Queen of Pain/Guide

Generic Queen of Pain
Queen of Pain has little room for different build orders. You will have to measure according to the enemy team's composition how many points in you will need in the early game (usually one) and if you absolutely need extra points in  (usually no). Otherwise max out as it's your all-purpose nuke and farming tool, take points in  whenever you can, max out blink in second to move around more efficiently....

Most QoPs will go in the mid lane, with a or a  and a couple of, and proceed to farm a. Blink will help you secure runes and go back to lane quicker. are usually your boots of choice, they will help you get the most out of your bottle through tread-switching.

From there, it's usually or  as your first major item, the first one for ganks on single targets while the latter is more for repeated teamfights and, to a lesser extent, farming.

QoP is a decent right-clicker thanks to her above-average 1.5 base attack time; and benefits from damage enough to justify any damage item like, or , but you can also focus on spell damage and utility with ,  or. Overall, there are very few items you should never build on QoP, being perhaps the most obvious.

QoP's skill build has little variation, whatever lane she's played in. Instead, you will have to figure out how you want/need to itemize her.

Spell-Oriented Queen of Pain
When focusing on spells, should probably be your first major item. Unless you're extremely far ahead, odds are a follow-up will have little effect as by then, most heroes might have a tool or an item to deal with it. on the other hand requires more coordination from the enemy. But if you're dying too quickly in fights, a might be more suitable to help you survive, or a  for extra armour and burst.

can purge off a silence, or it can buy you enough time to get a blink off. But it can also serve as a set-up for their disable, use it with care.

Finally, should be considered at one point as it brings 's cd down to 4.5 seconds and and upgraded  down to 30 among others.

Right-clicking Queen of Pain
gives a fair amount of right-click and helps you snowball if you can get it quick enough. It also upgrades into a terrifying. But unless you're facing tons of evasion, it probably should be upgraded after you get another big item or two.

provides plenty of armour and right-click, it's a safe choice if your team doesn't have one already. So is for similar reasons. Don't forget can help you survive, and it especially can help you get a defensive  out.

But if they have nothing to stop your trusty Blink, you can go all out and focus 100% on damage with an early and a, later upgraded into. Why not get a or a  while you're at it?

General

 * Queen of Pain is fairly straightforward to play as none of her damaging abilities require careful positioning or specific timings or combinations. Instead, like, Queen of Pain starts to shine through proper usage and good itemization, allowing her to farm with great efficiency and be a threat all over the map. Blink also allows her to jump in and out of fights for some potentially cheeky plays at low hp.
 * Her generic combo would be to blink in on a target and immediately use as it has no cast time, slow him down with a  to help land your . Follow with right clicks and an extra blink + scream to finish him off.... But you will usually have a couple of items you will need to add to the equation.
 * QoP is superb at chasing her prey, but is very delicate and is often in more danger from enemy towers than enemy heroes. Gearing for HP regeneration may be advisable, as in a critical situation you can Blink to an inaccessible place and wait to recuperate. Bottle will also help with this.
 * If being chased (a common situation for QoP), an often-useful tactic is to blink behind the enemies pursuing you. They will typically assume you blinked ahead and continue on in that direction, allowing for an escape.
 * A more cautious strategy is to run in without using Blink, saving it for a potential escape. This may be necessary against high-damage enemy heroes, as QoP is very frail and in encounters should try to avoid being attacked at all.
 * In a late-game encounter, QoP is best used by hiding until such time as the enemies' more powerful spells are on cooldown, allowing her to Blink in and inflict huge damage on multiple enemies owing to her AoE capabilities without putting her at risk of being killed by powerful spells.
 * Similarly to, QoP has very high burst damage capabilities, but is delicate and not suited to long encounters because of her spells' high mana costs. This can be remedied with items such as and , as well as  to reduce Sonic Wave's cooldown.
 * Be aware that will be calculated against the distance traversed should you Blink shorter than the max distance. You can avoid the damage by blinking max distance (1300 units) and moving immediately in that direction.


