Quote from Aliyah;1174780:
^This
You should go puppetry if you like it. Yes, it may not measure up to beam swords, but in return you get a skill set with cheap repairs (~a tenth as much as focused rainbows) and some good aoes, aggro control with switching puppets.
Like Slurptasty said you'll get about 278 max just from the skills. Add to that the 100 or so you can get from the stats from the puppet skills, talents, and easy enchants and you'll be looking at 2k climatics, 5k crits with very little effort. After or at the same time, you can rank the basic melee skills using your contol bar for more str and hp.
Most importantly, mabi is a game. You should have fun and do what you like. It's no good going warrior if it causes you to not enjoy the game.
It'll actually be less than 2k, if you factor in defensive stats of HM mobs. I'd assume that dying less would make the game more enjoyable, in which warrior does a better job at.
2k still isn't an impressive number, nor is 278 max damage (or even 378), and for actual decent puppetry, you need to do more than just basic combat and range skills and should be looking around 430~500 damage to be even considered decent. Sniper title for more damage in general, as well as bunch of high-str skills like mining, carpentry, combat mastery, lance skills, final hit, etc. I honestly don't consider 5k crit climactic crash decent in HM, but that's just me.
While puppetry is a solid talent, it isn't the solid starter. There are many basic skills that any character, regardless of race or main combat talent, that need to rank, like refining, windmill, production mastery, combat mastery, magic master, critical hit, you name it. Puppetry skills aren't "basic" skills in any sense.