Akasha, Delightful Ganker

I would just like to say that aghs on her is sooooo good. Get it after the bottle and boots. It enables you to use your ult in almost every team fight as well as in most 1v1 situations. Definitly a +1

I disagree with the lack of bottle very much so.
Even if this Tinker who can, by some miracle, run faster than a Qop, and is searching for runes without a bottle, is taking your runes, you can still bottle-crow.

Second, stats over Shadow Strike is just a waste of skill points. It essentially shuts down a support, or lets you kite a non-bkb carrying carry around for days.
Plus if you get it off before they pop BKB, they are still slowed.

Item choices are good.
Personally I go
Starting regen + branches
Bottle-treads-Orchid-Aghs-BKB- ???

Nice guide ;-)

nice guide i'm getting better with this hero

ty, i got a rampage using your build today. It was my first time playing her :D

Where is ONE word about her ult in Notes section again? What did i miss here exactly?
Where is even one word about buttle in there? Unless you are referring to another invisible notes section.

The only explanation you have for not taking ult at 6 is that you can follow it up by levle 2 at 11... and that mana cost is huge... The trade of for not taking ult and CRIPLING you burst by half... is a whoping 2 seconds of blink and 100 range. Double the burst or 2 seconds of blink... hard choice clearly.

The word bottle is mentioned ONCE in your guide in rune section and has an IF in front of it.


There are 3 different decisions which you manage to confuse and mesh together.

1) Ult at 6 or at 10.
Criple your burst by half or get 2 seconds of blink (or 1 more level of Q).
4/5 ganks at 6-10 end in under <5 seconds, someone is nuked down + 2-3 autos and they are dead. So heaving 2 seconds of blink is worthless in majority of the cases. The ONLY time it will help you is if fight lasts between 10 and 12 seconds where You with level 2 blink can blink twice and i will only blink once. How often does this happen.. lets be gentle and say it is rare...
At level 7 people most heroes have 700-800 hp, wave + scream is 650 damage is 487 damage after reduction that is more then half, add in just ONE nuke(stun) for 225 (level 3 since it is side lane) and now we are in 650 damage add in just few autos (or hero not being at full hp )and it is dead in <3 sec. Ok honestly if you dont see how 650 instant damage is better then 300 + 2 seconds of blink i cant explain it to you.

2) To level or not to level Q past level 1. 435 damage and 50% slow vs 150 damage and 20% slow.. + 6 to all stats... if you think that somehow magically 6 stats will give you 300 extra damage you are wrong so you are losing on damage and slow for some hp and mana, extra mana is not enough to cast even one scream. Expecially in you build the extra stats come at level 12-14 where + 6 to all stats is HARDLY gamebreaking. However 50% and extra 300 damage can be.

3) What to level second Q or W. That is the only viable choice. And yes for newer player leveling W might be a better choice untill they get use to qop more. Fair i ll give you that, but then that is not what you were proposing exactly.


On the level one shadow strike.... "level 1 shadow strike has won me plenty of mid lanes both in dota 1 and dota 2, perhaps your underestimate it ? "

First of i do get SS at level 4 because it does come in handy once in a while, at such low level. I mean it has a huge damage output for level 1 spell. Second of when you play qop correctly and actually do have have and use her ult then you are very pressed for mana and might not have enough for SS. The again instant 350 damage or 150 over 15 seconds + 20% slow? Especially in mid lane where hiding at your tower takes less then 4-5 seconds.
That said if you do have mana for it then it can easily make or break the kill. So if your ult is down or you do not have mana for sceam ult or you have mana for all 4 spells then yes by all means use it.


"I believe it's far easier for a newbie to learn a hero without burdening the process for them by adding un-needed mana management (esp in normal/high skill levels) to the process"
Lawl at this rate you should just take stats only, helps last hitting, and Zero un-needed mana managment. I am not sure how having huge aoe and range 350 damage nuke can qualify as un-needed. If you dont have mana for it, THEN dont use it. The price you pay for taking ult is ONE LEVEL of blink in your build. Even given the fact that your extra level of blink can be used in more ganks then ult it still not even remotely close in usefullness.

