puppetmaster merit's

[Theytak]

It's also worth noting that, in addition to no longer needing magic skill merits to acquire spells, with how the tiering works out, 5/5 range skill at the 99 cap (combined with cirque pantaloni +2) bumps up sharpshots base damage tier twice, resulting in a base damage boost of 9.

Since people don't seem to be aware of it/remember reading it, I tested it a while back with some help from Byrth; for sharpshot, weapon damage = (floor(automaton ranged skill * 0.11) * 3), so 135 base damage at 99 cap, +10 skill from pants bumps it up to 138, and with 10 more from merits, you get +3 dmg at +1 skill, and +3 more again at +10, for 144 weapon damage.

For the record sharpshot's fSTR has a ludicrously high cap, to the point that I needed ~100 str to cap it against bunnies in w.ron. Also, its ranged attack damage is also modified by dex, though not to the same degree as str. Basically sharpshot's ranged attack is a ranged ws with a dex mod.



....hmmm, I never did get around to figuring out valoredge's weapon damage calc, but given how fucking painful it is to force crits with valoredge, I don't know if I ever will, beyond number crunching based on experience and realistic expectations, lol

edit to clarify:

Mandatory: If these aren't merited, I don't care how you play pup, you did it wrong.
5/5 melee skill
5/5 Opt
3/5 FT

Best for damage:
5/5 Ranged skill

Situational:
5/5 Magic Skill if you don't ever use sharpshot and/or really think you need the tiny boost in m.acc

Debatable:
1/5 Vent 1/5 RR vs 5/5 FT; some people seem to make due without vent/rr, though I personally have no fucking idea how, so your mileage may vary here.

[tendo64]

So I'm basically getting that Automaton magic skill does nothing for nuke damage beyond macc, is that correct? I don't know how, but I managed to convince myself it added potency in some way.

[Theytak]

So I'm basically getting that Automaton magic skill does nothing for nuke damage beyond macc, is that correct? I don't know how, but I managed to convince myself it added potency in some way.

melee skill sets melee base damage, ranged skill sets ranged base damage, but those are both the case because the puppet has no actual weapon with which to derive a base damage. Nukes work the same for puppets and players, the puppet just substitutes "Automaton Magic Skill" where it would otherwise use "Elemental Magic Skill" in the accuracy checks.

[Zhronne]

Well, I suppose the added accuracy could come in handy after the debuff reform, since debuffs will actually stick.
Altough our automatons don't really have a huge array of debuffs, but they can be nice while soloing, once you can actually rely on them on stuff that matters.