Chen Build Guide : The Drunken Master (Strong Tank/DPS) :: Heroes of the Storm (HotS) Strategy Builds

Chen

Build: The Drunken Master (Strong Tank/DPS)

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

Threats to Chen with this build

Threat

Low

High

Show all

Threat		Notes
1		No Threat
2	Nova	Not much of a threat unless you are caught with your pants down. Fortifying Brew will easily soak up damage from both of Nova's ults if you can time it right.
3		No Threat
4		No Threat
5	E.T.C.	Only a threat in a group fight where ETC's long stun can heavily reduce the survivability of Chen using Fortifying Brew.
6		No Threat
7	Muradin	Muradin's avatar and stun can be deadly to Chen in a group fight as the stun means less time for Chen to soak up damage with Fortifying Brew.
8	Jaina	Quite a high threat since Jaina's burst single target damage at lvl 20+ is difficult to survive even with Fortifying Brew. However, Chen's ult makes evading Jaina's aoe and skillshots a piece of cake.
9		No Threat
10		No Threat

Introduction/Skills Top

Chen Stormstout is an extremely drunk and versatile character in HotS, being able to down a few pints of special "brew" and not even flinch as he is being beaten upon by the entire enemy team.

Pros:
- Strong tank capability (absorbs a MASSIVE amount of damage)
- Strong survivability even at extremely low HP
- Does not use mana/resource is free (less recalling!)
- Strong jungler
- Can bait enemies to commit and rack up a few easy kills
- Hits extremely hard late game
- Very good chasing ability

Cons:
- Weak against major CC (stuns)
- Very weak early game compared to other tanks/dps
- Must always stop to drink brew (affects chasing and consistent damage)
- Poor defensive mobility (without ult)

Skills

(D) Chen's hero is entirely built upon this trait, since it is the only defensive/tank ability that he has. This is by far Chen's most important ability as it must be used to soak up damage to fulfill Chen's role as a tank. It is important to remember that this ability is almost useless in the very early moments of the game since it absorbs such little damage. This means that Chen doesn't become a very effective tank until he gets his tier 2/3 talents, which seriously buff this ability.

(Q) This is Chen's second most important ability to this build as this becomes his main source of damage, especially after getting the tier 6 talent, which gives Chen a 200% damage bonus on the next attack after the ability is used. The small brew cost, short cooldown timer and range on this ability makes dps and chasing extremely deadly for Chen. When combined with the 40% slow from keg smash, it is REALLY hard even for Valla or other mobile heroes to escape from Chen.

(W) This ability is quite versatile defensively and offensively. It's useful for initiating and chasing, especially with the 40% slow upgrade from the tier 5 talent, as well as for defensively assisting yourself or teammates when making an escape. It is important to remember that this ability should ALWAYS be used before Breath of Fire as it gives an important DoT that is essential to Chen's DPS.

(E) This is Chen's high-cost DPS ability that, when combined with keg smash, will also put a DoT on an enemy. When using Chen for his high-burst DPS at lvl 16, it is important to use brew very carefully and make sure that you aren't just spamming breath of fire and losing almost half of your brew with one ability. In this build we do not focus on breath of fire as much because, by lvl 16, flying kick becomes a much better DPS and cost-effective alternative. This ability should be used as often as possible in a team fight to dish out more damage, but remember to use fortifying brew often or else you will be stuck drinking brew for a long time and not able to chase fleeing enemies.

(R) I chose this ultimate in this tank/dps build because it is just sooooo much better than the barrel. As much fun as it is to turn into a barrel and just push people around, this ultimate offers so much more in terms of bodyblocking, damage, and survivability. First of all, as soon as you activate this ability, it is basically like having a free 15 seconds to run around and dish out damage and not care about your health. This means that if your opponents have lowered your health to the point where you can't even see a single green line on your health bar, you can activate this ability and use the leap ability (Q) to move your 3 split pandas far away and make a speedy escape. You can also use your (W) ability to avoid aoe damage if a hero like Jaina tries to cone of cold and then blizzard your pandas to death.

Talents Top

Deadly Strike
Since this build focuses on using flying kick as the main DPS and chase ability, this is a no-brainer. The extra 50% damage on the ability makes it obviously much "deadlier".

Chug
This talent is an important when considering chasing and team fights. As tempting as it is to get the extra 50 brew talent, it is much better to be able to get brew faster than to have a slightly larger reservoir of brew. This means you spend less time drinking when chasing and means you can top up on brew as fast as possible in situations where it is needed. It also means you can use breath of fire more as you will be able to have brew easily topped up at all times.

Bolder Flavor
This talent is an absolute MUST when playing Chen as a tank, as it allows you to soak up so much more damage and makes sticky situations a hell of a lot easier to survive as you wait for assistance from your teammates. This is also important when using Chen to bait the enemy team to commit to you when you are at low health. You can activate fortifying brew and sit back and relax as the enemy team deals pointless damage to your shield while your team is slowly killing them off.

Storm, Earth, Fire
This one is a no-brainer as discussed in the previous section. Split into 3 pandas and just wreck everybody. Hands down the best talent in the game for survivability at the moment.

A Touch of Honey
Why not add a touch of honey to that brew and get your opponents in some sticky situations? The 40% slow is ridiculously useful in all sorts of situations, whether you are using it defensively to escape or offensively in a chase and making sure that pesky Valla can't get away from you.

Combination Attack
Finally we're at level 16 and we can do some serious DAMAGE to everyone on the enemy team, especially the squishy damage dealers/supports. This is the talent that gives Chen the ability to become an extremely tanky DPS hero, since flying kick has such a short cooldown, which means you can quickly rotate a flying kick, keg smash, breath of fire, and auto attack and easily take out 2/3 of a squishy hero's health in less than 2-3 seconds. You seriously don't want to miss out on this talent. It's badass.

Bolt of the Storm
I really do prefer this talent over the other talents for its initiating/chasing/escaping capabilities. As much as I like the near-instant respawn talent and the cool ghost pandas, this talent is the best for this tank/dps hybrid build. It gives you the added mobility that Chen really lacks and makes him a much deadlier initiator and dps.

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