Upcomming changes

[Roja323]

[dev1249] Job Adjustments
Puppetmasters will undergo the following adjustments.
The soulsoother head will now cast Protectra and Shellra instead of Protect and Shell.
The stormwaker head will now cast Shell and Protect on the automaton.

The soulsoother and stormwaker heads will now cast enhancement magic spells in the following order of priority.

Soulsoother
Haste will be cast after Protectra and Shellra.
Stormwaker
Haste will be cast after Protect and Shell.

The following attachments will undergo adjustments.
Tactical Processor The increased likelihood of overloading will be removed.

Attuner &Target Markers -These attachment will function properly in high-tier battlefields and Wanted battles.


The job point category “Automaton Max HP Bonus” will be changed to “Automaton HP and MP Bonus.”
Increases the maximum HP and MP of automatons.
Increase maximum HP by 10 and MP by 5.

In accordance with the above change, the job point category "Automaton Max MP Bonus" will be changed to "Activate Effect."
Decreases the automaton's burden when Activate or Deus Ex Automata is used.
Decrease burden by 1.


Not a horrible set of adjustments, will make redmage a decent contender for solo pet now. I was kinda hoping -burden would be increased capacity, since that category is now 100% useless with cool down/maneuver macros/mythic.

I still have never even noticed a difference with tactical processor so overload or not, im not sure id ever want to use it anyways. Our pets pretty much cast a spell as soon as the cool down timer is up, and TP doesnt over ride global cooldowns so no real point imho.

The real bread and butter...attuner/target marker working again. Will be nice to not need a pet with 1300 acc to do events.

[Gekuz]

I think that haste update is pretty important, since right now before getting haste you could have killed tons of monster without have it on you, since our delay is pretty high without a mythic this update will make solo pretty easyer.

Btw i think that the main problem of the puppet is still there, the automaton doesn't do enough WS damage and his response to TP es extremely slow. If we don't consider the rng one with his high damage ws (that in the modern game are pretty weak because a 2-3k ws in a high tier battlefield is pretty nothing if we consider the damage a BLU a SAM or even a THF right now) Harlequin and Valoredge are pretty useles and even worst is the BLM the power of his nuke is extremely low (i think that this issue will be solved when they will fix elemental magic).

Sometimes i wonder why the main ws of the magic forms is Magic Mortar, and why they don't change it to Knockout, it's not very powerfull but it's pretty better than M.M. if we consider that RDM and WHM Automaton heals themselves and most of the time they had full or semi full life when they use a WS.

And.... i ask.... BST got new Pets.... SMN new Avatars... Why can't we get finaly a new automaton... something like an heavy DD an automaton grabbing a Great Katana or some sort of high damage weapon... would it be nice...

[Roja323]

Bst always gets new pets

Smn didnt get new avatars, they got new blood packs. The atmos avatar they got was promised to them like 4 years ago.

But yes i would love a mnk or sam or war pet that is ment for close range DD instead of a rng pet.

[Nezha]

I must say I didn't see Protectra/Shellra coming... I hate to go a mile whenever SquareEnix gives us an inch, but with the addition of Protectra/Shellra to Soulsoother we are one step closer to living up to the Development Team's job concept of Puppetmaster: 'Being comfortable in almost any situation.' For a long time now Puppetmasters have been and NEEDED to be good soloers, because you just were not going to get a party invite for experience point parties years ago and definitely endgame, and even to date that can still be the case. I don't mind being third or fourth string, but I think it is time we get to play on the proverbial team. Wouldn't it be great if Curagas were added to Soulsoother making it competitve enough as a healer in alliance events such that the average player might go, "Hey, there are no White Mages or Scholars replying to my shout, but there is a Puppetmaster, who is a reputable player interested in joining..." Or "Hey, we've been shouting for an hour for a Paladin or a Rune Fencer, but there is a Puppetmaster with a well geared Valoredge Frame that could tank for us!!" Or "Hey I can't find any mythic or relic Rangers for Ark Angel HM, but my friend is a pretty solid Puppetmaster and his Sharpshot frame could keep up with your run of the mill ranger." You get the point, not only would that open up three new avenues for the job, it would save lots of time for events due to Vana'diel's dwindling population.

