The Houndmaster remains a disappointing Killer and desperately needs a buff or even a full rework.

champzaza007

The Houndmaster remains a disappointing Killer and desperately needs a buff or even a full rework.

I played The Houndmaster during the PTB, and while I admit that "I had fun playing as The Houndmaster," I also felt that she was far too weak. There are many other Killers that are more powerful and enjoyable to play.

In the PTB, I already thought she was weak. On Launch Day, The Houndmaster received only minor buffs—so minor that I couldn’t help but exclaim, “#########! Seriously?”

Let’s stop saying things like “this game favors Survivors or Killers.” If you use a bit of logic, the answer is pretty simple:

• The game favors Killers when facing solo players.
• The game favors Survivors when the Killer is up against a SWF (Survive With Friends).

I’ve been playing this game for 8 years, with around 5,000 hours of playtime, and I’m tired of debating “whether the game favors Survivors or Killers.” It’s laughable, really, 90% of the people claiming the game favors Killers have never even played as a Killer themselves.

So, the people the developers should listen to the most are players who play both Killer and Survivor. These players are likely to have the most neutral and fair perspectives.

I truly believe that The Houndmaster should be the next Killer to get a rework following The Skull Merchant and The Nightmare.

I’m baffled that the developers dared to buff The Knight (separating the cooldowns of his Guards), making him incredibly strong in the current patch, yet they don’t have the courage to make The Houndmaster’s dogs controlled by AI.

If I’m playing as The Twins or The Singularity, I can understand the need to switch perspectives between characters. But why? Why do I need to manually control the dogs? They follow me automatically, yet they can’t hunt on their own without player input?

To make a direct comparison: The Houndmaster is essentially The Deathslinger with 4.6 m/s movement speed. But despite having 4.6 m/s, The Deathslinger is still far more powerful in practice.

Don’t give me the excuse of “It’s only Launch Day, most players don’t know how to play her yet.” Use some logic, if you have any. Even just looking at the Killer’s base capabilities, without considering skill or playstyle, The Houndmaster is incredibly weak.

Here’s something I want to emphasize: The stats from one region cannot reliably represent stats from other regions. I strongly recommend that the developers collect data from SEA and Asian servers (China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia).

You’ll find that many of the most skilled Dead by Daylight players are concentrated in these regions. SWF groups are strong, and so are Killer mains. This would give you reliable statistics on which Killers are strong and which are weak, as players in SEA or Asian servers are highly competitive, victory-driven, and take the game very seriously.

In 2022, I once saw statistics released by the developers claiming that The Nightmare had a Kill rate of 62%.To be honest, I didn’t believe it.

In Asian servers, The Nightmare is a C or D Tier Killer extremely weak. Almost no one plays The Nightmare here, and it’s nearly impossible for The Nightmare to get 2 or more kills when facing a high-MMR SWF in Asian servers.

My point is: The most reliable statistics come from players who play the game seriously and intentionally not casual players.

To summarize, the developers should collect statistics from multiple regions separately and avoid combining them into one global stat.

And lastly, I hope The Houndmaster gets buffed soon—or even better, reworked entirely.

adam1233467

I tried to play with her and man, I've never been so stressed in my life, using her power is so bad and inconsistent, she is bad, and cluncky to play, so, no point of playing with her :/