User:Hirika/Puppetry in 5 minutes

Things to consider as you're reading the guide

It'll be great that you're some experienced puppeteer that's looking over this and see what I'll have to say, but this guide is to mainly take account of the lower level population who just started playing the game or people who haven't invested the time/ AP to carry this through. Not everyone has puppetry done.
I won't mention any enhancers and modifiers that you should take the time to invest in such as enchants or reforges that increase crisis's radius or something. While it is nice to have those on your side, the main point is to get the brief part out of the way and let you live your Fantasy Life.
- This also includes mastery titles
Read the title. You're going to be reading short paragraphs worth here, not a research paper.
I'm not going to be nitpicking in every single detail because this is a guide. Guide lines. I'm letting you do the research yourself.
- This is guide is mainly intended for those who started and don't have an idea on how to easily transition into the skill set

Things to potentially note

Before we get started on this, there will be a few optimal (recommended) things to do before getting started on puppetry in addition with notes to keep in mind when fighting with them.

Skills asides from Act 2 are distance based and aim for monsters with large hitboxes. It's going to be a pain if you're going against giant spiders then.
Act 2, 6, and 7 can't be used if there's an obstacle in front of them.
Large amounts of stamina eaten up at lower ranks.
The Act skills costs 1658 Ap with Rank 1 Act 9, otherwise cost 1372 Ap for everything else important. Wire skills cost 299 Ap.
- Grand total for every single puppetry skill ever ranked: 1957 Ap

Prepping

100 Active Puppetry Talent: Will reduce your time spent training skills in half.
Get a control bar. You can't do puppetry without a control bar.
Don't wear heavy armor. It cuts your dex at a specific percentage. If you're a giant, you can get around that but not advisable either way.
Wear titles that increases strength and/or dexterity.
Be prepared to invest in some marionette repair kits.
If you're literally just starting out and think "I want to main puppetry" or "I want to be able at deal 10k damage at level 10", then this guide isn't recommended for you at this moment because the stats when you start out don't count towards anything. Work on something else that will help you get into puppetry later such as close combat and archery. You won't see amazing results from that state.
Every Friday, use your adventurer seals and spend it at seal shop located in Dunbarton next to Eavan or Belvast. They have perfect marionette repair kits (recovery to full health) and stronger potions than what the npc shops normally offer. It is even optional to buy your own marionette mini so your puppet can be customized to your liking.
- However, the minis cost 80 seals regardless of which type you get so don't make it a priority unless you have other better reasons why.

Damage formula

Have a high amounts of dexterity and strength beforehand. This is what your puppetry damage is based on. If you're an archer of some kind, bard or have done some life skills that granted a lotta dex then that would be a good start.

- Every 3.5 Str adds +1 to Maximum Control Bar Damage; +5 Str adds +1 to Minimum Control Bar Damage.
- Every 3.5 Dex adds +1 to Maximum Control Bar Damage; +5 Dex adds +1 to Minimum Control Bar Damage.
  - The exact formula for maximum control bar damage is (Str + Dex - 20) / 3.5. Example: If a player has 50 strength and 120 dexterity, it would be (50+120) / 3.5 = 48 additional maximum damage.
  - The exact formula for minimum control bar damage is (Str + Dex - 20) / 5. Example: If a player has 50 strength and 120 dexterity, it would be (50+120) / 5 = 34 additional minimum damage.

Personal status

It's one of those interesting skill sets where the person's status does affect your game play to some extent. I'm talking about whether finacially stable in the game or you're willing to cough up NX for this, but that's an entire different matter and that's different for everyone. Huw does do marionette repairs for 200g, but it's just after a while you know it's inconvenient to keep running back to him. Here's what I can offer to ease the pain of taking care your marionette.

Repair Kits. They'll repair the marionettes that fell down during battle anytime, whether in a dungeon, shadow mission or homestead.
Marionette Potions.
Pet Nimbus. I completely understand not everyone is willing to cough up money for Nexon and they may not be able to afford the pet when it comes out but for those who have it, these are your best friends. They'll recover an instant 500 hp for the marionette in range (quite frankly a lot in Nimbus standards).

