PUPdate is a fail ;_;

[Anza]

So pretty much what you're trying to say is Automatons should have limitless Barrage and Regain while RNGs and SAMs have to wait for recast timers to be up?

That's not what he said at all.

I think this consuming a maneuver nonsense is simply unnecessary. Why not just have a random chance of Barrage on a hidden recast timer if a wind maneuver is active, without having to consume a maneuver that's more useful for Turbo Charger/Scope? You know, just like lots of other PUP "ability" attachments that work perfectly fine and don't consume maneuvers - Flashbulb, Strobe, Shock Absorber, Hammermill, etc. It's not "limitless" to make the Barrage attachment have an invisible recast of, say, 3 or 5 minutes.

As for TP, why a big chunk of TP at once instead of a regain attachment that gives 1/2/3 tp per tick with 1/2/3 Fire maneuvers active (much like our Regen and Refresh from light/dark attachments)? It seems like they're making things overly complicated for no reason when there's a much more logical solution to reach the same end. Consuming a fire maneuver is just going to get you out of your desired maneuver setup and require scrambling to get maneuvers back up correctly and not gimp your other attachments.

It takes 2 keystrokes for me to apply a maneuver. This is how the job is played. We have to apply maneuvers to control the Automaton. Whether or not it screws with the time between punches, I really don't know and could care less. If you're getting that ornery over a split second of time that you're not punching things, you need to find a new hobby to focus your love of math.

It's not the difficulty of hitting a button, or even the lag that decreases overall damage. It's the 10 second recast on maneuvers, combined with 1min maneuver duration, combined with attachments that consume maneuvers constantly taking what you've already set up. You're losing big benefits to the other attachments that don't consume maneuvers (for instance, losing fire maneuvers that pump up Tension Springs). PLUS it's even harder now to juggle the correct balance of maneuvers to ensure the correct WS, given the flawed trigger maneuver system for determining WS.

Blindly following one method is doing it wrong. Knowing what you're fighting, who you're fighting it with, and reading the ebb and flow of battle is how you truly command and work with the Automaton.

For example, there have been plenty of times where hate control was an issue, and using a fully powered Ice Maker'd nuke would have thrown the whole fight out of whack - such as taking aggro, bringing the monsters over to the mages where I parked the Automaton, and causing deaths. Using Mana Booster + Loudspeaker I & II allowed me to let the Automaton nuke away more often and safely under the hate threshold.

No, Dustin is doing it right. Any nuking setup that doesn't use ice attachments of either (a) Ice Maker/Loudspeaker II/Loudspeaker I, or (b) Ice Maker/Loudspeaker II/Tranquilizer is, quite simply, doing it wrong. The only decision is whether Tranquilizer would be helpful to reduce resists - something that was a lot more common back in 75cap days than it is in today's 90cap/Abyssea world (but the consideration may make a return in future content).

Hate control should NEVER be an issue with Spiritreaver. Use deactivate, then activate/DEA to get your puppet back. Voila, you have shed all hate.

I personally like to use Stealth Screen in my SR setup and get a couple nukes out of each Activate, then I deactivate to zero out my automaton's enmity.

Also, we have Ventiloquy if you do get overzealous and the puppet pulls hate. Vent, and tank the mob till your tank can get it back.

One last point - if you're still having these kinds of issues, why are you parking your automaton by the mages anyway? Deploy it in its own safe space away from squishy mages.

What I would like to know is why everyone is saying Power Cooler is useless. If it costs 1 Ice Capacity, then why not install it in the one remaining Ice Slot on Spiritreaver when everything else costs 2+? Also, the only Ice Attachment I use on Soulsoother is the Mana Booster because all the other Ice Attachments are useless on WHM bot. If my Automaton can use less MP when she decides to drop a 300HP Cure VI on somebody, sign me up. Less MP usage + Reduced time between casts? How is that a bad thing?

People are saying Power Cooler is useless because MP is just not an issue. Deactivate, re-activate, and you're set. There's no point in not using Deactivate these days now that we have DEA every 60 seconds, so a mistake doesn't mean a ton of downtime waiting on a 20min JA timer.

I agree with you to an extent that if it only costs 1 ice, I might as well use it. I'm not going so far as to call it "useless", just that it's a pretty minor benefit. If nothing else, it might (a) save some MP if I'm being lazy and not monitoring Soulsoother's MP, or (b) keep the puppet MP above the Aspir threshold on Spiritreaver, allowing for another nuke before unwanted Aspir AI kicks in.

Also, Mana Booster is not the only useful ice attachment on Soulsoother. Tranquilizer helps quite a bit in sticking enfeebles. But yeah, the point remains that you will have free ice capacity so I guess it doesn't hurt.

The one thing that might make Power Cooler a little more helpful is if it doesn't require an ice maneuver to have some effect. These descriptions seem intended to be more helpful about what the attachment actually does than past S-E attachment language. So it's possible that "Reduces MP cost in proportion to the number of Ice Maneuvers in effect" means that it has a different %age reduction for 0/1/2/3 maneuvers, and not only 1/2/3 active ice maneuvers. Would make it a little more helpful for Soulsoother since it would provide some minor benefit in a slot you're probably not getting much out of as-is now, even if you DON'T use an ice maneuver (which some people don't like since it triggers enfeebles that you may not want in a healing situation).