The art of creep micro - A guide to jungle with Chen and Enchantress

So if you've been watching competitive Dota, you know that Enchantress has been one of the most common picks for multiple reasons, at least in early 2014. In TI3, Chen was picked and banned really often, because of his great utility.
But mastering these heroes is not within the reach of everyone. When you play these heroes, there are two new mechanics that you have to learn, which are CONTROL GROUPS and MULTITASK.
This guide is about creep control and about how to play these heroes.

I'm HammerKick, a support player who has as his best heroes Chen and Enchantress player who has 4k. I've already reached top 100 with Chen on Dotabuff: http://i.imgur.com/TniBPlU.png

Chen and Enchantress, two different heroes

Chen and Enchantress are the two only heroes where Creep Micro is key to being efficient and to play a good game. They both go in the jungle (I've seen lane enchantress as supports, but ololo I leech xp ololo etc), they get creeps, they either stack and farm or they go gank.
But Enchantress is stronger in the early game and can be a good late game and Chen is stronger in the mid game.

The main difference between these two heroes is how the late game is played : Enchantress has impetus, chen has test of faith and penitence and his creeps. With the right items, Enchantress will have a LOT of impact in the late game with those impetus.

We play these heroes for their early game presence. Enchantress can get 2 creeps at level one, Chen can get 2 creeps at level 3.
With the exception of Doom and some heroes that can stun creeps for a long time, NO HEROES
can deal with creeps early on, especially if their spells are being used. While Ench's ganks will be stronger early on, Chen's one will become stronger as the game goes on.

This guide is focused on Creep Micro and on skill and item builds of these two heroes, as well as a tutorial about how to gank properly

Enchantress in games :

Early game :
Get creeps, gank or farm, harass the lanes
Get a creep duo to gank and push

Mid game :
Keep the pressure, gank and push with creeps
Use your strong Impetus to win teamfights
Stay back

Late game :
Use your utility items
Keep spamming impetus
Stay back

Chen in games :

Early game :
Find a creep
Farm or gank
Get your level 5 ASAP
Start pushing

Mid game :
Get 4 creeps and push
Push and fight
Save teammates
Get ez commends

Late game :
Get aghs, find ancients, win the game or turtle
Save teammates again
Get more ez commends

"Welcome to the Jungle!" - They are your best friends #1

So here is a presentation of all the creeps you can find in this jungle.

Centaur Conqueror :
Found in Hard Camps and Medium Camps
Mana : 200
War Stomp : 2 sec AOE stun – 100 mana

This dude is one of your best creeps. We're converting it for this amazing 2 sec AOE stun (3 sec on creeps, so it's good for farming) that will secure kills 75% of the times. Against high skill players, they won't go through your centaur, so most of the time you'll need a setup for the stomp : Centaur has almost 300 mspeed, a slow or a stun will allow you to get in position for it. Make sure he doesn't stun too early, or the enemy will escape before the centaur can place his stun.
You can do 2 stomps with a single centaur until it runs out of mana, Arcane Boots allow him to do an additional stomp everytime. Centaurs are so good that the lowest ones shouldn't be replaced and should go to the well, unless you find another centaur.
He doesn't have the AS aura anymore, but it doesn't make it a bad late game creep, a 2 sec AOE stun will always be great!

Dark Troll Summoner (DTS) :
Found in Hard Camps
Mana : 500
Net : 1.5 root that goes through BKB and disables blink and channeled abilities – 150 mana
Raise Dead : If close to a recently dead creep/hero, summons two skeletons. – 50 mana

One of the best creeps in the game once again. The net goes through BKB, in late game situations against a hero that has channeling abilites (Enigma, WD, SK), net will say SHUT UP to them, even with BKB. This is the only creep in the game that is good at all stages of the game. In early game, the Raise Dead ability is a great pushing ability.


Skeletons have a nice amount of HP and they can tank 3-4 tower shots and can take creep hits for your creeps. If your DTS is still alive, you can summon even more skeletons, the CD is shorter than the Skeleton duration. You can have 4 skeletons at a time. If you manage to find a second TS, you can have 8 skeletons at at time. What about 3 DTS ? 12 SKELETONS AT A TIME. This a strong push, trust me. Some AOE skills may one shot them however, so watch out. They don't give a lot of gold of course.

Satyr Tormenter (Red) :
Found in Hard Camps
Mana : 600
Shockwave : 125 magical damage nuke with a nice range – 100 mana
Unholy Aura : A +4 HP regen aura

Good for farming, good in combination with another creep to do damage, good for harassing lanes. For harassing lanes. Yeah. I mean, with some quick easy maths, you can do up to 6 shockwaves, and shockwaves aren't hard to hit : you can click on the target and it will go to it automatically, so the only way to dodge it is to have high mspeed or an escape ability (quick reactions required). What I usually do with Enchantress is that I send the satyr mid and use all shockwaves on the midlaner. When microing, I sometimes see a sunstrike attempting to hit the satyr, and even a cold snap, because it is SUPER ANNOYING. The Satyr has a good amount of HP and the HP regen synergizes well with that. The HP regen is also good for farming, Shockwave also being a farming ability. In ganks, cast Shockwave after your Stomp/Net to make sure you hit it. In the early stages of the game, a 125 nuke is quite good.

