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Chen Build Guide “I bring Pandamonium!”
Welcome to our guide for Chen, a Bruiser in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
Chen's Overview
Chen is a durable Bruiser and a strong duelist as he can trade exceptionally well against many Heroes thanks to his solid damage output and high self-sustain, making him one of the best Offlaners in the game when played correctly.
Chen's Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Good survivability- Decent mobility
- Solid damage output, especially against Heroes
Weaknesses
Low waveclear- Struggle against interrupts
- Conditional mobility
Chen's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Flying Kick Build
Recommended
Chen's Flying Kick Build is designed to keep your damage high
when you cannot rely on Basic Attacks that much, either because
you are countered by enemy Heroes or because team fights will be relatively short,
and a lot of playmaking potential via 
Wandering Keg.
Flying Kick will deal more damage thanks to
Deadly Strike at Level 4. Tap 
Fortifying Brew
right before using Flying Kick to deal even more damage
thanks to Enough to Share at Level 13 instantly giving you a Shield.
Thanks to the range increase it provides, Flying Leap
at Level 16 gives you more opportunities to Flying Kick
behind enemy Heroes and then Wandering Keg them
towards your team.
Basic Attacks Build
Situational
Chen's Basic Attacks Build focus on increasing your damage as much as possible, mostly by empowering Basic Attacks. Paired with Chen's good survivability, the additional damage allows you to take down valuable enemy Heroes with little to no help from your team.
Combo Strikes at Level 16 is the signature Talent of this Build,
heavily increasing your damage output especially when paired with 
Eye of the Tiger at Level 1
and/or Enough to Share at Level 13.
Stagger Build
Situational
Chen's Stagger Build focuses on increasing your survivability as much as possible,
mostly by making 
Stagger more efficient. Your damage output
will be lower but living longer will help you create space for your team.
The combination of Gift of the Ox at Level 7
and Celerity at Level 16 makes Chen
harder to kill. 
Withering Flames at Level 4
and Enough to Share at Level 13 can be used
to peel for allied Heroes or to mitigate
incoming damage.
ARAM Build
ARAM
Chen's ARAM Build is designed to keep your damage high
when you cannot rely on Basic Attacks that much, either because
you are countered by enemy Heroes or because team fights will be relatively short,
and a lot of playmaking potential via Wandering Keg.
Flying Kick will deal more damage thanks to
Deadly Strike at Level 4. Tap Fortifying Brew
right before using Flying Kick to deal even more damage
thanks to Enough to Share at Level 13 instantly giving you a Shield.
Thanks to the range increase it provides, Flying Leap
at Level 16 gives you more opportunities to Flying Kick
behind enemy Heroes and then Wandering Keg them
towards your team.
Chen's Synergies and Counters
Chen synergizes with
Chen is countered by
Whether team fighting or dueling, Chen struggles against Heroes
who have access to crowd control effects
that can interrupt Fortifying Brew
(for example E.T.C. with either 
Powerslide
or 
Face Melt) because, without
channeling it for at least 1 second due to a quick interrupt,
he will not have enough Brew to use some of his Basic Abilities.
Speaking about team fights in particular, anything that can protect his target from a
dive attempt makes Chen's plan more difficult to execute
(for example a well-timed 
Sanctification by Tyrael
or even a 
Sound Barrier by Lúcio).
If we consider the macro aspect of the game, primarily due to his low waveclear, Chen has a hard time when the enemy team has access to Heroes who can completely warp the game and allow the enemy team to play in a different way than usual (such as Abathur and The Lost Vikings).
Chen's Maps
Being a good Offlaner, Chen performs better on Maps where being able to handle the solo lane with a single Hero is important (for example Hanamura Temple).
Due to his mediocre waveclear, Chen is not that good on Maps where double soaking is required (such as Towers of Doom), even if he can still provide good value in team fights thanks to his Heroic Abilities.
Chen is bad on big Maps (like Garden of Terror) because he does not offer anything in the macro department.
