As I am writting this, news about Varian and Tychus getting gutted reach my ears, and so I'll assess the current meta just like those two heroes will not be first pick material. The day is 02/28/2017 and the current patch is Varian's nerf, afer Lucio release.

Greymane, received two buffs recently. The first is a defensive passive ability, meaning the 10% damage reduction while on Worgen form. The second one is a complete change to his least pick heroic, Cursed Bullet, making it a very good initiation tool in a rather short cooldown.

Suddenly those changes breathed some fresh air to Greymane, and people started picking him again for his raw damage potential that is combined with a decent poke and waveclear. I'll dare to say that right now, Greymane is a solid tier 2 pick in most cases, while he can be tier 1 given the right team and map.

Briefly, the advantages and disadvantages of the hero:

Pros
1) Amazing damage, both sustained and burst at will
2) Good PvE in worgen form
3) Decent waveclear
4) Too much pressure in 1v1
5) Fits MOST teams that require damage output
6) Amazing master skin (monocle, tall hat, gentleman's armor. 3rd tint ofc)

Cons
1) Squishy
2) VERY hard to learn
3) Offers no utility other than damage
4) NO self sustain

I have heard this statement so many times, and I need to clarify one thing. Greymane isn't anything particularly complex in terms of mechanics. He is however, hosting 2 abilities per basic key, and when you first play him you will need to get used on his kit (range for charge, range for disengage, kiting, using Q as a gap closer and gap creator etc.). However, that's old news for almost any assassin, since the difference between mediocre players and good players lies in the details of gameplay.

What makes Greymane particularly hard to learn is the place where you are training with him. Quick matches. Greymane, being an odd mix of ranged and melee hero, needs a proper team to function well. QM compositions are so bad most of the times that you are going to get paired with other 4 assassins, being unable to fulfill your role and getting frustrated by not being able to do what the hero needs to do.

Also, having a role of a pure damage dealer with a decent PvE potential, you can't really rely on Unranked Draft to test him, since you need to draft for a team and sometimes you need to fill other roles.

My suggestion to practice on Greymane is to arm yourself with patience, and if you can, get a friend who is willing to play a proper tank with you in a queue. This way you can at least ensure you have a frontline in teamfights, so that you can practice the poke and dive nature of the hero.

To be honest, I haven't used anything else since the latest buff, because I've found that the cocktail build is fitting in most of my games. The rest of the talents available to Greymane revolve around Inner beast, which is quite tough to always keep up for a long time. The cocktail build grants something without any requirements, so you feel like powering up, rather than needing to do something in order to achieve a bonus to your damage.

In addition, cocktail based builds, give you wave clear and decent poke, to complement with your amazing burst potential, that is already quite high. I will go through all the tiers, and discuss all choices and all potential choices.

Level 1: Perfect Aim

This is your form of lane control and mana economy. In general what you do in the first levels of play, is that you throw your cocktail to the wave hit as many minions as possible and then judge according to the situation in the lane. If you threaten the enemy by getting close (or if there is no enemy) dive as a Worgen and finish the wave with Razor swipe fast. If the lane is contested stay in human form and steadily soak by hitting your human AA. Repeat with Cocktail. The skill required here is to be able to hit both player and the wave with the shot and explosion. The increased ranged however will come in handy in the entire game.

Level 4: Draught Overflow

This is an investment for your level 7 choice. By getting the increased range and the increased explosion, you get a very good range on the main poke ability that can hit heroes behind the wave as well. Amazing for hitting multiple enemies and splashing the damage. Another potential pick in this tier is Eyes in the Dark, if you are getting focused a lot, but I think that once you get good with disengaging, you won't need it.


Level 7: Incendiary Elixir

There it is. An amazing quest talent, not resetting on deaths and with a relatively easy requirement. You need to hit heroes with the explosion of the cocktail (and not with the bottle). The idea is to hit a wave, and splash the explosion to heroes, in order to make your cocktail the ultimate poking tool in the game. A fully charged cocktail shot will destroy an entire enemy wave and deal lots of safe damage before initiation. It's worth taking over anything else in the tier


Level 10: Cursed Bullet

The new heroic of Genn Greymane, is here to stay. Its popularity rises over the overplayed Go For the Throat, because as you may have identified up to now, the whole concept of the build is to buff Greymanes weak form, the human one. Unlike "Go for the Throat", Cursed bullet is an initiation tool. NOTE, that unlike most similar abilities, this reads 'current health' rather than 'maximum health'. So...it will never actually kill anyone, but it will hit healthy opponents for a 35% of their hp bar. Being the complete opposite of the other heroic, Cursed Bullet is a skill shot that is best used on big people or in general healthy people BEFORE they get focused.

The dream situation is landing your Bullet, then hitting Q and charge for the kill. Or even soften up this big Muradin by negating ALL of the avatar's advantage. Use it as an initiation, and don't be too hesitant to throw it, due to its low cooldown.

Go for the throat, should only be picked if and only if, you are facing a very weak frontline and a very strong backline.

Level 13: Running Wild

Now that the cocktail buffs are over, we need to actually invest on our other gameplay characteristics. This tier contains 2 choices in my opinion. Running Wild and On the Prowl. I usually pick the first, because the dive and disengage increase is REALLY noticeable, and you can make extremely good plays with it. On the Prowl, on the other hand provides a good speed boost (mount speed) while you keep the Inner beast active for 3 seconds, which isn't too hard to do. However, I noticed that the utility of buffing your main engage and disengage ability is far superior to the speed increase, in the majority of the cases.


