Chen vs Enchantress: Faith or Charm?

Overview 

During its first year, Dota 2 started out with a target on mid-game dominance and lane control. Heroes that give advantage in the first 10 minutes were prioritized over others. Today, we have moved quite a few steps away from the original playstyle. However, both Chen and Enchantress are still worth fighting for. The following article contains my knowledge of these heroes. I will also try and answer questions regarding their use and how they fit in different situations. I'm not in anyway, a high level player or a Dota strategist and this is just my personal opinion.

         

Discussion

Firstly, none of these hereos have any major counters in the early game and can be used in most team lineups. Both of them farm well in the forest, hence gaining additional gold and experience advantage. What makes these heroes unique is their ability to control neutral creeps and use them to setup ganks or bring down towers. The basic strategy is to farm in the jungle, strike at any enemy hero who is overextending in its lane and turn the gank into a tower dive. They are a complete nightmare to passive lanes and can also spoil the game for other jungling heroes like Lycanthrope or Naix. With a similar set of skills, only one of these heroes is required; bringing us straight into this argument.

Chen is more capable with picks that are focused on gaining maximum control throughout the map. Global heal and teleportation works well with heroes like Tinker and Prophet. Chen is more suitable in a defensive lane where you have to keep your carry hero safe to farm. In desperate times, teleportation also saves the carry hero from death, sending it back to the fountain to get healed.

On the other hand, Enchantress works best in an offensive tri lane. Roaming in the enemy jungle means pressure in mid and the safe lane. With a hop, skip and a jump; Enchantress is able to gank on its own and can possibly achieve far more than its adversary in the earliest minutes. Unlike the ones possessed by Enchantress, creeps under Chen’s control don’t have a timed life and can be used for ganking as well as mild harassment in lanes. Both heroes can control up to 3 neutral creeps at a time but Enchantress’s creeps die when the charm wears off. 

Having similar set of spells, both heroes have a common role and position on the map. A major difference between these two heroes is their ultimate. While Impetus makes Enchantress a great hard hitter, Hand of God is a very effective global ability itself. Not only it heals in teamfights, it also saves any allied hero from getting killed anywhere on the map. 

When facing each other, both can steal a creep being controlled by the other, Chen adds the bonus hp to his controlled creeps while Enchant has a timed duration. The crucial point to notice here is the shorter cooldown of Enchant, which gives Enchantress an upper hand in most fights against Chen. Enchantress also serves well as a backup hard hitter while Chen’s army is unmatched throughout the game.

 

Verdict

Effectiveness of both these heroes diminishes in the late game but perhaps it is Chen whose decline is less steep as compared to Enchantress. She is primarily considered a weaker version of Chen with more of his shortcomings. Enchantress should be utilized when a team is opting for a push oriented lineup while Chen seems more suitable as a typical support hero. Experience is possibly the greatest resource for finding an answer to this question. It is up to you to decide if faith should be considered over charm or vice versa.