 seconds to get all three back up, it only takes 6~9 seconds.

There are clearly more battle advantages to having 3 second manuever recast than vs 10 seconds... and having a seperate recast for all manuevers would just make life even better.

Did you even read the OP? Did you see the nice bold Decrease in Burden Generated by Maneuvers (overload)?

Obviously that suggest (perhaps because of the alternator, or because people don't understand burden) that the OP or others are complaining about overload and that there is too much burden. I have an alternator and have yet to actually overload with it, while spamming ice and water maneuvers depending on frame. Why? Because I can effectively deal with burden.

I suggested using the heatsink because it makes burden decay faster.

Sorry for answering something that someone seems to be having a problem with?


Just to make things clear and to create a disclaimer, All of the bullet points I created in my previous post are nothing that I am necesarily concerned about and have absolutely no connection to my point I made about reducing recast/duration of manuevers. I only talked about them because they are problems that are Puppetmasters have mentioned throughout the forums that they would like to have fixed whether that was before or after fixes from updates. Clearly overload is not an issue because of cooldown, but it is still an existing factor that makes puppetmaster play at a lower level than we could. If it wasn't an existing problem, people would be using manuevers willy nilly whenever they wanted.

[Annalise]

Just to make things clear and to create a disclaimer, All of the bullet points I created in my previous post are nothing that I am necesarily concerned about and have absolutely no connection to my point I made about reducing recast/duration of manuevers. I only talked about them because they are problems that are Puppetmasters have mentioned throughout the forums that they would like to have fixed whether that was before or after fixes from updates. Clearly overload is not an issue because of cooldown, but it is still an existing factor that makes puppetmaster play at a lower level than we could. If it wasn't an existing problem, people would be using manuevers willy nilly whenever they wanted.

I knew it wasn't necessarily yours. That's why I said you or others.

[Shinron-PUP]

I knew it wasn't necessarily yours. That's why I said you or others.

Ops... That's my mistake then because I misread :) . I just see many people making comments on the bullet points I made that seem to be directly asking me why I would want these changes and I guess I get a little defensive hehe.

But with that said, a lot of the suggested ideas from other PUPs aren't always necessarily bad ones (and btw this isn't directed at you Annalise). Everyone is usually quick to hate something until it's implemented into the game, like the increase in level cap from 75 to 99 (I can't tell you how controversial that was until it actually happened). Even if they do something silly like adding pup to Asuran Fists (Oh ya they already did) or adding PUP to relic, its not like it will end the game or have a negative effect. Take what you get and make the best of it. If they give PUP Spharai (Monk Relic), well god damn it... It's time to /MNK and counterstance some shit. Lets not waste our time in the forums bickering at each other like what we have to say is stupid or not worth while. We wouldn't post it if we didn't truely believe it could help. Let the dev team be the deciders of what should and should not be implemented... We're just here to make suggestions so that we can get one step closer to getting PUP to where it really needs to be.

[Leatherman]

As for new frames, I'm not sure what they come up with (useful).

I do agree with Deifact:


I played PUP a few years ago but I'd love to get peoples opinion:
Why can't PUP maneuvers just be constant? So if you activate the automaton, use wind maneuver three times, assuming the automaton doesn't consume those maneuvers would it be overpowered for them to simply remain until overwritten/automaton despawns?

I'm sure people will agree with me when I say you have to play the job from 1~75 to be able to understand the job good enough to be efficient, only then you can talk about it. I will be honest when I say I don't know much about a few jobs like my Lv18 DRG or jobs that are under the subjob lvl cap. But PUP has been one of my most used jobs since it's release. I like PUP/DNC for abyssea PUP/WHM for Reive, PUP/WAR for Delve (Now with New Weapons and Alternator!), I want to actually lvl DRG to 50 so I can use PUP/DRG and get an extra 5% Haste from earring and Jump for extra damage.

