String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

I've seen more double drops from bosses than from caskets/Aurum, though Case+1 drop rates are so awful it's barely worth trying to farm for that if you're soloing anyway.


I've seen it mostly wander into A around the 30-40 min mark and I'd wager it's more likely to wander off into other sections the longer you leave it be.


Skomora has a 3 min rage, so unless you OD zerg it it's going to be pretty difficult for a PUP to kill it fast enough if their Trusts get demolished, especially if their gear isn't higher-end. Ghatjot is very tame without a time limit, by comparison.

@Aerix, or anyone really, would you mind sharing a relatively up to date PUP lua? Mine is terribly outdated and is a hot mess.

Sorry, my lua is too customized with binds and sets, which makes it rather messy, so I usually don't share it.

Idk, I have seen some person reporting in Sortie thread, that he died twice in a row on it at low % with some big damage hits too. I guess he was missing the metal tho.

That being said, is Skomora rage only about doing one 30000k split damage move per 3 min? Or it's more than that?
If its only that, you could damage on master, then disengage and Ventriloquy at around 2:45 and run away at distance with Trusts and sacrifice automaton?

EDIT: Just tried Ghatjot with slow damage on alts. After like 6 min it did Clobbering Wave for 5k damage on my BRD, without anything that could proc it. Then it took it 30 sec to kill GEO standing and doing nothing and not even curing itself. Kina looks like it has high damage move on timer too.

Hmm, so it has a rage, but double the time limit compared to the others? I've never spent that much time on Ghatjot, but good to know.

In that case—if gear is too lacking—it's definitely better to go after Aurum first instead of any bosses.

Clobbering Wave is conal and only killed my BRD. After that spike it proceeded to being easy prey again, so maybe you can play around it if you have Trust or automaton tanking and only them in range, but it might be risky, when we don't know exact timer or mechanic (maybe it can happen on any tp move, including AoE, not only Wave).

Karagoz Cappello +3
DEF:131 HP+66 STR+31 DEX+30 VIT+34 AGI+31 INT+25 MND+30 CHR+25 Acc.+61 Atk.+61 Mag. Acc.+61 Eva.+91 Mag. Eva.+98 "M. Def. B."+8 Hand-to-Hand skill +19 Haste+8% "Double Attack"+5% Physical damage limit +10% Automaton: Accuracy+61 Ranged Accuracy+61 Mag. Acc.+61 "TP Bonus"+600 Set: Attack occ. varies with automaton's HP

Karagoz Farsetto +3
DEF:164 HP+89 STR+40 DEX+41 VIT+39 AGI+40 INT+31 MND+38 CHR+33 Accuracy+64 Attack+74 Magic Accuracy+64 Evasion+105 Magic Evasion+109 "Magic Def. Bonus"+8 Haste+4% "Overload" rate -40 Damage taken -13% Automaton: Accuracy+64 Ranged Accuracy+64 Magic Accuracy+64 Set: Attack occ. varies with automaton's HP

Karagoz Guanti +3
DEF:119 HP+55 STR+26 DEX+49 VIT+45 AGI+21 INT+20 MND+42 CHR+25 Accuracy+62 Attack+62 Magic Accuracy+62 Evasion+74 Magic Evasion+82 "Magic Def. Bonus"+5 Haste+5% "Store TP"+11 Damage taken -10% Automaton: STR+26 DEX+26 AGI+26 Accuracy+62 Ranged Accuracy+62 Magic Accuracy+62 Set: Attack occ. varies with automaton's HP

Karagoz Pantaloni +3
DEF:145 HP+77 STR+49 VIT+28 AGI+35 INT+37 MND+34 CHR+21 Accuracy+63 Attack+73 Magic Accuracy+63 Evasion+86 Magic Evasion+119 "Magic Def. Bonus"+8 Haste+6% "Martial Arts"+11 Damage taken -12% Automaton: Accuracy+63 Ranged Accuracy+63 Magic Accuracy+63 Skill +33 Set: Attack occ. varies with automaton's HP

Karagoz Scarpe +3
DEF:100 HP+43 STR+30 DEX+30 VIT+30 AGI+49 INT+21 MND+30 CHR+39 Acc.+60 Atk.+60 Mag. Acc.+60 Eva.+122 Mag. Eva.+119 "M. Def. B."+7 Haste+4% "Tactical Switch"+40 Weapon skill damage +12% Automaton: INT+30 MND+30 Accuracy+60 Ranged Accuracy+60 Magic Accuracy+60 Set: Attack occ. varies with automaton's HP

Nothing unexpected, sadly. My previous evaluation of the empy still holds and the hands are a solid TP pick now with high DT, but don't have Malignance's STP or MEVA. The head is top tier for WS if you can get enough buffs.

Overall I had hoped for a lot more from these updates.

