Help Support Our Growing Community

DOTAFire is a community that lives to help every Dota 2 player take their game to the next level by having open access to all our tools and resources. Please consider supporting us by whitelisting us in your ad blocker!

Want to support DOTAFire with an ad-free experience? You can support us ad-free for less than $1 a month!

Go Ad-Free
Smitefire logo

Join the leading DOTA 2 community.
Create and share Hero Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Queen of Pain by FangzofFuzzy

2 Votes
Rating Pending

Queen of Pain

By: FangzofFuzzy
Last Updated: Mar 18, 2019
Quick Share

Queen of Pain

Rework

"Long live your queen!"

Design

Queen of Pain has extraordinarily simple abilities, but it all comes together and synergizes in an interesting yet versatile way. This is quite the delicate balance, so picture this rework as less of a rework and more of a different hero. One that plays up better to her themes of being a sly succubus and lore of being a demonic dominatrix. Now, I do not necessarily dislike her current kit and just believe that mechanically, they just need a little touch to differentiate them from other heroes’ abilities without becoming completely unrecognizable from their original forms. To relieve some stress, I also want to have a bit of fun with some aspects of this revamp so certain parts may be a bit strange, but rest assured it's all part of the pain.

As a disclaimer, this rework is not intended to balance her but to explore a not all too different kit mechanically and more thematically distinct. Here is the current Queen of Pain for reference, and any unmentioned numbers are assumed to remain the same.

Credit to /u/CastilloCastillo for their great suggestions

Stats

Strength: 18 + 2.0
Agility: 22 + 2.5
Intelligence: 26 + 3.0
Move Speed: 300

Primary Abilities

Shadow Kiss
Blow a dark kiss to damage and hypnotize the first enemy it touches.

If it is above half health, the damage increases. If it is below half health, the duration increases.

The enemy loses 50% move speed while within 750 units of her.

Ability: Target Point
Mana Cost: 90, 110, 130, 150
Cooldown: 15
Range: 750
Radius: 75
Damage: Magical
Base Damage: 100
Base Duration: 1
Bonus Damage: 100, 200, 300, 400
Bonus Duration: 1, 2, 3, 4

The demonic allure of the Queen of Pain can be hard to resist, especially in the heat of battle.

Notes
Flicker
Blink to a location, granting her next 3 attacks within 6 seconds bonus damage.

The last attack critically strikes and causes her to return to her original location.

Ability: Target Point
Mana Cost: 90
Cooldown: 20, 16, 12, 8
Range: 1000
Damage: Physical
Bonus Damage: 50
Critical Damage: 140, 160, 180, 200%

Lovestruck victims and vengeful widows both find it difficult to pin down the Secret Queen.

Notes
Torment
Rune bind to an enemy hero for 10 seconds, preventing her from killing it.

All her damage against this target will be amplified and heal her for the extra damage.

Ability: Target Unit
Mana Cost: 75, 90, 105, 120
Cooldown: 20
Range: 1500
Damage Amplification: 20, 30, 40, 50%

While free from the binding of Elze, Akasha still delights in the drawn out suffering of her prey.

Notes

Ultimate Abilities

Scream of Pain
Unleash a scream of pain to mark and damage nearby enemy heroes for 10 seconds.

An enemy hero will scream in pain to damage nearby enemies if its mark is consumed.

Marks are consumed if the target is dispelled, loses 25% of its max health or dies.

Her own scream deals pure damage while enemy screams deal magical damage.

Ability: No Target
Mana Cost: 300, 450, 600
Cooldown: 100
Radius: 600
Damage: 180, 240, 300

"There will be pain, there will be screaming."

Notes

Hero Talents

+150 Flicker Bonus Damage
25
Shadow Kiss Hits All Enemies

+250 Shadow Kiss Damage over 5 Seconds
20
+50% Torment Debuff Duration Amplification

50 Damage
15
10% Cooldown Reduction

8% Spell Amplification
10
20 Move Speed

Talent Notes


  • The level 20 Shadow Kiss talent deals 50 damage per second. It always lasts 5 seconds regardless of the hypnosis duration.

  • The level 20 Torment talent works like an inverse of status resistance on the target. This only affects the duration if she is the source and does not affect itself.

  • The level 25 Flicker talent increases the bonus damage per attack to 200.

  • The level 25 Shadow Kiss talent makes it no longer stop on the first target hit and applies its effect to all enemies in its path.

Discussion


  • Let's talk about what's removed first that I'm sure a lot of QoPs have become accustomed to. First off, I dislike the current Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave. They're both generic nukes on the same kit and force targets to move from her. She's supposed to be a succubus, an alluring force that charms and attracts victims towards her, not away from her! So all these aspects because mechanically, they're boring and thematically, they're conflicting. I know the fear is optional but she takes that talent so much that it might as well be a part of the ability itself, which is also pretty degenerate game design. Meanwhile, the other level 25 talent is certainly interesting but with the recent rework to Counterspell, I don't think we need anymore blinking heroes with innate spell blocks. This reinvented Scream of Pain as her new ultimate preserves its current form but adds a new gameplay mechanic reminiscent of Echo Slam. Beyond its initial nuke, her team can then focus targets hit to start a chain reaction of heavy damage. The new thematic behind this spell is a little raunchy, but serves its purpose. The best way to counter this spell is to tank up with health, becoming more durable to increase the threshold.