I'm not suggesting that any ol' Puppetmaster should be able to waltz right in and outright displace the main jobs for specific roles, but I would like to see us competitive enough to be considered. To achieve this aim I think the following adjustments would be feasible for future updates:

-Adding Curagas to Soothsoother Head
-Adding more enmity gear and/or attachments to Puppetmasters when making tier III attachments for tanking purposes
-Adding Double or Triple shot ability to Sharpshot head only, for balance, with activation similar to Shield Bash's association with Valoredge Frame. Also adding full TP return from Barrage Turbine.
-Adding Refresh II to Stormwaker Head, and allowing it to cast Refresh II/Haste II on others depending on their job only if Water Maneuver is active. Also adding Frazzle/Distract for debuffing capabilities solo or in groups

I would make suggestions for Spiritreaver and Harlequin, but Spiritreavers is not even close to competing with a Black Mage, and Harlequin is a long way from being useful, but I still think it should be.

I'm glad the HP and MP job point categories are being combined, but the addition of the burden reduction from Activate/Deus would only be used to obtain gifts after all other categories are maxed, said another way: it is absolutely useless. I do understand it is so if we spent job points on Automaton Max MP Bonus, there would be something to carry our points over to, but granted there are only so many categories you are going to make for each job please just remove it or put a placeholder for future update.

If there is any puppetmaster that would like this over any other possibility like automaton enmity augmentation (+ for melee/-for mages), automaton damage taken-%, Stout Servant augmentation, hell even Activation Recast (and yes I know it's already in merits), PLEASE reply with "thumbs down". If you'd like to see it replaced or removed for addition of something better in future update please like this post. I really do want this changed and I want a way for DEVs to see what the community thinks about it.

[Glamdring]

I like the update, only 1 issue, the job points. The HP adjustment being automatically carried over to HP/MP is fine, I can't imagine a pup having issues with this as you are just improving the category. But the MP points going automatically to Activate/burden reduction I do have issues with. The two are not even remotely related and so pups may wish to retask them to something more valuable, although not sure what since I 1st heard about this 2 minutes ago. and if they do want them in Activate it's the work of a few seconds to spend them again. I just think we deserve the choice.

[Roja323]

Well no decent pup would have put points into mp before the other more useful categories were done. Thanks do Deactivate activate deploy, mp was never really an issue, and 100 mp was nothing amazing that was going to magically fix our mages....100 mab+macc....maybe, but not mp.

[Roja323]

Then again, burden is never an issue either with cooldown + emp+2 body/jsecape/af gloves, so not really sure what the point of this new ja is gonna do.

[Halldir]

BTW since they changed the behaviour of the heads, Harlequin Body is now a consideration as useful combo. /checkparam go :) Your Automaton can gain the effects of pro/shell.

WHM Head Harly Body no attachments.

P.Acc 449 / P.Atk 568
Aux Acc 0 / Aux Atk 0
R.Acc 0 / R.Atk 0
Eva 439 / Def 349

Change with Protect 5
Eva 439 / Def 602

Whm head/Mage body

P.Acc 433 / P.Atk 545
Aux Acc 0 / Aux Atk 0
R.Acc 0 / R.Atk 0
Eva 351 / Def 275

Change with Protect 5
Eva 351 / Def 493

[sweetidealism]

I'm glad the HP and MP job point categories are being combined, but the addition of the burden reduction from Activate/Deus would only be used to obtain gifts after all other categories are maxed, said another way: it is absolutely useless. I do understand it is so if we spent job points on Automaton Max MP Bonus, there would be something to carry our points over to, but granted there are only so many categories you are going to make for each job please just remove it or put a placeholder for future update.