We are trying the Pets strategy, do you know which boxes Pup has to use to be able to kill Skathi alone?

I use the Ranger 1 set from the Toy Theater: An Automaton Attachments Guide but I think it costs me too much to lower his life using 1 light and 2 fire lights.

I also use the Bone Crusher 2 set but with the craft h2h NQ.

The last time it was up was 1/21 if no one has the answers you can probably find what aerix cap or bix used by checking posts from then

I checked, apparently not.

Skathi is weak to blunt though, so it's definitely the bonecrusher build, with companions and oils it should be a relatively simple task if your pup is geared well

Even with 3 odrive pups I was never able to kill skathi alone, the rng kills Freya just fine, frigg goes down pretty quickly even without slashing, but because the pup can be constantly petrified over and over usually skathi was the last alive and just war of attrition vs him and the 3 pups.

When I was doing this fight it was entirely 3 pups doing all kills with odrive and no cor/geo stuff. The beginning is hectic but once you get used to pulling the NM's away from eachother it gets better.

I have been doing VD 3 PUPs and a COR. Frigg and Freyja are pushovers with OD on DPS SS setup. For Skathi I have been using a magic resist build Soul head Valor body, OF1+2 AR4 Mana Jam 3+4 Steam Jacket Turbo 1+2 then whatever DPS attachments after that. Once Freyja is down I sent that auto to Skathi then when Frigg falls send in the last auto. setting it up so that the auto are in repair range while Skathi is over 20 and just using oils when they get stoned.

From an offensive perspective, Cirque +3 hands have ONE less STP than Malignance in exchange for Atk+62, ~Acc+7, plus a huge amount of pet Acc/STR/DEX/AGI if you happen to be using a DD puppet. Easy trade to me to give up that measly STP+1 unless you're highly buffed to cap atk and taking advantage of the PDL+4 on Malignance (which, if you're using Malignance with no Atk, is even harder to reach on anything of consequence.

From a defensive perspective, Malignance does have Meva+30, but also has the downside of 6 less DT- (from a damage taken perspective, the DT- probably ends up better than a small number of potential damaging spell resists). Unless you're heavily focusing on a max status resist set for a particular mob with really nasty debuffs, I'd go Cirque+3 from a defensive oriented mindset too.

Are Cirque +3 better enough to be "worth" the farming grind? For most players, probably not before you have many more higher priority pieces done for other jobs. But if I had them both available right now? I'd easily go Cirque as my default TP piece.

Even if my other post may make it sound like I think Malignance are still superior, I was merely stating a basic observation. I'm actually of the same opinion as you, which is why Malignance is only part of a TP set that tries to stack MEVA and already caps DT otherwise. Karagoz+3 are in almost everything else.

I've also dropped Balder Earring +1 from every relevant set since the cost-performance ratio is horrid (most people will never even consider buying one) and a STP+5-7 Karagoz Earring +2 or Schere Earring should beat it out. Assuming the drop rates become better in the future to make Karagoz+2 a more realistic choice.

Eyeballing empy, and Vere in mind, MNK is clearly the winner in flat DPS. It's a shift in PUPs DPS for the better. V20 Ngai fight comes to mind when I imagine better practical applications for Vere PUP. My PUP is a work in progress, and "wait and see" has been the long approach to finishing KKK. Swapping between Vere/KKK seems inevitable.

Sooo... talking about the "removing >5% health with Amplifier on" strategy in Odyssey, does anybody have a compiled list of which NMs, which tiers, which Vengeance level can PUP handle completely solo with just Overdrive?

MNK will always win in terms of raw damage with Verethragna (which is why you want to use Godhands on PUP if just spamming), but if you're multistepping Light with your Automaton then there's nothing better. Unless your maton needs Mythic AM3 just to be able to keep up with TP.

While I haven't really tried OD cheesing, outside of NMs like Mboze that can one-shot your automaton through DT (though maybe not always if lucky) and Ongo that won't take much physical damage, I don't think anything would be off-limits at v15-20 if you're only aiming to do 6% damage. Anything that won't kill a DD outright shouldn't be able to kill a VE or SS maton (if you have enough Dawn Mulsums to keep it topped off) and you have 3m30s to deal enough damage + whatever you manage to do as the master. Even Mboze and Ongo may be doable with some luck or effort.

And you can always just cheese Dealan-dhe, U Bnai or Gogmagog with Trusts for a triple run to keep your amplifier charged. Getting all the clears and access to go into all relevant fights is the only real hurdle.

I'm gonna try a few things with the setup I used to solo VD Kam'lanaut and D Caith Sith.
But I think for the harder stuff you kinda need max rank Xiuacoatl to be able to do enough damage in the 3,5 minutes of overdrive.

