Queen of Pain/Counters

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Bad against...

Anti-Mage

• With balanced HP/Mana, Mana Void can quickly kill her before blinking.
• He is the only hero who can blink to chase her.

Arc Warden

• Sonic Wave is a bad choice in abilities if he and the Tempest Double both use Necronomicon and Blade Mail to reflect the damage to Queen of Pain, potentially killing her outright if her health is low enough.
• Magnetic Field protects himself or his ally from Queen of Pain's attack unless she has Monkey King Bar.
• One more advantage of Tempest Double is that he can deny himself if he is close to death with Shadow Strike's debuff.

Axe

• Berserker's Call prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink and also pierces her Black King Bar.
• Due to her fast attack speed from Mjollnir, it will quickly trigger Counter Helix.
• Culling Blade finish off Queen of Pain's low health pool before she gets a chance to escape, preventing her from playing the hit-and-run style often associated with Queen of Pain.

Bloodseeker

• Similar to Weaver, Bloodrage is the best tool to pop her spell block talent or her Linken's Sphere following up with Rupture.
• Blood Rite silences her, preventing her from initiating or escaping.
• With Thirst, even if she Blinks away, Bloodseeker can catch right up to her.
• Rupture will heavily damage Queen of Pain if she tries to Blink away.
  • She is, however, one of the few heroes who can avoid the damage from Rupture if she does it correctly.

Centaur Warrunner

• A good Centaur can catch Queen of Pain's Blink with a Blink Dagger and Hoof Stomp.
• Retaliate with Blade Mail reflects all of Queen of Pain's damage, especially Sonic Wave.
• Stampede grants a movement speed bonus, which can prevent Queen of Pain from initiating.
• Double Edge can shred her low health pool if she's not careful.

Death Prophet

• Silence will prevent Queen of Pain from using Blink to escape or chase.
• If Queen of Pain uses Blink to close the gap to Death Prophet, Death Prophet will be in range for Spirit Siphon and typically gain an advantage over Queen of Pain.

Disruptor

• Thunder Strike gives vision of Queen of Pain when she's trying to escape. When combined with Glimpse her mobility and hit-and-run style can be negated.
• While in a team fight, Static Storm forces Queen of Pain to only use right-clicks.
• When combined with the Kinetic Field, she can only wait until she respawns.

Faceless Void

• Time Walk and Backtrack allows Faceless Void to easily negate Queen of Pain's burst damage.
• Chronosphere prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink, and her low survivability makes her an easy kill.
• Time Dilation will prevent Queen of Pain from using her low-cooldown spells or force her to buy Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity to dispel the debuff and re-engage.

Legion Commander

• Duels prevents Queen of Pain from using Blink, which may force her to purchase a Linken's Sphere or go for the spell block talent.
  • Because Queen of Pain is also not a right-click hero, Legion won't have much difficulties in duels.
• Press the Attack dispels Shadow Strike's debuff.

Luna

• Aggressively blinking is not going to end well against Luna, because Queen of Pain will be an easy target for Lucent Beam & Eclipse.
• Queen of Pain's HP is abysmal, so Luna can quickly kill Queen of Pain as soon as she initiates with Blink.

Meepo

• Meepo is the hard counter for Queen of Pain - chain of Earthbinds prevents her from using Blink for a long time, and without any other escape options, Queen of Pain cannot survive several Poofs and attacks.
• Meepo tends to build items with attributes, mitigating Queen of Pain's magical burst.

Night Stalker

• Night Stalker has a huge, almost instant silence through Crippling Fear. The main problem is that he can get it off while Queen of Pain barely has any vision of him if he creeps up to her during Dark Ascension. She'll have to play very carefully before she gets a Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity.

Nyx Assassin

• A good Nyx can reflect Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave with his Spiked Carapace, or even initiate a gank on her in Vendetta while she farms a creep wave with Scream of Pain.
• Her strength to intelligence ratio is bad enough that he should be able to kill her without even requiring a Dagon, provided he can get his full combo off.

Puck

• Puck will make a game of dodging as many Shadow Strikes as he can with Phase Shift. If he's a good player, he will also dodge Sonic Wave. If he's a great player, he will also dodge Scream of Pain. All through a single spell.
• Puck also has a silence to stop her blink with Waning Rift.
• Puck will have vision to hunt her down if she blinks into the trees with Illusory Orb.
• If Queen of Pain is under the effect of Dream Coil, she will be unable to blink out.

Shadow Shaman

• Shadow Shaman has many disables to lock down Queen of Pain, preventing her from Blinking away, even through Linken's Sphere or her spell block talent.
• Mass Serpent Ward can tear through Queen of Pain's low health pool once she's locked down by Hex & Shackles.

Skywrath Mage

• A good Skywrath Mage with quick fingers will punish Queen of Pain for blinking aggressively. Ancient Seal is a six second silence with no cast time, so he can interrupt either her Shadow Strike or Sonic Wave, and a good Mystic Flare on top of that will seal the deal for her.
• Ancient Seal also has pretty good range so he could get it off before she blinks away.

Others

• Every kind of silence and lockdown is deadly to Queen of Pain: Global Silence, Doom, etc.
• Any spell that keeps vision on you prevents your ability to stay safe after blinking away.
• Roots are deadlier on Queen of Pain than on most heroes. Frostbite and Overgrowth will hurt.

Items

• Blade Mail can reflect all her nukes, especially Sonic Wave.
• Orchid Malevolence silences her, preventing from escape or releasing her magic burst. It can later be upgraded to Bloodthorn which allows anyone to make short work of her.
• Rod of Atos prevents Queen of Pain from escaping or initiating.
• Scythe of Vyse and Abyssal Blade have instant disables.

Good against...

Drow Ranger

• Often you can burst Drow Ranger down before she has a chance to try and Gust you away. Try to have a teammate bait her Gust out before you Blink and get the drop on her.

Enchantress

• Untouchable won't mitigate magic damage, and a squishy Enchantress is very vulnerable to Queen of Pain's magic burst.

Huskar

• He's the kind of hero that likes to remain at low hp, which is perfect for Queen of Pain to burst with Sonic Wave.
• You should be able to blink away after he jumps on you with Life Break.

Slark

• Both Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave should hit him during his Shadow Dance.

Others

• Once you farm up an Orchid Malevolence or a Scythe of Vyse, you're suddenly a lot more fearsome to elusive heroes like Storm Spirit or even that pesky Puck.

Works well with...

Axe

• Berserker's Call can be make a nice set-up for a multi-hitting Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain which in turn can bring them low enough for Culling Blade.

Dark Seer

• Vacuum will make a nice set-up for a multi-hitting Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain.
• Surge can help you escape if your Blink is still on cooldown or you're silenced.

Enigma

• Black Hole can set up enemies for a multi-hitting Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain.

Faceless Void

• Chronosphere will make a nice set-up for Queen of Pain to use her nukes effectively.

Lifestealer

• Queen of Pain is a good ally to Infest as she gives Lifestealer a good gap closing ability and followup magic burst.

Magnus

• Reverse Polarity will make a nice set-up for a multi-hitting Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain.

Omniknight

• Omniknight's Purification and Guardian Angel can keep Queen of Pain alive and in the middle of the fight, thus providing better positioning for her nukes.

Others

• Though Queen of Pain is a strong initiator in her own right, she is very fragile and you should be hesitant to jump in without vision. She prefers when she has a proper, tanky, full-fledged initiator that can do this job for her like Tidehunter, Earthshaker, Sand King etc.
• Any hero that can keep her alive just long enough to get a retreating Blink off can make the difference, provided they don't have global-hitting spells like Thundergod's Wrath.