Play with Pro is a weekly series that provide hero guides for intermediate and high-skilled players, with direct insights and advices from best professional players from all over the world, in a informative and entertaining way. This week, we will welcome Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall to the colloquium, with Chen the Holy Knight up his sleeves.

CHEN THE HOLY KNIGHT

Strength: 20 + 1.5

Agility: 15 + 2.1

Intelligence: 21 + 28

Damage: 48-53

Mana: 273

Armor: 1.1

Movement Speed: 300

Sight range: 1800/800

Attack Range: 600

Missile speed: 1100

Attack Duration: 0.5 + 0.5

Cast Duration: 0.3 + 0.51

Base Attack Time: 1.7

=> Which strategy that Chen can fit in?

=> Which pick phase should Chen enter (considering that he is not in the ban pool)?

1. SKILL SET:

2. ITEM BUILD:

3. SKILL BUILD:

4. PLAYSTYLE:

5. AKKE'S GOLDEN RULES:

"*Decent micro (the ability to not freak out when controlling multiple units at once)

*Good decision-making when it comes to farm in woods /gang /push (a wrong call could cost you your life, your teammates’ lives for the gain of some flames towards you – quite bad trade) "

6. YOU ARE CHEN, THE HOLY KNIGHT. DON'T DO THIS THING, JUST DON'T:

7. AND DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. AT LEAST, NOT DURING SERIOUS MATCHES:

8. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION



It says 'jungler' in the Role section, so can I go jungling in the enemy's jungle?

Yes, but not really advisable. Since Chen cannot get more than one creep until level 5, he may have a hard time in enemy's territory since he does not have an escape mechanism to deal with highly imminent ganks. And also you've got to have a stronger trilane on the offlane to keep the pressure constantly up. If you think that the situation does not really work out for you, try retreating to your own jungle instead. Enchantress may perform this role better since she can get more creeps at early level; possesses a reliable slow and also a non-ultimate healing ability.



There are so many neutral creeps in the jungle, which one should I pick up?

This is based on the situation that your team are in and the current stage of the game. Generally, the Dark Troll Warlord is the most preferred one since he has 1 disable and can summon Skeleton Warriors as well; which makes him useful in both pushes and teamfight. The Enraged Wilkins are also useful with the summoned Cycloned being a great harassing tool. Ursa Warriors and Centaur Khans provide an AoE slow with mediocre damage and an AoE stun, respectively, along with good tankability. The best combination for mid game would be Dark Troll Warlord + 2 Centaur Khans which, if pulled off successfully, produce 5.5-second disable in total.

