String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

Mpaca feet offer a huge chunk of Acc/Atk, but if you have enough of both via rolls, GEO bubbles or OD, then it does almost nothing in terms of boosting damage. It's just a minor increase via the +4 to all attributes.

I actually have to retract my earlier statement. Mpaca's WSD seems to work exactly like player WSD as it only added about 1k~ damage to a 37k~ Bone Crusher.

Given that DA procs increase TP speed, improve white damage and add about ~7k-8k to a Bone Crusher I'd say 5/5 Taeon is still the best option for a bruiser maton setup. Anwig/Mpaca vs. 2 pieces of perfectly augmented Taeon are also equal in terms of Accuracy, although the former has -2% more DT.

Edit: Seems like Xiucoatl's damage bonus is actully just like player WSD as well and only affects the first hit of Bone Crusher. Rather disappointing and might mean Sakpata's Fists could potentially rival it for VE body. This also explains why Xiucoatl hasn't been necessary to actually beat VD ambu reliably.

Edit 2: Xiucoatl C still beats Sakpata's by a decent chunk, but it's close enough that not having Xiucoatl C isn't make-or-break if you're using a Bruiser maton. Xiu C is obviously still the best for a Sharpshot.

5/5 Taeon? I can see the argument for 4/5 Taeon, but what about Pitre Tobe +3? I usually go for that in body slot, hard to imagine that DA+5 outweighs the massive Relic advantages of STP+15/Atk+60/Acc+25 over perfect Taeon.

I'm making that call entirely based on offensive performance in this case, as I'm totally fine on defense from other slots/attachments. And really, if something like this frog is safe without adding pet defense from body slot, there isn't much else that really should require a full on "Bruiser" build with DT in body slot.

The extra DT from Taeon lets you drop those additonal defensive attachments for more offensive ones in most scenarios. Even in this month's ambu I'm only using Mana Jammers 3+4 without Analyzer or Steam Jacket and the maton is doing fine, as mentioned before.

As far as the STP/Atk/Acc goes that can be covered by buffs/debuffs. STP doesn't do much for Bone Crusher as it has static fTP, the maton doesn't WS at exactly 1k TP, and Companion's Roll or Inhibitors under OD cause severe diminishing returns. Pitre Tobe's additional Acc/Atk are definitely a point in its favor, but at the same time that can be covered sufficiently with buffs/bubbles/OD to the extent the Attack won't improve BC's damage, while DA can.

In other words, Pitre Tobe is ideal for low/no buffs situations, but if you have the support then Taeon should win out. Ultimately, though, you won't see any significant difference between the two if you were to try to parse it.

Edit: Unrelated to the above, but if it wasn't self-evident due to my previous post, this new knowledge about Xiucoatl C means that Kenkonken's AM3 is by far the biggest boost to a VE body maton without contest. AM3 also makes Taeon's DA less valuable and Nyame/Pitre/Mpaca more enticing for offensive purposes.

Kenkonken all the things!

For the cape for Dual master/pet section.. is there a great difference btw pet DT or pet PDT ? Just wondering if i should use a needle to change it or not

Functionally the same, but armor plates make pdt generally easy to cap while theres no mdt/shell alternative

Yeah, pet PDT is the lowest priority since it's much easier to cap than MDT. DT or MDT would usually serve you better.

I recommended PDT on the Dual TP cape because the SS maton is typically our main DD maton and it's relatively squishy, even if you equip an AP4 (and moreso if you skip it for max DPS). DT-5% generally works just as well, though.

on Thinker, man really nice to use a rdm - I keep 6 debuffs on him all times never does a PS .....so my other three pups just go to town with zero fear.

I find I can kill most things with Two pups, Cor x 2, or if mobs resist dark I change a rng for a cor. Automation will keep spamming SC with cor and/or rng. Gonna try Dynam D bosses with this set up see how it goes.

Pup rdm?

He may have meant maton rdm.

sadly they dont cut it - any job with capped enfeebling can land debuffs. So I use 3 pup chars for damage, one char on Rdm for debuff spam. Honestly never tried rdm automation for this.

