Issue with Soulsoother healing

Hello there,

So i'm fairly new to the job - but it's my understanding that 'cure' should be learned at 12 skill. I currently have 17 skill (with merits), and the following attachment setup:
Percolator
Optic Fiber
Optic Fiber II
Tactical Processor
Mana Booster
Power Cooler
Tranquilizer II
Economizer
Mana Tank II
Damage Gauge
Damage Gauge II
Mana Jammer IV

but Serenade refuses to cast anything other than Dia. It was my understanding that with merits, you'd have access to whatever spells should be available with your new merited skill level. Is this not the case anymore?

Don't think that's the case, no. How do you have merits and only 12 skill?

your attachment list confuses me more though. most of that has nothing to do with healing. without the appropriate attachment your hp has to be very low before it will cast cure.

Which frame set up are you using?
Which maneuvers are you activating when deploying Serenade?
Your skill level helps the automaton decide upon "heal you, or incapacitate enemy from hurting you"
Most all your attachments having nothing that will help it decide to heal you.

This looks like a classic case of "Please someone help level me up to higher level so i can play job at higher level, but i didn't learn HOW to play the job whilst leveling up and so my game mechanics, skills, and pet's abilities are funk since they never got used. Help me do better but I don't want to do anything."

Hint: go out and kill LOTS of bunnies, goblins, and sheep in West Ronfaure if the level of the automaton is 12. Well, actually deploy your robot to do the work and you sit back and hopefully the robot's skill level might go up.
Are you using Water Maneuver and Light Maneuver when Percolator and Optic Fibers are active? Did you know they activate and work more actively when the same maneuver is active that matches the element of the attachment?
Your robot will not learn skills or spells until the BASE SKILL LEVEL is a certain amount, not Skill & merits. Example: Your robot's "natural" skill level is 4.4 and with merits reaches 14. Don't plan on it learning a Cure spell for another 8+ more levels. Got it?

Sadly Puppetmaster is one of those jobs you HAVE to use over & over grinding to make the job useful. Get over that sad point or move on to another job if unwilling to work at it.
Sorry if i sound irritated, but I became a PUP when it was released on Day #1. I had to figure out EVERYTHING by myself as we had ZERO online help on the job AAAAND everyone else thought PUP was a joke when it came out, until some friends saw me soloing. I took so many notes and helped write nearly all of ffxiclopedia's pup page. So you're welcome, but go play the job and see what changes in your menus before you go asking for help. It's what we HAD TO DO before there was any help; we helped ourselves.

There is an issue with mage builds on automatons currently. I reported this recently.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/t...9-stop-casting

It keeps casting one or two spells then only stands around after.

Hell, I just noticed my turtle build won't provoke or flash in the same area too

In order for many attachments to "activate", you must "turn on" their appropriate maneuver.
Having [Flashbulb] equipped on automaton, using [Light Maneuver] will make it use Flash when it doesn't have most enmity, or if you are in orange/red HP zone.
Using [Ice Maneuver] when in a mage build robot will "encourage it" to use more magic spells when correct attachments are equipped. More Ice = more encouragement.... to a point.
Try those.

So, just to update here - after a lot of testing it looks like the issue is with having both Damage Gauge attachments equipped at once.
Removing one of them solved the issue entirely. Not sure if a bug, or intended - but that's what it was.