Last time we observed a fresh Ringmaster hero, this time - someone more traditional.
Queen of Pain is a well known hero, with a win rate of around 48.22% according to Dotabuff (our constant source of statistics). Despite fluctuations, she remains a strong choice for the mid-lane due to her speed, powerful attacks, and potential for growth. In high-skill matches, players tend to use her abilities and speed more effectively, improving her performance.
Description
Queen of Pain is a versatile intelligence hero known for her high mobility, burst damage, and playmaking potential. Her in-game characteristics revolve around snowballing the mid-game, harassing in the lane, and controlling the map through aggressive rotations. For starters, here are her core gameplay traits, itemization, and strategies for different game stages.
Early Game
Queen of Pain usually dominates the mid-lane due to her strong harassment abilities. Shadow Strike is a powerful tool for bullying melee heroes or heroes with weak sustain. The ticking damage and slow allow her to out-trade enemies, forcing them to use regen or risk losing the lane. Queen of Pain can also secure last hits effectively with decent base attack damage and animation.
Bottle is a must-have item at this stage, especially in mid, where securing runes gives her a significant sustain advantage. Null Talisman is often built early to increase her damage output and help with mana regen. This smooths out her ability to cast spells frequently without running out of mana.
Key Objectives:
Secure lane dominance using Shadow Strike right clicks.
Control runes with Blink mobility to ensure sustained presence in the lane.
Harass enemy mid to weaken their ability to roam or farm.
Mid-Game
By level 6, Queen of Pain becomes a potent ganker with Sonic Wave. This ultimate deals high burst damage in a wide cone, making it ideal for finishing off multiple low-health heroes. After this point, Queen of Pain players should focus on roaming and ganking, helping other lanes secure kills. With Blink, she can quickly move between lanes and initiate fights.
Her item choices at this stage greatly influence her impact:
Orchid Malevolence is a popular item for Queen of Pain as it allows her to be silent and pick off heroes before they can react. The added mana regeneration and attack damage also scale well with her right clicks, which can be an essential supplementary damage source.
Aghanim's Scepter enhances Sonic Wave by reducing its cooldown to 40 seconds, letting Queen of Pain use it more frequently in fights.
Kaya and Sange provide Queen of Pain with increased spell amplification and status resistance, making her harder to lock down in fights.
Queen of Pain shines during this phase due to her mobility and ability to burst down squishy supports or carry heroes. However, she relies on quick pick-offs and favorable engagements, as she can be vulnerable if caught without mana or Blink on cooldown.
Key Objectives:
Roam actively, secure kills, and pressure the map with frequent ganks.
Build core items like Orchid or Aghanim'sAghanim's Scepter to maximize mid-game dominance.
Participate in team fights using Blink to avoid enemy spells while dishing out high AoE damage with Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave.
Late Game
As the game progresses, Queen of Pain's role evolves. While her burst damage remains relevant, she becomes more fragile, especially against enemy heroes with high durability or magic resistance. To compensate, she should build items that enhance survivability or increase her utility in team fights.
Black King Bar (BKB) becomes crucial in the late game to avoid getting controlled by stuns or silences during critical engagements.
Scythe of Vyse (Hex) is often a go-to item for locking down key targets, adding a reliable disable to her toolkit.
Shiva's Guard adds armor and an AoE slow that synergizes well with her AoE damage, helping to reduce the effectiveness of physical damage dealers.
In late-game team fights, Queen of Pain needs to play cautiously. Positioning is critical, as she should focus on blinking in to cast her abilities, quickly bursting down key targets, and then retreating to a safe distance using Blink. Overcommitting without BKB or a defensive item can lead to instant death, especially against heroes like Anti-Mage or Silencer.
Key Objectives:
Prioritize survivability by building defensive items like BKB or Linken's Sphere.
Stay on the edges of team fights, blinking in and out to maximize damage while staying safe.
Focus on pick-offs using Hex or Orchid to neutralize key enemy targets before full-scale engagements.
Itemization Strategy
Item choices for Queen of Pain greatly depend on her role in the game and the specific enemy lineup.
Bottle: Helps with rune control and provides necessary sustain.
Power Treads: Boosts attack speed and mana pool, giving flexibility during fights.
Orchid Malevolence: Amplifies her ability to pick off squishy enemies with powerful silence and bonus damage.
Aghanim's Aghanim's Scepter: Lowers Sonic Wave cooldown, allowing more frequent use of her ultimate in team fights.
Situational Items:
Black King Bar: Essential against lineups with lots of crowd control or magic damage.
Linken's Sphere: Protects against single-target spells like Hex or Duel, helping her survive burst combos.
Shiva's Guard provides armor, AoE slow, and bonus intelligence, which are helpful against physical damage dealers like Phantom Assassin.
Build Paths
Queen of Pain's build paths are relatively flexible. In rare cases, players can focus on either burst-heavy magic damage builds or transition into a right-click core with items like Bloodthorn or Daedalus.
Standard Magic Build:
Start with Bottle, Null Talisman, and Power Treads.
Move into Orchid Malevolence and Aghanim's Aghanim's Scepter.
Add Black King Bar for survivability.
Consider Shiva's Guard or Scythe of Vyse for team fight control.
Utility Build:
Core items remain similar, but prioritize Linken's Sphere, Shiva's Guard, and Scythe of Vyse.
Focus on disabling key targets and providing utility in team fights.
Lore
Queen of Pain, known as Akasha, is a sadistic demoness serving the demon lord Skree'auk. She revels in pain and torment, enjoying the screams of her victims. Once a servant, she now cruelly rules over her domain, channeling her abilities to exact vengeance on her enemies.
