String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

I did both those fights fairly easily on VD long before Relic+3, Su4/Su5 and the new attachments existed and before I was even mastered. You should be able to do them without issues as well.

Aerix what's the best OD setup for fights when skillchains doesnt really do much, like for Cait for example?

I'm trying to do Cait on N and I'm trying to survive without OD till Benediction, because usually it takes almost full OD to kill him from 100%HP. He is generally super easy, but from time to time I suddenly start loosing a lot of HP on automaton. Not sure what's happening exactly, maybe Embrava from Cait. Usually I can survive this with Repair and double light Manauver, but sometimes I need to start OD or I would lose Automaton.

I use VE/VE with:
Optic Fiber I/II
Galvanizer
Flame Holder
Magniplug II
Coiler II
Mana Jammer IV
Steam Jacked
Turbo charger II
Attuner
Auto-repair IV
Armor Plate IV

I have almost no Maneuvers equip yet (beside earring) so I just use 3 different Maneuvers till Benediction (and I dont use Fire till OD). Usually it's light/thunder/earth, then I switch to 2x light + thunder when duration is long enough to not risk overload.

I have 2100JP and I use this

and Ohtas as weapon.

When I OD I use light/thunder/fire, because Galvanizer is kinda essential to stay alive and also counters add a lot of damage here.

Cait Sith is actually pretty tame overall even on higher difficulties, as long as it doesn't have Enlight on or if you counter it with OD Steam Jacket.

My go-to for soloing Cait Sith specifically is PUP/COR for Beast Roll as Dia 2 will just get erased anyway.

VE/VE, Light/Fire/Water:
- Inhibitor 1+2 (with Comp Roll you can probably replace Inhibitor 1 with something that adds more damage)
- Magniplug 1+2
- Attuner
- Flame Holder
- Turbo Charger 1+2 (even without Companion's Coiler II might be better than TC 1, but I couldn't find much of a difference when parsing; use Coiler II if you have Comp Roll)
- ARK 4
- Optic Fiber 1+2
- Steam Jacket

On Normal you can usually OD at 100% until the win even with Ohtas. Stay at 29' distance or so after deploying (you already know that, I'm just mentioning it for other readers).

For additional safety/utility, you can summon the following Trusts:

- AAMR: guarantees the BST job bonus for Beast Roll; unsummon her after rolling
- Mnejing: grabs Cait Sith for you on pull so you can melee to apply TH from gear; has Disruptor to dispel Enlight
- Ajido-Marujido: back-up Dispels
- any good WHM Trust (Yoran, Apururu, Ygnas are best)
- any extra Trusts such as Moogle/Brygid to follow the WHM for Refresh/MDB

Just stay engaged on Cait Sith after pull/TH to keep your Trusts active, but lock in your full Automaton gear.

Note that you don't actually need any Trusts to win on N because Steam Jacket completely neuters Cait Sith's damage even on D and iirc VD as well. So if you just wanna speed things up then AAMR, Beast Roll and go. Also due to Anwig Salade lowering your ilevel your Trusts usually get destroyed fairly quickly on D-VD anyway.

To OD Caith Sith Difficult you need Su4/Su5 and rolls from a COR main (Beast/Companion's). VD isn't currently possible with the damage output of a single PUP unless you grind it out with Dawn Mulsum spam after OD wears off, but that's pretty miserable and risky.

I actually have +7 COR mule and THF mule, so I would have full power beast/comapnion's rolls. I will try OD from start and see how it goes.

Ok so it worked out fine with OD on start. Benediction was at 50% tho and 30 sec left on OD, so with late Benediction it could be close.

EDIT: Thank You!

Well, you could help address that by using a head other than Anwig if you feel the puppet has little threat of dying. Say, Taeon DT/DA if you still want a little DT (and if that causes you to be missing some haste, can look to Rimeice/Klouskap/etc. - but shouldn't need that at least during OD). Or Herculean, Tali'ah+2, Rao+1, Heyoka, etc...

