Puppetmaster Guide: By Kristan

Bold text
This is intended to be a full PUP guide.
I have a life too you know and I will be working on this. Please do not make changes to this. If you have an idea to make it better, send me a message and I will add it giving credit to you. Being that this is a serious work in progress please ignore the crappy format as of right now. I promise that as I get the information in I will re-format it to be more user-friendly.
Update #1: Created page, Introduction and Support Jobs.
Update #2: Added more information on Support Jobs and included roles in PvP.
Update #3: Created "Puppetmaster - The Beginning" section. Added information about maneuvers and limited information about attachments. Limited information on PUP's Ability - Overdrive (2 Hour)
=Introduction=
Welcome to my Puppetmaster Guide...which is exactly what it is, a guide. So before I even get any further into it let me say this. EVERYTHING in this guide is just me stating my opinion based on my personal experiences while leveling PUP. My reason for writing this is to share my opinion and hopefully help out readers. I plan on pretty much putting all of my experiences (the ones I can remember anyway) here so expect it to be long. The Puppetmaster Guide: By Kristan.
=Introduction to Puppetmaster=
Puppetmaster is a very versatile job that uses Hand-to-hand (and to a far lesser extent, Daggers) but most importantly, the Automaton, to perform. In this performance, the Automaton should shine, not you. For those of you who just read that and are going "wtf is she talking about", I mean the Automaton should be your focus. With you only having a C in Hand-to-hand you can expect yourself to have Accuracy and Damage problems as you progress. Keep this in mind while gearing yourself for EXP Parties. Oh yeah, about EXP Parties. Puppetmaster doesn't get very many invites. It isn't that they are terrible jobs, that’s just what their reputation seems to be. A PUP can be a DD, Tank or Main healer, among other things depending on the level and situation (by all means, please don't try to do it all at once). Chances are the majority of your levels will come from soloing or duoing. I will go in depth with those later on in the guide however. Let's get to support jobs!
=Support Jobs=
I've unlocked every job. As a result, I've gone and personally used them and paired them with Puppetmaster to see what happens and these are my experiences. I'm going to cover the other 19 jobs but some are rather obvious answers (PUP/BST for instance...wth...) but anyway. I do EXP Parties, Solo, Duo and PvP so...I guess I'll cover it! Headsup that I leveled subs for various situations and I advise you do as well instead of trying to take an easy way out. 
===Warrior===
Starting off subbing Warrior will not be very beneficial. The only things I can imagine it being useful for is Provoke for pulling hate of your Automaton which you can't even do till 10. Provoking in a Party Setup will most likely get you killed at this level so the more you think about it, the more this sub seems to fail early on. BUT ONLY EARLY ON. Once you hit 30 you get access to Berserk which is a very nice attack boost for your melee and more importantly, Weaponskills. At level 50 you get Defender for Defense and Double Attack for the offense. You will probably fall in love with Double Attack for H2H. At 70 you get Warcry which can further increase your attack. To maximize its usage, try making a macro for it so other party members can see it coming. That way, they can utilize the attack bonus as well. Obviously you'll want to stack it with Berserk and let loose as well.
The Warrior sub also offers benefits to Attack and Defense thru traits. Overall this sub becomes more useful at 30 but it becomes a very good DD sub post 50.
This sub is also a rather basic sub for PvP once the Soulsoother Head is obtained due to your ability to Provoke your opponent. Should Provoke land, you become the target of all attacks AND they also cannot use their own, self-targeting abilities (such as Meditate). That aspect of Provoke in PvP is not to be overlooked. In the same token, you have Defender for when your Evasion fails and you have Berserk for when you have the TP to perform your Weaponskills. Should Provoke keep your opponent off your automaton, you will pretty much be in the clear between Regen, Cure and Flashbulb.
===Monk===
This support job offers the Martial Arts trait before PUP has access to hit (which is 25) but it should be noticed that the Martial Arts traits MNK get to not combine with the ones PUP gets. This should be your DD sub till 20 or 25. You will gain the ability to use Boost before your Weaponskills which is always an added bonus. If you don't have problems holding hate off your Automaton, the ability to counter while soloing isn't bad either. Post 25 you begin to acquire things like Dodge and Focus. Subbing MNK also gives access to Cestus Belt and Mantle (+5 h2h skill and Enhanced Martial Arts respectively) but it might not compare to the DD that subbing Warrior offers. This sub has situational use post 25, but other than those situations I wouldn't use it for EXP Parties.
