Talk: Puppetmaster Blues

The trick is to force it to change modes and capitalize off of each mode's weakness.
A PLD tank is recommended for this fight rather than NIN because of how fast it can go through shadows.
BLU and SMN are both especially effective damage dealers in this battle because of how they can change the type of damage they deal in order to match the form of damage that each frame is weak to and force it to change forms accordingly.
A traditional party with physical damage dealers and magical damage dealers can work fine using the same principles. If it's in Stormwaker mode, pound on it. If it's in Valoredge form, nuke.
MNK with Formless Strikes and Hundred Fists works really great in this fight.

Also, I made some corrections today, the most important of which was that it does not wait 90 seconds to reevaluate its damage after the initial change. It uses the same interval throughout the fight. The fight probably didn't last but 3 minutes, and it evaluated its damage about 5 times. --Karl1982 16:30, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Worthy of note is the fact that Valkeng reads physical blue magic as magic-type damage--KyteStrike 21:21, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

The highest single damaging attack is NOT the deciding factor for changing frames. It changes frames based on the total amount of damage dealt of a specific type. Valkeng will speak in /say when evaluating his damage: "Confirming status... Damage from <type> attacks...##%. Changing frame..." or "Executing maneuver..." I did a total of 1266 damage before his first evaluation: 232 nuke, 401 nuke, and the rest regular hits (no weaponskills). One would think he would change into Stormwaker since the highest single attack was the 401 nuke. He changed into Valoredge. (See Chat Log)

Strategies[]