Hellbear Smasher (also known as Ursa, not the hero obviously)
Found in Hard Camps
Mana : 300
Thunder Clap : An AOE slow that deals damage – 100 mana
Swiftness Aura : An attack speed aura (15 AS)

This creep works like Centaur, but instead of a stun, you get here a nice slow and you deal more damage than a Centaur. The slow is irrevelant against offlaners like DS or Weaver, but it's quite good if you also combine it with a centaur, you can setup the stomp with a hellbear for example.
Good for farming, and even for harassing, the other support or the mid can right click him for a while before he gets to safety.
Since 6.82, this creep now has the AS aura, it now scales better in the late game.

Wildwing Ripper :
Found in Hard Camps
Mana : 300
Tornado : Channelled ability, summons a tornado that deals damage to everyone around it and slow them depending of how close they are from it – 150 mana
Toughness Aura : A +3 armor aura

The best farming creep you can find, even good for zoning someone. Trust me, an offlaner that sees the tornado will oftenly go under tower and try to run away for it, because it deals a great amount of damage, almost like a radiance. The tornado cannot be killed, feel free to move it under towers with it. This will however push the lane because you'll do a bit of damage on the lane creeps.
The +3 bonus armor can help to rosh early on.
If you find a Wildwing early on, go stack the other hard camp (ask the support on Dire, do it by placing yourself on a small edge at the top of camp on Radiant). Use Tornado on it and you'll get easy gold. Most of the time you reach Level 2 and half of your level 3, and it secures your money for boots or something else.

Harpy Stormcrafter (GG Creep – N0tail) :
Found in Easy Camps
Mana : 540
Chain Lightning : A long distance 140 damage nuke that will bounce over 4 targets, dealing less damage per target.

During a game with a Chen, a Harpy appears on the mid lane. 10 Chain Lightnings later on Wisp, First blood under the Radiant T2. Remember that game ? Yes. Puppey Chen did this. And it's not that hard to do. The range of the spell is broken and in early game 140 damage is great (same reason as Shockwave for the Satyr Tormenter). You'll burn all the mid regen and you'll do so much pressure that the lane is pretty much won for your mid. As Chen, you'll lose a lot of gold and XP because you're not farming, but with Enchantress, you can go to a hard camp and farm it while the enemy mid wants to suicide.
If you do enough pressure to force a Lion to use Finger of Death on him once he gets 6, then congratulations, you almost won the game...
This creep is also the worst in late game, because the damage is really not enough and no way you'll do pressure this this creep : it has low HP.
The fact that he has no aura is also a good reason to say he's not a reliable pick up in late game.

Ogre Frostmage :
Found in Medium camps
Mana : 400
Ice Armor : Grants +8 armor that slows attackers (AS and MS).

An upgraded version of Lich's Ice armor. At level 4 it grants 9 armor, but this one grants 8 armor immediatly, while Lich won't be maxing this spell immediatly. It's a good late game ability, armor is quite good to become tankier, and the AS and MS slow is great if the armored dude is under attack. However, if you find this when you want to gank, well...

Ogre Bruiser :
Found in Medium Camps

I'm talking about this creep because it can be used to push. It has 850 hp and 1 armor, and almost has the damage of a ranged creep. It's fine if you need a creep to push.

"Welcome to the Jungle": They are your best friends #2

Mud Golem :
Found in Medium Camps
Hurl Boulder : Throws a boulder at an enemy, 125 damage, 30 sec CD
Shard Split : On death, splits into two units that can use Hurl Boulder

Previous patch, this creep was trash tier.
This patch, I consider it top tier. For ganking, it is a guaranteed 125 magical damage nuke and a ministun that can cancel channelings from a long range, which is amazing. During a gank, if your golem gets taken down, don't worry! You now have a 250 magical damage nuke and 1.12 sec of stun!
When pushing, make sure this is the creep that tanks, as it will split into two units and still deal damage for a bit after death... and will tank for the rest of your creeps.
The creep is also good in the late game because of the magic resistance, so it is resistant to big aoe damage.


Alpha Wolf :
Found in Medium Camps
Critical Strike : The Wolf can do critical hits
Packleader's Aura : +30% damage to allies

Best late game creep in the game, do not underestimate the 30% bonus damage at all. It allows faster Roshan and allows your carries do deal GREAT damage. Take it for push to buff you creeps and your heroes, but that's it. In the late game, use it to follow your carry for its damage, but make sure you don't block him sometimes with it.

