Grimstroke · Soft Support (pos. 4)
Grimstroke for Beginners
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This guide is assembled by the site from match data and the game's own information — nobody wrote it by hand. Official and community guides appear alongside it when they exist.
Overview
Grimstroke is a ranged Intelligence hero that Valve tags as Support, Nuker and Disabler. It is played mainly as Soft Support (pos. 4): 52% of the public matches we measured, by starting lane and starting items. In this guide you play it as Soft Support (pos. 4): your job is to help your offlaner win the hard lane, rotate for kills and make space with your spells. Grimstroke is of average difficulty: learn the basics below and it rewards you quickly.
Strengths
- Reliable silence: Phantom's Embrace sets up kills and interrupts enemy channels.
- Soulbind can swing team fights: it hits several enemies at once.
- Long attack range (600) to harass and last hit safely.
Weaknesses
- Low base armor (0): vulnerable to physical harass early on.
- Plays on little gold: expensive items arrive late.
Build cheat sheet
Pick the build that fits what you want to do this game.
Builds
Simple build
When to use it
The most-bought items without the situational ones: buy them in this order and focus on playing the hero.
Where it's played
Picked before the game: the main lane first, then the alternatives.
244%151%- OfflaneMain51% of matchesOff lane next to your offlaner, as Soft Support (pos. 4).
- Safe lanePriority 244% of matchesSafe lane next to your carry, as Hard Support (pos. 5).
Starting items
Core items
- 1Blink DaggerYour first big item.
- 2Aghanim's ShardSecond: buy it right after.
- 3Glimmer CapeThird: completes your core.
Boots
Late game
Skill order
Max order:Stroke of Fate›Ink Swell›Phantom's Emb…
| Ability | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 | · | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | · | · |
 | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · | ● | ● | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · |
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Talents by level
- +150 Ink Swell Radius+70% Stroke of Fate Speed and Travel Range25
- +80% Stroke of Fate Damage+2 Attacks to Destroy Phantom20
- +15% Ink Swell Movement Speed+25.0% Soulbind Spell Damage15
- +65 Phantom's Embrace DPS-4s Ink Swell Cooldown10
Abilities
- Stroke of Fate11 / 9 / 7 / 5s100 / 110 / 120 / 130 mpGrimstroke paints a curved path of ink with his brush, damaging and slowing enemies. The damage is increased with each enemy the ink hits.
Can be put on alt-cast to have the path be straight.
- Base damage
- 100·160·220·280
- Bonus dmg per hero
- 20·40·60·80
- Bonus dmg per illusion/creep
- 10·20·30·40
- Movement slow
- 50%·60%·70%·80%
- Slow duration
- 1.75
- Phantom's Embrace30 / 26 / 22 / 18s80 / 100 / 120 / 140 mpSummons a phantom that moves quickly towards the target, latching to it when she arrives. Once latched, the phantom damages and silences. If she survives the full latch duration she rends her victim for heavy damage and refreshes Phantom's Embrace's cooldown.
Hero attacks against the phantom count as 3 attacks each.
- Latch duration
- 5
- Attacks to destroy
- 6·6·9·9
- Phantom dps
- 10·20·30·40
- Rend damage
- 120·200·280·360
- Ink Swell27 / 24 / 21 / 18s120 / 130 / 140 / 150 mpGrimstroke shrouds an allied unit in ink, increasing its movement speed. Enemies in range of the allied unit are damaged with inky tendrils over time. After 3 seconds it applies damage and stun in an area around the unit in proportion to how long ink tendril was near any hero.
- Buff duration
- 3
- Movement speed bonus
- 20%
- Radius
- 375
- Max damage
- 90·180·270·360
- Max stun duration
- 1.6·2·2.4·2.8
- Ink tendrils dps
- 30·45·60·75
Dark Portrait35s200 mp- Illusion duration
- 25
- Illusion outgoing damage
- 125%
- Illusion damage taken
- 275%
- Illusion movespeed bonus
- 30%
- Soulbind70 / 65 / 60s150 / 200 / 250 mpBinds a targeted enemy hero to its nearest allied hero within the bind radius, preventing both from moving away from each other. Any unit-targeted ability that either bound hero receives also gets cast on the other hero. If the bind is broken before the duration expires, the initial target will be bound to its nearest allied hero in the radius.
- Duration
- 6·7·8
- Bind radius
- 600
Ink TrailPassiveGrimstroke's attacks and spells cause affected enemy heroes to leave a trail of Ink behind them and deal less damage to Grimstroke for 4s.- Damage reduction
- 5%
Most played skill order
The most played order in the last 100 professional matches with this hero. Highlighted levels are the points spent on talents.
Max order:Stroke of Fate›Ink Swell›Phantom's Emb…
| Ability | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| · | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | · | · |
| · | · | · | ● | · | · | · | ● | ● | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · |
| · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · | ● |
Strategy
1What Grimstroke does
Grimstroke is a ranged Intelligence hero that Valve tags as Support, Nuker and Disabler. It is played mainly as Soft Support (pos. 4): 52% of the public matches we measured, by starting lane and starting items. The kit brings crowd control (silence) with Phantom's Embrace. Its ultimate is Soulbind.
2The basics
In this guide you play it as Soft Support (pos. 4): your job is to help your offlaner win the hard lane, rotate for kills and make space with your spells.
- Vision: a ward in the right place saves more lives than any spell.
- Positioning: you are the easiest kill on the map, so stand where the enemy can't reach you first.
3Common mistakes
Most new players lose games with the same few mistakes. Avoid these and you'll already be ahead:
- Taking last hits from your carry.
- Placing wards during the fight instead of before it.
- Standing in front of your cores in fights.
4Your first games
Position 4 starts in the off lane with your offlaner: harass the enemy carry, block or pull their camp when it helps and look for the first rotation to mid once the runes spawn. Use the simple build in this guide and don't worry about situational choices yet.
Tips
- Vision: a ward in the right place saves more lives than any spell.
- Positioning: you are the easiest kill on the map, so stand where the enemy can't reach you first.
- Check the minimap every few seconds: most deaths come from heroes you didn't see coming.
- Learn what Soulbind does before anything else: it's the ability that wins fights.
Changelog
- Guide created for patch 7.41.
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