Hound is cool!

[Haych]

We were really lacking a robot dog...especially considering robot dogs might be one of the more practical applications for a legged robot.

[Kwistnix]

Now we need a cat counterpart that curls up in the nearest corner and does absolutely nothing productive all match long.

[Arti_Sel]

Hard to say what the purpose of the firebadger will be after hound drops.

[Mivo]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Hard to say what the purpose of the firebadger will be after hound drops.

Fire Bagder is much tankier. But I was surprised that they added the fire bomb tech to the Hound. I'm not certain it needed an ability like this.

[Kwistnix]

Agreed on the Fire tech. I think that might make it just a little too good at its chaff clearing job. I might be wrong on this, but it seems to me like all it would do is hard-force the opponent to go into Hounds as well. I don't think Barrier is a great defense, because you typically want chaff to run clear of that and you don't want that chaff to instantly melt to fire. Seems like AM tech is woefully ineffective at intercepting the Fire Bombs coming from Hounds.
Maybe now that fire suppression has been implemented as a mechanic, we could see a static defense against fire, akin to the AM turret?

[Dominic]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Hard to say what the purpose of the firebadger will be after hound drops.

yeah i gotta say firebadgers already seem pretty bad to field most of the time and when hound is added we'll have yet another option for chaff clear with more range then badger

[Bug Guy]

Yeah what I was expecting from the Hound was a 4+ sized unit of low damage tanky light bots to help fill out the 100 cost Units and provide some utility with the acid/fire clear. I didnt think it would be a chaff clearing, Fortress tanking beast. I guess when comparing it to Fire badger, Fire badger's fire cant be intercepted at all, while the Hounds can (though as a light unit, it seems easy enough to spam them past what the opponent can counter with stangs). But I am also not that good so I dont know! I am just excited to get another light unit!

[glythe]

The hound sprinkler system seemed underwhelming. Why do the sprinklers not constantly activate and create pools of water that will "block" fire?

Originally posted by Mivo:

I was surprised that they added the fire bomb tech to the Hound. I'm not certain it needed an ability like this.

I was completely shocked to see the hound was going to be another source of firebombs. Why? Isn't it supposed to be a unit centered around cleaning up messes instead of starting them?

[Polar Test 53]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Hard to say what the purpose of the firebadger will be after hound drops.

depending on how the hound fire suppression system works it could be a way to keep a wall of fire up with range & napalm. i havent watched the video im just gonna leave it be mostly a surprise

but its a tech i would really like to see on a few more units tho when the hound comes out. or even as a placable structure.
basically dont want it to start in the same situation MI was like back in the day being only on stangs until the MI tower was made and added on to new units after.
hopefully the devs had the foresight to see the similarity's of the situation and bring the tech to some of the older units.
typhoon maybe? fangs? or even something odd like an air unit.
fire suppression would be straight up the farseers alley as a support unit.

[Haych]

I think the fire is totally a suicide tactic. Your unit may walk into its own fire.

When these are out played by an enemy unit blocking chaff, this may be the only way you can effectively engage the anti chaff portion of this unit into it's design.

Probably high risk gambit.

[Arti_Sel]

Originally posted by Mivo:

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Hard to say what the purpose of the firebadger will be after hound drops.

Fire Bagder is much tankier. But I was surprised that they added the fire bomb tech to the Hound. I'm not certain it needed an ability like this.

It is, but it's also less range, less utility, fewer models, a rare unit and it costs more. Maybe it's also slightly higher dps, but that's just a guess, no one buys badgers for it's anti-medium anti-giant capabilities.

Originally posted by Dominic:

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Hard to say what the purpose of the firebadger will be after hound drops.

yeah i gotta say firebadgers already seem pretty bad to field most of the time and when hound is added we'll have yet another option for chaff clear with more range then badger

Yeah this is the reality of it. And I like the badger, but realistically there is almost always a better choice already.

