Puppetmaster merits!

[pchan]

By the way, anyone managed to cast blizzard IV on puddings ? After Fire IV, what's your next spell if you keep an ice on. Also, 1500+ on fire IV is hard to beat on BLM without sorcerer earring's latent effect. As elvaan, without sorcerer earring and uggalepih, but with full morrigan set (no novio, no prudence torque, no food) i do ~ 1400 on Thunder IV without day/weather bonus, that's with full thunder/ice potency

[Suiram]

By the way, anyone managed to cast blizzard IV on puddings ? After Fire IV, what's your next spell if you keep an ice on. Also, 1500+ on fire IV is hard to beat on BLM without sorcerer earring's latent effect. As elvaan, without sorcerer earring and uggalepih, but with full morrigan set (no novio, no prudence torque, no food) i do ~ 1400 on Thunder IV without day/weather bonus, that's with full thunder/ice potency

I assume you mean sorcerer's ring? Since the earring will give you damage reduction. And yeah it's next to impossible without fire potency merits, that's why it's the LOBO CHALLENGE.

[Jones]

What mobs did you guys cap your automaton magic skill on? I spent a couple hours soloing steelshells in tree on PUP/MNK with Soulsoother and went from 242-247, which is fairly decent, but it's a bit of a walk and the skillups will probably slow down before long.

Are there any convenient locations in the past to skill up, too?

If you haven't heard of this little trick it's pretty good for skills ups, but it's very boring and you gotta pay solid attention to what you are doing. I'd link you to the thread on KI or Alla, but both of those are blocked by my work. Here is the basic idea...

Requirements:
BST unlocked
Flashbulb or Strobe attachment
ToAU access

Get on PUP/BST, even if your BST is lvl 1. Head out to Bhaflau Thickets to the Marids near the Ahmibi Watchtower. Use Charm 30 times in a row on your favorite Marid. I try to find the VTs, or pick the Grand Marid as long as a BLM isn't soloing. I kite the Marid (which have perma Gravity on) down to the watchtower as I'm building up my Charms (you can use less charms if you have Emnity+ Gear/Merits), until I know I have capped my Cumulative Emnity (CE).

One capped, there is nothing your Automation can do to steal hate off of you no matter what it does. Then, simply deploy your Automation on the Marid and skill up accordingly. I make laps around the watchtower. You will never have any issues with getting hit, because of the Marid's -% movement. The only mildly tricky part is Chigoe summons. Eventually, your Auto via melee, spells, or ranged will have fed the Marid enough TP that it will perform a WS and summon a Chigoe. Next--and order is critical here--Retrieve your Automation, apply a light maneuver, and Deploy on the Chigoe. The Automation will then use the Flashbulb on the Chigoe, insta-killing it. (This can also be done with Fire Maneuvers and Strobe, but since the recast on Strobe is 30 seconds, you might run the risk of the Automation using Provoke on the Marid. This shouldn't be a big deal as it likely won't be enough to pull hate, but I avoid it anyway.)

Each Marid lasts quite a while and I average about 1-2.5 levels per Marid for whatever skill I'm doing. Magic is the trickiest of them all in this method, as you have to Deploy >>> Retrieve on each cast to ensure that your Automation will continue to follow and stay within casting range on the Marid. I personally have only used this method for Melee and Ranged skills and have found it to be quite mindless and reliable. I will say that Beseiged seems to net me more skillups for the time, but this method can be used anytime so it's convenient. As a small, but nice bonus you will get 300 xp/kill on the Marids when you do finish them off.

I personally skilled Magic by soloing Robber Crabs in Kuftal, then Steelshells in the Tree. When skillups stopped soloing with Soulsoother, I duo'd with a BST using Spiritreaver. Skillups came much faster with the Spiritreaver and I was able to cap on Steelshells. Melee skill I mostly used this method, Besieged, and even got a few on Kirin(lol). Ranged I'm using this method right now, but not very often. I still have 10-12 more levels til I cap out Ranged.

--
Just as a side note, I've also heard reports of PUPs being able to skill Automations by Deploying them on Campaign Fortifications. According to this rumor, the trick is to not get tagged and the Campaign mobs won't care to attack your Automation. I personally haven't tried it, but if it works it's certainly not to be taken for .

[Shuemue]

For pup magic skill, is it not possible to pile on the earth maneuvers and have it spam slow on goldfish?

I'm probably totally wrong and it'd nuke too and you'd need to fight/run

[Khamsin]

For pup magic skill, is it not possible to pile on the earth maneuvers and have it spam slow on goldfish?

I'm probably totally wrong and it'd nuke too and you'd need to fight/run

What I'd really like is an IT worm somewhere. Or an uncapped Memory Receptacle outside of Promyvion. Or a new mob type, Evil Walls. Or a mage-type beastman that won't run up to you no matter how many slow/paralyze/blinds my automaton casts and will just stand 10 feet away from each other the entire time.

Either that, or give SCH some crowd control so I can Bind or Sleep reliably as PUP/SCH while my automaton spams slow/paralyze/blind.

[Jones]

For pup magic skill, is it not possible to pile on the earth maneuvers and have it spam slow on goldfish?

