A Reign of Pain: Newbee.Sccc's QoP in DotA 7.01
When EG defeated Wings and Newbee in two convincing 2–0 victories at the China TOP LAN at the start of 7.00 a couple of weeks ago, two heroes stood out: Universe’s offlane Underlord, which was used with Io-like global ability in mind, and SumaiL’s Queen of Pain. SumaiL played two amazing games on the hero that showed a new build off. He started off with an early Veil and eventually picked up the duo of Octarine Core and Blademail. The items, combined with QoP’s level 25 70% spell lifesteal talent and her level 12% CD Reduction, give QOP 95% spell lifesteal and damage reflection during the 4.5 second blademail active. The blademail CD is also reduced to around 12 seconds, giving her plenty of uptime. Combine those factors with AoE spells that can hit multiple heroes (creeps get reduced spell lifesteal), and a 4-hero Shivas + Scream combination give a base 1900 heal. That’s before the reflection which also heals, by the way. Suffice to say, it makes a level 25 QoP painful to deal with, and a nerf in the next subpatch seems almost certain.
Enter Sccc, who himself experienced the SumaiL QoP firsthand at the last LAN. He has since played 6 professional games on the hero, two in the Chinese CDEC inhouse league, one in a DPL match against IG.Vitality, and three games on the opening day of ESL One Genting. Sccc has managed to put his own spin on the hero, straying away from the Veil of Discord Sumail popularized (and which is now running wild through the meta). Instead, he’s opened with an Orchid or Euls, following a more defensive oriented item and eventually picking up a Shivas before even touching the Octarine and Blademail. It’s a small sample size, but it should be a nice sign to QoP fans that perhaps a nerf to the blademail build won’t spell the end of her brief return to the meta. Without further ado, let’s take a quick look at the 3 games Sccc played, and what it means for the rest of Newbee’s ESL One hopes.
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Match 1, Game 1: vs. NP (https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2897074199)
Sccc got off to a strong start in the laning stage, getting the best of Eternal Envy’s Windranger in their (mostly) 1 on 1 lane. This demonstrates two of QoP’s early game strengths; not only is she strong in most 1 on 1 matchups (save exceptions like Puck), she frees up room for her supports to roam or pressure enemy lanes. It was admiteddly a great performance by the Newbee supports as well, securing some kills on the safelane Luna. Ultimately, the game dragged on for a bit due to NP’s defensive oriented lineup, and Newbee needed the blademail and OC to arrive for QoP to finally finish off the Luna.
Sccc picked up a Euls in place of Veil early on, despite starting off with two Null Talismans. The Euls kept him topped off on mana, provided a means of stopping SB charge, and gave him an vital TP cancel. He would double down and buy a Linkens after, helping keep his death count at just one, then Bloodthorn to secure kills on Windranger and disrupt DS’s combo. Shivas Guard helped with the super fast NP lineup. In retrospect, all of Sccc’s purchases made tons of sense, which shows some insight as to why blademail was not rushed and Veil was skipped. In all 3 games, Sccc opted for the same opening talents, +20 damage and +12% CD Reduction.
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Match 2, Game 1: vs. VP(https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2897294037)
This game saw a slightly different draft for the QoP, reminscent more of EG’s drafts, which included a 4 position Slardar in both games and a safelane Weaver in one. Slardar was banned in the first phase, but Newbee did pick up a support Weaver and a safelane Drow, giving Newbee a reliable save and some big damage boosts for QOP. Newbee made a conscious decision as a team to quintuple down on invisbility, picking up shadow blades on QoP and Drow and a Glimmer Cape on Witch Doctor. That created a nightmare for the enemy Jugg, who could no longer solo kill a single enemy hero. Sccc actually went Silver Edge in two previous games in DPL and CDEC IHL(https://www.dotabuff.com/esports/players/149486894/matches?date=patch_7.01&hero=queen-of-pain), so it isn’t too out of the ordinary and seems a solid, if a tad risky, option. Disruptor’s presence required a BKB, but besides that, Sccc’s build still retained the Bloodthorn and Shivas, and ended the game before he could build Octarine.
QoP would end up being the main damage dealer, with Drow being too squishy and eventually just being a walking aura for the QoP to further deal right click damage. In fact, Newbee even opted to give the second Aegis to QoP after realizing it was better utilized on her. It’s worth noting that Jugg and Luna both had BKBs, (in addition to Jugg Spin), so QoP was dealing a lot of physical damage to kill them, and had no use for Veil
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Match 2, Game 3: vs. VP(https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2897508853)
Newbee retained their entire lineup from the game against NP, Going for the Naix-QoP-CW-Mirana-SD set that is full of great combos and some of the best heroes of the meta. It’ll be shocking if they’re allowed it a third time. The Newbee support duo picked up a very early first blood on the Abaddon, who was trying to dual mid with SF, and it all went downhill from there as Sccc picked up a second kill, this time on the SF, before 2 minutes. QoP was against just one stun, that of the Slardar, but once she bought a Euls it became even tougher to lock her down long enough. VP’s ultra greedy support duo of Weaver-Abaddon was unable to help any of their 3 lanes, and all they had to show for it was a bit of farm on SF. QoP picked up a 24 minute Shivas to end her armor problems, and she was essentially unkillable. It is more difficult to glean useful information from this game as it was so one-sided and came down to a draft error for VP, but given the fact that VP were forced to sit a melee hero mid essentially ensured they lost all 3 of their lanes. QoP’s survivability and kill potential in lane secured her three kills very early on and allowed her to 1v2, and there isn’t much more you can ask out of your mid lane. There were some saves from Shadow Demon, which fits with Newbee drafting a defensive hero each game to protect the QoP a bit just in case her multiple lines of defense and disengagement run out.
Final Thoughts
We may not even see any more Sccc QoP at Genting with the 3 games he played so well. If QoP does get through the bans stage , It almost certainly won’t be in Newbee’s ultra comfortable lineup. There are still some questions about what these games mean for the meta, though. EG have yet to play again, so for now we have no idea if Sccc’s build is an alternative to Veil, or an outright replacement. In addition, in the 5 major LAN games played, all 5 included some sort of physical damage boost or negative armor for QoP to benefit from. Can she still be a powerhouse without that extra right click damage to finish off her foes? With her level 25 still being a ticking time bomb, it seems possible, but it also seems inevitable that teams will now be preparing much more fiercely and won’t get caught off guard. Barring any massive nerfs to multiple aspects of QoP’s playstyle, she looks to be a mainstay in 7.00x in at least some capacity, and SumaiL and Sccc are the pioneers that brought her here.
