Dota 2: How to play Grimstroke in the most effective way

New heroes in Dota 2 often follow a similar pattern: they’re too strong at launch and slowly get nerfed over the next several months. Usually these heroes are quite weak in matchmaking, not being used well or put in the right position. Because of this as well as not fully understanding heroes, their win rates often start out below 45%, with subsequent nerfs not really fixing the problem.

However, Grimstroke avoided this fate. Obviously Grimstroke is a support, and very strong and versatile. Grimstroke is pretty strong right now, and it shows in his stats – in 5k+ games, Grimstroke always has a consistently above 50% win rate even when nerfed.

So what makes Grimstroke such a strong support worth picking?

DOWNLOAD LANE

The laning phase is extremely important in the current meta and Grimstroke is very good at it. This hero is one of the strongest level one nukers in the game, with a fairly low manacost. Crystal Maiden rises in the current meta when Crystal Nova’s damage is increased to 130 and she doesn’t disappear despite the increased manacost. At level 1, CM can use Crystal Nova twice.

Grimstroke can use Stroke of Fate four times before running out of mana. This ensures at least 120 damage and can be more if the enemy doesn’t know where to stand. Obviously, this move is hard to hit many targets and it doesn’t slow like Crystal Nova, but it ensures last hit ranged creeps while still harassing the enemy.

AFTER LANE STAGE

In the later stages, Grimstroke is built according to each player’s play style, with someone lifting Ink Swell first, people like Phantom’s Embracewhile others split both moves equally.

It’s difficult to say which skill is better: the stats show that this hero doesn’t have a better way to build, depending on the game, which is optimal. However, many people still underestimate and misunderstand Ink Swell – which is what this article will try to convince you of.

INK SWELL

The description of this move is quite long, confusing, and it’s been almost two weeks since this hero came out, many people at high ranks still can’t fully understand and promote this move.

The defense structure is pretty simple: affected heroes cannot be hit with right clicks or attack-modifying attacks (like Silencer’s Glaives of Wisdom). Affected heroes are still affected by spells, taking AoE as well as damage, so use it on allies when most of your opponent’s spells are on cooldown. Subject is also subject to Disarm and Silence, but moves faster, allowing them to flee, or prepare to counterattack. It also dispells – something to keep in mind when playing against heroes like Oracle.

The attack structure of the spell is somewhat more difficult. It is quite similar to DoT (Damage overtime, dealing damage over a period of time) of Ion Shelltries to deal damage to all heroes within a 400 radius. However, the last part, is perhaps the most confusing part of this hero.

Ink Swell deals DoT damage to all enemies within a 400 radius every 0.2 seconds, gaining a “charge” for each damage dealt to enemy heroes or Arc Warden’s Tempest Double. The maximum number of charges is 30 – the value that when the Ink Swell effect wears off, deals maximum damage and stuns for the longest time at that level.

With three seconds DoT and 0.2 seconds per damage recoil, the most charge you can get by continuously damaging one target for a total of 3 seconds is 15 charges, ie 110/140/170/200 damage and 1.1/1.4/1.7/2 seconds stun. This is already quite strong, not to mention this ability also deals 75 damage from the DoT effect, meaning you will always deal 185 damage and 1.1 second stun to one target, at level 1 of this move. Which only costs 90 mana.

With multiple objects, it’s easier to get the maximum value. A three second stun is a huge amount in Dota with Ink Swell’s level 4, it can be achieved simply by following an object and passing another enemy hero for 1 second. This move can completely change the game and that’s why this article recommends raising Ink Swell over Phantom’s Embrace, especially when you’re playing with friends and can team up with them.

PHANTOM’S EMBRACE

This move isn’t bad – it can deal a lot of damage while silencing enemies and pairs well with Grimstroke’s ultimate, Soulbind.

With that said, maxing this move first will be less valuable than Ink Swell in most cases, as long as the operator understands how Ink Swell works. Phantom’s Embrace is very valuable and at level 3 it is very worth it. But the difference between level 3 and level 4 is not worth raising more, if you have other moves to raise.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT TALENT

At level 10, choose between 90 GPM and +30 Movement Speed ​​and the vast majority of players who know this hero well choose the first. GPM talent is always extremely effective, even though the win rate of the 2nd talent is higher than 0.3%, we still recommend choosing to increase the economy. The extra 30 movement speed is huge, but given the role of this hero and Grimstroke can be quite far behind, the extra movement speed is a bit redundant.

+125 Cast Range at level 15 is a must which probably needs no further explanation – the further you are from the front line, the more you can do as a support, better target pickers and Make the most of your own mana without fear of being attacked. +12% Spell Amplification is probably worth considering if you want to play core Grimstroke, but there are many other heroes worth playing when it comes to core placement.

At level 20, choosing +600 Stroke of Fate cast range sounds tempting, but in most situations, it’s only worth it if you’re forced to play it safe against ultraportable heroes. It doesn’t help much in teamfight, but is a way to push lane out from within the fountain. Otherwise, giving Phantom’s Embrace two more hits will give more benefit in teamfight. The Stroke of Fate is this hero’s signature tool, but you can’t hope to win the game if it’s just a move you know how to use effectively and a cast range above 2000 won’t help if you’re planning to use other moves that have cast range is about 1000.

Finally, at level 25 +200 radius Ink Swell It’s clear that the side wins, though again, many people choose talent Stroke of Fate. Increasing the radius increases Ink Swell’s AoE by 12%, making it easier to hit 4-second stuns on many targets. Your team must be farming very poorly and out leveling a lot if they can’t take advantage of the 4-second stun with 2 or more heroes.

EPILOGUE

We talk a lot about Grimstroke without mentioning the ultimate, which shows how much potential this hero has. Grimstroke is currently very strong without having to combine well with his ultimate. In the many games where Grimstroke is used, the best results are often achieved when the hero’s ultimate is used as soon as the enemy hero is seen, which expands the team’s vision and slows the opponent.

Double the effectiveness of a few spells is what you want to do, but with Soulbind automatically binding to any enemy hero within AoE range, not using it immediately is often a mistake.

Grimstroke is a fairly easy hero to take advantage of and can be powerful when played by good gamers. Grimstroke will be nerfed and will definitely be heavily nerfed, possibly before the next DPC season starts, so I encourage you to play and learn this hero from now on.

According to Dotabuff