 * Shadow Strike's main purpose is to make your opponent's laning stage as miserable as possible, as the tick damage will prevent some of the heal of their bottle's regeneration. If they have no bottle, built-in regen or innate magic resistance, consider skipping it entirely, as an extra point in blink will help you more when ganking the side lanes.
 * Against ranged opponents, its low cast range makes it sometimes difficult to cast without taking a couple of right clicks first. Since it does only 200 damage with the DoT added in, these couple of right clicks evens out the damage you'll deal, so don't waste your mana.
 * When facing a melee opponent, it becomes suddenly very easy to cast, even justifying a second point in it.
 * It can -easily- be disjointed.
 * Honestly, if you're against purges and jumps and heals and magic resistance, you may as well skip it out entirely and level instead. Even in the ultra late game with nothing better to do, you could be better off with an extra right-click or two than with shadow strike's long cast time. But with a 4 second cooldown, it can be useful to perma-slow an opponent.


 * Your most important spell, though you only wish to max it out second.
 * Like every hero that relies on a spell for survivability, she becomes suddenly very vulnerable once it's on cooldown, and 6 seconds will seem like an eternity when the enemy team starts focusing you.
 * Unlike a, it has a considerable cast time, AND you must face the direction you're blinking in. This means that banishes like make a reliable initiation tool against you, and they will usually know where to look for you if you just jumped in the trees. Use your  immediately.


 * It hits invisible units.
 * It hits enemies up to 475 units away. That's more than you'd guess. You don't need to right on top of an enemy to hit it.


 * Its actual reach is way further than the visual effect: 1350 units. Its cast range is only 700.
 * It also hits invisible units.
 * It's relatively easy to mess up if you blink too close to your target. And since her blink range is so big, sometimes you will. Don't fret over it.
 * Note however that because her two main damaging spells are area-of-effect, they should be positioned to affect as many enemies as possible. For this reason, it is best to save Sonic Wave until such time as you can hit multiple enemy heroes with it.
 * Faceless Void's, Enigma's and Magnus's  work extremely well for setting up a Sonic Wave for maximum targets.

Items
Stating Items:
 * and es for health regeneration while in lane and a which help allow Akasha to use her abilities more often to assert her lane dominance.
 * Purchasing a and a, which can later be turned into a , will increase her already high base damage for easier last hitting.

Early Game:
 * Getting a will provide her with reliable health and mana regeneration. Queen of Pain's Blink ability grants her almost incontestable rune control allowing her to easily replenish Bottle charges.
 * give an increase in movement speed which can be very useful, especially when Blink is unavailable.
 * gives you much needed burst regen which can be used in emergency situations.
 * can be purchased to make last hitting even easier. This can be sold when not needed anymore or turned into a.

Core Items:
 * provides a nice increase to all attributes and burst regen.
 * increase Akasha's attack speed and attributes allowing her to be more durable which allowing her to output sustainable damage.
 * hugely reduces Sonic Wave's cooldown time, ensuring it is always available when it is needed. It also provides a useful increase in Sonic Wave's damage.
 * should always be carried to safely escape from or enter and contribute to fights.

Situational Items:
 * Akasha has strong burst damage and initiation speed, but lacks a good disable and can be killed easily if she blinks in carelessly. and  give her a strong disable to prevent the hero she blinks on from fighting back, as well as plenty of mana regeneration and a damage increase. Scythe of Vyse is better at shutting down right clickers while Orchid is good at stopping spell casters and escape-oriented heroes.
 * To improve your damage, you can get items like, , and , which is an option if the enemy team has many heroes that can become magic immune or have high magic resistance.
 * For defensive options, , and are luxury pickups that make you harder to kill while also providing utility and mana. The slow effects pierce BKB and the added HP/Armor/Spell Shield, respectively, help you survive long enough to blink to safety.
 * provides good stats at a fair price and the build-up is nice. Get one if your team can use the damage amp, but don't forget will not benefit from it.
 * is not too bad either to buff up your damage, the 200 extra range on blink is always nice, though the range is already so good you probably don't need it for this particular reason. Unfortunately, it doesn't add the cast range to Scream of Pain.
 * is also good on QoP, it helps you bring towers down and it deals an unsuspected amount of damage if you can blink on top of an opponent and use it immediately. Especially deadly paired up with a.