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My Bio Final got delayed, so I'll write down some experiences I've had 1-60 with the different frames.
1-60: I was just starting to get used to the maneuvers, which are easy enough to master and get your puppet to do what you want her to do. I made sure to get Sharpshot at 10 and Stormwaker at 20, just for the sake of skillups. Valoredge doesn't seem to useful early on in parties, because Sharpshot does more damage and Stormwaker can heal. Melee is easy to skill because all frames use it, you just have to deploy (make your automaton attack) in melee range.
Ranged and Magic are a bit rough, and require some time outside of parties to skill up. For the love of god, don't skill up magic in parties. Pup has a bad enough rep without a Puppet nuking for shitty damage to help it =-=. Skill it up on worms or something, or while you're soloing for cures.
However, when using a Sharpshot Frame with proper maneuvers and attachments, it easily enabled me to do the most damage in my parties and if not the most, second most, all the way to 50+. The fact that the damage is split up between two people so it doesn't pull hate makes it even better compared to a DRK who would have to Berserk and Souleater spam each time it was up and probably die.
It really is a great lowbie job. For Maneuvers I'd start with Thunder and Wind, lightning for melee acc and wind for ranged acc. Deploy near the mob so you can melee for faster tp. When you near 100% TP, swap in some fire maneuvers along with flameholder for more powerful Arcuballistas. Obviously, if your puppet is having no trouble hitting, it would be more efficient to use Fire maneuvers for damage instead of Thunder for acc.
Sharpshot is pretty much the damage from for most of pups career, but at 40 a new world was opened up to me. At this level, you're able to choose between Soulsoother (WHM) and Spiritreaver (BLM) heads. Grab Soulsoother, and the % HP someone has to be under for your puppet to cure is higher, AND you can cure party members. This has enabled me to easily main heal with both PLD and NIN tanks and get great exp since we don't waste a party slot on WHM. Soulsoother only has single target Cures (the puppet learns Cures at the same levels as WHM main funnily enough) and Regen, no Curaga, so exping on mobs with AOE is not suitable for PUP mainhealing.
You can get the head you didn't get at 50 (Spiritreaver) but it's not really that important since you'll be hitting Colibri soon.
In my experience, Sharpshot has always done more damage. Spiritreaver simply takes away your puppets ability to heal and gives it Drain/Aspir and the ability to cast more powerful spells.
But yeah, Sharpshot -rapes- birds, 450-500 Dazes at a fast rate will outparse other melees by itself, not adding the damage the master adds (which is good with my gear). I see it as going out with a bang, because now other melees are getting Rampage, Guillo, Sidewinder, etc.
It doesn't mean PUP sucks though, we can still main heal with our limitless MP. The only limitation is that a Puppet can only cast a spell every 24 seconds, so obviously if your party is shitty and hate is everywhere, PUP main healer is too dangerous. In a well-balanced party with a good tank however, PUP healer is far better than an actual WHM. Ina learned Cure IV at level 48, and is going to learn Cure V at 61. Limitless Cure Vs every 24 seconds? gg
We can still keep up damage-wise as well, though it's more leveled. RNG and WAR now outdamage me at 60, and DRK are about the same level. These melees must be very well equipped and eating proper food to do it though.
I plan to try BLM frame in some parties once I cap my magic to see how it does, but I doubt it will outdamage Sharpshot. Who knows though?
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A good PUP is obviously not "lol" for the first 60 levels it seems, so it must be "lol" for the last 15 right? I've seen enough evidence from other PUPs to know that that's wrong. Valoredge on Fafnir holds its own, and in Salvage it can be one of the strongest jobs there. It's far more useful as a magic DD than an actual BLM due to it only needing INT and Ranged cells, whereas a normal BLM would need all sorts of other gear.
Misconception #1, PUP nukes aren't as good as a BLMs, so they suck: Half right, a BLM PUP gets neither Sleep or -GA spells, but it does get spells up to Bliz IV and a good no-resist rate with proper attachments and maneuvers. I found some screenshots to back up this claim from some stinky galka in the PUP forums.
Obviously, nukes like these every 20 seconds is not fucking around.
Ope Lunch time, afk.
lol
Ina. 