In the battlefield

Overall the skills, especially the AOE skills, are heavily dependent on the relation of the character's and the marionette's position. Not only you're a practical tank drawing aggro and attention but your primary job is to control the battlefield in your favor to make things easier for everyone to do their combos or whatever.
- Would NOT recommend using the skill set as a main set in the beginning. I know you want the damage, but how its structured (damage formulas, function for the skills and cooldowns) isn't well fitted enough to actually pull off as a main skill set like close combat. You'll get the damage you'll want, but the primary function is to control the field, not dish out damage. It's just a nice package for you really.
- If you're knocked all over the place and you get separated from your marionette, you'll essentially have a harder time getting up and recovering.
Marionettes DO have an HP bar that you have to be careful of. They may be immune to explosion and poison damage, but they'll still take damage and even get wounds from normal hits.
They cannot deal splash damage.
They can be aggroed by other monsters.
They lack a natural regeneration like players do. While we can recover overtime naturally or with the use of skills, skills such as Healing will not work.
They have their own variant of potion poisoning. It's similar to when players get potion poisoning due to spamming pots, but it doesn't naturally go away. The only way to make it go away is to use the marionette repair kit.

Otherwise, let's get started!

What is Puppetry?

You'll have a puppet, or marionette, fighting along side you and shielding you from danger. You won't fight with blades or arrows, but with a control bar. You control the story of your battlefield and marionette's obstacles and challenges. And there will be many challenges ahead. And there will be a lot ahead of you.

What puppets do I have?

As of now, only two. You have the Pierrot and the Colossus marionettes. There's no such thing as the better marionette because they have the same stats in relation to the rank levels. However, the only thing to really point out that makes a slight difference is that there is a delay for Pierrot on the third final hit when she uses Act 2, while Colossus just goes for it all the way quickly.

Pierrot Marionette: A cute and petite, potentially Lolita-looking marionette that's ready to smash you down with a wooden hammer and her butcher knife.

Colossus Marionette: A massive and bulky knight in shining armor that's ready to crush enemies down with its fists.

Which control bar is considered the best by population?

Demonic Illusion Control Bar. In addition to higher damage stats and stronger upgrade paths, they are the only bars that allow special upgrade, continuing equipment enhancement even after the artisan upgrade. However that's not an option to take because you don't have a master talent in Puppetry to hold them yet, otherwise I wouldn't be making this guide. But here's something to consider: The different bars make little to no difference in your damage output because they essentially have the same stats and very similar, if not the same upgrade paths. Damages vary from player to player because of the stats each individual has. While wiki does say that Jeweled or Engraved bars are the more better option, that may be true. However they can only be obtained through means that you'll need to cough up a big sum of money for the bars.

Engraved: Mostly through limited and eweca orb gachapons, events
Jeweled: Commercing, costing a whopping 1.2mil ducats and events.

Morale of the story: Just hope someone is selling them cheap at a personal shop or housing board. Otherwise, just stick with the normal wooden control bars.

Skills

I'll break it down into skill categories, 1v1 and AOE, as well as the basic pros and cons about the skills itself if necessary.

1v1

Act 1: Inciting Incident: Your puppet runs into the enemy in a quick and agile manner, like lightning fast. It has to be somewhat close to designated target, otherwise the marionette will just walk up to it and then do the lightning fast animation. Just be careful when you use it because the cool down is somewhat lengthy if you try abusing it.

Act 2: Threshold Cutter: Put down the hammer. Your puppet is in front of their face and performs a 3 hit combo with the third hit being the strongest hit, essentially like an automatic n+1. It's very easy for enemies to break through and interrupt the combo especially when using Pierrot.

Wire Pull: Use this nifty skill to yank your enemy out of a crowd and beat him up in a corner. While a lot of people don't usually rank wire skills, Wire pull is one of those skills that can actually dish out damage as you pull it over. If the target is being knocked down in an area where you're too far from it from the time you loaded and used the skill or it's pinned down from Pummel, it's ultimately useless at that moment and will result in automatic cooldown.

Puppet's Snare: Binds the enemy with strings that makes him suffocate and lose damage over time, eve after the skill is over. More of a party support skill, but it can be used in any manner possible. I wouldn't want to bother ranking this skill unless you do it because you won't see damage until you're somewhere in the number ranks.

Area of Effect (AOE)

Act 4: Rising Action: Basically a windmill for puppets. Doesn't mean you can replace your windmill with that because no. Someone will find you and try hitting you with a hammer to the head if you do that.

Act 6: Crisis: Similar to how windmill radii's functions, the puppet will lash out strings within its parameters and bring its enemies closer. So yes, you could literally pull 20+ enemies all at once if you get the opportunity to do so. However the skill itself is based on your Marionette's position, so you have to position the marionette well so the skill can have the most effect.