In PvP I don’t think I would really use this sub. At lower levels perhaps, where you can shine with Dodge and Focus but both abilities lose usefulness in higher levels. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t useless. Having job abilities that gives bonuses to Evasion and Accuracy are no joke, along with Counter, Max HP traits and Subtle Blow. The thing is, there are other subs that have better options for survival. Plus when you are subbing MNK, there is absolutely nothing preventing your target from slamming down hard on your automaton. At 75 when Role Reversal comes into play, this becomes a whole different situation (swapping your Current HP with that of the Automaton).
===Thief===
A popular sub for DD jobs however most DD jobs have JA and Traits that let them act on their own. PUP does not. (If that statement confused you... WAR has Double Attack, Berserk etc. PUP has Activate, Repair and Evasion traits...) so you lower your damage over time by a rather devastating amount for the sake of scoring a critical on a ws (don't even bother using this sub if you aren't post30). If you want to SATA something, wait till Howling Fist at 65 or Dragon Kick at 75 but even then I still wouldn't use it in an EXP Party. If you wanna mess around at 75 you could always Magic Mortar to SATA Dragon Kick. Overall, I'd only use this sub for farming.
As far as PvP you don’t have a surefire way to ensure that SA will land, and subbing THF gives no obvious advantages except for maybe Resist Gravity if you fight a BLM/RDM and you have Resist Sleep somewhere in your setup. Even then, that’s a slim chance of resisting both spells. If you do though have fun swinging at the BLM that is probably going “how the hell did that just happen?” after loling you for subbing THF.
===Black Mage===
Well...let's face it. You are not gonna seriously cast Black Magic with this sub in any exp party. For soloing it just fails compared to what other subs offer. For PvP you get access to Ice Spikes post 40. Other than that, this sub just never seemed viable to me. Leave the nuking to Spiritreaver; he will do much better than you.
To expand on the PvP. Do not overshadow your ability to cast Ice Spikes and drop this sub altogether. True, your automaton has the ability to cast Paralyze but why waste time trying to force it? If you are fighting a 2hander at a lower level, this sub isn’t that bad. Ice Spikes has a decent chance of paralyzing the target and it also means its one less spell trying to land to enfeeble your opponent. Paralyze is nasty on the delay as well as Job Abilities so don’t knock it. Outside of that however, just leave it be.
===White Mage===
While it's still a mage sub it definitely has more uses than the Black Mage sub. You still have a low MP pool and it should be noted that if you rest the automaton will rest as well, regardless of its HP/MP. That automatically drops the usefulness of this sub. You do get access to a refresh piece (Vermillion Cloak @59) as well as Protect, -na spells, Barspells, Shell, Stoneskin and Reraise. The Automaton can cover Erase so that is not a major issue. Divine Seal + Curaga might come in handy sometimes but overall the only real thing from this sub is poor healing, Stoneskin and Reraise. There are items that grant Reraise which further drops the usefulness of this sub.
This sub for PvP? Do PUPs a favor and don’t do it…
===Red Mage===
This sub is pretty much the same thing as White Mage but it is more solo friendly. You do get access to Bio and Dia which are rarely resisted. You still get Stoneskin but you get the added bonus of Phalanx. This can be a useful combo for soloing or leveling Guard skill. I assume with higher levels in Guard, Phalanx would make this an ok sub for PvP as well. You always have Enspells to play around with as well. You don't get Ice Spikes with the added paralyzing effect, but you do get Blaze Spikes for added DoT. I almost forgot to mention the ability to Dispel.
I’m personally a fan of subbing RDM in PvP. I do it with my BLU, I’ve messed around with it on PUP and if I ever get around to it, I probably will on PLD as well. Blaze Spikes, Enspells, Stoneskin, Phalanx, Blink and Barspells are useful. Leave the cures to your own puppet. When using this sub I find myself using the Stormwaker Frame rather than Soulsoother to make up for the damage I’m not personally doing. This way, he will still heal me if needed but if not needed he will enfeeble or nuke. It’s pretty cool.
===Paladin===
Don't knock this out as an option yet! While its usefulness is severely limited at lower levels, at higher levels you get Auto-Refresh, Sentinel and Flash. I'd only use this sub if you PvP. The ability to alternate Flash between your cast and the Automaton's Attachment can be a huge annoyance when paired with your high evasion. Sentinel helps take hits and Auto-Refresh helps counter your low MP. Unfortunately, PUP doesn’t benefit from the Shield aspects of this job and it is limited at Flash/Cures/Auto-Refresh/Sentinel. 
===Dark Knight===
It can be a DD option. You get Last Resort but it fails in comparison to Berserk. Souleater can prove useful with Raging Fists (and now Stringing Pummel) due to it being multi-hit. You get some of the Absorb line which can surprisingly land sometimes and you get access to stun which is almost never resisted. You can also have quite a bit of fun with this sub at 75 with Ventriloquy and Role Reversal. Also remember that PUP has quite a wide range of mage gear to help make Drains and Aspirs, as well as the Absorb-line land better. I would only use this sub in an event where you are fighting one target that will not be longer than a 5 minute fight.
