My Thoughts on Houndmaster Whats Yours?
TLDR: Houndmaster is pretty weak IMO and needs number changes and new features
She's undeniably weak in most peoples hands because of her skill floor IMO
Definitely not a killer anyone can pick up and play, you really have to learn her to do well
But even when played good (Pixel Bush gameplay Mostly ATM)
She does not seem worth the effort to master her when you can play literally most other killers and have way better results with comical levels of less effort
Her search is still awful IMO No lingering haste So despite how fast you go it doesn't really matter because you are forced to walk a rigid line or lose it instantly it also somehow misses survivors sometimes, and I can't explain why
It's also Bugged I think as sometimes Snug takes ages to find his way back to you, leaving you without a chase power
A change I'd like to see to it would be that snug bites people he comes across and starts dragging them to Portia like her chase power
So a survivor working on a gen and refuses to leave with snug is there would get bit like they have got hit by the chase power
Or snug bites them on his way back or when he's going to the gen/area Portia marked if they run into his circle
Her chase should also get some changes, I think
Currently, it has way too high of a skill floor for how easy it is to counter / avoid and how much it gives you in return when you actually hit it
That's the best way I can describe it, as I don't know what to change about
I just think it should offer more than "maybe an injury sometimes if they're alone with no pallet nearby…"
Anyway that's my opinion of her I don't play survivor so, but I've seen people give up vs her a bit, so I guess she's also frustrating to go against and IDK what to change about that
So what's y'all thoughts on her? Weak?, OP, Or just meaty ogre?
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She's too buggy and search is still too undertuned in terms of range and houndsense still does not make much sense.
I dont think i'll be playing her much in this state, i'll keep an eye on to see what gets fixed though4 -
Oof I was afraid of that… I honestly hope we had a killer with a decent skill floor this time around. Last few killers I haven't been a fan of and was hoping hound master be fun to pick up and play. I try tomorrow since I wasn't in the mood to play tonight but I have seen a lot of ppl saying she still weak and needs more work.
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I think that people are misinterpreting her level of strength. It isn't that she is weak. When you start playing her, you kinda notice that she isn't much better or worse than Wesker, Knight, Chucky, Dracula, and Demogorgon, it's just that killers are weak and need way too much to be viable nowadays. As it stands, only Nurse, Blight, and Artist are viable against the high level, which is unfortunate.
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She needs a lot more bug fixes, maybe some fixed cooldowns rather leaving it up to whenever the dog feels like it, and maybe a new minor ability that lets the dog auto target some survivors within a certain radius right next to them. It's just kinda annoying watch the dog barely miss then see them walk back to you instead of just attacking the guy not 2 feet away from them.
I'd think then she might be a Solid B tier, which is actually just fine imo.
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This is still subject to change but as of right now,
Search Mode: I kind of love it more than Chase Mode which I wasn't expecting. Targeting a gen is still a tad inconsistent so they can widen that tiny bit more but it's MUCH improved from the PTB and usually works if you put the gen in the middle of the screen. Her mobility is legitimately in the upper half of the roster and I actually enjoy it in chase since it gives you a way to counter survivors hold W. Part of what makes a good killer is the ability to get into the chase quickly after a hook and I think this is the one thing Houndmaster legitimately does well.
Chase Mode: Chase Mode is.... rough. The hitbox is horribly inconsistent and small although there are random times the dog is willing to notice a survivor like 45 degrees to the side of them and absolutely no clue why that only happens sometimes. I do think using the dog to zone and pincer like Knight is often times more useful than trying to hit with the dog like the threat of the dog is somehow more powerful than the actual dog lol.
Houndsense: Much better than it was on PtB although it's very low impact without add-ons. Of those I think the exhaustion add on is pretty decent and I surprisingly really like the Fatty Meat add on that makes survivors scream every 15 seconds when effected with houndsense. Being able to have that effect on an add on is lovely for totem and anti healing builds or if you have DMS. I think it would be nice to change the downing effect of houndsense from louder grunts which is pretty useless to slower recovery speed but I get if we don't want to promote slugging.
Add-Ons: They're pretty middling to bad. The yellow barley is better than the green waterskin because you often don't want to do a second pounce and survivors don't expect the extra distance on the first charge. I would say Fatty Meat, Knotted Rope, Spiked Collar, Uncharted Map and Training Book are the only add ons worth using although I don't touch purples and reds usually so I can't comment on those although I'm sure I'll play with them eventually.
Overall I think Chase mode needs a lot of love but otherwise she's not D tier like people have been saying. I think when played to her potential she can reach low B tier, she has mobility and info gathering it's just her lethality is questionable and makes it hard to follow up on said mobility and info.