I just did this today as 2 level 75 SMN with some difficulty. One SMN used Grand Fall while the other used Aero IV because they didn't have merit bloodpacts. It is handy to note that buffs do stay from outside the BCNM. --Remimi 20:19, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
I soloed this as SMN 75/WHM. Easy fight. --Answar 05:39, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
- I soloed as smn90/whm uisng Garuda for entire fight (three garudas). Took about 7 minutes. I have Vayu's Staff +2. I alternated Predator Claws and Windblade depending on frame used. No food used for fight.
- I was unable to solo on SMN/WHM. I tried Ramuh opening with Thunderstorm to set Valkeng into mage frame, but it eventually changed back into Valoredge and tore me apart. What strategy in particular was used? Some additional information would be helpful. --TheodusArcaedim 05:08, February 28, 2010 (UTC)
- I just solo'd this as 75SMN/SCH. I used Garuda to open with Predator Claws and then Titan after that with 4/5 Geocrush. It was switching back and forth between Valoredge and Stormwaker the whole time. Probably would have been a better idea to use Geocrush the whole time. MP was a major issue. It was Earthsday and I was using Summoner's Doublet, but I still used, during the course of the fight, a charge of Lieutenant's Cape, a Hi-Elixir, Sublimation as often as possible, Elemental Siphon whenever it was up, and Astral Flow near the end to eliminate perpetuation cost. Besides Geocrush, I used Earthen Ward periodically, as well as Regen II if I took any damage. Wasn't an easy fight. Kept kiting back and forth from the door to the furthest point on the island. Had just enough time, generally, to Siphon if I was able and get Titan up, but it was close and I did take a few hits. Hope this helps. ^Aviance|_Sylph 08:58, March 3, 2010 (UTC)
Trio'd with BLU/THF, BLU/NIN, & BRD/WHM
Solo, rdm/nin used joy toy and meleed in mage mode, than when swaped to war mode nuked it down, brought stack of mulsem and hi exliser for the extra mp needed.
Doued it mnk/nin and drg/whm, forced it to stay in valoredge and just used max evasion gear, was a close fight, chimera ripper hits for 400. But the rest of its attacks were sub 100. If i could do it over i would go mnk/dnc. Its about a 5 minute fight and not bad with max evasion build, just kinda close.
Trio'd with 75THF/NIN, 75BLM/WHM, and 60 PUP/WAR with a certain level of difficulty. Pup used automation to heal, but death came close twice. Thf had to kite the automation while in valoredge.
Duoed using 75RNG/NIN and 75DNC/NIN. RNG did damage while DNC healed, stunned, and lowered the mob's evasion (No Foot Rise was very useful). The Sharpshot automaton range attacked from a distance until about half way when it started to run up to the RNG to melee as well, which was bad for shadows. DNC had to two-hour eventually, but it wasn't a horribly difficult fight. 10 minute, 15 second clear.
Solo'd PLD/RDM. Kept Phalanx/Aquaveil up and casted Reprisal when it was ready, only real problem geared towards end of fight was MP but it wasnt too difficult~ dragged it on past 20 mins though.
Duo'd 75 SMN/SCH & 72 SMN/SCH: Was forced to stay in Valoredge Mode for the entire battle, which took 27min 19Sec. 1 Fatality due to a double attack and then Chimera Ripper but was still able to recover. Used Carbuncle for the remainder of the fight when I couldn't force a change. (Note: I also controlled both characters so that was most like the problem of not enough Magic Damage.) Kited from entrance to far corner, relatively easy fight, just long due to the low DMG inflicted on the Valoredge.
Trio'd with MNK/DNC, NIN/DNC and BLM/NIN. It was a really easy fight, I, the mnk, got no probleme to tank. I believe it was thanks to my guard skill，took it to 276 with gears. The Valoredge was mostly missing me or hitting for less than 40dmg, Chimera Ripper dealt to me 120dmg whereas it did 400dmg to the nin. The fight took 5min. I guess I could have solo'd it but it would have taken longer. The BLM never pulled hate btw.
Full Party of 75s: RNG PUP BLU SCH SCH WHM. Blasted through the fight with ease. If you are in doubt about doing this battle, find two or three 70+ jobs and vary the damage type; such as, melee, ranged and magic. This should be enough to win.
Duoed by 75 BLU/NIN and 75 DRG/RDM with BLU spamming spells and DRG healing.
Trio'd with NIN/WAR, BRD/WHM, & BLU/NIN.
Can be won with a RDM and NIN or DD/NIN duo. Spam melee damage onto it until it switches to the Valoredge model, then Gravity it and have the melee kite around the outside edge of the arena. While kiting, the RDM should toss tier III elemental magic onto the automaton until it switches to the Stormwaker frame and the melee can resume autoattacking. Repeat this process until the automaton is defeated.
Duo with RDM/BLM and THF/NIN took 23 min. Easy fight but very long.
Duoed easily by 75 BLM/RDM and 75 RNG/NIN swapping between Sharpshot and Stormwaker with each person capitalizing on its weakness.
Soloed by RDM75/BLU37. Started off with a few nukes to keep it in mage form for a bit, then meleed like a normal /blu solo fight keeping up cocoon. It seems to get a good bit stronger at 50%. It has a strong tp regain and can weapon skill almost at will after ~50%. At ~ 30% it started breaking stoneskin pretty quickly and i needed to kite for a little bit to recover. Converted once and chainspell nuked it down at ~15%. Gravity and bind landed easily. Slow II was very noticeable because its melee speed is so fast. Ice spikes proc'd often. Its accuracy is only fair, it missed several weapon skills against me (i dont gear for evasion) and its evasion was poor. Fight took just under 14 minutes. I could have speed it up a little by starting the cs nukes a little sooner. Drjohn 06:03, January 14, 2010 (UTC)
Soloed RDM75/BLU37. Cocoon + Tacos, kept Valkeng switching between magic and melee form to prevent instant ancient magic and high attack speed. Had to convert once, no 2hr & medicines used. Took around 14mins.
Fourth'd 75 THF/DNC, 75 BLM/WHM, 75 SMN/WHM and 60 PUP/BRD. Key is assaulting Harlequin Valkeng before he switches and deal as much damage as possible. Tanking Valoredge with Shadows tends to have some bad times, but perfectly able. Was moderately easy, Valoredge reaches a status of Hundred Fists-like attack speed if kept long in the same shape because of Turbo Charger and easily spamns Chimera Ripper and String Clipper. (Anmida - Asura.)
RDM75/SCH37, WHM75/BLM37, BRD75, BLM75 and one lolCOR (Mule). We started with RDM and BLM nuking to changed it into Mage form, then RDM tank, while others come in to Melee and BLM Dot nuking (Tier 2). Keep doing that till it's dead. One note : at 25%, when it gains Chainspell effect, only threat is AM casting, but not harmful to RDM at all. --Chichicha , Asura, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Solod as RDM/BLU with Tav Taco, 633 DEF. Haste (Wally Turban/Dusk Gloves/Dusk Feet) plus Genbus/Jelly ring for -15% PDT and Joytoy, though Ice Spikes did a nice lot of damage. Fully merited BioIII and SlowII helped stop the VE from doing too much damage too fast. Took 16 minutes to wear it down. Used Bind once, to back off for Convert. Didn't use a single Elemental spell.

Solo'd as 83 Pup/Nin, took me a few tries to figure out which strategy would work, because even at 83, Valkeng is anything but a pushover when you're solo. The trick I figured out was to go in with activate up, and let Sharpshot start the fight. It'll melee Valkeng until he switches to Valoredge, but it only takes one Armor Piercer to get Valkeng to switch to Sharpshot. From there, retrieve and deploy your puppet from a distance. Valkeng shoots about 3 times as fast, but with 2 accelerators, he has the accuracy of a 2004 dark knight. he will hit hard when he does though, so Repair as needed (I recommend oil +2). Let your puppet get Valkeng down to the point that he charges in, and then let Valkeng finish your puppet off, while you run to the entrance. As soon as your puppet dies, switch to spiritreaver as fast as you can, riding shadows while doing so. Once you get Spiritreaver out, build up triple Ice, Nuke, Vent hate onto yourself, and then ride shadows while you wait on Vent's recast. 3 Ice Water V did ~1900 damage to him, so it should only take you a few more nukes to get him dead, if you melee between them. For the record, I was wearing +54 evasion on top of Eva Bonus IV when I had hate, and his accuracy was laughable, but you definitely still need shadows because those hits that do get through hurt. Btw, one of my earlier attempts saw a 2300 water V take off 17% of his HP, so I'd wager he pops with ~13-15k HP --Theytak 02:54, September 29, 2010 (UTC)

