A warm hello to everyone reading this. This is my first time creating a guide, so bear with me for a moment if you will. Our newest hero! (Or he is, at the time that I'm writing this guide) Genn Greymane! Basically I'll go over my own thoughts and opinions on this character. Mind you, this is my personal view on him, and by no means do I imply that other builds, strategies, or thoughts on him are inferior. Greymane is a well balanced character, with multiple builds that work well for him. That being said, let me share my opinion on him.
Greymane is classified in the game as a ranged assassin. Of course, this classification only covers half of him. Greymane's biggest asset lies in his ability to switch from ranged to melee, and back. While in his human form, Greymane has access to ranged attacks, while his worgen form switches Greymane to melee, and allows him a higher auto attack damage. Both forms also have access to different basic abilities. This allows Greymane to be one of the more versatile heroes in the game. In tactics section of the guide, we'll go over the best ways to use these forms to our advantage.
Basic Gameplay:
Greymane's two forms allow him some incredible versatility. But you have to know when to use which form. Switching to worgen form too soon will more often than not get you killed straight off the bat. Most of your time will be spent in your human form. Try to hang around on the edges of a fight, slowly whittling down your opponent's HP. During this time you'll want to play like a Raynor. Use your range to poke at enemies, and try to catch as many opponents as you can in the blast radius of your Gilnean Cocktail.
Not every fight has to be ended with you going into worgen form. If you don't see an oppertunity to use it, simply don't. Wait for the right timing. If you see a squishy character drop down to one third of his health, that's when you'll want to go in. Greymane excels at finishing off weakened opponents. Just start off with your auto attacks, don't use your Q ability straight away, but wait until the opponent tries to move away. It's also a great tool to reposition yourself slightly, or to catch a few enemies in its area attack.
Make sure to use your Inner Beast ability properly. It's a great tool for dishing out more damage, but you should only start using it when you're certain you'll be able to get a few auto attacks in to keep the duration going. Chaining three attacks before having to move away leaves you with a pretty long cooldown on your Inner Beast. Keep in mind that with the Wolfheart ability, after 16 chained attacks your Inner Beast will be off cooldown as soon as the ability ends. With that in mind, as long as you get a good 10 to 14 auto attacks in, your inner beast was definitely worth using.
Escaping combat:
After a fight's gone wrong, escaping can sometimes be tricky with Greymane. Keep in mind that your human form has only one escape ability (Darkflight), and that you'll need an opponent to jump to in order to use it. Keep your eyes open for minion waves, as leaping towards one can save your life. If there are no minion waves around, it might be worth jumping in on your opponent just to switch to worgen form. With your Razor Swipe off cooldown every 3 seconds, you'll have a far better chance at escaping. And after 6 seconds, disengage will be available to you to put some distance in between you and your enemy.
Early laning:
Greymane makes a great lane bully due to his ability to keep Inner Beast up all the time. Just keep auto attacking the minions, and splash every new wave with a nice Gilnean Cocktail. Yet try not to spam this ability, since it can be quite mana heavy. Don't be afraid to switch to worgen form if your opponent's health begins to drain away. You'd be surprised how many heroes you can trade into like this. Do always keep in mind that Greymane is one of the few heroes with absolutely no self sustain such as First Aid or Vampiric Assault, making your healing fountain the only source of healing unless there's a friendly support hero around. Having to go all the way back to heal up will make you miss out on your lane's exp.
Play conservative, but don't be scared to engage:
Greymane does the most damage when he's auto attacking enemies in his worgen form. But don't be too quick to jump into the enemy when you're not certain who will come out on top. Once you've picked up Wizened Duelist at level 7, each death becomes extremely costly considering you will lose all of your stacks. Therefore trading your own death for a kill or two isn't always worth it. Bide your time, and don't be afraid to go in when you spot your chance. Just make sure it's the right time to act.
More to come
Wolfheart - This is my go to choice for the first talent tier. Inner beast is an amazing ability, that you will want to have active as often as you can. That being said, after each auto attack, you only have a 3 second time window to get in a new auto attack before the timer runs out. When this happens you are faced with a 16 seconds cooldown timer. Wolfheart's strenght lies in the fact that it allows you to use Inner Beast far more frequently, and as such you don't have to use it as sparingly as you normally would. Keep an eye on the attack combo displayed next to your character's portrait. Once you reach 16 attacks, Inner Beast will be off cooldown again immediately after it runs out.
Thick Skin - This is a very situational, but very handy talent. Check the enemy team's hero line up at the start of the match. If a decent amount of their damage comes from auto-attack heroes (Valla, Raynor, Butcher, etc) this talent will definitely afford you a few more seconds of sustain during a fight. If however the enemy team's main source of damage mostly exists out of ability damage heroes (Jaina, Kael'thas, Nazeebo, etc) you may want to look to another talent. Though this is usually my go to talent for this tier, it is entirely dependant on the enemy's team composition.
