Puppetmaster merits!

[Khamsin]

I believe I made a thread prior to the automaton magic skill adjustments regarding merits, but haven't seen anything post-patch. I apologize beforehand, but this post is going to be reminiscent of some sort of emo myspace blog post where the author just rambles on to himself hoping other people are actually listening and will say something.

So to all my fellow lolPUPs out there, I have 9 ninja merits from Campaign that I suddenly discovered I had and, sadly, I still have not meritted PUP despite being fully meritted on my other jobs. I know, I know.

So... the easy part first. I figured I'd do 1 each in Ventriloquy and Role Reversal, then 2 each in Fine Tuning and Optimization (or maybe 3 in Fine Tuning and 1 in Optimization). Unless anyone wants to chime in with a good reason why I shouldn't do that, I'm happy with it.

The hard part is how to handle group 1.

If I go magic, I'd need 3 merits to get Fire IV and 5 merits to get Blizzard IV, leaving 5 to use on the others. Is it worth it?

Alternatively, I could just dump 5 each into Melee and Ranged and forget magic because it's not like my BLM head can nuke worth a damn anyways.

I'm not a fan of the idea of putting merits into Repair or Activate, just because.. well, I don't like to center my merits around the idea that my automaton will die. It's not good for my mojo.

Anyone have any opinions other than saving my merits for something useful instead?

[eva00r]

1 RR, 1 Vent, 3 Fine Tuning, 1 Optimization, 5 Magic and the rest on whatever you like.

My BLM head could do around 85-90% of well geared BLM's nuke. Not worth a damn ? It's a joke.

Plus, meriting on magic will let you land enfeebling magic better on soloing.

[spooky]

I would expect updates to PUP soon, so it might be best to wait a bit.

[Almalexia]

1 Role Reversal
1 Ventriloquy

1 Fine-Tuning
3 Optimization

5 magic, because you want Blizzard IV.
5 melee, because every frame can benefit.

Tranquilizer, Loudspeaker, Ice Maker, Optic Fiber, call GM because Joe is breaking the game.

[pchan]

Before the introduction of BLM head I went 5/5 on range and melee skill. Once they introduced BLM (and WHM) head it was pretty obvious that I had to change. I removed range and fully merited Magic. It's worth it. The BLM puppet is the best DD of all your puppets.

If you don't merit magic you dont need ventriloquy imo. Although it's cool to ventriloquy > Sneak Attack Howling fist when you solo :D

[Khamsin]

Those seem like BLM-centric builds. Can they really come within 90% of a well-geared BLM with all the best HNM/Salvage/Limbus/Assault/Dynamis gear? That sounds a bit of a stretch.

[Meian]

1 Role Reversal
1 Ventriloquy

1 Fine-Tuning
3 Optimization

5 magic, because you want Blizzard IV.
5 melee, because every frame can benefit.

Tranquilizer, Loudspeaker, Ice Maker, Optic Fiber, call GM because Joe is breaking the game.

This is what I did for merits and it has not failed me once.

Those seem like BLM-centric builds. Can they really come within 90% of a well-geared BLM with all the best HNM/Salvage/Limbus/Assault/Dynamis gear? That sounds a bit of a stretch.

Put it to you this way, currently Sharpshot can not really do well endgame (that I have tried anyway). 90% can vary by one's definition of "well-geared." If you are still not convinced, here is some parses and screenies. The main BLM related one you may want is the Sky gods one.

Meian :
Proto-Ultima (Valoredge)
http://www.killingifrit.com/forums.php? ... 31#3258131

Sky gods (BLM Frame nukes)
http://www.killingifrit.com/forums.php? ... 36#3328736

Kirin 1
http://www.killingifrit.com/forums.php? ... 04#3226004

Kirin 2
http://www.killingifrit.com/forums.php? ... 54#3246754


I never posted this one I think from a while back so here you guys go:

Proto-Ultima 2: Sakura went down at 20% from Armor Buster spammage, backed up healing at that point until 0%. And yet, she still was that high in damage place?

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/7...oultimapb6.jpg

[Jones]

1 Role Reversal
1 Ventriloquy

1 Fine-Tuning
3 Optimization

5 magic, because you want Blizzard IV.
5 melee, because every frame can benefit.

Tranquilizer, Loudspeaker, Ice Maker, Optic Fiber, call GM because Joe is breaking the game.

Well said.

This is what I did and I haven't once regretted it. Blizzard IV is completely worth it. :elmer:

[DragonCloud64]

Alternatively, I could just dump 5 each into Melee and Ranged and forget magic because it's not like my BLM head can nuke worth a damn anyways.

That is where you are wrong sir! (this ss is without absorb-int)
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1507/blizzagaxt3.png
I put 5 into magic skill, and maxed optimization with only 1 in the rest of the group 2.

