What skills should these characters have?

[MisterFish]

What skills should bounty hunter, houndmaster have?

[Giga]

Depends on how you plan on using them.

[MisterFish]

Originally posted by Giga:

Depends on how you plan on using them.

i mean what skills are good for what? i'm just not sure how i should use those characters.

[wingdings]

Bounty Hunter: Collect Bounty and Mark for Death are the two skills you want to have in pretty much every BH party. They're the two essential parts of his kit. For the other two slots, use either Flashbang or Uppercut (they're both equally powerful stuns, but have different shuffle patterns) and Come Hither or Finish Him, depending on personal preference. Come Hither is a pull that is great for displacing the backline, and Finish Him is like Collect Bounty except it targets one rank further and gets a damage boost against stunned enemies rather than marked enemies.

Houndmaster: You should ALWAYS have Hound's Rush, Target Whistle, and Guard Dog (a Guard move that can be a lifesaver). The final slot depends on placement and personal preference. If he's in the back two ranks, use Lick Wounds (self heal). If he's in the front two, use Blackjack (stun).

[Regi]

Originally posted by MisterFish:

Originally posted by Giga:

Depends on how you plan on using them.

i mean what skills are good for what? i'm just not sure how i should use those characters.

Houndmaster :
Must :
1. houds rush is the bread and butter of the houndmaster
2.target whistle applies mark but more importantly it grants a debuff removing 30% prot , thats huge when you dont have a shieldbreaker to get rid of armored opponents
Optional :
1. Cry havoc helps a wee bit when you dont have a stress healer
2. Black jack if you really need a stun in a fight
3. Self heal is always nice especially if you dont have a healer ( unlikely but still )
4. Hounds harry is a pretty weak aoe attack but it does continue stacking bleed on all 4 enemies so its okay against formless flesh i guess

[Chezz]

Bounty Hunter is DPS, utility char. His axe skills are a given, they kinda overlap with each other but since you have one which can hit rank3, and the other with the bonus against human and marked, I feel it's always worth it to carry both. Then it's a matter of preference. He has powerful stuns so better to carry one... if you are using him as frontliner use Uppercut, if he is rank2-3 use Flashbang. Come Hitter don't like it since his stun abilities already move enemy party so you can work around it. Last skill comes between Mark or Calltrops. I find Mark is better for the obvious sinergy with other skills and other characters, also PROT reduction. Calltrops isn't horrible but it targets backliners with a big debuff and you want them dead quick anyway, so you probably have better options in the party.

Houndmaster basically depends if you want to play him rank3-4 or rank 2, as depending on where it's gonna be you gonna use his Stun or not (not usable on rank3-4). His primary attack is a no-brainer, one of few chars who can hit all enemy ranks. Hound Harry is meh, his stress heal is formidable. The other skills are mostly situational; Mark, Guard or Self Heal heavily depend on enemies you expect to fight or party sinergy, so it all boils down to whom you are pairing him with and where you are sending him.

[MisterFish]

thanks for the advice!

[LaserGuy]

For me, BH is usually Collect Bounty, FlashBang/Uppercut (depending on position), Come Hither, and Finish Him.

Reasoning:
Collect Bounty is standard attack with nice bonuses against common targets/marks.
Finish him is standard attack with nice bonuses vs. stunned enemies and can hit one position farther back.
Uppercut/Flashbang are useful stuns.
Come Hither is situation specific, but against some enemies, is stronger than a stun. Very useful in Cove/Ruins especially. Putting certain enemies out of position makes them completely useless and unable to fight properly. Very powerful.

Skills to never take:
Mark for Death: Bounty Hunter has the highest damage of any of the marking characters, and is slower than most of the others (HM, Occ in particular). He should never be marking enemies. It is always more productive for him to be attacking/stunning. You should never, ever take or use this skill.


If your HM is in Rank 2 (as he should be), then you should take Hound Rush, Blackjack, Target Whistle, and one of Lick Wounds/Guard Dog.

Reasoning:
Hound Rush is standard attack.
Blackjack is one of the strongest stuns in the game.
Target whistle is the strongest marking skill in the game. If you have no other marking characters, swap this one out.
Last one is defensive skill and is more situational.


For general strategy, both of these characters work well in a marking party. A traditional team is something like Arb/Occ/HM/BH. This is a very strong team. The HM/BH/Arb all get bonus damage against marked targets. The Occultist is a healer/debuffer, is very fast, and can mark enemies. So against a boss, say, you can mark with Occultist, then hit for double damage with BH, triple damage with HM (dog treat) and double damage on Arb. You can kill some weaker bosses (necromancer, collector) in one or two rounds. For more routine fights, you can have the Occ/Arb do a mark/kill combo on a backline target, while the other two stun, for example.