Shinron-PUP has a good point:

Ok I must admit, I'm kind of a wishful thinker so what if they made manuevers 3 second recast and seperated the recast of all manuevers? I believe that would absolutely solve the problem of manuevers being a hindrance during battle because like Halldir said, if we could just throw up 3 manuevers quickly before battle then focus on fighting instead of having to add manuevers during battle, it would make playing puppetmaster a lot easier while also increasing dps. I don't think this would make Puppetmaster overpowered, it would just fix a issue that is long overdue for fixing. It would allow us to adapt to things during battle instantaneously
EX) A monster begins casting thundaga III? You can throw up at least 2 water manuevers before he gets the spell off to reduce damage then switch back to whatever manuevers you were using previously

EX) Your pet has up three fire manuevers but has 100TP and you need him to use armor shatterer (Wind Manuevers)... Well you can throw up 2 wind manuevers quickly instead of watching your pet use arcuballista and /facepalm afterwords

EX Your pet just erased all your wind manuevers you had up with replicator and you're trying to keep three up for barrage turbine? Well instead ot taking 20~30 seconds to get all three back up, it only takes 6~9 seconds.

There are clearly more battle advantages to having 3 second manuever recast than vs 10 seconds... and having a seperate recast for all manuevers would just make life even better.

Would be nice if there would be a way to reduce the cooldown on a few abilities like Tactical Switch, I rather my pet using my tp sometimes to increase damage, or change AF3+2 Boots to instead of increasing the TP to reduce cooldown instead:
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100908225909/ffxi/images/7/74/Cirque-Scarpe-2.png

Another ability could use a change is Overdrive, Manuevers cooldown should be removed during this time and shorten attachment cooldown such as Stoneskin, Strobe, Flashbulb, etc...; for the trade of shorter length Buff. Right now I see no use for Overdrive.

[Vivivivi]

Pup is a recently acquired favorite job of mine ^___^

I'd like to chime in about new heads/frames-
*Disclaimer these ideas may be just wild pipe dreams and not feasible to implement, but fun to think about nevertheless*

I'm satisfied with the current mage head/frame selection, I'd like to see some variety in the melee area-
Frames:
Dual wield dagger frame with some attachment ideas (just imagine a frame with pink ruffly fabric!.... kidding... mostly):
Samba attachment(s): Aspir, drain, and tp samba (would extend to party members as well)
Waltz attachments(s): Curing, healing
Treasure hunter attachment: max of TH3 (based on maneuvers up)
I think these would cover the basics of Thief and Dnc at a subjob level without making them too powerful.

Hand to hand frame:
would be similar to current valoredge frame in terms of available attachments, but with an emphasis on attack over defense, and would deal blunt damage (and potentially open up fun skillchains with master)

Mime frame (crazy idea maybe):
Similar to mime from Final Fantasy 5, you'd gain the ability to mimic whatever the last action the puppetmaster did, sacrificing the ability to equip most non-passive attachments.

Head idea- something fun with a headband that would go along with the frames mentioned above, and open up new pup weaponskills.

And for my really out there idea (and I do mean out there)-
Completely new automatons, that would lack the flexibility of the traditional model, and be restricted to very few attachments, but would make up for the customizability in raw strength or tanking capabilities.... such as miniature iron giant type automatons, arcoliths, even cardians. Essentially various arcane mobs we have seen before that beastmaster cannot charm or summon with a jug.

[Shinron-PUP]

Pup is a recently acquired favorite job of mine ^___^

I'd like to chime in about new heads/frames-
*Disclaimer these ideas may be just wild pipe dreams and not feasible to implement, but fun to think about nevertheless*

I'm satisfied with the current mage head/frame selection, I'd like to see some variety in the melee area-
Frames:
Dual wield dagger frame with some attachment ideas (just imagine a frame with pink ruffly fabric!.... kidding... mostly):
Samba attachment(s): Aspir, drain, and tp samba (would extend to party members as well)
Waltz attachments(s): Curing, healing
Treasure hunter attachment: max of TH3 (based on maneuvers up)
I think these would cover the basics of Thief and Dnc at a subjob level without making them too powerful.

