Max Shadow Strike QoP?

Hey friends!

Was just thinking about why people max Scream of Pain over Shadow Strike on QoP. While Scream does scale better with damage (being AOE), the Dagger scales much better otherwise: Higher cast range, a greatly reduced cooldown, and higher damage (over time AND initial).

once you hit level 6 you want fast pick offs. Also if we are talking about damage potential, Scream of Pain actually beats Shadow Strike thanks to its aoe component.

Shadow Strike is an amazing lane domination skill however, and its not that rare to see people go for 2 points into it and only then going for Scream of Pain

Actually pro players do prioritize maxing shadow strike over scream.
However, it's so they can win the lane easily and farm easily.
If you plan on ganking a lot max scream

well they dont max it, they sometimes get 2 points if they feel they need it.

I think the standard QoP skill builds is 2-1-2-1 in the laning stage by 6, maxing Scream and Blink afterwards.

Since whilst Strike deals more damage overall, QoP wants the burst damage more than the harass outside of the laning stage, since it both makes her a better ganker, and increases her farming capabilities.

the second point in dagger is needed during laning stage. i pretty much always go q-w-q-e-e-r

dagger does some huge damage increase at level 2 so its always worth it early game.

I will experiment with the build, but from what I understand, the primary value of Shadow Strike early on is in the harassment potential as well as the slow, rather than for the actual damage output. The most apparent benefits are the decreased cool down, as well as the increased cast range. During the laning phase, the cast range should never really be an issue, as it's main use is harassing enemies away from the lane (who should easily be within the level 1 range) and assisting in banks (in which case you should be very close). As far as the cool down goes, the only benefit would be increased harassment potential, which in my opinion, is largely unnecessary considering the strong lane presence QoP already has. For banking, you should really only need to cast once in order to secure the kill by allowing your allies to catch up with the fleeing hero. If you feel the need to cast Shadow Strike multiple times during a single gank, you likely had a subpar initiation, as they should be dead by the first burst during their attempted escape in a successful gank attempt. Any more, and you have already either dove too deep, or chased too long and are risking intervention by teammates of the fleeing hero.