ImAngelix said:
is puppet master a popular class on valefor?
Not nearly as much as Blue Mage, and not quite as much as Corsair, I think. Blue seems to have lots of potential and lots of people leveling it. Corsair is fitting into a nice role as well; I've really enjoyed Archain's posts about it and can see where it will help in the end game. However, I haven't seen anyone say they've found the Puppetmaster's reason for being.
With a C skill in their best weapon, the puppet seems to be the focus lategame. But really, I haven't seen anyone mentioning anything cool you can do with it at that level. Blues have self chains and bursts, interesting enfeebles, and pretty good survivability. Corsairs have the enfeeble booster and nice party buffs. Puppetmasters... are mainly a general DD that can do ranged or magic damage? We've got mage gear, but our puppet doesn't fight when we rest, so even a backup healing role doesn't seem in the cards. Right now PUP can do very good damage early, but later on is a big question. I've heard lots of reports about invites drying up too.
There's a lot of speculation on PUP that it's somewhat unfinished atm. Summoner certainly was when it was introduced (elemental spirits ftw!), and it gradually bloomed into something useful later on. I'm hoping that's what happens with PUP too. I don't seem to have the right mental attitude for Blue Mage, and the ranged aspect (and general pirate theme >_>) of Corsair didn't appeal to me at all, but Puppetmaster sounded interesting and fun. At this point though, I'm leaving it alone until we get a better picture of where it's headed. I've got 2 other jobs to work on anyway (plus merits).
Maybe after AF gets added for the new jobs I'll pick it up again.... It's been fun, I just don't see a future for it yet.
Disclaimer: I'm only a 24 PUP and am mostly basing this on forum postings from around the Net. If anyone has experience or better info and can allay some of my fears, I'd love to hear about it. I do know about the ADD trick, but I don't expect that to last.