Chen is a support hero who excels at pushing in the early and mid game. Holy Persuasion allows him to take control of jungle creeps and farm items like Arcane Boots and Mekansm that give his team an advantage in early game fights. The jungle creeps that Chen can dominate have massive early game kill potential, and they should be used to gank and assist the other lanes.
The ability to win early fights and Chen’s ability to sustain his team means that his team should be putting a lot of pressure on the enemy team in the early and mid game. He requires an ability to micro his units well in order to play him effectively.
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[/column]Chen Skill Build
- Holy Persuasion
- Penitence
- Holy Persuasion
- Test of Faith
- Holy Persuasion
- Hand of God
- Holy Persuasion
- Test of Faith
- Test of Faith
- Talent
- Test of Faith
- Hand of God
- Penitence
- Penitence
- Talent
- Penitence
- Hand of God
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Chen slows the target enemy and makes them take bonus damage from all sources. Usually, one level of Penitence is taken at the early levels so that you can use it when you gank your lanes to help score kills more easily. After that, it’s generally skilled lastly because it provides a percentage bonus, which scales less well than your other spells.
You should use Penitence on the biggest threat on the enemy team as it really helps your team to focus down the target. Alternatively, it can also be used to chase enemies, especially those that are hard to lockdown.
Chen deals a random amount of magical damage to the targeted enemy or heals the allied target for half the values. Chen can heal himself for the full values. Test of Faith is usually maxed secondly as it increases the nuke damage as well healing potential that Chen has during tower pushes. The damage from Test of Faith is pure, which means that it is amplified through Penitence and pierces passives that reduce magic damage. Keep in mind that the spell does have quite a long cooldown.
Chen teleports an allied hero back to the team’s fountain after a short delay. If cast on himself, he will send all units under his control to his position after a delay. When cast on his creeps, they are immediately sent back to base. When cast on enemy neutral creeps, they come under Chen’s control, able to use it fully until it is killed or until it is replaced by a new creep. Aghanim’s Scepter allows this spell to dominate a number of Ancient creeps equal to the skill level of Hand of God. Be aware of the high mana-cost of this spell at levels 3 and 4 – it can’t be used very frequently.
This spell is your key to jungling during the laning phase and gives you a lot of kill potential in the early game, depending on the creep. This skill is usually maxed first as it makes him a strong early game pusher and gives him even more kill potential. Avoid feeding dominated creeps to heroes that can instantly remove them in the early and mid game, and keep them away from damage in the late game, as the opponents get full gold and experience for killing them.
You can use this spell to send your mid player back to base if they are low to avoid them walking back to base to help them win their lane more easily. If you try to gank a side-lane and one of your cores end up with low HP, you should send them back if they have no way to quickly heal up. Because of the high mana-cost, it may be more worthwhile to not use this spell on a support or off lane hero, as it’s not as important for them to get back to farming.
It can be hard to judge if an ally needs to be sent back to base or if they have some means of turning the fight around in their favor, so judge the situation the best you can. In the worst case scenario, you guarantee the life of your carry and miss out on winning a fight or getting some kills, so it’s usually safer to just send them back.
There are too many creeps to go through them all in depth, but in short, the bigger creeps usually have stronger abilities and are better at ganking. Use Tab to cycle through the units and really take into consideration what abilities the heroes on the enemy team have when you use Holy Persuasion. For example, if you’re looking to gank a Dark Seer, you’ll find better use out of the creep with the purge, the troll with the net or the centaur with his stun. The bird and any creep with mana burn can be used to harass and zone the opponent mid laner to give your mid an edge in their lane.
In the early game, each large creep deals roughly as much damage as one hero, which really adds up in early skirmishes. You can also use melee creeps such as the Centaur or the Hellbear to body-block enemies. Right click on them once with your hero and then focus on the block. This way, you’ll also let your allies get more hits in on the enemy. If you need to go back to base with low HP/mana, you can still actively use your creeps to stack camps, last hit creeps in lane or just farm jungle camps. Try to keep creeps with valuable skills alive by sending them back to base. This also denies the opponent extra gold and XP if they’re about to die, so it’s often worth it.
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Chen heals every allied hero on the map, as well as any units under Chen’s control. Keeping your cores alive is a priority, so keep an eye on them and their situation at all times in Dota 2 esports. In certain situations, your core may end up dying despite the heal, so naturally you should save it in those situations. It has quite a long cooldown, but when you have it up you can look to push a tower with it, as it’s very strong in team-fights. Hand of God has a very high mana-cost so try to make sure you have mana to cast it if you have it near or off cooldown.
In most situations you’ll want to take the extra cast range. It helps you to cast Hand of Faith and Penitence which makes it easier for you gank enemies and save allies from a safer distance. The increased XP gain can be very good in games that are likely to last until the late game.
The reduced Test of Faith cooldown allows it to be cast every 6 seconds, which makes you much better at keeping your teammates alive and allowing you to nuke more enemies in fights. That said, Test of Faith has a relatively high mana cost. If you don’t need to tank up as you’re in little risk of dying to physical damage, then you may be able to get away with the reduced cooldown. It makes ToF a much stronger ability and is especially strong against heroes with high magic resistance.
The extra GPM will help you to get helpful late game support items such as Heaven’s Halberd or Solar Crest. If an additional 1000 HP on your creeps won’t help to keep them alive against their heroes, then the GPM will help you to stay relevant in the late game by helping you to get more items. If there is an item in particular that your team needs, then the GPM also may be needed more.
In some games you will need to end the game quickly or perhaps it’s just unlikely the game will last much longer, then the extra HP may help you to end it a bit faster. If you can make good use out of the passive or active abilities of certain creeps, particularly ones with low HP, then the additional HP will help keep them alive during fights. They will also be stronger pushers as they’ll be harder to kill, so if you need more tower damage then the HP might be good.
