String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

Thanks for the suggestions.
Took me a few days, but I've made a lot more attempts at this without much luck until today.

Today I did N and somehow did two in a row with 40 seconds left on Overdrive (!!).
This is a record for my runs on N solo.

No big gear changes but using Taeon Tabard again. Working on upgrading to Pitre Tobe +2 ASAP (have +1).

Did 3 total runs without a wipe. Biggest mistake I made that almost killed me was running in and forgetting Overdrive.
Then I panicked and used my 1hr without Relic body. Somehow I lived on pet swap.

So these were the minor changes that seemed to work well for me (For Normal difficulty):

1) The biggest boost was using Lhu trust or AA-MR. I went from 1366 pet attack without 1hr to around 1776 at end of the fight.
Still not 100% sure Lhu (BST) boosts rolls, but seems like it. Will test it later.

Tip: If you bust, just wait a few minutes. It's worth it.

2) Instead of using trusts that give her TP I used these:

Koru-Moru
Amchuchu - Just for grabbing hate. No access to Automan trust yet.
Kupipi
Apururu
Brygid

100% of the time I always use Light, Fire, Water in that order.

Lately i've been bringing Dawn Mulsum just in case. Why risk dying at just 1% and losing your 10 merits and 1hr?
So far I haven't needed any. It's easy to get 1shot as /cor when going in for repair. Even after she uses Holy you can still get slept while in range. I never repair unless it's an emergency.

I also removed the Coiler 2 I was using temporarily (over Turbo Charger 1).
I'm now using the same setup posted elsewhere for Lilith or Cait Sith:

VE/VE
Inhibitor 1,2
Attuner
Flame Holder
Magniplug 1,2
Turbo Charger 1,2
Steam Jacket
Auto-Repair Kit 4
Optic Fiber 1,2

If 1hr goes out you'll be dead fast with this setup. Don't bother adding attachments to survive without 1hr.
I made that mistake.

PS one thing I do is buy Stoneskin/shell/protect items from Curio moogle for when I enter as /COR.
I also swap into main -DT gear. Probably won't help getting 1shot by Holy.

50+ runs now and no pup ring. Hope I get it eventually.

For what it's worth, if you run in and open with Ventriloquy before Cait Sith gets close enough to hit you, then Cait will immediately switch to your Automaton without attacking you. Then you can simply Deploy and run away.

regarding Ventriloquy it's only for 1 target but i've seen ppl pull floor 1 and 2 with pup. how do you get hate on that? i don't think Ventriloquy no?

Sorry dude, omen.

Floor 1 and 2 of what? Omen? In Omen you can only really supertank pull with the master by running around and aggroing stuff.

If you meant Dynamis, you can Deploy+Flashbulb/Voke+Retrieve on statues to make mobs pop with hate on the maton and let it supertank from there.

depending on mobs on that floor i guess you could grab 1 or both family's and then snk/vis yourself and have them all link on auto, bit more trouble than its likely worth but should be doable?

Maybe deploy with th maton with full heyoka will enmity the others?

I'm out of canteen's with trying out stuff else i could test this.

I've heard of people using Soulsoother/Stormwaker to pull floor 1/2, but the master aggros with phalanx and d/t set and the auto cures. Mostly useful if you have someone who can aoe quickly afterwards, like geo with blu/blm. I know tigers and beetles don't usually link and I don't think the leeches/flys in omen do.

Can't speak about linking stuff on the maton, but I personally do the Phalanx/DT aggro with WHMaton strat for my Omen static pretty much every run. We have our SMNs Squall + Thunderspark to clean up everything.

The only mob types you can't do it on are Worms and those that stop to cast. Ladybugs/Lucani can also suck when they are non-aggressive, but Diaga/Banishga work well enough to grab them.

Actually, with good AE set you should be able to do it yourself with 2xAE using tactical switch.

Just keep in mind that even with Trusts healers, full DT, Phalanx and a WHMaton a PUP isn't very tanky. Usually even one full group of mobs can be quite dangerous.

call me crazy, but i saw a pup in rao gear pull floor 1 and 2 with his pup, not getting hit in dt like you guys suggest.


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By Asura.Bixbite 2020-01-19 01:41:49

Heady Artifice whm head (benediction) will work as an Aoe hate grab for ambuscade.

hmm

Stuff in Omen dont link, but you can simply deploy maton on each mob separately. It will take a while because of 5sec cooldown between deploys, but its not that bad.

As for Heady Artifice, everything AoE hate should work as an AoE hate grab in Ambuscade, because in ambuscade everyone has minimal hate from the start. So for example Geomancer dont need to tag mobs for bubble to work. Its specific mechanic in Ambuscade zone and that wont work in Omen.

That definitely works, but it's really slow. Most people or groups don't have that kind of patience, especially when there are faster alternatives.

ok well 1 by 1 sounds like a hassle and open to much error. fi getting hate yourself and tabbing like crazy.

and what about floor 3? that takes way too long.

i'm trying to form a low man setup for omen.

cor smn pup blm

any recommendations? i want to keep my pup there.

PUP GEO SMN can do pretty much all bosses if you know how to deal with the mechanics. COR buffs speed things up, of course.