If there is any puppetmaster that would like this over any other possibility like automaton enmity augmentation (+ for melee/-for mages), automaton damage taken-%, Stout Servant augmentation, hell even Activation Recast (and yes I know it's already in merits), PLEASE reply with "thumbs down". If you'd like to see it replaced or removed for addition of something better in future update please like this post. I really do want this changed and I want a way for DEVs to see what the community thinks about it.

+1'd. Yes to everything you said.

Similarly, the Repair category is also useless. PUP does not need a new mechanic for restoring MP because we can and will just deactivate and activate again. I would LOVE to see an automaton damage taken and/or stout servant category. There's a clear reason for why Automaton HP was and remains the most popular category: the pets need to be more durable. If they spend most of the fight dead, then we're basically just a really bad MNK.

(The player itself could stand to be more durable too, but that's a separate subject.)

[Marada]

We've just received a great update for the PUP community. I think we should let some of their idea's we don't agree with be known, but let's not push hard for them to fix it 100%. Let them fix another job and see if we can get them on a rotation so they can start fixing all the problems, instead of jumping all over the place.

[Roja323]

Pure speculation based on previous tiers of attachments.

Strobe II ( gonna assume +10/15/20/25 enmity, Uses provoke every 30s)
Tension Spring III: 3/6/9/12 ->6/9/12/15-> 9/12/15/18%

Loudspeaker III: 5/10/15/20 -> 10/15/20/25-> 15/20/25/30
Tranquilizer II: 30/40/50/60 (hopeful it would be 30/60/90/120)

Accelerator III: 5/10/15/20 -> 10/15/20/25-> 15/20/25/30
Scope II: 20/30/40/50 (hopeful it would be 20/40/60/80)

Shock Absorber III: (assuming this is a typo and means II), stronger stoneskin, every 2 minutes (instead of 3)
Armor Plate III: 5/7.5/10/15 -> 10/15/20/25 -> 15/20/25/30

Stabilizer III: 5/10/15/20 -> 10/15/20/25-> 15/20/25/30
Coiler II: 3/10/20/30 -> 10/20/30/40

Mana Jammer III: 10/20/30/40 -> 20/30/40/50 -> 30/40/50/60
Stealth Screen II : -10/20/30/40 -> -20/30/40/50

Auto-Repair Kit III: hp + 6.3->12.5 ->18% , VE regen at 3 x light 13->39->65

Mana Tank III: Mp + 4 -> 8 -> 12%, Refresh 0/2/4/7 -> 0/4/7/9 -> 0/7/9/11


General thoughts:
Acc/eva/mag acc/mab all seem to be rather meh if they keep the same upgrade pattern as they are not % based.

Clear winners:
Tension spring 3
Armor plate 3
Coiler 2
Mana jamer
auto repair 3
mana tank 3

Why? they are all % based and scale better with levels

[Bluestar2kx]

I definitely like the addition of tier 3 attachments, but I don't know how we're going to fit them, tier 3 will likely take up to 4 element slots, which leaves us precious few elemental slots for additional items.

Hopefully their planning to increase the elemental slot caps in this update too, so we can better manage tier 2 and 3 attachment installations without making too many sacrifices. I get that they have to balance it so we don't become uber powerful (god forbid) by stacking everything, but at the same time, we need to be able to work a bit more with our attachments to strike the points we need for given situations, if we stay capped at 7 slots at most, we're won't be able to fit much else to do that.

[Glamdring]

I definitely like the addition of tier 3 attachments, but I don't know how we're going to fit them, tier 3 will likely take up to 4 element slots, which leaves us precious few elemental slots for additional items.

Hopefully their planning to increase the elemental slot caps in this update too, so we can better manage tier 2 and 3 attachment installations without making too many sacrifices. I get that they have to balance it so we don't become uber powerful (god forbid) by stacking everything, but at the same time, we need to be able to work a bit more with our attachments to strike the points we need for given situations, if we stay capped at 7 slots at most, we're won't be able to fit much else to do that.

that was my exact concern. however with them not fixing the scaling to 119 for casting, DPS, etc. I don't see it as an issue, we aren't getting any invite love now and we won't after the update either.