 ALTERNATIVES
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 Eyes in the Dark - Truth be told, this talent sounds a lot better than it actually is. While at first, this may seem like a great way to escape from sticky situations, you'll notice you won't be able to use it as often as you might think. A lot of the times when you want to escape a situation, you'll find yourself in human form rather than worgen form. To make use of this talent, you would then have to switch into worgen form, and then wait the 6 seconds for disengage to come off cooldown. By then, you will most likely be dead. It's an escape that only works when you've been in worgen form for 6 seconds or longer. Add to that the fact that you will mostly use worgen form to finish off enemies close to certain death, this talent suddenly appears a lot less viable. That being said, it can still save you in certain situations. Though I'd personally only consider this as a possible option, if the enemy team has no auto attack heroes, which would leave Thick Skin a useless alternative. |
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 Insatiable - Very situational. May come in handy when there's double stealth on the enemy team (Zeratul and Nova). Yet hitting both with one cocktail is highly unlikely. And dedicating a talent just to keep a single stealther visible seems like a waste. Having some extra vision on the enemy team during teamfights is always nice, but the talent just doesn't weigh up to the other options in this tier. |
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 Draught Overflow - Not a bad talent at all, and definitely my pick when the enemy team has too few auto attack heroes to make Thick Skin a viable choice. The increased range on Gilnean Cocktail means you'll be able to catch more of your opponents in the blast radius, and thus provide some significant damage spread across their team. Most players know that stacking on top of friendly teammates is a surefire way to die, so this talent allows you a better chance to catch their backline in the splash damage. Keep in mind that you should only pick this when you plan on going for the level 13 upgrade Concentrated blast. Otherwise, this talent isn't recommended. | |
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Wizened Duelist - This talent is a lot like Gathering Power... On steroids. The difference lies in that, rather than boosting ability power, Wizened Dualist boost your auto attack damage while in worgen form. Also different from Gathering Power is that you only need 10 kills before it reaches it's full potential, rather than 15. Though it makes playing Greymane aggressively a little risky, the reward from this talent is simply too high to pass up. Keep in mind that you don't have to secure the 10 kills yourself, just being near an enemy when he dies will grant you a Wizened Duelist stack. This talent is definitely recommended when there is a Murky on the enemy team, seeing how easy it is to gather stacks quickly due to his low health, and fast respawn time.
ALTERNATIVES
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 Quicksilver Bullets - Not a bad talent, and certainly handy when you're going for a poke like approach. It allows you to attack from a further distance while in human form, and thus offers you a little more safety in your gameplay. Yet while a 20% increase in range might sound like a lot, in reality you'll find the difference is quite small. While it's a nice and handy little talent, this tier hold a better option in my opinion. |
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 Incendiary Elixir - Though it may initially sound nice, this talent is a little excessive. The damage bonus only applies to the first character hit by your Gilnean Cocktail, so you would basically be spending an entire talent just to do a little more damage to a single target. Keep in mind that during a teamfight, the enemy team's beefy warrior will be the one on the frontline, making him your favourable target so that the Gilnean Cocktail's splash damage can hit the backline. The best part of this talent is that your Gilnean Cocktail will always explode, even if you miss it. But with some practice, you will rarely miss your skillshot in the first place, making it obselete. | |
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Go for the Throat - My favourite out of the two heroic abilities. Go for the Throat allows you to quickly finish off the remaining health of an enemy hero. During teamfights this comes in quite handy, preventing enemy support heroes from potentially saving a dying hero. Even better is the fact that you're able to recast it on a second opponent, provided you successfully used your heroic ability to kill the first one. This allows you to take one enemy out of the fight, while doing a significant amount of burst damage to a second one. Initially it may sound a bit tricky, but there's actually a really easy way to do this. Once an opponent is at low enough health to finish him off, a red icon will appear above the character's head. This is your cue to pop your heroic ability. Greymane's heroics have only a 60 seconds cooldown, so don't be afraid to use it when you see a window of oppertunity.
ALTERNATIVES
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 Marked for the Kill - Greymane's second heroic. Though certainly not a bad one, I personally feel it doesn't entirely fit my playstyle if Greymane. With some proper aiming it does allow you to jump on the enemy's backline, giving you the oppertunity to do some nice damage to a vulnerable enemy. This however leaves you quite open for the enemy team's revenge. Greymane's worgen form is something you would normally use when the enemy team is already weakened, yet Marked for the Kill encourages you to jump into worgen form prematurely and early in the fight. This often results in a situation where you're easily taken out. Which is not something we want when we've picked up Wizened Duelist at lvl 7. The heroic also has great chase potential, but a later talent will offer Greymane supreme mobility, making this aspect of the heroic ability obsolete. | |
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Visceral Attacks - This talent is a lot better than it initially sounds. It basically gives Greymane chase potential almost equal to Illidan. The cooldown of Razor Swipe is 3 seconds. So when chasing, the idea behind the talent is that you can Razor Swipe, auto attack once or twice, and almost immediately use Razor Swipe again. Allowing you to get a lot of damage done, while still sticking to your target. During fights, this also means you have access to Razor Swipe far more often, allowing you to reposition yourself more frequently, and giving you more oppertunity to dodge incoming skillshots if you see them coming.
