The Pipecleaner - Adapting to the new DOTA

June 25, 10:27 AMDetroit MMORPG ExaminerDaniel Tack

Previous Next

5 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Detroit MMORPG Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Hmmm.. Better call in the cleaner!

Version 6.60 brought with it a few new heroes and several new items – one with a potentially huge late-game impact known as Khadgar's Pipe of Insight. One puff on the pipe and your team can wade through armies of ground slamming Earthshakers, pulsing Leshracs, and all the AOE (Area of Effect) teamkilling abilities you can shake a stick at. What this item has done is actually changed the entire paradigm of your typical game of DOTA, allowing teams to safely navigate through some of the most powerful abilities in the game.

In the old days, if you were playing a team of say, Tree, Earthshaker, Crystal Maiden, and Tidewalker and you didn't have some serious AOE ultimates of your own, you were likely going to be pummeled into a gelatinous goo sometime around mid-game, assuming they pushed as a team. Now, with Khadgar's Pipe around to protect you from the mind-numbing assault of “Hey guise, lets all pick heroes with AOE abilities and round them up and kill them all! Get in the woods!”, it has brought with it a new class of hero – The Pipecleaner.

The Pipecleaner's task is a seemingly easy but challenging one – his duty is to stun or disable the opposing team member carrying the pipe before the actual team battle comes to a head, allowing your team let loose a torrent of chain frosts, roots, and blasts of lightning from the sky. Naturally a hero with stealth capabilities finds this task slightly easier, but you can achieve some degree of shadowy intrigue by grabbing a Lothar's Edge and using this to sneak around to kill the pesky pipe-carrier.

At best, the Pipecleaner will take out the opposing threat before he even has a chance to use his dangerous payload – at worst, you might be able to draw the opponent out into wasting his pipe trying to save himself instead of his team. So next time you're stuck in a game where you have all the AOE and no place to go – consider becoming the Pipecleaner.