Level 16: Executioner

In hero league and team league mode, I will assume that another member of your team will have access to stuns/roots/slows. The increase in the damage of Greymane is ridiculous. Hit something for 30% more damage even if you just poke in human form, or hitting hard with Worgen autos. Now, in the unlikely chance that you have no access to easy slows/stuns/roots OR you are facing a beefy frontline, then go Alpha Killer. If you are hitting a beefy target, Worgen form acts like a Tychus and shreds the target fast and hard.

Level 20: Hunter's Blunderbuss

Amazing poke potential and free damage for late game wave clearing and teamfight softening up. Hit the front target, get free damage to the backline. It's good value, and you should try it. The heroic upgrade may give some value if the enemy is stacked up, but in general, I found that I didn't find it VERY useful.

Before getting started, one thing that you should consider is learning how to kite and stutter step. It's the bread and butter of Greymane, and it really makes the difference. You need to position yourself in such a way as a human, that you can stay safe while poking the wave/team by stuttering, and at the same time being on your toes for a potential dive if your team helps for a gang (or if the enemy overextends). If you are not good at kiting, I'd suggest that you spend time in try mode, trying to kite Arthas or go circles around the test dummy without clipping your attack while moving in either human or Worgen form.

Once you get the basics of stutter stepping, you can start with Greymane. Keep in mind, that the peculiarity of this hero is that he is a mix of ranged poke machine and a diving finisher that needs to commit in the correct timing (or die trying). You are squishy, you bring too much damage to the table, so keep yourself safe and then dive for a kill, and avoid getting killed easily because you misjudged the situation at hand.

Here's a list of some gameplay tricks that will help you in your games!


1) Razor Swipe as a disengage

Razor swipe is a non targeted ability. This means that Greymane jumps towards the way he is facing regardless of enemies being present. This way, you can shift a bit avoiding skillshots or even running back from a gang towards you. To do that, you need to be in Worgen form, so if you see odd movement in your lane and people getting very aggressive, target a minion with E, and then Q back waiting for Darkflight to become available. Chain Q to E in order to cover a long distance away from danger.

2) Darkflight as a chasing tool

Jumping a long distance and swapping to human, doesn't always mean that you run backwards. You can use your E to keep hitting fleeing oppoenents with your cocktail and human autos. The damage is not Worgen proportions but it's very good damage and the range is quite high.


3) Razor Swipe as a bodyblock tool

Yes, while you jump with Q as a Worgen you defy the laws of physics like a boss and pass through mass. Use it to get to the back of your target and bodyblock him while you walk with him and attacking.

4) Maintaining Inner Beast bonus

This is the most important part of mastering Greymane. WHEN to use Inner beast. The answer is quite complex, since the cooldown of the ability is quite long and in order to keep it up and running you need to constantly hit stuff. Any stuff. Heros, structures, minions...you name it. A good idea is to never use Inner beast in lane duty when initially clearing waves, and keep it for potential bursts to overextended heroes. Also, your PvE potential is directly proportional to your inner beast duration. Are you mercing? Inner beast after you switch to worgen form and kill them faster. Are you DPSing the Immortal? Inner beast will hit like a track on stationary targets.

Now...on teamfights, you need to make the most of the ability WHEN IT MATTERS. If you are pushing with an objective and you sense that a teamfight will occur open Inner beast in human form and keep hitting stuff maintaining the bonus UP UNTIL you are ready to dive. This will make you hit some more times since you won't cast W while in worgen form.

5) The splash hits hard, don't forget

The explosion of the cocktail is hitting much harder than the bottle itself. In general you need the explosion to hit the targets, and you have to keep in mind that the range is so big that you can hit someone standing near his fort by hitting the front gate. Many times, people running away from an early gang, get to fountain and die from the explosion of the cocktail hit in the gate or tower. ALSO, the splash is quite big in an arc, so you can use it to reveal areas (and heroes of course) by hitting the angle correctly.

6) Cursed bullet turns you into a human...
...so if you are chasing as a worgen, hit R then E and Q

7) The dream initiation

Is R->Q->E->AA->Q->AA

Don't be hesitant to use it. If you are in a teamfight scenario, let your teammates know that you have the bullet available.


In general the best thing to do with Greymane is understand your role of a damage dealer and be there to execute the role safely and in a focused way. Learn your tools of engagement and disengagement.

As of February 2017, Greymane is a potent assassin pick that can fill in any team in need of damage (bursty or sustained), but he needs to be selected in a team with good control since he provides none. Greymane, has a good PvE potential, can clear waves quite fast and he is an amazing ganger if combined with any hero that can stun or slow.

In my experience, Greymane performs regardless of maps, while I've seen that he is quite good in BoE, Haunted Mines and Garden Terror that are maps with PvE objectives making good use of his static DPS (due to inner beast).

The idea behind Greymane is to soak safely, spend MOST time in Worgen form so you have two tools of disengagement available, 10% armor and increased damage. However at the same time, in the mid-game you need to chase the skirmishes in order to get the Incendiary Elixir quest done early, and then poke until you are ready to dive and kill.


Thanks for reading!!