Alternator

While I don't necessarily think people will be clamouring for PUPs, I will in part agree with Jkun. We're finally seeing content that doesn't require a stream of Temp items, and we have a weapon that is incredibly potent, and an auto that can seem to actually contribute now.

Has anyone managed to test how accurate the autos are against the nms? Jkun mentioned how good they seemed to be doing quite well against Fracture mobs, so I was wondering if this extended to some of the new nms.

I have no idea how the Twitherym NM works, or what gimmick it has, but I was late to the fight and only managed to grab this:



iirc this was with Ice Maker, Loudspeaker II (Forgot I), and 2 Ice Maneuvers, which is why I snapped it as I found it fairly impressive. I might take E100 to Abyssea later.

For ranged attacks, wouldn't you need to get +70dex/str at the same time thou?


Purgatory is apparently 25 int not 20, fail on my part for using otherwiki. Thank you for testing all this stuff thou!

Yeah, actually. That might also be true for melee damage, which I have not tested.

Well you could do 50 dex atma + a 50 str atma + af3+2 gloves + 1x fire maneuver and 1x thunder maneuver (without af1 gloves). That should give you +70 each.

This would work with Razed + Roaring, but Attack damage fluctuates too much, even on Wild Rabbits. Ranged on the other hand is always so beautifully consistent with everything I fight. I am sure that if they raised the Automaton's R.Att, then their regular Attack must also have been pushed up a notch.

Or eight.

It's noticeable through eyeballing, but by how much is still a mystery. More testing!

I will use the regular Animator in Delve next time to compare (sorry LS!)


Double fail for me. I thought I had broken the game for a second.

It would, but it would be hard to maintain. It might not actually matter whether or not they have the same base damage, depending on the Ratio range. Could be worth trying anyway.


Also, if I added everything up right then Stormwaker should be able to get +154 MAB and 196 INT (3x Ice Maneuver w/AF1 hands, Ice Maker, Loudspeaker, Loudspeaker II, AF2+2 feet, Alternator).

You know automaton ranged attacks can't critical, right? O.o

Puppets used to have a ranged distance penalty (their sweet spot was inside melee range), but iirc, SE removed it at somepoint.

Anyway, did the sharpshot fSTR mystery ever get solved, byrth? I sort of got distracted shortly after I found that thread, and lost my link to it. If not, then wouldn't that variable come into play in regards to the accuracy of +atk testing? Even with that massive amount of str, but considering how much attack you would need to allow the puppet to at least contribute some damage relative to those massive damage weapons, I'm honestly wondering if rather than a strait up attack boost (aside from the atk from str), if the alternator doesn't just have a raw +damage for the automaton.

Though, really, that wouldn't be too hard to test, since you can just take sharpshot out, shoot bunnies with capped fSTR (remember to cast choke first), and see if the damage lines up with what we would expect from the dex alone, or if it's higher than it should be.

Source plox.

Removed as in there is no sweet spot, or every spot is a sweet spot? WS damage doesn't seem to change no matter where he's standing, so I am starting to believe the latter holds true.

It was from the huge Pupdate back in 2011. The same one that established a minimum damage for Magic Mortar rather than the old 0 value when at 100% HP. Oh and of course the new magic casting AI we've all come to know and love.

(* ￣▽￣)/ Oh yeah.

Optic Fiber!

Since it's a percentage for Loudspeakers only, and assuming you are using 3 Ice Maneuvers for Ice Maker (and in turn, both Loudspeakers) you are looking at an extra 4.5 MAB from just having OF equipped, making Byrth's calculation 159~ MAB!

And also INT+8 from Refraction Cape, pushing it up to +204 INT

Believe it or not there are still some PUP who never use/don't even own Optic Fiber. Wut wut.

You just made me have a sad. :<

I've met pups that make it up to 80+ via abyssea and don't even know what attachments are. They seriously thought the auto didn't equip things and kept asking why their auto hadn't learned stoneskin yet . . .

