Fortifying Brew (Trait): Drink up, friends! A large part of Chen’s sustain comes from his trait, in which he stands in place and chugs down a fine brew. This increases his brew and grants him a shield. He will chug for up to five seconds, generating 465 shields per second (at level 20) however he can’t have more than 1394 (level 20) shields when he is done drinking. These extra shields persist for two seconds after the drinking ends. The amount of shield generation allows Chen to absorb an insane amount of punishment as most heroes do not attack with enough damage per second to punch through the shield and hit the panda underneath. This makes Chen a very strong lane bully and he can hold a lane through sheer sustain by rotating through his attacks and drinking when pressured.

Flying Kick: A targeted move, in which Chen kicks through his target, appearing behind them. This ability can be used to reach the back line easily, as well as set up body blocks in the same way Illidan uses Dive. Care must be taken that you don’t overextend because while Chen can survive most heroes one on one, focused fire will kill you quickly.

Keg Smash: A short range area effect ability dealing light damage, this will also apply a 25% slow to your enemies. This makes up one of the key parts of Chen’s combo focused style, as Keg Smash has interactions with Breath of Fire.

Breath of Fire: A short range area effect ability dealing light fire damage, but, will apply a damage over time ability to enemies soaked with brew from Keg Smash.

Level 1 presents a solid mix of talents, which you would take depending largely on the enemy team composition and map choice.

Accumulating Flame

A quest talent that mixes offensive and defensive benefit. Setting enemy heroes on fire (via Keg Smash > Breath of Fire) increases the damage of the damage over time by 2%. After 30 heroes are set on fire, setting enemy heroes on fire will grant you one second of resistant (-25%) damage per enemy hero hit.

This talent can be useful if plan to be aggressive and the enemy team has a decent amount of front line heroes so you can stack your counter quickly. It loses value against a lot of ranged / mobile heroes, as you are unlikely to get more than a second of resistant at a time. The damage reduction requires an active aggressive playstyle.

Grounding Brew

Reducing incoming ability damage by 30% while drinking, this makes it much more difficult for ability based heroes to break your shield, especially if you have managed to get the full shield in place. Extremely useful versus heroes such as Li-Ming, Chrome, Kael’Thas and Jaina this talent makes it so they are unlikely to break your shield instantly in one rotation of their abilities, where without it, they’d blow through the shield and deal damage to your hitpoints with their baseline rotations, not even factoring in talents. Taking this talent shifts your defensive focus a bit to making sure you are blocking incoming skill shots while drinking. It puts more focus on drinking itself as you are trading sustain versus nullification of damage. It requires an active playstyle, but unlike Accumulating Flame, focuses on a defensive stance.

Freshest Ingredients

A quest that has you collect regen globes, and for each you collect your hp regen goes up by 1%. Collect 30 globes, and when you stop drinking fortifying brew, 50% of your maximum shield will persist until removed by incoming damage.

Since your shield at level 20 is 1394 hitpoints this basically allows Chen to start every fight (assuming he drinks) with an additional 697 hitpoints. Chen already has the 3rd highest hitpoints for a warrior (behind Cho’gall and Stitches) and this talent shines under two conditions..

Easy access to lots of regen globes (Think Tomb of the Spider Queen, Blackheart’s Bay)
The need for sustained combat without easy access to a support.

How this talent differs from the previous two is that it allows you to make fewer trips back to the well or Hall of Storm between fights. Without any talents, at level 20 Chen’s base hitpoint regen is 12.09. Completing this quest increases that to 32.09 per second, but is completely passive (other than collecting regen globes).

Elusive Brawler

Drink up, and flow like water. This adds an active button to ‘1’ resulting in being able to avoid all basic attacks for 2 seconds. Your own auto attacks reduce the 20 second cooldown by 3 seconds per hit.

Thus, be like water.

Drink … 1...2..3
Auto Attack
Elusive Brawler
Auto Attack
Other ability
Auto Attack
Drink … 1.. 2.. 3

That type of rotation will give you shields from your brew, allow you to get some hits in while using Elusive Brawler to cover most of the distance between drink cycles, and can play a huge role in your survivability under the following conditions

Enemy team has a lot of auto attack heroes (Valla / Tychus / Greymane / Butcher / Sgt. Hammer).
Enemy would typically be in range for you to auto attack easily
Enemy either attacks very fast (Tracer) or very hard (Sgt Hammer / Greymane / Butcher).

Thus you end up with a very flowing yin / yang fluid style of fighting, being aggressive, then defensive, than aggressive etc. nullifying as much damage as you can between your shields and your Elusive Brawler effect.
Level 4
Level 4 gives Chen different damage options and which you pick here can lead to different interactions with other talents in the tree.

Level 4 gives Chen different damage options and which you pick here can lead to different interactions with other talents in the tree.

Deadly Strike

Flying kick will deal 100% more damage if you have brew shields, and cost no brew. This talent is likely the default pick on this tier, stacking up very nicely if you took Freshest Ingredients at level 1, or plan to take Brewmaster’s Balance at level 7, or Pressure Point at level 13.

While the damage bonus here is nice, the major gain is from the removal of the brew cost for your basic movement attack. If you took Freshest Ingredients at level 1 and completed that quest, this can result in a large damage boost as long as you're not taking damage to remove your shields. If you plan to take Pressure Point at 13, the ability to use all your brew, and still get a slow off via Flying Kick can secure kills.