Originally posted by Polar Test 53:

but its a tech i would really like to see on a few more units tho when the hound comes out. or even as a placable structure.
basically dont want it to start in the same situation MI was like back in the day being only on stangs until the MI tower was made and added on to new units after.
hopefully the devs had the foresight to see the similarity's of the situation and bring the tech to some of the older units.
typhoon maybe? fangs? or even something odd like an air unit.
fire suppression would be straight up the farseers alley as a support unit.

Would be neat if at least one more unit had the tech at release. It would probably look good on the wraith.

[Dominic]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Originally posted by Dominic:

yeah i gotta say firebadgers already seem pretty bad to field most of the time and when hound is added we'll have yet another option for chaff clear with more range then badger

Yeah this is the reality of it. And I like the badger, but realistically there is almost always a better choice already.

im not sure how you would even go about fixing them tbh. one thought that came to mind is up the cost to 300 and increase size, hp (about same hp and size as saber), increase dps and decrease unit count to 2 but at that point its just budget vulcans and id rather go vulcan in that case.

no rework i can think of keeps the identity of a flamethrower tank while making it a viable option to use outside of throwaway flanks or niche crawler games.

scratch that, do away with fire and make it an electric tank, have it naturally chain to 2 targets within 50m, keep the damage and maybe give a slight range buff of 10 or so. slap on a tech that increases the number of chains to 5 (total) or something. Could be interesting and mildly more useful if it gets stuck on anything other then chaff which it often does. At the very least it would feel unique.

[Antpile]

Originally posted by Dominic:

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Hard to say what the purpose of the firebadger will be after hound drops.

yeah i gotta say firebadgers already seem pretty bad to field most of the time and when hound is added we'll have yet another option for chaff clear with more range then badger

Yeah, feels like fire badgers need a rework at some point. Even without hounds, they don't serve a lot of purpose. I see them mostly used from drops or fire badger spec to do a cheeky flank for a round or 2, then sell them off.

Rarely do I see them stick around to be a main part of someone's board.

[Arti_Sel]

Originally posted by Dominic:

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Yeah this is the reality of it. And I like the badger, but realistically there is almost always a better choice already.

im not sure how you would even go about fixing them tbh. one thought that came to mind is up the cost to 300 and increase size, hp (about same hp and size as saber), increase dps and decrease unit count to 2 but at that point its just budget vulcans and id rather go vulcan in that case.

no rework i can think of keeps the identity of a flamethrower tank while making it a viable option to use outside of throwaway flanks or niche crawler games.

At this point it's all speculation, we don't know how they will fit in the next patch but playing with the idea of a rework.

I'd like to see -30 range, +4 speed, +dmg (maybe like 30-40%) +health (maybe like 10-15%). And then give them one more defensive tech, shield gen would be nice on a 16 speed unit (utility unit for aggro), or mby the wreckage recycling rhino tech (they kinda become like steelballs but for chaff).

Originally posted by Antpile:

Originally posted by Dominic:

yeah i gotta say firebadgers already seem pretty bad to field most of the time and when hound is added we'll have yet another option for chaff clear with more range then badger

Rarely do I see them stick around to be a main part of someone's board.

Yeah, they are rarely a good choice. I like them in headbutts and steelball rushes though. They oftentimes scale extremely poorly into lategame.

[Polar Test 53]

Originally posted by Dominic:

no rework i can think of keeps the identity of a flamethrower tank while making it a viable option to use outside of throwaway flanks or niche crawler games.

scratch that, do away with fire and make it an electric tank, have it naturally chain to 2 targets within 50m, keep the damage and maybe give a slight range buff of 10 or so. slap on a tech that increases the number of chains to 5 (total) or something. Could be interesting and mildly more useful if it gets stuck on anything other then chaff which it often does. At the very least it would feel unique.

i think adding an extra tank and reducung the xp required for a lvl up would go a ways for them.
i find they are often just stuck at lvl one and by the time they hit lvl two everything else has levelled up already they may as well just stay lvl 1. which is not good for a unit of 3 that frontlines and tanks all the damage for a bit

they also have no cards that adjust them or boost them at all like fortified stangs or long range cards.

[Cryptic]

hound unit sounds useless honestly. just a slight variation to the crawler unit.