How To: Playing the Puppermaster Job. Guide By Scoda

Guide to playing the pupetmaster job by Scoda
Let me begin by stressing that attachments are absolutely needed for you to be a good puppetmaster.
So you've decided to be a Puppetmaster, one of the more misunderstood jobs out there. You've chosen a life of soloing and degradation. But don't be disheartened. Puppetmaster is one of the most versatile and well rounded jobs in the game. Let me go over some of the highlights for you. 
From levels 1-10 you are stuck with the Harlequin Frame. Not a bad frame, does melee and a bit of magic. Dia comes in handy for those first few levels. If you spend the gil for it, Shock Absorber makes him a beefy tank (shock absorber is a 100 hp stoneskin attachment that activates with an earth maneuver.) Flashbulb is another good one to get early on. It's activated with a light maneuver and causes your automaton to cast Flash on the target. Once your automaton's magic skill is at 12 invest in a Damage Gauge. This will prioritize curing and you will start to get cure 1's. the more light maneuvers you have going the higher hp he will start curing at.
So 1-10 you don't need many attachments. At ten you get to choose your first frame unlock. I can't stress how important it is for you to choose ranger Sharpshot Frame. Your melee skills will rise on ranger, and getting the rdm frame at 20 won't hurt you as magic doesn't take long to skill up. Ranged skill has been, for me, one of the hardest to get up and keep up. Once you have this frame is when you want to get your attachments. Below is a list of the ones I've found incredibly useful.
Inhibitor --
Target Marker --
Attuner --
Flame Holder --
Tension Spring --
Heat Seeker --
Stabilizer --
Scope --
Stealth Screen --
Optic Fiber --
Accelerator --
These are the main components behind my ranger puppet. Throw an Auto-Repair Kit in if you can in case your puppet takes some damage.
Now once you hit 10, dunes parties and qufim partys are a bit more reasonable about puppetmasters. However expect longer than normal wait times for parties. You'll find, if you've gotten those attachments, that your puppet WILL be out-damaging EVERYONE in the party. I have yet to see anyone out-damage a puppet in dunes. At least a puppet with the proper equipment. 
Dunes parties are pretty self explanatory so I won't say much more about them. Your role is a DD in dunes so beat the crap out of stuff and Skillchain with your puppet and they will love you.
At 20 I recommend unlocking the Stormwaker Frame which I will refer to as the RDM frame. When you do, this is a list of attachments I highly recommend having by now. 
Mana Tank 1 --
Mana Tank 2 (with the 2 of these you can give your puppet +7 refresh with 3 dark maneuvers.) --
Mana Conserver --
Optic Fiber --
Damage Gauge --
Stealth Screen --
Ice Maker --
Loudspeaker 1 --
Mana Booster --
Equalizer --
Accelerator --
Shock Absorber --
Modify it to fit your taste. Remember that you can DaD (Deactivate, Activate, Deploy) to refill your puppets MP as long as your puppet is FULL hp.
Now remember your puppet WILL NOT heal party members yet. So the healing it does will be for you only. get used to using the DaD maneuver because this puppy will use a lot of mp if you let him. 
Now I haven't gone over your equipment as the actual puppetmaster because well, you're basiccally a gimp mnk who spends their time using maneuvers and starting skillchains with your puppet. Your puppet should be your focus everything else is secondary. 
Now once you hit 25 you're gonna get stuck soloing more, so invest in some evasion gear and start using light maneuvers more. DaD whenever yer puppet runs out of mp and you won't have any downtime. Just remember don't dad if your puppet is less than full HP.
At 30 you finally unlock the Valoredge Frame, or warrior frame as I call it. Use basically the same attachments as the ranger puppet and you'll be fine. 
Now as you've probably figured out yer main goal until 40 is to do as much damage as possible in the few partys you get. Show all these FFXI vets that pup is a good job and has its place in a party :).
Once you hit 40 your world changes. Get your whm head at this lvl. This will allow you to be main heals in party which gives you a big advantage when setting up your own pt's. Get whm lvled to sub and sub that and you'll be able to main heal most balanced pt's.
Just remember DaD and keep hate off the pup, and try and stay away from AoE mobs.
Now I need to address gear for mage sub as pup. Believe it or not you have access to some pretty decent mind/mp gear so go ahead and get it. This will make up for you lack of mana, that and the fact your puppet won't run out of mp if you're good at it. Also remember your heals are just to keep the tank alive in between your puppet's cure 3-4-5. 
At 50 you get to unlock the last frame piece of your puppet, the BLM head. Now this is some beefy casting damage along with its absorb int and drains. Set it up for magic damage, mp and convert and you'll do well with it. Trust yer instinct and experiment. Ice maker is good but not great at this level, Focus more on accurate steady damage over the big damage caused by ice maker. 
Unfortunately I have to end the guide here for now. I need to get myself into sky and such before I can tell ya how to do that :) Have fun and remember don't let em keep us pups down.
More to come Soon. Stay tuned