Why Chen has a less than 2% pick rate in Dota 2

At the professional level, Chen is considered to be one of the most broken support heroes in Dota 2. His early game is phenomenal and it is now easier than ever to find the ideal creeps during the first several minutes of the match.

So why do so many players completely ignore this hero? And even the ones who pick him have a win rate of just 50%. Meanwhile, at ESL One Berlin Major, Chen is the ninth most contested hero in the game. He gets banned in almost every single game because of how scary it is to play against him.

Chen’s strengths

Chen can make neutral creeps join his army and can even use Ancient creeps with nothing more than an Aghanim’s Shard. This means that by minute 10 or 15, you could be having a very powerful army of creeps that give you the ability to damage opponents, stun them, tank tower damage, and much more.

One of the most broken aspects of jungle creeps is the fact that they have auras. Some of those auras are really powerful. Not to mention the active abilities, that can give allies armor and other useful buffs.

Chen’s ultimate is one of the most powerful healing abilities in the game. At the first level, it heals everyone for 200 HP instantly and gives allies 20 HP regen for 8 seconds.

If you also have a Mekansm, which you will in almost all cases in the early game, you can provide a 500 heal to your entire team in a second, followed by an additional 140 HP over the next seconds.

It’s no wonder that people fear Chen lineups. They have a habit of ending the game in just 20 minutes. Most heroes barely start farming their first important item at minute 10. But Chen has nearly completed his farm between minute 10 and minute 15, having a Mek and an Aghanim’s Shard.

These two items and a pair of Arcane Boots allow him to keep his team healthy while it is pushing tower after tower. Not to mention the creeps.

Why Chen is not picked more often

The reason why so few people play Chen is that pub teams are disorganized and don’t know how to end the game quickly. At the same time, Chen can be difficult to play because it’s not easy to control a large army of creeps. Your APM needs to be really high. But the hero is very strong and mastering him will bring you a lot of MMR.

Header: Valve Corporation