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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Let's all have a serious Houndmaster discussion

I have a few questions for you to start the ball rolling.

What do you like about the Houndmaster? It could be anything from clothes, to her pet dog named Snug, her weapon, anything.

What could be improved? E.g. power, bugfixes, etc.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Comments

  • BroRespectTheBoop
    BroRespectTheBoop Member Posts: 28

    The dog needs a cooldown or a nerf.. the fact that she can send it out and make it hop over a pallet to grab you and then it can hold you and pull you just makes her a more OP deathslinger. It takes longer to escape the dog, survivors dont help you, and it hinders you worse than the artists birds.

  • Reinami
    Reinami Member Posts: 5,638
    edited November 29

    What i have noticed is that a lot of survivors i'm going against are playing ALOT more toxic than they do with any other killer i play. Looking at the roster of killers we have, i wonder what makes this killer different than others that would make people play far more toxic and be rude in the end game chat more than any other killer i play. She doesn't seem that strong and her playstyle doesn't seem to be unfun like some of the other killers we have had.

    Although, i haven't had the chance to go against her, most of the people i see when i'm playing as survivor right now are the other killers that got changes this patch. Is she super unfun to go against?

  • wakesafe
    wakesafe Member Posts: 47

    Super strong at defending Hexes with the scream add on. Snug sometimes does weird stuff and could use some fixes but otherwise the power is super fun. Love the design and chase music is pretty good. Snug also drags to where you were when you launched him, not where you are walking if that helps with predicting his pull path!

  • HerInfernalMajesty
    HerInfernalMajesty Member Posts: 1,971
    edited November 30

    Her recolors and other cosmetics are insane! I love that she is so militaristically precise in her movements, I mean she’s the Houndmaster right? It’s very very good.

    Story wise, I think her Deadly Cane description that says her desire for revenge went unfulfilled is terrifying!!! Like, that means that she will never ever ever rest. Like a perpetual machine that is self-fueled by revenge! It’s just so scary when you add it all together, the discipline, the endless drive, the inevitability… it’s horrifyingly overwhelming.

    Then there’s Snug. I love everything about Snug. Bhvr somehow threaded the impossible needle of making Snug cute while at the same time genuinely frightening. All I can think of is “hellhound” whenever I see Snug or the poodle. The Legendary skin’s menu animation conveys tense feelings remarkably well.

    I’m extremely happy with the Houndmaster 🐕‍🦺💀

  • Brokenbones
    Brokenbones Member Posts: 5,223

    Maybe being marked should do something a little bit more threatening than giving you a deep wound if you get hit/making you glow orange and (again from what I've seen) very brief killer instinct.

    Like I don't think it should expose you or anything like that, but it's a bit silly how you're giving deep wound to a survivor you're probably committing to, in which case deep wound is only really good for ignoring DH (or proccing made for this lol).

    Maybe it's fine as it though I just think it's a weird status effect that's not intuitive.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    While she is nowhere near overpowered, people also seem to underestimate her. She is not the worst killer in the game, she just has a high skill ceiling.

  • angel_pellegrino
    angel_pellegrino Member Posts: 95

    I suspect that, given enough time, those that understand her abilities and add ons will outfit her with strong builds and get a lot of use out of her. I've heard people say that Myers is a so called weak killer, but I've played against some that were terrifying as hell. Lol. I think it's really about HOW you play a killer. And I wouldn't be surprised if some day DBD twter suddenly explodes with angry posts of players calling her one of the most overpowered killers in the game, after having matches with players who masterfully and cunningly used her.

  • Unequalmitten86
    Unequalmitten86 Member Posts: 331

    I agree with this. I always say the devs underestimate their player base. I went up against her a few times. Once the killer didn't tunnel, proxy camp, or slug and rarely used the dog. That round ended up in me only escaping with 1 gen left. Now the others is that stupid dog. It needs a cooldown and more times than not she is walking up to while the dog still has you in a grip so your downed. The dog being able to vault pallets and windows is to strong. I just realized you could rescue someone but by the time you get there she's right there and there are two teammates down. She isn't the best nor the worst. She is OP in the sense she makes it easier to slug, camp, and tunnel but take that away she's nothing. Many players think they are superior but if you give her to a nurse main, she's weak. Then there is the PC console divide, she's harder to counter and utilize her on console. They need to stop making complex killers for a basic game.

