Snith's Chen Guide - Rank #1 Chen

Hi there, and welcome to my extensive guide to Chen, the Holy Knight!

The following guide will contain information regarding skill, item, creep and action choices that hopefully will help you advance with your gameplay with Chen for both competitive and public DotA. Chen is a supportive micro-intensive hero that can have a great impact on the game through proper usage of his abilities and creeps, especially in the early game. With this guide, I aim to help you develop your own active style with Chen, a style that hopefully will represent and fusion of [A]lliance's Akke and LGD.Int's MiSeRy, a style I have found to be very successful in the majority of games.

Work In Progress!

20/07 - 2015: Getting closer to 3000 games and it looks as if we're finally getting somewhere in the guide, looking to release it sometime next week, feedback much appreciated!

Introduction

I believe that Chen is one of the heroes that requires the most work in order to become truly great with, therefore this guide will contain as much information as possible to help you advance to the next level. After experiencing Chen at various levels of gameplay, both competitive and public, I've found that imitating the style of gameplay used by LGD.Int has proven to be the most effective. Bare in mind that as a supportive player, you can only do so much, but Chen has what I believe to be one of the greatest opportunities within DotA to set your own team up with a good early game advantage.

For the in-game hero build, click here.

Mindset

While an active style of gameplay, meaning roaming around the map, may force you to neglect your own experience and item progression within the game, your presence alone, both off and on the map, will force the opposing team to acknowledge the constant threat of an incoming gank. Combine this with effective usage of Observer- and Sentry Wards as well as Smoke of Deceit, and you will have enabled your team to get into a great position heading in to the mid- to late game.

Initial Items

As I've mentioned before, Chen is incredibly strong in the early game and this is something we're going to take advantage of. By starting off with purchasing the following items, we grant our team the required support as well as allow ourselves to be prepared for early rotations. This should also allow your secondary support to adapt their starting items based on the hero selection of the enemy team, whether you'd require more movement speed or detection in order to safely pressure your opponents. Remember; while Chen is one of the strongest aggressive characters early game, without the proper creep and micro you're also an easy target.










Animal Courier
The courier allows for your team to deliver items to their character without leaving the lane or the forest, therefore avoiding unnecessary experience and gold loss. The fact that Chen spends most of his time within the forest and utilizing his creeps to absorb the damage makes him a viable hero to spend his initial gold on these kind of items.

Observer Ward
The early Observer Wards are there not only to act as protection, but also to provide vision of the runes for your mid and offlane players. Give one to the offlane hero and place the other one as early as possible. Since you'll be playing very aggressive in the early game, I recommend offensive placement, but we'll dive more into that later.

Sentry Ward
The early Sentry Ward has two purposes; to remove enemy Observer Wards and reveal invisible opponents. By moving to an aggressive position near your own safelane, almost within vision of your opponents' tier one tower, you can scout the inventory and intentions of the enemy player before they've attempted to place their Observer Ward.

However if you suspect that the opposing team might do an aggressive tri- or duo lane, tread carefully. While it's important to deny the enemy team vision and the opportunity to block your Neutral Camps, it's not worth giving up first blood for. Make sure you have sufficient back up, having one or two of your teammates close by should make this possible as well as secure one or two runes for you and your team. By using this method, you should be able to keep your own forest free from enemy wards revealing your movement or blocking your creep spawns.

Smoke of Deceit
The Smoke of Deceit is there to offer you temporary invisibility and movement speed during your rotations. In order for a successful kill to take place, the element of surprise is crucial, without it your opponents are most likely to retreat rendering the time you've spent travelling useless. The most common option is to attempt to kill the so called "safelane" first and if you can tell by looking at your opponents inventory that they have not placed a ward, alternatively that you've defended the ward spots, I'd suggest saving the Smoke of Deceit until you're about to rotate mid, but there's always the option to purchase a new one (if they're still in stock).

Tango
The Tangos aren't as much for yourself as for your allies. Since you'll be utilising Neutral Creeps to both absorb and deal damage, the need for health replenishing consumables aren't a priority for Chen. Therefore we'll share two of our tangos to the player occupying the mid lane, enabling them to be even more efficient with their starting gold.

Iron Branch
The Iron Branches are there to provide you with two additional points to all attributes, increasing the strength of your hero if only just a slight, but making efficient use of otherwise empty inventory slots as well as building into both the Magic Wand or Mekansm at a later point.

