Chen Talents

Level	Choices
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Eye of the Tiger is a strong Talent that gives Chen both damage and survivability over the course of the game, but only if Chen manages to consistently get Basic Attacks on Brew-soaked enemy Heroes.

As a consequence, this Talent provides less value against enemy teams that have access to Blind effects (for example Shield Glare by Johanna).

Eye of the Tiger has synergy with Attack damage and Attack Speed buffs. Chen has Combo Strikes at Level 16, a Talent that provides both of them.

Freshest Ingredients is a good Quest-based Talent that drastically increases the duration of Regeneration Globes before its completion and make half of the Shield generated by Fortifying Brew persist indefinitely rather than expiring after 4 seconds when the Quest is completed, other than slightly reducing the cooldown of your Trait.

The part that improves Regeneration Globes helps you to stay longer on the battlefield during the laning phase, especially against enemy Heroes who do not want to commit for a duel and prefer to poke you from the distance instead.

The part that improves the Shield helps you to survive against burst compositions that feature the scary combination of burst damage and crowd control, and has synergy with Talents that require the Shield from Fortifying Brew to be active: Deadly Strike at Level 4, Pressure Point at Level 13, and Combo Strikes at Level 16.

This is the only Talent of this Tier that does not suffer against healing reduction effects (for example Biotic Grenade by Ana). Talking about counters, this Talent is weak against Heroes who can deal bonus damage to Shields (for example Varian who has access to Shattering Throw at Level 13).

Stormstout Secret Recipe is a good Talent that increases Chen's survivability by a solid amount, but it does not contribute to his damage output.

Pick this Talent when you are more worried about surviving than about doing damage or when the other options in the same Tier can be easily be countered by the enemy team. This is the highest healing boost you can get from this Tier and the least counterable Talent among them.

Deadly Strike is a good Talent that increases the damage done by Flying Kick and removes its Brew cost.

Consider picking this Talent only when you want to dive as the bonus damage helps with that.

Thanks to the Brew cost removal, Deadly Strike has synergy with Flying Leap at Level 16 because reducing the cooldown of Flying Kick makes it more expensive in terms of Brew per second.

Deadly Strike has anti-synergy with Brewmaster's Balance because you will not be able to easily reach 50 Brew anymore.

Accumulating Flame is a strong Talent that empowers Breath of Fire in two ways: it increases Ignite's damage and, more importantly, allows Chen to extend Ignite's duration when hitting Ignited enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks.

While the damage bonus provided by this Talent is not that great, it easily adds up when clearing Minions, making it important for improving Chen's mediocre waveclear.

The duration bonus is less effective when the enemy team has access to Blinds, however, it should not stop you from picking this Talent to empower your waveclear.

Withering Flames is a situational Talent that reduces the Ability-based damage and healing done by enemy Heroes hit with Breath of Fire.

We recommend to pick this Talent only against Heroes who can deal a lot of damage with their Abilities and have access to survivability tools as well (notably Kerrigan).

Gift of the Ox is a situational Talent that buffs Stagger by increasing its duration and boosting its effectiveness.

Contrary to Elusive Brawler, this Talent works best against Spell Damage.

Gift of the Ox has synergy with Celerity at Level 16 because it reduces the cooldown of Stagger.

Brewmaster's Balance is a good Talent that increases Chen's Movement Speed when having 50 Brew or less and quadruples Chen's Health Regeneration when having 50 Brew or more.

When Chen has exactly 50 Brew, he gets both effects. The easiest way to meet this condition is to use Keg Smash, Breath of Fire, and Flying Kick in any order. Due to this, Brewmaster's Balance has anti-synergy with Deadly Strike at Level 4.

Elusive Brawler is a strong Talent that gives you access to an Active Ability that can be used to give Chen additional Movement Speed and allow him to Evade all Basic Attacks for 2 seconds. Basic Attacking reduces the cooldown of this Ability by 2 seconds.

To experienced players we recommend picking this Talent as it gives the most value in team fights compared to the other options in the same Tier, especially against enemy Heroes who heavily rely on Basic Attacks (for example Tychus).

Keep in mind that Elusive Brawler also allows you to dodge shots from enemy Structures, including the Armor reduction from Forts and Keeps.

In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.

Wandering Keg is a good Heroic Ability that gives a lot of value against enemy Heroes who lack mobility as you can easily Displace them in whatever direction you prefer.

Prefer this Heroic Ability when your team needs a tool to interrupt a powerful enemy Heroic Ability (for example Mosh Pit by E.T.C.).

Storm, Earth, Fire is a strong Heroic Ability that allows Chen to dive the enemy backline in a relatively safe way thanks to the multiple bodies that basically double his survivability for a dozen of seconds.

While interrupts are a bit annoying to face while playing Storm, Earth, Fire—an Ability that has a channel—you should mainly avoid to play it against Heroes who can deal a lot of area of effect damage and easily deny the advantage you would get by having multiple bodies.