As far as PvP you can go all out and enjoy it. You could have Valoredge tank while you gain TP. Fully buff yourself and let Raging Fists or Stringing Pummel fly. This is a risky way to go at it however. Should Valoredge’s Provoke fail, you can easily become the target of your opponents attacks which could make you lose.
===Ranger===
If you need Widescan... it isn't bad. This sub does give you Accuracy Bonus but other than that, there isn't anything amazing about it.
As far as PvP… no comment.
===Bard===
You have so many songs yet you can only have one at any given time due to it being a support job. You could possibly use Ballad on the mages and Madrigal for the melee. Other than that this sub doesn't really shine at all. Even for solo, there's just better options in Job Abilities and Traits then there are from one song. If you do a manaburn than just maybe this sub becomes a bit more viable (and I will expand on that in the manaburn section)
Same deal with PvP.
===Beastmaster===
Hardly a viable sub. You have a pet already so you can't charm. There's the widescan note again but other than that.
You shouldn’t even think about using this sub.
===Summoner===
You have MP and absolutely no reason to use it. If you wanna deactivate your automaton every time you want a buff from an avatar by all means go ahead but I didn't tell you to do it.
Again, no real reason to use this sub. Sure, you can blink buff yourself but subbing RDM or WHM can also give you blink and be much more beneficial. Just drop the idea of possibly using this.
===Dragoon===
DRG is a rather good DD sub for this. You can easily use this at 20 due to it having Attack Bonus and Jump. At 30 you get access to Wyvern Earring and Mantle (+5% Haste and +6 Attack respectively) which is really no laughing matter at 30. You just lowered your delay from Martial Arts trait you get at 25 and further lowered it by Haste% and +6Attack for your back is the best DD mantle you have till Bellicose Mantle (which is the same attack+ but at the cost of 10hp). Later on you get access to Accuracy Bonus and High Jump. I personally don't believe this sub outshines WAR in the DD department at 75 due to Berserk and Double Attack but it proves to be a good sub nonetheless. It definitely works if you ever want a haste build, but I wouldn't recommend one of those for PUP either unless you have pieces such as Usukane at your disposal.
As far as PvP, if you are fighting a mage, use Jump/High Jump to interrupt spellcasting. If you are fighting a DD, use it to obtain the TP you need before you WS (or open with both if the fight will last longer than the recasts). This sub is more of a “beat the mess out of your target before you die” than it is defensive. If that approach for you works by all means do it, but you don’t have much to fall back on should something go wrong.
===Ninja===
So you have Ninjitsu. If you wanna Duel Wield daggers, knock yourself out, but we don't get any decent dagger ws. The main benefit from this sub is Utsusemi. PUP's naturally high evasion along with the +evasion it can obtain from gear can make shadows last for quite some time. While some other buffs may be resisted, it should be noted that the elemental spells land the elemental resistance down effect regardless. Also remember that you have Tonko and Monomi for Invisible and Sneak if you ever need it. No more crappy MP pools and trying to rest to recast =).
Do not use this support job while fighting any job with Double Attack. Do not fight using this support job against SAM (and it’s even worse if they are /war) because Zanshin will tear your shadows apart. Do not use it against BLU or any other mage either as they pretty much have a way to wipe your shadows. Once your shadows are gone and you are stuck with an ugly recast, the only thing this sub offers you is Subtle Blow and it isn’t stacked high enough to make a HUGE difference. I think basically…just don’t use this sub to PvP.
===Samurai===
TP Whore. At 60 you get Meditate and by this time you are probably noticing how fast your automaton gets TP if you have the Turbo Charger and Coiler attachments. Store TP and Meditate can help you keep up. Or if you're using Sharpshot you could always do what I did pre71 which was Meditate and before the first tic use Raging Fists. You'll get back to 100tp fast in order to do One Inch Punch to Daze for Transfixion. If you feel like taking a chance that is...sometimes it registered that your TP dropped and he'll just go. Other times it won't register and you'll be able to unleash that Super-Daze =D. Those new to Puppetmaster that just read this have noting to worry about, it will be covered.
Of course the safer way to do what was mentioned above would be to use Meditate -> One Inch Punch -> Daze -> Raging Fists just for the DD aspect. Then again, you will be much better off just spamming Daze but like I said, don’t worry right now. This section will be covered.
This sub is pretty fun PvP wise when you first hit 60. While it might appear the only obvious bonus is Meditate I’d have to argue. You get Store TP as well as Zanshin and to a lesser extent, Third Eye. If you are used to spamming Third Eye with Seigan though be warned you cannot do it. (One because you are only 60 and Seigan is 70. Two because h2h doesn’t count as the 2handed weapon required to activate Hasso/Seigan) but opening a fight at 60tp to unleash Raging Fists is nice. I found myself using Stormwaker or Spiritreaver and opening with Ice Maneuver x3 Thunder II and slamming on the target with Raging Fists. It’s a nice chunk of their HP. I remember my Spiritreaver hitting a MNK for 411 at this level. At 75 this sub loses a huge amount of that flair but not all of it. While Howling Fist and Dragon Kick have better numbers on the Double Attack you won’t get (unless you have a Brutal Earring), Stringing Pummel is nice.
