Dota 2 Chen Guide

Persuade your foes and build your army of zealous devotees with this Dota 2 Chen Guide

Chen is a micro-based healing Support on a mission to convert, punish and silence heretics with his fanatic army and grace his allies with the divine blessings of his healing touch. 

Chen is a ranged Universal Hero that starts with a good 626 HP and 303 Mana and a decent movement speed of 305. His 51 base damage is reasonable, but his armor is very low, a measly 1.4. 

Chen is considered one of the hardest supports to play, with his skill sets requiring him to control multiple units at a time to utilize each unit’s spells and abilities fully. Furthermore, positional blunders when micromanaging his army can have devastating consequences. But, once mastered, Chen’s utilization of the neutral creeps and powerful healing spells allow him to be a powerful ally. 

Abilities

Let’s begin our understanding of the Hero by looking at Chen’s ability kit.

• Penitence – “Punishment for your sins”. Chen casts a light to bind the target, slowing his movement speed by up to 36% (50% with level 15 talent) for up to 8 seconds, and allows his allies’ attacks to quicken by up to 80 for 2 seconds. The ability also grants up to 350 bonus attack range on the target. When upgrading his level 5 talent, Penitence also does 225 damage to the target.

• Holy Persuasion – “The faithful join me”. Chen persuades an enemy or neutral creep to join his cause, boosting their HP to a minimum of up to 1000 (2200 with level 20 talent), their movement speed by up to 40, and grants an attack damage bonus of up to 22 (34 with level 15 talent). A maximum of 4 creeps can be converted, with each level unlocking higher tiers of creep levels able to be converted. Converting a new creep while having the maximum amount of creeps will instantly kill your oldest creep. Furthermore, if cast on himself, all controlled units will be teleported to him after a 6 seconds delay (4 with level 10 talent). When cast on a controlled creep, they will teleport to Chen after the same delay. The ability can also be upgraded with Aghanim’s Scepter and Aghanim's Shard.
  • Martyrdom (Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade): Grants persuaded creeps the Martyrdom ability, letting them sacrifice their life to heal allies or damage enemies in a 1200 range with the current level of Hand of God.

  • Aghanim’s Shard Upgrade: Buffs this ability, allowing the conversion of Ancient Creeps. Up to 3 can be controlled based on the Hand of God’s level.

• Divine Favor – “Strength from the on-high”. Chen passively provides an aura granting allies in a 1200 radius up to 4 health regen bonus and 4 armor bonus.

• Hand of God – “All are healed”. Chen’s blessed light shines upon all allied heroes on the map, healing them for up to 400 (600 with level 20 talent) and then further healing them for up to 40 health per second (50 with level 25 talent) for 8 seconds. Leveling up Chen’s level 25 talent can also allow Hand of God to apply a strong dispel. 

Talents

• Level 10 – -2s Holy Persuasion Teleport Delay or Penitence Deals 225 Damage
• Level 15 – +14% Penitence Slow or +12 Holy Persuasion Damage
• Level 20 – +1200 Holy Persuasion Minimum Health or -30s Hand of God Cooldown
• Level 25 – +200/+10 Hand of God Heal/Heal Over Time or Hand of God applies a Strong Dispel 

Dota 2 Chen Guide – Tips 

Chen is a support Hero who can efficiently jungle using his Holy Persuasion ability, allowing him to control creeps to gank and push early game. He can also use his Penitence ability to slow down during ganks, while his converted creeps can close the distance. His Hand of God ability gives him global healing, allowing his presence to be felt across the battlefield. 

Chen’s role in most games is a hybrid between lane support and a jungler, who converts neutral camps, returning to lane now and then to gank unsuspecting victims. While his reliance on micromanagement and map awareness might be problematic for many to master, but when utilized to the fullest, Chen can quickly get kills and farm aura-based items to bolster his army further. 

Chen’s pack-leader playstyle and his Divine Favor aura put him in the role of healer and aura carrier for items like Guardian Greaves, Vladmir’s Offering, Drum of Endurance and Pipe of Insight. Furthermore, single-target utility items like Medallion of Courage and Solar Crest are also a staple on this Hero. Throughout the game, you must utilize your neutral creeps and their ability to the fullest, amassing an army of neutral creeps to stick and push with your allies. 