I'm probably totally wrong and it'd nuke too and you'd need to fight/run

It would be my understanding (in that situation) that once the Automation had landed Slow the next spell would be Silence (since da fishes have MP), then some form of DoT (poison, dia/bio) and proceed to get pwnt.

I'm not sure that you can keep any casting frame from using DoT eventually. If there is, this would obviously be a great way to skill magic.

[Shuemue]

Yeah, dot and/or damage spells would ruin the hpmede routine that mages generally exploit. If you could limit it to blind/bind/slow/para/silence, you'd cruise through those levels.

[Meian]

I capped my Magic skill at outside the entrances to Kirin in sky. From below the little bridges above you where dolls/pots are just have the Automaton nuke from below then Deactivate. Safe and easy but just a bit slower

[lordshido]

ok ok.... this we're all playing around with SS... i thought i post this SS for all the blms to show the power of pups... granted this is playing around with weather/day and MB

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5049/pupmaxll6.jpg

[Shuemue]

wow, I might login and level pup

[Dreampainter]

I have:

5/5 magic
1/3 Role Reversal
1/3 Ventriloquy
1/3 Fine tuning
3/3 Optimization

I also have 2/5 in melee skill but i stopped meriting my pup in category 1 because I don't know what else they plan on doing with the job and fear meriting something only to unmerit it later. With the way the job is now, just adding a new frame, head, or weaponskills can change everything merit-wise in category I or II. I have definitely been thinking of taking out that 1 fine tuning merit and adding it to ventriloquy because there is absolutely no way to keep hate off the blm puppet in events other than subbing nin and using that ability. It could be helpful to have vent on a lower timer.


btw, I wish they would add some relic or pup JSE that has reduce overload rate on it. I love doing huge 3 ice maneuver damage on enemies, but I can rarely manage more than 2 ice maneuvers due to overload issues, even with the AF gloves.

Also what buffalo mob was that MB on? Uleguerand range?

[lordshido]

yeah the buffalo in Uleguerand range. the trick is to have water manuevers then use 3x Ice you must have condenser tho.

[DragonCloud64]

That's pretty good, I thought it was a king buffalo for a sec lol, just a regular EP buffalo D: i guess itd be easy to do since its usually always snowing there heh

[pchan]

I BEAT THE LOBO CHALLENGE

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4...ometriccr0.jpg

blm > pup thank god

Tried on my pup with absorb-int and did 1697. I wish i still had AF hands (long story ..). Sorry for the french pic, Feu=Fire
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...xVSpudding.jpg

[Chronatog]

(i posted it as reply cauz dont wanna create a new post when there is ever one about pups),
SE should give us another JA (or replace one of the nu ones) that is better than those..
i mean, Pup skill sux:

Hth skill : C,
Dagger: C-

Pup Gear totally sux as well and/or good gear = Salvage ... now we having enkidu's set tho, pretty good gear but um...still not good enough..
Im agree that pup job is all about the pet, and the pet only, our main dmg source is the automaton and NOT the master but we do not have a pet+ gear.only Goliard Trews is giving it +10def (even if its no a big dif).
When you see pup in ballista, after smner kiter the whole other party, pup is doing the same, our pet is useless in this game (ballista), you can try the "activate" > "deploy" and "retrieve" to make it usefull, but ya really lucky if ur pet isnt touched with any spell to kill ur desactivate plan. So here is what i was talking about (Merits JA):

SE should simply gave us a JA that upgrade you melee skills/acc for a limited duration once used, for example (im creating a name etc, remenber this WONT be created, *or maybe if SE having an account here, reading this and finding it really smart*)

JA: "Weakness Defect"
Legend: Absorb all the automaton's stat to enhance yours. During the effect, the automaton can't be activated.
Duration: 5min (too like Hasso cauz i dont know )
recast: dunno like 3min...

i think this would help Pup to be taken in pts and real stronger on ballistas. even if our pet isnt here, pup would be an under mnk but still better than now.

[aurik]

I realize this is necro'd, but it merits new discussion with the new caps on merits.

With Optimization 5, has LOBO now regained the crown? Or can Suiram retain his World Title for Fire IVing Puddings?! Stay tuned!

[Chronatog]

I realize this is necro'd, but it merits new discussion with the new caps on merits.

With Optimization 5, has LOBO now regained the crown? Or can Suiram retain his World Title for Fire IVing Puddings?! Stay tuned!

we want pictures !
gogogog magic dmg war

[Dreampainter]

I got my optimization capped 5/5 the minute i logged on after the update since i had merits saved up. Just last night i capped my fine tuning at 3/5 as well. I should give this a shot. I've been doing a lot of znm's as pup because the strategy for most of them favors pup's most advantageous way of fighting (kiting).


I need to start taking screenshots again. i did a 1689 blizzard IV on dea the other day. Most of my spells on dea all the way down to aero averaged 1000-1500 with 1689 being my highest of the fight.

The int setup i have really works wonders for spamming ice maneuvers on pup, now if only i could get my hands on that ixion cloak and my pup nuking/mage gear would be complete.

edit: I'm also very happy with my 1406 armor piercer and darkness chains today in merit party.

[Suiram]

Just so it's clear for anyone who might wish to challenge Lobo and stand alongside me at the pinnacle of BLM accomplishment, it can't be firesday or fire weather!