Satyr Mindstealer (Blue) :
Found in Hard camps and Medium Camps
Mana Burn : Burns 100 mana and deals damage equal to the mana burnt.

Situational harassing creep. If you find one and if the mid laner has a low mana and actually needs that mana oftenly, consider taking it instead of the Satyr Tormenter to burn his mana and make his life harder. The CD is however long and it is a squishy Satyr, make sure you don't feed it.



Satyr Banisher (White) :
Found in Hard camps and Medium Camps
Purge : A Diffusal Blade, 3 sec CD

Extremly good creep for ganking. If you can reach your target at least once with it, it's a free kill. It lasts for about 4 seconds with a 3 seconds CD, which means you can perma-slow your target. Obviously a VERY good setup for centaurs and hellbears. To show you how good it is, here is a video that was recently posted on reddit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLU5i6narvE


Ghost :
Found in Easy camps
His Auto-Attack slows the MS and the AS of the target for 1.5 sec

Good against Sven, WK and Lifestealer, so you can kite them, until they have BKB (need confirmation).



Kobold Foreman :
Found in Easy camps
+12 MS aura

If you have nothing else to take, this creep can be good in fights to chase easily a hero or to escape.
This doesn't happen too much, but why not ?



Hill Troll Priest :
Found in Easy camps
Auto-Cast ability that heals 15 hp every 0,5 sec as long as he has mana.
Mana regen aura.

Give me a video of this creep turning around a gank and I'll add it to the guide.
But actually it's fine if your safelane is in trouble and if you can't gank that lane. 15 hp per sec means that you can fully heal a hero in one minute. Situational but not bad.

Vhoul Assassin :
Poison attacks, 2 damage per second

Useless creep, damage is not lethal and 2 damage is bad. It's 10 sec, so 2 * 10 = 20 damage for a full poison duration, unless you refresh it. It does not dispell regen items... what's the point of that creep then ?


Ancient creeps:
Once you have aghs, you can start freely splitpushing the lanes, as two out of three of those creeps have really good pushing abilities, the third one also being good in that case.
You also become a scary hero in teamfights due to the big auras and the damage the ancients do. Let's take a look!


Granite Golem: 15% HP bonus and magic resistance
INSANE
ABSOLUTLY
INSANE
And I'm not kidding. 15% bonus hp is monstruous, especially if you have high hp heroes in your team. This is the kind of bonus that makes a difference in fights, like the alpha wolf.
What's interesting with this creep is that it is tanky as hell and is actually a quite good right clicker!
This is your second priority creep. It's insane, yea, but is there better?

Thunderhyde:
15% damage bonus and 15 attack speed bonus
Alright, you want this creep in all your creep compositions. I don't think I have to explain why.
But if I have to, well, it's the same reasons you want an alpha wolf in the late game. The difference with it is that it's tankier and trades 15 damage bonus with 15 attack speed.
The second ability is super good as well. You basically give a moonshard to an ally for a few seconds or on himself to push even faster.
There is only one downside: the slam is a bit underwhelming. It's still nice to clear waves, but you won't find a good use in teamfights.
Take it whenever you see it. It's simple.

Black Dragon:
Stackable armor aura (+2 per drake), stackable
Fireball: Sets a medium-sized area into fire, dealing damage per second to all units inside it. Pretty big cast range.
Splash Damage autoattacks

Situationnal creep in 6.85, a must-have in 6.86. This is the reason why splitpushing chen creeps should be feared in the late game. The Fireball ability combined with the splash damage will destroy the creep wave extremly quickly. The Armor aura is nice for your creep wave as well.

6.85 has buffed the ancients so hard that Aghs should be done on Chen in 100% of the games.

You can check the detailed stats of all creeps here: http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Creeps#Small_Creeps
Well now you know who are your best friends now ! Let's start the party !

The micro: How do you do that?

You cannot afford to not use CONTROL GROUPS. If you come from LoL, you might have your items put on your number keys (1-6). If you want to play these heroes, you must change that now, the 1-9 keys are the best control groups key you can get. They are close from your ability keys and when you'll be familiar with these keys, you'll do your actions faster. I think we can call this APM, with Starcraft style.

These are my control groups when I play Chen. You can change them as you wish of course.

1- LEAST IMPORTANT CREEP
2- CHEN
3- MOST IMPORTANT CREEP
4- SECOND MOST IMPORTANT CREEP OR THE DARK TROLL SUMMONER
5- THIRD MOST IMPORTANT CREEP
6- CHEN + CREEPS
7- ALL CREEPS
8- TORNADO/NECRO UNITS
9- CHEN BECAUSE I'M NOT USING IT
0- THIS BUTTON IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY ON MY KEYBOARD

Same for Enchantress, just that you won't use the 7th group too often because you won't have creeps all the time.