Pressure Point is a situational Talent that adds a 40% Slow for 1 second to Flying Kick, with double effectiveness but same duration when having Shields from Fortifying Brew.

You may need this Talent to Slow down enemy Heroes who are hard to catch (such as Lúcio) and thus be able to land another Basic Attack on them.

Due to its Shield requirement, Pressure Point has synergy with Freshest Ingredients at Level 1.

A Touch of Honey is a situational Talent that increases the Slow applied by Keg Smash from 10% to 40% during the first 1.25 seconds and from 40% to 70% during the remaining 1.75 seconds, extended to 2.25 seconds.

You may need this Talent as a setup for allied Heroes who rely on skillshot-based Abilities that are hard to aim but important to land.

Ring of Fire is a good Talent that, after Igniting an enemy with Breath of Fire, allows Chen to deal a decent amount of area of effect damage to nearby enemies for 5 seconds.

You can pick this Talent to not only increase your damage output but also to improve your otherwise poor waveclear, which is particularly useful on big Maps (such as Sky Temple). When playing on Infernal Shrines, this Talent can be used to kill the Guardians with ease.

Enough to Share is a strong Talent that makes Fortifying Brew immediately give a Shield equivalent to 1 second of channeling; furthermore, it makes each second of channeling give about 80% of baseline Fortifying Brew to nearby allied Heroes for 4 seconds.

While generally valuable, we find this Talent particularly good when you want to help allied Heroes to survive against scary enemy Heroes who dive in the backline of your team (for example Zeratul).

You can combine this Talent with Combo Strikes at Level 16 to easily gain Attack Speed from it and thus increase your damage output. For this reason, Enough to Share is a better offensive option than Ring of Fire, which is instead more suited for clearing Minions.

Flying Leap is a is good Talent that improves Flying Kick by increasing its range and reducing its cooldown when Ignite damage ticks.

Pick this Talent when you cannot get value from Basic Attacks as both Celerity and Combo Strikes rely on them in different ways.

By increasing range and uptime, Flying Leap has synergy with Flying Leap-related Talents: Deadly Strike at Level 4 because of both the damage increase and Brew cost reduction, and Pressure Point at Level 13 because of the empowered Slow.

Celerity is a good Talent that reduces the cooldown of Stagger and gives him a solid amount of Armor when using Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes affected by Stuns, Roots, and Slows.

Mostly because of the cooldown reduction, Celerity has synergy with Gift of the Ox at Level 7.

Combo Strikes is a strong Talent that allows Chen to deal bonus damage once every third Basic Attack and, when having Shields from Fortifying Brew, increases Attack Speed by a good amount.

Due to its Shield requirement, Combo Strikes has synergy with Fortifying Brew-based Talents: Enough to Share at Level 13 and Freshest Ingredients at Level 1.

Untapped Potential is a decent Talent that makes Wandering Keg move faster and give more Armor, even for a few seconds after it ends.

Due to not being used to the higher Movement Speed, you will have a higher chance to mess up with Wandering Keg by pushing enemy Heroes in a direction you did not intend to.

The additional Armor provided is not really necessary while moving at high Movement Speed as you will be hard to hit anyways, but the fact that it remains active for a few seconds after Wandering Keg ends may be useful in some scenarios.

Elemental Conduit is a strong Talent that increases each elemental spirit's maximum Health from 70% to 100% of Chen's maximum Health and makes each unique Ability provided by Storm, Earth, Fire empowered regardless of the order you cast them.

The unique Abilities coming from Storm, Earth, Fire have been already discussed while talking about the corresponding Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check out the dedicated section in the Abilities and Strategy page.

Purifying Brew is a good Talent that gives Chen Unstoppable for 1.5 seconds when he starts channeling Fortifying Brew.

While the full channel of Fortifying Brew lasts 3 seconds, 1.5 seconds of channel will ensure you 75 Brew and 270 Shield before being vulnerable to interrupts.

Storm, Earth, Fire takes 1 second to cast, so being Unstoppable for 1.5 seconds is enough to ensure it goes off regardless of enemy interrupts being thrown at you.

Pick this Talent when you go for Storm, Earth, Fire at Level 10 and want an additional layer of safety against enemy Heroes who have access to powerful crowd control effects (for example E.T.C.) or when you go for Wandering Keg at Level 10.

Energizing Brew is a decent Talent that, when Chen channels Fortifying Brew for the maximum amount of 3 seconds, gives him 20% bonus Health and damage for 25 seconds.

While being vulnerable to interrupts is not really an issue for Energizing Brew as you can cast Fortifying Brew a dozen of seconds before a team fight happens, this Talent is a bit awkward to use due to the requirement to stand still every now and then to keep the buff active and ready for any team fight that may suddenly start.