I am playing hard core this season because my son will play (he does not have the time or inclination to grind on the other servers) I understand that the people who have played other seasons and have the rewards are looking for new challenges and they should have them, reaper 2 and above could have hounds) and a reward that shows they are bad derriered. But making it harder to get the initial rewards for new players to hardcore (especially with random, bugged out hounds) is not a good idea. We will be waiting a week to see if the hound bug is at least fixed, if we still can't play 3 VIP subscriptions will end.