===Corsair===
Experience Points bonus anyone? Don't seriously use this sub... it's just not beneficial.
Do I even have to explain the uselessness of this sub in PvP? Use it if you wanna be cocky and go “I can beat you using any sub” just don’t go and lose. 
===Blue Mage===
When equipping spells you get stat bonuses as well as job traits on occasion. You get access to Auto-Regen as well as Cocoon and Metallic Body. This sub can be useful for soloing but I wouldn't use it in an exp setup. It can be useful while duoing however.
At lower levels it has obvious benefits. Cocoon is amazing for defense, Metallic Body for damage mitigation, and Head Butt is addicting to cast. If you are going to solo/duo with this I would advice taking Yagudo Drinks. No, don’t spam Yagudo Drinks just to spam spells. That is wasteful. If you get in a tight situation (and most people do while soloing) just drink one and chill. If you get frustrated when something goes wrong you are not going to think straight and chances are you will end up doing something incredibly stupid. Just don’t get discouraged because you learn from errors (hopefully).
In PvP is the same deal. You have access to Cocoon, Metallic Body, Auto-Refresh, Sandspin and other spells. For the record Sandspin, Blind, and Flashbulb all stack. (Accuracy Down, Blindness and Flash are all status effects that stack so…go wild)
===Dancer===
This sub is absolutely amazing at soloing. As if Drain Samba and Curing Waltz weren't good enough, at 40 you get the ability to Provoke the target to help keep hate from your Automaton. You also get Accuracy Bonus. What else can I say? This is an amazing soloing sub. The flaw to this sub is if you are fighting something extremely accurate. If they are doing damage faster than you can cure yourself than you obviously have a problem. If you remedy this by stacking evasion gear, you are now severely gimping your ability to DD since you won’t be using Weaponskills. When using this sub when I first got 40 I used it with Stormwaker to make up for my lack of DD. I used it before 40 too but he often stole hate from me with nukes…
I have trashed so many jobs with this PUP/DNC from my time at 40 to 60 it was ridiculous. I’ve done it with every puppet except the Harlequin Frame as well. The thing is, if you are using Sharpshot/Valoredge you have to work solely on curing yourself. Sharpshot can dish out the damage if he doesn’t die too fast. Valoredge can help tank while you heal yourself AND he has Shield Bash. Seriously, if you attack Hammermill not only does it slow, the stun is noticeable. It might be tempting to stack Fire Maneuvers and do something but stick to Cannibal Blade. (and by all means if you can stack 3 Maneuvers to do Backhand Blow -> Cannibal Blade for Gravitation knowing it’s gonna kill them do it!) 
As far as Soulsoother…whenever I used this sub he ended up enfeebling the whole time. I got a Regen tossed my direction a few times but I never dropped low enough to need a cure. 
Stormwaker and Spiritreaver are fun with this combo. Stormwaker will nuke to make up for damage as well as enfeeble should you need it. He will cure if your HP drops to needing it so I love this puppet. If you are gonna use Spiritreaver in an attempt to nuke the hell out of your target (I mean, what else would you do with a BLM puppet?) I would wait to activate him until you have enough TP/Steps to use Animated Flourish (and it lands!). Otherwise someone who sees it appear will probably be tempted to start smacking it and you will soon be out of an automaton.
===Scholar===
Aside from the Phalanx statement from the Red Mage section, this is probably the best mage sub you have. Light Arts and Dark Arts are a force to be reckoned with and the JA that give you additional spells are no joke. a PUP/SCH can go around sleeping VTs. (Look it up on Youtube, he slept Marids while the Automaton nuked. SCH is awesome). While you have a terrible MP pool as always, you have access to Vermillion Cloak but you also have access to the Job Ability Sublimation.
This combo in PvP seems…unfair. PUP has a wide range of mage gear and the obvious access to the elemental staves. If you are fighting something with shadows just use h2h to wipe the shadows first and then Sleep. If you are not, just use Dark/Pluto’s Staff and go to town. If it isn’t obvious, Sleep -> Blizzard IV -> Sleep -> Nuke -> Sleep etc. If you wanna have Spiritreaver toss an Absorb-INT after the initial Sleep go ahead. Since you need Dark Arts to use it anyway, as long as you are using mage gear you should land Sleep just fine. Use Ice Maneuvers as you see fit (so keep your AF Hands in your hand slot) to boost the damage.
=Puppetmaster – The Beginning=
	Puppetmaster is a unique job being that the automaton is highly customizable even at level 1. Don’t let that statement be misleading. Your default automaton is the Harlequin Frame. He has skills in Melee, Ranged and Magic but it should be noted that he cannot use Ranged Attacks. That brings me to another point.
	
