New Frames please?

[Balloon]

Your summary of why and how pup is a bad job is inaccurate, somewhat uninformed, and demonstrates that you probably don't know much about FFXI math. Pup is not a top tier melee DD, no, we'll never out damage a mnk or a war, unless KKK get involved, but that's a separate issue, but we can easily keep up with and out pace non pure DD jobs, like thf, dnc, nin, bst, etc. We're far from the worst DD job, atm, we're sitting sort of around lower-middle.

That paragraph was ambiguous, but it's meant to be with high level content in mind. I still think pup is a bad job for the current relevant content, but not the worst. Our innately lower attack, accuracy and the cycle delay added with the use of Maneuvers really damages our offensive output. Right off the bat we're at a disadvantage from having a lower pdif, being penalised more heavily by level correction and requiring more accuracy to cap our hit rate. When geared similarly to a mnk (http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/260946) our hitrate is uncapped against Qilin (something like 75+((540-480)/2)+2x(Level Difference) if bg is to be believed) at around 80%, which includes Aggressor and Stalwarts. It's not the worst dps, but given the same buffs jobs can pull about 200ish dps ahead. That's where our pets should closing the gap.

I'm not proficient with FF math, but I have a very basic understanding of it, enough so that I know what to gear towards and what stats effect what.

In the context of VW, and other endgamish content I'd consider THF DNC NIN BST etc to be bad jobs too.

There's not a lot of fodder content as it stands. PUP/THF is great in dynamis, but I think I'd rather take an equally well geared DNC/THF or BST/DNC. I think discussions of endgame content is more pertinent, consider that the game is currently largely focused on that content.

That stands for most 1h classes, we get absolutely slaughtered with ratio and level correction.

[Theytak]

Stuff about attachments

I agree that SE needs to realize that we only have so many elemental slots, and that some of the attachments they've given us are made useless by the combination of that, and what's necessary for the puppet to be viable in certain situations (ex: needing target marker and stab 2 in order for VE, or especially sharpshot, to have any melee acc at all). However, I don't necessarily agree with your opinion on the Job trait attachments. Barrier module's blocking effect should be innate, yes, however, the rest of them are designed to function as a trade off, and they work the same way as player gear does. You can't use double attack/crit gear if you don't have enough acc/haste to make it worthwhile. That's an issue with elemental slots, not the attachments themselves.

I do agree about the redundancy of damage gauge, but remember that it was released as one of our original attachments, several months before soulsoother/spiritreaver came into being, and actually does serve a purpose for stormwaker, whose innate cure trigger is 30% HP. Or was. I can't remember if they changed it. That said, both damage gauge and scanner fall into the category of "should have been built in" and in the cases of soulsoother and spiritreaver, they are (soulsoother technically has damage gauge built in, due to it's higher cure triggers, and spiritreaver has scanner built in, evidenced by the many bugs over the years that were a result of equipping it with scanner), however, scanner should be innate on -all- magic puppets, not just the one that doesn't cast enfeebles without tearing its arm out of its socket.

Stuff about Mage pets

The issue with Soulsoother's MP inefficiency is less of an issue of attachments, because those are optional, and more of it's still terrible healing AI that is about as intelligent as a 2004 Valkurm Dunes WHM. "YOU'RE MISSING HP! OMGBIGGESTCUREIHAVEGO!" is not very intelligent. That said, as much as I would absolutely love for our puppets to get cureskin, there's absolutely no way in hell SE would ever do that. We already step on whm's toes too much for them as it is.

I definitely agree with the support deploy idea, though, and I proposed it in another thread. However, for it to really benefit the buffing, it would also require that they get rid of the incredibly stupid "Only casts buffs on the master, then whoever has hate" restriction. The puppet's not picky with -nas or cures, but trying to get it to pro/shell/haste/regen someone that isn't tanking is impossible. I wouldn't mind seeing the "Only cast regen if the monster checks DC+" restriction abolished either, because it's pointless and annoying.

Stuff about heads/frames and animators

I disagree with you on the heads = JTs idea. It'd be way too messy to implement, because it would require reworking them so that using non-matching head/frame combos didn't completely suck 90% of the time. It's not a matter of minor changes, so much as "completely redesigning the method behind which automatons operate," which is absolutely not something I want SE doing. Fixing issues with the AI is one thing, but mucking with the spaghetti code could cause permanent damage they forget/decide not to fix, and it's not remotely worth the risk, for how little the benefit would be.

Also worth noting, even though animators prevent us from using ammo, we don't exactly have a wonderful range of nice TP ammo pieces anyway, so we're not missing out on a great deal. The bigger problem with the animators is that there's absolutely no difference between them, aside from how much their hidden +dex stat gives; except animator +1 and it's nice little HP/MP boost. I'd much rather they add some obvious benefits to using the different animators, or too upgrading them, than have them muck around with stuff that doesn't need fixing.

That said, I do agree that poor harle needs some love.

