Intelligent Casting Attachment

[Glamdring]

@ Oph, SE has said that it does, not that it seems to USE the thing...

[Camate]

Hello!

Along the lines of “intelligent casting,” I just wanted to add a bit about enhancing magic cast by automatons.

When it comes to the way automatons cast enhancing magic, they prioritize their master’s safety above all else and start out by casting defensive spells first.

There have been some players mentioning that they would like to make haste more of a priority as opposed to stoneskin and phalanx being cast first.

It is definitely possible to change the priority order and additionally we can even make it so the automaton will decide which spell to cast based on the level of the monster you are fighting. So for example, prioritizing stoneskin for stronger monsters and prioritizing haste for monsters evenly matched or below.

With that said, we will be looking into adjustments!

[Mercilessturtle]

Hello!

Along the lines of “intelligent casting,” I just wanted to add a bit about enhancing magic cast by automatons.

When it comes to the way automatons cast enhancing magic, they prioritize their master’s safety above all else and start out by casting defensive spells first.

There have been some players mentioning that they would like to make haste more of a priority as opposed to stoneskin and phalanx being cast first.

It is definitely possible to change the priority order and additionally we can even make it so the automaton will decide which spell to cast based on the level of the monster you are fighting. So for example, prioritizing stoneskin for stronger monsters and prioritizing haste for monsters evenly matched or below.

With that said, we will be looking into adjustments!

Please swap the priority of phalanx and stoneskin. Right now stoneskin comes first. But phalanx makes stoneskin last longer, so it makes more sense to prioritize it. And in particular, the current behavior causes a problem where he'll cast stoneskin, then by the time his next enhancing cast delay is ready, stoneskin has already been worn down and he re-casts it. So he just sits there spamming stoneskin non-stop and never does any other buffs.

[Rafien]

@Camate,

I think you should take this a step further and allow the PUP's set the priority of spells. Like we do with our attachments, we should be able to move items up and down on a list of spells the automaton can cast. That would be interesting and nice to see.

If I'm the soloing, I want my automaton to maintain my health more than haste. Yet, even if it's a difficult mob and I have a WHM in my party, I'll want him to focus on my haste.

I would like to see SE take in a lot more consideration of what the PUP community is offering and looking for.

[Siiri]

Does it seem like an awful lot of time is wasted on fixing pup? With all the updates to the puppetmaster job it just needs to be about no. 20 on the priority list while others are worked on.

[Alhanelem]

Does it seem like an awful lot of time is wasted on fixing pup? With all the updates to the puppetmaster job it just needs to be about no. 20 on the priority list while others are worked on.

Who the heck are you to decide what job should get what level of adjustment priority?

All jobs deserve equal attention.

The whole reason for your reaction anyway, despite the fact that it's silly, is that you view the job as inferior. Wouldn't it be nice if it was brought- in your perception- to the same level as other jobs? And who the heck actually liked that post, when PUP doesn't really get that much attention in the first place?

I, despite strongly disagreeing with the general perception that certain jobs like PUP and SMN are weak and thus undesired for most content, will be the first to acknowledge that there are reasons why people don't include these jobs much- These reasons absolutely should be addressed by SE so that every job has a place in a party beyond "you need this job in the random event that you need it for 1 proc in voidwatch."

Of course, if they got it right on day 1, they wouldn't have had to spend such an allegedly large time "fixing" it.

[Siiri]

It's just that every update they try to fix pup, and apparently it never is fixed and pups still want more. Please look at it objectively and see how jobs are not being fixed equally, its so much focus on pup. Yet it never gets fixed. Didn't we all say last huge pup update, "I hope this is it now and pup is fixed:. Yet there are still complaints. Wasn't there a recent update that totally redid pup AI? Am i mistaken? Did this not happen? Why wasn't this AI fixed then?

[Alhanelem]

It's just that every update they try to fix pup, and apparently it never is fixed and pups still want more. Please look at it objectively and see how jobs are not being fixed equally, its so much focus on pup. Yet it never gets fixed. Didn't we all say last huge pup update, "I hope this is it now and pup is fixed:. Yet there are still complaints. Wasn't there a recent update that totally redid pup AI? Am i mistaken? Did this not happen? Why wasn't this AI fixed then?

