Chen has gotten very popular lately, going from not being picked at all to almost getting picked or banned in every game. Why did this happen? Was it one big change or a lot of small ones?
Chen has always been my favorite hero. When I started to play Dota1 the reason why I liked Chen was that it gave you the option to control more than one unit compared to most other heroes. I played a lot of Warcraft III before I switched to Dota so some of the micro was already there. Speaking of Warcraft III, I’m still waiting for Warcraft IV to be released even though it would probably be the end of my Dota-career because I would play too much Warcraft :D.
There are two main reasons why I feel that Chen has become more viable which is the new creep camp at the secret shop and the change of the meta (what people tend to pick and how they play). There has also been a lot of other changes like the aghs upgrade (that you can take over ancients) as well as the penitence buff but for me they aren’t as important. Sure, the last patch when you could take over ancients and the cooldown of the heal was 30 seconds was a bit broken since you could just split push with the ancient creeps and heal+send them back without risking any cooldowns. Right now I would say Chen is more balanced because of the change but I guess we will see how it turns out.
Starting with the first main reason – the new creep camp. A very good way to counter Chen is to slow down his impact and ability to do anything early on. To do this you hunt him with a support and if you also block some camps Chen can really struggle. A hero that was used often to do so was Bounty Hunter (which I would say was the most effective as well) but other heroes also worked fine. Some teams also liked to go aggressive trilane and have their supports roam for Chen which also worked sometimes.
What this new camp gives you is somewhat of a safe-zone. It’s not easy for your opponents to go there without showing themselves through the mid lane (if they are coming from your jungle) and if you want to go into your opponents jungle it’s much safer if you have a creep with you that you can take from the new camp at the start.
The second reason, the change of the meta, is about what the opponents like to pick and what heroes that are being played every single game. The last patches you saw heroes like SF and Lina mid with a Gyro carry every game and facing those heroes with Chen is really annoying. If you make one mistake they kill all your creeps straight away. You still see some of those heroes now as well but somehow I can manage to keep them alive most of the time :).
If you guys have anything you want me to write about make sure to drop a comment here below and I might make a post about it. Thanks for reading! 🙂
Cheers,
Akke
Joakim Akterhall 
Any chance you can post on how the atmosphere in the team is right now, and how you all feel with the old TI3 winning team back?
Also, any posts about why no one streams ever except bulldog, yet we see loda and s4 and egm on his stream a lot too?
Finally a post about when you think Pitlord will be released and what will happen to the meta once he and/or arc warden are in CM?
Thanks ❤
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What are your thoughts on maxing Penitence over Test of Faith? I believe we saw this at MDL. A value point in each seems pretty good so it’s not as if you need to max either?
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Aghs buff on chen what you think?
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you mean you want more ags buff?
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A guide on how to play kotl would be awesome.
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I was a Chen player. (I had to quit playing DOTA2 now because too much study to do); Like you said, the previous patch meta-game relied a lot of flash farming, this makes a lot of Chen switched to other support hero like dazzle or vengeful spirit to stack and let their core to farm up. I felt like Chen is, one of the hero, if he does not make a impact early/mid game then it is difficult to comeback.
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You really need to start to stream. To be honest i really need to see a good support and all the people just play with carrys… So if you can i will appreciate that. Good luck in the next tournaments.
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Finns det på kartan att ni gör som ppd och skapar en vlog för resor, turneringar och bootcamps och sånt? Vore roligt med lite insyn =)
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Är inget vi snackat om tyvärr. Jag kommer försöka ta lite bilder och skriva så mycket jag kan här på bloggen i alla fall så alltid något! 🙂
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Can you write a guide how to be a good support? what should a support do in safelane/offlane/ mid? when he/she should rotate, using smoke and …?
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write about alliance botcamp for shanghai major
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love your blog, ha det så bra and keep it up!
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Thanks!
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Really enjoying your new blog man, go Alliance ! 😀
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Thanks 🙂
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Hi Akke , nice post there btw i am a fan of s4 can you please ask S4 if he remember the million dream carl?
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Hej!
Vad tycker du om Mana boots –> Aether Lens på Dazzle? Jag vet att hans spells redan har lång range men jag tycker det är rätt viktigt item ändå ( magic damagen på healen skadar aldrig 🙂 ).
Om du har tid kanske du kan skriva ett inlägg om min favo 5 support 😀
Ha det gött och go Alliance!
Eric
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Hej!
Ja Aether Lens kan verkligen vara bra på han, lite extra range är aldrig fel! Dock så är hans heal physical damage men kan vara bra ändå!
Ha det bra!
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I really like that you have that upcoming games tab. Keep it updated as far ahead you can 🙂
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How big of a Chen-buff was the cloak aura for some of the creeps?
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Not so much I think since you rather have the big creeps but I guess it could be really nice if you face a team with mostly magic damage. Maybe it’s very good against Zeus when you push? Gonna try it out next time I play against Zeus to just get those creeps! 😀
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