What frame should I use?

[Runningriot]

In a party setup, what is the BEST frame to use. Some people say the melee frame, some say magic, some say ranged.

[ioshua]

It depends on your party makeup and what you're fighting. I found a thread recently that, in general, preferred SS/SS up to 50 and SR/SW the rest of the way. I wouldn't neglect either, the skills are a pain to get up.

I've been capping ranged and magic and then fiddling around with VE/VE. The damage is alright and the shield bash can come in handy but, overall, I'm not impressed with the frame. It might be alright soloing (haven't tried) but a tank that can't be healed? I'm not a fan. For pt work I can't really suggest it either. Sub par dps, no real support skills and if you want it to 'voke you can't keep regular fire maneuvers up. Thanks, pass.

Pup's a very versatile class, there's a best for a situation but not a best overall.

[postman]

yeah i agree, Puppet Masters are a jack of all trades master of none. i have a 67 pup and back when i played i did ve/ve till 30ish depending on the party and SC used not that it matters any more its so darn tuff to get a party to SC anymore. but it is real cool to get your automation to do a magic burst, its hard to get deploy timing right. then i used rng and mage frame till 65 now i use mage frame you cant beat that damage. but that was a year ago probly alot has changed since then i cant wait to get back and use that new blm frame.

[ioshua]

The blm head is giving me fits. It'd be great except for two spells. Absorb-Int and Aspir. If you use a dark maneuver for any sort of mana recovery, it'll pop off an absorb which will almost always get resisted on any xp target. And aspir is used way, way too often. Every third cast against anything with mana, whether or not the auto is low, is probably going to be aspir.

There seriously needs to be a way to toggle off spells you don't want cast. No silence on crabs. No stone on beetles. That or fix the scanner but that won't help with the aspir spam. At least the silence can be avoided with the right maneuvers. The only aspirspam work around is regular de/activate flips but even that is murder on overloads and often pointless in the presence of an ae. If it weren't for those massive downsides I'd even classify it as a design exploit.

I got the blm head first and I regret it. When I want a nuker I just load up with SW/SW and maneuver ice before the pull. At least I should have the whm head when I get home tonight.