Stroke of Fate
на точкуGrimstroke paints a curved path of ink with his brush, damaging and slowing enemies. The damage is increased with each enemy the ink hits. Can be put on alt-cast to have the path be straight.
Pros max it by level 7
← Heroes
Intelligence
Grimstroke
Grimstroke: Ranged, position 4 (soft support), position 5 (hard support), Nuker, Disabler, Escape. In patch 7.41f the hero has a 52.1% win rate in pubs and a 6.9% pick rate.
Skilled at manipulating battle from the outskirts, Grimstroke studies every movement and assesses each line, deciding when to emerge from inky darkness to disable his victims and bind them together with a swipe of his brush. He delights in unleashing phantom thralls to vex opponents, as he carefully considers how to dispatch multiple enemies with one fateful stroke.
Rangedposition 4 (soft support)position 5 (hard support)NukerDisablerEscape
52.1%Win rate · all pubs
6.9%picked in 1 of 14 games
52.2%Turbo · 82,335 games
Complexity: medium
Cheat sheet · patch 7.41f
How to play Grimstroke
Build and skills from 100 pro matches, STRATZ matchups and OpenDota norms
1What to build?
Start
Laning
7′
10′
12′
7′10′12′Core
12′
23′
28′
12′23′28′Core items in order: Arcane Boots (around minute 12), Glimmer Cape (around minute 23), Ghost Scepter (around minute 28).
Full build by minute →2How to skill?
Lv 1–4
Maxed by level
lv 7
lv 14
lv 15
lv 17
11+65 Phantom's Embrace DPS16+25% Soulbind Spell Damage18+80% Stroke of Fate Damage
Max Stroke of Fate, then Ink Swell, then Phantom's Embrace.
Abilities and talents →3Who counters the hero?
Toughest opponents: Visage, Bloodseeker and Meepo; easiest: Shadow Fiend, Pangolier and Tiny.
All 125 opponents →4How much to farm?
366average428good532great
Half of the players on this hero farm under 366 gold per minute; the top 5% get over 532.
5Common mistakes by role
Death without informationCaught aloneLate to fightsFewer than 20 reviews on this hero so far, so these are guides for the support role.
Compare your Grimstroke match with this cheat sheet
The coach shows on the map where you fell behind the pros on items and where you died.
Review my matchMistake guides for the support role
- Death without informationKilled by enemies nobody could see, with no wards nearby.
- Caught aloneThe fight started on you while no ally was nearby.
- Late to fightsJoined a fight more than 10 seconds after it started, and it cost the team.
- Saw the threat and stayedThe enemies were visible in advance, but you stayed and died.
Picked by the hero's role. Once the hero has 20 reviews, its real common mistakes show up here.
AI coach
A review of your Grimstroke game
Sign in with Steam and pick a match: the coach reads the replay second by second and in a couple of minutes shows where the game slipped.
- Every death and fight becomes a moment on the map: the fog of war as you saw it, and what the enemy saw that second.
- Your pace against the Grimstroke benchmark: 366 GPM for an average player, 428 for a good one.
- Timings against pros: they have Arcane Boots by minute 12, and the coach shows where you lose time.
- Five-game homework the coach checks in your next review, plus a chat with the coach about the match.
Review my matchA month of subscription as a gift, no card and no auto-renewal.How a match review works
Pro build by minute
Minute is the median first purchase, percent is the share of matches with the item.
0′5′10′15′20′25′30′35′Starting
7′25%
10′75%
12′26%
12′92%23′29%28′26%
29′67%
30′23%
31′37%
31′40%
7′25%10′75%12′26%12′92%23′29%28′26%29′67%30′23%31′37%31′40%Skill build
16% of 93 pro matches
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11T
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16T
- 17
- 18T
- Lvl 11+65 Phantom's Embrace DPS
- Lvl 16+25% Soulbind Spell Damage
- Lvl 18+80% Stroke of Fate Damage
Phantom's Embrace
на цельSummons a phantom that moves quickly towards the target, latching to it when she arrives. Once latched, the phantom damages and silences. If she survives the full latch duration she rends her victim for heavy damage and refreshes Phantom's Embrace's cooldown. Hero attacks against the phantom count as 3 attacks each.
Pros max it by level 15
Ink Swell
на цельGrimstroke shrouds an allied unit in ink, increasing its movement speed. Enemies in range of the allied unit are damaged with inky tendrils over time. After 3 seconds it applies damage and stun in an area around the unit in proportion to how long ink tendril was near any hero.
Pros max it by level 14
Soulbind
на цель, по областиBinds a targeted enemy hero to its nearest allied hero within the bind radius, preventing both from moving away from each other. Any unit-targeted ability that either bound hero receives also gets cast on the other hero. If the bind is broken before the duration expires, the initial target will be bound to its nearest allied hero in the radius.
Pros max it by level 17
Ink Trail
пассивная · innateGrimstroke's attacks and spells cause affected enemy heroes to leave a trail of Ink behind them and deal less damage to Grimstroke for 4s.
Aghanim's ScepterGrants a new ability, Dark Portrait.
Aghanim's ShardUpgrades Ink Swell.
+150 Ink Swell Radius25+70% Stroke of Fate Speed and Travel Range
+80% Stroke of Fate Damage20+2 Attacks to Destroy Phantom
+25% Soulbind Spell Damage15+15% Ink Swell Movement Speed
+65 Phantom's Embrace DPS10-4s Ink Swell Cooldown
Matchups
Hero winrate against each opponent, circle size is the number of games
Hero win rate against the opponent, Divine+Immortal over the past week, STRATZ.
Who to pick against Grimstroke: counter picks →Benchmarks on the hero
Average beats half of the players on this hero, good beats 80%, great beats 95%.
Gold per minute
average 366good 428great 532
Experience per minute
average 541good 710great 892
Last hits per minute
average 1.5good 2.5great 5.1
Hero damage per minute
average 415good 542great 767
Win rate by rank
The curve is pub winrate, pick rate under each rank
Hero at a glance
Complexity: mediumIt does best in Ancient (52.7% wins) and wins 52.2% of Turbo games. Hero positions in pro matches: position 4 (soft support) in 59% of games and position 5 (hard support) in 34% of games. Pros usually build Arcane Boots, Glimmer Cape and Ghost Scepter by minute 28. It struggles most against Visage, Bloodseeker and Meepo and has the easiest time against Shadow Fiend, Pangolier and Tiny.