The Early Game

First Blood
Something that can't be stated enough is how important the element of surprise is when it comes to Chen, without it your attempts to gank will often fail and as a result you'll both be behind on levels and gold. To put yourself in the best position possible, I suggest trying to encourage your team to assist you in trying to prevent the opposing team from being able to place any ward that might reveal your early-game movement. If it's a public game, I'd suggest one of the four following positions as the in-game clock strikes 00:00 depending if you're playing as Radiant or Dire. Stay in this position until the enemy appear and you have a chance to view their inventory. Do not trade damage, but keep vision of them to learn where and if they place a ward so you can easily deny their vision or blockage.

While I'll always recommend having an early ward with an aggressive placement close to your mid lane, depending on your as well the opponents draft, you're not always able to place one without putting yourself at huge risk. Therefore you should consider putting focus on denying the opposing team access to your jungle in order to place an early ward themselves. By moving out quickly and positioning yourself on the high ground, you're very likely to spot the placement of the opposing team near the rune areas. As I've mentioned before, we'll dive deeper into the much important subject of warding later on but for now; here are examples of my preferred positions;

The Radiant - Contesting Rune
The Radiant - Denying Ward
The Dire - Contesting Rune
The Dire - Denying Ward
As for the First Blood attempt, I almost always position myself near the closest "big" camp to the lane which we're attacking. As the timer hits 00:30, convert the larger creep in whatever group that spawned and try to decide based on the creep and hero/heroes on lane whether the gank would be successful or not. If you happen to get a Wildwing, formerly known as Wildkin, using the Tornado to zone out either their off- or mid lane hero while stacking is not a bad option. If you do this properly, with some luck you'll have a triple/quadruple stack just as the second usage of the Tornado comes off cooldown. For an example on how to execute this please review the video included below.

Test of Faith - How To: Wildwing

While the Radiant version of this is somewhat easier since you gain quick access to the secondary big camp, it is possible to stack the big camp as dire as well, but you will most likely lose out on the experience for the miscellaneous creeps surrounding the Wildwing as you need to move almost instantly after converting your creep.

If you instead of a Wildwing managed to find yourself either a Centaur Conqueror, a Dark Troll Warlord or a Hellbear Smasher and deemed that the gank attempt on the safelane has a high probablility of being successful, clear a camp as close to the lane in question as possible and gain level two. Make sure to try to get rid of any observer wards that the opposing team may have placed that could alert them of your presence. While the time it takes to obtain level two will vary depending on the neutral creep spawn, it's almost always worth it. Having Test of Faith available with a damage range of 50-100 will more than often prove itself the difference between life and death.

Last but not least; if you stumbled upon a Satyr Tormenter in your first camp, utilize it to farm an additional two or three small and medium camps while attempting to stack a big camp. When completed, you should find yourself at level three with Holy Persuasion at level two and several different creeps among the camps to choose from. Once you've obtained another suitable creep, re-evaluate the situation on the safe lane and proceed accordingly. If, for any reason you chose not to attempt the sale lane gank, it's time for the next step; The Smoke Gank!

The Smoke Gank
Once we've executed our first gank attempt, whether it was successful or not, we've alerted the opposing team of the threat that is Chen. This is exactly what we want and we'll be relying on this to protect our safe lane during our absence. As long as we continue to be active, your enemies will have no choice but to play from a defensive posture when you're outside of enemy vision. If they don't you have the option to punish them, something we're hoping to occur as we rotate to the mid lane.

Depending on the outcome from the first gank, the creeps you have available as well as the hero match up in the middle lane, you may want to bring your secondary support with you while making this rotation. While moving, try to communicate with your ally regarding how you plan to execute the gank, most importantly which one of you that will initiate. As the Smoke of Deceit allows us to rotate without being revealed by potential wards from the enemy, any unsuspecting hero should be a fairly easy prey to your rotation.

Assuming at least one of the gank attempts being successful, you should now be closing in on level five, at which point we'll be looking to pressure an enemy tower. Now once again the result of this push will have a lot to do with your own as well as the opposing team's draft, but our goal is to if not take down the tower completely, at least deal a substantial amount of damage and force rotation from the enemy supports. If the later occurs, you will now have freed up space for your offlaner as well as have put their supports in an awkward position as they will be hesitant to rotate into your part of the jungle due to the constant threat you've presented during the game.

