Grimstroke is a ranged Intelligence support in Dota 2 who excels at controlling team fights with powerful disables and long-range spellcasting. His toolkit provides reliable wave clear, strong lane harassment, and excellent crowd control, while Soulbind can link two enemy heroes together, allowing many single-target spells and items to affect both targets at once. This unique mechanic makes Grimstroke one of the strongest heroes for enabling devastating team combinations.
Grimstroke remains effective throughout every stage of the game thanks to his versatile abilities. He can pressure opponents during the laning phase, punish poor positioning with Ink Swell and Phantom’s Embrace, and greatly increase his team’s damage output in large-scale engagements. With proper positioning and coordination, Grimstroke can consistently control fights and create opportunities for his team to secure kills and objectives.
Attack Type: Ranged
Strength: 21 + 2.4 | Agility: 18 + 1.9 | Intelligence: 25 + 3.8
Grimstroke Items build
Meta build:
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- Scythe of Vyse
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- Boots of Trave
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- Arcane Blink
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- Refresher Orb
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- Octarine Core
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- Black King Bar
Pro Build:
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- Glimmer Cape
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- Boots of Trave
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- Black King Bar
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- Aghanim’s Scepter
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- Aether Lens
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- Octarine Core
Grimstroke’s Skill Order
Skill Order: Ink Swell -> Stroke of Fate -> Phantom’s Embrace -> Soulbind.
Combo Grimstroke
Heroes combo: Grimstroke + slardar
How To Counter Grimstroke ?
Pros
- Powerful AoE spells.
- Long cast ranges.
- Strong in lane.
- Great in fights.
Cons
- Vulnerable to silence.
- Rather squishy.
- Mana intensive
Bad against:
- Hero
Good against:
- Hero
How To Play Grimstroke ?
Best items for Grimstroke
Start items for Grimstroke in dota 2 are: Observer Ward, Sentry Ward, Wind Lace, Tango, Clarity.
Meta items for Grimstroke in dota 2 are: Scythe of Vyse, Boots of Trave, Arcane Blink, Refresher Orb, Octarine Core, Black King Bar.
Pro items for Grimstroke in dota 2 are: Glimmer Cape, Boots of Trave, Black King Bar, Aghanim’s Scepter, Aether Lens, Octarine Core.
Tips and Tricks
A limited field of vision is provided by the Stroke projectile both during travel and at its destination.
When you cast Phantom’s Embrace on a target that has Soulbind active, it is the only one whose cooldown will be refreshed. Cast it on the foe that has a lower chance of putting the ghost to death.
The faster Ink Swell hits the maximum stun duration, the more heroes being hurt by its tendrils.
A siege creep that has been cast Phantom’s Embrace will immediately stop attacking the tower and begin catapulting the Phantom.
Grimstroke’s Ability
STROKE OF FATE
With his brush, Grimstroke creates an ink path that harms and immobilizes foes. With each adversary that the ink touches, the damage increases.
PHANTOM’S EMBRACE
Summons a phantom that races over to the target and, when she gets there, latches onto it. The ghost harms and silences once it latches. If she makes it through the whole latch duration, she rends her victim for significant damage and resets the cooldown for Phantom’s Embrace.
The phantom counts each of the hero’s attacks as three.
INK SWELL
A unit that is allied with Grimstroke has its movement speed accelerated. The allied unit gradually inflicts damage with inky tendrils on any enemies within range. It provides damage and stun in accordance to how long ink tendril was near any hero in a region around the unit after 5.0 seconds or when manually triggered.
DARK PORTRAIT
Sreates a target enemy hero’s illusion in ink. Illusion has a bonus to movement speed and attack damage, is resistant to debuffs, and has a magic resistance of 95%.
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