Her lore reflects her in-game playstyle, focused on causing pain through powerful spells and ruthlessly dominating her foes.
Latest Updates
As of Patch 7.36, Queen of Pain received several changes to keep her viable in the shifting meta. One notable update is the introduction of Innate Abilities, which provides additional passive effects for each hero, including Queen of Pain. This system allows her to maintain a more consistent impact throughout the game. Her Aghanim'sAghanim's Shard also saw adjustments, enhancing her Sonic Wave to offer better area control in fights.
The latest patch also focused on balancing her talents and itemization. Items like Kaya and Sange or Aghanim's Scepter remain strong, allowing the Queen of Pain to continue her role as a powerful magic damage dealer and team fighter. Additionally, spell lifesteal mechanics were improved, making her more durable during longer engagements.These changes make Queen of Pain a flexible hero, allowing her to excel in early aggression and late-game utility.
Benefits
High mobility: Blink allows for fast escapes and aggressive plays.
Burst damage: Queen of Pain can quickly eliminate fragile heroes with her nuke-heavy skillset.
Lane dominance: Shadow Strike gives her intense harassment in the laning phase.
Team fight impact: Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave deal significant AoE damage.
Flexible build paths: She can adapt to different playstyles, focusing on magic or physical damage, depending on item choices like Aghanim's Scepter, Orchid Malevolence, or Dagon.
Downsides
Fragility: She is relatively squishy and vulnerable to burst damage herself.
High skill ceiling: Missed blinks or poorly timed spells can quickly turn fights against her.
Mana-dependent: Queen of Pain relies heavily on her mana pool, especially in the early game.
Falls off the late game: Despite scaling, she can struggle against highly durable cores without proper itemization.
Abilities
Shadow Strike: Slows the enemy and deals damage over time. Great for harassment and early lane control.
Blink: Provides instant mobility to escape or engage—the key to her survivability and aggressiveness.
Scream of Pain: AoE nuke that damages all nearby enemies. It's best for clearing waves and dishing out consistent damage in fights.
Sonic Wave: Her ultimate. A powerful nuke that deals significant damage in a cone, pushing enemies back. Excellent for finishing off fleeing enemies or turning the tide of team fights(.
H2: Hints and Tips to Master
Maximize lane harass: Use Shadow Strike consistently to out-harass enemy mid-laners.
Blink smartly: Master positioning by using Blink both aggressively and defensively. Initiating with a well-timed blink followed by Sonic Wave can devastate enemy teams.
Mana management: Ensure you always have enough mana for Blink and at least one nuke in case of an emergency escape.
Roam after level 6: After gaining Sonic Wave, seek opportunities to gank other lanes. Queen of Pain is a deadly roamer and can quickly snowball with a few kills.
Item choices: Adapt your item build to the game's pace. If you dominate early, items like Orchid or Dagon can secure easy kills. Consider Black King Bar (BKB) and Shiva's Shiva's Guard for survivability and teamfight presence in more challenging games.
Recommended Allies
Earthshaker
Earthshaker provides intense initiation and lockdown with his Fissure and Echo Slam. This allows the Queen of Pain to blink safely and follow up with her burst damage. His AoE stuns keep enemies in place, making it easier for Queen of Pain to land her Sonic Wave on multiple targets.
Dark Seer
Dark Seer's Vacuum pulls enemies into a tight cluster, perfect for Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain. The synergy between Vacuum and her AoE abilities can instantly turn the tide of a team fight. Dark Seer can also place an Ion Shell on Queen of Pain, increasing her damage output.
Disruptor
Disruptor'sDisruptor's Glimpse brings back fleeing enemies, preventing them from escaping Queen of Pain's aggression. His Kinetic Field and Static Storm are perfect for controlling enemies, allowing Queen of Pain to dive in with Blink and deal massive damage without being countered.
Clockwerk
Clockwerk's Hookshot and Power Cogs trap enemies, giving Queen of Pain time to position herself and unleash her spells. Clockwerk's ability to initiate fights from a distance complements Queen of Pain's mobility, allowing her to clean up enemies trapped in his Cogs.
Grimstroke
Grimstroke's Soulbind works excellently with Queen of Pain' sPain's Sonic Wave, allowing her ultimate to hit multiple enemies simultaneously. Additionally, Ink Swell provides a defensive option, letting Queen of Pain safely dive into fights with a shield and stun.
Counters
Silencer
Silencer is one of Queen of Pain's most complex counters. His Global Silence disables her ability to cast Blink, making her easy to catch and kill. He can also steal her intelligence with Glaives of Wisdom, making her less effective as the game progresses.
Puck
Puck's Dream Coil and Silence make it difficult for the Queen of Pain to use her mobility. If Queen of Pain tries to blink out of Dream Coil, she gets stunned. Puck can also dodge her spells with Phase Shift, making him a frustrating matchup.
Anti-Mage
Anti-Mage can drain Queen of Pain's mana with Mana Break, limiting her ability to use Blink and other spells. His Mana Void can also punish her if she has low mana, dealing heavy damage to her and nearby allies.
Ember Spirit
Ember Spirit's mobility with Fire Remnant makes him difficult for Queen of Pain to lock down. He can dodge her Sonic Wave and escape her attempts to burst him. His Flame Guard also absorbs a large portion of her magic damage.
Lion
Lion has two strong disables: Hex and Earth Spike. Both can lock Queen of Pain down before she can Blink away. Lion'sLion's Finger of Death can quickly burst her down if caught without defensive items.