Transition into the Mid Game
From this point and up to 10 minutes forward, it's more or less rinse and repeat. Keep applying pressure to lanes and heroes and force the enemy heroes to rotate. Take fights if you feel comfortable doing so, otherwise keep rotating and create additional space for your core roles. Make sure to keep an eye out for the ward placement coming out from the opposing team, if you keep their vision limited, they're less likely to attempt to punish your team for its greed which will buy yourself more time. Look to finish your Mekansm as well as Arcane Boots and utilize these items to sustain your push to take down as many outer towers as possible.

The Mid Game

Goals
We've now arrived at the part of the game where Chen is about to hit his peak. Our focus should primarily be at taking objectives such as destroying all the remaining outer towers and taking Roshan when the opportunity presents itself. Based on the success of the early game as well the next couple of minutes, this is where you have the chance to close out any chances of the enemy team recovering and shut down the game.

Communication
This is where your decision making as well as your ability to unite your team becomes utterly crucial. This part of the game is why people frown upon picking Chen in a public environment but it's also here that we shall prove our worth. Through continues use of our Mekansm and Arcane Boots, we should be able to sustain the health and mana levels of our team while destroying the remaining outer towers and thereby limiting the farm of our opponents. Communication is key, so keep doing your best in preparing your team for the next objective. In a public environment it's not as much as having the best call made that's important, as it is having any call at all. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, and be ready to admit them when they're made, as it will maintain a good level of focus on morale among your teammates.

Choices
As far as decisions regarding skills, items and creeps goes, we'll go through that one by one in their respective sections later in the guide.

The Late Game

The Struggle
The late game can be a rough time for Chen, but it's also where we transfer the torch over to our cores, hoping and praying that the impact we've had on the game has led them to obtaining sufficient items and levels to carry us all the way to the opponents' Ancient. This does not mean that you can lose focus, because while the general public seems to think that Chen has more or less fallen off completely at this point, we're here to prove them wrong. Through proper usage of creeps and an item build that is customized based on the game you're playing, you can still carry your own weight around the map.

Split Pushing
Over the last couple of years Chen has more or less stayed the same, but due to the not-so-recent changes to Holy Persuasion and its self-cast, we've been introduced to a new way of split pushing. While the shape and size of your army isn't vital, the fact that we can now force rotations from the opposing players and thereby open up opportunities to initiate a fight or take an objective is something worth utilizing. This is also a great example of where you'll be able to practise your ability to read the map and the movement of the opposing players as keeping your flock alive and bringing them to you in preparation for a fight will be vital to your success.

Warding

Mindset
Something that can not be understated is the importance of warding and vision in this game, simply put; knowledge is power. An Observer Ward is essentially a spell with a 180 second cooldown and a cost of 75 gold in addition to the risk of granting the opposing team a reward of 50 gold and 50 experience.

As mentioned earlier, the success of our early game is of top priority and having proper vision will go a long with in both making sure that our rotations are lucrative but also keeping our allies safe. Being able to control this is a big reason to why we allow our secondary support purchase boots as one of their initial items. While it may be one of my greatest flaws, having the basic rule of almost always placing a sentry ward and searching for enemy observer wards before I place my own is something that is costly but often well worth it.

Placement
By the usage of the in-game hero build, we're able to reduce the amount of time we spend on purchasing the initial items which in turn helps us to advance towards and aggressive position and placing a ward before our opponents are able to scout it out. In addition to providing us with vision for our later rotations, this also helps us decide whether or not we're able to contest the rune. Be wary though, as this is very dangerous to do against a draft with ranged stuns or more notably a Zeus as they're bound to check the most common locations for an early ward if they get a chance. Down below are some examples for ward placements;

Radiant

This is my absolute favourite ward when it comes to the initial placement as Radiant as it provides vision for the midlane while giving vital information on whether or not you can contest the rune.


If the Dire team has a jungler than more often than not place this ward instead that will give rune vision and at the same time provide your team with tons of information regarding the enemy jungler.


A great aggressive ward that provides vision for both the rune, dire ancients and the Roshan pit as well gives some additional safety towards the midlane.


Once your initial ward of the top rune is about to expire I like to place this one as it offers a lot of security to your mid lane which should keep them safe against any non-smoke rotations.


A more defensive option for a ward placement which is great if you're either too late or the Dire team has a Zeus on their draft. Provides rune vision and safety for the midlane.


Utilize this ward placement if your midlane is under heavy pressure and you're unable to place a more aggressive ward, gives high ground vision and may spot out teleport rotations from the Dire.


