Grimstroke

When to Pick Grimstroke?

Tips & common mistakes

• Stroke of Fate deals more damage the more units it passes through—heroes, creeps, everything. Stop firing it into empty space or at a single isolated hero and start thinking about ANGLES where the projectile passes through as many units as possible before hitting your primary target. The difference in damage between a one-unit Stroke of Fate and a five-unit Stroke of Fate is enormous, and most players never maximize it.
• The new alt-cast direction-based Stroke of Fate in patch 7.41 is a significant mechanical change, and most players are completely ignoring it. Practice the new angle—the projectile now travels forward from Grimstroke's RIGHT side based on his facing direction, which means you can fire it from unexpected positions around trees and corners that the enemy has absolutely no vision of. This turns a predictable linear projectile into a genuinely surprising attack that experienced players can use to land hits from angles the enemy never anticipated.
• Ink Swell is both an offensive silence tool AND a defensive save for your own teammates. People always use it offensively but forget that slapping it on a teammate getting dove—your carry being jumped by three heroes—silences every single one of those divers simultaneously and gives your carry five seconds to survive or escape. This is one of the most impactful plays a Grimstroke can make, and it happens far too rarely.
• Soulbind is not a guaranteed kill tool on its own — it requires your team to be ready to follow up immediately. The moment you land Soulbind on two heroes, every spell and ability your team casts on one of them is mirrored to the other. This means communicate BEFORE you cast it, make sure your carries and cores know the target, and have the burst ready to come out within the first two seconds of the bind going out.
• The new innate damage reduction from affected enemies is a passive defensive tool that rewards playing aggressively—the more enemies you have painted with your spells, the less damage they deal back to you simultaneously. Use this aggressively in lane to trade more confidently than your fragile appearance suggests, because with an affected enemy on the other end of Stroke of Fate, Grimstroke takes noticeably less punishment than he would without it.
• Dark Portrait creates an illusion of an enemy hero that deals their own abilities back at them. In patch 7.41a this was specifically fixed so these illusions now have 95% magic resistance, meaning they are much harder to kill than before. Stop treating them as disposable throwaway tools and start using them as sustained pressure units in fights—a dark portrait of the enemy carry that survives an extra five seconds in a teamfight is five more seconds of their own damage being used against them.
• You are extremely squishy and have reduced movement speed after the 7.41 nerf from 320 down to 315. This means positioning is everything — stay at maximum cast range at ALL times, always have an escape path planned, and never give the enemy a free kill by standing in an unwarded area thinking your ink abilities will save you before the stun lands.