Queen of Pain is one of the strongest laners in Dota 2, especially in a 1v1 situation.  She is also a very potent ganker & nuker and a good split-pusher that can start roaming and applying pressure on enemies from early on. After a few successful rotations, she is a hero that can quickly snowball out of control and take over the map. She is also a fast farmer with good semi-carry potential, which means that QoP can be effective at any stage of the game.

Because of all of this, she is a great hero for climbing MMR – you can dominate your lane and snowball out of control to secure quick victories for your team. This isn’t easy to do, however – you need to find the right balance between aggression and more conservative play. A few unnecessary deaths could stop the ball from rolling.

QoP is vulnerable to disables and has no lockdown herself. Unlike most other INT heroes, she doesn’t bring utility to her team. QoP is entirely centered around dealing damage and mobility.

Generally, heroes that complement her ganking, aggressive play style work quite well with Queen of Pain. In addition, partners that have AoE damage and control will supplement her team fight potential. The hero excels against a squishy line-up but can’t do much against tanky heroes and enemies with a lot of disables to control her.

There are usually two reasons to pick QoP in a team strategy. First, QoP is a lane dominator that will win most 1v1 matchups and shut down the enemy laner to a great extent. Second, QoP fits an aggressive lineup that revolves around ganking and fighting early on. Moreover, QoP is not a one-dimensional hero – even if your aggressive strategy doesn’t work out in the early-mid game, you can always rely on her semi-carry and split-push potential in the later stages.

In the mid lane, QoP will get a lot of levels and farm that she needs in order to start applying pressure on the map. In a 1v1, she can dominate most lanes with the help of Shadow Strike and her fast, long-range attack animation. With a good start, the hero can snowball out of control – she will be able to constantly rotate and get successful pickoffs around the map.  Being very mobile, Qop can also control and use runes quite well. Moreover, the escape mechanism she has allows her to be very elusive and hard to gank. Even if enemies have very potent ganking supports, getting kills on QoP can be a difficult task. 

Substitutes:

Strong Against:

Weak Against:

Queen of Pain doesn’t have many options when it comes to skill builds. Usually, you want to get 1 point in Blink in order to be more survivable and mobile and 1 in Shadow Strike to harass the enemy from the start (you might want to get 2 points in SS in case you can bully your opponent). Then, you want to max out Scream of Pain and level up your ultimate whenever possible in order to maximize QoP’s nuke potential. After that, you max up Blink since higher levels reduce the CD of the spell and increase the range of Blink. This allows you to be much more mobile, move around the map faster, gank and fight more effectively.

QoP’s builds are quite versatile because she is both an intelligence ganker hero with a strong presence early on and a semi-carry in the mid and late game. Consequently, the items that she goes for should accommodate both aspects.

This is perhaps the most standard build for QoP. It starts with you buying a second Null Talisman to dominate the lane even more. Converting it into Veil is possible, but often you want to skip this in order to get to your Orchid faster. You usually want to go for Eul's for the cost-efficient stats and most importantly - the defensive mechanism (most useful against silences). If you are feeling certain you're not in danger, however, you can rush Orchid right away and start ganking heroes on the map.

Ultimately, your goal will be to get Orchid as quickly as possible and then start seeking pick-offs on your own or together with allies. After the Orchid, you usually go for BKB in order to stay safe in team fights.

In the late game, you go for Assault + Bloodthorn + Mjollnir to increase your physical DPS. Moreover, Mjollnir and Bloodthorn synergize very well with your spell lifesteal talent.

Starting with double Null is even better when you intend to go for Veil. The increase in your magic burst can allow you to go for ganks a bit faster. Then, in order to further increase your nuke damage potential, you go for Agh's. In the late game you invest in a BKB for survivabilty and afterward, you get an Octarine Core + Shiva’s to further increase your nuke damage potential and your ability to spam spells.

Getting last hits and out-last-hitting the enemy in addition to denying as much as possible should be your primary tasks in the lane. You have high attack range, fast attack animation and good base damage. All of this combined helps you get last hits/denies relatively easy. You can also use your Scream of Pain to secure creep kills. For example, you can damage several units until they are low on HP (but out of deny range) and then cast the spell to get all the last hits. Ideally, you would want to also damage the enemy hero while doing so.

Push-out the wave and control the rune:

When it comes to rune control, you have a big advantage because you are mobile and you have a spammable AoE ability (Scream of Pain) that allows you to push out the wave before the rune spawns. You should use that advantage and try to get all runes. Be careful, however, how you use Blink when you go for a rune. Whenever the spell is on CD, an enemy support waiting near the rune can disable you and kill you together with the mid laner. If you don’t have a ward near the rune spot, and you don’t see the enemy supports, blinking towards the rune is risky. It is better and safer to just run towards the rune (you can use the Blink on your way back to save time).

