Is it even possible to deal with the hound alone?

[hakej37]

So I get the idea of special enemies, same as Left 4 Dead it's designed to be mostly punishing the lone wolves & forcing people to stick together to deal with them efficiently, I get it. But in contrary to Left 4 Dead it seems there's no way to deal with the Hound alone.

Idk if that dog has some magnets or what but the only time I was able to avoid the pounce was by doing nothing. It's like this dog jumps on me but for whatever reason sometimes doesn't catch me, while I was doing nothing to prevent this. It seems like a bug. Good luck if this dog is running around the corner because it's absolutely impossible to avoid the pounce at this point.

People in this game just keep pushing and leaving me behind and I feel like I have no tools to deal with some of the special enemies by myself and it feels like a lazy design rather than a well executed idea. In L4D a well timed right click could deal with a Hunter, not to mention he isn't as fast as the Hound when he's preparing the pounce.

[DwieSzopyJackson]

yes

[HunApo]

Yes, it is.
It is called dodge and push

/thread

[BrothaBear]

Nope. the dogs are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, the tank is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, the trappers? Super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. lol

[Cacomistle]

Yes. When it jumps, shove and dodge to the side.

Both will work (though dodge is a bit inconsistent cause sometimes they just run into your face then jump from point blank, and sometimes you get screwed by ping), so if you do both you'll likely get the timing on one correct. Push in particular is quite consistent.

You can actually do it off the sound alone, but unlike the trapper you have to react nearly instantly because it does not give much reaction time (and like I said dodge isn't super consistent especially when you're not doing it directly sideways so its pretty hard if you don't know where its jumping from).

[Sifer2]

It can be dodged. But as with all the enemies you dodge including trapper/mutant latency seems to be a factor. Sometimes it looks like you should have dodged them but you still get caught. With hound your often better trying to shoot it with something that will stagger it.

[Toblm]

Any of the above or shoot it dead before it gets to you.

[Oro]

Consistently, no, unless you have a way to kill it before it can pounce you (like pre-charging a brain burst or something with sufficient stagger to bonk it with). Inconsistently, it can be evaded, if you have sufficient mobility and the server/netcode plays nice with your sense of timing.

[Alex]

I managed to push one off an edge, trust me it wasn't skill, I just panicked and happened to push as I side stepped it.

[Nauya]

There's a handful of ways to deal with Hounds with no help from others.

Their grapple is much faster than Muties and Trappers, with Muties being somewhere in the middle and Trappers being the easiest to dodge.

The first and most obvious way is to side dodge them while looking at them, this is the hardest method because due to the Hound's pounce speed, it's highly subjected to latency, of which the game currently has a lot of due to non supported network types and whatnot.

There's two methods that rely on timing if you're skill at timing things is top notch. You can either crouch right before it hits you and it'll jump over your head or melee push it in the air, similar to bashing a Hunter in L4D when it pounces you.

These are the only three methods that have no class or weapon requirements.

Now for the other methods.

If you have any weapon that can cause staggering (Lightning Staff, Flamer Staff, Flamethrower, Explosives) you can simply just hit the Hound with it before it pounces and it's AI will reset and try to run away to setup another pounce.

If your Class is Veteran or Zealot, you can preemptively use the right click Grenade Lob at your own feet (There's no self damage in this game) before it pounces you and Vet Grenades will straight up kill the Hound the second it hits you and Zealot Grenades will stagger it off of you letting you finish it off.

If your Class is Ogryn when you see a hound coming for you, IMMEDIATELY charge at it. You'll push through and stagger it then in the moment you make contact with the hound, cancel your charge and finish it off.

If your Class is Psyker and the area around you is clear, swap to Brain Burst and use the right click to preemptively charge it up and when at full charge, the moment the Hound comes into your crosshair, left click while still holding right click and you'll Brain Burst it instantly, killing it right away.

[Hex]

You can deal with any enemy alone.

[JustSmile]

Dodging melee is not possible while you're holding a ranged weapon, you'll still get hit even if you time it right and doggo pounce is a melee attack. It was mentioned in the basic tutorial.

[Hex]

Originally posted by JustSmile:

Dodging melee is not possible while you're holding a ranged weapon, you'll still get hit even if you time it right and doggo pounce is a melee attack. It was mentioned in the basic tutorial.

Most ranged weapons stagger and stop it's charge if you hit it in the head.

[Ninefinger]

What I do is bind my crouch and my poke with my axe to mouse thumb button so I can dodge and crouch poke, you can crouch slide to extend your dodge and poke at the same time.

Poking the dog mid air while dodging and crouching pretty much guarantees I take care of the hound, the times he gets me is when I dont even hear him till he is pouncing.

Also swinging wildly into the horde of enemies seems to tag him mid pounce a lot too, i find i get pounced more when I know he is coming and waiting to time just a normal dodge and attack rather than when I am dealing with a horde.

[Hi, I'm Ari.]

Dodge it or push it before it lands on you.

[Mini]

If you hit the hound it has a high chance to stagger. It's kind of similar to dealing with Mutie's IMO, try to dodge side to side and hit them as they pass you. With templar I use the thunderhammer to destroy them, and as Psyker I use the force sword.