Introduction
“So begins the persecution.”
Chen is a ranged intelligence support jungler. Much like Enchantress, Chen is an incredibly efficient jungler who converts creeps to fight for him. As well as being famed for building a fearsome pushing army of neutral creeps, Chen also is also well known for his global healing ability.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- A very efficient jungler
- Very strong pusher
- Has a global heal
- Test of Faith is great for clutch saves
- Decent pure damage nuke
- Strong damage amplification that is effective at all stages of the game
Cons
- Some mana issues until Arcane Boots
- His impact largely falls of in the late game
- Very micro-intensive (second most micro-intensive hero in the entire game)
- High skill floor and skill ceiling
- Squishy
Item Build
Chen is an efficient jungler who uses converted neutral creeps to help kill jungle camps and take their damage output. Because of this Chen doesn’t actually need any health regeneration at the start of the game. He doesn’t, strictly speaking, need any mana regeneration either. Because of his regen item independence he’s freed up at the start to invest his starting gold in a mix of supportive items for the team and components for items he’ll later purchase.
A pretty typical starting item set-up for Chen is something like this:
- Courier, Observers Wards, 2x Iron Branches, Ring of Protection, Clarity.
Other common starting items include: Sentry Wards (to deward the pull camp or for your safe lane to plant if the enemy offlaner is an invis hero) and Smoke of Deceit (if you intend to gank early on, especially ganks on the mid lane so that you can avoid being spotted by enemy Observer Wards).
Early Game
Upgrade the Courier into a Flying Courier at the 3 minute mark, and continue to buy Observer Wards whenever they come off cooldown.
Outside of support items, you first early game pick-up should be some Boots of Speed, which you’ll later upgrade into Arcane Boots.
There are a couple of situational early game pick-ups to consider as well. First of all, a Ring of Basilius is great early on for Chen both for the mana regeneration and for the armor aura, which will help tank up your creep army as well as allied heroes and units when it comes to pushing down early towers.
Another cheap but cost effective item to consider is a Medallion of Courage. It’s not as common as a Ring of Basilius on Chen, but the mana regeneration will help a lot and the minus armour is seriously under-estimated in public games. It also opens up the possibility for an early Roshan for your team.
Core Items
Arcane Boots are a no-brainer on Chen; they allow you to use his abilities – all of which are actives that have fairly hefty mana costs – freely. At the same time it’s pretty much essential on a Mekanism carrier.
Talking of which, Mekanism is your go-to big ticket core item purchase - it’s absolutely necessary for your team and as an efficient support jungler you’re almost certainly the team’s best candidate to purchase it. As a healing-based support with a creep army, it’s also a perfect extension to your own hero role and abilities.
Luxury Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – +200 health, +100 mana, and +10 all stats are all fantastic to have on a support hero that needs all the stats he can get, but the buff to his ultimate is what makes Aghanim’s Scepter such a great luxury item for Chen, reducing its cooldown from a lengthy 160/140/120 seconds to just 30 seconds, meaning you’ll essentially have access to it for each teamfight.
As of Patch 6.82. Aghanim's Scepter now also allows Holy Persuasion to target Ancient Creeps (maximum 1 Ancient Creep per level of Hand of God) - a very fun and powerful buff.
Note, also, that creeps spawn every 30 seconds, so if your team is waiting in between waves to attempt to push high ground you’ll have access to Hand of God during each attempt if necessary.
Drums of Endurance – A solid pick-up because they give your team and creep army bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die).
Quick rule of thumb – purchase Drums as a luxury item on Chen if no one else on your team has them yet, as their team utility alone will make them a good choice.
Vladmir’s Offering – Yes, you’re ranged, so you won’t get the lifesteal bonus from Vlad’s, but you’re not buying it for yourself, you’re buying it for your team and creep army. Vladmir’s Offering is great to pick up on a support even if your team doesn’t consist of any melee heroes because of the bonus damage and armour it provides. If your team does have a melee core and no one else has purchased one then it’s an excellent utility item to purchase.