Dota 2 Chen – Pros and Cons

Here are some of Chen’s blessings and curses you must exploit and look out for.

Pros:

• Great at jungling
• Global heal
• Converted creeps provide various disables
• Strong ganking and pushing potential early on

Cons:

• Difficult micromanagement 
• Needs to get and keep good creeps
• No escape ability or burst damage potential
• Is squishy with many hard counters
• Difficult to make an impact in the late game. 

How to play Chen

Follow this short guide on Chen’s gameplay basics and get your army to put down your foes!

Starting Items

Move to the lane with a single Tango, as most of your HP will remain intact early on. Your Holy Persuasion is not too taxing on your Mana, so one Clarity should be enough. Bring along an Iron Branch or two, as the attribute bonus will help you, and you can transition that to a Mekansm later on. 

Always keep a Smoke of Deceit on you because you can perform devastating early ganks.

Early Game

Try to pick up your Boots of Speed early, as it gives Chen more movement speed, helping you spend less time moving between jungle camps and following up on ganks. If you plan to be aggressive, purchasing a Medallion of Courage can help you debuff your enemy target’s armor and, combined with Penitence, deal a lot of damage.  

Getting an Arcane Boot can also be feasible if your lineup or creep army is heavily mana dependent. 

Mid Game

Mekansm should be purchased as soon as possible, enabling you to push towers down effectively, healing your allies and creeps. Paired with Hand of God and Divine Favor, it becomes exceedingly difficult for the enemy to bring any of your teammates down. Furthermore, Aghanim’s Shard allows you to control Ancient Creeps with Holy Persuasion, letting you bring stronger units early into the fights and pushes. The Helm of the Dominator can also be a good item if you want to get one more creep along with the attributes and health regeneration aura it provides. 

If you are in charge of getting aura-based items, pick up items like Vladmir’s Offering and Drum of Endurance and help you in teamfights with powerful auras that increase the survivability and mobility of your allies. You must try your best to push for throne by this game stage.

Late Game

A good Chen player always avoids the late game, as his impact will have fallen by the late-mid game. Finish up your Guardian Greaves and use it to help your teammates survive longer in teamfights. With Aghanim’s Scepter, you can unlock the Martyrdom ability for your creeps, whose effectiveness has fallen, letting them sacrifice themselves to heal your allies.  

If you still have money to spare, try getting items like Scythe of Vyse, Eul’s Scepter of Divinity and Heaven’s Halberd for that extra hard disable to assist in team fights. You can also get aura-based items that give your team armor, like Shiva’s Guard or Assault Cuirass, and further upgrade your Eul’s Scepter to a Wind Waker, but it’s pretty unlikely the game goes on for that long. 

Dota 2 Chen Counter

Here are some heretics who always seem to have the upper hand over Chen.

• Bounty Hunter – His ultimate Track lets him keep an eye on Chen, and his Shadow Walk lets him quickly gank Chen, finishing him off with Jinada and Shuriken Toss.

• Doom – His Devour lets him kill one of Chen’s creeps instantly, and his Scorched Earth’s Area of Effect (AoE) damage quickly finishes off Chen’s army. Furthermore, his namesake spell Doom lets him take Chen out of the fight for a long time, muting him from casting his Hand of God.

• Medusa – Her Split Shot quickly clears Chen’s creeps, and her Mystic Snake can damage Chen intensely when it bounces up his army. Mana Shield also makes her tough to burst down, and her Stone Gaze can easily petrify him and his allies, rendering their spells useless.

• Axe – His Blink Dagger and Berserker’s Call combination devastates Chen, especially if his army closely accompanies him. Counter Helix procs more in alignment with attacks on him, so soon enough, Chen’s HP will drop down enough for Axe to eliminate him with Culling Blade before he can use Hand of God. 

Conclusion

This is merely one of our many Hero guides, and as time goes on, many more will come for your favorite Heroes. Stay tuned and happy jungling.