Fixed text where Key item is obtained. Was at iruki before. But you get the key item after bastok cs.--gamegenieny 19:55, August 26, 2010 (UTC)

Duo'd as a Duel Box Method with Much ease. Lvl 85 PUP/DNC and 85 SCH/36 WHM. Started the battle with Automaton in the Sharpshot frame at a far enough range to draw Valkeng in. Retrieved it once the Valkeng switched to Sharpshot as well, and re-deploying again at a distance before engaging. I moved into melee range and only hit Valkeng a few times, faced away, let the ranged attacks keep it in SS, repeated and used Tactical Swap once 100% TP. Only used SCH to cast Water V and Stone V for added DMG, most like should have used a Helix spell to speed up the process. All in all 7m29s. --Zeargi November 26, 2010
Easily soloed as BLU90/NIN45. Spammed Head Butt, Disseverment, Goblin Rush, and Quadratic Continuum. No meds needed. Only MP sources were Auto Refresh and Sanction. Finished with self-light skillchain which was resisted to 33%. 3 minutes, 32 seconds. --Ahkvan 07:49, February 19, 2011 (UTC)

Just fought this was 90PUP/45NIN for another linkshell member who also was on 53PUP/26DNC. Fight was 7 mins 5 seconds. Used only Sharpshot frame. Using Burts weapons, tactical Switch tp to me at 240% + Kikizaru's 100+ tp saved. Opened the fight with Stringing Pummel for 1800 pts + Kikizaru's Daze another 1000+, Valkeng was already at 50% before his first change... then he changed to Valoredge, melee dmg went down alot... but not low enough... Kikizaru did Armor Piercer for 985 pts of dmg, i used Ventriloqy, then did Stringing Pummel... by that time Kikizaru had another 100+ tp, and skill chained with Daze, ....fight was over. Easy peasy. <<<Xiozen-Unicorn Thursday, April 21, 2011>>>

Easily soloed as 90smn/45rdm with refresh body, carbuncle mitts, light staff and Sanction refresh. Started fight with Garuda Predator Claws, backed off and swapped to Carby and whittled away. At first used Holy Mist and Healing Ruby II when timers were up, but was burning too much MP, so backed off on Healing Ruby, and just let Carby get low on health and resummon after running across the battlefield. Converted about 4 minutes in, didn't bother to again when timer came up. Took 16 minutes 30 seconds or so.

Soloed as 90SAM/DNC. Had Hiradennotachi+2 (Fudo). Meditate TP before entering and wait on timers to be up. Sekkanoki > Sengikori > Fudo > Fudo = Light, then Meditate > Konzen-ittai > Fudo = Light. That was enough to kill him. He didn't even change modes. Only took 2 damage from Dia, so no healing was necessary. You could pick a different sub if you brought some sneak and invis to get to the fight. DarkJax 20:57, August 9, 2011 (UTC)

Extremely easy solo as 95BLU/47DNC. Took a total of 8 damage throughout the entire fight, and that was between Occultation recast. No items or 2hr used, just walked in and fought it out. Used 3 Delta Thrusts, 1 Disseverment, 1 Goblin Rush for self Light skillchain, and 2 Quad. Continuums (Not in any specific order). Fight was over in 3 minutes 36 seconds, breaking the record on the Asura server by over 3 minutes. Nion of Asura. Saturday, October 22 2011

Soloed with no trouble by a MNK99/DNC49. I didn't use any food and fought it in normal TP gear. I went into the fight and fought it normally until it changed into Valoredge form. I then used Formless Strikes and Hundred Fists and fought it until it changed into Stormwalker form (Triggered by the Formless Strikes damage). I then dropped Formless Strikes and fought it normally using weapon skills whenever possible. It changed back to Valoredge near the end of the battle but I finished it off before it finished changing.--Lacas 09:43, June 4, 2012 (UTC)

Optional Step[]

I moved the following text from the main page:

- Recommend flagging the Records of Eminence: PUP AF3 before continuing.

This is an optional step, as you can receive the rewards for this RoE quest after completing the PUP AF3 quest. Dmaps (talk) 04:41, July 4, 2018 (UTC)