Houndmaster could use some love

CaptainNimrod

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing and facing The Houndmaster ever since her PTB. However, I haven't seen one in many weeks and I'm rather appalled at her current state of things. She was and still is by NO MEANS a weak killer that excels at cutting people off and denying distance/resources with Snug from VARIOUS angles. (WITH a FANTASTIC traversal/tracking option that she can also use in chase by the way!) I love facing her as it's a unique dynamic similar to Knights gameplay where there are 2 threats you have to worry about, both with very clear signs of their next move which you can predict and gain a huge advantage over. When Snug is about to move you can hear Houndmaster whistling or the loud sound of her redirecting him a different direction. It's also very easy to guess that she's usually trying to use Snug to scare you into where she's standing or aiming him ahead of where you're going, and I find it a lot of fun.

I truly don't understand the few drastic buffs she received within her first 2 weeks of being officially inside the fog. Mainly being the reduction of her power cooldown from 5 seconds to an incredibly oppressive 3 seconds, Snug's vault speed being HALVED from a react-able .9 seconds to an INSANE .45 seconds, and the complete gutting of her Knotted Rope addon which now reduces the hit cooldown for people being grabbed by Snug to TWO PERCENT? All together it seems a little drastic for an already strong killer, especially the vault speed. Dropping a pallet or vaulting a window is almost a guarantee that you're going to get grabbed by Snug due to how insanely quick he vaults, which in most cases is a free hit. As for the cooldown, with 5 seconds you had enough time to make it somewhere better without the immediate threat of Snug, but now she always has Snug available which means sometimes where you would've another moment, you're just screwed instead. As for the addon, give Knotted Rope either a new use or put it back to 10%, so it actually has a purpose instead of being a meme. Actually, a lot of her addons could use a new function or number tweaks to be honest, but that's not the most important of her issues.

That would be Snug himself, he still has a lot of AI Jank such as him getting stuck randomly. The tiniest slope/stairs will stop him completely, sometimes he'll do the vault animation but he'll stay on the same side, sometimes you can literally vault through Snugs without getting hit at all, sometimes he'll just decide to teleport somewhere random and sit there for a solid chunk of time before wanting to teleport back to you, redirecting him sometimes will just, do nothing! He'll sit there! Given that Houndmaster's power only comes back when Snug is nearby, this can cause lengthy moments where you just don't have your power at all because he's stuck somewhere and won't teleport back. Speaking of, when Snug is running back to you, he's a bit slower than the player so sometimes you have to take a step back mid-chase just to allow him to catch up. Only THEN does the cooldown start. It's often very frustrating, if a decent chunk of these could be resolved that would already make her feel better to play. There's plenty more bugs I could mention, but those are the biggest currently.

I'll end off with my own little quips about her kit, namely being her abysmal blood-point gain that I've talked briefly about in another forum. You get 100 blood-points for grabbing someone with Snug, and another 200 for hitting them while Snug is latched on. As for inflicting Houndsense, it gives 200 as well. Meanwhile, killers like Xeno and Demogorgon get over 800 for every m2 they hit. A more similar killer to Houndmaster like Deathslinger, gets TREMENDOUS amounts more than her and has several rewarding score events. Oh yeah on top of that, Snug can straight up injure and down survivors if he catches them vaulting, which you can do consistently with good timing. This is intentional given its unique sound effect but has 0 score events and gives 0 blood-points for hitting. Why?? This makes 0 sense to me and would immediately be a great change. I'll say it again, REVERT. HER. TERROR. RADIUS. PLEASE!! I was in love with her PTB/release music and how adventurous each layer sounded, the current track is so much quieter and honestly is a worse fit.

I feel so strongly towards this killer because I've wanted a pirate chapter ever since the Knight got revealed and told all of us that we could have more medieval content in the game. She is the first killer to have an interactable companion (who is also precious <3), and the first killer to be able to change the appearance of her power, which is huge! (despite being only one option atm). She captured my interest with everything I wanted in a pirate-themed chapter and more, I still wish we got an actual pirate map along with her, but her inclusion is awesome enough! I hope the team gives this a read, and I hope some people agree. I only want her to be fun for everyone and for more people to play her in the best state she could be in. 🐕️ ❤️

If there's anything I missed, or mis-spoke, tell me below! I'd be delighted to discuss more about one of my favorite killers.