Heroes of the Storm's upcoming patch introduces a reworked version of the Bruiser Chen. The patch is available in the Public Test Realm for playtesting until the week of June 17.
In relation to the changes experienced by Chen, the development team revealed that they "had a blast tinkering with him, and look forward to seeing him unleashed to his full potential in your hands." In deciding what changes to make, the team focused on giving Chen more chances to make plays as well as giving his opponents more opportunities to interact with the hero. While it may take some time to master the new Chen, good management of his cooldown will allow players access to a truly formidable hero.
Just how much did Chen got reworked?
Let's start with his Fortifying Brew Trait. One big change is that the hero no longer gets the instant 25 Brew. While drinking, Chen was able to gain temporary shields for a total of 588, but this has now been lowered to 540. Shield amount has been decreased as well to 180, though shield duration was increased from two seconds to four seconds. Brew regeneration is now 50 per second, with cooldown increased to seven seconds and channel time lowered to four seconds.
Another big change is that the Keg Smash and Breath of Fire have been made into "one" ability, sort of. For the Keg Smash ability, Brew cost is increased to 30. The ability also has a new functionality. Instead of simply slowing enemies by 25% for three seconds, the affected enemies are slowed by 10% for 1.5 seconds. For the next 1.5 seconds, the Slow is increased to 40%. Once the ability is used, it becomes Breath of Fire.
Breath of Fire undergoes the usual changes like cooldown reduction and periodic damage increases, among others. However, the functionality of this ability has been adjusted in line with the changes done to Keg Smash. When the ability is used on an enemy that has been soaked with Brew, the enemy is ignited and experiences damage over three seconds. This adds 1.5 seconds to the Slow duration taken from Keg Smash. Once used, or if six seconds pass, the ability goes back to being Keg Smash.
Since an ability was removed, it means that a new ability is introduced, and the update does so with Stagger. What the ability does is prevents damages taken over the next three seconds. Once the effect ends, Chen now receives 75% of the damage taken over five seconds. This ability has an 18-second cooldown.
Looking at his talents, Chen receives a few tweaks as well. The Eye of the Tiger Passive increases the regenaration globe healing duration by 100% at level one. Indeed, the update has made some interesting changes. In terms of complexity, Chen has long been considered a hard hero to master. However, players who do manage to master him are sure to enjoy what he can do.
A list of all the other changes done to Chen, as well as other general bug fixes, can be viewed here.