Keg Toss

Keg Toss is a quest, in that each time you hit enemy heroes with Keg Smash, it’s damage will be increased by 3, and once you hit 20 heroes with Keg Smash, Keg Smash gets a 125% range increase, and a second charge.

This talent could come in handy with A Touch of Honey at 13, and Another Round at 16. The former by giving you access to two moderately ranged 40 percent slows, the later because of the extra cooldown reduction offered by using Keg Smash on your other basic abilities. Still, outside of those use cases, I feel Deadly Strike is the superior option.

Ring of Fire



Following Breath of Fire, Chen will radiate flames around him for three seconds similar to Burning Rage on other warriors (level 13) or Diablo’s Fire Devil (level 4). This can add up over time to be significant damage to things around him over the course of the game, and does improve Chen’s wave clear. If the enemy team is mostly melee heroes, this will edge ahead of Deadly Strike in damage. However, I am not sold that the damage offered by this offsets the ability to freely Flying Kick enemies at no brew cost.

Level 7 offers various ways to sustain or reduce incoming damage.

Brewmaster’s Balance

Brewmaster’s Balance has two effects, depending on how much brew Chen has.

• If at or below 50 brew, Chen moves 20% faster.
• If at or above 50 Brew, Chen gains improved hp regen
• If at 50 brew, Chen gains both effects.

This talent is optimal under a few conditions

You will need to chase enemies or reposition quickly
You do not have access to a healer for long periods of time
You are allowed to drink with some regularity so that you can control your brew level.

At 20, Chen has 12.09 Hp regen. With Brewmaster’s Balance at 50 or higher brew, this increases to 51.52. However it also stacks with Freshest Ingredients, and if that quest is completed puts Chen at a maximum of about 81.51 hp a second. This talent is Chen’s source of hitpoint regeneration without external sources being consistently available.

Bolder Flavor

Grants you 50% of your full shield instantly, and shields persist 1 additional second (for 3 seconds total)

Without this talent, you need to drink for three seconds to reach full shield charge.
With this talent you need to drink for 1.5 seconds to reach full shield charge.

This talent is best taken in the following situations

• You are facing a stun/deplacement heavy team
• You plan to combo with Grounding Brew to absorb a huge amount of damage from skill shots.

With this talent you are trading long term lane sustain and speed of Brewmaster’s Balance for the safety net of having shields ‘now’ and getting your full shield benefit in half the time. Depending on how good you are at timing, you can preemptively shield and absorb huge amounts of damage, but know that if the damage breaks the shield - this talent will not help you recover your hitpoints.

Still this talent will likely win out if your enemy team is dead set on not allowing you to ever drink, giving you at least some measure of protection every 5 seconds where otherwise you’d have none.

Refreshing Elixir

The other raw sustain talent at level 7, Refreshing Elixir will increase your healing taken by 30% normally, and by an impressive 60% when drinking.

Let’s math it out a bit…

HP Regen base at level 20: 12.09
HP Regen base at level 20 w/ Refreshing Elixir: 15.05
HP Regen base at level 20 w/ Refreshing Elixir (Drinking): 19.3

Ok, so not the best return on the investment when you are solo queuing, but can pay off when pairing with a friendly support and you will be spending most of your time being in range of said support so they can heal you.

This talent does combo well with Freshest Ingredients, so let’s take a look at the return with that completed:
HP Regen base at level 20 w/ Freshest Ingredients (30): 32.09
HP Regen base at level 20 w/ Freshest Ingredients (30) w/ Refreshing Elixir: 41.72
HP Regen base at level 20 w/ Freshest Ingredients (30 w/ Refreshing Elixir (Drinking): 51.34

So, when the quest is complete, you come very close to hitting baseline Brewmaster’s Balance hitpoint regen, but only while drinking. Where this talent pulls ahead is again, in presence of a support, who can heal you for massive amounts if you get healed while drinking due to the 60% healing bonus.

This talent is best taken when:

• You are near a support (or two)
• You are getting focused a lot, but not enough to instantly blow you up
• You are being allowed to drink (enemy focusing you while drinking)
• You are staying near your team.

Wandering Keg

Wandering Keg places Chen inside of his Keg, and he rolls around the battleground. If he comes into contact with a enemy hero, that hero is knocked backward taking light damage The ability is instant cast, and lasts for 5 seconds. Chen is unstoppable while this is going on. 70 second cooldown.

A very useful talent which can be used to:

• Barrel a enemy hero away from their team. Flying Kick over them, and use Wandering Keg to push them toward your teammates
• Barrel an enemy team away from a point. Think Boss captures, away from your team so that you can escape, or keep them from entering an area
• Pinning an enemy into a location. Knock a enemy hero into a corner and keep them pinned there unable to leave until the ability ends.
• Escape, use Wandering Keg’s unstoppable effects to push past being body blocked and escape death.

However take special note that you can’t move heroes who are also unstoppable, and the enemy hero being cleansed will stop them from being knocked backward. Also be aware that turning is difficult, so you will want to ensure you have an expected path for your Keg run to avoid turning more then needed.