Except there isn't that much focus on pup. a couple dev posts does not imply "lots of focus." I AM looking at things objectively, and I'm not seeing all this attention on PUP. There has been little in the way of news in terms of additions and changes to PUP other than these last two dev posts. Its new SP ability was announced, nobody cared or gave any real feedback, and that was that. Many other jobs have been the subject of more buffs, nerfs, and tweaks than PUP has in recent times.

Wasn't there a recent update that totally redid pup AI? Am i mistaken? Did this not happen? Why wasn't this AI fixed then?

They did, and it's a lot better, the problem (at least in my eyes) is that they want us to use attachments to give the automaton functionality it should really have by default. Attachments should be more about giving abilities and boosting stats than simply altering its behavior. For example, on the current topic: Why should we need a special attachment to stop the automaton from doing stupid things no player in their right mind would do (e.g. attempt to silence mobs that can't be silenced, or cast fire on a water based mob)? If they want the player to have to do something to prevent this, than allow us to queue up specific spells for it to cast or something, instead of taking up an automaton equip slot to prevent unintelligent behavior?

(If not for the fact that it would create an inventory disaster, I wish that attachments were like normal equipment items rather than permanently isntalled abilities. It would allow a greater number of them to be created with different stats and such)

In the end, every job has its share of issues. PUP, nor any other job, is any less or more deserving of fixes and improvements than any other job.

I think the best thing SE could do for all pet jobs is to allow the pets to be buffed, healed and supported the same way anyone else can. Pretty much every other MMO out there treats pets almost the same as any character, SE needs to do away with archaic limitations of a bygone era.

[SpankWustler]

I'd compare Puppetmaster to my 92' Corsica. Both require a lot of work because there are core issues that can not be addressed.

Just like I can't afford a new car, the Development Bros can't seem to eliminate Job Ability delay or figure out how to make the puppet actually cast in a way that doesn't somehow remind me of a mentally retarded man pretending to be a half-elf Sorcerer. So, much as I keep replacing weird parts that live out brief, sad lives between my AC and my engine; the Development Bros keep making the puppet less retarded in roundabout ways that never simultaneously address every form of incompetence or inability the automatons practice.

[Glamdring]

It's just that every update they try to fix pup, and apparently it never is fixed and pups still want more. Please look at it objectively and see how jobs are not being fixed equally, its so much focus on pup. Yet it never gets fixed. Didn't we all say last huge pup update, "I hope this is it now and pup is fixed:. Yet there are still complaints. Wasn't there a recent update that totally redid pup AI? Am i mistaken? Did this not happen? Why wasn't this AI fixed then?

Siiri, question. Apparently you read the forums based on your statements. Have you EVER seen players just be happy with a job adjustment and leave it alone? I'll answer that one for you because it's quicker than waiting for a reply; no you haven't, because it's never happened. See, the players can't even agree on a direction a job should go. There are a bunch that seem to think that if they can't 1-shot AV their job is gimp and irrelevant. If SE "fixes" that, there are a bunch of players who say "well now what am I supposed to do?" You can never please everyone.

Now SE-unlike many of the players-DOES worry about balance. However, balance does not mean what the players on here seem to think it means, which is get every job to the same DPS job X has. It's to make every job equally relevant. It's not SE's fault that players won't look beyond Zerg as a way to accomplish anything in the game. In addition, SE is trying to avoid content that can only be beaten in a narrow choice of ways because they want us to have a choice in how we play. Again, the players choose not to consider it, they just zerg and if that doesn't work they say the content is broken, not considering maybe what is broken is their ability to strategize.

So you get alot of baseless job adjustment requests. But here's the thing, when a job adjustment doesn't put the job back in "the mix" for party consideration then the players' requests are not necessarily baseless, it's because the last adjustment clearly didn't work. Now, some of those requests-while not baseless-may still be asinine. This isn't one of them on those grounds. On the other hand, this still won't work to make pup viable. You may have noticed that I used the term Zerg a few times above, referring to it as the only game strat. For those that have never played a mage job allow me to point out that mages DO NOT ZERG. So all the casting adjustments you want won't change the fact that current "strategists" really only want them to beef Valoredge and our DPS. I'm not saying "don't do this", I'm just saying it's not going to get us any more party slots than we get now.