Chen in 7.41f: Zealot got tankier, and creep control got smoother

Hi! Today I’m looking at Chen — a hero who got another small tuning pass in 7.41f and, in my opinion, feels a bit nicer to play if you enjoy juggling creeps, healing, and that endless micro control.

Role and abilities

Chen is a ranged hero with Intelligence as his primary attribute, his complexity is at the maximum, and his official roles are Support and Pusher. His entire gameplan, as before, revolves around controlled units and team utility: he builds an improvised army, pushes lanes, helps allies survive fights, and can pull a teammate out of a very bad spot with healing and buffs.

• Penitence — deals damage, slows the target, and lets allies attack it faster.
• Holy Persuasion — lets him convert creeps; with Aghanim’s Shard it allows him to dominate Ancient creeps and enhances some creep abilities.
• Divine Favor — passively increases health regeneration for nearby allies, and on cast boosts an ally’s armor and healing received; when cast on himself, it also affects controlled creeps.
• Zealot — the innate ability that causes a fanatic to join Chen when he respawns; it can sacrifice itself to heal an ally or damage an enemy, and returns after some time once it dies.
• Hand of God — heals all allied heroes and controlled creeps across the map; with Aghanim’s Scepter, it does not heal Chen himself.

I think Chen has a very recognizable play pattern: he isn’t about isolated power spikes, but about constant map pressure through creeps and saves. In the right hands, he always feels like part of a team, not like a separate carry object.

Changes in recent patches

In 7.41f, Chen got less of a rework and more of a careful base buff and a tweak to his fanatic. It feels like an attempt to make the hero a bit more reliable rather than reinvent him from scratch.

• 7.41f: Strength gain increased from 2 to 2.2.
• 7.41f: Zealot respawn time for the fanatic changed from 60 to 60 – 1 second per hero level.

Before that, 7.41b buffed Holy Persuasion: bonus damage went up from 0/6/12/18% to 5/10/15/20%. In my opinion, that matters more than it looks on paper, because Chen now turns controlled creeps into real pressure much more effectively.

• 7.41b: Holy Persuasion — bonus damage increased from 0/6/12/18% to 5/10/15/20%.

In 7.41a, Penitence and the level 15 talent were adjusted. For a hero that likes to win fights through tempo and target focus, that makes perfect sense.

• 7.41a: Penitence — damage increased from 50/75/100/125 to 50/100/150/200.
• 7.41a: level 15 talent bonus slow for Penitence increased from 14% to 15%.

And then 7.41 brought a real overhaul. The old innate Summon Convert was removed and replaced with Zealot. To me, this is the key change for modern Chen: now the hero has a permanent fanatic that lives with him, scales as the game goes on, and gives him a separate source of pressure and saving.

• 7.41: Summon Convert removed from the game.
• 7.41: a new innate ability, Zealot, was added with passive and active components.
• 7.41: the fanatic gains the stats of the controlling player’s melee creeps and scales over the course of the game.
• 7.41: Martyrdom lets the fanatic sacrifice itself for damage or healing.
• 7.41: teleportation mechanics were moved over from Divine Favor unchanged.
• 7.41: Holy Persuasion now empowers fanatics.
• 7.41: Holy Persuasion can now be cast on a dominated creep to cancel its summon.
• 7.41: when cast on himself, Divine Favor no longer teleports all controlled creeps to the owner.
• 7.41: the level 10 talent was changed from bonus attack speed for the fanatic creep to bonus health and damage for Zealot fanatics.
• 7.41: the level 15 talent was changed to bonus extra damage from Holy Persuasion.

Statistics

According to OpenDota, over the last 7 days Chen has played 18,376 games in public matches and has a 45.9% win rate. That puts him 118th out of 127 heroes by win rate and 127th by game count. On the numbers alone, he doesn’t look like a comfortable choice for the average pub, though in skilled hands he can still be more annoying than the overall win rate suggests.

Looking by rank, the picture is a bit more even: Herald — 47.3%; Guardian — 45.7%; Crusader — 44.0%; Archon — 44.8%; Legend — 45.2%; Ancient — 48.2%; Divine — 49.6%. What stands out to me here is that Chen feels noticeably better at higher ranks. That fits his complexity and his dependence on micro control.

Items and matchups

In professional matches, Chen is most often built for sustain, regen, and team auras. That’s very much in character: the hero doesn’t so much run forward himself as help the whole squad do it longer and more confidently.

• Start: Iron Branch, Tango, Blood Grenade, Sentry Ward, Smoke of Deceit, Observer and Sentry Wards.
• Early game: Boots of Speed, Arcane Boots, Chainmail, Drum of Endurance, Mekansm.
• Mid game: Arcane Boots, Mekansm, Drum of Endurance, Guardian Greaves, Pavise, Vladmir’s Offering.
• Late game: Pipe of Insight, Guardian Greaves, Aghanim’s Scepter, Vladmir’s Offering, Solar Crest, Glimmer Cape.

The matchup data in pro games is interesting too. Chen looks very good against heroes that can be smothered by tempo and pressure, but noticeably worse against those who can disrupt his teamfight plan and positioning.

• Best against: Brewmaster — 20 games, 85.0% win rate; Lich — 21 games, 76.2% win rate; Dawnbreaker — 25 games, 76.0% win rate.
• Worst against: Huskar — 20 games, 25.0% win rate; Nyx Assassin — 25 games, 36.0% win rate; Largo — 22 games, 36.4% win rate.

My conclusion

In my opinion, Chen in 7.41f became a bit more reliable, but not simpler: the base Strength buff and the faster return of the fanatic make the hero less fragile, while the earlier 7.41 changes clearly push him toward a denser and more useful support-pusher. At the same time, OpenDota stats show that in pubs he is still difficult and far from universal. I’d expect that in the hands of experienced players, Chen will keep carving out his niche, while in regular games he’ll remain a hero people either love a lot or avoid touching unless they really have to.

Source: official Dota 2 and OpenDota data.

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