Even for v20 stuff you only need to do like 150k-200k damage or something to reach the 6% threshold (but there's nothing wrong with just doing v15-19). As long as you do the right damage type depending on NM (i.e. slashing on Kalunga, piercing on Xevioso etc.) it shouldn't be too hard to do ~10 WS in 3.5 mins even with a more defensive attachment setup (Steam Jacket is your friend in A3).

Rather than Xiucoatl, if you have a Kenkonken you'll want to try to get AM3 up for any Valoredge setups anyway, whether you're doing Bone Crusher or String Shredder. Might not be mandatory and slightly risky, but it does make a difference.

Speaking of Kenkoken, for the AM3 set, im wondering, I dont have volte gear... I'm guesssing a mix-match of STP and SB would do somewhat ok?

I have not checked my gear, nor any other guide, just want to dust off my puppet!

There's an SB set right next to the AM3 set that works with any weapon. It just has slightly less STP, but also more DT. Overall it'd be the safer, but less offensive, option.

Honestly, though, there are only very few situations these days where SB is actually necessary. With capped DT and Trust healing you can power through pretty much anything outside of Gaol.

Ok so I tried for my first time ever to solo stuff as PUP.
Tried Gigelorum V20 and Xevioso V20.
I managed to win! But Xevioso was a bit tricky.
Gonna post what I did here under, maybe someone of you like Aerix or many others will be able to give me nice tips.
Keep in mind my gear is just average!


Gigelorum V20


Xevioso V20

Sooo... for Xevioso I barely did 94% with like 1 min left, did several mistakes, died and had to wait over 5 mins to recover HP, couldn't resummon the same trust etc etc.

A few things I learned from this:
1) Use a Pachira Fruit before aggroing, because if Xevioso's poison sticks on you before you get our of range and/or if the healer dies too fast, it could be a problem
2) Use Overdrive slightly before aggroing, that way Poison won't stick on the automaton


Now I wonder, does Truesights even work on WS damage? Or just ranged attacks? I used it in place of Armor Plate IV but my automaton died like 3 times and I risked failing.
I managed to deal 6% because I've been lucky I guess.



Edit:
forgot to use food on both fights XD
I was going for either Akamochi or Kusamochi anyway.

Before anything I would reiterate Steam Jacket being your pep's best friendo in all Gaol T3's.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Steam_Jacket


Face pull >> Ventriloquy >> Deploy >> Run Away! You will eat a big nuke, gear accordingly.

Xiucoatl not necessary. Ohtas, 5/5 Taeon , Shulmanu, Incarnation, Rimeice + Enmerkar, Cath Palug + Thurandaut. No Thurandaut then Varar and shuffle in Klouskap or something.

After swapping to turtle prepare to ride Repair/Maintenance recasts, Xevi is the most involved of the T3's to hold because debuffs. Or take the hit to exemplar points after 94%.

edit: I should add that I have always done this with a fodder job in the party that has some form of pro/shell, regen, sometimes phalanx.. The pull is certainly the most dangerous moment. Quick Ventriloquy is must.

I never felt like pulling is that dangerous. Just have a good healer and good tank trusts. Equip meva/dt gear (Malignance or Nyame), engage from distance and just run in asap to hit it. Even with insta cast, you will hit it shortly after or during casting and your tank trust will pull hate off you and healer will heal you. There is no time for boss to hit you after casting and before it switches target to tank trust. Then you can deploy.

I have only done this in a static environment where the rest of the party is more or less afk from the point of job change so there is some level of vulnerability after the first nuke if you don't Ventriloquy+Deploy and get out the way asap.

Curious to hear people using trusts for Xevi, does he not run wild between denouements? Using nothing but Master and Puppet precludes that threat with the opening face pull into Ventriloquy.

Thanks a lot for the tips Skald!
Yes I like the pull by face + ventriloquy tip, didn't think about but I think I'm gonna do that next time.
Granted there's merit in the approach me and Simon used, if anything for the Dia3 that the RDM trust will hopefully stick on Xevioso before dying.

A few questions about your setup:
1) Valoredge head instead of Sharpshoot. With the Puppet being the only thing on Xevioso he's gonna be in melee range regardless of the head, wouldn't Sharpshot grant slightly better RA racc/ratt and frequency?

2) With the maneuver setup you suggested (Light, Fire, Water) it means that Turbo Charger II will grant "only" ~10% magic haste (considering the 75% bonus from Optic Fiber I/II). With 25% gear haste and 25% JA haste (overdrive) that would leave me ~20% away from attack delay cap. I guess that's a compromise I'll have to accept?

3) Wouldn't Tension Spring IV or V be better than Inhibitor II, in terms of DPS?

4) Do you think my average master gear will be enough? Reposting it below. I think I should have Taeon Hands as well on my mule. Otherwise I dunno, I have NQ Rao Head/Hands/Legs/Feet.