Those seem like BLM-centric builds. Can they really come within 90% of a well-geared BLM with all the best HNM/Salvage/Limbus/Assault/Dynamis gear? That sounds a bit of a stretch.

as for HNM, Limbus, Assault, Dynamis geared blms a fully merited pup can keep up with those merited blms and in some cases surpass. Salvage geard Blms, i have no clue :/
As far as most Hnms go, blm head still gets resisted bad.

[Shuemue]

Wait, you're saying a puppet can keep up with a well geared BLM?

I'm intrigued. No AM II, Not even Thunder IV...

What rating in elemental magic does the BLM puppet get, and how well do they regain mana?

[DragonCloud64]

Wait, you're saying a puppet can keep up with a well geared BLM?

I'm intrigued. No AM II, Not even Thunder IV...

What rating in elemental magic does the BLM puppet get, and how well do they regain mana?

Skill can get to 286 with capped merits.
Blizzard IV damage with full manuevers can easily surpass Thunder IV and AM2's that have been a tad resisted. I'll post some mount Z pudding screenshots if i can find them... as for MP.. deactivate => activate MP full. and they have about 900 or so.

[Shuemue]

Wait, you're saying a puppet can keep up with a well geared BLM?

I'm intrigued. No AM II, Not even Thunder IV...

What rating in elemental magic does the BLM puppet get, and how well do they regain mana?

Skill can get to 286 with capped merits.
Blizzard IV damage with full manuevers can easily surpass Thunder IV and AM2's that have been a tad resisted. I'll post some mount Z pudding screenshots if i can find them... as for MP.. deactivate => activate MP full. and they have about 900 or so.

Let's not talk about resisted nukes, those are few and far between, especially when a well geared and merited BLM can easily have 320+ skill.

I'd be interested to see the pudding numbers though, I presume those are Blizzard IV?

[Suiram]

I was kinda doubting the 85-90% thing myself, so I was looking at the numbers and asking Khamsin as well. Just to confirm what he said, and ignoring resists/macc, if you used Loudspeaker II with 3 ice maneuvers (INT+6, MAB+25) and then consumed those with Ice Maker (MAB+60) would it have 70 INT, MAB+60? Or 76 INT, MAB+85?

I ask because even if it's the latter, it seems more on the order of 80%. I'd consider myself a "well-geared" BLM, I think, and just comparing my Bliz 4 against an automaton's Bliz 4 in my standard (not full-epeen) nuking gear, it would do 80%~81% of my damage assuming it had 76 INT and 85 MAB, and assuming reasonable mob INT. If it was 70 INT and 60 MAB it would be considerably less than that, of course.

[DragonCloud64]

Let's not talk about resisted nukes, those are few and far between, especially when a well geared and merited BLM can easily have 320+ skill.

I'd be interested to see the pudding numbers though, I presume those are Blizzard IV?

Hmm well i can't really tell if the AMII was really resisted or not, the blms usually didn't use AMII too much to save MP i guess. And my puppet wouldn't use his best nuke, I guess he was using Fire IV to exploit the flan's weakness and get less resists.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5...ddings1za0.png

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/499/puddings2fp1.png

[chapstick]

I don't think those are resists as much as they are just under-geared/meritted BLMs doing those numbers. Still though, impressive damage for the puppet.

[DragonCloud64]

I don't think those are resists as much as they are just under-geared/meritted BLMs doing those numbers. Still though, impressive damage for the puppet.

Eh the Blms weren't undergeared, they had sea capes / dynamis / hmn gear etc. Though i did see a couple of blms worthy of the "most gimped/confused players" thread.

[Shuemue]

Oh you still can't instruct the puppet when and what to cast? That sucks then, I thought you had that functionality now.

Still, that Fire IV is decent regardless. How do puppets handle day/weather bonuses? Will they cast to take advantage of them?

[Khamsin]

Alternatively, I could just dump 5 each into Melee and Ranged and forget magic because it's not like my BLM head can nuke worth a damn anyways.

That is where you are wrong sir!

Well, to be honest, I hadn't really done much with the BLM head or Stormwaker since the skill caps were raised. I guess it really must be pretty good now.

[Suiram]

Okay, so now I'm really curious. What attachments did you use when you got 1571, and what is automaton's INT with the frame/attachment/maneuvers you used? My PUP is level 1, but mostly I'm just trying to figure out how fire got up that high from an automaton.

[Shuemue]

Okay, so now I'm really curious. What attachments did you use when you got 1571, and what is automaton's INT with the frame/attachment/maneuvers you used? My PUP is level 1, but mostly I'm just trying to figure out how fire got up that high from an automaton.

tbh I'm suspecting firesday/weather.