Storm, Earth and Fire



With this talent, Chen’s damage increases, he gains the ability to move faster, and leap from place to place slowing the enemy heroes. Chen, after a brief wind up, will split into three spirits, Storm, Earth and Fire.

• Storm’s ability, Q, gives all three spirits 50% increased movement speed for 5 seconds, 12 second cooldown.
• Earth’s ability, W, causes the Earth and Fire spirit to jump toward a targeted area, causing a 70% slow in the area where they land for 1.5 seconds, 6 second cooldown
• Fire’s ability, E, will cause all three spirits to attack 100% faster for 5 seconds. 12 second cooldown

Each spirit has 75% of Chen’s maximum health, and if all three spirits are killed, Chen will die. If 12 seconds pass, Chen will reappear wherever the Storm spirit is located, if it is alive.

If the map is wide open, you need burst damage on the back line of the enemy team, or you want to cause as much controlled disruption as possible this talent becomes a good choice.

The spirits are very good at

• Applying pressure to the enemy back line
• Applying burst damage to a single target
• Massively slowing enemies in a area
• Allowing Chen to escape. As long as one spirit is alive at the end of the ability, Chen will appear where that spirit is, this can be used to cause Earth and Fire to jump on the enemy, then move Storm away while the enemy team kills Earth and Fire.

Generally, you wouldn’t want to take this talent if the enemy team has a lot of area of effect damage, because if your spirits die before the duration is up, so do you.

Level 13 gives Chen options over crowd control methods.

Pressure Point

Pressure point enhances Flying Kick, causing it to apply a 35% slow for 1 second. However, it also creates an interaction with Keg Smash, because of the enemy is soaked in brew, the slow effect is doubled to 70%.

This talent is ideal for securing kills against enemies trying to get away from you, and can allow your team to close with the enemy for a kill. It is best comboed with Deadly Strike due to it removing the brew cost of Flying Kick, however it also can work well with Keg Toss, as the extra range on Keg Smash will make it easier to land a full power slow from range.

Ideally this is taken when your team is mobile enough to catch up to you, or your team can ambush an enemy hero and prevent them from feeling. You are however, getting less of a slow baseline when compared to A Touch of Honey, and that should be considered.

A Touch of Honey

A Touch of Honey upgrades the slow on Keg Smash to 40%. This talent can be good when you need to apply a slow, but using Flying Kick into the enemy space would be considered risky. Combos well with Keg Toss, as you can apply a moderate slow from range.

Withering Flames

Withering Flames allows Chen to, when setting heroes on fire with Keg Smash > Breath of Fire, Lower the burning heroes ability power by 25% for 3 seconds.

This talent basically can act as a area of a effect damage reducer for your team. Pairing well with Accumulating Flame, not only will the hero do 25% less damage, but you will take 25% less damage for a time as well

Ideal for use on Mage heavy teams, this talent will make life easier for your team’s support. However, it does require that the target is burning, so may require Chen to close with the enemy hero before getting the effect off. Keg Toss can help with this by allowing you to more easily apply the burning effect from range, but if it’s not risky, you absolutely can Flying Kick > Keg Smash > Breath of Fire..

Level 16 is kind of a mixed bag, giving Chen more power in different ways.

Flying Leap

Increase the range of Flying Kick by 20%. Pairs well with Deadly Strike and Pressure Point, but the main focus is that this talent allows you to get into the back line of the enemy team easier. If combined with Pressure Point, it makes it harder for enemy heroes to escape.

Take note however, because you now can kick 20% further, it becomes easier to outrange your team. You want to take note of where your team is before overextending. Just because Chen can reach them, does not mean anyone else can.

Another Round

After hitting an enemy Hero with Keg Smash, the cooldown of the next Basic Ability you cast will be reduced by 3 seconds, additionally, increases Keg Smash’s effect radius by 50%. This talent is basically Chen’s version of Battle Momentum, by creating sizable cooldown reduction on basic abilities when comboed with Keg Smash.

This talent pairs exceptionally well with setting up prolonged disempowerment assuming you took Keg Toss at 4, and Withering Flames at 13. Allowing you to set up combination attacks similar to:

1. Flying Kick in
2. Keg Smash
3. Breath of Fire (Withering Flames)
4. Keg Smash
5. Breath of Fire (Withering Flames)

Allowing to you to basically ensure six seconds of reduced ability power on the enemy hero.

This talent also allows you the flexibility to set up interactions with Flying Kick, as Keg Smash > Flying Kick will allow you to Kick again two seconds later. This can be paired well with Keg Toss and Pressure Point allowing you to keep someone at 80% slow for a few seconds, basically ensuring your team can kill them.

Lastly, because you are now getting more basic abilities off, it pairs well with Stormstout’s Secret Recipe at 20 resulting in higher self-healing throughput

Enough to Share

The purely defensive option of the tier, Enough to Share creates a space (about 2 heroes in a 360 degree space) around Chen when he drinks. If allied heroes stand here, they will also gain shields from Chen’s drinking, albeit at reduced power.

If your team needs a boost to defense, and is aware enough to be standing near you, or you are melee heavy, this talent can add a amount of survivability to your team. Works well against heroes like Lunara and Nazeebo, as it helps your teammates nullify some of their damage over time effects, but at a cost of you standing still drinking, but I feel is the weakest of the tier.

