We have temporarily disabled The Houndmaster (Bone Chill Event queue) and Baermar Uraz's Ugly Sweater Cosmetic (all queues) due to issues affecting gameplay.

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Chartering a new course (review of Doomed Course)

Ignoring the bugs that plagued The Houndmaster on the PTB, there are a couple issues that I believe need addressing that may not be able to implement before the live launch but none-the-less these are just my opinions.

The Houndmaster

1st - The 'Search' ability of Snug seems rather useless outside of targeting a gen (or other target) across the map to send Snug toward to create a path to reach the destination 4 seconds sooner. Not only that but The Houndmaster has no power while Snug is traveling to the destination and returning leaving you a basic M1 killer for 20 or more seconds.

2nd - The ring around Snug to detect survivors seems a bit too small to make any difference on top of applying 'Houndsense' feeling underwhelming. Healthy survivors get deep wounds and injured survivors have longer pools of blood and louder grunts of pain in the dying state do not seem like worth while effects that would make the time consumption to apply 'Houndsense' effective. I've also experience 2 scenarios with Snug's 'Search', when there was no survivors around, Snug would paw at the ground and sniff around but other times he would reach the area and no killer instinct goes off but Snug barks and I find a survivor nearby that I guess wasn't close enough to be detected by the ring. Unless I am completely wrong and there's a different trigger that causes him to bark.

3rd - When you initiate a 'Chase' attack for Snug, you can press the power button again at any point of him traveling the initial pathway to take control of him to re-direct his path and when you do take control to re-direct you have about 5 seconds to launch the re-direct before you return back to the killer. Survivors see Snug's eyes glowing knowing that he is going to re-direct and when you launch the re-direct Snug doesn't move until you return to the killers perspective making this attack very easy to dodge unless in tight spaces. In a video I provide, there are many instances where I try to take control of Snug, flick the aim towards the survivor and launch to have a little time to react as possible and some cases I flick too much (this is a me issue to get more use to how much to flick), and others it seems like Snug passes right beside them like they can pet him as he passes. The hit detection seems rather very thin not to mention he does nothing if the re-direct misses and as he returns he passes right through the survivor.

4th - When Snug reaches the end of the initial 'Chase' attack path, you have half a second to take control or it considers it a end of power attack and he returns. Snug should be sitting at the end of the initial path for 2 seconds to introduce a little mind game play of is the killer going to continue chase with the Master or last second switch to Snug.

5th - This may be a latency issue but when Snug grabs a survivor, sometimes they move slowly as he drags them, sometimes they move 10m in half a second as he drags them… this needs to become consistent if it's not a lag issue.

6th - In the game 1 in the video, I'm chasing Nea on a 2nd level and you see Snug walk off the edge to the first floor and I try to do a 'Chase' attack and he only runs like 2m on the 1st floor area where he was, so the AI pathing of Snug can screw up an attack attempt. If Snug is following you and you're currently not issuing a 'Chase' or 'Search' he needs to teleport back to you within 1 second of becoming more than 2m away from you.

7th - Knotted Rope is old 8 stacks of Save the Best for Last on hitting grabbed survivors. This needs a heavy nerf.

8th - The last issue I have for The Houndmaster is, and I don't care if it breaks immersion… survivors should also be able to pet Snug if the killer has the prompt.

Perks

Invocation - Information on the killer is great but I believe that it's usually the survivor who disturbs the crows and to be injured and broken for the rest of the trial isn't worth the reward.

Clean Break - I think it's better to be healed than to gamble on lasting 60 seconds from taking damage especially near end game.

Shoulder the Burden - Once again, an attempt to alleviate tunneling in the form of a perk. First there's no telling if the killer you're playing against is a tunnel off the bat player and if they're not, you got a wasted perk slot. Worst of all it's a perk that you need SOMEONE ELSE to bring because if you bring it, it doesn't help you.

All-Shaking Thunder - Most maps have numerous ways to proc this perk, some less that others so slightly map dependent.

Jagged Compass - pretty bad on it's own but with a Scourge build can quickly change majority of hooks to be Scourge hooks. Nice to change regular hooks into Scourge hooks if original 4 are in unfavorable positions.

No Quarter - Only affects self healing so not that great. Probably only seen mostly on Doctor builds.

The Shape

A decent quality of life change but he still needs a rework update as he is still just basic M1 killer, but these changes will due for now.

This post is a more concise wrap up on my opinions of this PTB but this video link is my experience on the PTB. https://youtu.be/qpy7Gt-NwKo