(This is why we can't have nice things!)

Surprising as it may be I've had worse... there was one who didn't know how to use maneuvers on my server. Not joking, didn't even equip an animator.

Sometimes, sometimes I just want to whack people over the head.

Omg i think i know who your talking about...Awfulkorn right? omg that guy dosnt know how to equip puppet abilities he dosnt cast Utsusemi on Ninja dosnt Dual Wield on Ninja. dosnt use capes, belts earrings, rings, ammo items... (gives our linkshell a bad name because they base us all after the weakest link...But for some reason we dont remove him >.>)

Welcome to the world of being born and raised in abyssea...

Let's keep this focused on Alternator and not character naming terrible PUPs. We all know they exist and it's best just to ignore them. :P

Luckily, Alternator seems to be unaffected by last night's patch, Spiritreaver is still showing signs of MAB+40, and there are still +70 to all stats.

I will take it back into Delve later for a test with Sharpshot. Hopefully it's all working as intended.

Abyssea doesnt make people HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE, lazy/uninformed/HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE people make people HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE ffs quit beating the "omgabyssea" horse.

What did the patch "fix" anyone know?

Hardly call it fixing, just adjusting Delve, which is where Alternator came from. Luckily, none of the new equipment was affected.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/38183/dev-delve-updates-holding-times-bosses

Is there anyway to force Knockout? Inhibitor + Stringing makes him use it, and with alternator it's a decently powerful weapon skill. Magic Mortar kinda sucks.

I know you can force it with a wind maneuver, but more often than not I will have a light up too.

Wind, but since it conflicts with Light (and Thunder iirc) it's hard to pull off on frames such as Soulsoother. If you have Wind and Light up, your Automaton will use Magic Mortar.

Edit: Uh, nice ninja edit on your part! You kind of answered your own question though. :P

I wish they added a new Magic WS when they added the melee and ranged one. Magic Mortar was pretty awesome at one point, but even then I still preferred the add: Eva down.

Any news on Overload suppression? Any means to test, I know its randomly based, but Master stats vs Automaton stats were always referenced in the calculations?

Where was the actual testing for that Overload stuff?

Could try with Atmas, but since the Automaton gets +70 to every stat outside of Abyssea too then it's natural that it should overload quicker. Good PUPs won't though, and bad PUPs should be using the correct attachments + gear for every maneuver.

Even without KKK it's dead easy to avoid Overloading.

Indeed, that's the general census on the matter, however if we know that overloading and/or suppression is harder, it allows stacking for nuking.

It's not a matter of making it easier, its about knowing how far you can stack a single element to aid loudspeaker etc etc! If you know what I mean

Spiritreaver

• Active → Cooldown → Wait 5 mins
  Automaton INT: 94
  Master INT: 73
  Animator (Level 1): Ice Maneuver x 6 → Overload

• Active → Cooldown → Wait 5 mins
  Automaton INT: 94 +70
  Master INT: 73
  Alternator: Ice Maneuver x 4 → Overload

ofc, Overload can happen at random after you hit the threshold, but obviously, the +70 INT causes it to happen sooner with Alternator.

As for stacking, if you use Condenser then a Water Maneuver before stacking, you can easily tell if you are about to overload/when to use Cooldown.

As for nuking (and only nuking), Spiritreaver will always Nuke → Aspir II → Nuke. What I do is just DAD after each nuke and with Condenser start building up Ice Maneuvers again, as a fresh Automaton guarantees a nuke upon deploying, if this helps.

Or if I am doing it wrong feel free to stab me, idc.

It seems like everyone uses ice maker for nuking, now I haven't nuked much with pup, but I wonder if constantly losing/redoing maneuvers for ice maker is even worth it if you're going for max damage over time?

It takes a minimum of 30 seconds to put up 3 ice maneuvers each time, 40 seconds if you're putting up a water first for condenser. Might it not be better to replace ice maker with mana booster, and just ADD nuke non stop?