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The Houndmaster Change Wishlist/Feedback

SHADERS
SHADERS Member Posts: 6
edited November 12 in 8.4.0 PTB Feedback

My change wishlist for The Houndmaster after relentlessly grinding her (pubs and 1v1s) for a few days.

A lot of these values are individual and technical, the changelog is actually not that large, but I wanted to be precise, technical, and detailed with not just what I'm changing but also my explanations for such.

  • [CHANGE] Slipstream Path speed boost increased to 5.5m/s (was 5.2m/s)
  • [CHANGE] Slipstream Path decay rate decreased to 40c/s (was 65c/s)
  • [CHANGE] Slipstream Path gain rate increased to 0.5c/s (was 0.215c/s)
  • [CHANGE] Slipstream Path range increased to 1.5m (was 1.1m)

Note: During the PTB, many players found the speed bonus applied by following the Search path to be ineffective and inconsistent. These changes aim to make it not just more useful, but encourage sticking with it longer to maintain the speed bonus for a larger period of time, effectively allowing a lingering speed bonus.

There is some extra QOL as well allowing The Houndmaster to be very slightly farther from the path, meaning the speed bonus is more consistent overall.

  • [NEW] Snug's minimum return speed is 6m/s
  • [CHANGE] Reduced Search and Chase cooldown to 4s (was 5s)
  • [NEW] Search's cooldown is reduced by a further 2s if Snug's Search radius reaches maximum.

Note: These are simple QOL changes to make sure The Houndmaster can use her power more often. During the PTB, one of the problems was that The Houndmaster's cooldown doesn't start unless Snug has returned to you, but if you're actively in a chase this can cause problem because while running Snug might actively be matching her speed, meaning he'll never return to you unless The Houndmaster stops for a brief second. This guarantees Snug will always return to you in a reasonable time frame.

Additionally, the cooldowns for both Chase and Search were reduced, and as a bonus for using Search to its full potential, you'll receive a halved cooldown for it, encouraging interesting usage of Search where The Houndmaster effectively splits a large line through the map, offering a very unique style of map control.

  • [CHANGE] Starting detection radius for Search Mode increased to 1m (was 0.015m).
  • [CHANGE] Ending detection radius for Search Mode increased to 10m (was 5m).
  • [CHANGE] Distance to grow Search radius to maximum decreased to 50m (was 80m).

Note: These changes serve to make Search Mode a little more useful in detecting Survivors, and allows The Houndmaster to take advantage of a larger maximum radius more often, alongside getting value from the new cooldown reduction bonus more often.

  • [NEW] While a Survivor is grabbed, Snug can no longer move them faster than 4.4m/s.
  • [NEW] While a Survivor is grabbed, Snug will try to take the Survivor to the shortest path towards The Houndmaster.
  • [NEW] While a Survivor is grabbed, they are unable to interact with the environment for 0.3s.

Note: These changes aim to mitigate pain points in her kit. Notably, sometimes Snug would drag Survivors faster than The Houndmaster could catch up, resulting in them freeing themselves or making a resource in situations they shouldn't have. Additionally, the grab path Snug would take wasn't the shortest way, this is now changed to be consistent and introduces a level of strategy to the location you place The Houndmaster in as that shortest path might be through a resource.

  • [CHANGE] Decreased the time it takes Snug to vault to 0.3s (was 0.45s).
  • [CHANGE] Increased speed of Snug while in Chase to 42m/s (was 40m/s).
  • [CHANGE] Reworked the Young Coconut Add-On to have the following effects:
    • The "whistle" sound for Chase becomes the whistle sound for Search and vice-versa.
    • Increases the time it takes for Survivors to altruistically remove Snug by 50%.
  • [NEW] You can see the aura of Snug's Chase path.

Note: These changes are intended to make Snug slightly more responsive and more intense presence in a chase. Some of the most interesting grabs have been from a vault, and they feature some setup time, meaning they should be a little stronger to counteract this and encourage skill-expressive play.

These changes aim to make The Houndmaster a more viable threat in chase and offer more reward for her skill expression. Making Slipstream Paths more usable, making detection easier and offering a reward for longer searches, ensuring that grabs are more consistent, and offering slightly less reaction time for Survivors while The Houndmaster is trying to play creatively with vaultable objects.
Thank you for your time, I hope the detail is helpful!

Post edited by BoxGhost on

Comments

  • BoxGhost
    BoxGhost Member, Mod Posts: 1,447

    Hi there! I've edited the post to remove the "Dev Note" parts of the thread as this is not an Official Thread. Good day!