Last but not least, runes increase your ganking and solo kill potential or at least help you dominate your lane even more – as a potent ganker, QoP uses runes better than most mid laners.

Queen of Pain is one of the best harassers in the lane in Dota. You should be most of the time close to the creep wave, ready to harass the enemy hero against you. You do so by using auto-attacks and two of your spells – Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain.

Shadow Strike Harass

Shadow Strike applies a DoT on the enemy hero, prevents him from using Bottle and Salves to regenerate efficiently and slows their movement speed, which makes them even more vulnerable to your harassment/nuke potential. The more often you use Shadow Strike, the better – if possible spam it on CD. Against melee heroes, this would be very easy because you will be able to cast it when they come in range to last hit. Against ranged heroes it could be a bit trickier – Shadow Strike has only 450 range and if a ranged hero plays cautiously you might not get an easy opportunity to cast the spell. You might need to use Blink to get close enough before casting it. Be careful when you do this, however. With your escape mechanism on CD and being positioned aggressively, you could be vulnerable to kill attempts.

Some heroes against you could have abilities that allow them to dodge your spell. You can fake-cast the ability and stop the casting animation to force a reaction from the enemy. For example, Puck will likely use his Phase Shift once he sees the start of the casting animation of Shadow Strike. If you manage to trick him into using his ability too early, you will be able to hit him with the spell after that. Another thing to keep in mind is that the closer you are to the enemy, the harder it will be for him to dodge your Shadow Strike. The reason for this is that the projectile will travel only a small distance to hit.

Scream of Pain Harass

As you get more levels in Scream of Pain, you can use it to whittle down the HP of the enemy hero. Keep in mind that using it when you are close to the creep wave will push the wave - this is great for applying pressure and controlling the rune, but it could be dangerous if the enemy supports rotate.

If you want to commit, you can blink close to the enemy hero, use Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain and start right-clicking. Nevertheless, some enemies can turn on you if you do such a move. Therefore, such a move is a good idea under two conditions: first, you see enemy supports on the map, and you are not afraid of getting counter-ganked. Second, the enemy hero can’t turn on you and potentially even kill you while Blink is on CD – this could be either because he doesn’t have the abilities to do so or is too low on HP and can’t stand his ground. Whenever any of these conditions aren’t met, you should save your Blink to escape and instead, walk to the hero and use your harassing spells that way.

Zoning Out

QoP has high kill potential, especially once she hits level 6. You have a lot of spammable spells in the lane, which means that your opponent will be below full HP most of the time when you attempt to get a kill. Your usual combo is to Blink in and use Scream of Pain into Shadow Strike. The first spell provides instant nuke damage and the second good slow that allows you to continue attacking for longer. It has, however, moderate casting animation and also 450 range at level 1. In case you don’t use it right away, the target might get out of range. Proceed to right-click your target and one it's out of attack range, finish the kill with your ult - this will maximize your damage output becuase Sonic Wave has more range than your attacks and it's a bit easier to hit on long range because of its cone shape.  

A thing to keep in mind is that you will usually need your full Mana capacity in order to cast your full combo. Therefore, before you attempt a kill, make sure that you have close to full Mana.

The problem with this “blink in - nuke the enemy” tactic is that the enemy hero will expect it once you get to level 6 and will either rotate or try to stay at full HP so that you won’t be able to burst them even using your full combo.  You can use the following trick to get a kill early on: if you are very close to level 6, you can engage on the enemy, use Shadow Strike and get a last hit on 1-2 creeps with Scream of Pain, while also damaging the opponent. This should give you enough experience to get to level 6 and skill your ult and nuke him down with Sonic Wave. The enemy will not be expecting the extra nuke from the ultimate and will be likely thinking that he is in a relatively safe position. The surprising leveling-up factor can help you score a solo kill. This is a situation which leads to solo kills even in pro games.

Queen of Pain has a very good escape mechanism (Blink) that helps her escape ganks. You have to be mindful, however, of two things regarding your survivability. First, your Blink has a casting animation. Even if you see enemy heroes ganking you, you might not be able to Blink away in time, especially if they have instant disables.  Second, Blink at early levels has a longer CD. This means that even provided enemies don’t have a hard lockdown for you (stun/silence), you can still be killed. You are most vulnerable when you blink in aggressively - don’t do this when you don’t see the positioning of supports that can kill you.

Whenever you spot enemies coming to gank you, you should immediately use Blink to get into a safer position. A split-second of hesitation can make the difference between successfully blinking away and getting disabled mid cast animation.

Rotating to the side lanes to gank as well as staying in the mid lane to control it and farm up are both viable options during the laning stage for QoP.