The ‘Storm Tier’ of talents, These talents are meant to provide noticeable power boosts in effort to bring the game to a close.

Untapped Potential

Untapped Potential gains a 25% movement speed increase, and more importantly, a 50% reduction to incoming damage for it’s duration. This allows Chen to move enemies further, and reduces the chance the enemy team can kill him while doing so.

Elemental Conduit

Elemental Conduit makes the Spirits harder to deal with by empowering them. The spirits now have 100% of Chen’s Maximum health, and have the additional abilities:

• Storm: Storm’s movement effect now also grants Unstoppable for 5 seconds.
• Earth: Earth’s leap cooldown is reduced to 3 seconds, allowing several uses during the effect
• Fire: The Spirits will attack 100% faster for as long as the Fire spirit is alive.

Taking this upgrade pretty much ensures that Chen will be able to kill someone and that the spirits will reach their target while also making them harder to kill. It ensures that Chen will favor an very aggressive playstyle while the Heroic is in use.

Purifying Brew

Passively reduce the duration of the next Stun or Silence effect by 75% and reset the cooldown of Fortifying Brew. This can only happen once every 10 seconds.

What is likely the default talent pick for this tier, Purifying Brew helps you to overcome Chen’s primary weakness, being stunned for silenced by reducing it’s duration and resetting your ability to drink. If the enemy team has few stuns this will basically ensure that they have to use multiple of them on you in a 10 second span, or you’ll be able to drink. As a warrior, soaking up this extra Crowd Control, is a good thing, as it isn’t being used on the rest of your team. Strongly recommended if the enemy team has stuns or silences.

Stormstout Secret Recipe

Heal for 1.5% of your Maximum Health every time your Basic Abilities hit an enemy Hero.

This means that you will heal for 87.435 hit points each time you hit a hero with Flying Kick, Keg Smash or Breath of Fire at level 20.

Not impressive on paper, however does allow for some sustain if you can hit multiple heroes with Keg Smash and Breath of Fire. Does combo well with Refreshing Elixir, and would likely be ideally used for when Chen needs to hold a specific point and has to out sustain the enemy. However this late into the match that is typically less of a concern then in the early stages of the battle. This talent would get more milage on battlegrounds that have natural choke points as you would be able to hit multiple enemy heroes at once, and thus generate a larger heal. Could also be effective against enemy teams with several melee, making hitting multiple heroes easier on you.

This section will cover what Chen needs to be aware of when fighting enemy heroes.

Abathur

Abathur is unlikely to be encountered on the field, and Chen should be able to kill him easily. The biggest threat Abathur poses, is the ability to augment another hero, making it more likely that the enemy hero will between Abathur and himself be able to exceed Chen’s shield generation rate. This is especially noteworthy if Abathur took Adrenal Glands at 4, and the enemy team contains a high Auto Attack damage hero, as they will benefit from 25% increased attack speed.

Alarak

Alarak is difficult for Chen in two ways. His Discord Strike applies a silence, and his Telekinesis can displace Chen. Both interrupt Chen’s drinking, making it difficult to gain shields, especially if Alarak is staggering their use for that purpose. His damage is not high enough to break Chen’s shields outside of specific builds, but Alarak excels at preventing Chen from generating shields at all, and his ability damage, due to his trait, can be fairly high.

Anub’arak

The traitor king can present Chen with several problems due to the amount of Crowd Control he has available. Anub’arak has two short duration, moderate cooldown skill shot stuns available to prevent Chen from drinking, and at 10, can select Cocoon which is a long duration stun.

The other aspect to be concerned with, is via burrow charge, Anub’arak can get into your back line, and Chen has no hard crowd control options to easily deal with him attacking squishy allied heroes.

Artanis

Artanis can present Chen some challenges. Artanis’s trait allows him to generate a sizable shield at 75% health for 5 seconds every 24 seconds - however Artanis can reduce this cooldown timer by auto attacking. Since Chen doesn’t move while drinking, this gives Artanis time to refresh the cooldown on his shield while Chen chugs. Chen can slowly wear him down at lower levels by attacking when the shield is off cooldown.

Artanis has a few abilities which can pose problematic for Chen. The first comes at level 4 with Chrono Surge giving Artanis increased attack speed. This causes Phase Prism to interrupt the drinking by displacing Chen, then Artanis to hit Chen several times when he has minimal shields.

Purifying Beam is one of Artanis heroics, which places a laser on Chen that deals increasing damage. Chen can’t chug through the laser very long, and should move out of it to avoid taking permanent damage.

The last ability of significant concern is Titan Killer, which can take chunks of hitpoints from heroes whenever Artanis applies Twin Blades. The large amount of percentage health damage can easily force Chen to have to withdraw from battle.

All in all, a good Artanis is a warrior to be concerned about, as his damage can get fairly high late game, but has enough sustain to keep in the battle for long periods of time provided he can auto attack.

Arthas

The Lich King can use howling blast to root you, and his area of effect aura to slow your attack speed (if talented), however can’t stop Chen from drinking and can’t deal enough damage on his own in most cases to kill Chen. Still, he can have a impressive amount of self sustain and his damage is high enough to require Chen to continuously drink to refresh his shielding.

