Suggested skills for bloodhound

[Maikerus]

Hi. Due to the fact that game allows player to choose just one skill per certain level, I'd like to ask You to share your opinions/preferences about this aspect - what skill is usefu and worth to pick and what is garbage.

[MorbusGon]

Howl is just a "fun" trait and has no usefulness. My dog got all traits of the 2nd row, imo to ones which save the most time for you while you are on the road.

[Kaned Dragon]

On this point, there does seem to be a pattern of one skill being useful and the other being for show.

[MorbusGon]

Originally posted by Kaned Dragon:

On this point, there does seem to be a pattern of one skill being useful and the other being for show.

For me, definitely yes. I don't need more bond or more focus or one of the other 1st row traits. I like to be as efficient as possible which is the case if my dog is faster with her tasks.

[Frank Bullitt]

Originally posted by MorbusGon:

Originally posted by Kaned Dragon:

On this point, there does seem to be a pattern of one skill being useful and the other being for show.

For me, definitely yes. I don't need more bond or more focus or one of the other 1st row traits. I like to be as efficient as possible which is the case if my dog is faster with her tasks.

Isn’t your dog more efficient and faster with more Bond and Focus ?

[Shizanketsuga]

Yeah, kinda sorta.

Focus is basicall your dog's "battery" which is used mainly for tracking animals. High focus means the dog performs its tasks faster and more efficient. Especially with turkeys and geese being able to cover quite a distance before bleeding out from a flesh wound the associated skill (Sharp) can be useful at times. I prefer it over Spotted since for my playstyle that skill would be situational to the point of uselessness.

Bond determines how quickly that "battery" recharges. I've never had issues with that part since I regularly praise the dog and pet and play with it when it has used a lot of focus. Maybe there is a niche usecase if you grind deer herds and use your dog to track each and every one of them, but Shortcut seems much more useful even in that scenario.

Also, since it was mentioned earlier, Howl is not just a "fun" skill (just almost). It has an effect similar to Praise and it resets the dog to idle which helps preserve focus and enables 6th sense and poop-dar.

[MorbusGon]

It depends on how often you actively use your dog over the course of a session. For me it's only special cases that I use my dog's nose for (e.g. finding a wounded animal after a bad shot, running in circle in a herd and where the differently colored tracks overlap, etc.)

After she has reached the level cap, I only bring her out for these special cases with the tent I brought with me.

So for my playstyle, the second row is the "best".

Of course, if you use the dog continuously because you have deactivated the colored tracks, for example, then it can make sense to use the "Sharp" trait.

At the end of the day, everyone has to figure out what skills/traits/feats complement their playstyle.