Chen's Tips and Tricks
Flying Kick can be used on any enemy unit, so you can target Minions or Walls to quickly go from danger to safety.- Always land a Basic Attack between
Keg Smash and 
Breath of Fire to maximize your damage output. - The damage over time from
Stagger can be mitigated with the Shield provided by 
Fortifying Brew or completely negated by 
Storm, Earth, Fire. - Other than to escape from danger and contest a Control Point,
Wandering Keg can be used to push a single enemy Hero towards your team and/or to push multiple enemy Heroes away from your team. - Immediately after casting Storm, Earth, Fire, you can quickly use
Storm and 
Fire to empower 
Earth for a strong engage.
Chen's Role in the Current Meta
Chen is a Bruiser that is only played as an Offlaner because he is a strong duelist with good sustain and not with the rest of the team because he cannot unleash his true potential while fighting in the early game, where he lacks some damage Talents and especially a Heroic Ability.
Changelog
- 13 Dec. 2024 (offlane matchups page): Guide reviewed.
- 13 Dec. 2024 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
- 13 Dec. 2024 (abilities page): Guide reviewed.
- 13 Dec. 2024 (this page): Guide reviewed.
- 17 Oct. 2024 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 17 Oct. 2024 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 17 Oct. 2024 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 17 Dec. 2023 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
- 17 Dec. 2023 (this page): Guide reviewed.
- 20 Sep. 2023 (talents page): ARAM Build added.
- 20 Sep. 2023 (this page): ARAM Build added.
- 28 Apr. 2023 (offlane matchups page): Page created.
- 07 Jul. 2022 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 07 Jul. 2022 (this page): Builds updated.
- 16 Jan. 2022 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 16 Jan. 2022 (abilities page): Builds updated.
- 16 Jan. 2022 (this page): Builds updated.
- 25 Jun. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 25 Jun. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 14 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 14 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 21 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build page updated.
- Balance Update revision.
- Minor fixes.
- New layout.
- 21 Aug. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities and Strategy page updated.
- Balance Update revision.
- Minor fixes.
- New layout.
- 21 Aug. 2020 (this page): Introduction page updated.
- Balance Update revision.
- Minor fixes.
- New layout.
- 12 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build fully revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
- New layout.
- 12 Aug. 2020 (abilities page): Ability and Strategy fully revised to match new standards.
- Tips and Tricks modified to add important tips that were missing and to remove obvious ones that were not worth mentioning.
- Ability Descriptions modified to better explain how to use Abilities effectively.
- 12 Aug. 2020 (this page): Introduction fully revised to match new standards.
- Overview rewritten to better describe the Hero.
- Strengths and Weaknesses modified to give a better idea about the Hero when being played right.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Synergies and Counters modified to mention notable Heroes that were missing and to remove misleading Heroes that were listed.
- Maps modified to focus on the main aspects of the Hero when evaluating a Map.
- Tips and Tricks modified to list important tips that were missing before and to delete more obvious ones.
- 09 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
- 09 Apr. 2020 (this page): Introduction partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Role in the Current Meta modified to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
- 23 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Revised Chen's Guide due to the new Balance Update and found that no updates needed to be made for now. We'll keep an eye on Chen's further development.
- 09 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added an entry about the current Anomaly to the guide.
- 12 Jul. 2019 (talents page): Revised the guide and found it was still on par with the latest Balance Update.
- 12 Jul. 2019 (abilities page): Guide reviewed.
- 12 Jul. 2019 (this page): Guide reviewed.
- 17 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Completely overhauled and updated Chen's talents and builds in accordance with the recent Hero Rework.
- 17 Jun. 2019 (abilities page): Updated Chen's abilities in accordance with the latest Hero Rework.
- 07 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Updated Chen's talents and builds.
- 22 Sep. 2017 (talents page): Updated Chen's talents in accordance to the latest balance update.
- 30 Aug. 2017 (this page): Updated Chen and moved guide to new format.
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Elitesparkle is a multiple times Master player in Europe who plays Heroes of the Storm since its release. He is an active member of the community who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game.
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