Orcs Must Die! Unchained – FAQ/Walkthrough

Heroes

Dobbin

Overview

My Personal Rating: 7/10

Dobbin is probably the best "offensive" support Hero currently in the game. His abilities revolve around stat reductions and utility, rather than direct damage or crowd control. He is also kind of a different version of Max; Max reduces trap cost, which allows him to place traps faster than other Heroes to support his damage. Dobbin instead gains more Coin, but this effectively allows him to do the same thing Max does, which is put traps down faster.

Abilities:

Dust Devil (L2) - Dobbin creates a stationary dust storm that will slow minions that cross it, as well as reduce their physical armor. Enemies that die in the cloud have a 20% chance to drop a Coin Bag. Note: This ability is either bugged, or it was patched without the description being updated. The Coin Bags can actually spawn upon hitting a minion while they are in the Dust Devil, in addition to being killed while in it.

• Mana cost: 40
• Cooldown: 14 seconds
• Duration: 8 seconds

Mineshaft Shortcut (Triangle, Hold) - Dobbin creates a mineshaft at the position he is standing in. In order to use this ability correctly, 2 shafts need to be created; once 2 have been placed, any Hero can use them to travel between them. You may wonder how they can be destroyed; I personally have never seen it happen in all the times that I've played as Dobbin, but I believe they can be destroyed by explosive damage (such as damage from Orc TNT Archers).

• Mana cost: 80
• Cooldown: 5 seconds. If Destroyed - 90 seconds.
• Duration: Forever (unless destroyed)

Spare Dynamite (Square) - Dobbin throws a stick of dynamite, which will explode in a radius once it lands. Enemies hit by the dynamite have a 25% chance to drop a Coin Bag.

• Mana cost: 30
• Cooldown: 5 seconds

Passive: Short Stack - Large minions will always ignore Dobbin. This does not affect Mercenaries, but does affect bosses.

Pros

I would say Dobbin's biggest factor is the fact that he's the one that makes getting the Empty Pockets trophy somewhat manageable. He does this by generating more Coin than any other Hero; the Coin Bags that drop while you use his abilities are worth 200 Coin a piece.

As I stated above, this in turn becomes similar to Max, because the increased Coin generation equates to putting down traps faster. This can be particularly helpful for certain maps that don't generate much coin (Confluence is an example), which can really help clearing waves initially.

The Coin Bags that are unique to Dobbin are not only helpful to solo players, but they're also helpful in co-op. What you may not realize, is that unlike all the other Hero-specific drops (such as Bloodspike's Delicious Meals), other players can not only see them, but pick them up as well. This is a little bit of a double-edged sword, but I would say it's a benefit overall, because sometimes it's hard to be quick enough to pick them all up on your own. I'd much more prefer someone else to pick up some and help their own Coin generation, which (ideally) will help the entire team.

Dust Devil is probably one of the best utility abilities in the game, because it's simple to use, has a decent duration, and does two different status effects: a Slow, and physical Armor reduction. Again, realize that the Armor reduction not only helps you, but any co-op players as well.

Mineshaft Shortcut can also make a marked difference in your performance on some maps (particularly something like Crogon Keep) as it functions better than a Teleportation Ring. Unlike the Teleportation Ring, you can pick the two spots you want to traverse between, which can make it very useful for traversing larger maps.

Dobbin's Passive can be really useful, as being able to wail on minions without them bothering you is obvious boon to your own survivability. However, it does have it's own weird set of issues that need to be considered, which I'll address in the next section.

Cons

Dobbin actually doesn't have a lot of problems. He does have one major drawback though, but it's understandable - Dobbin does not deal a lot of damage.

This obviously makes sense, because he should parallel Max's damage output (since they're supposed to be better supported by traps). However, I would argue he's slightly below Max's damage, because he doesn't get any really hard hitting attack like In Your Faces.

The main problem in my opinion, is that Spare Dynamite is pretty lackluster. It has a decent cooldown, the radius is pretty good, but it really doesn't do that much more damage than his Primary. This means that Dobbin's damage is extremely consistent (while being somewhat low), which is more tailored for groups of weaker enemies, rather than stronger ones.

His Passive is worthy to point out. Although one initially may think having large minions ignore you is a good thing, realize it can be somewhat problematic too. The reason being that sometimes you want enemies to attack you, because that diverts their attention away from the Rift. Large minions are generally the biggest threat to the Rift, due to their larger HP pools. Sometimes you do want to grab their attention so you can take the extra time needed to kill them.

Combine that with the fact that Dobbin doesn't really do great damage against stronger minions, this can be a problem. Generally speaking, I don't think it's overall glaring issue that devastates Dobbin, but it's more confusing in terms of a design choice.

I will also point out something else Dobbin has that normally is a positive thing - Dobbin has a gigantic HP pool; he actually rivals Bionka's HP. What's the point of such a large HP pool when the majority of the damage dealers are ignoring you? I mean yeah, it's still helpful, but it just seems completely unnecessary, and again, an odd design choice.