You dont agree with what part? What does leveling Q and E have anything to do with taking ult at level 6? Are you refering to having 1 level higher Q then you would if you took ult? Or that you level Q first? Or that you level Q over W? What is your point? I am not saying you are wrong, i am just saying you have no point thus it can't be right or wrong.

I don't agree with this part, if I'm ganking a lot I max Q and E first since i'll inform my teammates to setup the gank. That's my personal taste of it though, I'll get ult before lvl 10 depending if there seems to be a lot more teamfights than expected.

I guess you missed the "Notes" section



By not maxing your blink you make your hero weaker in general, even more vulnerable to slows than usual.
This is not a guide made for someone who obviously has a pretty good idea about how the queen is meant to roll, it's more for newer ppl coming from other games or that never played before, survivability comes first over everything else here, once they get to play this style properly (little to no deaths, tons of assists/kills) I'm sure they'll have no trouble re-adapting the hero to their liking.



Early on you do not kill alone, you have allies to help you secure the kill (ganking sidelanes), after boots+null you have enough mana to sustain your Scream of Pain easily in a gank which grants consistent reliable damage bursts. I spoke about reasons behind getting ult at lvl 6 in the "Note" section.
I believe it's far easier for a newbie to learn a hero without burdening the process for them by adding un-needed mana management (esp in normal/high skill levels) to the process.
They can build their own style once this one is mastered. (it's the easiest one to master without leaving too much out imo)



level 1 shadow strike has won me plenty of mid lanes both in dota 1 and dota 2, perhaps your underestimate it ? (costs only 80 mana)
Again you are sacrificing defense for offense, this is the route of a more experienced qop player, not for the ones that just started playing her, it's all about personal preference.
The slow starts off at 50% (at lvl 4) and slowly decreases over 15 seconds.
The description is incomplete, will fix that.

What a terrible guide. I dont even know where to start.

As has been pointed out bottle is 99% required on her and utterly amazing yet it is not even in suggested items.

Level 1 shadow strike is a waste of mana, 20% slow for 3 sec is barely noticable. More oten then not it will just cause you to not have enough mana for another blink or scream. IT USE TO BE 1 point wonder when it gave same 50?? % slow at all levels. Now it needs to be maxed or dont take it at all. But there is really no reason to not take it. It does a **** ton of damage 125 + 60x5 that is 425 damage... 3 sec 50% slow is also very important, it allows your team to catch up during chases. (the strike description is clearly off it does not slow for 15 seconds, i am pretty sure slow duration is only 3 sec, 15 sec 505 slow would be OP.)

In fact i prefer to keep blink at level 1 and max shadow strike by lvl 10. You just have to be carefull about your blink, chances are you only get 1. However you dont have mana to do much more then blink + combo.

No ult at level 6? What are you smoking? Why would you just give up a 600 damage burst? Because it drains your mana? So what? at this point it damn near kills people from full hp with scream + ult that is 650 damage instantly at level 7. Instead you choose to do 600 damage over 9 seconds with blink scream blink scream for more mana?

Early on you do not have hp or mana to chase people and scream them to death, you are a burst caster blink can be used to supprise or saved for escape.

Maxing out blink is possible vs a dangerous teams i guess but more often then not: dangerous teams are teams with mass disables where better blink will not help you.

Nyx is another great hero that can introduce you to ganking

Thanks, I'll try this out. I just randomly picked QoP yesterday and had fun playing her, and also seemed to do better than normal with her. Ganking doesn't come all that naturally to me, to be honest, so playing as he is a good way for me to teach myself (though I have to say, the fact no one seems to ward in the low level matches I'm playing doesn't help...)