Dev Feedback - Houndmaster - Small Tweaks, Big feel improvements.
Hello everyone and Dev Team!
I wanted to share some thoughts on Houndmaster from the perspective of someone who’s played a lot of her since release. This is meant as a love-letter style feedback post: what she does well, what feels off, and what I’d tweak to make her feel more rewarding and polished. I have played Houndmaster every week, nearly every day since her release. Here are some thoughts I would love to share. 🐕
What Houndmaster Does Well:
Houndmaster really shines in chase. Her power lets her fairly challenge strong loops by creating honest 50/50 situations when you are actively using Snug, and she’s excellent at stopping body blockers and unsafe unhooks. She has decent mobility and natural map intel, which helps her keep pressure without feeling oppressive.
Dog bite injuries at windows, pallets, and vaults are also genuinely fun interactions. They feel interactive and understandable for both sides, and they reward smart positioning and timing.
What Feels Bad / Buggy:
Some of her voice lines are inconsistent or missing, especially when hooking Survivors. That might sound small, but it makes her feel less polished and expressive, and part of her charm is her personality.
Snug will also sometimes hesitate before vaulting windows or pallets, doing a tiny “stutter” before actually jumping. In chase this can feel clunky and unresponsive, especially in tighter situations where every second matters.
The Search command still feels unintuitive and not very user friendly. Lining up the tracker and getting Snug to search the exact area you want in a timely manner is difficult, so it often feels unreliable or too slow to use reactively. It ends up feeling like more work than it’s worth in live matches.
What I’d Tweak:
Most importantly, I’d like to see Snug’s pull strength adjusted. Right now, even when you land a clean, well-earned grab, Survivors can often still drop a pallet and stun him. That makes those moments feel really unrewarding, especially when it was a good snipe that should feel like a payoff. It would feel much better if Snug’s pull were stronger and more “committed,” with his pull coordinates set to Houndmaster’s current position, so that when you earn a grab you reliably secure the down/injury instead of getting stunned.
I’d also like to see a small bump to her movement speed while she is using her search ability so her mobility feels a bit more rewarding. Faster when trying to get to a prop like a generator, totem or exit gate. Current speed if used in a chase. To make travel time a bit smoother.
On top of that, slightly increasing the Search radius circle would make the command feel more forgiving and user-friendly, since right now it is very easy to “miss” the area you meant to scan. Combined with the current pin 📍 needle. This contributes to why Search can feel awkward to use.
Closing statement:
Overall, I really enjoy Houndmaster and want to see her get the polish and small adjustments she deserves. Thank you for reading, and I appreciate any consideration from the dev team. Happy to clarify anything from The Houndmasters perspective.
Thank you!
Mechwarrior3. 🐕❤️
Comments
As P100 Houndmaster I'd say she's one of the weakest killers in the game. Change my mind, but using search in chase instead of chase is way more effective. People who just camp pallets and stun the dog are nightmares to go against even if they suffer short hindred but with that many connected pallets it's not really a problem to make it to another loop. Houndmaster has many options in form of builds but her chase potential is very low and unless they remove the dog stun I can't see her being very good. Dog is very easy to dodge and redirecting mostly hinders than help. I'm not saying she's garbage tier, but she's very weak and her main strenght is to combo perks with her add ons.
Are you sure she is "one of the weakest killers in the game"?, in many tier lists she is A and when playing her she seems to be very strong with a great chase power as well as mobility (tho locking the search command on a gen is very hard sometimes) and she is definitely stronger than majority of B tier killers like wraith or Chucky.
Projectiles are supposed to possible to dodge like that's where you need skill, you should be skilled enough to hit the survivors with the first dash and redirecting.
Ig pallets are the only counter to houndmaster and they were not that hard to deal with personally like you can send the dog over the pallet then redirect to hit the survivor (which you should be skilled enough to hit) and you have enough time to break the pallet and M1 them like camp them until you get your dog back, the cooldown is not that long.
I just think you underrating her A LOT, if pallets are really that big issue for you then use perks that help against pallets like brutal strength to break them quicker.
Elan's right though, pallets that aren't dropped yet make Snug completely useless. From personal experience, if you hear her whistle and you are in the pallet, just stand in the middle of pallet. If she sends the dog, drop the pallets, dog is now gone, and there is a pallet between her and you. If she doesn't, the cancel is pretty hefty, you might even do another loop if the tile is not too long. And even if you stay in pallet, you can now drop it, and go to another loop, unless she stays in said loop without breaking the pallet.
Unsafe pallets aren't as safe to just drop the pallet, but you can still somewhat drag the snug in a way where you are still in the middle of the pallet and can drop it any time (I mean it's Snug, he is notorious for being buggy, especially when he is dragging survivors)
Yes! She's like Krasue. If survivors know what to do she is miserable to play. If survivors are casual she might seem decently good.
For me personally, that’s why I think she could really benefit from a stronger pull on the dog so he also pulls back to her. It’ll help reduce frustrations significantly while, still keep a healthy counter play.
Probably yes, but that's a sketchy road too. Currently, outside of pallet camping, Snug is a legit threat, with low cool down and all of that. Landing him isn't guaranteed, but if you do land, the hit is 200% extra guaranteed, because Snug holds survivor for enough time to catch up, break a pallet, make tea, have kids, and then hit the captured survivor. It's gotta be done carefully or it might end up a release Krasue 2.0
I still think the core issue is Snug pulling to his grab spot instead of the Houndmaster.
On release/PTB he pulled to where you cast him from, which caused the pallet problem. The fix for that went too far the other way: now he pulls to the grab spot, which just means he’s constantly getting stunned at pallets and it feels awful on both sides.
Ideally he should pull directly to the Houndmaster’s current position, with slightly increased pull strength so you can actually secure value without needing a perfect setup or eating a pallet every time. That keeps him a real threat without turning him into another release Krasue 2.0.
We also can’t compare Krasue to Houndmaster. There are too many differences in their designs..although I hear you. I would like to stay on topic.
Hmmm, I tried to imagine Snug pulling towards Hiundmaster, and tbh I couldn't quite imagine what would be the difference, wouldn't it still be pretty much the same thing, and he will still be counterable by standing in the pallet if Houndmasters begins whistling?
And by comparing her to release Krasue, I didn't mean design ofc, I simply meant that, if she is buffed a bit too much, she will end up like release Krasue, who always won in looping no matter what survivor did.
No at all. In your scenario, if a survivor is at a pallet and I go to use my dog, it would only be to force the pallet.
I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about before they get to a resource I use snug to drag them back to me before they get to a pallet so I can avoid the current headache where is pull strength is weak that he just gets pulled and dragged into a pallet.
This is what needs to be tweaked. It’s very very frustrating.
https://youtu.be/bBcDP1alwoU?is=JdrSXoq7VNiopjIzChange back to this - but with one minor tweak - making the pull to the killers coordinates. Not the spot where snug got the grab, not the spot where she sent snug out. To HER coordinates. That will create less frustration while playing her, and make her snug dashes feel more rewarding. :)
https://youtu.be/iHKpHMgEtjk?is=_BHKgCH4uGX5Bn-F https://youtu.be/1idw0lree34?is=CPwfDkqsjWLzmm_n