Upgrades

Upgrades I use:

• Rich Vein or Iron Shovel (Level 2)
• Devilish Digger or Strike It Rich (Level 4)
• Gold Rush (Level 7)
• Kick'Em In The Knees (Level 10)

Upgrades Analysis:

• Level 2:
  
  • Stockpile: Reducing the Mana cost of Spare Dynamite isn't really all that useful. Dobbin doesn't have much Mana issues, because Dust Devil persists a decent while, and Spare Dynamite is still fairly comparable in damage to Dobbin's Primary. If you do like to use Spare Dynamite every time it's up, you may want to consider this, but I think this is the worst out of Dobbin's first upgrades.
  • Rich Vein: This is particularly useful when going for Empty Pockets, because not only does it increase the Coin Bag value from 200 to 300, but it also works on the regular Coin drops (increasing it to 150). What's even better about this upgrade, is that it also stacks with Luck Potions! This means that while the Luck Potion 30 second buff is active (which doubles the value of all Coin gained), those Coin Bags are worth a whopping 600 Coin a piece.
  • Iron Shovel: This is probably Dobbin's single most attractive upgrade, as it is a 12% damage increase, period. This is exactly what he needs due to his lower damage output. If you're not farming for Empty Pockets, definitely take this upgrade.
• Level 4:
  • Devilish Digger: I'm not really sure how much the movement Slow of Dust Devil is initially, and it's also difficult to determine if the upgrade gives a multiplicative addition, or a flat addition. In other words, if the Slow is 50%, I can't tell if it would increase the Slow to 75%, or it would increase to whatever 25% of 50% is (which is like, 16% or something, for a total of 66%). Either way though, the extra Slow can still be helpful, because it helps them stay in the Dust Devil, which means a longer duration of the Armor reduction, which means more damage.
  • Short Fuse: Again, I'm not a huge advocate of Spare Dynamite, so I've never really taken this upgrade. I wouldn't recommend taking this if you didn't take Stockpile though, because Spare Dynamite is going to have a really short cooldown with this upgrade. This means it will start to really drain your Mana.
  • Strike It Rich: Another upgrade that helps the Empty Pockets trophy along, and combines really well with the "Rich Vein" upgrade at level 2. 10% isn't that much though, but when you're farming for Coin, anything helps.
• Level 7:
  • Diamond Armor: I've never actually taken this upgrade, as it doesn't seem very helpful. I cannot say if Dobbin gains the shield as well, because the description designates it as "Allies who use Mineshaft", but on the hopeful assumption that it does work while playing Dobbin, it's still not really useful. Dobbin doesn't normally have too many issues surviving already, due to his high HP and Passive.
  • Gold Rush: I normally take this upgrade because it's simply a lot of Coin. Yes, it does in fact count for your total Coin generated, which means it also contributes to the Empty Pockets trophy. It's still helpful regardless, because 8,000 Coin can go a long way in placing down traps.
  • Extra Powder: Yet another upgrade for Spare Dynamite, and once more, I find it pretty lackluster. Spare Dynamite's radius is already pretty large, so adding another 20% to it seems a bit unnecessary to me.
• Level 10:
  • Jury Rigged: This is a lot of HP regeneration, but similar to Diamond Armor, I just don't feel Dobbin really needs much help in terms of survivability. If you do feel like you're struggling to stay alive, this is an option, as it should really help things along.
  • Shrapnel Storm: From what I've seen of it, the added damage to Dust Devil from this upgrade really isn't that much. Even though I'm generally a fan of anything that adds damage, I feel this is pretty insignificant in the long run. If you're curious about it, you may want to try it out just to see what it's like, and maybe you'll like it more than I do.
  • Kick'Em In The Knees: This is the level 10 upgrade I like, because 30% damage is a huge amount, despite only being to large minions. The truth is though, the large minions are the ones with higher HP anyway, so it's not a huge deal that it doesn't affect smaller minions.

Synopsis

I really think that Dobbin is a co-op Hero, because he brings some offensive utility that will ultimately help other players.

This is the reason why I decided to give him a 7/10, because like Ivy, he has some unique niches that allows him to shine (generating extra Coin for Empty Pockets, co-op utility), but you may struggle with him somewhat if you're on your own just clearing maps normally.

There's really not much else to say about Dobbin, because he feels overwhelmingly average. He does some interesting things, but they are certainly not difficult to figure out, and he's very easy to play as a result: Put down Dust Devil, throw Spare Dynamite if you wish, then proceed to thwack everything with his shovel. That's it, and it never really gets more complicated than that.

Love him or hate him, if you're looking to achieve that elusive Empty Pockets trophy, Dobbin will more than likely be one of your most played Heroes, due to his Coin generation.