Hand to hand frame:
would be similar to current valoredge frame in terms of available attachments, but with an emphasis on attack over defense, and would deal blunt damage (and potentially open up fun skillchains with master)

Mime frame (crazy idea maybe):
Similar to mime from Final Fantasy 5, you'd gain the ability to mimic whatever the last action the puppetmaster did, sacrificing the ability to equip most non-passive attachments.

Head idea- something fun with a headband that would go along with the frames mentioned above, and open up new pup weaponskills.

And for my really out there idea (and I do mean out there)-
Completely new automatons, that would lack the flexibility of the traditional model, and be restricted to very few attachments, but would make up for the customizability in raw strength or tanking capabilities.... such as miniature iron giant type automatons, arcoliths, even cardians. Essentially various arcane mobs we have seen before that beastmaster cannot charm or summon with a jug.

I absolutely love the new Frame/Head ideas, especially Monk pet. I think Monk pet would kind of finish off the much needed DD frame that we've been asking for (it really should be harliquin). Just to estrapolate a little bit more on the Mime Frame you were talking about, I imagine it would be much like the movie "Real Steel" with Hugh Jackman in it where your pet is just a shadow of the Puppetmaster, If you Stringing Pummel, He will also stringing Pummel and possibly mirror all attacks and damage... So essentially you're doing double damage with everything. If this was actually done, using manuevers wouldn't be necessary to manipulate the pet, the pet would be simply be like dragoon pet where you don't deploy or retrieve, it just attacks what you do... The more I think about it, the more I love the idea because I think we need different types of pets, some in which do not require any manipulation to make it function properly, and some that do... Mime pet could be our MNK pet if he literally mimic'd the Master, and it would take away the need to use manuevers which ultimately lowers our DPS during battle (It would be a true/pure fighting frame).

I also do believe that a Drain Samba attachment would be fantastic for soloing with Ranger and PLD frame so that there's less emphasis on cannibal blade and repair as measures to keep them alive... I think a lot of the frames you proposed are doable, SE clearly can do a lot of things when they put their mind to it, but it comes down to this question: Is it necessary? Square Enix's mentality for a lot of things is that, if it is working fine, it doesn't need to be fixed. They probably think this way about Puppetmaster... The job is finally good and really doesn't need much more, but I believe just like Summoner, we're a job that is entitled to new pets whether they like it or not... Every 10 levels we were given a new one and if they were to follow the pattern, we're missing 4~5 new pets.

[Inafking]

I've said it before, I'll say it again. As a life llong resident of Windurst I want a Cardian instead of an Automaton.

[Kristal]

I've said it before, I'll say it again. As a life llong resident of Windurst I want a Cardian instead of an Automaton.

Or a Caturae, Iron Giant or Ghrah :D

[Eri]

Would be funny if the Automaton transformed into an Iron Giant on Overdrive!
Dreams.... w

[Shinron-PUP]

A big problem that I have with the new addition of enhancing magic to our automatons is that we can't even use them outside of battle... Puppetmaster now has access to Protect V/Shell V/ Phalanx/ Stoneskin/Haste Etc, but they're spell meant to be casted before going into battle and not right when you're fighting. If i'm soloing a notorious monster that casts Thundaga 16, I'd like to know that I can have Shell V up before I fight him and without needing a monster to deploy before I can get it on.

Here is my proposal to fix the problem (Job Ability):
Encore
Causes your Automaton to use (one/an) enhancing spell outside of battle.
Recast: 5~10 seconds

With this, we can make proper use of our enhancing spells without always needing a monster to recieve it.


Here's some more wishful thinking to top off the previous posts. I would like to see it at some point where the Master can cure its automaton using magic like Cure III/IV... If my Automaton can cure me, why can't I cure him? I don't want other players to necessarily be able to cure my pet, but If I could /rdm and cure my PLD pet, it would make him actually a formidable tank and introduce more support jobs to playing Puppetmaster. Of course this would make other pet jobs want to be able to heal their pets with magic, but I think our pets are designed to be images of players rather than monsters, so I don't think it's to far fetch to be able to cure our pet. Also as a side note, with optimal MP gear on, I have 1022 MP with /RDM on Puppetmaster... It makes me sad to see that MP not have some sort of usefulness towards my automaton :).