Defensive ward to protect the Radiant jungle and give vision of the bottom rune and near Roshan, great in combination with a sentry ward against any hero with invisibility on the Dire team.


A lane ward to protect your safelane core against any teleport rotations from the Dire team, great towards the midgame to keep your carry safe while you focus on the other two lanes.


An alternative for the previous placement that can be used later in the game if your tier one tower has fallen but your carry still wants to passively utilize the Radiant jungle.


The best ward to be placed as soon as you've started to focus the mid- and toplane. Provides vision of enemy rotation and it's outside the usual placement for any enemy sentry ward.


Another aggressive ward that can be utilized to gain vision of the Dire jungle once the tier one top tower has fallen. Provides nearly perfect vision in combination with the previous ward.


A more aggressive option once the Dire tier one bottom tower has fallen compared to the previously mentioned lane ward. Very common placement, sentry first during the later portion game.


Slightly less common placement than the previous one, shouldn't be placed before the Dire tier two bottom tower has fallen unless you're smoked while placing it, gives great vision while taking Rosh.



These two are possibly the best wards to have while attempting to siege high ground, however as they're easily detected they shouldn't be placed unless night time or smoked, preferably both.

Dire
Coming Soon™...

Skill Information

While the suggested skill build is already incorporated in the in-game hero build, we'll dive deeper into what every placed skill point means for us during the game. Chen is perhaps the hero that has to adapt the most to the game, but it's also important to realize what our limitations are.

Penitence
Penitence for me is the least prioritized spell in Chen's arsenal, here are however players that disagree with this, most notably BigDaddyNotail[wiki.teamliquid.net]. While I haven't gotten the opportunity to speak to him about it, I'm confused regarding his decision as it may seem profitable during the initial gank attempt, but is rendered useless later as your mana pool will not support a full range of spells and items.

Test of Faith
Test of Faith is your primary damaging ability when playing Chen. The damage it deals is pure meaning that magic resistance does not reduce it nor can it be amplified. The damage dealt is random number within the interval based on the level of the skill. Levelling up this ability also reduces the delay on which it takes for you to send an ally hero home, something that becomes very important in the late game.

Holy Persuasion
Leveling up Holy Persuasion increases the power of the gank as well as the push and is a vital part of Chen's progression through the game. The only time you're allowed to prioritize anything over this is if you're in the middle of an engagement and you level up just before you're about to use Test of Faith. While levelling it will most likely slow down your progress, the death for the opposing team makes it worth your while.

Hand of God
Hand of God is Chen's signature ability, as it provides all living allies with a heal for 200/300/400 health based on its level. While it's less efficient than using Mekansm, it's worth leveling up due to its global range and the combined strength of the two as you have the ability to turn around almost any fight with your holy prowess. Be ware though, due to the animation of the cast and the potential delay, heal in good time.

Item Information

Coming Soon™...

Creep Information

Alpha Wolf





Ancient Black Dragon





Ancient Granite Golem





Ancient Thunderhide






Centaur Conqueror
The previously named Centaur Khan is a core unit in Chen's army, while it in some cases requires a setup to be able to get in position, its stun can be absolutely game changing. Unfortunately this creep was nerfed during the last overhaul of the neutrals which left it without its previously owned Swiftness Aura. Being able to gather multiple Centaurs and using them to lock down a target is almost an art form.

Dark Troll Summoner





Harpy Stormcrafter





Hellbear Smasher





Kobold Foreman






Troll Hill Priest






Mud Golem





Ogre Frostmage







Satyr Banisher





Satyr Mindstealer





Satyr Tormenter





Wildwing

Control Groups & Keybindings

Introduction
First things first, what it all boils down to are personal preferences. Whomever you may ask for their settings, it may not always suit yourself but it's a great reference point to start out with. I've been in the same situation myself, and my current setup is a personalized collaboration of all the professional players I've enjoyed watching over the years. No one can tell you what will fit you the best, but you are more than welcome to try out my setup and see how it works for you. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask! I'd also appreciate any suggestions you may have to improve my own settings!

Control Groups
I make use of the numbers 1-6 to control my hero as well as my units and I use 'tab' to switch in between them to select different units and spells. I setup my control groups based on 'chain-of-events', meaning that whatever unit I would like to use first for a selected purpose, I have first in the control group.

To order your control groups the way you want them, select the units you want the group to include, then tab to the unit you would like to have first and then name the group by holding down 'Ctrl' and pressing the key you would like to bind them to.