Auriel

Auriel has a few abilities which can be cause of concern. She can talent for increasing attack speed when giving an ally Bestow Hope, which can make enemy heroes more likely to break your shield. She can hit you with her ‘E’, displacing you out of a drink, and you’ll additionally be stunned if you hit a wall. Lastly she can talent for her sweeping strike to move you toward the center, displacing you out of your drink and applying extra damage.

Azmodan

Azmodan can typically be killed by Chen, and without laser talents, Chen can survive the laser by drinking. However, note that the Laser burn does significant damage and while Chen can avoid taking damage by drinking, it wouldn’t take much additional damage from another source for the laser to fully negate the shield Chen’s brew provides.

Brightwing

Brightwing is a cause of concern for a few reasons. She has global presence, so can teleport to assist a hero you may be fighting. She can polymorph you out of drinking, and at 10, can talent into Emerald Wind, which displaces you out of drinking. Brightwing herself can’t normally hurt you, but she provides enough damage that when working with a teammate can break your shield.

Chen

This really comes down to the specific talent builds and who is the better Chen.

Cho’Gall

Cho’Gall is in effect two heroes in one, and Chen can not sustain against them on his own. Of special note is both of Cho’s heroics can displace heroes, making him able to interrupt Chen’s drinking.

Chromie

Chromie is a long range mage, with amazing burst power. At level 20, totally untalented, she can deal over 1900 damage between her Sand Blast and Dragon’s Breath. Grounding Brew comes in very handy against Chromie, bringing her larger numbers down to only taking 97% of a full brew shield, rather than all of it plus some. Grounding Brew would reduce somewhere around 578 damage off one of her combo attacks, if you take them while drinking.

Dehaka

Dehaka can present a few problems to Chen. Like Brightwing, Dehaka has global presence and can move across the map quickly changing a fight into unfavorable numbers. Additionally, Dehaka has a stun / drag combination that will interrupt drinking. Further, they can talent into Isolation at level 10, picking up an additional silence for use against Chen.

Diablo

Diablo is another tank with multiple crowd control options available to him. Shadow Charge will move you and stop your drinking. Overpower will do the same. If at 10, he took Apocalypse that will also stun you if you do not move out of it. The trick to fighting a Diablo is knowing when to drink. Diablo players typically combo Shadow Charge and Overpower, so waiting until the second ability is used before drinking can be helpful. Pay special attention for Diablo talents into gaining a second Overpower charge.

E.T.C.

Yet another tank with multiple ways to prevent Chen from drinking. Power Slide will stun you out of it, while Face Melt can displace you, interrupting it. Like Diablo the trick is knowing when to drink. Power Slide into Face Melt is common and waiting for the second ability before chugging your brew can make the difference. Also of note is Mosh Pit, an ultimate with a four second stun. If the enemy team has a E.T.C. consider picking up wandering Keg, and using it to stop E.T.C.’s Mosh Pit channel, freeing your teammates. Wandering Keg cycles faster than Mosh Pit, and can always be off cooldown when Mosh Pit becomes available again.

Falstad

Falstad can deal some pretty impressive damage depending on talent choices. The specific build will determine how likely he is to be able to break your shield while drinking. He can’t stop you from drinking unless he uses Mighty Gust. So you should be able to beat him in a one on one engagement. If possible, save Flying Kick for when he Barrel Rolls to keep up the pressure.

Gazlowe

Gazlowe’s threat level can vary drastically depending on how many turrets he has out and how many of those are hitting you at any given time. On his own, Gazlowe can barely reach half of your shield generation rate. However, for each turret he has up, his damage per second increases by roughly 100 (at level 20). If he’s meleeing you, with two turrets up, he can nearly match your shield generation rate, at three turrets he can fully negate the shield and start chipping away at hitpoints. When at all possible move away from turrets (or kill them) and do not fight Gazlowe in a turret field without backup.

As for his other abilities, his ground bomb and grav bomb heroic can both stun you, but are easy to move out of. You’ll need to stop drinking to avoid them, but it’s better to avoid the damage easily than try to shield through it considering you are likely also in range of one or more turrets.

Greymane

Greymane has two forms, Human, and Worgen. The Human form isn’t much to worry about as it’s damage is weaker and Chen can easily shield through it if needed. As a Worgen however, Greymanes damage per second can increase dramatically, especially under Inner Beast. Without Inner Beast, Greymane deals enough damage to leave a mere 15 shield absorb after each second. With Inner Beast, Greymane’s worgen form damage per second spikes to upwards of 600, totally negating the shield and taking Chen’s health. This becomes worse for Chen at 16, if Greymane took Alpha Predator, which now allows Greymane to take percentage health damage on top of his already high attack damage. Chen can not shield through Worgen Greymane. The best chance you have is to deal enough damage to him that he has to withdraw, as he has no sustain. Other than that, try to poke at him with Keg Smash and Breath of Fire.

Guldan

Guldan isn’t much of a problem for Chen but can be difficult to push out of lane, because when Chen drinks, Guldan will try to use this as a chance to refresh his own health with Drain Life. At 10, his AE fear can break you out of drinking and cause you to move in directions you may not wish to go.