[Nezha]

I am really hoping Shock Absorber II is Phalanx instead of SS like I proposed many posts ago, one so there isn't attachment overlap, two because it blocks more damage over time, and three because there is 87.5% pet DT cap, it would help 0 out damage on Valoredge. I also wonder if strobe I and II will have seperate cast times such as one being provoke and the other being animated flourish.

[dasva]

I hope in being able to put on all 3 armor plates at the same time.... most conservative estimates would still put you at 70% pdt with 3 maneuvers quite possibly a bit more... all of that stacking with gear, stout servant and autos native small dt.

[Roja323]

Problem is, if your using 3x earth, your missing out on acc/atk/haste, and theres no point in sending a pet in to take little dmg and deal little dmg. Id prefer fire/wind/thunder for haste/atk/acc.

I guess if you wanted to pet solo something turtle style maybe.

[Marada]

With these new attachments they open up the realm of being able to customize our automatons again in order to keep up with today's higher level content. I would say that we have the best chance of actually getting in to stuff or at least doing well on our own to get what we need.

[Bluestar2kx]

Problem is, if your using 3x earth, your missing out on acc/atk/haste, and theres no point in sending a pet in to take little dmg and deal little dmg. Id prefer fire/wind/thunder for haste/atk/acc.

I guess if you wanted to pet solo something turtle style maybe.

Sacrifices.
Sometimes running in guns blazing is not the best option, even though thats what the community typically chooses to do.
I can't speak for Adoulin content as I don't do it yet, but often times, if I'm facing a tougher fight then normal, I have my automation tank and I cover her, it's safer then both of us going in at full power and taking so much dmg left and right that we can't survive due to the damage being given out is not greater then being received relative to the monsters HP.

If you're in a group with a dedicated tank, or other party setup where your pet tanking isn't need, or fighting weaker monsters where taking less dmg is not important as dealing the most, then yes, 3 earth would be a bit pointless then. But that's the beauty of pup, it's adaptable to situations.
(If only we had a quick way to equip attachment setups >< so we could dismiss/deploy faster with a new set.)

[Nezha]

Valoredge should be overcapping PDT (87.5%) already with 3 maneuvers, innate PDT, and gear, next update allows him to cap in 2 maneuvers or less if Roja's speculations are correct.

Total: 91% PDT (87.5% Cap):

Armor Plate I&II: 15-40%
Innate+Stout Servant III (99): 15%
Gear: 36%
(SoA ring(3)/isa belt(3)/shepherds chain(2)/magian H2H(11)/MKD head(10)/handler's earring(3)/handler's earring +1 (4))

[Nezha]

Assuming Roja is right and you can equip all three attachments after spending job points on capacities:
1 earth maneuver= 42.5%
Innate/Stout= 15%
Gear= 25~36% depending on H2H (Ohrmazd pet PDT might be useful over magian)
Total:82.5~87.5%
You'd still be able to use wind/Fire for DPS/enmity and other gear slots for master's DPS or capping pet haste, which will make him a very viable tank.

[Nezha]

I'm pretty confident that Shock Abs. II will be phalanx, but if not I hope it has separate cast time than SA I. I'm pretty satisfied on what this update will do for Valoredge, assuming everything above holds true. Now Soulsoother needs Curagas, Stormwaker needs Refresh II/Frazzle II/Distract II/Dia III/Slow II/Blind II/Paralyze II, and ability to haste II/Refresh II others under water maneuver, Sharpshot needs correct TP return from Barrage Turbine, double shot attachment, and increase in base ranged attack damage, Spiritreaver needs increased magic damage or nuking AI for balance, and Harlequin needs a lot of work.

