The Nature of the Job

I'd like to start off my blog with a discussion of the psychology of my favorite job, the Puppetmaster. It's a widely misunderstood job, but nonetheless fascinating. Other jobs in Vana'Diel arguably have certain character traits that one might find with the player. One who plays as a Paladin or White Mage may have some tendency to help others, or the Dark Knight who may have a tendency to cut away at himse- err, others. Yet, Puppetmaster has no defined role; it slides between healing, melee DD, magic DD, and solo'ing with tremendous ease compared to other jobs. No other job is capable of providing such versatility.

The device of this versatility is, of course, the Automaton. A Warrior, Ranger, White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage all in one. A few simple adjustments turns it from a Ranger averaging over 1,000 damage per WS to a White Mage Cure V machine. Unlike the other pet jobs, the Puppetmaster's drawback is his dependency on his Automaton. A Summoner with the proper sub is capable of main healing easily without their summons. Dragoons and Beastmasters are solid DD before their pets are calculated. Puppetmasters lack the melee skill to hold their own as DD's without their Automaton, and they lack the amount of MP to constantly be tossing Cures. The Automaton holds the strength of the Puppetmaster, and therefore no other job in the game places so much of its attention, emotion, and faith in an entity that it not himself.

Actually, it is not even enough to say that the Automaton "is not himself," because it is important to remember that the Automaton is inevitably a blank slate. It is neither alive nor dead. The Puppetmaster makes the Automaton as useful or as useless as he wants, depending on how much of his attention, emotion, and faith he rests in it. In such a way the Automaton is destined to take on the traits of its master. The question now is, if the Puppetmaster, in order to be most effective, invests the entirety of his attention, emotion, and faith into his Automaton, then what left is there of the master? Having invested everything he can (which is arguably enough for only one entity), what is left? With so much invested in the Automaton, and so little left for the master, where does the Master begin and the Automaton end?

This is what is curious, the fact that Puppetmasters have that extra, external filter through which to act. Essentially, it could be said that it is not important how exactly the Puppetmaster himself acts, but it is how his Automaton acts which is important. I believe that the line between entities can be drawn with responsibility. Once the Puppetmaster cedes resonsibility for his actions to the whims of the Automaton, he is lost somewhere inside the faceless, skinny-armed machine.

To draw an analogy, Harvey Dent (Two-Face) relies on his coin to make decisions about whether or not people should die. He doesn't see that he is the one flipping the coin or pulling the trigger, let alone being the person who actually deicdes to give the coin this kind of decision-making power. In an effort to achieve the true power of the Automaton, the Puppetmaster himself could become fused with the "soul" of the Automaton, if you will. The Puppetmaster can more easily become blind to the importance of his own decisions and instead place responsibility in an outside source much easier than an other job. The dependency on the Automaton is the source of this vulnerability. To those who would walk the stringless path I end with this: master yourself. Know what thoughts you are predisposed to having; know what actions you are predisposed to doing; know what feelings you are predisposed to feeling, so that you may achieve the true power of the Puppetmaster without paying for it with your self.