Animator's Workshop: A Puppetmaster's Guide 2.0

Thre's some fights that we're currently working on and having a pup tank would solve some of the charm issues we're having. So with that in mind i PL'd pup to 99 and am looking for advice on purely tanking puppet. Thanks in advance.

Af1+3 legs, Isa Belt, Skirmish gear with -4dt for pet (body hands feet) legs if wont +3 af1, Earrings can be Unity pdt or HTB shiva earring and Omen for -dt. Condemners from Khim T2 reis can give -5dt Isa belt and Sheperds neck from Roc NM in Mis. Coast by Escha Sky entrance. Head from A moogle add on with -10%dt and +5% haste and your typical Animator 119 is a start. Rings SoA reward if you wana go that way or Varar nq/+1 w/e you can get and Ambu back + Delve back + WRK back. Sub in h2h Midnights or JSE from NPC in port jeuno
Some like Haste or Multi attack over regen on Skirmish gear so depends on what you want to gear for. Job points make it much easier to set a tank and forget about it as well. 1200 is the aim then Master after.

Thanks, a good list to start checking things off of.

Also, what do you have equipped on your autumon for tanking mode

Everything listed is used in one way or another but if you mean attachments I'd have to get in touch with you in game

Yeah, if you have a list of attachments please let me know what it is for this

Incase anyone has not seen this.

My pet tanking mini-guide, current as of September 2017 (most recent change that affects pet tanking is the May 2017 addition of the Su3 Heyoka armor set)

I. Attachments:
Standard tanking attachments (1200+ JP) below, using Soulsoother head and Valoredge body (this allows for better capacity of commonly used tanking attachments). Bolded are musts, and you should use those regardless of JP. Shoot for at least grinding out 100JP for the extra attachment capacity, though even a 0 JP PUP with decent gear should be able to tank a lot of stuff.

Strobe I & II
Flashbulb
Auto-repair kit IV (or the highest you can fit if less than 100/1200 JP)
Optic Fiber I & II (can drop OF1 if needed due to lack of JP)
Armor Plate III & IV (or the highest you can fit if less than 100/1200 JP)
Mana Jammer III & IV (or the highest you can fit if less than 100/1200 JP)

Last two spaces have some room to play with and aren't as important. Options include:
* Galvanizer - counter (I usually use this as a standard choice)
* Speedloader II - help prevent the puppet from breaking SCH SCs by waiting a little longer to try to WS when it has TP (usually causes the puppet to wait long enough to allow a SCH immanence self-SC to go off)
* One of the random 1-earth attachments: Barrier Module, Schurzen, Hammermill, Analyzer
* One of the water attachments: Heatsink, Steam Jacket, Resister
* Regulator - Absorb-Attri, need to use a dark maneuver to trigger it
* Resister I/II can be used (and could drop a Mana Jammer to make room if enfeebles are the concern and you're not as worried about magic damage), though unless you have a very strong Meva set otherwise (like from alluvion weapon/armor Pet:Meva+ augments), and perhaps a GEO using Vex on the mob, you might still be working with a very low resist rate (particularly with needing to mix in fire/light maneuvers), making it hard to build around this as a strategy.

II. Master Weapon:
You have a few options. Condemners (with pet DT augments), Midnights (path D), Ohrmazd, and even the lv75 Oberon's Sainti (with pet: DT-). Could even just leave on your DD weapon if you plan to punch anything, sometimes I just tank in my Kenkonken for that reason (and the overload suppression is something, I guess).

Personally, I use an Ohrmazd with pet DT-4%, Meva+20, and str/dex/vit+15, but it can be a costly hassle to augment alluvion skirmish weapons.

Path D Midnights are probably the most painless option to acquire, and have a nice mix of Overload reduction (not totally irrelevant when you have to spam fire on a newly activated puppet) and pet DT-3%, plus the maneuver effect+2 as a little bonus.

