@@matthewteague623 in the butcher's circus dlc, if you kill a houndmaster, his corpse shows his dog looking sad standing over him, and it's the most heartbreaking thing ever
I'm really glad you continue to make these videos, as I'm just now getting into DD1. I watch your Provisions video basically every dungeon run I go on, haha.
I don't think Houndmaster's guard works the way you described. The guard duration doesn't tick down when his guarded target takes a turn, it ticks down when HM takes a turn, INCLUDING the turn he uses Guard Dog. You can see this by mousing over the "guarded by HM" icon below the guarded ally. When you do this you'll notice that immediately after hitting Guard Dog the duration will tick down from 2 rds to 1 rd. Basically the guard functions similarly to a self buff for the HM, not his guard target (in terms of duration). So even though it technically lasts 2 rds, it effectively only lasts 1 rd. This means if you plan on dodge tanking with HM you need to use Guard Dog every single turn. Unfortunately this means that HM has to do nothing else but spam Guard Dog in order to maintain his guard on an ally, because if he does literally anything else the guard will wear off. You can try this out yourself by using Guard Dog and then on the very next turn use any other skill and you'll see the guard wear off immediately. I hope this wasn't too confusing.
I wonder why they did it like this honestly. Was it just for the sake of not stepping on man at arms's toes? I don't think giving another class a good guard would have been that game breaking, and it would have been nice to have more options for fights like vvulf and the prophet than only using man at arms (then again, in those two the bonus that the second turn of guard gives is not that great since it's only useful if the rubble/bomb lands on the person who was already guarded). That said i do really like that both of the guard characters are the jaded, bearded old men basically saying "i've already lived a while, it's better if i take a hit than one of the youngsters".
The only thing I dislike about houndmaster is how he interacts with Vvulf's bombs. When if you dodge the "Bomb's Away!" You still get the bomb falling and the explosion is basically undodgeable. Why D: Let me use my boi to help others
@@quinnlee-miller9792 funnily enough, I've never done Vvulf with a Man at Arms lol. Never been a fan of the meta comps. My favorite is flagellant+a girthy, prot-based leper+withstand and someone like Highwayman who can switch places if the bomb falls on someone unfavorable. The flagellant just doesn't care, more bombs mean more blood!
In my experience Eldritch Slayer and/or Beast Slayer are his best quirks. It makes up for his low accuracy against those enemy types. The Spiked Collar is his best damage trinket with Evidence of Corruption as his best utility trinket. The Lawman’s Badge is easily outclassed with the Slayer quirks & the Spiked Collar trinket. The 30% bleed increase is actually the best part of that trinket. Lick Wounds is useless in champion dungeons. His utility & damage far outweigh any use Lick Wounds would have. Using Blackjack to prevent damage or Guarding someone to increase his dodge is a better form of healing than his self heal. In fact, even in Bloodmoon champion dungeons, if you know what you’re doing you’ll take little damage in the first place. Thank you Shuffle for continuing this series. I’ve spend hundreds of hours listening to your videos & they’ve given me the building blocks to overcome every challenge of this game.
The additional debuff chance is insanity. I've been playing this game on and off for many years, and I love running the houndmaster on certain teams. I never ever ever noticed the increased chance on the ability text. I just always thought "Damn, this dog is REALLY hitting those debuffs, he's missed like 5 times over his career". Love to see this content still going strong.
**A personal note on the +stun, - speed trinket. It can help tweek & manipulate the micro management of the team's speed to help better influence guarding.
I had some decent fun with the "Marked for Death" team: Arbalest, Occultist, Houndmaster, and Bounty Hunter. Everyone can place mark, most can use it, two healers, two stuns.
Think you're grossly overselling Cry Havoc. A moderate stress heal that you cannot target and doesn't always work is straight up terrible at any level.
I always enjoy these and I'll definitely give Let there Be Blood a whirl; personally I enjoy The Huntsman Corp. I'm looking forward to your Abomination guide; he's the only character I can't really get a feel for.
16:30 I want to highlight Berserk Charm for HM as a magnificent option if you can get your hands on the Lawman's Badge. 19:10 Ohhh~ I gotta try that Control Team!