Animator's Workshop: A Puppetmaster's Guide 2.0

I think it's a glitch with augments.
Much like how MDT augments are both MDT and BDT.

For the rng pup is it better to just use 3 fire for the store tp and speedloader effect? I notice the damage increase from the ranged attacks/ws but I can't justify giving up that amazing skillchain damage from the speedloaders.

Depends on a great many things. Probably not, but there are a handful of instances where it might be viable. Speedloaders and Inhibitors don't really place nice with eachother though.

So I logged in to play around with Sharpshot to see how it performs. I only did low level testing against Mandies in Ceizak since I am very familiar with them and how they are.

The boost in damage is quite substantial. Ranged attacks were doing 1.7k normally, 2.3k in Overdrive. Armor Shatterer was doing 7.7k normal, slightly less than 11k under OD. Arcuballista was 10k at 1k tp, 16k at 3k. 20k with Triple Fire Flame Holder. Arcuballista was doing 20k under Overdrive and 28k with triple fire Flame Holder OD.

My numbers are actually lower too, since this was all in TP gear. My WS gear is in storage and I couldn't be assed to get it out. Real testing needs to be done, but these numbers are quite impressive considering what we were getting before. Ranged puppet Apex Bat Burns might be a very real thing now between Speed Loaders and this higher damage.

It's no blu, but damn that makes me happy.

1st: No food/cor buffs; Triple fire, flame holder/Speedloader2/Tension Spring 4.

2nd: Beast roll 11. Same as above.

JP only 850ish, so no 1200 bonus yet for more damage.

Does anyone have anything on the values for Steam Jacket. Is it even worth using for spam happy NM?

i use it on teles

Godhands??? Is this even worth doing?

Debating on making one now especially with the addition of the new pet haste and master/pet hybrid items which allow you to cap pet haste without need for Othas. Does this make this weapon a valid DD option now or does it place Kenkonken back on the throne for DD which brings me back to my initial question.

But is this a better option say over Resister or another attachment to mitigate damage such as Equalizer.

God. Damnit.

Looks like I have to start farming gil again :/

I got my Godhands last night but only just starting to mess around with them.

First impressions: Holy crap they hit like a ton of bricks compared to KKKs. And they are still very fast. Like 1100 crits on Salvage mobs with normal hits. Very high WS damage with any WS whereas with KKKs I can only hit high damage with Stringing Pummel. By very high I mean 10k+.

That being said, when soloing with puppet I have had zero luck figuring out a rhythm that would let me use Radiance.

Tonight I'll play around some more with trusts to get more buffs and more chances to SC but honestly it seems very hard to use Radiance without other players.

The puppet has access to Fusion or Fragmentation but that's only enough to get to Light. To get Radiance I think you need to get to triple light. For example, starting 300TP master and puppet:

Shijin (activate AM3) > Bone Crusher > Light > Shijin or Smite > Double Light > Shijin > Radiance

Without mythic AM3 it doesn't seem reasonable to get that much TP in the skillchain windows. Maybe with /sam or temps.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and the Double Light can be Radiance instead under AM3. I'm still experimenting but so far no luck.

Radiance replaces Double Light. It is not a "Triple Light."

Stringing Pummel-->Victory Smite-->Shijin-->Victory Smite should work for AM1.

I tested a bit more today.

I can confirm Radiance does replace double light, at least with AM3 up.

In fact, you simple do:

300 TP Shijin > Victory Smite to make Radiance.

or even Shijin > Shijin.

However the puppet remains unhelpful for creating Radiance because none of its WS have the Light property on their own, only Fusion or Fragmentation.

2k TP.

Shijin Spiral(AM2 up) > Bone Crusher > V.Smite = Radiance.

Why is Spicy banned? He's for sure one of the better people on this forum.

Unrelated, I think I can fill in most of the information that is missing, I might try to do that tonight or tomorrow when I have time. Otherwise I see a handful of minor errors here and there from precursory glances, but it looks really good! Thanks for doing that for us, Spicy.