Since Ring of Basilius is a pretty common early game pick-up on Chen, Vladmir’s Offering becomes a natural extension to your inventory later on.
Necronomicon – Great way of further augmenting your pushing potential and a good way to finally break the base if your team is struggling to do so. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes, and it gives you some good stat gain too.
Ghost Scepter – The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Force Staff – You can never go wrong with Force Staff on a support hero (make sure you actually use the active!). It will help to mitigate your own lack of mobility and/or positional skill. It's also great for clutch escapes or chases and also gives you even more utility for your teammates (you can use Force on allied heroes, yourself, and enemies).
Scythe of Vyse – A fantastic luxury item for any intelligence hero. Good stats, fantastic mana regeneration, and 3.5 seconds of enemy disable. The prohibitive cost as well as the greater importance of buying other items (Arcanes, Mekanism, Aghanim’s Scepter) makes it a very late game option on Chen though; in the vast majority of games you simply won’t be able to afford it on him.
Heaven’s Halberd – A fantastic anti-carry item, thanks to the ability to disarm an enemy core for 3.0-4.5 seconds, Halberd will also give you a much-welcome chunk of health and evasion, making you a fair bit tankier
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – Smoke of Deceit is a great way to gank without being spotted by enemy Observer Wards, so you may wish to purchase Smoke at the start if you intend to gank early on, especially if you want to gank the mid lane.
Pipe of Insight - Not an ideal pick-up if you bought the team’s Mekanism (having both on one hero is very risky, especially a squishy support like Chen), but always a good item to have if the enemy team has any magic damage (which they almost certainly will). Quick rule of thumb: definitely go for it if you didn’t buy the Mekanism earlier.
Skill Build
Penitence is a slow and damage amplification ability. It is always skilled and maxed last. Penitence slows the target unit by 14/18/22/26% and increases the damage that unit takes by 14/18/22/26% for 5/6/7/8 seconds.
Although skilled and maxed last, Penitence is arguably Chen’s most important ability heading into the mid and late games. When his other abilities begin to trail off in effectiveness, the damage amplification from Penitence is percentage based and so scales superbly as your team’s damage output increases.
Test of Faith is a pure damage nuke when used on enemies and a teleportation ability when used on allies. It is always skilled and maxed second. Test of Faith deals 50-100/100-200/150-300/200-400 pure damage when used on enemy units. It has a 600 unit range and a 24 second cooldown.
When used on allied units, Test of Faith teleports the target to your fountain. If cast on creeps the teleportation effect is instant. When cast on heroes the teleportation effect has a 6/5/4/3 second delay. When cast on yourself it teleports all of your units to you. It also has a 24 second cooldown, but is independent of the nuke’s cooldown.
Holy Persuasion allows Chen to convert neutral creeps to fight for him. It is always skilled and maxed first and is the ability which allows Chen to jungle. At the cost of 100 mana, Chen is able to convert enemy or neutral creeps to fight for him. He can ‘Persuade’ 1/2/3/4 creeps and those creeps are given a bonus 75/150/225/300 health.
Holy Persuasion used to only grant an additional creep once it was skilled to level 3, and so you were better off putting two points in Test of Faith in a row at levels 2 and 3, and waiting until levels 4 and 5 before investing more points in Holy Persuasion. This is no longer the case, and guides that suggest otherwise are out-of-date - each level now grants Chen the ability to take over a new creep. Therefore you can skill it at levels 1, 3, 5 and 7.
Using the ability when you already have the maximum amount of creeps allowed will kill off the oldest one you persuaded.
Hand of God is a global healing ability. It is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). Hand of God full heals any creeps under his control and instantly heals allied heroes on the battlefield by 200/300/400 health. It costs 200/300/400 mana to use and has a cooldown of 160/140/120 seconds.