(This is based on 1pup, AAMR/or bst, 1cor at least)(More then 1cor for reset welcome)
Frog:PUP/RDM
ItemSet 381961
<frog>
<frame>valoredge frame</frame>
<head>soulsoother head</head>
<slot01>attuner</slot01>
<slot02>flame holder</slot02>
<slot03>optic fiber</slot03>
<slot04>optic fiber ii</slot04>
<slot05>turbo charger ii</slot05>
<slot06>magniplug</slot06>
<slot07>magniplug ii</slot07>
<slot08>mana jammer iv</slot08>
<slot09>mana jammer iii</slot09>
<slot10>inhibitor ii</slot10>
<slot11>auto-repair kit iv</slot11>
<slot12>analyzer</slot12>
</frog>
Feeling around setups maybe 20-30k(not included) / total 476k hallmark, after setup oil's used 0, wipes 0, auto death 1-2(1 for sure 2 idk).
As many cor possible. Leech/reset.
Cor: Main rolls = CC Beast>+/or CC Companions. If 3rd roll Drachen/4th Magus not needed at all but make them feel like there doing something . Not need last 2.
Pup: Shell2/Stoneskin.
Average time 4-5Mins.
Regal cor or Rot cor doing 2 main rolls.
Average time left OD with relic body 40-50sec's.
Manuver:Light/Water/Fire(try to time them between WS's).
Go right and come behind frog Deply>go 15yalm It will WS then you use Dia2 then OD, then run to start.
Order is Kill > Moogle Cor's WC(if fail mmm) > KI, Cor cant reset cor so call or have a Cor call rotation.
Make 1 cor /blm to d2 you, after KI.

Anyone zver tried to build a high evasion automaton build ?
Just saw these olds elemental weapons from magians trials with pet evasion +16 and also pet meva +16.

Just at a glance, assuming +25 eva augs on full taeon, accel 3/4, smokescreen and OF1/2 with ss head/body youre looking at around 1008~ with 1 wind and light, you can bump that up to 1038 with 2x wind, and you can probably squeeze some pet eva into weapons or the ambu cape, possibly some food?. Awful lot of space for something that more than likely wont be much better than turtling though

How good is the +1 lv from mpacas boots?

Trying to figure out if I should drop the couple m on it...

For the record, my base idle Evasion on BLU is around 1080 for Sheol C and it takes double Mambo to get a solid evade rate. So 1200-1300+ to cap just for standard mobs. I don't think a maton Evasion build would be anything more than a novelty at this point, sadly.


Should be the same as Ambu cape Lv. +1: STR/DEX/VIT/AGI/MND/INT/CHR+4, Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy+36, Attack/Ranged Attack+36, Evasion+23, Defense+43

Yeah until they give pets some kind of evasion buff its unlikely, was just curious on the numbers myself, i didnt account for the 10% eva adjustment ss apparentky has, or agi from animator+maneuvers, plus just misc gear you could probably push to 1100 but dont see it passing 1200.

On the subject of niche, unliky to be used builds, still waiting on that subtle blow attachment(preferably II) SE

Nice!

I'm a fairly new Pup, so forgive me if this is a newb question, but do you stay in this set during Overdrive or do you swap into WS sets for Bonecrusher and the like?

I don't do any swaps during Overdrive, I think the general consensus is that it's best to just fulltime your set. If you look at the PUP equipment sets, you will see TP and WS sets for non-Overdrive and then a separate OD set similar to that one above.

Question: the attachments that are level locked from the npc, can I have a 99pup buy them for me, and have them equipped for lower level xp/leve capped BCNMs?

Yes. Once your automaton has the attachment "installed" you always have access to it, however your limiting factor in level locked bcnm's is your elemental capacity available for your automaton.

I tried to make an eva maton. Its bad, even with the shadows attachment...

Stay in set.

Just want to make sure I'm getting this right...AM3 works well with Valoredge and WS like Bone Crusher and Xiucoatl doesn't have much of an effect on Valoredge WS. AM3 would give Bone Crusher the change to Triple Attack too, right? I know seeing TP returns that a Double Attack is a really big boost to Bone Crusher damage, so a Triple Attack, if possible, would be really nice.

Yeah Kenkonken's AM3 works for WSs for both player and automaton and it can proc double or triple attack once. With AM3 and DA in gear, automaton can proc TA from AM3 and DA from gear and do total of 6 hits Bone Crusher.

Kenkonken AM3 is the only way for Bone Crusher to be able to Triple Attack yeah? I don't recall anything offhand giving Triple Attack for PUP so...very cool pro for Kenkonken! Easy to get that TP too with Companion's Roll and Tactical Switch.