String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

So i tried dual tp/tank set with Ygnvi earring and shere earring.
It seems to no be this good pup/war w/o sel'theus as trusts will not refresh you up. Monberaux will not use ether as well.

I guess it will work better if you pup/rdm and refresh yourself up but i havent tried yet. Or use Seltheus everytime maybe.

Anyone tried this way yet ?

Edit : i did just think of pup/dnc and aspir samba if the mob have some lol

I cant see a way other than getting a RDM or BRD to ballad you for that to work, I mean even going Tauret and spamming energy drain would require the mob to have MP. As would Aspir Samba.

The earring say consume 20 mp and reduce enmity per 20.
But does it keep reducing the enmity if you have btw 1-19 mp ?

Edit : nevermind ive just read bg

Outside of getting Refresh from a real RDM or a RDM trust, I probably wouldn't bother trying to force the effect. Anything that reduces your DPS in the process (such as giving up a DD song for Ballad) essentially defeats the point of it. It'd also be easier and more efficient just to ask for Dirge instead.

That said, /DRK offers a lot of the same benefits as /WAR in terms of Attack while also granting a decent MP pool and Smite II, though obviously at the cost of DA+10%. However, if you have solid buffs and an R15 KKK then /DRG is probably the optimal choice these days for maximum DPS and it comes with High Jump to reduce Enmity.

I was thinking of pup/drg while at work lol
Building kkk these days

Reading through the thread I’ve seen Aerix and others speak about doing omen solo (unless I’m mistaken), and I was curious what the approach is. Which bosses? Attachment load outs? Master and maton or is this strictly OD burning the boss?

https://youtu.be/RHNVbc1kw1k

Check his channel, its JP but you can already find some ideas

Super impressive stuff. I was legitimately surprised at him busting out the blm maton on Kei. Crazy!

so i'm doing cp on pup and using valor head sharpshot body doing arcuballista but it's doing less than armor shatterer. i don't have the empy +1 gear yet. is that expected? my loadout is:

magniplug 1+2
turbo charger 1+2
drum mag
truesights
coiler 1+2
dynamo 2
optic fiber 1+2
auto repair kit 3

if the pets atk is low, shatterer is going to be the best performing WS, which with no attuner or atk attachments, is going to be the case a majority of the time, should drop drum magazine, as well as dynamo, the RA speed isnt worth the slot and pet crits mean little.

Should always fit attuner if you have a slot for it, 15% def ignored with 1 maneuver up is probably the biggest increase you can get for an atk increase that only costs 1 slot/2 fire element. Same for target marker if accs ever a concern

Arcuballista needs a solid amount of Attack+ and TP Bonus from Karagoz Capello +1 and Dispersal Mantle (+500) to perform well. Armor Shatterer is a very solid and consistent WS without any gear support as it has an innate +150% Attack Bonus and applies Defense Down-15%.

Assuming you have 100 JP, I'd recommend the following attachments:

• Inhibitor 1+2

• Attuner

• Flame Holder

• Speedloader 2

• Turbo Charger 1+2

• Truesights

• Target Marker

• Coiler 2 or Stabilizer V (if you have Acc issues) or ARK3 if you don't want to use Repair to heal the maton

• Optic Fiber 1+2

Try to spam Victory Smite > Armor Shatterer > Victory Smite on Apex Bats, due to their weakness to Light. If your TP speed is fast enough you can attempt Shijin Spiral > Armor Piercer > Victory Smite > Armor Shatterer > Victory Smite, but you may need to wait a few seconds before WSing each time so your maton can catch up with TP.

You should also make sure your maton has capped gear Haste (+25-26%) via a combination of any of the following: Ohtas, Klouskap Sash (+1), Tali'ah feet +1/+2, Foire hands +2/+3, Pitre Hands +2/+3, Rimeice Earring, Thurandaut Ring or Ambu Cape.

Edit: Adjusted attachments and added some more info.

thanks guys, that was helpful

Oh right, one more thing: generally you will probably want to use Light/Wind/Fire maneuvers due to overload concerns stemming from Flame Holder or to get the regen via ARK3. However, once your maneuver duration is at 5 mins or so and you're fighting Apex Bats (which don't have AoE TP moves) you could try using 2xFire/Wind to improve maton damage even more. Of course, this absolutely requires you to use Repair for healing and Cooldown to avoid overloading, but the results are worth it.

Thanks for these tips. I've tried them as an aspiring PUP and the results are pretty impressive against Apex mobs. I'm often able to chain the WS with fast enough TP gain, but not always. Usually my maton will sustain a lot of damage, and with the repair cooldown this isn't great for consistent CP/hr. Would you recommend I replace one of the attachments with Armor Plate IV? I think I do need the Stabilizer V as you suggested, as it gives my pet full hit-rate with food.

Also, I do have all the trusts, so I wonder if I'm not using an ideal trust setup. I've been using Sylvie(UC), Ygnas, Koru-Moru, Ulmia and Shantotto. Any other recommendations? Thanks!

Once you can do back to back lights pretty much endlessly (or upgrade to the 5 step) shantotto is more of a hindrance than a help. Before I had 1200 jp I used to have a trust tank instead of my maton.

My setup was (tank), yoran, koru, ulmia, Joachim. There may be more optimal ones but that's what I used.

Also make sure you're cancelling sylvie's haste 1 if whe gives it to you. Koru wont overwrite.

Glad to help!

