Queen of Pain is a relatively fragile hero who is capable of snowballing out of control. Her skill set makes her exceptionally good at picking off heroes and a powerful mid laner. She has a massive amount of burst magical damage and a Blink spell for mobility and survivability. Her spells allow her to farm at a very high rate as she is able to Blink between camps and lanes and nuke creep-waves and neutrals down with Scream of Pain.
Her right-click remains powerful well into the late game, allowing her to remain relevant as a semi-carry even against farmed position ones. The hero is mechanically relatively easy, and her ability to dominate the game depends very much on the skill of the individual player and their knowledge and understanding of the game.
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[/column]Queen of Pain Skill Build
- Shadow Strike
- Blink
- Shadow Strike
- Scream of Pain
- Scream of Pain
- Sonic Wave
- Scream of Pain
- Scream of Pain
- Blink
- Talent
- Blink
- Sonic Wave
- Blink
- Shadow Strike
- Talent
- Shadow Strike
- –
- Sonic Wave
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Queen of Pain throws a dagger at an enemy that deals damage over time and slows in decreasing amounts for the duration. Shadow Strike is upgradable through the level 25 talent. Shadow Strike is usually skilled first as it allows you to harass your lane opponent and trade hits beneficially as it makes it harder for the enemy to back away. It is also usually skilled twice in the laning phase so that it can be used more often, as the cooldown is reduced per level. At level 2, it can be fully maintained on the enemy and increases the amount of damage it deals. A second level of Shadow Strike also increases the effectiveness of the slow by 50% of that of the level 1 slow.
Shadow Strike should be used very often on the opponent laner, especially if you are facing a melee hero or have creep advantage. You will need to move closer to use the spell, but if you do so when their creepwave is about to die, the opponent will not be able to take advantage of your positioning. This is because if they try to trade hits with you, the creeps will soon die and pressure them. You can even use Scream of Pain to pressure the creeps harder. They will be forced to back and unable to trade hits with you. The slow will also make them to take more damage, as you can right-click them while they are retreating.
One of the most important aspects of using this spell in lane is that you don’t compromise your positioning when using it, as you may end up taking more damage than it deals.
In the mid game you should use it when initiating onto an enemy, as the slow will allow you to right-click them while they attempt to escape. It can also be used to disable Blink Daggers in the mid and late game for 15 seconds. This is very effective on heroes with initiation spells like Enigma or Earthshaker if you can cast it on them.
Queen of Pain instantly teleports to the target nearby location. You should max Blink secondly, as it allows QoP to move in and out of fights effortlessly due to the reduced cooldown. Blink allows QoP to chase enemies, farm faster and to escape from dangerous situations. Although it does have a 6 second cooldown, you should be careful about how you use it. If you are going to gank an enemy, you usually don’t need to Blink right next to them unless they already see you and are reacting to your presence. Instead, save it in case you need to use it to secure the kill or escape.
Queen of Pain releases a scream that damages all nearby enemies. Scream of Pain should be maxed first as it allows QoP to control the creep equilibrium and increases her ability to farm as well as her kill potential. Scream of Pain affects invisible units and those in the fog of war, which means that you can snipe low enemies that are either invisible or are juking in the trees.
At higher levels of Scream of Pain, you should use it after right-clicking all of the creeps in the creepwave down to about half HP shortly before the rune spawns. This will allow you to get the rune easily, especially if you use Blink to get there faster. When you are fighting enemies in the mid and late game, you should use Scream of Pain immediately after Blinking next to an enemy. The spell is cast instantly, so it will allow you to land it much more easily.
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Queen of Pain releases an even more damaging Scream of Pain in the target direction. Aghanim’s Scepter increases the damage and reduces the cooldown. The damage is pure and pierces spell immunity, even that of the Animal Courier which means that you can snipe it. Sonic Wave initially has a very long cooldown until you buy an Aghanim’s Scepter. In the early game, it can be used to get solo-kills which you otherwise would not have gotten. In the mid and late game, you should reserve it for when it will damage high-priority heroes or damage multiple heroes at once. When you have an Aghanim’s Scepter, you can use Sonic Wave much more liberally – even to farm creepwaves. However, at all levels it costs a lot of mana relative to your mana-pool, so keep that in mind when using it to farm.
Generally, if you need to survive disables or silences long enough to Blink away, then the Strength will be a better option in Dota 2 esports. It will give you an extra 200 HP to do so and can be the difference between life and death in the early and mid game. Otherwise, the extra damage will make you farm faster and increase the damage of your right-click in fights and ganks.