So now, how do you practice micro ?
Well in SC2 you have custom games to practice Marine split or hit and run. But you can't here.
So the best thing to do is to play your first games against Bots. Learn how to use creeps properly, try ganks, become familiar with your control groups and how to multitask.

Speaking of multitask, what am I talking about here ?
When you gank, you have to control your hero and your creep(s). There are sometimes ways to make it easier.
An example : I'm ganking the offlane with Chen and a Centaur. All I have to do is to right-click with chen, then switch to the centaur and put it in position for a War Stomp. With a Dark Troll Summoner, when you're coming, right click with Chen, switch to your DTS and use Net.

With two creeps, it can work the same way.
With Chen, Centaur and DTS (if you forgot, Dark Troll Summoner) : Right-click with Chen, move all your creeps to the enemy, Net with DTS and micro the centaur and get into position for a War Stomp. This is a strong combo easily done with 3 control groups. More details later.

The hardest one is three creeps, for the following example, a bit of APMs are required.
So you have Chen, a Centaur, a DTS (and not a Dark Templar) and a Satyr (the big one, the one you'll use everytime).
The Batrider is initiating on an ally ! What do you do ?
Move everyone and right-click on Bat, use Net with DTS (you can force staff the DTS if you can/if you have force staff so it is faster), get in position fast for the War Stomp, use Penitence if you have it and use Shockwave and Test of Faith.
That kind of situations will happen oftenly so if you see an occasion, give your micro a challenge and try it. If you manage to do this, you oftenly get the kill.

There's even harder, 4 creeps since 6.83! You have your fourth control group to use and even more buttons to use. It comes with time of course...
Most of the time you'll put on the 1- control group a wildwing or a wolf so it won't matter that much.
Still, if you have 4 centaurs or something like that, follow the hints I gave...

Something I love doing is the Harpy harass or the Satyr harass on the mid lane. I explained how effective it was in the creeps section, but how do you micro that ? While the creep goes to mid lane, send Enchantress (I'm not doing it with Chen unless the mid is losing the lane, I'm losing gold and XP for just winning a lane already won or almost) to the next hard camp. When you do your first spell for harassing, your enchant should be ready to take the creep from the hard camp. While farming, micro the creep on the mid lane so you don't feed it and keep harassing.
Just a point : I've done this in 25% of my games, this resulted 80% of the time in a kill on the mid laner and 95% of the time the mid losing all his regen and going to base. Harpies are violent you know.
And yes, these are random percentages based on absolutly nothing.

You can use shift click if you want. For example, if you think exactly where the enemy will go, you can put the centaur at this place and Shift-Q to use centaur stomp. It's better to manually micro however, even if it's harder.

If your Centaur Stomp or your Thunder Clap will miss, make sure to cancel it with S so you don't waste it. They have a cast time. You can also do it for Net in case you see a missclick.

When you're entering on the lane to gank, make sure your creeps are well placed. What I mean is that you have to put forward the creep that needs to get in position fast for a successful gank, like a Centaur or a Hellbear. Behind him, I always put the DTS, and as I said, you move all the creeps to the enemy, and when the net comes, the centaur is in front and nothing should block him in his path to the enemy hero.
Keep in mind: your hero must be behind all your creeps when you gank. Else, he will probably block your creeps and the hero shouldn't tank creeps/potential tower shots and your creeps won't get in position fast enough.

If the damage dealt is not enough and you think the enemy hero is gonna get under is tower before you can kill him, you can attempt a bodyblock. Yes, like Akke.
It is a tricky micro trick to do, and you're not forced to do it, you shouldn't have to do it too often. Attempt it only if there's no stuns and slows available anymore (until they're off cd)
The idea is to put the centaur in the hero's path and to keep it in position by using the S (Stop) or the H button (Hold position). Make the creep strafing a bit on the left and on the right, then use that key to stop him, and when you see his model going on the left or on the right, go ahead and start strafing more on that side. If he goes forward to try to find another path, there's no way this should happen with the ally around.
Make sure your other units are right clicking, of course.
For an example of bodyblock, type on youtube "Akke bodyblock centaur bulba ur legit". so pro

There you go.

Creep Combos: Duos

So we've talked about multitask and control groups, let's see which creep combos you can get.
As Enchantress, you'll get early creep duos to gank mid or the safelane, even the offlane if you manage to sneak into the enemy jungle.
As Chen, you'll get these creeps duo once you hit level 3, which is a bit later than Enchantress. At this point, the enemy heroes have levels, which may help, but it's still quite effective.
Most importantly, at level 7 he'll find 4 creeps to help him in fights, making him the mid game monster he is.

If Enchant is available when the gank starts, feel free to pop it to setup a centaur stomp or anything else. Keep it if not required or if you have a DTS (decent range for net so it should be in position faster).

So let's move on to the duos!





