Houndmaster vs Krasue
Let's do another killer vs killer with two killers of fairly low pick rate. Same two questions as always:
Who in your opinion would you class as the better/stronger killer of these two and why?
And which one of them is most fun to play?
Comments
I would say Houndmaster is stronger. Snug is easily spammable and her scout path catches survivors off guard a lot during chase since they expect the dash instead. Houndmaster handles pallets easier against Krasue too since her head form vault is too slow in most tiles.
Houndmaster is actually fun, and has at least one good perk.
Strength wise they are very equal.
Both are strong killers but both feel clunky and relatively unrewarding to play.
Houndmaster's power is versatile with a lot of outplay potential, but doesn't damage directly outside of very specific circumstances. For me at least, that feels unrewarding even if it is strong. Further, controlling snug is not particularly pleasant. Maybe I'm just not used to it, but changing perspectives on a dime, figuring out my location, where I need to turn, and sending Snug for the second dash while accounting for survivor movement that has likely changed all at once is a massive spike in mental load for a somewhat underwhelming payoff. If I wanted a double dash, Wesker is easier and if I wanted that dash to be dog-shaped I can play Dracula.
Krasue I prefer to houndmaster, but she's so disappointing to actually pick up and play. The lack of any real skilled element to her leeching gland and ease of cleansing her infection makes her very pigeonholed into a single style of play: Infect one survivor > head form > down > repeat. You can't really build for spreading infection and putting pressure on the team that way, especially as it auto cures off hook. Her head form is also clunky, with no real short swing and the zoomed out FOV making her feel slow despite being anything but. Once you've played a few matches with her it feels like you've seen all there is, despite her power being so wordy and feeling like she has a lot of things going on.
Were I to suggest fixes to make them more popular? Honestly, I feel Houndmaster just needs to be less buggy. I think her 'indirect' style of play is a fundamental part of her character but also a reason people don't commit to learning her as easily. Making Snug feel more reliable would at least have less people turned off from her.
Krasue needs a rework, sadly. Her leeching gland shouldn't be essentially free via the autoaim bounce. Obiously, making this a skill shot would make her less accessible, but if you make her infection something you actually earn, then you are much more free to buff her head form or the infection itself to make them feel like a real reward. A good start would be giving her head form a form of basic M1 instead of always lunging, and possibly increasing her vault speed to somewhere between release and what we have now.
I think Krasue is stronger and more fun for me personally, but also much more perk reliant to function, meaning I don't play her often and when I do, it's never for more than 1-2 matches.
I'd say Krasue. When it comes to looping them as survivors, the krasue certainly feels like something you can't afford to take even 1 wrong step and even if you make the right step you are still going down sometimes due to how far the head's lunge can reach or curve (and prettymuch cannot be dodged, which makes a 2nd survivor body blocking, her only primary counter.
While houndmaster has a bunch of counters a single survivor can do without needing someone else to help, including stunning the dog or dodging its pathing like wesker dashes etc to gain meaningful distance. You cannot gain distance on krasue. I've also never seen a krasue give up in a chase unless other people got involved.
I enjoy playing both, and happen to have more fun with krasue as its like playing as a vicious flying squid.
Interesting views thanks! For me these are the two killers I play the most right now and it's hard to say who is the strongest I think they are pretty equal around B-tier in the killer tier list. In terms of most fun I give it to Houndmaster it's a great feeling when you get a skilled grab on a re-direct.
Both these killers are cool characters it's sad that BHVR has failed them in a way that so few play them with bugs or clunckyness etc. They are not in a very bad state like Twins were so they should be fixable let's hope they get more love and attention.
Krasue is clunky as hell and super unfun to play. Houndmaster is buggy but at least i have a doggo and he munches survivors. I personally prefer Portia.
Strength-wise krasue with a good build and good addons trumps houndmaster imo.