Generally speaking, you would want to rotate to use your nuke potential while it is at its peak (late laning and early-mid game stages) and stop the development of your opponents as well as create space for your teammates. If there are no good opportunities to do this, however, you should simply stay put and farm up – you are a fast farmer and getting your core items faster will allow you to be a considerable threat in the mid and late game.

QoP has a very high gank potential early on, especially around level 7 or 8 when she usually gets her Scream of Pain maxed out.

The key to the success of your rotations is to use your mobility and vision to surprise your targets. Push out the wave before rotating, use smoke if needed to enter the enemy jungle undetected, etc.

Although the hero has a lot of burst, QoP lacks control. Ideally, you want to follow up a disable from an ally with your nukes. Casting your spells after a setup will make sure that you hit all your targets with them. You can use Sonic Wave from afar (remember the spell can hit units up to 1350 range), while you are still out of vision, then Blink in and use Scream of Pain right away. Both nukes will hit enemies almost at the same time – opponents will be caught completely off guard.

The matchup against DK is favorable for QoP (as it is against most melee heroes), but it is very hard to dominate simply because DK can stay in the lane thanks to his regen and secure last hits with his nuke.

This is likely the main reason QoP decides not to invest an additional point in Shadow Strike – harassing and zoning out the DK is an uphill battle, so it is logical to focus on your burst damage to increase your kill potential and to be able to push out the wave and secure last hits easier.

Notice how he controls the runes with Blink and his Bottle. When he finds an invis rune after lvl6 he decides it’s time to attempt a rotation – he was likely to go to the bot lane, but he noticed that the enemy roaming Tusk has overextended and decided to secure the easy kill and get back to mid ASAP (leaving the DK on his own for long will likely result in a lost mid tower).

On 09.45 the enemy team attempt to gank QoP, but using her nuke potential she manages to get a counter kill and escapes with Blink. Notice that in this situation the extra stats from the two Nulls, the PTs and the Wand are key to let her survive the long disables and Blink away afterward.

Being a very mobile hero with a lot of burst potential, QoP usually focuses on seeking pick-offs around the map. With Orchid, you can even get solo kills on most targets.

You can also look for team fights – QoP is a very strong hero in the mid game since enemies will be vulnerable to her AoE nukes before they have enough survivability items. Try to avoid fights, however, once your Sonic Wave is on CD. It is one of the most important AoE sources of damage and without it, your fighting potential is much weaker.

Since QoP is a strong semi-carry and she farms very fast, you should farm up whenever your ultimate is on CD or/and there aren’t good gank or fight opportunities. Finally, QoP is a good split-pusher – if you don’t want to force engagements you can use your AoE damage and mobility to out-push the waves and force reactions from your opponents while dodging ganks with Blink and TPs.

The first timing for you to start to roam and gank should be around level 7-8 when you have your max nuke potential for early game (max lvl Scream + Wave).

The third important timing is usually BKB - it is the key item for team-fights and wihtout it you are vulnerable, so you should try to get it before 5v5 fights start.

If your laning stage goes poorly, you have decent catch-up potential, unlike most snowball heroes. You can farm quite fast thanks to your AoE, spammable abilities and even split-push. After a bad laning stage, you will most likely get BKB earlier than usual in order to fight back enemies that will be trying to push your towers. Nonetheless, in case opponents are not in position to start grouping up and forcing 5 on 5 fights, it will be better to go for other items that will both help you farm faster and increase your gank/nuke potential. If you're committed to split-pushing, you can get a fast Maelstrom. If you think you can get kills, buy Orchid and try to gank the enemy cores with your teammates to slow down the game and regain map control.

At the start of team fights:

You have two choices: to initiate or to follow up an initiation from an ally. Whether you can initiate or not depends a lot on your items. If you have Scythe of Vyse or Orchid and BKB, you can Blink in aggressively and use your items and spells on your target with the goal to burst it down before it has an impact in the fights. If you don’t have BKB, however, Blinking in will be too dangerous – you can get disabled and killed. Moreover, without any control items, there isn’t a good way to initiate and lock enemies down. Therefore, in such a case you need to follow-up an ally’s initiation.

Who to focus during fights:

You have the choice between focusing the core enemy heroes or squishy supports on the back line.

Provided a squishy target is away from his teammates and can’t escape (i.e. has no escape mechanism), you can Blink on him and nuke him down before he contributes to the fight. Focusing squishy targets is also a good choice when you can’t bring down enemy cores – usually the case if they are too tanky for your nukes.

In case you have enough damage to burst a core target, most likely with the help of your allies, you can use your spells to focus them down. It is even a good choice to use all your abilities, including your ultimate, to bring down an important target (usually the enemy carry) before he/she can use BKB or spells (although you can cast your ult even after the target activates BKB). Killing a core before they have an impact will instantly swing the engagement in your favor and blowing all your spells will be completely worth it.