Another addition that might seem more reasonable is an attachment that gives our pets enfeebling resistance. We have magic defense bonus already, but our pets still have absolutely no resistance to paralyze/poison/sleep/etc, unless I were to use overdrive. One of my favorite events in the game is ballista, but it seems not really worth it when a player can spam Sleep II on my pet until both Repair/Maintenance recast timers aren't quick enough to erase it. I know ballista is a dead event, but this same thing can be applied to the real game... Repair/Maintenance can only go so far when a monster is spamming silence or any other enfeebling... Attachments like the following would be great!

Resistor:
Increases Pets resistance to enfeebling the more it is casted.
(Water Manuever)

or

Enfeeble Shield:
Increases chance of resisting an enfeeble.
Water Manuever 0 (10%) 1 (25%) 2 (50%) 3 (75%)

[Kristal]

Here is my proposal to fix the problem (Job Ability):
Encore
Causes your Automaton to use (one/an) enhancing spell outside of battle.
Recast: 5~10 seconds

With this, we can make proper use of our enhancing spells without always needing a monster to recieve it.


Sentry
Automaton enters combat-mode without requiring an active target, but cannot move as a consequence. Will not attack, only cast defensive spells and abilities. Siege, Sentry and Deploy overwrite each other.

Siege
Automaton gains increased range on attacks (melee and range) and spells, but cannot move as a consequence. Gains damage reduction and enfeebling resistance while in Siege mode. Siege, Sentry and Deploy overwrite each other.

[Shinron-PUP]

Sentry
Automaton enters combat-mode without requiring an active target, but cannot move as a consequence. Will not attack, only cast defensive spells and abilities. Siege, Sentry and Deploy overwrite each other.

Siege
Automaton gains increased range on attacks (melee and range) and spells, but cannot move as a consequence. Gains damage reduction and enfeebling resistance while in Siege mode. Siege, Sentry and Deploy overwrite each other.

Now that I think of it, if they really would allow our pets to cast enhancing spells outside of battle, they should simply just make our automatons perform enhancing magic just like NPCs where they automatically do it as we run around (not deployed). That would really just make life easier.

Also to comment on Sentry,Siege... I like where you're going. Is anyone familiar with Paradym Shifts from FF13? Hopefully... I was thinking they should add similiar pet command to paradym shifts that makes the automaton go into certain battle stances (hear me out):

Ranged Paradym:
The automaton will walk max yalms away from the battle target and fight at a distance (At all times).
Bonuses: the automaton will recieve Magic Attack Bonus, Magic Accuracy Bonus, Ranged ACC, Ranged ATT, and reduction in Ranged attack delay and recast for Black magic spell
Negative: Cannot fight up close/Reduction in defense/Magic defense
Recast: 30 seconds

Attacker Paradym
The automaton will fight up close to the battle target at all times.
Bonus: the automaton will recieve EVA Bonus, ATT Bonus, and ACC bonus
Negative: lose defense and magic defense.
Recast: 30 seconds

Defensive Paradym
The automaton will fight up close at all times. During this paradym he will have an active Cover (taking all dmg from those behind him same as PLD). However the Automaton cannot fight during this time.
Bonuses: recieves Physical DMG taken down, MDT down, and defense bonus, Shield block bonus, and enmity bonus.
Negatives: Cannot attack during this paradym.

Healer Paradym
The Automaton will stand at max distance from battle target. During this paradym, it will only cast healing magic.
Bonuses: The automaton will recieve recast time down for curing spells will be reduced and curing potency bonus to pet
Negatives: it cannot attack/use any other spell besides healing magic.

