Geomancer design confusion.

[Alhanelem]

PUPs road to being decent was a lot more gradual than you let on, but otherwise its mostly accurate. PUP is thoroughly viable now but in a manner similar to DRG will probably never fully recover from its stigma.

I think GEO is probably being sold a little short, but nobody really wants to be the guinea pig- the total cost for all the scrolls from the vendors is over 8 mil and you'll probably only use a handful of them.

[leorez]

PUPs road to being decent was a lot more gradual than you let on, but otherwise its mostly accurate. PUP is thoroughly viable now but in a manner similar to DRG will probably never fully recover from its stigma.

I think GEO is probably being sold a little short, but nobody really wants to be the guinea pig- the total cost for all the scrolls from the vendors is over 8 mil and you'll probably only use a handful of them.

after seeing those NPC spell number i got a shiver down my spine. After all these years do they not yet get that they should be at least mildly affordable. Not everyone is walking around with double digit mils in their pockets.

[Sparthos]

PUPs road to being decent was a lot more gradual than you let on, but otherwise its mostly accurate. PUP is thoroughly viable now but in a manner similar to DRG will probably never fully recover from its stigma.

Road to being decent? Having leveled PUP in the thick of that nightmare, the improvements to PUP didn't come for a long time after its launch. Sure, there were attachments that improved PUPs viability... at EXP level content but SE was sure to put that behind The Ashu Talif - an extremely obscure BCNM that few people ran. The crippling H2H issues were fixed a bit by being given Stringing Pummel but there was a long time where the best PUP could do is Dragon Kick or more importantly the improved Howling Fist but PUP still boasted mage-level combat skills in an era where even A+ DD wouldbe calling upon sushi depending on scenario.

Dynamis brought better AF equipment but still most of it was situational and in no way near as useful as what BLU or COR was getting. BLU started off on Homam, a fantastic melee set for its day on day 1 and quickly found itself on numerous leather sets while also straddling mage gear. What did PUP get? Usukane at the peak of its rarity and Pahluhan gear which was expensive and required mastery of Assault missions to amass enough points to purchase it. PUPs AH DD gear choices were horrible, the backpiece issues still bother me to this day (no Amemet+1 for you!) and overall you had to put so much effort into PUP to make it workable.

That doesn't even get to the rage inducing feeling when you call your Automaton, an Imp decides to amnesia you then unleash AOE attacks on your pet killing it and having you waiting on a 20min timer. Thanks SE, I always wanted to play Puppetmaster without an automaton 90% of the time because the thing falls over in a light breeze.

Now Abyssea fixed alot of these issues with massive improvements to gear selection, the rightful combat skill improvements adjustment, deus ex machina, the increase to skill gain for PUP, haste gear, better oils, the maintenance JA, weapons equal to MNK, better weaponskills for the automaton and the crucial AI adjustments but that was YEARS after the job launched and even today PUP is still relegated to the sidelines because the puppet is weak, still dies too fast, JA delay hobbles the master and what is brought to the table can be done better by others.

I stand by statement that PUP flailed around in its own feces for a long time only to get radical adjustments in the Abyssean era. Almost everything attributed to "todays PUP" is a result of the 75-99 circuit.