Queen of Pain

Akasha the Queen of Pain is a ranged intelligence hero who uses her abilities to close in and deal huge area damage to the enemy. She is typically played as a ganker with her ability to appear in battle and deal damage in quick succession, as well as hunt down fleeing heroes with ease. Her Blink ability is the lynchpin of her skill set, allowing her to enter and leave fights at her whim. Once in position to attack, Akasha can unleash her Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave, able to devastate an entire team at once. Chasing down straggling prey is another of her fortes, with Shadow Strike crippling their ability to escape. Akasha is very adept at getting kills early in the game, and transitions very well into a semi-carry if she acquires the proper items.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

Trivia

 * Akasha is the name (or variant of the name) of the fifth element in many religions such as Hinduism, Wicca (or other Neopaganism), with its roots deriving from ancient Paganism. "Akasha", when translated to English (from Sanskrit), means "aether" (air/spirit, depending on context). This element is seen/represented as the top point of a pentagram, a symbol sometimes misused as one of evil (there is no devil-esque figure in Paganism), and could have been intended to show or derive from Queen of Pain's sadistic nature. 's Doom skill icon is a regular pentagram, so it might be a misconception held by the DotA staff and reasoning for her name. A regular pentagram on someone, ignoring misconceptions, is actually protective.
 * The name Aether is one of the many references Dota 2 makes to Greek mythology, as it is derived from a Greek deity of the same name.
 * Akasha is also the name of the Queen of the Damned from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles novel series, which could have inspired Queen of Pain's name, who, in turn, could have derived her name from the above roots.
 * Scream of Pain's and Sonic Wave's sounds are based on some voice lines of Queen of Pain. Scream of Pain is based on this Pain pain 12.mp3, while Sonic Wave uses a part of this Pain pain 17.mp3.
 * Queen of Pain's dying line "Your queen is dead" is possibly a reference to The Smiths' album, The Queen is Dead.
 * Most of Queen of Pain's abilities were derived from the Warcraft III Night Elf hero, the Warden, with Sonic Wave being the only new ability introduced, replacing Vengeance. Fan of Knives was also substituted for Scream of Pain with the same effect, though an older version of Queen of Pain did have the Fan of Knives ability.
 * Queen of Pain's response for killing Phantom Assassin "Blink! You're dead." likely refers to the popular Dr. Who episode "Don't Blink" in which the Doctor says, referring to Weeping Angels, "Don't blink, don't even blink. Blink, and you're dead."