Waterpipe: Empires and Puzzles Covenant Monster Hunter

Waterpipe is gonna rock in Empires and Puzzles. Just when I thought the Covenant Portal was lost forever, it pops up like Whac-a-mole, challenging me to tap the screen protector right off my new pristine iPhone!

And yes, I got straight to it; spinning my 3 Free Pulls like a man possessed.

Did I pull the lovely, wonderful, fantastic Waterpipe?

NO! This ain’t no fairytale!

My face still hurts and it’s still swollen, ffs!

However, I did manage to pull a very decent Hero, who will be levelled [that makes two HotMs now so that 2023 Feind Synergy is in play].

Anyway, onto the star of the day; Water-PIPE! … Pipe… pipe

Waterpipe’s Stats and Special Skills (Empires and Puzzles)

Key Facts: Ice (Blue), Average, Fighter, Monster Plains Hunter Family

Special Skills (Harpoon Sentry): 1. Summons a Harpoon Sentry Minion for each ally with 12% HP and 20% attack inherited from the caster. 2. Each hit from the Minion reduces the Mana of the target by -5% and gives the target the following Status Ailments: • -30% Defense against Special Skills for 2 turns • Immune to new Status Effect Buffs for 2 turns.

Passives: 1. DAMAGE OVER TIME – When this character casts their Special Skill, they give a Hunter’s Mark to a random enemy. The target receives 150 damage over 3 turns. If they already have this effect, the duration is reset and the damage is increased by 150, up to a total of 1500 damage. 2. SPECIAL SKILL DAMAGE – The character has a 10% chance to drop direct damage from Special Skills to 1.

Family Bonus: 2/3/4/5 Heroes: +5/+10/+15%/20% attack.

Talent: Revive ~ +30% chance to revive with 1 HP after a fatal attack. The revive is applied at the end of the turn.

Is Waterpipe Worth Levelling? (Empires and Puzzles)

Yes. Waterpipe is an Offensive Master and a solid Defensive option. She’s a top-drawer, elite, superstar.

But man, more powerful Minions! and I don’t have a reliable Hero who can deal with them. 😭

All I have is Costumed Gormek, and no other decent Fire Heroes to Stack around him.

I’m telling you, One can not combat in the Top 100 with C. Gormek alone. And Elena and my dear pal, Reuben, are not exactly what you would call “Winners”. This ain’t 1992, fool! Put your Shell Suit away and sit your ass down!

But Waterpipe isn’t like the other powerful Minion Summoners we’ve seen, because she’s not here to Out-Live you. ~She’s not here to set up an impenetrable Defensive Wall of flesh.

She’s not even too similar to Lady of the Lake (LotL), coz she’s not here to heal you. She couldn’t give two Totts about the gap in your jawline where your big funky tooth used to sit. No!

She’s here to stop you. Simply, to Stop You.

You shall not fire. Nope. Never. No how. No way.

Waterpipe took the best of LotL and niched it all the way down.

All that said, in my estimations, she’ll still need a little synergy to really flourish, and of course, we can’t ignore her one glaring weakness…

Waterpipe Vs. Lady Of The Lake (Empires and Puzzles)

Alright, the awesome Lady of the Lake is the obvious comparison, so here they are side-by-side:

As mentioned above, Waterpipe don’t heal. It’s not that deep for her.

In fact, besides the Mana reduction, these 2 serve completely different functions and I don’t see any competition between them at all.

If anything, with their separate Elements and dual Mana Minions, they could make excellent Teammates.

Still, we have to compare the Mana reduction and the Minion weight, and when we do we see that Waterpipe loses out on both fronts. Particularly, concerning the Mana reduction.

But for the purpose these Minions actually serve (Stopping the opposition), that 5% is +4% higher than is required*.

The main difference is the grace period that LotL gives you after you stop somebody. -They have to recharge 10% Mana. Whereas, 5% isn’t that much at all, so Waterpipe’s Minions will have to be on guard and ready to slap again, asap.

*SIDENOTE: There is a negative here. And that’s the fact that some Heroes have Skills and Passives which concern a “small amount of Mana” gained at the end of each turn. This figure may be greater than the 5% cut caused by Waterpipe, so I imagine a hero like Devana would still fire off under such circumstances. (Please see my Devana review where I ref. her bounce back from the Vanaheim Realm death (5% Mana Cut)).

[In Beta, when I first tested Waterpipe, her Minions cut for 7% Mana, if memory and records serve me.]