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Her line chased attack is very easily to miss/outplay and you lose a lot of distance for using it. The reward for landing the ability is at best 1 hit. The ability also suffers from predictability because the way dog is suppose to work is that you can ram the wall at 90 degree angle and make dog hug tech like Wesker's dash or Chucky's Slice & Dice along walls but survivor can loop outwards towards loop walls and not receive any negative or punishment because your relatively stationary between sending the dog and redirect the dog. Dog chase attack was superior in the PTB because in the PTB, if you landed the dog, the knotted rope add-on granted a lot of recovery time making the attack risk worth shooting for. Now it's after thought in my opinion to use it.
Search function seems more guaranteed value. what I have been doing is spamming search function with iri add-on that grants undetectable. The hound has pretty good odds to land houndsense onto the survivor such that her purple add-on grants 40% Pallet breaking speed. Between her speed, Stealth and Pallet break, She'd like a budget wraith. A more advanced tactic is that if you are outside of chase, you can direct dog ahead of you using search function and use it like catch-up Spirit phase-walk by Moonwalking backwards to ensure chase does not start since haste bonus is disable upon chase starting. Use your hearing to track survivor and catch-up the survivor hopefully between loops/out in the open.
Overall, I've been playing the killer like a m1 wraith with moonwalk phase-walk spirit gameplay where possible. I don't find her curving/chase line-attack relevant at all and only see value in her tracking capacity, undetectable capacity in iri add-on+40% pallet break & her pseudo catch-up in chase that the developers don't seem want you to use.
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High skill killer with an extremely threatening power & decent situational map mobility and detection.
Her bugs are holding her back, but once fixed, she'll cement her place on the same level of strength as killers like wesker or unknown.
The dog is ultimately wesker who can do a second dash despite vaulting the window/pallet and who also has a second killer cornering the survivor. It's hard to control at first, but then survivors won't be safe practically anywhere
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I feel like this killer is extremely unfinished. I've seen the dog have a CLEAR line of sight to catch a survivor multiple times, and every time it has missed the survivor. Why?? The dog will and has turned a random corner, completely missing a survivor. The pathing for the dog is horrible. The dog should just immediately come back to you, as it will get stuck for no reason, I've seen people try to use the search or catch and the dog will literally be chilling in a corner but the option for the power is still there. Is there really no lock on feature for the dog? No radius in which the dog will automatically catch a survivor and or be locked on to the survivor to THEN catch them?
I say "I've seen" Because I don't play killer, even if I did I certainly wouldn't waste any money on this one, but the people I've watched play this?? Miserable time for them and miserable time for me watching the dog constantly fail a clear catch and stop searching after getting stuck on a staircase or tree. And once, if ever, you actually get the dog to catch a survivor— why doesn't it do anything? No health state loss, no deep wound, no nothing? If the Deathslinger gets them deepwounded, I feel like the dog should as well.
I really like this killer concept, in every way! I just wish the dog actually DID something. I realize skill issue is also a thing, but again, I've seen the dog miss a catch HEAD ON; seen the dog take a random curve, path to go up on the CRANE of Autohaven when it was sent in a straight line.. like?? If I'm wrong about anything, I'm more than happy to be corrected 😭 But I know my eyes ain't wrong and seen that dog go to the Mcdonald's drive thru rather than catch a survivor.
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Has potential but right now too weak and dog needs bigger hitbox
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Haven't played her because of my fear of big doggos. Sorry...
Sounds like the Singularity - problem all over again. Can perform good when played really well. Other killers however take a lot less effort and offer better results.
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She is Twins level buggy.
That should be the priority and fixed asap.
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Needs bug fixes and tons of Buffs extremely weak killer
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I've played a couple matches and so far she seems… pretty alright overall?
There's definitely a small issue with clunkiness, especially for getting her power to lock on to things. Pro tip I noticed- ignore the indicator for search mode and just use her finger to line up with generators, works way better. The dog feels like it sometimes misses when it shouldn't, but in fairness, it is a straight-line skillshot and not an AI minion, so maybe it should work like that.
However, the results seem pretty reasonable to me, based on what I could achieve. She has a solid spread of addons, some of which I found to be more useful than I expected, and the mixture of info, slowdown, and ranged damage that her power provides does feel like it'll be pretty worthwhile once you master her mechanics.
Overall, I like her, but she could feel smoother to approach. I don't anticipate she'll be popular even if that's tightened up, but that's fine, it's okay for some killers to just be for nicher audiences.
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ino nobody asked for a chapter, there was no hype for the chapter, and when the chapter did come out it felt so unfunisehed to the houndmaster is almost worst than when the twins came out
and yeah pinheads m2 chains is basically her power but more buggy
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