This week Blizzard continued their trend of creating new and innovative Heroes that are unlike anything they have done so far. Greymane was highly anticipated coming into the Nexus as the first Hero with two different forms, Human and Worgen. In Human form, he is a ranged Assassin with decent poke used to whittle his opponents down before taking up the role of a melee Assassin in Worgen form, leaping in and finishing them off. His duality gives him a high skill cap for outplays while dodging in and out of combat as well as a lot of potential for ingenuity in his talent builds and play style. While this design is new for Heroes of the Storm, the idea is fairly similar to Nidalee in League of Legends, so players who are familiar with the Champion shouldn’t have a difficult time adjusting to Greymane.

As is standard for new Heroes, he saw a lot of usage during his inaugural week which perhaps skewed his win rate negatively, leaving it at a meager 40% on HOTS Logs. It appears he may be a bit undertuned like most of Blizzard’s recent Heroes, but one thing definitely stands out: he is a lot of fun to play. Let’s take a closer look at Greymane and see what he’s all about.

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Greymane is unique in that he has two sets of abilities and two distinct playstyles, either a Human-centric poke style or an in-your-face Worgen style, both of which have plenty of flexibility in talent choices. His Trait Curse of the Worgen is basically just an explanation that he can switch between forms; in Worgen form, he deals a whopping 40% more damage but puts himself in the middle of the fray while Human form offers more safety by allowing him to poke at a long range.

To switch between forms, Greymane can use Darkflight/Disengage. When someone is low, he activates Darkflight to pounce on his enemies as a Worgen and shred them to pieces. Conversely, when he finds himself in trouble as a Worgen, he can use Disengage to roll away to safety while transforming back into a Human. Be careful though! There is a 6 second cooldown between switching forms, so think twice before jumping in recklessly.

Aside from his obvious shapeshifting abilities, the other thing that pointedly sticks out when first playing Greymane is that he has a ghastly attack speed. However, this issue is solved by Inner Beast, which increases his attack speed by 50% and can be kept up indefinitely with auto attacks. Keeping the combo up can be a fun mini-game for players and is very important for making sure he deals the maximum amount of damage in fights, but if he loses it, he is vulnerable for a period of time until it comes back up again. Talents like Wolfheart and Viciousness at Level 1 can help him maintain the combo for longer periods of time.

Greymane’s Q functions in two different ways depending on which form he is in. In Human form, Gilnean Cocktail serves as a long range AoE poke and waveclear. Upgrades to the Cocktail like Incendiary Elixir and Concentrated Blast increase its utility as well as damage, making it popular for more poke-oriented builds. In Worgen form, he gains access to Razor Swipe, which he can use to deal additional damage to his enemies or reposition himself during a fight. Combining Disengage with the dash from Razor Swipe and talents like Running Wild or Unfettered Assault, he can put a lot of space between him and his opponent or likewise use it as a strong gap closer for the kill.

Out of his Heroics, Go for the Throat has emerged as the go-to talent because of its ease and accessibility. In addition, the resets can allow him to decimate the back line for an easy team wipe. Marked for the Kill can be used to pick off fleeing targets, but the bullet is slow and easy to dodge, making it rather underwhelming for a Heroic with a 60 second cooldown. However, in the right circumstances, it can actually do more damage than Go for the Throat, so it can still be considered viable. Due to some weird shapeshifting rules, the transformation between Worgen and human form through his Heroics are free but reset the cooldown of his E when used. This means that using Darkflight before leaping results in some free extra damage that can be exploited in 1v1 scenarios.

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Talents

Continuing their trend with Lunara, Blizzard has released yet another Hero with a fairly versatile talent tree. Because Greymane has two different forms, players can choose whether to build into more of a Worgen or Human playstyle, or even find a balanced approach that empowers both forms. The two most common builds right now are a Human poke build centered around upgrading Gilnean Cocktail and a Worgen build that relies on close-combat fighting and auto-attacks.

Perfect Aim, Draught Overflow, Incendiary Elixir, and Concentrated Blast all synergize together to make his Q a powerful poking tool in the late game. Combined with Quicksilver Bullets and On the Prowl, Greymane can be played as a ranged Assassin who can poke and kite like Valla. The Level 20 talent Hunter’s Blunderbuss also gives his Human form huge splash damage in a cone behind the initial target, giving him outstanding wave clear and big team fight damage.

The build that focuses more on Worgen form will take talents like Wizened Duelist and Visceral Attacks to dramatically increase the damage output in Worgen form coupled with more defensive talents like Thick Skin and Relentless Predator to keep Greymane going during his onslaught. Going for a middle-of-the-road build by talenting into Human range as well as some defensive Worgen traits can also be viable depending on the situation.

In the end, it’s up to the player to decide how they want to play Greymane, and there are plenty of viable talents to choose from along the way. Perhaps the only questionable talent choices are his Heroic upgrades at 20, Unleashed and Gilnean Roulette, which only help him win more. Otherwise, the sky’s the limit!

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Professional Opinions

On Kit, Design and Implementation:

On Professional Play and Meta Changes:

On Map and Composition Viability:

Final Thoughts:

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So what do you think about Greymane? Do you agree with what the pros have to say? Let us know!

We would like to thank SolidJake, Cooby, Snitch, Cris, and Equinox for taking the time to share their thoughts and insights on Greymane with us for this article!