Okay, so I'll put my money where my mouth is, and as such here is a concept for PUP. Keep in mind that these are the ideals I built my suggestion around:
- PUP's core concept is that of a melee fighter with a mechanical pet
- The mechanical pet should have some level of customization options, but should still remain balanced compared to SMN and other future pet jobs
- The master's actions need to have some sort of connection to the pet
Since we have a thing for PGL leading to PUP, I'll use that as my base.
Puppetmaster
Like in many other parts of the world, the ancient noble houses of Radz-at-han were subject to power plays and concealed plots against each other to gain imperial favor. This unspoken tradition between the houses led to the creative use and placement of agents, spies and assassins as each family observed their would-be adversaries.
The noble house of Salaheem is best remembered from this period because of their unique employ of spies in the form of meek court jesters and entertainers. Developing their craft while infiltrating the inner circles of the noble houses, these so-called puppetmasters would entertain the crowds at court while extracting information and carrying out orders from their superiors in concealment.
Though the house of Salaheem eventually fell into ruin after the Fifth Umbral Era, the art cultivated by them has remained alive in the wandering entertainers that roam Hydaelin to this day.
Mechanics
Equipping the PUP job crystal places a penalty to STR and attack power. PUP loses Greased Lightning and instead gains the buff Impulse Signal when using their skills. Impulse Signal is consumed when the ability Direct Imput is used, allowing the player to command the mammet to perform a specific action determined by the form the player is in when Direct Imput is used (which means Direct Imput used while in Opo-opo Stance would yield a different ability than DI used while in Coeurl Stance).
The mammet has its own equipment screen, and the pet bar would show an option to dismiss the mamett, switch modes, and list the abilities the mammet has access to based on the attachments equipped on them.
Because PUP does not have greased lightning, the goal here is to have the damage split between master and pet make up for that. Keep also in mind that thus PUP is inherently much slower than PGL and MNK.
Abilities
30 Activate: Summons your mammet. 7 second cast time.
30 Direct Imput: Consumes Impulse Signal to command your mammet to perform an action. 5 second cooldown.
35 Maintenance: Restores 15% of your mammet HP. Channeled ability. 8 seconds.
40 Distract: Order your mammet to distract target enemy, incapacitating them for 10 seconds (5 in PvP). 45 second cooldown.
45 Stringing Pummel: Delivers an attack with a total potency of 150. Commands your mammet to perform a special attack. Consumes Impulse Signal. 3 minute cooldown.
50 Overdrive: Increases damage dealt by your mammet and makes it immune to crowd control abilities. 15 second duration. 6 minute cooldown.
The Mammet
Instead of automaton frames, the mammet has two modes the player can switch between. Each is treated as a gear set, and both have their own purpose.
Valor Edge Mode
Melee Mammet
Default Attack: String Clip
Stringing Pummel Attack: Mighty Scissors
Can be modified to tank for the PUP while soloing or do melee DPS.
Stormwaker Mode
Caster Mammet
Default Attack: Jolt (2.5 second cast time)
Stringing Pummel Attack: Burst
Can be modified to heal the PUP while soloing or focus on doing magic DPS.
Attachments
My suggestion for attachments is to segregate them by body part. Mammets can have up to 5 attachments on them at any time. Head, Main Arm, Off-Arm and two Auxiliary attachments. Attachments would be broken down by category to avoid overpowered combinations. In some cases, attachments would have to be locked into specific modes for the same purpose. The following are samples, and I understand they may not be all that balanced, but this is for display purposes.
Head
Flash Bulb: Requires Valor Edge Mode. Grants the mammet the ability to cast the spell Flash. Requires Coeurl stance.
Lightning Rod: Requires Stormwaker Mode. Grants the mammet the ability to increase the potency of the next spell cast. Requires Opo-opo stance.
Smoke Screen: Grants the mammet the ability to shed enmity. Requires Raptor stance.
Main Arm
Heavy-duty Coil: Requires Valor Edge Mode. Grants the mammet use of the ability Heavy Cut on their target. Requires Coeurl Stance.
Tazer: Requires Stormwaker Mode. Grants the mammet the ability to cast Jolt II. Requires Raptor stance.
First Aid Kit: Requires Stormwaker Mode. Grants the mammet the ability to cast a healing spell on their master. Requires Opo-opo stance.
Off-Arm
Buckler Mounting: Requires Valor Edge Mode. Grants the mammet the ability to block with a shield and use the ability Buckler Swipe.
Hidden Blade: Grants the mammet the ability to place a bleed effect on its target. Requires Coeurl stance. Requires melee range.
Poison Dart: Grants the mammet the ability to place a poison effect on its target. Requires Raptor Stance. 20 yalm range.
Auxiliary 1 & 2
Coiler: increases skill speed.
Rewinder: increases spell speed.
Bright Bulb: Increases enmity generated.
Stealth Screen: Reduces enmity generated.
Self-repair Unit: Restores 10% of mammet's health when master uses the ability Second Wind.
As seen above, head, main arm and off-arm attachments grant abilities. Auxiliary attachments grant bonuses depending on where the player wants to take their mammet. Thus the mammet gets a total of three abilities, not including the mode-specific ability that is only usable when the PUP uses Stringing Pummel.
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The bottom line with this suggestion is that PUP may be possible but the master would need much more control on their pet in this case. I did think of turning the stance bonuses (raptor, opo-opo, coeurl) into the equivalent of maneuvers, but that creates too drastic a change within the design of pugilist while leaving the mammet to not be that useful since there would be an arbitrary time between its actions. Combine that with the general wonkyness of AI as a whole and there would be some issues in the harder content. Not to mention that I'm already pushing it by getting rid of Greased Lightning. And now, some notes.
- Something that isn't clear in this suggestion but would like to see implemented would be the mammet having their own ability combos. For example, String Clip is supposed to combo into Heavy Cut, but it's not really illustrated in my suggestion.
- Something else I was thinking about was having the ability attachments give other things like AoE attacks and so on. Granted, this would mean a PUP with their mammet equipped with AoE attacks would be perfect for speed runs, but I'm not sure if the negatives outweigh the positives in this case.
- An alternative to having to input commands to the mammet every five seconds would be to have the mammet act on its own like the chocobo, but the ability in question is put on something like a 20 second cooldown when you force the mammet to use it.
- Since mammet frames are not being used for gameplay, I would want to make the frames more for vanity. Add a leviathan frame, a behemoth frame, an odin frame and so on. At least this way people can personalize their mammets.
- Going by this, when the mammet is in Valor Edge mode it's right arm is replace by a blade. When in Stormwaker mode the right arm is replaced by an arm extension into a wand or a spiky scepter.
- Changing mammet attachments outside of the capital cities would put Activate on a 45 second cooldown. Mammet modes and attachments cannot be changed while in combat.
Originally Posted by Felis
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