Assuming you can survive comfortably, swapping head could also help increase Overdrive DPS - in a fight where that's pretty important - by adding better offensive stats (DA+5 from Taeon, way more Acc from Heyoka, STP from Tali'ah or Herc, etc.). Perhaps the more compelling reason than just keeping your trusts alive a bit longer.

Although I don't really use them too often, I do have a Taeon and Rao+1 head that occasionally fit the situation better than Anwig. This seems like one such case.

I was going by the gear that SimonSes said he had. I agree that Taeon head is situationally very useful over Anwig Salade (I previously posted a set using it for the RNG DD maton), although Trusts aren't really necessary for Cait Sith anyway.

Although, assuming you are using Su4/Su5 you cannot drop Anwig Salade unless you have Thurandaut Ring or your maton's Haste will uncap. Which would pretty much negate most of the DPS gained by Taeon head's DA if Accuracy isn't a factor.

I hate when you need SoA ring for something, but alternative would be to I guess wear Foire Taj +3?

You will lose 4%DA and 5%DT from Taeon, but you can equip domesticator's earring to get 3%DA back (I guess you would need Rimeice with Thurandaut?)

Rimeice+Thur+Taeon head would be:
47acc, 8%DT, 5%DA, 22att, 7% haste

Foire+Domest+Varar would be:
51acc, +6 regen, 3%DA, 7%haste

So not a terrible loss offensively, but only if you can drop that 8%DT and survive.

EDIT: Defensive alternative would be Foire legs+Taeon+Rimeice?
25acc, 7%DT, 8%haste

Foire head only seems worth it if you absolutely need Accuracy over DT. And if you really need more DT that badly then skipping Anwig Salade doesn't seem all that worthwhile.

I mean, if you feel keeping Trusts alive longer is important then by all means. But they really don't add that much outside of the initial pull at least for Cait Sith.

Lilith on N+ is another matter, but there you'll mostly want to replace Anwig Salade to avoid getting destroyed by Meteor and Spitewardens. In which case I'd probably opt for Heyoka (+1) or Foire +3 as a simple replacement for Anwig if you don't have Thurandaut Ring+Taeon head and make up the loss of DT with attachments or Dawn Mulsums.

Here are the Kam'lanaut and Garuda VD videos as requested:

Return to Delkfutt's Tower


Trial by Wind

Absolutely fantastic!

Aerix, would you share your strategy for the Lilith fight on N?

Tried those 2 vids strats and even with my shitty gear the fights were over in less than 2 minutes. Whoaaaaaa, impressive °-°

I would enjoy this as well. Please and ty!

I can try to make a video sometime, but solo PUP has a very high risk of failure on Normal. I basically got lucky when I beat it.

But I wrote about it briefly in the Lilith HTBF thread:

Even solo Easy would be helpful. I can duo N once I figure Easy out.

Lilith E is straightforward, almost the same as Cait Sith like I described above.

Assuming solo with no rolls. PUP/RDM for Dia 2 (and to apply TH+ gear) or PUP/THF if needed:

VE/VE, Light/Fire/Water:
- Inhibitor 1+2
- Magniplug 1+2
- Attuner
- Flame Holder
- Turbo Charger 1+2 (Coiler II instead of TC1 works just as well)
- ARK 4
- Optic Fiber 1+2
- Steam Jacket

ItemSet 368676
- Su5 is not absolutely necessary; Su4 or likely even Ohtas+Incarnation Sash should work as well
- Ohtas are slightly better for TP phase if you can reliably swap to Su4/Su5 for WS
- All Taeon with Accuracy/Double Attack/Damage Taken
- Anwig works just as well if you don't have an augmented Taeon Chapeau (and you will need to use Anwig with Pet: Haste+5% anyway if you don't have Thurandaut Ring)
- Cape is Pet: Accuracy+30/Attack+20/Haste+10%/DT-5%

Simply engage your Automaton on Lilith, make sure it's not standing in an outer gyve, then Overdrive and Dia 2 from a distance. On Easy you can ignore the gyves Lilith spawns on top of your Automaton and just zerg her down.

