I know i previously mentioned my love of sniper mechs and their pilots, but in truth they are my second favourite type of Hounds.
Truthfully: it's tank mechs.
The big burly brawlers with sloped plating and shotguns, choking a hall.
The large pillowy friend with energy shields and repair kits.
The massive jet proppelled hunk with a slab shield and a minigun.
Because more often than not, this humble mechtech tends to find these are the most stable. If i were to use dog analogy:
Your average melee hound is a pit fighting dog. She's good at scrapping and killing, but has no regard for her safety and has learned to love the lash as much as praise. Very unstable, likely to break, but there's plenty to go around.
Your snipers and rifles specialists are hunting dogs and hunters mixed into one. They wait patiently and will assist the front line from afar, but aren't afraid to get up close when needed. Typically, much more stable because their goal ISN'T JUST to kill: they are the overwatch, the retriever, the infiltrator. They help their team and aren't bloodthirsty lunatics.
But tank mech pilots? Those are service dogs. You may assume I meant guard dogs, and no, you'd be wrong. A guard dog is just a pit fighter with better commands. No see, a tank? They exist to follow their orders: protect the team, get them to the next day.
They will put themselves in front of hell itself if it means protecting you. And while sure, this makes repairs a bitch because their mechs are often shot to bits, I have never seen a Hound with no casualties on their team return sad. Sure, they get mopey if they lost someone, but compare that to the stimmed out blenders who tantrum when they lost a kill and took it out on a normal pilot.
They may be rare, most Handlers prefer vicous beasts to wrangle and fuck because they're depraved perverts trying to prove something to their mentors, but Hounds that defend are a beauty. A bunch of golden retrievers with the desire to make their Handlers proud, by soaking as much damage as possible and protecting allies with shields.
Fun fact: if a Handler has a tank in their roster, they're likely a burnt out veteran Handler that's tired of life and treats people with kindness, and their Hounds like people. God I miss Handler Valentino, she was hot and called me good girl...
Fun fact two, tank Hounds are a bunch of bottoms. Remember what i said about the quiet ones? These ones are very loud, and very vanilla.