The cooldown reduction will allow you to use all of your spells and items much sooner. This is most noticeable when you have an Aghanim’s Scepter or other items with long cooldowns, such as BKB, as it will allow you to use them much sooner. The extra attack speed can be a better choice if you have opted for items focused more on semi-carrying through physical damage. The attack speed will also help you farm a bit faster in most cases.
The spell lifesteal will almost always be more helpful. This is because you will heal a massive amount through your 2 nuking spells if they land on several creeps and/or heroes, even though the lifesteal is less on non-hero units. It will grant you a lot of survivability and give you a much stronger presence in team-fights, especially if you are being brought down low on HP easily.
The AoE Shadow Strike is often ineffective because after the enemy line-up sees that you have selected this talent, they will simply try to not stack up close to one another. It isn’t even helpful when farming creeps or clearing illusions as it kills them so slowly, which means that it is only ever helpful when enemies happen to be close to each other. Even when they are, they are only slowed and damaged slightly, which is removable through any basic dispel. That said, it can be very effective against a lineup with lots of melee heroes, or heroes that can be easily kited.
The Spell Block can be very good against lineups with lots of single-target abilities. Usually at this point, you will have a BKB or a Linken’s to help you deal with these, and these items can often be enough. However, it can be a nice addition if you find that you can still benefit from having it. The fear is a very strong talent choice in almost all games. Although it only has a short 1.5s duration, it’s enough to get melee heroes away from you if they are about to attack you and it will interrupt channeled abilities as well. Overall, it’s a very strong talent which causes a lot of disruption to the enemy team. It may be the case, that the fear will help you more than the spell block, even if there are lots of single-target abilities on the enemy team.
Queen of Pain is almost always played in the mid lane and therefore needs as much last-hitting power as possible to win the lane. A Null Talisman and a few Iron Branches will give her more damage and better stats, and a Faerie Fire is helpful as well. QoP won’t need much regen, so 2 Shared Tangos will suffice. You can courier out a Healing Salve to you after getting the starting bounty rune if you will likely need the extra regen against your opponent.
QoP can make good use out of a Bottle as it will allow her to use her spells more freely. Queen of Pain tends to spam Shadow Strike on the enemy and Scream of Pain to control the creep wave, and this will need lots of mana. Her Blink can be used to quickly get the rune if needed and beat the enemy mid laner to it. The ability to store runes in a Bottle will also allow her to get kills very easily as she can use them when needed, either to gank a lane or kill the mid laner.
Power Treads are the Boots of Choice on QoP because they increase her damage output and a give lots of stats. It’s also very effective to swap the primary attribute on your Treads when restoring HP or mana as you will gain more when switching back. Treads can also be used to give a bit more HP if needed.
Magic Wand is good on QoP because she tends to gank a lot and get a lot of kills. A fully charged Magic Wand will give QoP enough to use a few more spells, including Blink at least once more. This can be crucial in team-fights and ganks.
Infused Raindrops will Tank QoP up a little bit against magical damage which is helpful as she is relatively squishy early on. The extra mana regeneration will help as well. Generally, these are only needed against heroes with strong nukes that can be problematic for QoP.
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Veil of Discord provides some great all around stats for Qop and makes almost all of her spells deal more damage, with the only exception being Sonic Wave. It’s a good pickup on QoP, especially if you have lots of allies which deal a lot of magical damage.
Eul’s Scepter gives QoP lots of movement speed and mana regeneration and some intelligence. However, most notably it gives QoP the defensive abilty Cyclone. The duration of Cyclone is almost half of the cooldown of Blink. This means that if you Blink badly, you can use Eul’s to buy yourself enough time to Blink away again. It will also dispel any silences and can also be used offensively if your team lacks stuns or if someone attempt to TP back to base. A Eul’s will be needed in most games, although if it won’t do much to help you, it can be skipped.
Orchid Malevolance is often considered a core item on QoP because it gives her a massive boost to her damage, lots of intelligence and also mana regeneration. It also makes her a much better ganker as it provides her the ability to silence an enemy and apply a damage amp on them. It can also be built into a Bloodthorn in the late game. Orchid isn’t needed every game, as you can spend the gold on other items you may need more, although it should definitely be bought against heroes that are hard to lockdown.
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Queen of Pain begins to become more relevant as a right-clicker in the late game. As such, she is more likely to be prioritized for stuns, disables and nukes. You will most likely need a BKB to deal with this in the mid-to-late game, especially when facing some of the best Dota 2 players.
Mjollnir makes Queen of Pain much better at killing creeps and farming. It allows her to push faster, farm neutrals faster and also deal more damage in team-fights, particularly to illusion heroes. The protective shield is much better when put to use on an allied front-liner as she tends to not be targeted by much physical damage in fights.
Shiva’s Guard is most effective when you are facing lineups with several sources of physical damage. The armor and attack speed slow aura will tank you and your team up. The magic damage goes well with other items and talents that QoP tends to get, such as the spell lifesteal and the cooldown reduction.
