Can anyone explain why I keep overloading?

[Telford]

Most attachments work without its corresponding maneuver, and you're right the more maneuvers of the same element that are active the more powerful the attachments get. Such as the tension spring, with no fire maneuvers you get 3% more attack, with every subsequent fire maneuver active you get an additional 3% attack.

Other attachments require or consume maneuvers for them to work, they are:
Fire Attachments
Flame Holder
Heat Capacitor
Reactive Shield
Strobe

Ice Attachments
Ice Maker

Wind Attachments
Barrage Turbine
Replicator
Pattern Reader**

Earth Attachments
Hammermill
Schurzen
Shock Absorber
Hammermill*

Thunder Attachments
Heat Seeker
Volt Gun

Water Attachments
Condenser

Light Attachments
Auto-Repair Kit/Auto-Repair Kit II***
Eraser
Flashbulb
Vivi-Valve

Dark Attachments
Disruptor
Economizer
Mana Converter
Mana Tank/Mana Tank II***

*Shield Bash damage is increased without maneuvers but an earth maneuver is required for the slow proc.

**thought to behave like the heat seeker

***The repair kits and mana tanks will increase your puppets max HP/MP without maneuvers by using their respective maneuvers you get a regen/refresh effect.

Update: sweetidealism pointed out that volt gun does work without without a maneuver and on closer inspection found a few more attachments that require one.

[sweetidealism]

Most attachments work without its corresponding maneuver, and you're right the more maneuvers of the same element that are active the more powerful the attachments get. Such as the tension spring, with no fire maneuvers you get 3% more attack, with every subsequent fire maneuver active you get an additional 3% attack.

Other attachments require or consume maneuvers for them to work, they are (I might be missing one or two):
Fire Attachments
Flame Holder
Heat Capacitor
Reactive Shield
Strobe

Ice Attachments
Ice Maker

Wind Attachments
Barrage Turbine
Replicator

Earth Attachments
Hammermill
Schurzen
Shock Absorber

Thunder Attachments
Volt Gun

Water Attachments
Condenser

Light Attachments
Auto-Repair Kit/Auto-Repair Kit II*
Eraser
Flashbulb

Dark Attachments
Disruptor
Economizer
Mana Converter
Mana Tank/Mana Tank II*

*The repair kits and mana tanks will increase your puppets max HP/MP without maneuvers by using their respective maneuvers you get a regen/refresh effect.

Incidentally, Volt Gun does work without active thunder maneuvers, but it's proc rate will be fairly low and it won't be as potent when it does proc.

[Telford]

Incidentally, Volt Gun does work without active thunder maneuvers, but it's proc rate will be fairly low and it won't be as potent when it does proc.

Egads you're right! Not having used the attachment since I started playing pup I assumed it worked like the reactive shield. After actually looking at all the attachment pages I found a few I missed so updated my post, thanks sweetidealism.

[Artaniss]

So the ones that just show the elemental capacity and nothing else does not require a maneuver. But if I do use a maneuver matching the element on the attachment it makes it stronger? For example: Percolator has 2x water elemental capacity but does not display that you have to use a water man. to activate it, but if I do use water the skill gain would be greater then if I had no water man. up correct?

[Telford]

That's right, the more maneuvers you use the stronger the effect for most attachments. But I think you're a bit confused about the elemental capacities. Every attachment has an element and a elemental capacity. The element determines what maneuver will affect it, so in your example since the percolator is a water attachment, using more water maneuvers will increase the skill up rate (although we still don't know the exact numbers yet). The elemental capacity is how much space it takes up in your automaton and nothing else, this is to prevent you from loading up on all fire attachments for instance.

I like to think of it as you have 12 slots in your automaton for attachments and each head/frame have a different number of elemental connectors/wires that have to be plugged into the attachments for them to work, so a percolator takes up one attachment slot and two water connectors.

[Moppet]

Pop a heatsink on there and gear swap in the PUP AF Hands and Buffoon Collar when you do a maneuver. Heatsink now reduces overload for all maneuvers instead of just fire (was changed a bit ago).

I'm a 99 pup and can triple stack maneuvers easily without overload, it takes some timing to let your puppet cool down and not do maneuvers as quick as possible, but it's easily doable, keep it up!

[Rafien]

Pop a heatsink on there and gear swap in the PUP AF Hands and Buffoon Collar when you do a maneuver. Heatsink now reduces overload for all maneuvers instead of just fire (was changed a bit ago).

I'm a 99 pup and can triple stack maneuvers easily without overload, it takes some timing to let your puppet cool down and not do maneuvers as quick as possible, but it's easily doable, keep it up!

Don't forget the AF3 body+1 or +2 -- Cirque Farsetto +1 -- Reduces "Overload" rate

If you're spamming the same maneuver over and over, just use cool down when it's available and you shouldn't be overloading