[Marada]

Nezha, you sir are a person asking for something that SE will probably never give us. Nuking AI for our BLM puppet? I only bring out my BLM pup when I want to BS around in abyssea for fun. Which is a shame I should probably be finding better uses for it, but I'm a failPUP at the moment. So far the only two frames I've been using were Sharpshot and Stormwaker. Which sucks because I really want to use my Valoredge but I can't keep it alive long enough to do anything, that and it's cannibal blade just isn't getting the HP return that I need it too.

[Nezha]

You should make a Cannibal Blade set, I have most of my sets posted on ffxiah, I get anywhere from 850-1000+ from it. Beside that I was only stating options of how to improve frames going forward with the ultimate goal of making us useful in a party setting, could just as easily give Spititreaver higher magic dmg to balance out what a BLM could do spamming Stone over time.

[dasva]

Problem is, if your using 3x earth, your missing out on acc/atk/haste, and theres no point in sending a pet in to take little dmg and deal little dmg. Id prefer fire/wind/thunder for haste/atk/acc.

I guess if you wanted to pet solo something turtle style maybe.

Was just an example of how crazy it could get. Obviously you wouldn't be using 3 since you can gear in enough to make up for the difference at 2. As far as dmg though you could go the cannibal blade spam route which cares much less about acc/att. Though you'd need a dark maneuver since it looks like they forgot about the whole setting auto ws thing they were talking about.

As far as what point is there... well idk plds don't do much dmg but they have a point. Just gotta give it hate somehow and it could be a reasonable tank. decoy works on autos right?

[Glamdring]

Was just an example of how crazy it could get. Obviously you wouldn't be using 3 since you can gear in enough to make up for the difference at 2. As far as dmg though you could go the cannibal blade spam route which cares much less about acc/att. Though you'd need a dark maneuver since it looks like they forgot about the whole setting auto ws thing they were talking about.

As far as what point is there... well idk plds don't do much dmg but they have a point. Just gotta give it hate somehow and it could be a reasonable tank. decoy works on autos right?

so does VS>>Ventriloquy, have a thf SA/TA>>Rudra's Storm you 1st and you might even be able to have your auto hold hate for .867 seconds in a party, or however long it takes the Sam to swing again. Even very good tanks have issues holding hate and I've never seen the word "good" used in association with Valoredge tanking, in fact those kind of ideas are how we got "lol" attached to our abbreviated job name.

Frankly I see a lot more utility for sharpshot or mage autos even with the additional damage reduction on VE, especially for party play with the new attachments as damage or back-up healing/buffing bring more than any alleged tanking by VE, or even using spiritreaver to increase damage variety, he should nuke fairly decent now. If we can get people to add our pet's DPS to our DPS as they should to calculate DPS from the party slot we might even get some party love-I'm not going to hold my breath but it COULD theoretically happen.

[dasva]

so does VS>>Ventriloquy, have a thf SA/TA>>Rudra's Storm you 1st and you might even be able to have your auto hold hate for .867 seconds in a party, or however long it takes the Sam to swing again. Even very good tanks have issues holding hate and I've never seen the word "good" used in association with Valoredge tanking, in fact those kind of ideas are how we got "lol" attached to our abbreviated job name.

Frankly I see a lot more utility for sharpshot or mage autos even with the additional damage reduction on VE, especially for party play with the new attachments as damage or back-up healing/buffing bring more than any alleged tanking by VE, or even using spiritreaver to increase damage variety, he should nuke fairly decent now. If we can get people to add our pet's DPS to our DPS as they should to calculate DPS from the party slot we might even get some party love-I'm not going to hold my breath but it COULD theoretically happen.

OH I didn't mean in a normal melee pt... obviously any kind of tank for anything is useless then lol. Gotta use the right tools for the job. Obviously when I mentioned decoy I was talking about rng pts. Though could be decent in a mostly pet pt. Niche use for sure but then so are tanks in general these days. Still rather nice for those situations is all I'm saying not omg everyone do this all the time