Houndmaster Could Use Some Help

Dreamnomad

Houndmaster doesn't feel very polished. The tracking ability in particular needs work. It is too difficult to snap to generators, especially if there is any kind of elevation difference. Even if you aren't trying to target a generator, it feels too clunky. Maybe this isn't as bad with a mouse but with a controller, it's pretty awful. Also, the dogs pathing is rather annoying when making a trail. It zigs and zags unnecessarily and doesn't seem to always take the optimal path. The tracking range feels a little on the small side too. The speed boost does feel nice though.

Houndmasters cooldowns don't feel right or natural either. It also is annoying and unnatural how you can't switch between commands while the dog is active. Like I'll often want to send the dog out at the start of the match to make distance quickly and want to switch to the attack command while still moving so once I've moved I can seamlessly transition into a chase. But you have to wait around until the dog has done it's thing and returned to you before you can switch. Why? Let me switch commands whenever I want. There are cooldowns anyway. It's not like I will be able to give the dog an attack command while he's searching or vice versa. But once the dog is finishing doing one thing, I want it already to be on the correct command afterward. The cooldown after the dog searches seems way too long before I can send the dog on an attack too.

As for the attack command, that could use some fine tuning too. The amount of time it takes to issue a command feels too long. I'd knock off a quarter of a second on that. Also, the amount of movement slowdown while holding the command feels too much. I like that the dog can move around objects a little, but I'd like to see that increased too. There are way too many loops and obstacles where you can't get a clean line. It just feels clunky overall.

UndeddJester

Pretty much agree, Houndmaster is growing on me, but after playimg a few games as and against her, a few things would be nice to fix: -

• Snapping on generators and gates should be easier. Often pointing at a gen is "good enough" for whatever you wanna do, but having to meander your aim around to get it to latch on is a constant pain.
• Tapping power again while Snug is off searching to cancel. In conjunction with the above, having a return command would be nice. I've had him run by survivors on route to a gen and reveal them, and I want him back to start grabbing people. Instead I have to wait for him to arrive, bark a few seconds, and wait for him to come back k before I have a power again...
• Switching command with secondary power. Less useful Chase to Search, but the movement buff could help with holdW. Being able to swap preemptively while Snug is doing his thing in either state would be nice.
• Remove his scent ring from Survivor view. I'm not sure why survivors can see Snugs scent radius... it makes it much easier to see him coming and prerun from the effect, and kinda ruins the illusion of his threat. It's not like he can injure them, and the passive effect of houndsense doesn't help without landing an m1, so making detecting survivors easier should be a big boon of her power.
• Greater scent range when Snug arrives and is barking, plus have him stay put while detecting a survivor. Similary Houndmaster can't see through Snug when he is searching, often when you turn up survivors have hidden. I started running NTH cause it was so common for survivors that I knew were there to have vanished in the time I took to arrive. Portia doesn't have the lethality to be afforded time to look around. In conjunction with the cancel ability, having Snug stay to attention with a larger scent ring would make it so you can detect people leaving and get into pursuit easier/stop hiding.
• Have Snug deep wound injured survivors when they stun him. With the combined effect of Snug getting stunned as easy as he does by camping under a pallet, and also getting completely messed up by pallet drops after the chase command is sent, it would at least be nice if a survivor is injured already to get deep wound on stunning Snug with a pallet. Won't come into play much, but as least If you are forced to leave th at survivor for whatever reason, at least the deep wound makes it not be a total loss.
• A passive detection around Snug while he is following Portia. This would be a nice change. Even if it's a Whsipers like growling to alert you someone is nearby within 20m. This would make her non gen search ability a lot more useful.

She is a lot of fun to play, I like her a lot more than I did, but these small QoL changes and minor buffs to her kit would make her feel a lot better.

MechWarrior3

@UndeddJester said:

Pretty much agree, Houndmaster is growing on me, but after playimg a few games as and against her, a few things would be nice to fix: -

• Snapping on generators and gates should be easier. Often pointing at a gen is "good enough" for whatever you wanna do, but having to meander your aim around to get it to latch on is a constant pain.
• Tapping power again while Snug is off searching to cancel. In conjunction with the above, having a return command would be nice. I've had him run by survivors on route to a gen and reveal them, and I want him back to start grabbing people. Instead I have to wait for him to arrive, bark a few seconds, and wait for him to come back k before I have a power again...
• Switching command with secondary power. Less useful Chase to Search, but the movement buff could help with holdW. Being able to swap preemptively while Snug is doing his thing in either state would be nice.
• Remove his scent ring from Survivor view. I'm not sure why survivors can see Snugs scent radius... it makes it much easier to see him coming and prerun from the effect, and kinda ruins the illusion of his threat. It's not like he can injure them, and the passive effect of houndsense doesn't help without landing an m1, so making detecting survivors easier should be a big boon of her power.
• Greater scent range when Snug arrives and is barking, plus have him stay put while detecting a survivor. Similary Houndmaster can't see through Snug when he is searching, often when you turn up survivors have hidden. I started running NTH cause it was so common for survivors that I knew were there to have vanished in the time I took to arrive. Portia doesn't have the lethality to be afforded time to look around. In conjunction with the cancel ability, having Snug stay to attention with a larger scent ring would make it so you can detect people leaving and get into pursuit easier/stop hiding.
• Have Snug deep wound injured survivors when they stun him. With the combined effect of Snug getting stunned as easy as he does by camping under a pallet, and also getting completely messed up by pallet drops after the chase command is sent, it would at least be nice if a survivor is injured already to get deep wound on stunning Snug with a pallet. Won't come into play much, but as least If you are forced to leave th at survivor for whatever reason, at least the deep wound makes it not be a total loss.
• A passive detection around Snug while he is following Portia. This would be a nice change. Even if it's a Whsipers like growling to alert you someone is nearby within 20m. This would make her non gen search ability a lot more useful.

She is a lot of fun to play, I like her a lot more than I did, but these small QoL changes and minor buffs to her kit would make her feel a lot better.

I agree with this this and the OG post.

*Snug should be able to drag slugged bodies.

*Snug should have “Protective Mode”

*You shouldn’t have to do Geometry 📐 and Trigonometry to get the dog to grab a survivor. High skill yes… but all that no..👎

*Bug fixes are a must obviously.

*Waiting for snug to come back and cooldown is wayyyyyy too long.