III. Master Armor:
For body/hands/legs/feet slots, three relevant sets:
1) Taeon with Pet:DT+4% is great, I pair mine with regen+3 and Meva+22~24 on all four non-head pieces and use this as my default tanking set.

2) Rao/+1 (path C: pet DT-/HP/acc). NQ has less DT than max Taeon, but the added HP can be nice. Honestly not super important for survival (but hey, more HP is more HP), but relevant for the higher HP pool for enmity purposes.

3) Heyoka (Su3 set, requires 500 or more JP): for the Enmity+ to establish initial hate, or to recover hate for any reason (including hate reset mechanics). Personally, I have a macro with 5/5 Heyoka and both enmity+ earrings, and I manually swap into that for initial engage and provoke/flash, and when needed (particularly as strobe/flashbulb timers are almost up in anticipation of the voke/flash, or any time you have to get a mob back after a hate reset).

Other slots:
Animator: Animator P (or +1) is a must. In addition to the shown attribute+ stats (which are in addition to the base stat+89 from ilevel119 Divinator), it gives a significant amount of puppet defense, evasion, meva, etc. which isn't reflected in the item description.

Head: Anwig Salade, DT-10%

Neck: Shepherd's Chain, though if you lack that you might try Empath Necklace, or just idle in master DT- neck

Ears: Enmerkar/Rimeice is ideal, and if you don't have those can mix in Domesticator's (mainly for the Enmity+5), Handler's+1 (but this can be useless if you're already capping PDT, Burana (regen).

Rings: Thurandaut/+1 if you have it, but it's not that big of a deal if you don't and you can cap PDT/MDT anyway without the slot. I actually traded mine back in for a ring for another job, and I don't miss it one bit. Aside from that, only Overbearing Ring provides any help for tanking (Pet:HP, both for survival and higher HP for enmity purposes). I'd generally avoid Varar rings to reduce pet TP as much as possible and avoid it screwing up SCs.

Back: Visucius's Mantle with Pet: Regen+10 (most important augment). Can do whatever you like with the other two slots, or nothing at all and it's still best for tanking. I tossed Master Eva/Meva on mine, as well as Pet:MAcc/MDMG (nothing relevant to tanking for that slot, and can double as best pet nuking/Macc cape).

Waist: Isa Belt

Legs: Foire +2/+3 are best pet:DT- in the slot, and are certainly a legitimate option, but I find that simply gearing for max DT isn't necessarily best, nor is it necessary. You might be capped anyway, especially for PDT, and even if you aren't capped a puppet tends to be so sturdy that you won't be in danger due to sheer HP anyway - the threat is almost always from nasty status effects or weird mechanics. Therefore, I prefer the slightly lower DT and additional perks of Taeon (Meva, Regen) or Rao (HP). Tali'ah Seraweels are another option (Pet:DT-4%), and while I'd go with any of the other Taeon/Rao/Foire first, Tali'ah will perform perfectly fine.

IV. Misc. Strategy Notes:
Puppets are at their best on a single target mob without major hate resets (since you're relying on Strobe/Flashbulb timers and the puppet is just going to use those when the timer is up). Holding multiple mobs is a real hassle, and is where something like a PLD will really have an advantage over you. Also, you'll want to try to avoid popping stuff where adds go after the popper (e.g., most Escha-Ruaun T2/T3 mobs). But if it's just a single mob without doom or other insta-kill mechanic shenanigans? Your little automaton buddy is nearly indestructable with practically no support required (except infrequent cures on the master, which you may be able to handle with /WHM).

You will find that with proper attachments and a standard Fire/Light maneuver setup (1-2 of each, mix in more light when you want more regen, fire when you want more enmity), your puppet will be in very little danger from direct damage for the vast majority of fights. Can occasionally have use for something like a Water maneuver for MDT or Resister too, or when Overdrive is up and you only need 1 maneuver for full effect. The real threat is nasty AoE status effects, which you'll want to handle with Maintenance and Repair (use AF shoes to remove more effects!). Don't forget that Overdrive makes puppets immune to the vast majority of status effects, which can be handy for some mobs that use obnoxious enfeebles. Doom is a straight up pet killer, can't remove it so your puppet will just die - making PUP a less than ideal tank for mobs that use frequent doom.