Keybindings

Control Group Tab = 'Tab'

Control Group 1 = '1'
'1' is my control group for my hero. I have it bound to the 'Select Hero' command which makes it impossible for me to override it with anything else and accidentally "lose" my hero. That way I can always safely press '1' and lead my hero to safety in case of a bad situation.

Control Group 2 = '2'
'2' is my control group for my most active creeps. This is more often than not the creeps that I initiate and/or farm with. It includes Centaur Conquerors, Hellbear Smashers, Dark Troll Summoners, Harpy Stormcrafters, Mud Golems and Satyr Tormentors. I order this control group based on chain of events, e.g. if I have a Dark Troll Summoner and a Centaur Conqueror, I have the Troll first as it will initiate with the Ensnare and I then 'tab' to the Centaur and use its War Stomp.

Control Group 3 = '3'
'3' is my control group for my channelling or my aura creeps. This is where things get messy, but in order to have everything as accessible as possible, I adapt my control groups based on what creeps I have available. This is to be able to access the creep I need at any point in time without having to tab through multiple creeps. The main purpose of this control group is to handle the Wildwing, but if none is available I use it for creeps with an aura or a buff, such as the Alpha Wolf, Kobold Foreman or Ogre Frostmage. While these aren't as actively used as the others apart from the Ogre Frostmage and its Ice Armor, they're good to have nearby in case you want to bodyblock someone.

Control Group 4 = '4'
'4' is my control group for my tornado. I put such great importance within the usage of this spell that I felt that it was necessary to devote a control group to it. By proper usage of this channelled spell, an example of which is shown in the "How To: Wildwing" video, it can be game changing. Therefore, to avoid interrupting the channelling and to be able to micro it frequently, I control tornadoes using '4'.

Control Group 5 = '5'
'5' is my control group for my aura creeps in case I have a Wildwing OR multiple aura/buff creeps with different purposes. For example if I have an Ogre Frostmage I prefer to have it in its own group as it is much slower than the rest and doesn't necessarily have to be in the same position.

Control Group 6 = '6'
'6' is my control groups for my aura creeps in case I have a Winding AND multiple aura/buff creeps with different purposes. Let's say that I have two different Alpha Wolves and I want them to provide their auras at two different locations, perhaps one being the carry farming in our own jungle while we're pushing a different lane, then having them on different keys allow for maximum control.

Hero Matchups

Coming Soon™...

Tips & Tricks

Coming Soon™...

F.A.Q.

Coming Soon™...

Credits

This section isn't prioritized as it won't really affect your gameplay so I'll finish it later, but the idea is to give you a perspective of where the information that this guide contains comes from and what I've done to improve myself.

As for now, I've played nearly 3000 public games of Chen (dotabuff-profile[dotabuff.com]) and I still have things to improve, but to give you a small example of my gameplay, here's an old video from me playing an AP game with a few friends of mine. I do apologize for the quality of the clip, not sure if it's the conversion when uploading from twitch to youtube, but the streaming quality is better.

Subscribers
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My Greatest Weaknesses

Changelog

Hero
asdadasdasdasd



Gameplay
Dual-lane meta, updated item build accordingly.

Playing against Invisibility Heroes

[DO NOT NARCAN ME #Dontblowmyhigh]

could you do an updated 7.01 version? either way its helped even just my chen play ty so much

[DIEGO ARMANDO MARADONA]

"sry lag" - sing denying snith's creeps

[Tyberos]

Hi Snith! Thanks for guide. Really helped to improve my Chen skill!

[Sexifier]

Hi Snith, looking forward to the completion of the guide! I just took a peek at the in-game build and realised that you skip Penitence until lvl 17. Could you offer some insight as to why you do this? Thanks!

[Snith]

There's a link to it at the bottom of the "Introduction" part, I might as well give it to you here as well; http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=128822506

[Lurtle]

thx a lot can you add in a in-game Build for item and ability we can subscribe to to get it in game

[Snith]

Hey guys! First of all, thanks for the feedback. I'm hopefully reaching the #1 rank on dotabuff later this week at which point I hope to have my guide finished. I'll resume work on it starting tonight or tomorrow. Once it's finished, I hope to create a reddit-post to clearify everything regarding why I play Chen, what I like about it and what I've learned and experienced so far. I will however need a lot of feedback before I publish the guide, so if you guys are up for it, please let me know!

Thanks!

[Lurtle]

first picture won't load however

[Lurtle]

nice video

[Akinocin]

It's a work in progress. He hasn't added those parts yet.