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How to get the most from hound?

Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
edited June 2018 in General Discussion
As the title says. I’m looking to change my raid team to include IH and MV1 prime and I’m looking at synergy options for the 3rd spot. It’s between hound and ratchet, who I’d like to save for AM.

I’m stuck on the fence for hound, as I haven’t used him much, so looking for tips from the hound is good crowd on how to get the most from him. Mine is duped, once.

How do I get the most damage from him, as his melee is quite weak, and exactly what play style should I use with him, constant ranged?

Currently all are r2, and I’m hesitant to invest further in hound until I’m sure he’s worth it. Or should I look elsewhere for the 3rd spot on the raid team?

Comments

  • KillMasterCKillMasterC Posts: 3,105
    1. Continue saying how weak he is and waiting for a buff.
    2. Forge him and get 5* shards.

    Take your pick.
  • Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
    Is he really that bad to use? I could run a beast team as an alternative but just fancied an alternative that worked around synergy. Got plenty other options I could do instead of hound and open to ideas for the 3rd spot
  • DaveJLDaveJL Posts: 1,779
    Ok so Hound has one overlooked nuance that Mason from SPARK found, so credit to him. End every combo with a light attack, as it actually counts as a ranged attack so with inferno ammo, you get a chance to proc burn, or with precision it gives increased crit chance.

    If you can start each combo with 2 ranged attacks and end with a light, you have a decent chance to burn. His crit damage starts to ramp up then. Best to use SP1 with inferno ammo, sp2 with precision ammo. Ideally, save for sp3 and use that - the crit resist debuff lasts a lot longer.

    Which brings me to that mechanic. You could try ending every combo with a heavy to begin with until that debuff procs, then try the 2 ranged plus a light attack combo ender for extra chance to proc burn. It's up to you whether you switch to precision to try and get the increased crit chance (and thus, damage) but personally I wouldn't. Stick with inferno ammo.

    Hound plays more like a demo bot - he is the Mixmaster of the warrior class I think. Individually he is weak and has a very awkward play style, but in the right team he provides some amazing synergy that can totally transform (punz lol) his play style, power and the bots you pair him with. Mix does exactly the same thing and is often overlooked too. (they have good synergy with each other as it happens)
  • Faithz17Faithz17 Posts: 842
    You don’t need a third bot. IH and MV are all you need for raids. :) bring whoever you like for the third bot, you won’t really use them anyway. I sometimes bring Mirage, Bludgeon, Jazz, OG OP, Grimlock, Drift depending on whoever’s not on base or AM.
  • Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
    @DaveJL I never knew about hounds light combo ranged trick, so even if I don’t take hound I’m glad I asked. @Faithz17 IH and MV1 were always going to be the main part, but having synergy with both meant hound seems a viable option for the 3rd. I’m using a similar setup just now with shock and g1 megs, with galvatron as my 3rd and sort of fodder clearing bot, similar to what I would do with hound, giving synergy being the key decision maker. If 4* tact bee was a thing I’d consider that, or hot rod but mine isn’t duped so kinda put off. Windblade I could do, and already have at r4. Hound repairing prime is what drew me to him though.

    Anyway, is he worth taking to r4 just to be the backup? As previously mentioned, I have others I can replace with
  • DaveJLDaveJL Posts: 1,779
    If you have an abundance of t2a then he is worth r4 - if not, r3 is fine. I've just taken mine up to r4/1 for now, as I'm working on a new 3 man team similar to yours with MV1, but with Drift or Mix instead of IH. Eventually I'll be taking him to r5 because I've got a ton of t3c and he'a up to sig 17. He's a lot better than he gets credit for because people haven't taken the time to try the synergies and test him in different game modes or different play styles - too many people just can't adapt so they need the very basic and standard hitters, who hit hard but don't require any extra skill other than dodging and attacking.
  • Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
    Niche play style is fine with me, as long as it’s effective. Not exactly swimming in t2a but I get enough to maintain a decent flow of bots to upgrade, and have enough sparks to take him to r4 now if I had enough ore (ratchet is current project). I’ll give this team a run out against lower end raids and see how it performs, id rather this was my raid setup as dinobot is the one I’m waiting for to make a beastsword team for spotlight heather than beast raid team.

    Hound definitely has potential, just want to unlock it.
  • DaveJLDaveJL Posts: 1,779
    He still needs a slight buff, don't get me wrong. He could do with crit rate debuff activating more reliably, activating for longer or having another way of activating it. Either of those would make him viable IMO. It's the exact same problem that Mixmaster has
  • Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
    edited June 2018
    I’ll admit, got a soft spot for mix. He’s a challenge to get it right but devastating when it is. Sadly mine isn’t duped but his sp2/3 with the debuffs is lethal enough for me

    The rank and wait tactic hasn’t worked for me so far, my 1st 4* and 1st r4 (grimlock) is still waiting on that dupe. Had a few I’d rather not dupe in place of grim but it is what it is I guess. Still like to bring him out for spotlight occasionally
  • DaveJLDaveJL Posts: 1,779
    Grimlock is ok, but Primal and MV1 are better (GL is my only r5 brawler too). He's worth buying an awakening deal for, but if you have Primal then he is probably the better choice now.