One of your biggest tanking challenges will be the puppet WSing when you don't want it to. Especially if you're relying on SCs from the backline, either SCHs or ranged DDs. Some ways to mitigate this:
(1) Use Tactical Switch when the puppet approaches 1000tp (have 0tp on the master) to swipe the puppet's TP. Take your weapon off quickly to zero out your own TP to prepare for next time. This is far from foolproof though, since the 3min timer often isn't enough to be ready to remove your pet's unwanted TP.
(2) Use Speedloaders to delay pet WSing and allow others to get their WS in first. Speedloader tends to make the puppet wait until the last moment of the SC window to follow someone else's SC, making this help when you can't get rid of the pet TP
(3) Avoid using excessive Pet:Acc+ gear (or pet acc food) when you can help it. Heyoka, Tali'ah, and Rao gear give the pet some extra acc that you might not want, so prepare for that (one more reason I like Taeon as a default). Same idea for other pet TP generating stats like Store TP or Double Attack.
(4) If all else fails and you know your puppet is going to WS, just warn your SC team. It sucks to have to waste a SCH's immanence charges, so if SCs are vital I'll let them know the puppet is about to WS and to wait.

A significant threat is the much squishier master dying to something like a huge range AoE or adds. Make sure you are either out of range of nasty stuff or someone is prepared to heal the master, and don't be afraid to swap into DT gear if you know you're gonna eat something like a big Meteor.

Subjobs: When I'm there solely to tank I'm usually /WHM for Cure IV (with capped potency set), and to toss out -na/erase or hastes on others as needed.

It's nice to be able to replace a dead puppet instantly with Activate or DEA without any weakness timer. Can even be an intentional strategy. For example, in our LS we like to do Kyou with two tanks - we let the puppet be main tank and just eat Unfaltering Bravado and die, PLD holds while the puppet is re-activated and re-establishes hate (heavy use of Fire maneuvers and my pet enmity+ set). No need for others to have to get into conal range that way.

10 light, so if you flashbulb max is Auto repair III if i'm right since VE head + body give you 9 light max @ 1200 jp

Don't use VE head + body. Soulsoother head + VE body gives you more light/water slots that you'll want for tanking. 10 of each for SS/VE at 1200+ JP, versus only 9 light and 7 water for VE/VE. That's the sole reason WHM head and VE body is the most common pet tanking frame.

Flashbulb is 100% mandatory for any tanking, as are Strobes. That's really a non-negotiable. If you have to drop light attachments, go with either just one Optic Fiber (OF II), and/or drop Auto-Repair Kit down a tier if you're not as concerned about taking damage.

Not sure if this has been done before, but just solo'd Level 135 UNM Sovereign Behemoth as PUP/COR using VE/SS maton as sole damage dealer.



@1200 JP. AAMR was just there to boost my Beast Roll effect.

What was setup, gear, attachments, and w/e else you used so I can copy you :-P

soloed by spamming a ton of dawn muslim? Still cool to see, but if gils the only limiting factor not very impressive. you could virtually just stand away and spam them.

Think there was a video of Sch soloing this as well. idk names but was a while back so another job that can do it is even better. Awesome stuff though

If you think only spamming Dawn Mulsums is sufficient to beat this UNM within the 15 minutes of alloted time, be my guest and give it a shot. It took me 15+ mulsums just to get the last 5% down after Overdrive ran out, because the maton can't do anything really without the status effect immunity from Overdrive (Thunderbolt spam + permanent Enstun effect + increasingly damaging Meteor). If you avoid Howls you'd time out due to the rising DT/Evasion - and if you force Howls, your maton would die instantly to Meteor eventually. So the only way to do it is to zerg him down as quickly as possible with Overdrive.