+ Easy combo, easy kill. When the Centaur is near the enemy, use Net on him. When the Net stops (count 1 second in your head then pop the stun, almost perfect stun), use Centaur Stomp. Perfectly done, it's a 3.5 sec crowd control. During this time, your allies will right click and pop their early game nukes. I've talked about it earlier. I also recommend using the 7 control group to make it easier, so your centaur and your DTS goes on the enemy at the same time and you centaur won't be late.






+ Same execution, just a hellbear instead of a centaur.













+ This one may require a setup unless the enemy runs into you. You start with the centaur if it's already in range, and after 2 seconds (again, count in your head), Thunder Clap and slow. Deals more damage than the previous combo, but it's harder to do because you have to make sure all the creeps are close enough and the only way to pre-cast a spell is to do a shift click and make sure you predicted right. If the centaur is too far away, you can start with the Hellbear so the centaur can get in position for the stun.




+ People aren't too dumb to run into your centaurs. If they go the other way, they will go into your allies. One of them must have a stun or a slow. If they don't, then there is a problem in their picks. Otherwhise, stomp, and restomp after counting 2 seconds. 4 seconds stun early game is easy kill unless your mates are awful.




+ This one can be done in two ways. The first way can be to not stack slows, so you thunder clap with the first one and place the second one behind the enemy (a bodyblock is possible) then you use the second one.
The second way can be by using both claps at the same time, but this is gonna deal a lot of damage immediatly, and the minimum slow duration will be set. Actually, it's 300 damage at the same time... that's a lot early on.




+ Setup required again. Oh by the way when I say that, it means that you can't get it easily against someone who knows how to deal with that, but with a slow or a stun it's almost okay to do it.
So you stomp and you immediatly use shockwave. Nothing hard.




+ If you have burst from your lane, this is a great combo! Don't stack Nets and it will be fine. After your gank, use Raise Dead with both DTS and push. Terrible, terrible tower damage and if there are no good AOE damage in the enemy team, it's an easy T1. Leave the trolls here and keep pushing with them, you'll find another creep somewhere else. Tower damage is always cool early on (unless if you're against a treant).









+ Another way to setup a guaranteed shockwave is to net the opponent. Nothing hard here, shockwave's range is high.











+ If there is a good stun on your lane and if you have fast fingers, this is fine for ganking. The perfect execution is that both the satyrs use shockwave at the same time, it comes with practice. 225 damage is quite nice.
Otherwhise, go farm with these two satyrs, you can clean a camp really fast with that.
Two shockwaves will deal good damage to lane creeps for a push, keep that in mind.











+ I never do that, but a 200 mana burn is quite nice...

Double Mud Golem
There are already 2 Mud Golems at the Medium Camp. The magic immunity allows them to run at the faces of supports without taking stuns or... wait a second...
What are they supposed to do in this game ?

Mid/Late game creep compositions

There are a lot of possibilities, I'll tell you which one are the best and in which situations.


ONE STOMP
ANOTHER STOMP
AND THE THIRD ONE
AND EVEN A FOURTH ONE... HE'S DEAD
OH MY GOD WHAT A PLAYER

''Dream ends''
Oh I have to talk about 4 centaurs now...

Well for ganking it's the best combination possible with a setup. 8 second stun, you're not going anywhere bro. Centaurs are tanky so they'll survive longer. And with a force staff you can get a centaur in position and let the 3 other go afterwards.
You may need a setup however, for the same reasons why you need a setup for double centaur or double hellbear, etc.








For a gank or for a teamfight you can't find better than this, even the 4 centaurs. The main reason is that you don't need another hero to setup it for you, you have a Net. Then you follow up with 3 centaur stomps for a 7 sec control and 6 sec stun to everyone that is too close to the dude who took the net.












So it's



like the previous one but you add a slow and more damage, as well as some bonus armor in case it's a teamfight. It's fine, but less reliable in terms of CCs than a second centaur.
Still, it's as good as the previous combo and in some situations better.









The four auras of the best creeps regrouped can allow an easy roshan, an easy push and these are great buffs for your team with fights, alongside with a stomp and a shockwave. You can even use the tornado if you want, it's still nice damage.
Satyr can be replaced by the granite golem if you have aghs.


---


In early/mid game, focus on Centaurs, Hellbears, Satyrs, Wildwings, in fact, all creeps can work.
In late game, best creeps are Alpha Wolf and Ogre Frostmage, coupled with a Centaur, a Hellbear or a Satyr which can do a bit of work at this point (best are centaurs obviously).

The way to jungle

When the creeps spawn, you want to look for a hard camp. The first creep you'll get will most of the time tell you what playstyle you should follow.

With a Centaur, a DTS or a Hellbear, you want to look for a gank opportunity. If there's none, go farm and find a second creep as Enchantress to build one of the creep duos I've been talking about earlier. As Chen, farm the camp and get your level 2. Your creep will be low hp, if you have a gank opportunity, it is gonna be hard... Hope you get a nice creep in the next hard camp (if you go for the medium camp as your second camp, the hard camp you did first should have respawned).