Kei is a bit of a pain, so my static usually brings 2x PUP to SC, COR, GEO and at least one nuker. PUP+SCH can also SC together decently. Alternatively you can have a single PUP do skillchains by doing Shijin+Bone Crusher with a tankmaton, but the PUP will need a healer. Trust WHMs can work, but you can't afford to let them die, so it would be good to let the COR summon them and move them around as needed.

Hey folks!

Alright I know it's long overdue, but I've done a big update to the Guide! (... a PUPdate?...)



I've updated pretty much all of the gearsets located in the guide to actually be current, and I've also created a new node which can be found in the 2nd post of this thread. This node is meant to be a short, concise, easy to refer to list for Best in Slot endgame gearsets for PUP. (I've also updated the actual guide on BG-wiki as well to have identical gearsets to the node, the node is just less words overall)

I want to also give a super big shoutout to Aerix for his collaboration with creating this node, as well as in general for his support for the PUP community! \( ﾟヮﾟ)/

Note: the Attachments section are STILL out of date, those are next on my list of things to update.

As always, throw feedback my way and let me know if something is wrong, or missing. Cheers.

I would appreciate if you could add sets without Thurandaut Ring. For many players this ring is not even an option and even when it is, the one used in those sets is +1, which is like super time consuming and time gated. Its also not like this ring is just some acc and att that you could ignore. It has haste on it and the set is build around this ring having that haste. I know Aerix posted sets without ring already in the thread. Would be nice to have them in one place tho.

GET TO WORK!

Its not about work tbh, Weatherspoon is just too good and you cant get both.

Rule of thumb in many cases is to replace feet, Rimeice Earring (+3%) and Thurandaut Ring +1 (+4%) with Tali'ah feet +2 (+7%), either Domes. Earring or augmented Handler's Earring +1 and a Varar Ring +1.

If DT is relevant, then it gets a bit more complicated, unfortunately, but usually the most viable combinations for pet only setups are:

• Ambu cape + Anwig + Ohtas (with Xiu WS swap, applies to the others below too)

• Ambu cape + Anwig + Rimeice + Klouskap +0-1

• Ambu cape + Anwig + Rimeice + Heyoka legs +0-1

• Ambu cape + Anwig + Rimeice + Tali'ah feet +1-2

• Ambu cape + Tali'ah feet +0-2 + Ohtas

• Ambu cape + Tali'ah feet +1-2 + Heyoka legs +0-1

• Reive cape + Tali'ah feet +1-2 + Heyoka legs +0-1 + Ohtas

• Reive cape + Tali'ah feet +1-2 + Heyoka legs +0-1 + Klouskap +1 (has to be HQ)

Then fit in as much DT or other important stats in the remaining slots as possible. For the setups that replace DT slots, you can usually compensate for that loss with an extra Armor Plate attachment if magic damage isn't a huge issue.

@Fabiano this is a nice supprise!

regarding the guide, i would like to see a non malignance dt set.
atm i only have 2 pieces but it would be nice to know the next tier. same as the ring i guess.

ItemSet 376163

This set gets you to 50 PDT/23 MDT (so you're also MDT capped with Shell V on) with some flexibility, and doesn't require any DM augments on the herculean or a weapon slot.

Idle - DT sets are generally really flexible (especially with Ambu capes augments customization) since you don't really need any offensive stats, and there's a lot of pieces of gear to choose from, so just dig into your storage and use whatever you've got laying around that'll add you up to the caps. Obviously some pieces of equipment are better than others due to secondary stats, but I think hitting the -50 PDT/-22 MDT benchmark that should be your first goal to aim towards in your idle set if you don't have one to begin with.

Other options include Udug jacket, ryuo domaru +1, dark ring with some solid augments, Cath Palug ring, purity ring, Vocane ring +1 (if you aren't team Thurandaut), warden's ring, patricius ring, merman's earring, hypaspist earring, etiolation earring, Adad amulet, suwaiyas, emeici +1, vrikodara jupon, naga tekko, kurys gloves, ahosi leggings and there's more I didn't include

... But really though, Malignance is Too Good™ (for all the jobs that can wear it, PUP included), the +M.Evasion on it is unrivaled, and is a great (though grindy) goal to shoot towards. Even having just 1 piece of Malignance opens up your gear requirements to reach cap a ton.

great reply Fabiano, this is something i can work with!

Time to redo sets....lol

You shouldn't have to change much if you've been using the sets from my profile.

I have and haven't. At the moment I just don't have the space anymore to do pup right and for pup alone, I have 80 pieces that fill my inventory and I still need to leave stuff behind. So I have fallen behind a bit lol.

I need two more wardrobes lol but from whm to geo, drk, and thf, I picked too many gear heavy jobs.....lol

I stand corrected. The updated sets saved me 14 inventory slots lol. I can finally bring pup back out.

Has anyone ever had the automaton tank on Warder of Courage? I was going to do a pet burn but I heard it might ignore automaton hate. Would heady artiface lockout the respective 1hr?

Arent you confusing WoC with Absolute Virtue? You lock WoC's SP abilities with elemental magic, not your own SP abilities.

Not sure what he means the the 1 hour part, but no, If you are the popper as the PUP, when WoC does Call Wyvern, all of those Wyverns are coming after you the master. You were the initial hate person not your pet.