Houndmaster (Butcher's Circus)

Combat Skills
(All buffs and debuffs last for 3 rounds unless otherwise specified.)

Using a Houndmaster
The Houndmaster has access to Hound's Harry, a powerful move which inflicts party-wide bleed and stress from any position. Downsides, however, include its poor accuracy, which can be mitigated through trinkets such as the Attack Whistle.

The ability Target Whistle is effective against targets with high protection. The bleed which Hound's Rush and Hound's Harry inflict is also helpful, bypassing a target's protection and dwindling down their health. Pick this ability if your team is focused around assassinating Marked enemies.

The move Guard Dog, when used in conjunction with the Padded Armguard, can raise dodge to absurd levels. Meanwhile, the resistances to stress and Debuffs hard counter stress compositions, which rely on both to gain the upper hand.

Fighting a Houndmaster
Since there are a number of useful skills available to the Houndmaster, how you deal with him depends on what the opponent has loaded up and where he's located. Houndmasters in position 3 or 4 are designed for support, usually with regeneration and guarding. Often their only attack skill is Hound's Harry. For these Houndmasters, pull them all the way forward, and you disable most of their skills and leave them only with Harry and Guard. If you're running a Stress composition and you see the Houndmaster has Cry Havoc, you can either focus him down as Cry Havoc can't affect the Houndmaster himself, or pull him out of the back to disable it.

Houndmasters found in position 2 will usually carry Blackjack with them. This lets them shut down your units with a good-ranged Stun, and can be disastrous if, say, a healer is disabled. For Houndmasters with these capabilities, knock them back to disable use of Blackjack. You will still have to contend with things like Hound Rush or Hound's Harry but you won't be stunned as much.

You may also consider bringing units with Riposte as insurance against Houndmasters. Many players use him for Hound's Harry which can hit and Stress out an entire team, but it also exposes him to Riposte triggers that severely punish this choice.