Grimstroke/Guide

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Gameplay

Playstyle
Grimstroke is a forceful support and nuker who pressures enemies with an array of punishing spells. He creates dilemmas for his opponents, compelling them to choose between attacking or retreating. In addition to inflicting heavy magical damage, he can also Soulbind two enemies together to make them suffer damage and disables at the same time. As for his weaknesses, Grimstroke is lacking in mobility, and can burn through his mana very quickly.
Pros	Cons
Long cast ranges. Multiple slows and disables. Doubles ally spell damage. Powerful AoE spells. Short cooldowns. Has massive damage in 3 of his basic abilities. Extremely potent lane support.	Rather squishy. Mana intensive. Vulnerable to silences and stuns. Dependent on team coordination. High skill cap. All of his abilities require good timing and aim.

Support

• Grimstroke is played as a support. Due to his powerful nuking spells, his spells can help assist a carry into securing kills, for example: using an Ink Swell to an allied carry during the laning phase as they charge to the fleeing enemy will help them stun the target, further providing more kills. This build is good with carries who have gap close but somewhat low damage (example: Phantom Assassin), or with carries who have high damage but are either squishy or vulnerable to kiting (example: Ursa). Ranged carries generally benefit less from this build, however, ranged carries with a slow or respectable damage can still do quite well. However, with ranged carries, more often than not you will have to be the one initiating onto the enemy using Phantom's Embrace + Ink Swell combo, so it proves quite risky against a lot of matchups.

Nuker

• Because of his powerful nuking potential, Grimstroke is often played as a Nuker, his Soulbind greatly synergizing with a plethora of other single-targetted spells.

Ability Builds

Generic Grimstroke (allies have powerful single targetted spells)
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	18	20	25

Ability Builds

Generic Grimstroke (allies do not have powerful single targetted spells)
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	18	20	25

Nuker Grimstroke
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	18	20	25

Talents

Hero Talents
+75% Stroke of Fate Damage	25	+150 Ink Swell Radius
+3 Hits to Kill Phantom	20	+1000 Stroke of Fate Cast Range
+12% Ink Swell Movement Speed	15	+25% Soulbind Spell Damage
-4s Ink Swell Cooldown	10	+65 Phantom's Embrace DPS

Tips & Tactics

General

• Grimstroke is generally played as a support or hard support. He can be played as a midlaner depending on what picks the enemies have. If they have a tanky mid such as Tiny, you will not be able to nuke the enemy mid very easily.
• As a mid, you can go for the nuker or disabler build depending on what your team needs. Secure ranged creeps with your stroke of fate, and try to hit the enemy while doing so. Do not forget to get a Bottle.
• When going for the nuker build, you can push the wave very quickly, and go farm the nearby side camps. Ask if a support can stack for you, or stack camps yourself. You can clear stacked camps at an incredible rate due to Stroke of Fate's scaling damage.
• When going for the disabler build, gank side lanes often, even as early as level 5.
• If going for the nuker build, you will need a lot of mana to keep up. Consider getting a Ring of Basilius, as it gives you and your team increased mana regen, and later builds into Veil of Discord
• Grimstroke's item build is straightforward: You build Arcane Boots, disassemble into Aether Lens. If the game is looking good, consider getting Boots of Travel. Grimstroke can push waves at an incredible speed, and this item helps you split-push. The extra movement speed will also come in handy, as your base movement speed is somewhat low. Then, finish the build with Scythe of Vyse. Orchid Malevolence gives you a second source of silence. Kaya and Sange alongside Veil of Discord can also be considered in some games if you are the damage dealer.
• In lane, harras the enemy with your Stroke of Fate. Stroke of Fate's slow comes in incredibly handy. In teamfights, see Soulbind's notes below.
• As most intelligence casters are, you are very fragile, and you suffer from low Strength/Agility gain. As such, stay in the back of fights, and abuse your massive cast ranges. Don't draw too much attention to yourself. If someone is chasing you, use Ink Swell and Glimmer Cape to back off, as ink swell grants increased movement speed.

