My name is Felipe, from Brasil. And this is my guide for Chen :3

I've been playing HotS since 2015 on the South American server. I mainly play tanks or bruisers, with my main heroes being Chen, Thrall, E.T.C and Johanna. I also played tournaments here in semi-professional scene, including one top 8 with my team, also peaked GM in ranked some years ago, staying around plat/diamond rank currently.

I also play League of Legends on top lane, maining Garen and Kled.

Chen is one of the funniest heroes in HotS, but also one of the hardest to master. I like to play him as a diver, a hero that aims to go deep on the enemy team and kill all the squishy targets. This is not the only way to pilot him, but is my favorite for solo queue. And Chen has the tools for it with this high damage output and tools to survive.

So, lets see his strong and weak points:

Pros:

• Independent from the team
• Okay clearing waves
• Hard to kill on team fights
• High (conditional) mobility
• Huge damage output
• Very hard to beat on solo lane, having a huge number of favorable matchups

Cons:

• Hard hero to master
• Hard countered by CC
• Very punishible: you messed up? probably dead
• Beer management is not so intuitive

Ability	Discussion
Trait (D)	This is the most iconic Chen difference. Chen abilities costs brew instead of mana. You have to activate your trait to start generating brew over 1 second, and you can continue channelling to generate shield. You must try to use it whenever you can or need. If you need some time on a fight, is waiting some skills to go back from CD, or just don't have anything better to do, you use it. This skill is interrupted by CC, so you should be aware of when it is ok to use it or you will be disarmed easily with no self defenses.
Q	This is the ability that is the main Chen's mobility. And one of the most important to master in my opinion. This skill puts you always behind the oponent, which is awasome for body blocking and chasing, but also means that you will always go further than the skill range is (depending of how big is the target). Also this skill can target minions, mercs, summons, walls, forts and keeps, towers and the core. Using it in the fort or keep for example, will make you travel a huge distance. This is good for chasing and escaping. You should aim to use this ability most because of the mobility than the damage it provides, so you don't need to necessarily use it in the target, you can use on a minion, structure or summon for gap closing.
W1	This is the first part of your W. You basically throw your beer on the area, slowing the enemies you hit by a fair amount after 1,25 seconds. But the most important aspect is the second part of the ability.
W2	This is the second part of your W. It is designed to be used on the opponents affected by Keg Smash. If done so, you will ignite them. The damage from the ignite is almost the double of the original AoE damage of the ability. So it is really important to try to hit them together.
E	Stagger is the main defensive tool that Chen has. When activating it, Chen will soak all the damage he takes in a yellow bar in HP, and will take part of this damage slowly after in a time interval of some seconds. It is important to know the best time to use it, as its cooldown is huge. For this, you will need some game knowledge to learn when you will be moments before getting a huge chunk of damage, or being CCed in a fight. The damage stored can be easily mitigated after using your Trait (D), therefore, its really frustating to face a Chen who can use this ability well.

Level 1

---

Talent	Discussion
	This is the best talent of the tier. It provides damage and sustain, which all that Chen wants. This talent increase the damage output so much that it doesn't even feel the same hero when we don't pick it. The only problem is when facing compositions that hard counter auto atackers.
	This talent is not bad. The quest reward sinergizes very well with lots of late level talents as Deadly Strike, Combo Strikes and Pressure Point. Also, the increased regen from globes is cool too. But, you lost a lot of your most consistent damage output by not picking Eye of the Tiger.
	Honestly, this is the worst talent of the tier. It only gives you sustain, and the other talents from this tier also gives you it. And, I personally have a big problem with this talent because it doesn't reward you from hitting multiple people with your skills and igniting them.

Level 4

---

Talent	Discussion
	MOAR DAMAGE. Awesome talent in this tier. Chen really wants more damage.
	Good talent when going kick build. Also gives you damage, and a brew cost reduction on your Flying Kick. Note that this talent anti-sinergizes with Brewmaster's Balance, as a full rotation with Flying Kick, Keg Smash and Breath of Fire costs exaclty 50 brew, putting you in the exact point to get both bonuses from Brewmaster's Balance.
	Only good against 5 magic damage dealers in the enemy team. Doesn't give damage, and Chen needs to kill his enemies.