If you are PUP/THF you will want to summon KingofHearts (for Dia 3), a WHM trust and any tank Trust to take hate from you after you apply TH with a melee hit. Run to a distance after THing and then it's the same as above.

You will pretty much only need to Repair if Lilith uses Subjugating Slash back-to-back, otherwise you can just sit back and watch.

Lilith N+ is a whole different beast due to extra mechanics like Meteor, Spitewardens, Doom fetters and Lilith Ascendant phase.

Thanks!

Wasn't paying much attention during OD and than noticed my Bone Crushers only doing 20k... I was in TP Bonus set instead of putting DA on. Am still killing Lilith on E with no worries though. I use Amchuchu, AAEV, Ajido, Yoran, and Koru.

Lilith Normal solo as promised:



Copied from my Youtube description:

Pretty risky fight due to all the AoEs, Meteor spam and Spitewardens. Not to mention it was super laggy recording with all the gyves on the screen.

- OD gear: https://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/368676 (does not use Anwig due to the lack of ilevel)

- There was a lot to keep track of, so I messed up on applying/reapplying Dia 2 throughout the fight. It's important, though. Same with Maintenance to remove Paralyze/Impact debuffs.

- It is absolutely CRUCIAL to Retrieve and redeploy your Automaton when Lilith creates a Dark Gyve on top of it. Otherwise your pet will die to Doom after roughly 5 seconds. Automatons are NOT immune to this and it's the sole reason I'm standing inside of all the AoE damage.

- I used Heady Artifice: Invincible to cause the untargetable Spitewarden to focus on my Automaton instead of attacking me

- Yoran-Oran would have been a better choice than Kupipi, but I didn't feel like changing my Unity and grinding Accolades just for the fight.

Nicely done Aerix, now if only there would be a reason to do Normal without killing Spitwarden XD

I was thinking about using pup to tnak Lilith on N and kill gyve on 2 other chars, then kill lilith, then tank phase 2 again and use other chars to kill spitwarden, then kill phase2. I just need more info about weakness/immunities on Spitwardens.

lol, that daggum FC set you have on PUP. I hate casting blink and Stoneskin on my mule PUPs

Just to clarify this is an OVERDRIVE strategy right?

Without OD, enlight is ugly. Even on Normal...

edit: I lost 2/2 on caitsith N with this setup, i guess do to unlucky benediction times? My full duration OD ran out at 8% caitsith health remaining.

Yes, for OD only as I wrote in my original post. Without Overdrive you need Dispels to deal with the Enlight.

What gear were you using when you tried OD on Cait Sith? I usually end up with 30s+ OD duration left over even with late Benedictions and no COR main rolls.

I just did it with COR main also and got 38s left on overdrive.

I use your taeon set. 4/5 taeon with all max augments.

ItemSet 368735

Do your Anwig and Ambu cape have Pet: Haste+5% and Pet: Haste+10% respectively? And are you 100% sure you have all the same attachments equipped, including Flame Holder (that's the most important one for BC damage)?

You're also at only 24% Pet gear Haste right now, so using Rimeice over Domes. Earring would cap you, but honestly it shouldn't really make any difference under OD.

Honestly, that's the only stuff I can think of if all your Taeon has Accuracy+25/Double Attack+5%/Damage Taken-4%. It's pretty much the same gear I'm using aside from Thurandaut Ring+1/Cath Palug Ring.

It might just be bad luck with Benediction and WS damage otherwise. Or your Relic body isn't properly swapping in for the extra OD duration.

I spam it a lot with Cor alt and sometimes I got 1 min left, sometimes 1 sec left (My set is up on this page). It really depends on benedition timing and lucky/unlucky reset TP by Mewing lullaby.

Ah true, Mewing Lullaby could be the main reason. Some fights you never see it, other fights it's pretty much the only thing Cait Sith uses.

So it's just a matter of bad luck I guess.

Aerix I definately think its bad timing BENE and mewing.

One fight I mentioned my pup was holding TP until 2800 and it gave caitsith enough time to mew lol.

How does pup stand up against Reisenjima T4's? Either for tanking, or OD damage?