  • BlackRose89
    BlackRose89 Member Posts: 519

    I like to correct you on one thing…the issue isn't that she has a high skill ceiling, it's the fact she has a high skill floor with little reward. There are killers in this game that have a high skill ceiling but a decent skill floor where anyone can easily pick them up and learn them while also having fun with them and feel good about it. Take Wesker for exp, he has a mid-skill floor but also a high skill ceiling. Even then it isn't like she going to be the next nurse or something, at best if you can master her you most likely have a high b - low A tier killer on your hands.

    Either way, Im disappointed bc I wanted to like this killer SO much but my games have been so rough and unfun…I starting to feel like it may not be worth my time to learn her bc its going to take so long to even get to her skill floor. That is why I say she has an issue, her skill floor needs to be brought down some. I know lot of ppl talk about a killer's skill ceiling a lot but that's not the only important thing, skill floor matters as well.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,464

    You are right about her skillfloor. It definitely is very high. Maybe they can bring it down a bit, but hopefully in a way that still makes her fair and fun to go against. Because I really do believe she already has quite a bit of potential.

    In my opinion, before they buff her though, they should fix the bugs that she still has.

  • Mazoobi
    Mazoobi Member Posts: 1,568

    I really don't like the minimal reaction time survivors get in terms of knowing whether she'll redirect the dog or not which adds to her skill ceiling but I find myself wasting time trying to figure out whether the dog will try to run at me again. I'm aware that the dog will have glowing eyes but this reminds me of old deathslinger of zoning survivors by simply existing.

  • Bookern
    Bookern Member Posts: 350
    edited November 30

    Disagree her Ceiling is medium at best she just has a raised skill floor but once survs actually get used to them itll be over for her and they can settle in upper Dtier

  • ControllerFeedback
    ControllerFeedback Member Posts: 190

    I'd rather play knife only controller Trickster than play this mess.

  • gurifruiityy
    gurifruiityy Member Posts: 14

    Nothing. This killer is unplayable.

  • 100PercentBPMain
    100PercentBPMain Member Posts: 1,142

    I've accidentally found a lot of survivors by raking them with the Search function that's kinda nice.

  • solarjin1
    solarjin1 Member Posts: 2,229
    edited December 4

    Aesthetic wise i think she isn't scary but that a very minor complaint. Much like skull merchant I think her base outfit is whatever but she got some nice cosmetics outside of it (the leak skin being my favor). Power wise she pretty orginal and even how dog operate feel unique. The dog pulling the survivor kind of remind u of slinger reeling but not really at the same time. She got good information and ok map traversal if u following the hound path. She's interesting but I'm just not so sure how practical the houndmaster power is at most loops. Hound give u double dash like wesker which may give you the initial impression that it should be use out in the open. The problem is the dog can only go in one direction and have a tiny hitbox. Even a simple tree is enough to play around him in the open field. You can say the same thing about wesker but it's far more punishing missing with her since your stationary while survivor gaining distances (like the old global cooldown knight level punishing for missing). Much like rushdowns (blight, chucky, wesker) killers her power work well at tiles with stright paths like Jungle gyms, long walls, four lanes. She can't really adjust the dog position after a dash like wesker or curve like blight/biilly. so she suffer at filler tiles which often have many curves around the loop because of it. The dog have way to much counterplay as well. Dog can be stun and pull off by another survivor...why?? it not oppressive enough to warrant this much counterplay. she decent at zoning but overall need buffs to her anti loop

    Post edited by solarjin1 on
  • SoGo
    SoGo Member Posts: 1,534
    edited December 4

    Yeah, I mean, Trapper still has to get his power from the other side of the map for it to work....

  • squbax
    squbax Member Posts: 1,511

    Trappers power at least works and when it works it doesnt help survivors get to pallets tho.

  • SweetbutaPsycho
    SweetbutaPsycho Member Posts: 286

    There really isnt much to like about her imo. She really really for me feels like some sort of "filler" similar to skull merchant. Just some killer to pass the time until the next big licence release. Her code was probably already in the game since her power is just a combination of wesker and deathslinger. I guess the Devs just realise that they need something to release and more or less scrapped her together. No real marketing, no real thinking about her power, no real testing beforehand or considering balance. Thats why she feels so lackluster for many.

  • PetTheDoggo
    PetTheDoggo Member Posts: 326

    What I like:

    • dog visual
    • dog name

    What could be improved:

    • everything else