Chen Reborn - 7.20

Welp, Chen is a new hero, and patch 7.20 adjusts his options to a crazy degree.  Lets look at his changes and the impacts of the new patch.


Hp regen was changed to be sourced directly from the Strenth stat.  This was to great benefit to Chen, as his regen went from 1.7 to 2.9 at level 1 with no items.

Mana regen as well has become a function of the Intelligence stat.  For my playstyle, this hasn't seemed to affect Chen too much.

Penitence - No longer does Chen amplify damage.  Instead allies who attack his target gain ridiculous attackspeed.  So units won't hit harder, but hit more.  This makes medallion a higher priority build I am thinking.  Alternately, it makes diffusal blade and necronomicons even more potent, since the rapidness of the mana drain is that much more.  Either way, I think the change is welcome and is fun. If only it worked on buildings.


Test of Fate - Gone.  The core of Chen's rng nightmare.  Its been replaced with Divine blessing, which gives an allied unit attack damage and regen.  At level 15, this skill can be opted to be spammable and never has down time.


Command - Chen now has recall for the teleporting aspect of this skill.  When cast on allied units, they can be dispelled out of it. He's essentially lost his ability to save other heroes in clutch situations.  Additionally, there is a creep level cap associated with this skill now.  At level one, eagles, hellbears, satyrs, centaurs and trolls are unusable.


So what has the impact of Chen's new skillset left him with? 
His early game is highly volatile.  At level 1, going with a summon build, Chen is totally dependent on the rng of creep generation. 
His command cd was reduced to a flat 15s cooldown, with which seems like a nice compromise.  The short cooldown allows for potential lvl 1/2 kills if he comes across a mudgolem camp, allowing him to command them consecutively and run around for a single hard hitting 3-shot nuke.

Regarding available creep, at level 1, the highest valued creep are most likely:
-harpy hags
-ghosts
-wolves
-purge/mana burn satyrs.
-frost armor orc
-mana/healing orc