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A screenshot of Grimstroke, the latest hero to be added to Dota 2's roster.
© Valve
Esports
6 tips to dominate with new Dota 2 hero Grimstroke
Master Grimstroke, the first new hero in months, and learn how to inflict double the damage on the opposition team.
Shkruar nga Mike Stubbs
6 min readPublished on
It feels like an age since we last got a new hero in the world of Dota 2, but a surprise announcement and instant release at The International 8 finally gave us someone new to play with. Mars may have been the first new hero we got a glimpse at, but it was Grimstroke who was immediately released into the live game and is already terrorising pubs.
Billed as a spellcasting support hero, Grimstroke offers quite a lot of utility and even damage output, but requires some good synergy and timing to work effectively. At times he can feel next to useless, especially if the other team wises up and buys BKBs, but thanks to his ult he can always be the key factor in a team fight.
As you might expect with a new hero, everyone seems to want to play him as a core right now, and while you can find some success with that it really does feel like Grimstroke is best in a support role. So we've spent hours playing around with him, whenever he wasn’t banned, to return with these tips to help you become the best Grimstroke in the world.

1. Hide in the shadows of the lane

As a harassing tool Grimstroke’s first ability, Stroke of Fate is really quite strong in the early stages. At level one it does a base of 120 damage and slows for 50 percent for 1.5s, and when you add in the bonus damage for every unit it hits, you can easily have 150 damage nuke and slow on your hands every 11 seconds. But actually hitting it isn’t always easy.
Thanks to the lengthy cast animation this is pretty easy to dodge if you know what to look for. Now, you could try and predict your foe's movement and make a next-level play, but the long range means that the better idea is to try and hide in the trees in a side lane and fire it out while unseen. This makes it much harder to dodge and with some good positioning you can still inflict some of the bonus damage.

2. Hold your silence until after the initiation

Phantom's Embrace can be one hell of a spell if used correctly, but if the phantom gets killed while latched, it's really underwhelming, which is why you should try not to use this as your initiation tool. Leading off with this will often give your opponents a second or two to inflict some damage onto the phantom, and once it gets killed the silence is gone and that big nuke that's inflicted at the end of the latch duration doesn't happen.
This is why it’s better to wait for the fight to start before using it. When the massive fight is going off, enemies are going to be way more focused on taking down your team than a small phantom latched onto them. This makes it more likely that you’ll get the full five-second silence, deal the rend damage and have the spell back off cool down instantly to use again. You can effectively silence someone for an entire fight if you use this well.
A screenshot of Grimstoke's Ink Swell ability in Dota 2.
Ink Swell is a very versatile skill© Valve

3. Think about synergy in the draft

This just isn't possible right now, unless you're playing with a stack, because someone will insta-lock Grimstroke as soon as the draft starts. But once the novelty of a new hero wears off you really need to think about how Grimstroke can fit into your draft and what combos well with his ultimate.
Being able to tether two enemies together and make every spell that hits one of them also hit the other is a game-changing ability. That’s a double Laguna Blade if you play your cards right, and can effectively delete both supports out of a fight. But some heroes just won't work that well with Grimstroke. Weaver for example, will give you no benefit to your ult, as he has no hero target abilities.
But if you think about this early on in the draft, you might consider picking up, say, a Chaos Knight, who can get a double Reality Rift and Chaos Bolt to control two key targets with some good communication. Maybe you even pick up a Doom for a double Doom in fights, or perhaps have a Bane as your support duo for a double Fiend's Grip. If you get one of these key duos, then fights become a lot easier.

4. Remember you have a semi reliable stun

It sounds crazy that this is even a tip, but it’s very easy to forget that you can use Ink Swell as a pretty reliable stun with a good initiator. If anyone on your team has a blink, then throw this on them as they're about to jump in; with some good timing anyone stood in the AoE of that initiator will be stunned. It works really well with someone like Ursa, who can then go to town on the stunned foes.

5. But don’t be afraid to use it defensively

Sure, having a stun is great, and can turn big team fights, but Ink Swell is just as useful for saving your allies. Cast it on someone who's backing out of the fight and it might just save their life thanks to the bonus move speed and immunity. If you can save your carry as they exit the fight, that’s probably a much better option than trying to stun a few enemies at the end of a fight which is already lost.

6. Soulbind duplicates item effects as well, so grab a Dagon

Grimstroke’s ult doesn’t just duplicate hero targets spells, it also duplicates hero targeted items. This means that with some good itemisation you can effectively solo kill two enemies at once, or you can get your team to help out if you’re playing a proper support and have no money.
Picking up a Scythe of Vyse, Dagon or Bloodthrone can result in a lot of damage and control being dished out onto two opponents instead of one, so itemising with your team is key to success. Sure, it may not be a great game for a hex, but if you can take two enemies out of a fight at once it suddenly becomes twice as valuable, and possibly a core item for any team with a Grimstroke.
Take all of these tips into consideration and you’ll soon be dominating everyone with the newest Dota 2 hero. It does take a while to learn the hero, and you can totally mess up a lot with some of these abilities, but practice makes perfect and right now Grimstroke seems to be strong when played in a suitable role.
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