With a Satyr, you should go farm or harass on the lanes. If you found a ganking creep before, you can try something with it and the Shockwave (Enchantress).

With a Wildkin, you want the other hard camped stacked immediatly. Ask the lane support or do it yourself if you can. Then tornado it so you get easy gold for you and if he wants, the lane support can share it with you and get a level 2 now (or almost level 3 or level 3, etc).
You can also zone the offlaner or the mid laner out of the lane with a tornado, but as Chen, this might lose you xp and gold. Feel free to do it with Enchantress, as she can still farm while pressuring the lane.

Get your levels, farm the jungle if you can't gank, but keep in mind : when you hit 5 as Chen or when you have a good combo to push creeps as Enchantress (2 DTS / a hellbear and a centaur / etc) and if the offlaner cannot contest it, go for that T1 push. Best way to do this is getting a DTS or 2 or even 3 if you're lucky, so skeletons can tank creeps and tower shots.

With Chen, make sure you carry a tp scroll and you have 275 mana all the time, because you may have to tp somewhere else with your creeps. Remember what 6.83 brought? Yes, that's right, the creep teleportation, which allows Chen to turn around a gank/dive by bringing the army in the fight. Abuse of that ability in the mid game to regen your creeps and most importantly, to split push other lanes.

Once the laning phase is finished, you should have your Arcane Boots and Mek as Chen and your Urn and boots (upgraded or not) as Enchantress. Keep finding creeps (and farm) and push lanes, and gank, and teamfight. In the mid game, a well placed war stomp can turn a fight.

Skill Builds

So, we've been talking about microing the creeps... Now let's take care of the heroes themselves.

So we have Chen, who converts creeps to build an army... Your skill build is :
1- Holy Persuasion
2- Test of Faith
3- Holy Persuasion
4- Test of Faith
5- Holy Persuasion
6- Hand of God
7- Holy Persuasion
8- Test of Faith
9- Test of Faith
10- Penitence
11- Hand of God
12- Penitence
13- Penitence
14- Penitence
15- Stats
16- Hand of God
17-25- Stats
This never changes. You want Holy Persuasion maxed as soon as possible and 2 points of Test of Faith cannot be skipped because of the 5 sec of send back/creep teleportation delay and more damage with the nuke. We skip penitence because early on it is not a good slow and you want the nuke maxed first to make profit of the additional bonus damage.

And we have Enchantress, she gets creeps, her friends, and she goes to gank. Friends doesn't stay forever, that is the problem... but well, she can get 2 or 3 at level 1, so that might be worth it, isn't it ?
Enchantress doesn't have one skill build, there are a lot of different skill builds.
Here is the standard one:
1- Enchant
2- Nature's Attendant
3- Nature's Attendant
4- Untouchable
5- Nature's Attendant
6- Impetus
7- Nature's Attendant
8- Untouchable
9- Untouchable
10- Untouchable
11- Impetus
12-15- Stats
16- Impetus
17-22- Stats
23-25- Enchant
There are situations where you want to max untouchable first for rosh attempts early on or against low base AS heroes, or you want stats points instead of Untouchable, against Troll Warlord or Ursa who doesn't care about your Untouchable at all, and against agi carries who gain attack speed really fast (you still want some points, but not maxed).
Against Ursa or TW, I tend to pump stats from 8 to 16.

Item Builds

Now the items !

Starting items :
On both heroes, you want to buy the following items:
Courier, 2 Observer Wards, Sentry Wards, Smoke, Clarity

You need ZERO items to jungle with these heroes. We pick just one clarity to regen mana when required, and that's it.
You want sentry wards even if there are no invis heroes in the enemy team. Don't forget that they can be used to deward observers or sentries that have been used to block your camps.

If someone else has bought wards and/or courier, you can buy some tangos and be a good guy by giving some to your teammates: you shouldn't use them at all.

Early Game items :
Chen : Boots (Arcane), Buckler

Rushing arcane on Chen is really good these days since you need mana to do efficient moves on the map now. Before 6.83, I was going mek > arcane, but now arcane > mek is way more efficient. Unless your team has 2 arcane boots purchasers that will have them immediatly, you should go arcane first.
When building a Mek, Buckler is always the best choice. Because we want to push with creeps, the armor addition will be nice.
Some people build a Basi to add more armor (it stacks with buckler) to the push, which is fine, but oftenly your safelane carry or the other support may get it, or they'll get an aquila and then basi is not that great here.