Level 7

---

Talent	Discussion
	This talent is very strong, as all of the talents on this tier. This one is very versatile and can be used in a lot of different ways, either defensive or offensive. It gives you evasion for a little amount of time, evading basic attacks used against you, mitigating tons of damage (note that it also mitigates attacks from structures, making this talent awesome for diving). Also, it gives you some move speed when activated, that can be used both for chasing or escaping. And lastly, your basic attacks reduces it active cooldown, so you can have it multiple times in a fight if you keep attacking (this also turns this talent countered by blinds, attack speed reductions and evasion). This is the hardest talent of this tier, so you will need a bit of experience to take the maximum value of it.
	Another strong talent. This one gives you move speed when 50 or less brew and HP regen when 50 or more. You gain both bonuses when you have exactly 50 brew, which is easily done with a full skill rotation combo. Against compositions that counters auto attackers, this is a good option as Elusive Brawler needs you to be constantly auto attacking.
	This talent is also very good. You can pick it when facing compositions with high burst damage, so you can rely more on Stagger. It does not change much on the gameplay, just buff your Stagger, which is good for surviving and when you don't need the move speed of the other talents. This talent is recommended against compositions with high presence of burst damage, as Stagger can soak all of it for a momment and keeps you alive.

Level 10 - Heroic Abilities

---

	The heroic ability of choice. This ability is extremely strong and versatile. Chen splits himself into three little pandas, and gains 3 new abilities that can be used once during the transformation. The third ability you use will be empowered. The storm panda is ranged and deal a fair damage. The earth panda attacks slowly, but also slow the enemies in the area. And the fire panda attack fast and does more damage. This ability is awesome for teamfighting, as Earth is one of the best engage heroics of the game. But also for chasing, diving (as you have three new bodies to tank the fort/keep shots) and also escaping in some clutch situations. Tips: You can use this ultimate to cleanse yourself fully from the damage stored in Stagger. When you transform, all this damage vanishes. This ability can be kinda anti-sinergizing, as when transformated, you don't maintain some buffs from other talents as Combo Strikes, Ring of Fire and Energizing Brew. And you also cannot capture mercs or objectives while splitted, so keep it in mind.
	This ability gives all your three pandas a shield. And if empowered, a bigger shield and extend the transformation time. This is the one that you wil probably not want to use empowered, as its effect is full survivability and you want to use your heroic for good engages and dives.
	Earth is one of the best engage tools Chen has when empowered. This ability will make your earth and fire pandas leap to an area, slowing the enemies hit for some time. But if this ability is used empowered, your pandas will root them instead. This root is almost instant and very hard to dodge. So, a common engage combo is to use Storm, Earth, Fire, and after transformed, quickly use Storm, Fire and then Earth to engage and create a good setup for your team to follow you up.
	Fire is the attack speed and attack damage steroid of the heroic. When empowered, it increases the buffs by a huge amount and also gives move speed. You want to use it lastly when the damage is more important than the engage, so you use it to guarantee a kill in one or more targets.
	This ult is meme. Hard to pilot and control. Was stronger before, and is completely inconstant and unreliable. I avoid this completely. Ok, this ult has the advantage of having only 50 seconds of cooldown. Is good against immobile targets for picking off, to interrupt channeling abilities like Mosh Pit, and for securing capture points like bosses. It is hard to pilot, and not so consistent, but can be used way more than Storm, Earth, Fire. Also, you don't lose the buffs from talents like Ring of Fire and Energizing Brew when using it. You also can use it for escaping as you get unstoppable. This is also the most picked in the competitive scene right now, probable because of the high cooldown time of Storm, Earth, Fire.