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Basic & Advanced AttributesRole: Support/Pusher/JunglerPros:- Strong pusher early game with converted neutral creeps- An effective jungler, meaning more farm/exp for other hey heroes.- High support capability thanks to Holy Persuasion + Hand of God- Good ganking potential.- Item independant (that’s right, Chen doesn’t need much items to prove his worth)Cons:- Micro-intensive playstyle- Far less useful during late game- Fragile- Lack of mobility (since the converted creeps cannot teleport to towers)One of the best thing about Chen is that he can fit in almost every strategy (of course except for a crazy 5-man mid lane push and ten-minute GG). The current Dota 2 metagame is all about taking down towers as fast as possible, gaining map control and Chen is perfect for that, with his pushing power.Chen should be selected during the first 3 picks, either as a first pick or second pick; since Enchantress is his only natural counter (but not totally much of a fierce one), and there are more spaces for mind-games and other important picks for the drafter.( Only the usage and maneuverability of the skills are discussed here, basic information of the skills can be viewed here + Penitence: a decent skill to round up Chen’s support capability. Provides a mediocre slow and damage amplification, however, this skill is not really useful until maxed out. Besides the bonus damage will always be physical damage, regardless of the initial source; thus Penitence declines sharply in usefulness towards mid game.+ Test of Faith: despite being based on luck to some extent, this is actually a decent nuke. Since the damage type is pure, the nuke pierces right into the target’s hp, regardless of armor and magic resistance. This helps Chen to finish off his enemies more quickly. However, with high manacost and long cooldown, it should be used wisely.+ Holy Persuasion: Chen’s bread-and-butter skill, enough said. Notice that it only allows 2 converted creeps at level 3, so getting Chen to level 5 as soon as possible is a must for Chen, since 2 neutral creeps provide huge pushing/ganking power. The allied-unit teleport is just the icing on the cake of this skill. Note that there are 6/5/4/3 seconds delay for hero but a instant effect for creeps. Also the unit cap of the skill means that if you try to convert an extra unit beyond the cap, one random creep of yours will die (even the newly converted one).+ Hand of God: a GLOBAL heal, what more needed to say? 400hp at level 3 can simply turn the tide of the battle.*Start with: Courier/Ward of Observation – Ring of Protection – Tangoes – Clarity – Smoke/Iron branches-> You are a support, getting courier or wards is simply your responsibility. Ring of Protection is to combined with Sobi Mask (which can be purchased at the side shop), some basic regens and smoke for gank. You can replace the smoke with branches if you aim to stick inside the jungle to farm up rather than go ganking.*Early – mid game: Arcane boot – Mekansm/Pipe of Insight-> Arcane boot is a critical first item, since both you, your allies and creeps need mana for constant pushing. Mekansm provide you with everything you need: some stats, armor and an AoE heal to combine with your ultimate, making you a mobile fountain during pushes. You can get a Pipe instead if you can farm very well and the enemies possess a lot of magical burst damage or there is already someone in your team picking up Mekansm, however, Mekansm is still a more advisable choice over Pipe.*Mid – late game: Force Staff/Scythe of Vyse/Vladmir’s Offering/Necronomicon/Drum of Endurance/Aghanim’s Scepter-> This is the time that your importance declines sharply, as your skills start to drop in usefulness. What you should get during this stage of the game is basically whatever your teammates need. Force Staff is always a good choice due to its manueverability. Scythe of Vyse is a highly luxury item for Chen, but worth picking up if possible. Vladmir’s Offering is prefered when you have a melee carry in your team; and Necromicon and Drum is merely to pile up on your pushing power (however, make sure that you have super duper great micro-ing skills before getting the Necronomicon – controlling 6 units at once can give you a headache, literally). Aghanim’s Scepter is also a decent choice on Chen, since it gives him a little more survivability and 30-second cooldown ultimate that makes half of the map happy.Generally, there is not much deviation in Chen’s skill build, as his core skills – Holy Persuasion and Hand of God – must be picked up whenever available. Certain confusion in choices can occur between leveling up Penitence or Test of Faith; however, Test of Faith is more advisable in team play, since your teammates should help you with the initiation, thus the burst damage ensures a quick and successful gank.Most intermediate players already have a certain concept of how to play Chen. Head straight into your jungle (just because this is your home, don’t go to lane because your natural laning capability sucks bad), tell your allies to get a couple of wards here as well to help you avoid ganks from enemy supporters. Farm up there using your converted creeps (this part should be easy) and stay aware of possible ganks to get your core items.Besides farming, you also have 2 options at hand: ganking and pushing. Generally Chen is put into a trilane to utilize his power early game. If you have an aggressive push-oriented lane i.e with Leshrac and Vengeful Spirit, facing the enemy solo hero, then you should coordinate with your teammates and go push whenever possible, since Leshrac’s Diabolic Edict can take down tower very fast. In case of having a more passive trilane i.e Slardar and Crystal Maiden or facing enemy’s trilane, it is more advisable to play safe to get to level 5 first (by then you should have 2 converted creeps, unless you misclicked while leveling up your abilities or you are trolling your teammates) then overwhelm the enemies with your pushing power.Moving towards mid and late game, your job is pretty much the same: accompanying your teammates to put pressure on enemies’ lanes and take down as many towers as possible. Meanwhile, keep your team up and alive with Hand of God/Mekansm and teleport teammates home if needed. If possible, farm up a couple of luxury items to increase your presence in teamfight. Details can be found in the ITEM BUILD section above.Finally the biggest question: what do you do in a teamfight as a Chen player? You should stay “in” and “out” of the battle, which means that you should keep off the main area of the fight (since you are food to enemy carry and you do not want the only thing you do during the fight is waving your glowing scepter in vain and shaking your head in stun); but meanwhile, if possible, take a couple of minor nukes, but make sure that you are still able to pull off at least your heal. Most of the time of the battle, you should stay outside, since 1. You are a range hero, you can attack from afar and 2. By staying outside, you can focus more on controlling your creeps. In certain circumstances, you should keep a Dark Troll Warlord out of the battle so that he can disrupt enemy’s channeling spells (Enigma’s Black Hole,; Crystal Maiden’s Freezing Field, Bane’s Fiend’s Grip etc.)- Steal kills and farm from your carry:Don’t ever let your ego comes before your knighthood. You are a support hero, you SUPPORT. One of the criteria of support is giving up heroes and creeps kills to your carry.- Stay too passive:You are a pusher, you PUSH whenever possible. Don’t towerhug when you have your whole team around you ready for pushing. And even though the jungle is your home, do go out whenever possible because Chen is not a nerd! Even some fake-pushing can help create space and time for your carry to farm.- You feel so boss yourself, and you just realize that Chen has good attack animation, decent attack speed (2.1 agility gain per level) and good base damage, along with a damage amplifying skill. So theoretically, Chen is a viable Mjollnir carrier. So you put on your Gunnar glasses and pretend that you are playing a Lycan with range attack. Farm up like crazy in the jungle, go to lane to steal creep kills when you need some time aways from the trees, stealing any hero kills like there's no tomorrow. A Maelstrom-wielded Chen around 13, 14 minute mark is just pure imbaness. Use Penitence on the poor enemy hero and watch him going down under your scepter swings.- Okay, it’s another day and you feel Mjollnir is not good enough. You are an Intelligence hero, and Thor’s hammer is clearly not to be wield by someone with so much intellectual prowess (you gain 2.8 intelligence per level, for god’s sake). Besides, Chen already has himself a scepter, who holds both a scepter and a hammer at one time? So, get Dagon instead. Two scepters, one blue and one red, sounds like a perfect combination. And what you do is very simple, farm like ZSMJ and use the Penitence + Test of Faith + Energy Burst (from Dagon) combo and watch the Fortress going down at your feet (could be either yours or the enemies’, depending on how REALLY “boss” you are).