Illidan

Illidan attacks very fast but can’t sustain damage high enough to break Chen’s shields easily until level 16, when he can talent to have every 4th basic attack also take 5% health. However, while Chen is drinking, Illidan can hit him refreshing all his cooldowns and gaining life. This can make it difficult to kill Illidan on your own. The only way Illidan can stop Chen from drinking is by using his heroic The Hunt on him to stun him out of it.

Jaina

Jaina has some impressive burst, nearly matching Chromie if she hits with all of it. Untalented at 20, taking Blizzard, Cone of Cold and Frost Bolt comes out to some 1,800 damage, fully negating any shield you may have. Thus, like Chromie Grounding Brew can come in handy reducing her damage to roughly 90% of a full shield. That said, you should strive to not take three rounds of Blizzard to the face if you can help it. Jaina can’t stop Chen from drinking, but can slow him. Use Flying Kick if possible to reach her and continue to pressure her.

Johanna

Johanna doesn’t have much in the way of damage, but is just as tanky as Chen and unlike Chen, doesn’t have to stop moving every few seconds to keep that level of damage reduction going however is nowhere near as mobile. Johanna has several methods for interrupting Chen’s drinking session. Condeem will pull in and briefly stun everything around her. Additionally, both of her heroics can interrupt Chen’s drinking. It’d be a slow battle but you could wear Johanna down given more time than anyone would want to take.

Kael’thas

Kael’thas is a mage specializing in area of effect damage. He can interrupt your drinking by using Gravity Lapse, and assuming you take both Living Bomb and Flamestrike to the face, you’re looking at around 1500 incoming damage at level 20 (without talents). Again, Grounding Brew is a good choice here, taking that damage from your full shield plus some, to around 75% of a full shield.

Kerrigan

Kerrigan is a durable assassin, capable of interrupting your drink with her Impaling Blades as well as her Primal Grasp abilities. The former stuns you, the later displaces you. She also gains survivability from attacking you due to her trait. Baseline she deals moderate damage, but is unlikely to break your shield without talenting heavily into her attacks. She can prevent you from shielding however, and it comes down to if she combos both attacks together (giving you a chance to shield) or staggers them, making getting shields difficult. When moving away from Kerrigan, do not move in a straight line, zig zag to make her skill shots harder to land and avoid being stunned.

Kharazim

Kharazim represents different levels of threat depending on which trait he selected to take.

• Transcendence - Kharazim will heal from basic attacks, the least threatening of the choices.
  Insight - Kharazim gains a quest, and if he completes it, all his abilities will recycle faster. While not an immediate threat, sitting there and letting him beat on your shield is likely to make the larger stages of the game more difficult for your team.
• Iron Fists - this is a very large damage boost to Kharazim’s passive damage from auto attacks bringing him much closer to being able to break your shield without additional help. With this talent, at level 20, Kharazim will deal about 365 damage per second to your 465 shields per second.

Additionally, be aware if he selected Seven-Sided Strike as his heroic. Catching you in the effect alone can deal up to 50% of your health in damage, due to its percentage health in damage effect.

Leroic

Lerioc’s major threat comes from Drain Hope, which can deal percentage health damage. You ideally want to be able to move until he uses it, drinking while it’s on cooldown. No reason to make it easy for him to hit his skill shot.

The other major thing to be aware of, is if he takes Spectral Leech at 20, causing his basic attacks to deal percentage health damage. If Leroic takes Entomb, you can flying kick over him to escape it.

Lili

Lili is family, and doesn’t deal enough damage to hurt you on her own.

Li-Ming

Li-Ming is another long range mage, capable of dealing (untalented, level 20) around 1,500 damage between her Orb and Magic Missles to Chen in a single rotation (note: Li-Ming has short rotations). Taking Grounding Brew against her skill shots can reduce that damage to roughly 75% of a full shield. Two important things to know about Li-Ming are:

• If she is part of a takedown, all her cooldowns reset, including her Heroics.
• If she took Wave of Force at 10, she can interrupt your drinking.

Lt. Morales

The medic is a easy kill on her own, but she normally roams with at least one other person. In this case, she is the priority as her single target healing is exceptionally high and Chen is unlikely to kill her ally before her without overwhelming damage.

The medic can displace Chen with her grenade, interrupting your drink. If she takes Second Opinion at 16, she can do this twice in a row, making Chen’s life very difficult.

At 10, she has the option to select Stim Drone, which dramatically increases an allied heroes attack speed, making heroes Chencan normally Shield through exceptionally dangerous. This will be compounded if used on a already high auto attack hero, such as Greymane or The Butcher. Avoid trying to drink / shield through stimmed attackers if possible.

Lunara

Lunara is a fast moving hero that applies damage over time with her basic attacks. Chen can easily shield through the damage, even at three stacks of the poison, but the poison can last longer than the shields do. She doesn’t have much health, so Chen should try to punish her when she gets in range to poke. Pressure Point is useful against her as it makes it easier for your teammates to catch up to her.

Malfurion

Malfurion has a few things to take note of. His trait, Innervate can speed up ability cooldowns making it easier for enemy heroes to exceed your 465 shields / second generation(level 20). He can also stop you from drinking after level 10, if he takes Twilight Dream heroic which will silence you for second seconds.

