What is the purpose of Greymane? Top
Greymane is an assassin; pure and simple. Like Kerrigan, Zeratul, or Thrall; your goal in life should be to wait for an opportunity to pick off a squishy target like
Li-Ming and tear them to shreds.
Greymane's two forms each require their own playstyle; in human form you poke, nothing more. Use your auto-attacks and cocktails to whittle down the enemy team's health while staying safe.
In worgen form, you kill. Dive in, slaughter your prey, and disengage out.
Pick Greymane in hero league if your enemy team has a significant backline threat that needs eliminating such as Li-Ming, Lt. Morales, Lunara, Rehgar, Sgt. Hammer, Tyrande or Valla. Heavy frontline will be dangerous for greymane; you are not a tank killer.
On that note, greymane's damage must be dealt to the right target. Unlike Raynor or Falstad, your specialty is not going to be firing off auto attacks at whoever's closest. This is acceptable in human form, but you need to be moving in to secure kills to really make use of Greymane's kit.
Talent Explanations - Level 1 Top
Wolfheart:
Adequate
Wolfheart will enable you to cast your W more frequently. Your W is your most important cooldown - aside from your ultimate - which attracts some players to this talent. Personally, I find it to be lackluster, as if your W falls off in a fight, you're already in a weak spot. However, it's not a poor choice if you find you prefer it.
Perfect Aim:
Strong
Perfect Aim is the go-to level 1 talent for Greymane; it makes him safer while poking and gives him some mana back. I find that at level 1, this talent is a great choice if you want to be more focused on poke damage. However, I prefer Viciousness personally. Choose freely based on preference.
Scented Tincture:
Weak
Seeing an enemy in stealth isn't very useful for greymane; he's squishy enough that if you're close enough to see the foe; you might be dead already. Do not take this talent.
Viciousness:
Strong
My personal favorite at level 1 for Greymane; Viciousness enhances your most important basic cooldown, letting you keep the 50% attack speed boost longer, and safer. Since you can use your cocktail to keep up Inner beast, you can more safely maximize your damage output. In addition, this is extremely useful at level 16, as it makes landing multiple concentrated blast cocktails a breeze. In general, I always go for Viciousness.
Level 4 Top
Thick Skin:
Adequate
Thick skin is an inferior block at a higher level. Sadly, Greymane's level 4 options are all fairly weak. This option does add some toughness into an otherwise easy to kill hero.
Eyes in the Dark:
Weak
Eyes in the dark is a poor choice of talent. You're almost always going to have some skillshot, auto attack, poison damage, etc. coming at you as you disengage, and so the stealth will be almost worthless. Once in a blue moon it saves you, but outside of those circumstances it's a very poor talent.
Insatiable:
Weak
The mana you get back from insatiable is very small, and in the late game you won't have many mana problems anyway. Fairly worthless, but better than eyes in the dark.
Draught Overflow:
Strong
Draught overflow is the talent of choice for most Greymane builds, and there's a reason for that. It extends your poke damage even further, and allows you to do significant damage to backline targets without risking your own neck. Combined with incendiary elixir, it lets you safely blast even a
Sgt. Hammer from range.
Level 7 Top
Quicksilver Bullets:
Adequate
A solid choice, though i find it strange that it isn't at level 4 where most 20% range increases reside, but regardless it's a fine addition to Greymane's kit.
Incendiary Elixir:
Strong
Almost a necessity for Greymane. if you want to be able to effectively poke with your Q, you NEED Incendiary Elixir.
Wizened Duelist:
Risky
Wizened Duelist is a win-more talent that is almost never worth picking up. Your dive mentality means you will be killed at times, and thus this talent will be worthless, leaving you weak. Especially when you can pick up Incendiary Elixir, this is not a talent worth taking.
Level 10: Heroic Abilities Top
Go For the Throat:
Strong
The ultimate of choice in every circumstance. Go for the Throat provides out of this world burst damage and dives you right in on your target.
A note: You do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT always need to get the reset with this ultimate. if it secures a kill, then it did its job. The reset is simply a bonus that's nice to have when it happens.
Marked for the Kill:
Weak
Sadly, marked for the Kill - while interesting and certainly useful - is a poor ultimate. It does a pitiful amount of damage and only adds the same value as
Tyrande's trait or even a talent that can be taken by
Jaina,
Nova, and
Xul. It has its uses, but needs a buff IMO.
Level 13 Top
Running Wild:
Adequate
Running wild is not a talent I have much experience with. it should help you engage more safely from a greater distance, and disengage to a more safe distance, but you lose out on a lot. i don't recommend it, but I'm sure you can have success if you choose to experiment.
Visceral Attacks:
Weak
Battle momentum for a single ability is usually not great, especially at level 13. It does enhance your damage, but Razor Swipe is intended to let you pursue, not kill.
On the Prowl:
Strong
On the Prowl is the most popular choice by far, and it is certainly powerful especially with viciousness. However, you still have to wait a whole 3 seconds to get a benefit. It doesn't help disengage a huge amount honestly, as you have to keep attacking to maintain the speed boost. I find it has too many flaws, but it's still a viable option.
Unfettered Assault:
Strong
Unfettered Assault is my pick of choice at level 13. It does everything On the prowl can do but immediately. The downside is it's only worth anything in worgen form. The real benefit is that if you Q when very close to your target - which you will be - you will be in a prime position to body-block your foe. This talent comes highly recommended.
Level 16 Top
Concentrated Blast:
Strong
Even after the nerf to cocktail damage, this talent still lets you do very high damage to a large majority of the enemy team while in human form. This also helps you finish off your foe if you need an extra burst of damage at the end of a chase.
Relentless Predator:
Weak
Even if your enemy has a huge amount of crowd control, this talent isn't worth it. Possibly worth a choice if it was at level 13, but when you have such a huge damage boost competing with it, this talent falls off very fast.
Executioner:
Weak*
executioner CAN work. It can, but it often doesn't. if your team has a large amount of consistent crowd control such as
Murky
Jaina
E.T.C. then it may be worth considering. however, you lose a lot of poke from concentrated blast.
Alpha Killer:
Adequate*
Choose only if the enemy team has a lot of frontline, or a cho'gall. This talent is much more All-in than concentrated blast though, so I recommend caution, especially as a new Greymane player.
Level 20: Storm Talents Top
Unleashed:
Risky
Unleashed is a win-more talent really. It CAN be useful if you find your enemy team is often at low health, but it's usually a waste of a level 20 talent.
Gilnean Roulette:
Weak
You shouldn't have taken Marked for the Kill. if you did, this is a pretty strong upgrade, but I have no experience with it whatsoever.
Hunter's Blunderbuss:
Strong
This is my preferred talent, as it is safer and lets you do considerable damage in an area while poking. Your time poking is generally the time the enemy team will be clumped up, so find it better than Tooth and Claw in most cases.
Tooth and Claw:
Strong
Tooth and Claw maximizes your area damage, but you'll rarely be hitting two enemy heroes with it unless you have VERY strong CC on your team such as ETC, Johanna, etc. I find it to be less consistent.
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