ALTERNATIVES
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 Running Wild - While it might seem interesting on the surface, the range increases on Darkflight and Disengage are pretty redundant. You're able to get a little more distance in when leaping onto an enemy, or running away. But in the long haul, you'll get very little out of this talent since you give up the mobility that the other talents in this tier offer. |
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 On the Prowl - A very good talent, and certainly my second pick in the tier. However, though it may seem to offer more mobility than Visceral Attacks, this talent only really shines when you've gone with Viciousness at level 1. With a time window of only 3 seconds in between auto attacks, this requires some very precise stutter stepping. Though it definitely comes in handy during teamfights as well, when we've gone with Wolfheart as the first talent, On the Prowl just doesn't reach its full potential, as it's hard to keep going. |
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 Unfettered Assault - More or less Visceral Attack's counterpart. The extended range on Razor Swipe is nice, but the increased cooldown on it makes this a rather poor talent choice when there are far better options in the same tier. The talent would need a damage boost on Razor Swipe before it could ever compete with its alternatives. | |
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Concentrated Blast - My go to option for this tier, although it is a very close call next to Alpha Killer. Concentrated Blast severely increases the splash damage of your Gilnean Cocktail when combined with Inner Beast, giving you a chance at burst damage comparable to a Kael'thas's Living Bomb. The main reason to choose this talent over the others, is because it allows you to eat away a big chunk of the enemy team's health. Your worgen form should mainly be used to finish off weakened opponents. This talent helps a lot in that aspect. It allows you some higher damage output in human form, and helps you get your opponent's health down faster so you can switch to worgen form quicker. It brings a little more balance in your character, preventing you from having to go all out in worgen form, and thus potentially endangering your stacks of Wizened Duelist.
ALTERNATIVES
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 Relentless Predator - This option might seem tempting when facing a team that has a lot of crowd control abilities, but the truth of the matter is that if you get heavily crowd controlled on Greymane, it's already game over for that fight. Greymane has no self sustain and therefore gets taken down quite fast when crowd controlled. While this talent may allow you to get out of a sticky situation a little faster, it's far too high of a gamble when you consider the other great options at this level. |
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 Executioner - My opinion on this talent is rather divided, mainly because it demands you rely heavily on your team. In premade groups with a lot of coördination, and a decent amount of crowd control, this talent can make you shine in combat. The damage increase puts the alternative of Alpha Killer to shame. But before this is viable, you must be able to coördinate battles precisely with your team. In Quick Match with random groups, this talent just doesn't see enough oppertunity to make it a trustworthy pick. |
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 Alpha Killer - A great talent for more damage output. The percentage based health bonus on top of your auto attacks allow you to melt the thoughest of opponents. Its only downside? You don't always get to make use of it as often as you'd like. Engaging an enemy in worgen form will usually make you a priority target, therefore you should only be using it to finish off a team, or when you desperately need a sudden burst of damage. Note that this damage bonus is also only present in your worgen form, meaning that you'll get no use out of it while you're running around in human form, waiting for the enemy team to be weakened enough for you to jump in. Though as a talent option it's never a bad choice, Concentrated Blast just offers a little more versatility to your character. | |
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Tooth and Claw - While this is my favourite talent at this level, the choice here depends a lot on your playstyle. Tooth and Claw definitely adds some amazing damage to your worgen form, allowing you to hit multiple opponents at once. It has some good synergy with our level 13 talent Visceral Attacks. Being able to continuously cast Razor Swipe grants us the possibility to keep adjusting our positioning, ensuring we hit as many opponents as possible.
ALTERNATIVES
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 Unleashed - The upgraded version of our Go for the Throat heroic. I won't deny, taking out an entire enemy team by recasting our heroic ability over and over is incredibly satisfying. Unfortunately, you'll find very few oppertunities to actually use this. It's a good talent for finishing off a near death team, but frankly it pales compared to the other options at this level. |
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 Gilnean Roulette - Personally I'm not a fan of the Marked for the Kill, yet in certain situations it could still make for a decent heroic ability. Its level 20 upgrade however doesn't exactly shine. It has the potential to make the entire enemy team vulnerable, but unfortunately this requires all of our opponents to line up in front of us. With a good bit of luck, we'll be able to hit perhaps three targets with it. The possibility to leap to each marked target sounds nice perhaps, but the fact that they'll take little to no damage from this just doesn't make it an option capable of competing with the other talents. |
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 Hunter's Blunderbuss - The best alternative to Tooth and Claw. Honestly, your choice here depends entirely on your playstyle, and your current game. If you find yourself sticking to your human form more often, then Hunter's Blunderbuss is certainly a good boost for you. When your current game's situation doesn't allow you to get the most out of your worgen form, don't hesitate to opt for this talent instead. Yes the damage output will be lower than your worgen form, but remember that a dead worgen deals no damage at all. | |
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