Level 13

---

Talent	Discussion
	This talent is pure AoE damage. It helps in fights, dealing some damage over 5 seconds around you. The damage is not irrelevant, so it is a good pick for chen on this tier. Also, it helps clearing waves and rotating faster.
	Talent good when going the Flying Kick build. Sinergizes well with freshests ingredients and is a huge slow for focusing and chasing an enemy. The only problem is that it does not provides damage.
	This talent is not bad, but I don't think it is good for solo queue. You gain more value of it when your team also knows how to play with it. So, this talent makes you a little more dependent of your team, but the instant shield is cool to survive some types of damage, but is very situational.
	It only gives crowd control. Your team needs to be good for you to get value of this talent. So, if you trust them to do the damage, you can take it. But again, it is a talent that make you more dependent of your team.

Level 16

---

Talent	Discussion
	The damage talent of the tier, so, it is the one to go. The shield from Fortifying Brew lasts for 3 seconds. Therefore, you have a boost of attack speed for three seconds after drinking. If you took freshests ingredients, you can have this buff from a longer time, but it means you don't have eye of tiger, which improves your damage from auto attacks. But with both options, this talent is very good for beating up squishier targets.
	This talent is one of the best defensive ones that Chen has. And it sinergizes a lot with Gift of the Ox. As Chen have slow in his kit, you will be constantly reducing the cooldown of Stagger and will have the armor it gives for a long time. If you are having trouble surviving and took Gift of the Ox, picking it will make you almost immortal.
	Talent for the Flying Kick build. The cooldown reduction is huge and the range too. It is a versatile talent by itself, but paired with Pressure Point and Deadly Strike, it is terrifying for the enemies.

Level 20 - Storm tier

---

Talent	Discussion
	This talent improves massively Chen's damage output and health. It is an absurd buff, but comes with the price of statying stand still for 3 seconds. If you learn how to master its usage, you will be a monster at level 20. Keep in mind that this talent is really hard to use. If you are not confortable with it, check the other options instead.
	This talent is good for teamfights. Having tankier pandas and all abilities empowered makes Chen absurd for engages with the team. The problem is that this talend is tied with his heroic. So, if your R is on cooldown, it is like you don't have a level 20 talent. Pick it when you feel your game will be decided by teamfights.
	This talent is bad when you don't need it, but crucial when you need it. The most common usage is when you want to guarantee the cast of your heroic. You tap Fortifying Brew and immediatly use your storm, earth , fire so you cannot be interrupted. Also, you will use it for avoiding predictable CC from the enemies. It is a good pick when you are facing too much problems with the enemies CC.
	Meme talent for meme ultimate. But, if you missclicked your Storm, Earth, Fire, this have its value. Honestly, I think this talent is really bad. The 125% movement speed bonus makes it really hard to control. The 75% armor is huge, but I think the other talents of this tier are way better.

Early game

---

Your strategy as Chen depends on the map. If you are in a map where you can go solo, you do it as it is the best possible scenario.

Chen is a very strong duelist, and you need to leverage it. If you are in a winning matchup, pressure the enemy. Trade with them, zone them out of XP and globes, and even dive them if possible. You need to play as lane bully here to get a lead for your team.

You don't need to kill your opponent, but you need to dominate. With your pressure, you can put them in a place where they can't leave lane easily and you can do something else around the map to give your team more advantage.

This includes:

• Invade merc camps;
• Gank other lanes;
• Do a good recall to get tempo advantage for the objective;
• Dive your opponent and kill them.

Diving as Chen

---

Diving with Chen is easy. You have Elusive Brawler to tank initial shots and Stagger to endure some damage later. It is important to use Elusive Brawler first as it will also prevent the armor reduction from fort/keep shots. Also, if you already have Storm, Earth, Fire, you can use it mid dive to reset fort aggro and beat your opponent with Earth and Fire empowered.

Most important, you don't want to lose experience before level 10, as it is a huge power spike for Chen. But you need to learn to leverage Chen power as a duelist to give your team some advantages on the map or even a experience lead.

A nice information is that as the game goes, diving becomes more safe. The damage of fort/keeps shots does not scale, but your HP scales. So, the higher your level is, less damage you will take from forts and keeps.