Silly nonsense about pup being a bad job

As I mentioned, pup hardly "Pales in comparison to every other melee." Pup is not designed to be able to out damage jobs like mnk, war, sam, drk, drg, or rng, because those jobs are designed almost entirely to focus on damage output. It would be horribly unfair if any job could out damage one of them, while also being able to perform some other ability significantly well. Among the jobs that split their roles, like pup does, pup is one of the stronger melee DDs, if not the strongest (it's really a toss up with dnc, and depends heavily on gear). Mind you, none of us can compete with blu for sheer damage output, but in terms of melee damage, pup's ahead of most of the remaining jobs. Yes, this does rely on our pet to a degree, however, we are not like bsts; the majority of our damage comes from us, not our pet. For a bst, the player supports their pet. For a pup, the pet supports the player.

Of course, everything changes at high haste, but every JA heavy job suffers in high haste, not just us. The only reason we're always ignored in zerg situations is that, unlike jobs like blu, dnc, or thf, we don't exactly have much to bring to the table that someone else can't do better. We lack a unique "draw" that secures us a spot in the alliance, when whm heals better, blm nukes better, and we're not a heavy DD. Dnc has haste samba, debuffing steps, and respectable damage output. Thf has treasure hunter and doesn't need anything else to get its slot. Blu has it's handful of stuns, as well as it's sheer magic damage output. Bst is in the same situation we are, and they honestly even have it worse, because they don't even have an option like Kenkonken, which can put us on par with the heavy DDs.

Pup is, in no way, a bad job, however. It has it's quirks and annoying bits, but so does every other job (except sam and whm). There's nothing poorly executed about being able to drop a 1-2k (outside abyssea) ws and a 2-3k T5 nuke at the same time, or a Cure V. Lord knows neither whm nor blm could out melee us. Our biggest problem right now is not so much that we lack anything, but that there's nothing in the game except fucking zergs. Every job has a weak event, and for pup, it's zergs. Hopefully, within a year or so, we'll have moved away from every single event being 4x emp war/mnks+2x schs for embrava, and when that happens, pup will find its niche again.

[Balloon]

Our biggest problem right now is not so much that we lack anything, but that there's nothing in the game except fucking zergs. Every job has a weak event, and for pup, it's zergs.

This, more than anything, is what I was trying to articulate. I just don't see SE moving away from that style of content. I think the jobs should be changed to be more conducive to that play style, rather than hoping they add events that those jobs do excel at.

Also worth noting, even though animators prevent us from using ammo, we don't exactly have a wonderful range of nice TP ammo pieces anyway, so we're not missing out on a great deal.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item/19779/potestas-bomblet -

http://www.ffxiah.com/item/19764/demonry-core -

http://www.ffxiah.com/item/19249/thew-bomblet

http://www.ffxiah.com/item/19769/mantis-eye

We're an attack starved job, just remember that this is 15 attack we're losing ON TOP of mnk, dnc etc

I agree that animators need to have a function beyond DEX and Pet:HP. Pet bonuses ideally. At the very, very least it should allow us to equip ammo on top of an animator.

There's nothing poorly executed about being able to drop a 1-2k (outside abyssea) ws and a 2-3k T5 nuke at the same time

Yes, but if you're looking for pure damage against fodder content I'm inclined to say that Sharpshot would do better (Just pedantry.) This is fairly moot for endgame, Recasts and pet AI that is too stupid to pull off a lot of sequential nukes. It's problematic keeping enough maneuvers on to be able to do consistently high damage; it shreds into your DPS and DAD is less viable thanks to pets standing in AoE range.

I disagree with you on the heads = JTs idea

I honestly didn't think that was reasonable. We're talking about a developer that is too lazy to implement more Macro slots. It's unviable. I like the idea hypothetically though.

However, I don't necessarily agree with your opinion on the Job trait attachments. Barrier module's blocking effect should be innate, yes, however, the rest of them are designed to function as a trade off

I agree to an extent, sure, that doesn't preclude having individual traits though. I'm not sure where counter would fit, but Double attack should be innate within the Valoredge frame, then expanded upon, they should all have a small amount of acc boosts, the Blackmage frame could have a small amount of Magic Attack. It'd ease the reliance on those attachments slightly.

Ultimately it is an issue with Elemental Capacity and slots. Unless we're looking at something magically groundbreaking though we're not gonna exchange an ice slot on the blackmage frame for some fast cast. If they're insistent on adding these they need put them on slots previously unused by auto (For instance Mage attachments on Fire slots.) It wouldn't make sense with how it currently is, but it's the only way I see it being viable without changing things up.

Kenkoken stuff

Kenkoken makes us more competitive to players without a mythic, but I don't think that's a fair comparison.

Silly nonsense about pup being a bad job

I wouldn't say that it's silly nonsense, but instead a miscommunication on my behalf. I've changed the content of that post to reflect that. I was having a discussion about the merits of PUP on high level content such as legion and Voidwatch, but failed to make that clear. My apologies. I would agree that pup is not the worst job and has certain niches where it does well.

it is time to allow outside buffs to hit pets. Job Ability Idea: Emulate - Copies beneficial effects from Player to Automaton (Including Temporary Items).
I hear the balance bell chiming, but frankly PUP is currently useless on any high level content. Anything requiring Embrava (NNI) and even on fodder content is largely outclassed by other jobs. This would put us closer to other jobs. I doubt highly it would let us surpass SAM WAR or DRK

This is the point I wanted to stress the most. Pet jobs should be about their pet. I know the master can outperform the auto, but they're supposed to work in unison. If the pet could do 2/3 of the damage the player can do now we'd be competitive. Hell 1/2 would go quite a way to making us viable.