Quick primer guide since this class has a lot to read and understand:
- For your race, pick Shalore (speed, spell crit, CD reduction), Yeek (silence immunity, speed, emergency disable), Higher (damage, resistances, and spell save), Halfling (crit chance and spell save), Ogre (inscription management, crit, spell save), or Cornac (class points).
- Pump Magic first. After that, build a combination of Dexterity so your puppets crit harder and Cunning so your puppets crit more. Willpower makes your puppets tankier but it isn't important at first.
- Unlock Rapid Fire > Shield Rush > Combo Slash > Repair in that order.
- Open fights with Rapid Fire into Shield Rush (you can use 2 puppet talents in a turn), then Combo Slash on the next turn. Channel Staff can serve as filler for dead turns in earlygame.
- On gear, look for Spellpower, Spell Crit, Physical damage boosts, Spell Save, and damage resistances, along with the above mentioned stats. Always attune your staff to Physical.
- Your first category point (and second as Cornac) should go into either Conveyance or an inscription slot. You won't have the class points to spare for advanced trees until level 20.

Once you're situated and comfortable with how the puppets work, feel free to ignore any or all of the above! Good luck.