Act 7: Climactic Crash: The skill is Linear AOE like ice spear, but loads like it's Focused Punch. It'll go in the direction you'll send it to, annihilating everything in it's path. Do be aware that position does play a role and you'll want to back up a little bit before you use it, otherwise you won't be able to use it to it's maximum effect. In addition, it may only hit targets once and not twice and might not hit them at all even though they appear to be in your way.

Act 9: Invigorating Encore: It's a skill that grants your marionette life after charging the spirit bar shown on the right of the marionette if you do have the skill. In other words, this skill gives marionettes the opportunity to have their own AI for a short time. It can be debated whether it is truely AOE or not, however it's more of AOE than a well mixed skill. It functions as an AOE for the first 3 seconds because when activated it will make weak burst damage in the beginning, pushing and stunning mobs out of the way. After that, you can decide how to use the skill because it's just a damage boost skill that can stack damage with the effects of Act 9 + normal marionette damage (comes from control marionette and your stats), assuming you're actually using the bar to control the marionette. Destroy everything with climactic crash or put down the hammer with the threshold cutter, your call.

How do I get started?

You want to get into puppetry, rank all of those Act skills just to be destructive and menacing to the fomors after seeing all those puppeteers dish out 10k damage or something, but you clearly have no idea how to even obtain that. You can think of this as a to do list since I'll be giving you human flexibility on accomplishing this and I won't be dictating you how and when to rank it, but these are things you'll really have to get out of the way before you'll see results in your damage output.

I'm going to safely assume that you did some attempt to finish the quest line all the way through because if you haven't, that would be the first step to take in this case.

At least obtain rank A Marionette Control, then reach to 1. I know this sounds obvious to begin with but if you're just starting or initiating the quest for the puppet skills, this is an absolute must get out of the way first because ranking this skill is the only way to learn Act 6: Crisis and Act 7: Climactic Crash, your primary AOE skills. Ranking it to 6 does grant Invigorating Encore, but I could care less about it since no one really uses it and I'm often in situations where I don't have to rely on it.
- Just get it out of the way because 80% of the puppetry damage comes from there.

Pierrot and Colossus Marionettes: Definitely try to rank them to 1. The higher the ranks, the more your puppet is able to deal as well as take in more damage.

Note: Don't worry about the skills too much. Damage isn't steady at the time and you won't expect much from it.

Once you're around rank 5, I'll let you do what you need to do but it's really important to get them out of the way first.

What skills do I rank up first!?!

The main reason why you're here most likely. This part ultimately depends on what you want to work on. You can either work primarily on the 1v1 or AOE skills first. It doesn't affect your stats or status because you will reach rank 1 on all of the act skills either way, but it does somewhat affect the game play a bit because of the lack of damage in one category and vice versa. Along with 99% of the population and I'm part of that population, rank your AOEs first regardless if you're going solo or going to be with people all the time but just read below so you can consider some options.

AOE

The most common and recommended route a lot of people would take, especially if they're in grinding in parties or just going solo and trying to clear out the mobs as soon as they can. They're taking all the bullets. This includes

Act 4: Rising Action
Act 6: Crisis
Act 7: Climatic Crash
Optional Act 9: Invigorating Encore

You won't focus on the 1v1 skills too much and use them as fillers in your combos for the most part. Everyone will depend on you for setting up the field right to make it optimal for everyone... just let them know what you're doing. Don't assume that you're going to use Act 6 and 7 all the way through and everyone knows that, because they figured out their own game plan and out of courtesy don't screw it up for them.

1v1

In a way, this isn't a route so to speak because of the skills' filler functions but I somewhat consider it an easy but slow route because of how easy this is. Not many people would do this because it will be to slow for them and at that point, most of them may have the stats to really back them up, but I can recommend this to those who know won't be able to absorb too many hits without dying. This includes

Act 1: Inciting Incident
Act 2: Threshold Cutter
Wire Pull
Puppet's Snare

This could be potentially used to draw out enemies one at a time if one is too weak to handle 12907489326 mobs all at once. Just draw one out of the crowd, one at a time and it'll be done.

Should I grandmaster in puppetry?

Your call. Just have the strength and dexterity to back it up.

Conclusion

Hopefully I made things easier for you to understand and swallow down. This is a guide and reference, I don't expect you to choke it down all at once. However these are basic things to keep in mind. If you REALLY want to go into your own research and every nitpicky detail possible, then go type in the search engine that relates to mabinogi and puppetry.

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