Waterpipe Minion Synergy

Waterpipe’s potential really excites me.

She specialises in Mana Control and to achieve that she produces 5 Minions. -2 more than Lady of the Lake.

And anyone with LotL knows that often, 3 is more than enough. 5 is outlandish.

But at 12% HP, they’re gonna be a little frail. However, a simple solution is to play a beefier Summoner alongside.

Here we have Bera alongside LotL:

If Bera fires off first (and at Fast, there’s a good chance she will), her heavier Minions will take damage before LotL’s [Waterpipe’s].

Bera’s Minions are worth 20%, resulting in Minions worth 355 HP, versus Lady of the Lake’s own Minions which are worth 213 HP here:

All of a sudden, you’ve got some breathing space and time with which to work.

For the record, there’s a huge number of strong Minion Summoners to pair her with, including:

• Arco (30% Minion HP)
• Hulda (31% Minion HP)
• Bera (20% Minion HP)
• Freya (20% Minion HP)
• Set (40% Minion HP)
• Miriam & Midnight (30% Minion HP)
• Frosth (13% Minion HP + 30% Boost)

In Beta, it was my experience that once Waterpipe fired off, I had good control of the opposition (in Raids).

And there was a similar effect when facing her on Defense.

Other Waterpipe Synergies…

Bera will be spoken about a lot when it comes to Heroes like Waterpipe, but let’s not forget Heroes who protect and Cleanse.

C. Francine, for example, will cast a rolling Cleanse that will clear the Status Ailment which prevents Minion Summoning.

And of course, a simple straightforward Cleanse will do the job immediately.

Waterpipe’s Strengths and Weaknesses – Empires and Puzzles

Waterpipe has one very clear and staggering weakness; all her power is predicated on her Minion production. But there’s more. Let’s go through them:

• Bera, or a similar type of badass, makes all these words moot
• At 12%, there’s a reasonable chance of clearing them over a couple of turns, with a little luck!
• She’s weaker on Defense. -Still a complete pest, but there’s more to derive from controlling and properly layering a supporting Minion than there is from simply letting them roam free
• The Minions attack randomly, so 5 Minions firing off may not result in all 5 opposing Heroes being hit
• And finally, it’s worth noting that the reduced Defense concerns Special Skills and not tile damage. Meaning, in Raids you won’t just run through the opposition with tile damage

But there’s so much to utilize with Waterpipe:

• She’s Average. Providing a true superpower at the quickest speed we’ve seen in a Legendary Hero (unless I’m missing someone?)
• Not only does the target lose Mana but they also become Immune to Status Buffs for 2 turns (just like C. Kvasir who I was touting yesterday)
• Her Minions lower Defense against Special Skills, teeing the target up for a massive slap
• Her Passives are solid and could frustrate the opposition
• She’s a Fighter Class, meaning she could revive and then change the game. And even though she’s not a direct Healer, her Minions offer a pseudo-healing to help keep folk alive for longer

Waterpipe (Covenant – Monster Plains Hunter)

My final thoughts:

Waterpipe isn’t a Miriam & Midnight for me, in that she won’t dominate in the same way. But should her Minions end up sitting behind M&M’s 🤣

If you’re facing Waterpipe and her Minions get protection and start slapping your Heroes, and you have no way of wholesale dealing with them… I don’t know what to say.

I was really fond of Waterpipe in Beta; she was decidedly stifling.

Lady of the Lake isn’t so highly regarded because she simply heals. We can get that from an Average speed Hero.

It’s all about those Minions. And Waterpipe gives me more and at an Average Speed.

I feel like I could give 2 grades here. One for those who have an internationally recognised, industry-tested, patent-protected, Minion Controller, and one for the rest of us.

But even then, with a solid team built around her (and I do think she needs that), she could still prove a problem for some of them.

In my opinion, Waterpipe sits somewhere in between a Deity: Tier-1 and a Tier-2. But I have to grade her as a Tier-2 so it’s absolutely clear to those without a solid solution; if you can’t stop her, she will stop you.

Alright, someone get me a Lucozade and an ice pack.

Thanks for reading! ~What do you make of Waterpipe?

Hero Grade for Waterpipe (Empires and Puzzles)

So for my grading, the question is:

Is this hero’s Special capable of/likely to change the outcome of a battle? Yes.

If not, do they still bring enough to the party to help defeat the deities? N/a.

Old Cynic’s Hero Grade: Deity ⭐⭐★

[Please always check in-game Hero Cards to confirm details and never chase Heroes]

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