LogFAQs > #962090589

NBIceman posted...

That's the first hero down that I enjoy at least a little. Granted, a lot of that enjoyment comes specifically because he's bad and it's always fun to see teams that try to make him work and usually fail.

With that we segue into a hero that *I* enjoy but the current state of the game is *not* kind to him.

Chen (ranged Intelligence)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/8/AAAACbAAC2hE.jpg
Basic Abilities: Penitence, Holy Persuasion, Divine Favor, Hand of God
Shard Ability: Upgrades Holy Persuasion to allow it to convert Ancient creeps (1-3, based on current level of Hand of God.)
Scepter Ability: Upgrades Hand of God to strongly dispel allies and Chen's creeps after healing them.

It is extremely difficult to talk about Chen without talking about the state of the jungle. On his own, Chen has no damaging abilities to start - Penitence, his single-target slow that makes attacking targets hit faster, is the closest thing he has, and it doesn't deal damage until a level 10 talent. As such, he is encouraged to heavily level into Holy Persuasion and dip in and out of jungle for ganks and pushes, using creep abilities, micromanaging like the game he came from. Naturally, in coordinated play, Chen is a top pick or ban for this reason, for the sheer utility he can bring just by bringing monsters to party (with even beefier ones once he gets his shard going.) So why is he this low?

First, Chen is slow to start. In games where murderballs begin at the 12 minute mark, Chen will just barely have his level 4 Persuasion if he went into it. Without levelling Divine Favor heavily also, they will be just as vulnerable as a normal stacked jungle camp (with only a small HP buffer and a damage boost) yet Chen himself isn't much tankier. It's not uncommon for him to get removed from a fight while juggling his abilities and leave the creeps to fight instead, now without their bonus regen and armor aura.

Second, they are easy to counter. Hand of Midas will delete at least one creep (or more if there's an Ogre Magi in play, who is meta right now.) Enchantress can steal his own creeps from under him. Lifestealer has to blow an ult, but can also steal them (and then explode on Chen.) Most other right-clickers will just flat out delete them in a handful of autoattacks.

Third, Chen has been hit over the years with a "can't convert until x level Holy Persuasion" nerf - mostly to stop level 1 hard-camp ganks (and yet the Chain Lightning Harpy hits just as hard and quickly, but, yeah.) By the time he gets his creep murderball rolling, he's going to have to take a few extra minutes to find a desireable loadout, and given the state of creep camps are random by camp difficulty, you'll hardly ever find an ideal one short of being in a five-stack. Solo queue Chen is folly at best, and if you do that, you're going to be stuck position 5 when he's at his best as a 4, and if you're stuck as position 5, you're going to *not* be levelling Holy Persuasion, and thus vulnerable to towerdives and take all that much longer to come online. This will also shoot you in the foot later when you go to pick up your Shard, because Ancient Creeps have some desireable buffs too, but they're stuck by the same level limit. Found this out the hard way earlier this week.

Chen functions best as an aura carrier right now, and a subpar one at that; his creep-based gameplay can win games if it gets going, but not with how games are typically played right now, because ultimately there's no way to deter enemies from going "oh hey, free food" and running you over at your own tower. But hey, at least you get to make the tower shoot your ganker faster before they scoot off!

I'm completely avoiding his ultimate, which is ironically the simplest part of his kit. Press button, cast animation, instantly heal all controlled creeps and your allies. Somehow manage to afford a Scepter, and that heal dispels... after the heal. Oops, Spirit Vessel has countered it too. 1/10 upgrade, buy Guardian Greaves instead. If you can somehow afford both, you've all but already won the game why haven't you killed the ancient already what are you doing!

Next hero hint: Awfully bold of you to *not* arrive to a fight with basically every offensive ability.