Mid/late game

---

Here you have two options, depending on the map and how the game is going. Let's check out them.

Split pushing

---

Chen is a good duelist and doesn't fall out late as he gets more damage with the late damage talents as Ring of Fire and Combo Strikes. In big maps, split pushing is a way to draw attention from the enemy team to you. Your goal is not take forts or kill your opponent, but to draw attention. Chen have a lot of ways to escape and avoid fights with Flying Kick, Elusive Brawler or Brewmaster's Balance move speed boost. And with Ring of Fire, you can push waves really fast.

After crashing a wave on a enemy fort, thew will need to respond it, giving you tempo advantage to rotate with your team to get mercs, objective or favorable team fights with number advantage.

Team fighting

---

If you your team is on a level or talent tier advantage or you have a composition that fightes way better than the opponent's, you can use team fights as your win condition. Chen's engage with Storm, Earth, Fire is deadly, and with level advantages, the fights will be almost guaranteed and your team will snowball the game easily.

Also, teamfighting is a good way to play if your team is behind. When this is happening, you want to put the opponent in a position where they have more chances to mess up, and teamfighting envolves a lot of ramdom facts happening and potential micro mistakes from the opponent.

In the previous chapter, I said that you need to abuse Chen's power as duelist. If you are in a favorable match up, it is your obligation to abuse it. So, how can yoou know if your matchup is favorable or not? It's game knowledge. You need to test the limits of Chen against teh other heroes, and see other people playing Chen will help a lot with it.

There are some heroes who Chen can easily beat solo, as Ragnaros or Zagara, and other who are very hard as Alarak. But Chen can beat a lot of other heroes solo if played correctly. I talked about some of them in the threats part of the guide.

Basic combos

---

Chen is straight forward. You want to Flying Kick in, use Keg Smash into Breath of Fire, and abuse the usage of your auto atacks to leverage Eye of the Tiger, giving you sustain and damage. It is very important to use an auto attack between Keg Smash and Breath of Fire to maxmize the damage output. You want to use Stagger to soak the enemy damage, so try to time it well, and after you can retrat and use Fortifying Brew to soak the damage stored on Stagger. Doing this, you can have good trades, lowering the opponents health, and letting them vulnerable for all-ins or ganks. At this point, you have lane pressure over him and can use this advantage to conquer more for your team as discussed before on the Strategy chapter.

While trading, the best scenario is to zone out your opponent from regen and experience globes, giving your team level advantage. What to do with this advantage is also discussed before.

Elusive Brawler is a good power spike for dueling, as it makes you avoid tons of damage. So, after having it, you can play really aggressive against your opponent, trying to keep auto-attacking the much as possible to reset its cooldown.

And at level 10, you can use Storm, Earth, Fire for a clean all win. Don't be afrait to use your heroic in a 1v1, specially if your opponent does not have his heroic yet. The Chen's all in pattern is also simple. You want to engage, but try to use Stagger initially to soak the damage. Before the damage stored in Stagger begins to tick, use Storm, Earth, Fire to cleanse yourself from it and go in. When Storm, Earth, Fire ends, your HP will be the same as it was when you casted it. So, if your opponent is not already dead, they will need to deal with a full HP Chen with all abilities up and blood on his eyes.

As you already know, Chen is a diver. So, lets learn how to behave in team fights with him. There are twothree frameworks you can follow to fight with him.

Diving the backline

---

First, you want to use your damage to target squishy targets on the back line. And you should prefer the ones you can kill easily and can't defend themselves ( Jaina, Malfurion, Orphea, Valla and Lt. Morales are examples of good targets).

Knowing your target, you want a good window of oportunity to reach them. Look for when the opponents who can peel for them have used their abilities (like E.T.C. using his Powerslide, Johanna using her Condemn or Uther using his Hammer of Justice). Then, you should try to get a good flank position and use your Flying Kick to engage them. Use your usual rotation of Keg Smash -> auto attack -> Breath of Fire -> auto attacks. This combo by itself chunk more than half of the health of a squishy target. Our build have talents thar increase it even more with Eye of the Tiger, Accumulating Flame, Ring of Fire and Combo Strikes.

