Tactics/advice thread

[Glamdring]

Starting this thread as a place where pups can ask and receive advice from those more "in the know"

[Glamdring]

I'm my own 1st customer, joy!

OK, on to the questions. As everyone knows, lower-level parties are almost impossible to find. Consequently, unless you just wanna leech in Abby you better get ready to solo. OK, NP, I went 1-75 as a bst/brd solo, I can grind with the best of them. The problem is all the solo guides I can find are primarily for the red or whm frames, with only a few specific exceptions. The standing advice for skilling sharpshot and valoredge was just to use when you get parties. Well, if anyone is paying attention to this post I'm not getting parties.

The other posts I've been reading say it takes FOREVER to skill those 2 frames if they are lagging much by the time you reach end-game. But solo, my pup/war is losing ALOT of SS/VE autos, and occasionally I'm dropping dead too. I have access to /nin, dnc, whm, rdm, thf, bst and brd if I need, and I know the 1st 4 can work but aren't as reccommended due to the difficulty getting hate off the auto. Nonetheless, I'd like to be able to at least connect on VE and SS when I hit 75 and can Abyssea. Obviously, mage frames are easy to skill, even leeching (whm pup, put in tank pt please, pup on steady diet of ice/light/dark with mage atmas). I'm ready for 75+anyway with some sweet pet gear from ACP/MKT/ASA (I used for beast), but as I said, I gotta cover 64-75 1st.

Any advice you guys can give so I can be a PUPPETmaster, not a PAPERWEIGHTmaster?

[xbobx]

Well get pup up to 30 or so using mage frames for now. dont worry about the lack of skillup. Spend some time later with your level 90 and sub pup and use rng frame. You can cap its skill to 45 this way. Of what it seems, skillup rates were improved drastically for low level, but really suffer over 200. So I think you could probably skillup the ranged and melee fast enough this way.
It is after that you will have an issue. Magic is easy to skillup using the curse tower thing in omg i cant remember the name, the place off of pashhow, shows how often i go to old zones. You just stand there and let him cursna you over and over.
Either way, at high level you are in for a nightmare, puppets seem to skillup at a rate a lot less then normal jobs or masters do, or at least it feels that way.

[Dfoley]

1) For solo just use survivability:
/ dnc or nin are ideal 30+ for solo. 50+ you can go for /war and use whm.

2) Dont bother trying to skill up and level at the same time, youll just die a lot. At 30 I went and got SS skill from 0 to capped for 25. Then repeated that again at 50 (capped for 45) since 5 levels over a mob is enough to let your pet tank it pretty reliably.

3) After 200 skill there are no short cuts, other then getting burts. The increased # of WS will increase your skill up chances. At 75 I had it capped at 68ish. Then i just went 75 to 90 and still only had lvl 75 skill. Got burts and its gone up to 85ish now.

[Glamdring]

64 now already. I had no trouble 1-49, pretty easy actually. But I leached 50-60 and hadn't used sharpshot for about 12 levels before that. I satisfied a 95 skill level gap over the last 2 days, but now I'm facing 20+ on magic and Melee (on those frames).

Sounds like you guys are reccommending just leaching now to 89+ and spamming skills in aby parties? will I even be able to use those frames in aby with all the skill gap? I hate being dead weight, but VE and SS are both good sources of DD when you want to have ranged or melee damage... if you can actually hit anything. Will my acc/atk gear and Atma be enough to overcome the skill gap? It is on me, but I've never had this large of a gap as I would with a leeched Auto (well, parry, guard and shield, but who doesn't?).

What I don't want to do is go out to solo needing to carry 20 stacks of oil+2! I also want to at least get to 60 cap on all frames so I can start spamming pulling the strings/targeting the captain for those attachments that are never on AH... or are there for $1.3 mil!

[xbobx]

You will get better skillup outside abyessa. It is just so tough. That is why I wish they would just get rid of the skill caps on puppets and be like other pet jobs. Bst doesnt have to skillup jug melee skill, or drgs wyvern skill.

Smn is the only other pet job that has to do skill but they only have one skill to level up, although it also is a pain but with the change they made, it will go much faster to.

[Dfoley]

You dont need repair oil to skill up, just use Deus ex automata.

I would personally recomend skilling up to armor piercer for ranged before heading to abyssea since it ignores defense its a solid dd option, for melee just get canibal blade.

For magic you really do wanna keep it caped but theres an easy way for that, use the whm and have it spam cursna in certain zones.

You really wont be dding much with ve/ss till youi get burts or are really lucky and find a non retarded exp alliance that doesnt mind the occasional ruby light

[Frapp]

Glam, the only suggestion I can give you as far as skilling up the Automaton is to just get out there and fight. As long as you're fighting things stronger than the Automaton's skill, there will be skill ups. I've had PUP at 90 for months and my Auto Melee and Auto Ranged still isn't capped (but is damn close). Just keep at it. You'll get there.

To help you skill up though, try to find a Coiler (a drop from the NM Ob). It allows for and increases the double attack rate for melee swings, dependent on Thunder Maneuvers. On Sharpshot, utilize the Drum Magazine, if you have it, and offset the reduced ranged accuracy with the Scope. More frequent attacks = more chances at skillups.

Also, feel free to DD with Valoredge and Sharpshot. Learn how to use the Automatons inside and out (goes for Mage Frames too). While I will agree with Dfoley that the Burattinaios (Burts) is an amazing weapon, a lot of PUPs DD'd just fine without them and still do. If you get them, great, but they're not completely necessary for VE/SS as Dfoley is making them out to be.

[Dfoley]

You people and your selective reading:

3) After 200 skill there are no short cuts, other then getting burts. The increased # of WS will increase your skill up chances. At 75 I had it capped at 68ish. Then i just went 75 to 90 and still only had lvl 75 skill. Got burts and its gone up to 85ish now.

Thats what I said, and you interpert that to mean:

If you get them, great, but they're not completely necessary for VE/SS as Dfoley is making them out to be.

I never said they were completely necessary (although they are if you want to rock out like a true hardcore pup), just that they are amazingly helpful at speeding up the skill up process 200+ because like you said "extra swings = extra chances to skill up" which is what they add.

And lets be honest, a pup is 99% more likely to get burts then Verethragna, and while both are good burts is probably the single best dd weapon for a pup, so eventually yes it will become necessary.

[Frapp]

You people and your selective reading

How ironic. It's not selective reading if I'm reading how every PUP needs a Burts in every one of your posts about PUP that I read or reply to. The completely necessary (emphasis yours) was in regards to that observation.

...they are amazingly helpful at speeding up the skill up process 200+ because like you said "extra swings = extra chances to skill up" which is what they add.

I'm not disputing the fact they the Burts are an awesome weapon, and they do increase attack rounds by allowing the Automaton to perform more attacks. My intent was to offer advice to someone who has identified himself as a Level 64 Puppetmaster how to skill up his Automatons without having to use a Level 89 Weapon.

Turboing a job to 90 via Abyssea may not be something he wants to do, or even be able depending on the mentality of the server. On Ragnarok there are a lot of EXP alliance shouts that include "75+" or "Leech (No Thanks)" in the line.

...burts is probably the single best dd weapon for a pup, so eventually yes it will become necessary.

And this is what you continue to say that I'm trying to counter. You're making it seem that any PUP who does not have this weapon will inherently suck. There's more to PUP than pushing buttons and forcing numbers to come out.