Medivh

Medivh is more annoying than a threat, but Chen does care what he selects for levels 7 and 10. At 7, if Medivh took The Master’s Touch, allowing him to complete that quest is a sizable damage boost. Chen shouldn’t try to give him free quest completion by drinking through all his Arcane Rift hits.

At 10, both heroics can interrupt drinking. Lay Line Seal is the more dangerous of the two, as it can let the enemy team surround you. Wandering Keg is good for breaking out of the enemy team formation if this happens.

Mauradin

Mauradin can be difficult to deal with depending on talent selection. Stormbolt, his basic ability will stun you at range, interrupting your drinking. Additionally, at level 7 Muradin can talent Skullcracker to have every 3rd basic attack against a target stun them briefly making Chen’s life difficult. Finally, at level 10 he can select Haymaker as his Heroic, knocking you away from him, stopping your drinking and placing you out of position. Continuing on how much Mauradin can make Chen’s life difficult, he can talent at 16 for heavy impact, giving his leap a small stun, and has the option at 20 to take Rewind, resetting his stormbolt cooldown.

Murky

Murky can’t really hurt you outside of Octograb post level 10. Smack him till he bubbles, then once the bubble expires, Flying Kick to him and kill him.

Nazeebo

Chen doesn’t really have problems against Nazeebo. Do pay attention to if he took a spider build, as there is no reason to let him complete his spider quest by letting them hit you while drinking.

Nova

Chen doesn’t have problems against Nova, but a few things to note:

• Nova can take Snipe Master - do not let her skill off you sitting and drinking
• You are good at blocking Triple Tap against teammates due to your shielding
• If she takes crippling shot at 16, she gets the ability to make you vulnerable, causing you to take 25% additional damage. At this point she can become semi-dangerous if solo, or very dangerous if her teammates are focusing her targets.

Because she can kill squishy people easily, and can stealth, she is often a high priority target to remove from a fight.

Raynor

Raynor can talent for auto attack damage, and has access to Giant Killer at 13, making him moderately dangerous to a drinking Chen. Of note, his Penetrating shot will knock Chen back and cause him to stop drinking. His auto attack damage is high enough baseline, that once talented, it will keep pace with Chen’s shield generation, and due to his trait, Chen will have a harder time reaching him if he chooses to fight at max range. Pay special attention to the fact that at low health he may Stim Pack, regaining a large amount of health over several seconds.

Rehgar

Rehgar actually deals fairly high damage for a support between his Wolf Lunge, Auto Attacks and Lightning Shield. Not enough to break Chen’s shield easily, but enough that it wouldn’t take much additional pressure for it to become a problem. Of note is if Reghar decides to take Bloodlust at 10 - enabling an auto attack team to steamroll Chen, even if he’s drinking. Chen can not survive long against multiple hasted auto attacking heroes.

Rexxar

Rexxar with Misha can prove problematic. He is the highest damage per second warrior (excluding Cho’Gall) and has access to a short cooldown stun from Misha’s skill shot. Generally, Chen should try to avoid the bear and attack Rexxar directly, using time between Misha stuns to generate shields.

Sgt. Hammer

Sgt. Hammer deals respectable damage, and at max range, can deal enough damage to negate about 75% of your shield generation rate. She can be exceptionally difficult to displace, because once you reach her she can knock you backward, hitting you the entire time. At 13 she can also gain access to Giant Killer, making her a bit more deadly.

Elusive Brawler, Wandering Keg, Pressure Point and Flying Leap are good talents to reach hammer and slow her to kill her, or force her to reposition to a less advantageous location. Avoid fighting in her range if you can help if, and if you have to fight in her range your team should attempt to focus her down.

Sonya

Sonya is a moderately tanky high damage warrior capable of stunning Chen out of drinking with her spear. If she talents for auto attacks she can put decent pressure on Chen’s shield generation, similar to an assassin. She is not however as durable as Chen is, having less health and with proper shielding Chen should be able to out sustain her. Note however that if she talents for Leap, that will interrupt drinking. If she takes Wrath of the Berzerker, that grants an impressive boost to her auto attack damage, and Chen should not let her wail on him while he’s drinking.

Stitches

Stitches is a wall of health that can’t really hurt you. However he can displace you with both his Hook, and if he talents for Gorgue. You are unlikely to push him out of lane easily, but are not particularly threatened by him as long as you can ensure that if he was to hook you, you wouldn’t be placed in extreme danger.

Sylvanas

Sylvanas doesn’t hit particularly hard, and can’t break Chen’s shield on her own without talenting for extra damage. She does however gain two ways to stop Chen’s drinking, in her heroic abilities. Wailing Arrow will silence Chen, and Mind Control will cause him to reposition. Take care at 16, for if she talents Cold Embrace, her primary target of Shadow Dagger will take an additional 25% damage for several seconds.

Tassadar

Tassadar can talent for moderately high damage as a support, but doesn’t cause Chen many issues.

The Butcher

The Butcher doesn’t start off as a huge threat. In the early game you have to watch out from getting Savage Charged out of your drink, but you are also not likely to push The Butcher out of lane, because he will brand you and heal off you while you are drinking. This changes drastically over the course of the match due to how his trait works. He will continue to increase his auto attack damage, and can even talent for it. By mid to late game his auto attacks can easily outpace Chen’s shield generation. Additionally, if The Butcher picks Lamb to the Slaughter at 10, he can silence Chen, and get in several very high powered auto attacks with a decent possibility of killing you. The Butcher requires focused fire or kiting to kill, and the person who gets branded to move away from him to deal with him successfully.