Use your Stagger as soon as you see you will get focused. Also, remember to use your Elusive Brawler to chase and mitigate more damage if you picked it. Anf finally, you can use Storm, Earth, Fire to cleanse all the damage absorved in Stagger and use Earth and Fire to chase and finish your targets.

Enage with Storm, Earth, Fire

---

Here, you want to use Earth to setup a strong and fast engage for your team. You will use Storm, Earth, Fire at the beggining of the fight and use Earth empowered (so, you use Storm and Fire immediatly before) on the targets, rooting them and setting up a follow up from your team. And after transforming back, you will be with full HP, and will can continue fighting in your normal form.

Keep in mind that this play is very previsible and a lot of players know about it. So, abilities like word: salvation or Sanctification can hard counter your engage.

Picking off with Wandering Keg

---

And finally, you can use Wandering Keg to engage on a mispositioned target and bring them to your team. To do this, you first need to use yout Flying Kick to go behind them, and use Wandering Keg immediatly after, pushing them towards your team. Easy kill.

On this last chapter, I will give some map specific tips to help you adapt your playstyle. The color will indicate if it is a good, neutral or bad map for Chen.

Map	Discussion
	This is a big map with single capture objetive. Both split push or team fight strategy works here. Learning to give tributes to punish the opponent's with split pushing in the crossmap is important. But you will not abuse Chen's duelist strengh too much on here as in other maps.
	You will want to go top lane. Chen is really strong on this map as you will probably find yourself in a 1v1 position a bunch of times. You can out sustain your solo lane opponent to pressure them to the point where someone else will need to gank you. Your job is to not die and give your team a numbers advantage in the cross map. Abuse your advantage here and you will have a very good game.
	Split pushing is not too good here as the map is very small. But you can go bot lane and try to use your solo lane advantage aswell. On this map, you will probably want to play teamfights with your team, with quick rotations abusing clear wave and tempo advantage. Chen doesn't have good clearwave on the early game, so the best you can do is pressure the opponents on the bot lane, be ganked and give your team the advantage in the 4-people rotation.
	This is a map with single objective. Split pushing is a good win condiction here when the objective spawn on bot or top lanes. You want to go top lane at the start, as it is the most isolated one, and play the 1v1. Note that the objective here is very strong with Chen, who is a diver. You can follow up its jump and stun to execute a clean dive.
	This map is entirely team fight focused. You will need to draft damage to do the objective well and is mostly forced to fight for it. I would try to play with the team here and pick teamfight focused talents as Enough to Share can be a good bet.
	A huge map with single capture objective located at the middle of it. You can go either bot lane or top lane. I think it is better to stay in the lane closer to the enemy's merc camp so your team will have better chances to do ours. Split pushing here is a strong strategy, mainly if you captured the objective, as it boost your damage.
	It is a big two lane map, but the main objective is not as relevant as the Ninja merc camp. It is ok to split from your team here and draw some attention, but you will need them to get advantage on the cross map. Playing team fight is also an option.
	A two lane map, with a capture point. Like dragon shrine, Chen is awesome here in the solo lane. You will probably win the 1v1 and draw a lot of attention to you, giving your team a numeric advantage. Your main objective here is to not die and leverage Chen's 1v1 potential. After getting Storm, Earth, Fire, you can use your tempo advantage to quicky join your team for a strong favorable team fight.
	This map is huge, and can have multiple capture points at the same time. The first objectives will spawn at top and mid lane, so you will want to go bot lane first. After them, bot lane will be the next, so you will want to go top lane there. And after it, will spawn bot lane objective and another random one, but at this point we will already be past level 10. You can split from your team to capture temples alone. Split pushing is possible, but the temples way too much strong to skip them, but as can spawn multiple ones, you are not forced to teamfighting every time.
	Huge map, but it is heavily macro centered. You need to play around mercs and objectives. Giving some seeds for crossmap plays is important. You can play split push here, but it is not as strong as playing around tempo advantage with mercs and good rotations.