Abilities

Stroke of Fate

• Stroke of Fate's short cooldown means it can be used constantly, especially when chasing an enemy.
• Stroke of Fate is an excellent tool to chip away at enemies during the laning phase. Cast it when enemy heroes who are standing behind creep waves when they go for last hits or denies to take advantage of the bonus stacking damage. Take caution as you will be pushing the waves quicker this way.
• Use Stroke of Fate to quickly clear creep waves and neutral camps.
• Stroke of Fate long range means it can be used to slow down enemies even when retreating, or to help allies catch a fleeing enemy.
• Stroke of Fate has a relatively long cast animation that needs to be compensated for when targeting distant enemies.
• To overcome Stroke of Fate's long cast animation, use it when enemies stop moving in order to attack Phantom's Embrace.
• The Stroke originates from the left of the model where he holds his brush, making it important to note this when aiming at close-range enemies.
• Stroke of Fate can be used to stack multiple creep camps at once.

Phantom's Embrace

• The phantom can be killed in mid-flight, so do not waste it if it's obvious that the enemy is ready to take it down.
• The phantom provides vision over its target, and can be used to track elusive enemies.
• Use Phantom's Embrace to force enemies back in lane, or take heavy damage.
• Use Phantom's Embrace in conjunction with allies who stun, disarm or fear to make sure the phantom latches on for its full duration.
• Use Phantom's Embrace on enemies that are already busy fighting in order to shift their attention from their target to the phantom instead.
• Use Phantom's Embrace to quickly silence powerful spellcasters, especially ones with channeled abilities.
• Do not use Phantom's Embrace on target that's ready to go spell immune, invisible, invulnerable, or hidden. These statuses will kill the phantom instantly.
• Use Phantom's Embrace after the target has already expended the above statuses. For example, on Shadow Demon after he's used Disruption.
• Level 3 or 4 Phantom's Embrace is incredibly powerful in lane, as it takes 3 attacks to destroy the Phantom, and deals massive damage if latched on for the full duration.

Ink Swell

• Use Ink Swell on allies with Blink Dagger, high mobility, or invisibility to help them land the stun.
• Use Ink Swell on allies when being disabled or retreating as it increases movement speed and dissuades the aggressors with a stun.
• Use Ink Swell on allied lane creeps to charge its damage and stun, and discourage melee opponents from farming.
• Use Ink Swell after slowing an enemy with Stroke of Fate or Soulbind to catch up for a stun.
• Use Ink Swell on allies who are in the middle of teamfights in order to catch the most enemies with its damage and stun.
• Ideally, use on initiators so the stun follows their abilities.
• Ink Swell can act as a counter-initiation tool when the enemy jumps onto your team.
• Use on chasing or fleeing allies to increase their movement speed.
• Synergizes extremely well with Spirit Breaker, as the bonus movement speed helps deal more damage from Greater Bash, while also providing a secondary stun alongside Charge of Darkness.
• With Aghanim's Shard, Ink Swell applies a Strong Dispel after the duration is over, making it somewhat similar to Dark Pact. Use it on initating allies to bait spells, or as a way to dispel disables like Fiend's Grip, Nightmare, and Primal Roar. It can be a way to help fleeing allies. It also heals the ally and makes you do more damage, making Aghanim's Shard a very good investment.