Automatons can skill up just like the master can. As they melee they gain skill which increases their accuracy and damage. As they skill up they also gain access to Weaponskills. I will expand on that later.
	
The Automaton’s ranged skill works similar to the Melee skill. As you skill it up you will be more accurate and do more damage. Like the melee skills, your automaton will gain access to Weaponskills as he skills up. That will be expanded on later. Let it be noted that the Sharpshot Frame is the only frame capable of using Ranged Attacks.
	
The Automaton’s Magic skill is nice. As his magic skills up it is like skilling up every type of magic at once (I will for this example include Divine and Enhancing Magic even though they don’t have magic in either field). This means that even though Harlequin starts of with Dia and will skillup his magic by using it, when he acquires Cure you will not have to skillup healing magic because it is included within the Automaton Magic skill. It should also be noticed that Automaton’s learn spells as their skill increases, not as their level increases. Ultimately, your automaton has to be a specific level to obtain the skill to use the spell, which is where “Your automaton must be this level to obtain this spell”, comes from.
	Back to the subject on the customization of the automaton. At level one you can technically buy every attachment and go to the NPC in Whitegate to attach them all. If you have the gil to do this and plan on taking PUP past 37 by all means do it. The more attachments you have the more situations you will be prepared for. Attachments and Automatons come with something I will refer to as Elemental Capacity.
	
