EZ Automaton Guide

=The EZ Automaton Guide=

Even among other classes that use pets Puppetmaster is unique. Your Automaton can be equipped in a variety of ways by selecting Atachments, heads and frames. AI can also be indirectly controlled your choice of heads and frames, as well as equipped Attachments, active Maneuvers, you HP percentage, enemy HP percentage and relative positioning.

Each aspect of your automaton has its own quirks and complexities. The goal of this guide is to walk you through the basic use of the automaton rather than being a how-to guide for partying, camping, etc. The focus will be on the first 10 levels for now.

So, you just opened up your PUP job. Let’s walk through the process of getting to know your automaton.

The ON/OFF Switch
Yes, even turning your automaton on and off has its quirks. Using the Activate job ability makes the little guy appear. He will have full HP, full MP. Unfortunately, the Activate ability has a 20 minute recast time, so don’t let the little guy die if possible.

Your automaton will also appear with Burden for every element just above threshold. We will discuss this more later. At this point all you need to know is that burden is a bad thing that slowly reduces over time. You will want this at a minimum when you actually are ready to use your automaton in battle, so don’t wait until the battle starts. Activate your automaton early on when you are safely in the correct zone and level sync.

You can dismiss your automaton with the Deactivate pet command. It makes your pet disappear and will also reset the recast time for Activate if the puppet’s HP is 100%.

Level Sync will automatically make your automaton disappear without using the Deactivate causing you to require waiting through the full recast time.


 * The take-way tips
 * Activate a few minutes before battle if you don’t need to zone or lvl sync
 * Deactivate your automaton with it having full HP if possible
 * You may wish to use a macro along the lines of /echo first
 * Deactivate (with full HP) before and after level sync
 * Deactivate and Activate can be a quick way to refill MP if necessary
 * Deactivate and Activate will also reduce TP back to 0
 * Deactivate (with full HP) and Activate is a quick way to reduce mega-high burden

Default Behavior
Now that you know how to bring out your new friend, you have a companion who will follow you around, copy some of your emotes and happily watch you die when that orc agros.

Yes, your automaton will not actually fight unless you use the Deploy pet command, so don’t expect it to help a whole lot just because you take hate. When you use Deploy your basic un-upgraded lvl 1 automaton will then charge this target, engage in melee, cast Dia if mp allows and use the occasional Slapstick TP move.

If you are trying to pull you will see that often your automaton will stop the mob in its tracks if you just use the Deploy command. You will typically deploy to your target and then then use Retrieve to have your automaton follow you to your camp. When you arrive at your camp you will redeploy so that your automaton can actually fight your enemy.

Maneuvers
Other than using Deploy or Retrieve, elemental Maneuvers are the main way you will control your automaton in combat. Maneuvers have a 10 second recast time. In order to use a maneuver you must have an Animator or Turbo Animator equipped. Since only a puppetmaster can equip them you cannot use maneuvers if you are using a puppetmaster sub.

There is an elemental maneuverf job ability for each of the eight elements. You can have a total of three maneuvers in effect at the same time. They are displayed at the top of your screen with all your other status effects. Each maneuver will remain in effect until one minute passes or you use three maneuvers after it. At this point the only things your maneuvers can do is give +1 to the stat that corresponds to that element and to potentially cause an overload.

Burden and Overload
Each time you use a maneuver you place stress on your automaton. This is referred to as Burden. The burden of each element is independent of the others. Using a maneuver of one element will not increase or decrease the burden of another. Once the burden of any given element reaches a certain threshold adding more maneuvers of that element poses a chance of triggering an overload.

Each time you activate or zone your automaton the burden of all elements are reset to being just above threshold. This makes using any maneuver immediately after activation or zoning a very dangerous act. You will want to wait a minute or two before using a maneuver if possible. This burden reset can potentially be used to reduce extreme loads of burden] if you [[Deactivate|deactivate with full health and then reactivate.

Fortunately the burden for all elements will decrease on its own over time. This can help make alternating elements feasible. You could use the same element several times in a row if you allow time between activations. While it is possible to have all three maneuvers be the same type all at once the risk of overload is significant. This is especially risky if there is already a non-trivial amount of burden present.

Overload is a status condition which prevents the use of maneuvers and has a slowing effect on your automaton. The duration of your overload status is proportionate to the degree of burden over the threshold you reach before the overload occurs. Overload can have a crippling effect on your automaton, especially in later levels where you may be very dependent on maneuvers.

2 hour
Overdrive is the Puppetmaster 2 hour ability. It will let you use maneuvers freely without the risk of overload for one minute. The only limits are the recast time and the maximum of having three maneuvers active at a time.

The problem with this is that is that it gives you the opportunity to place an extreme amount of burden on any element you abused during your 2 hour. If possible you will want to use the deactivate/reactivate trick to reduce your burden to a more reasonable amount.

Basic Attachments
Now that we have discussed how elemental maneuvers work lets take a look at how they help your automaton.

Every basic element has two tiers attribute raising attachments that may be strengthened by adding a maneuver of that element.

=equipping attachments=

The First 10 Levels

 * ===What You Need===

The Next 10 Levels

 * Choosing the Next Frame
 * Maximizing it's Equipment
 * Maximizing it's Behavior