Soulbind

• The hero that is initially targeted by a spell while affected by Soulbind is the "primary" target, while the hero that the primary target is bound to is the "secondary" target.
• Soulbind has unique interactions with some abilities:
  • When Sniper casts Assassinate on a Soulbound target, he fires at the primary target, then immediately fires at the secondary target with almost no cast delay. Damage from both hits are shared between units, effectively causing each Soulbound hero to be hit twice by Assassinate.
  • Duel causes both bound enemies to fight Legion Commander. However, if Legion Commander dies, both enemies in the duel will be awarded damage. During the simultaneous duels, Legion Commander attacks the primary target.
  • Winter's Curse affects both bound enemies, and their team mates will attack the closest one. In addition, they will not be able to deal damage to their ally.
  • Sunder causes Terrorblade to receive the primary target's health, while the primary target receives the health of the secondary target, and the secondary target receives the health of Terrorblade.
  • Nether Strike and Static Link only affect the secondary target.
  • Nether Swap moves Vengeful Spirit to the primary target's position, the primary target to the secondary target's position, and the secondary target to Vengeful Spirit's initial position.
  • Life Break causes Huskar to first jump on the primary target and then the secondary target, inflicting damage on each jump.
  • Arcane Bolt fires twice as many multi-shot Arcane Bolts when upgraded with its talent and/or Aghanim's Scepter.
  • Mystic Snake casts two snakes and creates extras if either connects with the other linked enemy.
  • Fatal Bonds affects both bound enemies, and doubles the damage.
  • Multicast triggers separately for both bound enemies. It may proc on one enemy, but not the other.
  • Fortune's End queues a second cast of the ability on the secondary target to start channeling after the first projectile hits the primary target. Canceling the first channel in any way causes the first projectile to fire, and then channel the second cast once the first hits. Movement or impairments during the second cast fires the projectile early all the same.
  • Time Lapse does not cancel Soulbind.
  • Ion Shell does not cast on the secondary target.
  • Mana Drain If the secondary target runs out of will stop draining the mana of the secondary target, along with any of the additional enemies targeted by the secondary mana drain, if the secondary target runs out of mana.
  • Mana Drain's secondary cast can target heroes already targeted by the primary cast.
  • Mana Drain Additional enemies targeted by the secondary cast will continue to be drained even if channeling is cancelled using the stop key. Taking any action will still cause the spell to end early.
• Use Soulbind to leash enemies inside the radius of powerful allied AoE abilities, such as Freezing Field or Supernova.
• Use Soulbind in conjunction with bouncing abilities like Chain Frost or Shuriken Toss for maximum effect.
• If you have Aghanim's Scepter, you should try and soulbind a high-DPS target, such as Sniper. Then, use Dark Portrait.
• In order to maximise this spell's effectiveness, use single target items/abilities such as Scythe of Vyse, Dark Portrait, Phantom's Embrace, and Orchid Malevolence if the enemy team has lots of spellcasters, effectively allowing you to silence 3 enemies when combined with your Phantom's Embrace.
• Its somewhat low cooldown means you don't have to be conservative about using it, especially when it's maxed out.
• This spell is particularly devestating in teamfights if you have heroes with powerful single target spells, such as Lion, Lich, Doom, or Anti-Mage. If your team has an Anti-Mage, you may want to consider soulbinding an enemy support with high mana, such as Skywrath Mage. Likewise, if your team has a Doom, you may consider soulbinding a target which does not necessarily have to be a carry. Plan accordingly and use sensible judgement on what heroes you have to soulbind, taking into consideration your team's spells and the enemy team's heroes.

Dark Portrait

• Use Dark Portrait on enemy physical carries as their illusions deal bonus damage, move faster, and have spell immunity.
• Carries with abilities that enhance their illusions such as Luna, Phantom Lancer or Medusa are particularly good targets for Dark Portrait.
• Grimstroke can look for enemies with useful auras to use Dark Portrait on, benefiting his team.
• Check Dark Portrait illusions of enemies for the levels of their abilities.
• Dark portrait illusions can be used to connect ink swell from a safe distance when grimstroke is alone or if his team is retreating.
• More tips needed.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango helps Grimstroke stay in lane.

• Healing Salve keeps Grimstroke alive in the early game.

• Enchanted Mango helps Grimstroke use his nukes more often.

• Clarity regenerates mana throughout the game to fuel Stroke of Fate.

• Iron Branch gives attributes for little cost, and can either be combined with Tango for more health regeneration or built into a Magic Wand.

Early game:

• Boots of Speed increase movement speed to get Grimstroke in position.

• Magic Stick restores health and mana for a low price.

Mid game:

• Arcane Boots makes up for Grimstroke's high mana usage. It can also be diassembled into Aether Lens or Aeon Disk.

• Magic Wand gives attributes, as well as more health and mana restoration.

• Glimmer Cape allows Grimstroke to escape bad situations, and sneak up on enemies for a stun with Ink Swell (cast either on himself or his ally). Since Grimstroke is commonly played as a support, the item is highly cost-effective for him.

Late game:

• Scythe of Vyse can hex two enemies at once when used with Soulbind. It also prevents opponents from killing the phantom, thus forcing them to take full damage.

• Aether Lens increases Grimstroke's already long cast ranges, and gives him extra mana regeneration. The cast range bonus is significant for Grimstroke as winning teamfights rely on casting all spell combos successfully. The range keeps him safely in the backlines.

• Aeon Disk helps Grimstroke survive with strong dispel and damage reduction so that he can keep using abilities in fights.

Situational items:

• Force Staff helps Grimstroke's chase down enemies after they have been slowed. It also serves as a good escape for him in a pinch.

• Dagon adds burst magical damage and can be cast on two targets at once when combined with Soulbind.

• Ethereal Blade works with Soulbind to amplify magical damage dealt to two enemies at once as well as to disarm them so that they cannot attack the phantom.

• Orchid Malevolence Can be considered as a tool to silence up to 3 enemies.