It won’t be quite as noticeable right now due to you only having one head/body setup (Harlequin Head/Harlequin Frame) but your Automaton has little elemental symbols. These indicate what attachments you can equip to your automaton at any given time (should you have traded the attachment to the NPC in Whitegate). The Harlequin Head for example has 2Fire/Ice/Wind/Earth/Lightning/Water and 0Dark/Light. The Harlequin Frame has 3 to every element. So this mean the Harlequin Head/Harlequin Frame’s Elemental Affinity is as follows
5 Fire
5 Ice
5 Wind
5 Earth
5 Lightning
5 Water
3 Dark
3 Light
	
Each attachment you come across also has an Elemental Affinity to fill your automaton’s Elemental Capacity. If you open your menu and go to Equipment you should notice that it will say master (Your Equipment) but if you hit the Automaton menu you will open his equip screen. The left screen shows his HP/MP, STR/DEX etc, skill levels and what they cap at. The bottom of his menu you will see the elemental symbols that resemble the ones at the bottom of your character’s however on yours it is your resistance to those specific elements. On the automaton, it is his Elemental Capacity. Say you wish to equip the following attachments to Harlequin
-	Tension Spring
-	Tension Spring II
Tension Spring has an Elemental Affinity of 2. Tension Spring II has an Elemental Affinity of 3. When you put these both on the Harlequin Frame he will benefit from Attack Bonus while you use Fire Maneuvers. The thing is, because the Elemental Affinity of the Tension Springs puts the Fire Elemental Capacity at 5/5 you cannot equip anymore more Fire-based Attachments. That is how Elemental Affinity/Capacity works. You cannot have more than 2 of one attachment, so you cannot equip Tension Spring I twice to only take up 4/5.
	
When it comes down to selecting what attachments to equip you have to look at the frame you are equipping as well as Elemental Capacity. For instance, Scope is a Wind Attachment but you shouldn’t attach it to the Harlequin Frame because he has no Ranged Attacks to enhance the Ranged Accuracy of (which is Scope’s purpose, to enhance Ranged Accuracy). There are different types of Attachments but before that I’ll explain maneuvers.
	
Maneuvers play a huge role on you as a Puppetmaster. Let it be noted that in order to use a Maneuver you must have your Animator equipped (at higher levels Turbo Animator or Animator +1). Now Maneuvers play more than one role. The main role they play is to enhance the attachments you have equipped and to a lesser extent, increase your automaton’s stats. The original Animator you get by finishing the Puppetmaster quest gives the following bonuses while using Maneuvers
+1STR – Fire Maneuver
+1DEX – Thunder Maneuver
+1AGI – Wind Maneuver
+1VIT – Earth Maneuver
+1MND – Water Maneuver
+1INT – Ice Maneuver
+1CHR – Light Maneuver
Dark Maneuvers do not increase your Automaton’s stats.
	You can stack maneuvers to enhance the effect of attachments and the stat bonuses. For example, using Fire Maneuver x3 will result in +3STR for your Automaton. It also builds Elemental Stress on the Automaton.
	
Elemental Stress is something that needs to be taken into consideration when using (possibly spamming) maneuvers. I think one of the earliest mistakes you can make in your career is “Oh I have maneuvers! Stacking Fire Maneuvers with my Tension Spring makes him hit harder so I’ll use it every time I can!” and it is bad. To expand on it, you will Overload…it’s inevitable. When you use too many of the same maneuver over and over (or use one too early upon Activating your automaton it seems as well. Give it a few seconds after activating before trying to toss up a maneuver) you will Overload which makes you temporarily unable to use maneuvers. The easiest way to counter this is to simply spread out your maneuvers. Use Fire/Wind/Thunder if you are going to melee for instance and cycle thru them rather than trying to spam Fire to ensure he hits harder or Thunder to ensure that he will hit at all. Mind you there are times that you will want to use a maneuver x3 and you should.
	
*Note: that you cannot Overload while under Overdrive HOWEVER you STILL build Elemental Stress! This means that if you try to use a maneuver again right after Overdrive wears off you have a pretty good chance of Overloading. I have never Overloaded after Overdrive simply by waiting for the 3 Maneuvers under Overdrive to wear off before using anymore.
	
	There are different types of Attachments. I don’t mean in their elemental aspect although that is true as well, there are attachments for every element. Within every element however there are different types of attachments. There are attachments like Tension Spring and Turbo Charger that give bonuses to your automaton even without using maneuvers but get stronger as you stack maneuvers.