For the Automaton, it would probably make the most sense to replace the Stabilizer 5 slot with Armor Plate 4 and compensate with some more Pet: Acc gear like Heyoka/Tali'ah/Foire+2-3 if able. Replacing any of the other attachments will cost you a considerably amount of damage, unfortunately. I assume you're already using Grape Daifuku for your food, yes?

In any case, in my experience a Trust tank will lose hate to the big Light closers by the maton because they don't have enough time to build Enmity first each pull. Not to mention they tend to interrupt multisteps fairly often, so I'd avoid them as far as the maton's safety is concerned.

As far as Trust setups go, I'd recommend Sylvie, Kupipi/Ygnas/Monberaux, Joachim, Ulmia and Arciela 1. Double BRDs will ensure the most consistent uptime on Marches. Arciela can't Dia 3, which hurts damage, but she'll overwrite Sylvie's Haste 1 with Haste 2 every time. If you don't mind clicking off Haste 1 every time you could use KingofHearts who will focus on buffing only you and MB your Light SCs (he'll run out of MP fast, but usually his Refresh 2 lets him keep buffing you at least). But honestly, watching out for Haste 1 all the time for hours of CP grinding is just a huge hassle and I personally don't bother with it just for Dia 3, as multistep skillchains kill more than fast enough. Alternatively you could replace one of the BRDs with KoH if you don't mind less consistent Marches.

I like Ygnas, but his AoE Amnesia/Dmg TP move can make for some unwanted pulls, which puts a damper on things. However, he does synergize with Arciela for perma Indi-Refresh. Kupipi, on the other hand, stays put and is typically one of the fastest WHMs to remove Attack Down inflicted by bats. Monberaux may have trouble keeping up with healing at times, but he never has MP issues. I'd recommend just trying each of them and see which one works best for you.

Excellent! Thanks. I do indeed use Grape Daifuku.

I'll give the dual BRD trust setup with Arciela a try. That may help me more consistently chain WS.

If you aren't already doing so, I'd also recommend very liberal use of Ventriloquy to get hate back and to switch merits to 5/5 Repair Recast if they are currently on Repair Effect. That should help your maton's longevity a bit.

Well then. Looks like this needs some retesting.

Edit: Herculean/Tali'ah are dead, long live Mpaca! Head/Body/Legs are BiS for WSs, Hands/Feet for TP/Pet burn. And Neo Animator might turn out to be competitive, if we're lucky? Aw yiss.

Wooow we do have automaton wsd +10% hands and Automaton lvl +1 feet now :0
Automaton all atr +20 hands as well, is this good ?

Could the feets and h2h be decent for automaton tanking and pup dd solo ?

They definitely fixed the Neo Animator for ranged. Though it seems like P +1 still pulling slightly ahead. This maybe my go-to for bonecrusher setup though I'd have to test a bit more.

Not sure I would consider that fixed? There's still several hundred points of difference in damage as far as I can see. Although the WS numbers in the video are somewhat inconsistent, possibly due to automatic pet ws gearswaps.


Feet could be solid for a Bruiser setup if you don't need the MDT and can still cap PDT. Would definitely require Anwig, Pet: PDT on cape and Thurandaut Ring, so you'd be losing DA+7% from Taeon pieces (swapping Rimeice to Domes. Earring) for a bunch of base stats. Could be a decent trade if you have the SoA ring.

The HTH, however, looks inferior to Pitre/Xiucoatl, so it would depend on the augments. For turtling it's never going to beat Gnafron's Adargas, either.

I'm more excited about the hybrid ability of being able to melee with my pet and not having to sacrifice full slots to just master or just pet anymore. The pet Acc on all the pieces are amazing, plus triple attack for the master is just too good.

I meant using the feet and the h2h for an hybrid master/tank solo fight like omen bosses
Edit. Maybe not the h2h tho,my pitre path c might still be better i guess

This was comparing to previous video I made before on initial rollout. The numbers are definitely a major improvement!

I see, sorry for the misunderstanding. Well, in that case it'd be similar to the dual TP/tank setup I made a while ago, I think.

ItemSet 374699

Will replace Malignance slots with Mpaca once those are added to the database. Ambu cape/Heyoka cap Pet: Haste, while Mpaca/Moonbow+1/Rings put you at a decent 45% PDT. Double Armor Plates, cape with Pet: PDT and Handler's will cap maton PDT. Use Shulmanu/Gere/Niqmaddu if Enmity/safety isn't an issue and you need more damage. Keep Schere to your WS set to conserve MP usage and maximize the Enmity-20 effect for the big damage spike.

Kenkonken AM3 would maximize damage output from both master and maton. If you don't have a mythic I'd say Xiucoatl B > Xiu C > R15 Comeuppances +1 or the new Sakpata's Fists are all decent options. I'd probably rank them in that order with R15 Comeuppances being almost the same as Sakpata's, with the former having a crazy amount of Accuracy if you need it. Master damage will always exceed the maton's outside of Overdrive, so the weapon should reflect that.

Does anyone else bother with skilling up the automaton's melee/range past the base cap when using Naga Kyahan / Empy legs?

Bothered with it in the sense that it happened on its own while using that gear for a pure RNG maton setup. It's almost impossible to test if the skill ups actually did anything. Would have had to cap PDIF to test differences in Ranged Attack damage as it skilled up at the time.

I'm impressed with the new gear. Personally, I would have likely changed some of the pet: MAcc to pet: MBD/MATT, though I'm not any less impressed we got even this. It'll help put us in a better positioning shaking up traditional group setups.