  • Torment essentially incorporates part of her favorite item, Orchid Malevolence, into her base kit. It's similar to Bloodrage in how it increases damage dealt and gives her healing without having to wait for a level 20 talent, something every good soul-sucking succubus really needs. The high cast range lets her prime targets from afar to make her in-fight combo smoother or wait out its duration to then more easily execute it. However, performing this might make give her way and give them time to escape, so waiting to use it in battle might sometimes be the smarter choice. The ability might seem a bit confusing at first so here are some numbers to better illustrate it:

    1) Ignoring damage mitigation, imagine Queen of Pain has 100 attack damage and a Shiva's Guard.
    2) She casts a level 4 Torment on enemy hero A, with another enemy hero B closeby.
    3) She attacks A, dealing 100 + (50% of 100 = 50) = 150 damage to it.
    4) This heals her for the amount the spell added, which is 50 health.
    5) She activates Shiva's to cast Arctic Blast which has a base damage of 200, hitting both A and B.
    6) A takes 200 + (50% of 200 = 100) = 300 damage and heals for 100 health.
    7) B just takes 200 damage and does not heal her.


  • Hopefully that clears things up, and just imagine all that damage and healing post-mitigation. While her other spells seem to deal less damage by themselves, this new spell is the brand that will help her deal massive damage once more but only against a specific target. Borrowing from her lore and playing up her dominatrix theme, this spell also presents a drawback to the player, acting as a Shallow Grave at the same time. So it becomes a little dangerous for her to hunt by herself, requiring her team when played as a carry or her carries when played as a support. However, she can still keep focusing the near dead target to keep gaining health as the healing still works against it, so she has more choices in how she wants to keep the torture going.

  • The relatively generic Shadow Strike has been replaced by Shadow Kiss, a spell that is much more fitting in terms of her theme and more interesting in terms of how it works. It incorporates the new debuff seen in Sinister Gaze and Will-O-Wisp, effectively charming unfortunate targets into move harmlessly towards her. This walk turns into a desperate chase if she acts coy, allowing Queen of Pain to play a game of cat-and-mouse. When used to start a fight, it lets her retain her nuking capabilities to quickly weaken foes. When used near the end of one, it is a surefire way to guarantee the targets end. These two aspects work well in tangent with this proposed E debuff, loading all her damage at the front and leaving the victim to dry out once she's done playing. It is also now quite similar to Meat Hook, a devastating spell in terms of damage or disabling power provided she can land this shorter range skillshot. Thus, sometimes she might need to Blink in first to land it.

  • But that's now turned into Flicker, a relatively similar spell at first but different enough to make her even more different from Anti-Mage. The smaller distinction between both versions is that it now favors in combat usage like Phantom Strike by rewarding her with extra damage. The key difference is that using up all her attacks blinks her back to her original location, effectively negating the distance provided by the blink as well as any ground covered during that time. This causes another dynamic where she chooses between mobility by not attacking or not covering any ground to deal more nuke damage. Shadow Kiss and Flicker also present more interesting interactions. Blink in, attack first then charm them before land the final attack to snap back instantly, triggering the added move speed.

  • In terms of talents for this revamped Queen of Pain, the left side boosts her already great nuking capabilities while the right side lets her access and torture victims more easily. At level 20, choose between regaining the DoT for Q or granting E a new effect which is to lengthen her debuffs. Just imagine Arcane Supremacy where it only affects her debuffs and disables that are directed at the chosen target. At level 25, she can either give Flicker deadly damage potential or allow Shadow Kiss to charm up multiple targets. While reminiscent of the current talent for Shadow Strike but at a higher level requirement, remember that this new spell is a hard disable.

  • Overall, Akasha remains a strong damage threat in terms of both spells and attacks. In terms of mechanical changes, this rework focuses more on letting her focus on one target at a time but her ultimate still contributes to heavy area damage with coordination from her team. In terms of thematical changes, she should play better to her seductress theme as well as building up from her rather interesting lore. To those familiar with League of Legends, this rework is heavily inspired by both Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox and Evelynn, Agony's Embrace, that game's premier succubi. The W change is also partially inspired by LeBlanc, the Deceiver. These champions have kits that excellently blend together mechanics with their themes, which I tried to emulate here.

Quick Comment

You need to log in before commenting.

[-] Collapse All Comments

Sort Comments By
Loading Comments...
Load More Comments

DOTAFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new hero, or fine tune your favorite DotA hero’s build and strategy.

Copyright © 2019 DOTAFire | All Rights Reserved