    I ranked and waited for GL, ended up buying the awakening deal to justify it. Haven't done a rank and wait since for that reason
  • SparkShredderSparkShredder Posts: 1,300
    My simple answer EVERY BOT is awesome and best in their own right..It just need a little 'used to'..
    No one can make you good with a bot... They can just give you tips based on their experiences.... To master a bot you have to use that tips to create own experience.... Every players is good with same bots but with different play style.
    I got my first t3C a demo... So I was 'forced' to rank Wasp, though I am difficult with him against high PI bots but good with him to 'quick finish' fights.. So I'm taking him to every low level, high level Mission to practice him to change my style a little to efficiently use him against Master Megatron..
  • Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
    I agree that every bot is good IN THEIR OWN WAY, although naturally some are just better than others. Tip for wasp vs Megatron: land 2 ranged, hit a quick combo out, and spam sp1. Does remarkably consistent damage as the sp1 should start same time as the debuff. My issue was that I was struggling to see much reason to run hound aside from synergy, and was in need of advice on how to get the absolute most from him. I can win by generically doing what any other bot does, but if he’s taking up a spot on a small team I needed him to be worth it, which I wasn’t sure about
  • SparkShredderSparkShredder Posts: 1,300
    Sometimes you mess up trying to get best from abilities of bot.. Just use them simply and use abilities when needed like ShockWave energy charge
  • Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
    Totally agree, my best is a toss up between shockers and megs, and never use one without the other regardless of the rest of the team. Both individually and maybe synergy wise they’re my best combo.

    All that would change with either a dinobot or a dupe for grimlock though. Had a run of getting g1 cons for a while and kinda fancy doing some autobot synergies for now
  • NightgauntNightgaunt Posts: 178
    edited June 2018
    https://forums.transformersforgedtofight.com/discussion/4207/in-defence-of-hound - This was a post that I made during the initial furore about Hound being underpowered. There's lots of info in the post and the comments that you may find useful.

    Having made Hound my main warrior bot, I've had chance to build up some experience with him over the last few months. In terms of a few quick pointers, I'd say first and foremost, fight smart. He's not a brute force bot, and he depends on intelligent use of his abilities to get the most out of him.
    Use his heavy liberally for the guaranteed armour buff, and make the most of the crit resist debuff when it pops up. Use inferno ammo where you can for the burn stacks (these get pretty nasty at rank 4) - if you get a few stacks on a bot, switch to precision ammo if you can and hammer them, as the burn stacks increase crit damage. Stack this with the crit resist debuff from the heavy for maximum effectiveness.
    If you're fighting evasive bots like most of the scouts, tact bumblebee, hot rod, etc, I generally recommend not bothering with inferno ammo and switching straight to precision instead. You may lose a little damage potential but you counter their evades, and often their AI is built around using those evades, so Hound can take advantage of this.
    Speaking of utility with precision ammo, it can also be used to counter Mirage and Windblade's heavies, which normally make ranged attacks miss. Very importantly for a raid team, this also works with the EMI module, negating any misses that it would normally cause (thought I'm not sure that it does anything to any effects on ranged speed)
    Since you have him duped, you're gonna want to grab that ranged attack buff where you can. If you're not finding this easy to do already, just give it a little practice and you'll pretty much be able to activate the buff on demand. Practicing this also gets you into a good rhythm for comfortably firing off counter shots that will land pretty reliably. If you haven't already, get used to firing one or two shots at a time and moving - firing three shots triggers a slightly different animation and sticks you in place for a moment, allowing the enemy to counter. Be careful though, I've personally found that when I'm focusing on ranged combat I concentrate less on their power bar, and many times I've been whacked with a special attack that I didn't see coming because I was too focused on firing and moving.
    Last thing, regarding his SP2. Remember that you can trigger it when landing ranged attacks as there's no need to close range for it to work. Also, a nice way to reliably deal a big chunk of damage is to fire off an SP2 and back them into a corner with it, then just as they begin to get up, throw a heavy attack at them and it almost always hits.

    Hope at least some of that stuff helps, and I'm happy to expand on anything that isn't clear - I've just spitballed ideas as they've come to me while it's quiet in work, so it might be written in a slightly chaotic way, haha. The main thing is, Hound is a great bot if you can adapt to his play style, which admittedly is very specific. He may not be the go-to warrior bot for endgame content like the Warriors of Cybertron missions or highest level AMs, but he certainly has his place in the game. He has great synergies, and although I agree with others that a buff could make him more accessible to people, I still think he's something of a hidden gem if you're willing to put the time in.
  • Mr_WonderfulMr_Wonderful Posts: 760
    Thanks mate, I had a look over the other thread too. Think I’m going to take him to r4, he seems like a good option. Played around with him a bit while clearing expert and gunning for sp3 is working quite well, and having actually paid attention to his abilities today, noticed his sp1 on precision gives a Crit debuff on the opponent as well, switching to inferno after worked well.

    Yeah he’s niche, but I’m liking him. Seems like he could be good in the long run, and can’t ignore that repair for prime
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