These are really a rough idea of what I mean, but my hopes would be for paradyms to act as pet commands (Similar to manuevers) so that instead of us having to resituate our pet away from mobs with strong AoEs or trying to reposition RNG pet up close when he stands back and fights from afar, or even spamming light manuevers to get our pet to cure us only, we can just use a pet command to make him move to where he needs to be, and perform how we need him to during battle.

[Kristal]

The repositioning aspect of Ranged Paradym doesn't work in FFXI, but it should be possible to keep the maton from running into melee range if deployed beyond ranged attack range.

[Absinthe]

At the risk of sounding like a severely broken-beyond-all-repair record... I want to be able to store Automaton Attachment sets for a minimum of 3 different configurations. That is all.

[Bluestar2kx]

Since everyone is throwing ideas here, I thought I would too^^

My idea is a new frame and head for puppetmaster.

Soulreaper

Dark Knight,
Scythe weapon
Dark knight class magic spells list.

This frame would be almost pure DD of course, with a touch of magic like the absorb series (priority based on maneuver, tho maybe an issue for dark I'm not sure)

Being a Dark knight job it would have greater focus on attack power and thus be physically weaker with less HP (Maybe around 1720 at 99), Vit, and Agi then Valoredge, but higher Int, and slightly higher Str, and Dex, and of course a reasonable pool of MP by 99 (Say harlequin's pool size)

Using both head and frame would give +2 to melee skill with a base magic skill. For example, it would give an A+ melee, and C+ magic skill. Which I "think" is inline with stormwaker using the Black mage or White mage head. (Maybe B- magic, difficult to say)

Elemental slots:

Head:
3 fire; 0 wind; 3 thunder; 0 light
2 ice; 2 earth; 0 water; 3 dark

Frame:
4 fire; 2 wind; 3 thunder; 2 light
3 ice; 2 earth; 3 water; 4 dark

I believe that would give a balance to use other heads reasonably as needed, but still maintain the basic stats Soulreaper would give.

This frame would have a 400 delay attack, the head would have a 24 second universal delay, 30 second elemental, a 36 second enfeebling, and 27 second dark magic delay. He's meant to melee afterall, with magic on the side.

Figuring out magic priorities are a bit harder, partly due to the fact I've never leveled Dark knight lol. And also because of how the casting AI would sort them, esp the absorb spells.

It's also harder to say if this frame should have access to some of the Valoredge WS's for ease of programming and ability, plus the shared slashing damage base, or a completely new set. Personally I lean towards the latter for more dazzling effect, and sake of freshness^^

A couple of skill based attachments would be nice as well.

Like Weapon bash, souleater, and nether void. Perhaps slightly altered and renamed to fit the automation, esp souleater.

Edited: After careful consideration, I decided why the frame would have 7 dark slots, which is as follows:

Souleater would be a dark element, as well as nether void, and use 3 dark slots.

Souleater would have a duration of 30s, with a cooldown time of about 5 minutes. This puts it a little bit faster then the Drk skill, but this also has a shorter duration too.

I would say drains about 8% HP for 4% boost in damage. This would blend well with the shorter duration and cooldown I think, while still giving a respectable damage boost, and having a accuracy boost of about 15. This would obviously favor dark maneuvers, and thus be activated by such, I would say 2 dark would force activation.


Nether Void, also a dark slot skill, taking up 2 slots.

It would have a duration of 1 minute, with a 3 minute cooldown. (I say 3 instead of 5 due to the limited way of curing an automation vs an actual player.) It would give a flat boost of 65% to all appropriate spells. This would take only 1 dark maneuver to trigger activation. (this could help with souleater.)

The Soulreaper head would prioritize spells used with Nether void based on HP > MP > Damage.
Basically, if HP is low, it will use drain (the highest tier available) after using nether void, following by Aspir, then absorb spells to boost damage output (favoring Absorb-attri, STR or TP and adjustable by maneuvers active.)


Weapon bash, would be thunder based, taking up 1 slot.

It would of course be instant, with a 3 minute cooldown, and function much like the Drk skill, and hammermill attachment. Causing an increase in damage scaling with greater thunder maneuvers active.