I kinda view Godhands more as a MNK-focused weapon. If you get one anyway as PUP, hey, cool. But I wouldn't go out of my way to make them for PUP unless you're also going to use for MNK, or unless you're just in a group that doesn't have much problem doing all Aeonic clears. Even if I did have it on PUP, I don't really know that I'd use it that much over a tanking weapon (MUCH more likely) or KKK/Ohtas. (I don't have Godhands, but aside from CP parties I don't use my KKK/Ohtas too often now over my tanking weapons...)

If you're using Godhands on PUP, they're the best choice for pure H2H damage considering only the master. But these days it's nearly always better to do a hybrid build and take more advantage of the puppet, situations that favor KKK and Ohtas more. It's really going to depend on specific situations - target, buffs, party composition, etc... But in general I'd lean toward one of KKK or Ohtas:

Kenkonken:
1. If Mythic AM3 is reasonable to maintain, the OA2-3x affecting both master and puppet is pretty huge and the increase in attacks/TP generation for both master and puppet (potentially pumping out a lot of lv3 SCs) likely puts them over the top despite the significantly lower damage per hit/WS versus Godhands.

2. If for some reason you aren't getting capped/near capped magical haste, KKK's MA+50 is also a pretty big deal. I don't know about other people, but for me it's fairly realistic to assume that in party situations with real players (not something like solo/duo with trusts) I might not be always getting some combination of marches/haste/Geo using haste bubbles/etc. needed to cap magical haste.

So, MA gear can remain pretty useful even with 20/20 JP + 550 gift (an aside, this is generally the same analysis for MNK, since PUP's 20/20 JP puts it at the same base MA from traits+JP as MNK, plus PUP gets the extra MA+5 from 550 gift). Assuming full JP/Gifts, if you're only getting, say, Haste II (or Haste I + Mighty Guard), a non-KKK PUP will be able to use MA in every realistic slot and still not cap delay reduction. Even a KKK user getting Haste II only will still need approximately MA+40 in gear from stuff like Mache Earrings, Hizamaru+1 head, maybe a Dispersal Mantle (at the significant cost of not using Visucius's), Cirque Necklace, etc.

Yes, capped magical haste changes things to where you won't need to use MA gear (assuming full JP/gifts)... but that does depend on getting that level of buffs. It's also a point where KKK actively suffers from going over delay cap and reducing TP/hit (though you may be able to account for this by doing something like asking mages NOT to haste you when getting 2x Marches).

Ohtas:
1. On very high level content (not that melee DD is typically that great of a strategy on such content anyway), accuracy may well be an issue and the master/pet Acc+70 is a ton - no other PUP weapon can match the accuracy.

2. Pet Haste+10% is also still significant for hybrid setups, as it allows for less pet gear and more master-focused pieces. For instance, with Ohtas (10%) + Visucius's (10% aug), you can cap automaton haste with a single additional piece that's also pretty good for the master; likely one of the belts, either Klouscap (8%) or Hurch'lan (5%) does the job.

For non-Ohtas, you'd be looking at something like Visucius's (10%) + Klouscap (8%) + making a little bit of a sacrifice in master TP generation from other slots to fit pet haste pieces from stuff like augmented Taeon, Thurandaut Ring, Rimeice Earring, etc. Not the end of the world, but it's a consideration.

Godhands:
Best scenario is going to be something like:

1. Melee is even viable in the first place

2. You can't replace that slot with a stronger DD (typically stuff like BLU DNC THF NIN, COR in the right setups, BST, and even 2handers, will still beat PUP+auto so would likely get priority)

3. You have adequate accuracy (i.e. near-cap) from Skill+269 that you don't need Ohtas's superiod skill+242/acc+70.

4. You have capped magical haste, rendering KKK's MA+50 irrelevant (or harmful)

5. Mythic AM3 is not easy to maintain full time (this isn't terribly unrealistic, H2H mythics can be quite a hassle in this regard, especially compared to something like DNC SAM with better TP generation tools).

6. You're OK sacrificing some puppet DD (from Ohtas Acc/haste, or KKK AM3), including the potential for more SCs and subsequent party MBs.