Setup was PUP/COR for Beast Roll with AAMR and prebuffed Pro/Shell from a WHM trust (dismissed after). Trusts die too fast to AoE to be of any use in this fight. Ate Shiromochi for the Accuracy.

Attachments (VE/SS): Inhibitor I+II, Speedloader II, Target Marker, Coiler I+II, ARK IV, Optic Fiber I+II, Turbo Charger I+II, Attuner

Gear: Ohtas, DT gear (Anwig, Taeon w/ Acc/DA/DT) outside of Overdrive; Maton TP bonus/WS setup + high Acc gear (Tali'ah +1, Shulmanu, Enmerkar, Thurandaut etc.) during Overdrive. Obviously an MDT set if you are about to get hit by Meteor.

Popped using Onca suit (and scroll of Instant Stoneskin) to avoid stun while positioning the SB at the edge of the fighting arena, used Ventriloquy to make it target my maton and engaged it on SB. I then ran out to 40' range to avoid Thunderbolt (dangerous if you haven't got self-cures like on PUP/COR, plus the 11+ second stun may cause Maneuvers to wear off before you can reapply)

Used Overdrive immediately and just let the maton go to town on it with self-skillchains and white procs. It lasted until about 5% HP as mentioned before, after which I had to spam Dawn Mulsums to keep my maton alive to slowly get the last bit done through the constants stuns, which took a pretty long time. Couldn't afford to run in to Repair or Maintenance (Blind) either due to potential death from AoEs, but I had to risk it near the end as I was running out of Dawn Mulsums. Also popped Heady Artifice for Invincible while I was close.

Positioning in front to force Howls could allow you to zerg SB down before Overdrive ends, but there's not much time to position the automaton correctly, as Thunderbolt+Meteor can kill you fast. As seen in the screenshot where I had only red HP lol. In hindsight, I should've brought some potions to heal myself too, so I guess I was underprepared.

Biggest issue with SB is its insanely high evasion. Seriously, my maton was still missing a lot of hits even with Target Marker under Overdrive with Thunder Maneuver up. I had to gear for as much Accuracy as I could (1430+ in addition to TM). It just keeps getting worse if SB levels up, so don't underestimate it.

Edit: The SCH soloing SB is my in-game friend Hiep on Shiva, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyjF4Lz_LZ8
Hiep did these kinda solos while I was on hiatus - I only came back to the game 5-6 weeks ago after quitting during Abyssea/SoA launch and had to gear up from level 75 stuff. I wasn't trying to copy him, as I was actually trying to get revenge on SB because a farming group I had joined the day before kept wiping to it. On that note, I'm still missing a lot of good PUP gear like Abjurations, Heyoka, Condemners, augmented Hercs and so forth.

Edit2: Here's another screenshot of SB at 1%

Looking to CP my pup to at least 1200 for now, but the cross over gear i have currently isnt vary good for pup tp. Id like some suggestion for tp set on master for CP farm on apex bats. Thanks all.

Would be nice when you get that missing gear and augment it up to your standards, you make a video or another posting to show the diff. I highly encourage any Pup to do fights like this if they want a test of their skill gear and luck. I know I tried this and got sent him after about 2 min cant even say if SB was below 90%

Good job.

Solid master TP set for CP purposes (and really, same set for any current content) would be something like:

Head: something from the choices of Herculean (TA+3~4%, Acc+, whatever else you can get as a lower priority), Ryuo Somen (Path A), Heyoka (Su3, need 500JP). Tali'ah Turban +1 works too as a high master acc piece, even though it's really more of a hybrid master/pet piece thanks to the Pet: STP.

Neck: Lissome or Asperity will hold you over nicely until Shulmanu.