Enchantress : Urn, Boots, Bracer/Null Talisman

Enchantress profits so much of an Urn. It's increased healing, bonus strenght that helps a lot on a squishy hero and mana regen to use impetus more often. I sometimes get boots after the urn so I can gain charges faster.
If someone else gets the urn before you do, get a bracer instead so you still gain the +6 strenght, and stats items are great on Enchantress. But you want it so much then it's better to tell your team that you're building it at the beginning. And if it happens, well... do that I said.
Speaking of stats items, you can pick up a casual Null Talisman or a casual Bracer or both so you gain HP and damage. If your team is a bit behind, it can be a fine pickup.

For both heroes, don't forget to share the ward duty with the other support, especially as Chen, after mek.

Core Items :
Chen : Mek,

Finish your Mek with Chen between 8 and 15 minutes. My average timing when doing a good game is 10 minutes. Knowing when you mek comes out is knowing if the game is going well or not.
Then, if you haven't done it yet, get Arcane for your creeps, your team and yourself. I sometimes skip them for other items but I don't recommend that at all.

Enchantress : PT or Arcane, Aghs, Force Staff – Mek IF NEEDED

Enchantress can also be the mek carrier, but there is an issue with that : you went urn first. If you have to be the mek carrier and if you know that at the beginning, then skipping the urn is pratically forced.

Get either PT or Arcane, depending of what you need. PT most of the time is the best choice for more HP or right click power, but Arcane is sometimes a better choice with a team with mana dependent items or against mana burners (Nyx, QW Invoker...).
There is also the option to skip these and go for a straight aghs, but this will sacrifice either stats or utility for your team. That's what I do when arcane are not important, and when you're ahead, it's the best option in my opinion.

So Aghs is considered as core on Enchantress, try to get it before the late game starts. Her damage input becomes super high with that item, and you'll be able to stay even further away from the fight.

If you have trouble getting it, even if it's a great item to play the late game, go for utility items.
I always get force staff on Enchantress. On heroes that requires to be in a particular position to be effective, this item allows them to be in that position. If Enchantress gets caught in the fight, you can heal and force staff yourself away. It can even be used on allies, then you urn them and they're ready to fight again !

Situational items :
Chen : Force Staff, Necro, Ghost Scepter, Vladimir's Offering

What you wanna get in a standard late game scenario is Force Staff. Force Staff buffs your creeps in the late game, especially the centaurs. You force staff the centaur into the fray and do their job. You can force staff a hellbear so it can slow people inside. You can force staff a DTS so it nets that Enigma using black hole faster (make sure he doesn't get caught, please...).
Read the Force staff part for Enchantress and you'll know why it is a great item for Chen. Chen wants to be back in the fight to cast Penitence/Test of Faith and his heals. Creeps are the one in front.

If you want to end the game immediatly, which is what you wanna do oftenly with Chen, Necro is a good choice. With your creep army, these two will do ravages in the enemy lines. Make sure to abuse the Mana Burn on low mana targets.

Against heavy right clicks and in a game where it is gonna depend of who will do the most physical damage, you can get a Ghost Scepter. Chen doesn't right click to do damage. No need to upgrade it to an etheral by the way.

Chen is a very good vlads carrier, as the aura buffs your creeps and your team. If you went basi, I recommend getting it asap if there's not one already.

Enchantress : MoM
Okay, there's only one item. I've seen this and done this item sometimes, it's actually effective if the enemy team has no big nukes that may bring you down easily. Bonus AS, more Impetus and more Pure damage. That's cool.
But if there are strong nukes in the enemy team, just forget about it.
Oh, and also, Lifesteal doesn't stack with Impetus, so you're really only getting it for the bonus AS.

Luxury items :
Chen : Aghs, Sheep, Atos

Atos is a nice intel gain and a nice slow. I never really purchased it in a real match, but it can be quite nice.
In games where Force staff is not required, in games where your healing might change fights in an unusual way, Aghs is a good choice. But you want it as early as possible, around 30-35 minutes.
The 30 sec CD will remove the question you're asking yourself when someone gets caught : ''Should I heal or not ?'' CD is so low that you just do it, it will create space for your team, and the ult will be ready in the next fight, unless it actually happens right now...
Getting Aghs after core items is decent especially if you look for the golem that grants health to your team. Good value.
No need to explain why Sheep is good for an intel hero... I guess ?

Enchantress : Sheep, Orchid, Atos

Sheep, obviously, is great.
Orchid is good because it grants you damage, and if a silence is absolutly required, this is the item to go. Sheep might be better, but actually the damage imp beats it when it's just for disabling someone from using spells.
Atos can be fine as well.

Please don't do these items

I'm not gonna talk about Chen for the main reason that the only Chen I've seen in my entire games are from me. I've seen it once or twice but that's it.

For Enchantress, I have a lot of things to say.
NEVER. EVER. GO. MIDAS. FIRST. RUSH. ETC. I. LIKE. DOTS.
Unless you had the best start possible (killing spree at 4-5 minutes for example), do not rush a midas.
What is even worse is Enchantress players who rush it and who doesn't gank at all. They get it maybe at a fine timing (8 minutes), but at this point they didn't bring anything to the team. Team is pretty much playing 4v5.

