Automaton drain / aspir / aspir 2 AI Bug

[Drac]

Platform: ANY
ISP: ANY
Type of Internet Connection: High Speed
Internet Connection Speed: Any
Date & Time: Can be repeated anytime
Frequency: Whenever facing an NM with MP
Character Name: All Puppetmasters of sufficient level
Race: any
World: all
Main Job: Puppetmaster
Support Job: any
Area and Coordinates: Multiple
Party or Solo: Both
NPC Name: n/a
Monster Name: Various NMs
Steps:
1. Deploy maton with below 70% MP on Monster that has mp
2. Watch as your maton only gets back 13 mp per cast. of subsequent and continuous castings of aspir and aspir 2
3. Face palm

Expanded Explanation:

Fist off i would like to say the DEV TEAM should look at the letter posted in the Puppetmaster job forum and give us some sort of reply.

I just wanted to Highlight a MAJOR flaw in Automaton AI.

When equiped with Spiritreaver Head, the Automaton will gain access to drain, aspir and at higher levels aspir 2. This can cause major issues because the AI will dictate that these spells be used when their respective attributes fall bellow a certain level.

The issue is that an Automaton can get stuck in a cycle where it will be casting only these spells. This is particularly accentuated when the mob has high resistance to dark magic. An automaton can be made useless after it falls bellow ~70% MP. It will continue to try and recover MP through means of using the spells aspir and aspir II. If the mob is resistant to these spell the automaton will not gain any significant amount of mp and will continue to repeat these spells until the end of battle or until deactivated.

Automaton summoned through Deus Ex also have the same issue as the amount of MP that these automatons start with is low. The automaton will immediately try and recover it's MP. The timers on the abilities need to be waited upon and will usually not trigger at above 50% MP. This leaves a crucial range where the Automaton will get stuck casting just these two spells.

Additionally if the has taken damage and it tries to repair itself with drain, this only adds to the issue where the Automaton is not casting spells desirable to the situation and can be stuck in the casting pattern of drain -> aspir -> drain -> aspir -> ... and because no significant gain is done with either spell, the Automaton will continue to cast the spell for many minutes on end. This is not desirable.

3 Suggestions that will not affect game play balance.
1. Only allow these spells only when dark maneuvers are active.
2. Reduce the threshold for these spells to below 25% of full HP/MP.
3. Remove these spells from the list of spells the Automaton can cast.

I do not believe it was the intention of the DEV TEAM to impose these limitation on the Puppetmaster Job. I firmly believe that a complete review of the Automaton AI is needed and adjustments made to renew the usefulness of our spell casting partners.

[Baccanale]

Greetings, Drac!
Thank you for posting your concerns about the abilities for Automatons. I have submitted your information to the development team, and they will thoroughly investigate this matter, based on your report. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that a direct reply will be posted on this thread, but I do recommend checking on www.PlayOnline.com or http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/fo...ersion-Updates for any news about the development team's findings for this investigation. Thanks again for your report!