Ears: Cessance/Brutal. Can replace Cessance with Telos if you have that.

Body: Tali'ah +1 is excellent. Herculean Vest (as usual, TA/Acc) can be a nice alternative if you have it. Aside from those, Heyoka (Su3) or Ryuo are your viable options.

Hands: Herculean (TA/Acc)

Rings: Epona/Niqmaddu, but if you have no Niq then Petrov or Rajas work

Back: Ambuscade cape (DEX/Acc&Atk/DA for pure master TP focus)

Waist: Moonbow > Windbuffet +1

Legs: Samnuha Tights with good augments, ideally. If you don't have that... something from Heyoka (Su3, 500JP needed), Ryuo D, or Herculean.

Feet: Herculean (TA/Acc)

Perfect Ta'lab Trousers is a good alternative if you're missing perf Samnuha and don't wanna mess up with random augs on Herc.

Granted that a new/returning player of course won't have Ta'lab, but you might end up getting a perf Ta'lab while trying to farm a Samnuha, so you better know that Ta'lab can be good until then!

Speaking of earrings - outside of having Kenkonken and full JP Martial Arts + Gift, how do Mache Earrings (+1) fare against Brutal/Cessance? Assuming you don't need the Accuracy to cap, would the Martial Arts -20 be anywhere close as good in high or low Haste situations compared to the +6% DA (keeping in mind it's diluted because of TA) and sTP+4?

For example, when using Godhands due to its high delay?

There is something about AAMR i don't know, i didn't find any info on BG about that.

presumably AA MR is a beastmaster, and having the job present for a named roll (aka bst for beast roll) boosts its effect.

not sure if trusts count but being party members i presume they do.





...probably.

I didn't test it much beyond a couple of /checkparam uses, but from what I could tell AAMR counts as BST main for the purpose of boosting Beast Roll.

Yes trusts count as there jobs for rolls. AAMR is one of only 2 bsts that I know of (the other being Lhu Mhakaracca)and also a thf

I thought AAs had two main jobs as well, but from what I tested it doesn't seem like AATT boosts Chaos Roll, despite being a BLM/DRK

I more meant you could get th from MR as well

They might have coded the trusts to have a more player like main and sub. Looking at trusts lists don't really see any that actually have jas, ws, traits or spells that are from 2 jobs >lvl 49 except Fablinix but he's super weird and has 3 jobs...

Tried the MB approach on Crabs for solo CP but I didn't like it, so I decided to try the Spellloader approach that I heard many talk about.
It was much better, but I'm still not particularly satisfied.
Can anybody help me understand what I was doing wrong?

cp/hr was around 1200k/hr


My setup under spoiler

So in light of all these info, what was I missing? What was I doing wrong? What can I improve?

Best i can suggest is do hats with rng frame instead shijin > piercer (gravitation iirc) > dragon kick or victory smite(fragmentation) > shatterer (light) > shijin would make radiance yes?

Ohum, that's good I guess. Would you leave the same attachment setup?

I forgot to say which maneuvers I was using. I tried many different things but I think in the end I settled for Light x1, Fire x2

Attachments are basically the same minus maybe a coiler for scope or repeater depending on acc needs. Manuever wise i ran wind/fire/light, dabbled in wimd/fire x2 and it wasnt doing well enough for me personally

You almost never want to skip Wind Maneuver, except during Overdrive. Difference between Fire/Wind/Light and Light/Firex2 is 30% magic Haste and you should probably try to cap your gear Haste for the Automaton, too. That said, I usually prefer to run with Wind/2x Fire on VE/SS maton when there are no AoE to worry about in order to maximize Store TP in exchange for losing 3.75% magic Haste (from cap).

Shijin > APiercer > VSmite > AShatterer > VSmite is the standard 5-step SC for that setup.

As for Attachments, replace the Tension Spring II with Target Marker (if you have Acc issues) or use a Repeater to improve TP gain slightly.