Greymane is an interesting hero that go from a 'molotov' throwing ranged assassin to a fierce worgen melee assassin that claws and shreds all around him.
His main form is ranged, where most of his damage comes from basic attacks thanks to
Inner Beast.
Later in the game however his secondary skill as a human,
Gilnean Cocktail, can become a devastating AoE ability.
Greymane's biggest down sides are the lack of any sort of self sustain and any sort of escape ability. Which makes him hard to play as you have to think about your positioning a lot.
LONG VERSION
Greymane is a very fun hero to play, but he is very hard to master! He requires a lot of patience and a good team to really help him shine! If you have a good tank or tanky assassins that can form a nice front line for you, then you can really do some damage using
Gilnean Cocktail to whittle down a good portion of the enemy team. Especially in small corridors and other narrow areas.
On top of that, you also have a almost permanent +50% Attack Speed buff if handled correctly. If the enemies are busy dealing with a tank or such, you can really get a lot of shots off very quickly!
Sometimes
Inner Beast is preferred over
Gilnean Cocktail, to me this would usually be if a teamfight is brewing and about start.
Gilnean Cocktail has a 'fairly' long cooldown, meaning you can't just spam it. Ideally you want to a lot of people with this ability instead of just one person. So holding back on using it might prove very useful!
The weakness of Greymane is definitely his lack of escape mechanics and abilities as he doesn't really have any. The closest thing would be
Disengage but this has a very short range and can ONLY be used if you are already in Worgen form. Otherwise you have to use
Darkflight to jump at an opponent, to change in to Worgen, and then
Disengage away in another direction. This CAN work, but it requires you to juke heavily and just isn't a very good way of doing this, too tricky and difficult to pull off.
So when playing Greymane, you really have to think about positioning and when you want to dive in as a Worgen. One wrong decision will cost you your life!
There are of course various ways of building Greymane, this guide will focus on the
Gilnean Cocktail and it's insane AoE.
At level one you have two different talents that you can go for,
Wolfheart and
Viciousness. Your choice depends on how well you are able to keep your
Inner Beast buff going.
Viciousness - helps you keep it up, no pun intended, in scattered fights where you have to move from target to target a lot. With the added bonus of letting your abilities refresh the duration as well. Pick this talent if you're having issues keeping the
Inner Beast buff going for more than a couple of attacks.
Wolfheart - In a way Wolfheart also allows you to keep your
Inner Beast buff have a higher uptime. But it does this by reducing the cooldown instead of giving your a longer 'grace' period between attacks. Each attack made while
Inner Beast is active will lower the cooldown by one. Meaning 16 attacks gives you another use of
Inner Beast should the other run out. If you can stay on target for at least 16 attacks, i'd go for this one.
Draught Overflow - This causes your
Gilnean Cocktail to reach even further, letting you hit more targets with, what will be, a devastating AoE attack.
Insatiable seems nice but you shouldn't really be spamming abilities enough that you end up in several mana problems.
Eyes in the Dark can be picked if you find yourself struggling or if you are against a very "pick off" based line up. But in my opinion, you should be able to avoid being caught out and against many heroes stealth is only a "Oh god i hope they don't see me" mechanic. Better work on your positioning instead.
Incendiary Elixir - Gives the
Gilnean Cocktail even more damage! It now does more than tickle the first target as well, meaning that it is also useful in 1v1 situations. But there is also another benefit, which is that the Elixir now explodes regardless if it hits anyone or not. This allows you to reach people who would otherwise be out of range, nice for this long distance 'snipes' and skillshots.
Go for the Throat - I prefer this heroic as i feel like it is more stable than
Marked for the Kill. Go for the Throat is excellent for destroying enemies who are getting low or trying to flee. It's a good burst, to make sure someone doesn't blink away, get healed or such. On top of that, you also get an extra use if you use it to kill an enemy with, and seeing as this build focuses on doing a lot of AoE damage to the team, then this could end up really useful!
Marked for the Kill - The only reason i would pick this heroic is if paired with the
Gilnean Roulette. This causes all heroes hit to take extra damage. This could lead to a dreamy and devastating combo.
Marked for the Kill on a clump of clustered heroes ->
Inner Beast, the reason for this will be explained later ->
Gilnean Cocktail -> Reactivate
Marked for the Kill to jump into the fray ->
Razor Swipe to destroy what remains. This is a very fun combo... IF it works. But that is a big if and it has to be set up correctly and you can't get stunned or disabled... It's a very fun and cool idea and it can be ABSOLUTELY devastating, but it's a little too gimicky for me to rely on.