At level 25, the enemy team will usually be able to deal with your creep army quite well. This means that any more creeps will potentially give them more gold and possibly more XP. In contrast, the extra heal will give your entire team more survivability. Hand of God will still have a long cooldown, although it will be better at sustaining your team in fights and be a more significant spell. The heal from Hand of God will otherwise fall off somewhat in the late game as allies get more HP and enemies deal more damage. For these reasons, the heal is almost always a better talent choice.
As a support hero Chen should buy many support items. In addition to this, he can jungle very easily as long as he has mana, which means that he only really needs Clarities for regen. You can get a set of Tangos if you need to share some with your mid hero. After this, you can get either Boots of Speed or Wind Lace for more movement speed to make you better at early game ganks or you can buy every other support item, as you really don’t need the starting gold for anything else. You can get some Iron Branches to build either a Mekansm or a Magic Wand.
Arcane Boots are always the boots of choice for Chen and should always be gotten first. Almost all of his spells cost a lot of mana, and Arcane Boots will make sure that you can keep ganking and saving allies. You can also use them to replenish the mana of your creeps.
A Mekansm is almost always a great pickup. Chen is a very efficient jungler which means he can farm the gold required for a Mek quite quickly. With a Mekansm on your team in the early game, you will be able to pressure towers much more easily as you can sustain your heroes and your creeps. It will also give you an advantage in early game team-fights.
A Helm will give you the ability to dominate another creep which will make you an even stronger tower pusher. It will also give your teammates a decent attack speed and HP regen aura.
A Medallion will increase the damage that your creeps deal to a single target. It is best picked up in the early game, as the enemy team will be able to deal with your creeps in the mid and late game. Medallion is usually only picked up if you intend to get a Solar Crest, however.
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An Aghanim’s Scepter is a great mid to late game pickup as it will let you dominate Ancient creeps. Most of the Ancient creeps are magic immune and deal lots of physical damage which make them great high-ground pushers. Many of them also have strong active and passive abilities which make them capable of dealing lots of damage and buffing your allies in team-fights.
A Solar Crest is a good item if you are playing against some particularly tanky heroes. It will negate some of their evasion and reduce their armor, further increasing the damage that your creeps deal. This is particularly strong if you have several ancient creeps.
A Force Staff is a very strong pickup against heroes with strong slows or disables. You can use it your allies as well as yourself. Keep in mind that you can use it on your creeps to get them closer in range for their disables.
Glimmer Cape can be a good item to purchase against heroes that are able to focus you down or deal a lot of magical damage.
Pipe of Insight is a great item against lineups with lots of magical damage. It will make your team and your creeps much stronger against magical spells that can be used to defend towers, such as March of the Machines.
Guardian Greaves will combine your Arcane Boots and Mekansm if you have one. It’s worthwhile picking these up if you are facing lots of silences, as they prevent you from using your spells to save your allies.
A Vlad’s will give you more mid game team-fight potential as you will provide your allies with more damage, lifesteal and also an armor aura that your creeps also benefit greatly from.
A Scythe of Vyse is an expensive item, especially for a support hero, although it will provide your team with a very powerful disable. It’s very effective against heroes with strong mobility, or those that are hard to lockdown. This is the item to build on Chen, and one that many of the best Dota 2 players build as well.
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A Halberd can be a strong pickup against heroes with high physical damage, such as PA or Huskar. You don’t particularly benefit from the stats it provides you, although they do help to tank you up.
A Rod of Atos will give you lots of intelligence and tank you up a bit. It’s mainly purchased when you’re facing lots of heroes with high mobility or escape spells, like Anti-Mage or Puck.
A Ghost Scepter can be a good item to help you survive against physical damage if they are unlikely to purchase a Diffusal Blade.
A Necro book is usually avoided because it has a long cooldown and teams have a tendency to fight very frequently. It can be a decent pickup if you need more physical damage in fights and if you can benefit from the true sight it provides.
A Lotus Orb can be a great item against lineups with lots of single-target spells. It’s also another way to deal with silences, if you find yourself getting silenced frequently. Usually Guardian Greaves are a better choice to deal with this, although Lotus Orb will provide you with its own benefits.
A Meteor Hammer can be a good item on Chen if you need to capitalize on pushes and need a bit more control in team-fights. Usually there are more suitable items to get on Chen, although it massively increase the rate at which you take towers.
If you find that the enemy team is able to pick you off easily and prevent you from sending any allies back to base or using your ultimate, an Aeon Disk may give you a large enough window to use some defensive items and re-position yourself.
A Spirit Vessel can be a great item on Chen if you are facing a lineup with lots of very strong heals. If you get the Urn in the early game, it will have more chances to gain more charges as Chen tends to gank and push a lot in the early and mid game.
All of Chen’s abilities cost a lot of mana. Test of Faith and Hand of God also heal your allies, which makes the spell amplification more significant on a hero like Chen. It’s a great item against heroes that can burn your mana-pool.
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Any hero with a Midas can use it on your creeps to reduce your kill potential and to increase their GPM slightly.
Heroes such as Clinkz, Enigma and Doom can devour your creeps. Some of these heroes even gain bonuses depending on the consumed creep. In particular, Clinkz can gain lots of HP and damage from your creeps, especially if you have the level 20 talent which increases their HP.
These heroes can deal more damage if your creeps are near to one another, so try to keep them away from your allied heroes at all times.
AA can prevent your team from healing through Hand of God by using his ultimate which is on a very low cooldown. It will also prevent your allies from healing when they reach the fountain if you send them back on low HP. This means that they may end up dying anyway.
Any hero with a powerful AoE spell, cleave attack or cleave-like attack will be able to make swift work of your creep army.
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