Gameplay Tips
Penitence is incredibly valuable in teamfights, especially in the mid and late game. Try to cast it on high priority enemy targets at the start of engagements (although not those with spell immunity) – the damage amplification will make your entire team’s attacks much more potent.
Test of Faith is a very strong nuke early on, as it deals pure damage not magic damage. When ganking be sure to use it on the target if you get within range.
Test of Faith (Teleport) is fantastic for making clutch saves of allies during teamfights. The key is to cast it on an allied hero that is being focussed by the enemy team and who is highly unlikely to win the manfight (as opposed to a carry that is able to quickly turn things around, such as Terrorblade). Be sure to keep in mind the 6/5/4/3 second delay though.
Outside of teamfights, Test of Faith (Teleport) is great to use on allied heroes that are attempting to juke the enemy. If they’re able to keep up their juking antics long enough for the teleport delay to count down then you’ll be able to allow them a clean escape.
You can, as of patch 6.83, cast Test of Faith on yourself to teleport all of your units to you.
Alternatively, it can simply be used to teleport an allied hero back to base so they don’t have to use a Teleport Scroll of their own, thereby saving them 135 gold at the cost of just 200 of your mana.
| Tip: Test of Faith (Teleport) can be used in conjunction with Puck to grant her a free teleport to and from base. Cast it on her, then just before she gets sent back to the fountain she should cast Illusory Orb. Puck then has a short window in which to regen and purchase items before using Jaunt to travel back to her Illusory Orb. |
Being able to dominate a neutral creep at level 1 using Holy Persuasion makes Chen a very strong level 1-3 ganker. Ideally you want to take over a Centaur Conqueror or Dark Troll Summoner initially, as they are the only neutral creeps with stuns/disables, which makes them great for ganking. These two creeps remain useful at all stages of the game.
If neither of those are available, then Ghosts and Hellbear Smashers are also decent options for ganking, as they have good slow abilities.
If you want to help out your mid or safe lane by harassing the enemy hero but not necessarily by ganking, then Harpy Stormcrafters and Wildwing Rippers are amazing at zoning out enemy laners and forcing them back away from the creep line (the former using Chain Lightning and the latter using Tornado).
Other useful creeps include: Satyr Tormentors (magic damage nuke and a health aura), Alpha Wolves (bonus damage aura), Wildwing Rippers (armor aura), Centaur Conquerors (stun), Ogre Frostmage’s (ice armor active), and even Kobold Foremen if your options are limited (move speed aura).
| Tip: You can use Holy Persuasion on enemy creeps as well, including those converted by enemies using Helm of the Dominator, or those Enchanted by Enchantress. Taking over these also grants them the same health bonus as any other creeps you use Holy Persuasion on. |
Hand of God has a lengthy cooldown (160/140/120) but don’t be stingy with it – if an ally is getting dangerously low on life but has the chance to escape then use Hand of God to aid them early on.
It’s also important that you always try to reserve the 200 mana required for Hand of God as soon as you hit level 6.
In the post-laning phase of the game, however, you ideally want to save Hand of God for teammates, or to save your core heroes that get ganked. Try to time its usage so that multiple heroes benefit from the burst infusion of health, rather than at the start of engagements when only one or two allies will actually benefit from it.
| Tip: Use Mekanism before Hand of God to heal your teammates in teamfights. Not only does Mekanism have a lower cooldown (45 seconds vs. 160/140/120), and mana cost (150 vs 200), it’s also more effective than a level one Hand of God and it will give your teammates a +2 armor boost. |
Some heroes counter Chen very effectively. Consider re-picking if the enemy team includes one of these heroes: Ancient Apparition (you cannot heal allies that are under the effects of his ultimate), Clinkz (he can eat your creeps, and gets a huge boost from eating Chen creeps in particular. He’s also a frequent Hand of Midas purchaser. Lifestealer (Hand of Midas is common on him and Infest will eat one of your creeps and heal him at the same time), or Doom (again, Hand of Midas is common and he can Devour one of your creeps).
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