I've seen Bloodstone rushes or late game bloodstones. This is STUPID.
Bloodstone is considered as a snowball item, Enchantress has a snowball potential, yes, but it's not by getting HP and Mana. With an Aghs and a Force staff, you have enough mana to cast impetus and you have everything you need to not get caught too easily (staying back with aghs and force staff away if required). This is better than a Bloodstone who also might not be cost effective at all, while Aghs and Force should always be worth the purchase.

Friends and Foes

It may be important to know how to play the hero, but you also have to know which heroes are good with Chen and Ench and which heroes counter him quite hard, and yes, hard counters exist for Chen and Ench.

Hero synergies
It's gonna be short. ANY hero with a stun, a root or a slow will help Chen's creeps as well as Ench's impetuses.
The list is quite long.
There are some notable synergies however :

Clinkz : Unfortunatly, you won't have 4 creeps all the time with him, but this has a good consequence. Because of the health bonus on your creeps, giving him a centaur or a high hp creep will grant him more health and damage than he could have got with a regular neutral creep.
Lich : Same as Clinkz, but for mana. However, it's better for him to get regular creeps.
Meepo : Send back one, send back the four others. He also has net to setup your creep spells.

Hero counters
For Chen :
Doom, Clinkz, Lifestealer can instakill your creeps. Most notable one is Clinkz. As I said, he gains damage and health based on the health of the creep. He's gonna eat your creeps everytime he can, so make sure to have sentries and a team ready to stop him from doing that.
Doom will eat your creeps and gain gold out of it. However, you're a good hero against his ultimate. The doomed target will simply go back to base.
Lifestealer will control your creep if he's quick. But if you're quick, he may have an unpleasant suprise.

Crystal Maiden and Witch Doctor are two heroes with stuns : Frostbite has an increased duration on creeps and Paralyzing Cask has a 5 sec stun on your creeps, which can stop your gank if the player knows what to do.

Bounty Hunter and Riki are TRUE hard counters. They'll sit behind you, leeching xp, stealing last hits. If your team doesn't help you, you'll be level 2 at ten minutes, which is sad.

Any AOE will destroy your creeps in the late game. Tide, SF, Sand King... Any simple aoe stun like impale will be a problem in fights (you can't solo kill a lion because of impale, and mana drain in your creeps is problematic).

For Enchantress :

Ursa and Troll Warlord do not care about your untouchable which is problematic.
Any hero with magic burst will destroy ench quickly.

Chen: Send back? No send back?

I'm going to give this a section because it is quite important to know that. A bad send back can lose you the game. But a good one can turn around a fight.

Send back IF
- The ally won't be able to escape in time after the right clicks and the nukes and will need a bit of right clicks to die.
- The ally has no escape mechanism and is getting full stunned.
- The ally has an escape mechanism but cannot use it because of mana issues or a silence.
- The enemy is diving for the kill and there's no way this hero and you will turn it around and get out by itself
- That hero, in a team fight, already did his job and won't give anything else to the fight except right clicks (does not apply to your hard carry).
- The ally is being focused by an important ultimate (chrono, grip, demonic purge)

Do not send back IF
- The ally has an escape mechanism and will have enough hp to escape and keep doing things on the map like farming the jungle (slark, AM, void), UNLESS he gets silenced
- The ally has an item he can use to keep himself alive (popping a Satanic or even a BKB) or a spell he can use defensively (chrono...)
- The ally has a TP scroll he can use (no more stuns), you don't want to waste 200 mana and that CD.

Conclusion

There you go. After reading this, play against bots, and once you're ready, go do what you read here, in real games.
My Chen and Enchantress plays gave me the 53% overall winrate I have and is the reason why my solo and my party mmr are around 4k4

Thank you for reading, if you have anything to say about my guide, like criticisms, some errors in the guide, tell me now.

Guide written by HammerKick in 2014
Images found on Liquipedia and dota2.gamepedia.com

[ManiaK]

i r8 it 9/11

[HammerKick]

Hey guys, reached 4k3 recently and pos 41 in top 100 with chen.
Thanks for your support guys, i'm still updating the guide when it's required

[Chmaqo]

Ce mec ne pue pas du cul, bien ouej, stylé le guide :*

[nieve!]

Really a complete guide! Congratts!

[76561198131103981]

thx

[HammerKick]

Thanks for all the positive comments! That makes me feel really happy!
Road to 4k with Chen!

[DarkLight]

Best Guide Ever

[76561198145462536]

thanks for your information it's help me how to play chen :)

[dM]

стока хуйни написал. че сложного в чене и энче нипойму... идите на х*й с такими длинными и нудными гайдами.

[Carry Potter]

wtf