I generally just intentionally die after doing 5%, because with reraise iii you only lose like 1500EP even at ML40. That being said I haven't soloed Xevioso yet, so I'm not sure what will happen exactly, but I will do it on DNC anyway and just do 4-5 Climactic Rudras, which should be more than enough. I believe using like 3 tank trusts with a healer and rdm trusts should let tanks bounce hate forever. The only thing that can probably kill tanks trusts with my MM45 are fetters, but I once had trusts surviving Kalunga with fetters aura up for like 10 min, so who knows.

Aside from what the others have recommended, here's some notes:

- Truesights does work on ranged WS and it's actually one of the biggest bonuses to ranged damage if you use Wind maneuvers, but it also forces Shatterer/Piercer over potentially stronger WSs like Arcuballista/Daze

- Akamochi/Kusamochi are outdated foods; Grape daifuku and Rolanberry daifuku were updated a while ago to provide relatively much better combined Acc/Atk or Acc/Macc bonuses


1) Ranged attacks will just slow your maton's TP speed down during OD, unless you are running a full shooting setup. So you want fewer RAs with the VE head and also the slightly higher Melee skill. The Racc/Ratk bonuses from SS don't make enough of a difference usually.

2) Turbo Chargers give magic haste, not JA haste, so Automatons can never reach the 80% Haste cap even under OD (which only provides magic haste as well; I've verified this). Best you can get is ~25% gear + 43.75% magic = ~69%.

With that in mind: under OD, with double Turbo Chargers and both Optic Fibers, 1 Light and no Wind Maneuver, you'll get 12% x 1.75 = 21% magic haste which combined with the +25% haste will get you to the 43.75% magic cap.

For VE frame setups I'd always use double Turbo Chargers, but a VE/SS can get away with only Turbo Charger II under OD as it can get a 3-hit build that lets it build TP faster than the AI will fire WSs usually. And it frees up an attachment slot that will provide a bigger overall benefit. If you use any Wind Maneuvers at all then the lone TC2 will cap you anyway.

3) Double Inhibitors are massive under OD to get a solid x-hit going (and it might even be worth dropping Magniplug 1 to get Inhibitor 1 in since you don't have rolls). That said, skillchains are really bad on Gaol mobs, so you won't care for multistepping, which means Light/Wind/Fire to force Shatterer > Piercer with Truesights equipped should give you the biggest damage output without having to worry too much about Attack issues. However, you should probably swap the Fire or Wind maneuver to Water whenever the aura and fetters go up to boost Steam Jacket, otherwise the maton is likely to melt too fast.

4) You'll probably want to grab some unaugmented Mpaca hands to boost your ranged WS even further, unless survivability is an issue. It's a straight up +10% damage that affects RA and WS.

Also if you aren't using Karagoz head and Dispersal Mantle for TP Bonus then your VE/SS will not be able to make full use of Arcuballista/Daze anyway. In which case the aforementioned Truesights + Wind maneuver will be your best option no matter what.

Aside from that, you should double-check your Automaton's Accuracy under OD with that gear and Grape daifuku. Xevioso requires around 1400 Acc for capped hit rate, so you may need to reaugment your Taeon from Atk to Acc. Unrelated but for the record, I usually recommend Acc on Taeon in the String Theory node since that typically lets you forgo Drachen Roll for most content in favor of Comp/Beast. In your case it might let you drop the Stabilizer.

Do you mean that the current description on FFXIAH/BGwiki is outdated?
Here are the stats for the NQ versionsIf we want both acc AND att then sure, I guess Grape Daifuku > Akamochi. Same att, better acc. But if you want ONLY att shouldn't kusamochi still be better? Or am I missing something?

I'll discuss my automaton's potential accuracy needs further below.



Why the *** didn't I think about that lol? Of course I do own Mpaca hands. Thanks!

I only have Karagoz+1 and I use it in one of my pet sets, not this one because I was spamming Shatterer which is unaffected by TP anyway. (thanks for reminding me about dispersal, haven't used that in years!)

I get that you're suggesting to start with Shatterer for the debuff, then spam Piercer. But how do you force Piercer without a dark maneuver? Wouldn't my automaton just spam shatterer with Fire/Wind/Light maneuvers up?


Last I checked I was 1340 Acc and 1360 Racc if I recall.
But that was:
1) Without food because I forgot
2) Without Acc/Racc in the hands slot (which will be provided by Mpaca)
3) With Stabilizer V (it should be "only" 40 acc/racc anyway)
4) Without Overdrive

So I'm confident that honestly with Overdrive up and Mpaca hands I'm gonna get way above 1400 even without Stabilizer.
Should be fine!

Either way let me remind that without food and with my shitty gear I managed to deal 6% damage on Xevioso just fine despite my puppet dying twice, which kinda means damage was okaysh I guess?