On the Prowl - In my opinion thi is hands down the best talent in this tier for this build. You should easily be able to maintain your
Inner Beast buff for more than 3 seconds and if you do, you get an insane 30% movement speed buff. This will allow you to chase down just about anyone or it might actually be enough to keep you at a distance from your pursuers.
To make best use of this talent when chasing or running away you have to be good at "Orb Walking". Which is basically to move between shots. It originally comes from DotA and it means that you shoot and move, shot and move, but a little more advanced, you want to move as soon as your shot has fired instead of waiting for the animation to finish. Heroes of the storm is a little more sluggish in this regard than fx. DotA and LoL, but it can still be done and will improve your chasing capabilities greatly!
Concentrated Blast - Simply a massive damage boost to your
Gilnean Cocktail when you have the
Inner Beast buff running, which should be most of the time.
Executioner can be picked, but i would only ever do it if my team line up had slows and stuns for days. The safer pick is
Concentrated Blast as it allows you to do huge damage at a long distance, this can also be used for snipes where as
Executioner only applies to basic attacks.
Hunter's Blunderbuss - Adding to the already insane AoE you have from
Gilnean Cocktail the
Hunter's Blunderbuss also causes your basic attacks to splash for 100% damage to enemies behind your target. This can really wreak havoc on an enemy team if you position yourself correctly in the fight. This is a really strong talent on small maps where you end up in clustered fights a lot.
The other tempting talent is
Unleashed which could be picked, but only if you are use that you actually get to pull this stunt off. It is the greatest feeling to jump from target to target, eviscerating them brutally before looking around for your next target... But that is the wet dream of this talent and far from something you'll see every match. This can easily end up as a wasted talent, so be careful about picking this.
Gilnean Roulette - This needs to be picked if you picked
Marked for the Kill otherwise i feel like your
Marked for the Kill is simply a waste, too weak without the upgrade, in this build at least.
Early game
In the early game you have a very easy time clearing your lane.
Gilnean Cocktail does a good job at taking down enemy creeps low enough that you can easily finish them off with a few pistol shots.
Inner Beast is usually easy to keep up in lane, meaning you have an almost constant 50% bonus to your Attack Speed.
Harassing the enemy is always a good thing! But be careful as you don't have any sort of sustain, so if you aren't in lane with a healer, try not to take too much damage just to get off a few shots on an enemy who then heals right back up. Pick your fights carefully and use your
Gilnean Cocktail wisely, never lob it straight at a hero, let it hit a creep first so maximize the damage to the heroes behind the creep.
Gilnean Cocktail is very good in the lane!
Mid game
Now people are starting to roam and gank even more than in early game, keep an eye on the map and don't get caught out of position, if you are... well then you're probably just dead.
Look to move around and help teammates get kills or clear camps. The combination of
Gilnean Cocktail and
Inner Beast gives you a lot of camp clearing power, you'd just prefer not to face tank them without a healer there.
As soon as you hit then, then be aware in team fights and help clean up low heroes with your ult. Don't over commit though, just because you can use your ult, doesn't mean that you should!
Late game
Now is the time to make the enemy team fear you! Let your team initiate and get the attention of the enemy forces. Then sneak up and lob an
Inner Beast boosted
Gilnean Cocktail at their front person and watch how it decimates the hp of everyone in range. On top of that you have your incredible attack speed to help you as well as the splash from your basic attacks. If the enemy clumps up against you.... Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
At this point it is all about positioning, don't get greedy and watch the movements of the enemy team. Work with your own team and support them at a range. Then once you have whittled down your enemies, then you can
Go for the Throat one or two heroes and start
Razor Swipe'ing the rest! Be careful though, you are squishy and once you jump in, you can easily be focused down!
This is my very first guide here on HeroesFire, so i do hope you like it! If you do feel free to leave a comment and you are of course more than welcome to ask questions or simply just add your opinion about the build!
I am planning on adding a Worgen focused build as well, so keep your eyes out for that as well! :)
You can find me on Twitter (
http://twitter.com/DiscreditGaming) or on Twitch (
http://twitch.tv/Discredit)
01/15/2016 - Initial version
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