MNK Comparison:
For MNK, it's a much easier call to say that Godhands is your best choice, period. Glanzfaust simply isn't as good for MNK as KKK is for PUP, since PUP actually has a good chunk of additional DPS coming from the puppet that also gets access to the AM3. H2H AM3 is sort of a pain in the *** to maintain without exceptionally good timing or use of temps. MNK also gets more tools to enhance the H2H user's DD abilities than PUP (KA and Focus, both of which are further enhanced with JP, Impetus to do more damage per hit), and wider better gear selection (e.g. Adhemar, Dampening Tam, ammo slot).

Now, this doesn't mean PUP (master+automaton) doesn't still generate more DPS than MNK, especially in more SCs generated from two fighters... I'd actually expect PUP to perform better in most cases thanks to the current strength of the puppet easily making up the gap between MNK and PUP (master only). But the point is that MNK weapon selection is clearly easier since it's fully geared toward the H2H user only.

So two crafted Animators, made from rare(expensive) materials that can be HQed. Well, the ranged versions are basically worthless so unless there is something super special about it, the regular upgraded animator is the one to shoot for.

That's so stupid.
Let us all welcome our new 300+ millions T0 Animator that only 40 people in the world will manage to get, leaving a sour feeling of unsatisfaction in everybody else.

They're adding optic fiber II!

I'm looking at both BG Dev trackers, revisted their Reddit account, looking at the NA forums... I can't find that they're adding Optic Fiber II on any of those, where is this information?

Check the JP dev tracker, and throw it into google translate :)

アタッチメント「ダメージゲージ」の上位版について、進捗をお知らせしますね。

本アイテムは、8月上旬に予定しているバージョンアップでお届けできるよう進行中です。
そして同時に、親和性の高いアタッチメント「O．ファイバーII」を追加予定です。
どうぞご期待ください！

For the top version of the attachment "damage gauge", we let you know the progress.

This item is in progress to be able to deliver in a version-up which is scheduled in early August.
At the same time, is an additional scheduled high affinity attachment to "O. fiber II".
Please stay tuned!

^Here it is :)

Oh sweet jesus. Optic Fiber II and a high end Damage Gauge. While I have to wonder what the Damage Gauge is going to do differently, Optic Fiber has some pretty clear and immediate applications.

Namely Overdrive. If that attachments stack like basically all other attachments do, and we know that triple light OF1 is +40%, it's reasonable to assume that OF2 should give 50-60% under triple light.

The biggest thing here is that it will be possible to make Automatons 100% immune to all status effects by using Water/Light with OF1/2 and Resister 1/2. The effectiveness of Resisters is reduced by half on NMs, but if we can double it we're back to 99% and Overdrive itself grants some degree of status resistance. So there is that side for Overdrive Tanking.

Everything else seems pretty obvious. Oh, wait. HASTE CAP DURING OVERDRIVE FINALLY! Hmm, probably capping accuracy and pdif on basically everything in the game. An absurd amount of regen. Inhibitors will give 210stp... Coiler II by itself will cap DA I think.

We've slowly been building to the point where Automatons will have drastically more power than anything else.

If Damage Gauge happens to just modify the threshold at which cures get used/prioritized by the AI it's gonna be... nice (supposing it's gonan be worth the additional light element slot) but it won't really solve the core issue of what makes Soulsoother such a bad healer compared to even the worst trust healer.
I mean, welcome addition but doesn't really change anything?

Optic Fiber II looks hot instead.
Hope they will be available from the new Attachments NPC.


For 3 minutes every 45 minutes! ;P
But yeah I see your point, it's exciting.

Love your excitement.

This update is looking pretty insane for puppet tanking and DPS. Hell, who knows, new Damage Guage may actually fix curebot.

And then there's the improved animators.

I'll laugh if both optic fibers boost each other as well unintentionally, causing an even bigger boost than intended.

O.O

Yeah, that's exciting. Also, that post I just made about Godhands being good for master-only DD but not really that great overall because they don't help the puppet like KKK/Ohtas? Doubling down on that now, with even stronger puppets incoming.

In our current Optic Fiber II wet dreams, do not forget to take into account for the additional stats coming from the new Animator :D

Oh wow..... Optic Fiber II AND that new synth'd Animator.

I don't want to get too excited though. I'm reserving judgment.

OFII about to be 8 light