The Lost Vikings

It’s unlikely you’ll see all three vikings together until late game, but know that if they focus on one enemy their damage is surprisingly high and able to outpace Chen’s shield generation. Thus this favors an aggressive approach as killing one or more of the vikings will make it easier to sustain against the remaining ones.

Thrall

Thrall has quite a bit of sustain and depending on his build can deal some impressive damage from auto attacks during Windfury. Chen should be able to sustain through Thrall, and if Chen took Elusive Brawler, timing it after you see Thrall wind up for Windfury could negate a large part of Thrall’s damage.

Thralls only method of interrupting Chen is with Sunder one of his heroic options.

Tracer

Tracer attacks exceptionally fast, and moves even faster. Not a major concern for Chen as Chen can out sustain her, applying damage with basic abilities. The one thing to note is letting her sit there and wail on Chen as she drinks will enable her to charge her Pulse Bomb heroic faster, and that should be avoided if possible.

Tychus

Tychus is a major concern for Chen. Tychus is designed as a ‘tank killer’ and able to deal percentage health damage at a very fast rate. Additionally, Tychus has a grenade which can push Chen back interrupting his shielding. Depending on talents, Tychus can talent to deal more damage while Chen is at high health, or take advantage of Chen’s drinking to build up duration of his minigun use. Chen should not sit and let him do this if possible. Also take note that the Drakkan Laser Drill can deal moderate to high damage, and while Chen can drink through it before 20, can’t sustain his shielding through it if Tychus took the upgrade at 20. Tychus is one of the heroes Chen needs to be exceptionally careful in handling as Tychus can deal enough damage to Chen to kill him without help from very early in the game.

Tyreal

Tyreal is a warrior who can’t deal enough damage to kill Chen, but who has the mobility to threaten the backline of Chen’s team easily. Additionally, Tyreal can take Judgement as a heroic, which is a hard engage that will stun Chen out of drinking.

Tyrande

Tyrande presents issues to Chen in two ways. First, her Lunar Strike ability can stun Chen (and since Chen doesn’t move when drinking) it’s a bit easier to land on him than otherwise. Secondly, her trait Hunter’s Mark, causes the marked target to take 25% more damage for a few seconds. So it’s not Tyrande that’s the problem per se, but the fact she can partner with nearly anyone and hurt Chen by using the extra damage to bypass the shielding.

Uther

Uther likes to stop Chen from drinking. Hammer of Justice is on a short cooldown and Uther loves nothing more than to run up and stun Chen. While it’s unlikely Uther will kill Chen, Uther’s teammates will take advantage of the stun to deal damage to Chen while he can’t prevent it by drinking. This plays out the same way if Uther chooses to talent Divine Storm at level 10, giving Uther access to a second stun effect he can chain after the first.

Valla

Valla is a lightweight high damage moderately mobile hero who builds up Hatred due to her trait as she auto attacks. Once the Hatred maxes out at 10 stacks, she can by her auto attacks alone, out pace with damage Chen’s shield generation. It only gets worse for Chen once she starts mixing in her ability damage. Since Chen can’t survive Valla for long, this favors an aggressive style to force her to back off and disengage. Take note that if she took Rain of Vengeance at level 10, she now has access to a multiple charge stun ability. Chen should try to avoid getting caught by Rain of Vengeance, because Valla will take advantage of the stun to unload on Chen dealing a ton of damage to him in a short timeframe.

Xul

Xul’s threat level to Chen varies depending on if he chose to augment Bone Shield at level 1 by selecting Backlash. If so, when Bone Shield expires Chen will lose a huge chunk of health if still in range of the effect. Otherwise, Xul specializes in lane pressure and while Xul likely can’t kill Chen, he can outpush him. Chen can drink through Poison Nova’s damage, Take special note to what Xul takes at 16, as one of the options allows him to apply a 25% damage increase to the target of his Bone Prison.

Zagara

Zagara is a lane bully, and can push most people out of lane due to her Hunter Killer. Chen is a good counter to her, because Zagara front loads her damage, which Chen can shield through, and then Chen can attack her while her cooldowns cycle. Additionally, Chen can use both Keg Smash and Breath of Fire to reveal and remove Creep Tumors, limiting vision for Zagara’s team. Zagara can only stop Chen from drinking if she takes Maw at level 10.

Zarya

Zarya’s damage is directly related to her energy level, and she gains energy while being attacked while shielded. Thus, Chen should attack while the shield is down, back off while energy is high and pay special attention to if Zarya took Feel the Heat at level 1, as that can drastically increase Zarya auto attack damage. At high energy levels Zarya can deal considerable damage to Chen’s shield while drinking and becomes much more dangerous in general.

Zarya can only stop Chen from drinking by using one of her heroic abilities.

Zeratul

Zeratul isn’t exceptionally threatening to Chen one on one, but deals high enough damage that when paired with another hero can’t put significant pressure on Chen’s sustain. Zeratul can also pressure Chen’s back line and due to his Blink ability can be hard to catch and kill.

Zeratul can only stop Chen from drinking with Void Prison.