Generally, you want to save your ultimate to damage as many targets as you can with it. Usually, you would want to wait for enemies to group up a bit and then use the spell. To hit the most people with Sonic Wave it is a good idea to make use of the widest part of the cone (which is further away from your hero). Because of this, if enemies are relatively close to each other it is a great idea to use your ult at them and then Blink in to finish targets off with Scream and attacks - the most common way to team fight with QoP.

Movement during fights:

You will most likely play the “kiting” role in engagements, especially if enemies can burst you down quickly. The CD of your Blink and BKB will determine your playstyle. Without BKB, you want to save your blink for disengaging - poke with spells and attacks but be ready to blink away. With BKB, you can afford to bling aggressively and right-click at least for a while.

QoP is a great clean-up hero because of her mobility. If enemies are running away on low HP it is your job to chase them down with the help of Blink and secure the kills.

After Miracle sees the position of the enemy team he uses the time he has to quickly push-out the top wave and get his BKB. Once he gets the item he knows it’s a good idea to force a fight.

He initiates on the enemy Chen with his Shadow Blade (he doesn’t use Blink because he wants to have the spell available to escape) and tries to nuke him down. Logically, the enemy team tries to counter-initiate and kill him, but with Linken’s, BKB, Blink and Oracle on his team he knows he will be able to disengage. Once the enemy team has used all of their spells on him without securing a kill, his team is able to easily win the fight.

This kind of play on QoP is unusual and risky – normally, you don’t want to be the first one in the fight. Nonetheless, if you know the limits of your hero perfectly and you have the needed survivability items, such baits are definitely possible because of the mobility that Blink gives you.

QoP is a very good split-pusher.  Whenever you are not ganking or team fighting, you should be farming and split-pushing. QoP has a spammable AoE nuke that helps her to clear waves fast. Furthermore, the low CD of Blink allows her to move very fast around the map and push out waves in different lanes.  Her Blink ability also helps her escape ganks, and it makes it very hard for enemies to kill her when she is split-pushing. Her only drawback is building damage, but in the late game items like AC help in this regard.

During 5-man pushes, you should stay on the backlines. You don’t want to be initiated upon because you are squishy and will die. Moreover, your team relies on your damage to win a fight should such an engagement start. Staying at a safe distance will usually present you with a great Sonic Wave opportunity when the enemy team jumps on your frontline pusher.

Queen of Pain is a very good ganker thanks to her mobility and burst damage. How and who you can gank, however, depends a lot on the items you have and on the situation. If you have Orchid, you can get solo kills on most targets that are not very tanky. To execute a gank you Blink in, silence a target and nuke it down with your spells. Without Orchid, you usually need to gank together with an ally that will provide extra disables and damage (unless you are ganking a very squishy support). When you are ganking, try to move/Blink around enemy Observer wards so that opponents don’t track your movement (avoid common Observer ward locations). The low CD of Blink and the ability to jump over obstacles allows you to do this.

With QoP you create map control through ganking and team fighting. The more pressure you apply on the enemy team the more free space there will be on the map for your carries to farm up and the less there will be for the enemy team to get resources (safely). You are also a decent Gem carrier - Gem helps you maintain the map control you've acquired and totally blind your enemies. In addition, you have a good escape mechanism – it is hard for enemies to kill you to get the Gem.

Farming with QoP is quite straightforward - use Blink to move around faster, use Scream of Pain and attacks to clear-out creep waves and camps. Usually, you want to push out the waves fast and then get out of vision so that your opponents are not aware of your location. Ideally, you want to search for successful skirmishes and then farm the location that you just ganked. This is best done with allies on the enemy safe lane, to take control of the enemy jungle. This will leave the safer farming spots to your more passive farmers.

You have spammable AoE spells and mobility – both things help you to flash farm. Combine your mana regen items (Eul's, Orchid) with Clarities and you might not need to go back to base at all after the early game.

When farming in the lanes, you can attack each of the creeps in a wave a few times and finish them off with a Scream of Pain. By doing this you will ensure that you will get all last hits. When farming in the jungle, you can use Shadow Strike on a big creep and then use Scream of Pain. Doing so will help you bring down a camp faster. In addition, as with every hero that has AoE potential, stacking jungle camps can increase your farming speed a bit. You could use your ult for very big stacks.

Finally, keep in mind that you need a lot of mana to use your spells. If a team fight starts, and you are low on mana because you have been farming, you cannot contribute a lot. As a result, do not constantly spam your spells if you expect a team fight to start (unless you have a lot of mana regen or/and high mana pool).