Bloodthorn is a natural extension to Orchid Malevolance. It’s generally not needed if the silence from Orchid isn’t needed, however the true-strike that it provides may increase the effectiveness of it and justify its purchase if you can make at least some use out of the silence. If you have an Orchid, you should upgrade it into a Bloodthorn if you need the true-strike. QoP tends to have quite high attack speed as well, which makes the total crit damage even more effective.
A Scythe of Vyse gives QoP a ton of mana regeneration and lots of intelligence which translates into more damage. The extra disable is often needed against heroes that are hard to lockdown or farmed carries. It also massively increases QoP’s solo kill potential.
Assault Cuirass will make QoP a better right-clicker as it increases her attack speed and reduces enemies’ armor. It’s most effective when you need to both transition into more of a semi-carry in the late game as well as increase your and your team’s survivability against physical damage.
If you have lots of gold in the late game and have bought every item that you need, you can buy a Moon Shard either for yourself or a carry. Moon Shard works very well if you have a Mjollnir/Maelstrom or a Bloodthorn as these will deal more damage through the lightning proc and the crit damage respectively.
A Refresher Orb will let you use all of your spells and items again immediately. This is very effective if you have a BKB or Aghanim’s upgraded ultimate as these have very long cooldowns. It can also be kept as a 7th item in your backpack when on cooldown and only used after popping BKB and Sonic Wave the first time in a fight.
Octarine Core will allow you to spell lifesteal a large amount due to Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain, especially in conjunction with the lifesteal talent at level 25. The cooldown reduction also works very well with the cooldown reduction talent, further decreasing the downtime on all of your spells and items. An Octarine Core is especially good if you have an Aghanim’s Scepter as it will allow you to lifesteal a even larger amount due to the reduced cooldown.
Linken’s Sphere gives QoP lots of stats, HP/mana regeneration and a total of 30 extra damage. Most importantly, it gives her the ability to block a single-target spell every 13 seconds. This makes her much harder to lockdown and will be needed against lineups with strong single-target spells. However, against lineups with several single-target spells, it may be better to buy a BKB or perhaps even both.
If you want to transition into a strong late game semi-carry, you may need MKB. The accuracy it provides may be crucial against heroes with evasion. It’s better than a Bloodthorn if you don’t need the silence it provide, if the enemy has several ways to dispel the silence or if the heroes on the enemy team have several sources of evasion.
A Gem can be good pickup on QoP if you are facing several invisibility heroes. QoP is relatively squishy which would otherwise make her a bad Gem carrier, but her Blink ability allows her to survive in dire situations. A Gem also allows her to get more kills on invisibility heroes which she otherwise would not be able to.
Eye of Skadi is picked up less and less as there are other item option for QoP that have more effect and are better suited for her playstyle. The slow and extra survivability it provides can be good against lineups with lots of physical damage.
If you have dominated the early game, a Dagon can be effective in securing your lead and by extension, the game. A Dagon is particularly good against squishy heroes and against lineups that are strongest in the late game. Dagon gives you more killing potential in the early and mid game and if you get lots of kills with it, it will be harder for the enemy to comeback.
A Nullifier can be a strong item against heroes that rely on items like BKB for their survival. It’s very situational because you don’t benefit from the stats very much ,other than from the damage it provides you.
If you’re facing lots of mana-drain abilities or if you are going for a very caster-oriented build with items like Shiva’s Guard, Veil or Dagon, then a Kaya can be a good pickup. It will help to preserve your mana pool for longer and give you some helpful spell amplification.
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If you get Ruptured by Bloodseeker, it is possible to Blink without taking damage. If you Blink away at maximum range and proceed to walk even slightly, you will not take damage due to the mechanics of the ultimate. It is possible to still take damage if you’re unlucky and time it within a tick measurement of Rupture, but it’s unlikely to do so. You’ll also have a much better chance to survive. Try practicing this against a bot to get used to the mechanic. You may also want to pick up a Eul’s or a Linken’s Sphere to give you extra survivability.
Puck is very good at dealing with QoP. He can easily dodge your Shadow Strike by using Phase Shift, so try to bait it out by cancelling the animation. Puck can also dodge your other spells, so try to do the same with Sonic Wave. Scream of Pain is instant so try to use that when Puck is unlikely to Phase Shift. Puck can also silence you, preventing you from Blinking away and also catch you with a strong ultimate ability.
Heroes with silences and roots are capable of preventing QoP from Blinking away to safety or to chase an enemy. Play very carefully when chasing enemy heroes with stuns or disables as they may be able to stop you from escaping if you dive to far and kill you with back-up.
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