Hello and welcome to this graymane guide, I am theSug1 and have been playing HOTS since beta and thought I would finally start writing up guides for the best MOBA on the market right now.

So lets talk about what Greymane can and cannot do first.

CAN:
1) Wave clear extremely well in human form
2) Output massive damage if his Inner Beast stacks continue to grow
3) Deal massive burst damage to enemy heroes who have 25-30% HP left
4) Poke and harass enemies IF an ally is also with you in lane
5) Clean up team fights with Go for the Throat racking up double and/or triple kills

CANNOT:
1) Lane by himself safely
2) Sustain his HP
3) Engage alone
4) Wander alone
5) Clear camps alone (**without knowingly losing a lot of HP**)
6) Start the team fight

This champ has an assassin role, yes. But that has a multitude of meanings and changes depending on the current position you might be in. So lets break down his basic kit and how to utilize it best. Graymane is a human that turns into a worgen based on USING SPECIFIC ABILITIES. Just to make sure we all know, you can't morph back and forth freely, you must commit to using mana and an ability to morph from human to worgen and back again. A nice trick however I found is that using the Z key, or mounting, turns you into a human immediately. So use that when necessary to help get your ranged attack back. So back to his kit as a human.

AS HUMAN
Q: Gilnean Cocktail
W: Inner Beast
E: Darkflight
R: Go for the Throat

Your basic attack is ranged. You should use this to harass and poke at champs all day long. Your range is not bad but not amazing either. Raymor still has better range so be careful of getting outpaced. The main bread and butter for Graymane is his W: Inner Beast ability. This will give you a 50% attack speed increase for a base of 3 seconds AND will reset the 3 second duration for every auto attack you land. What does that mean? Well if you constantly land ranged auto attacks, you will have a attack speed buff until you stop attacking. This makes Greymane a beast (no pun intended) if he goes unchecked. You are trading range and damage for more attacks in the same period of time as any other hero. And that is one powerful a ability to be considered. With that being said you should pretty much always take the Viciousness talent to help extend the duration of this ability for as long as possible.

The Gilnean Cocktail is wonderful for wave clearing as well as resetting the timer for Inner Beast. Do not rely on this for damage on heroes and do beware it has a very short range. Also if you throw it and miss a target, it will not explode unless you take a talent to fix that (however I don't recommend taking said talent). Honestly his Q ability is best suited for area control and scaring off enemies. If they are smart they shouldn't be too afraid of the ability, but its easy AOE damage at a moderately safe distance.

Darkflight is a rather tricky ability because it does two things. First of all it lunges you into the fray. Second it transforms you into worgen form. This ability is excellent when used properly and deadly (for you) when used by mistake. I do NOT recommend using this ability to wave clear minions or camps unless you have support from other team members or are very map aware and enemies are not close. Let's discuss what makes this ability good for Greymane. First of all when an enemy has low health you will want to pounce on them. DO NOT jump an enemy if you are alone and there is a second enemy nearby, getting a 1 for 1 is not a worthy trade. But if you can cleanly get the kill you pop W: Inner Beast, then throw Q: Gilnean Cocktail then finish the job with E: Darkflight followed by the worgen Q: Razor Swipe. At this point you either have a kill or your next 1/2 auto attacks will kill while Inner Beast is still active. Do not go into the fight is the enemy hero is at 50% please. Graymane is excellent at burst damage but terrible at chasing down heroes and is very squishy. if you can't get the kill with the above combo, I would just continue to poke with human ranged attacks until you can secure the kill.

One quick tip, I see a LOT of players start the fight with the Darkflight ability and get crushed because of CC, enemy return damage and a terrible lack of escape. Darkflight should really be used when you WILL get the kill and have enough space or team help to escape and setup for another pounce. Otherwise sit back and poke the enemy team with ranged attacks and the Inner Beast ability active.

Now that you have jumped into the fray (See what we did there :) you have access to a whole new ability tree for your melee champion. The Worgen side of things gives you a 40% damage boost to your auto attacks, which is good for an assassin. You are also in the most dangerous position for Graymane to be in, melee distance.... Let's take a look at abilities and how to use them to kill and then escape.

Q: Razor Swipe
W: Inner Beast
E: Disengage
R: Go for the Throat

This part of the build is very simple. Get in, get the kill, get out. The reason this part is so straightforward is because greymane cannot self sustain his HP in any way. His talents don't allow for any kind of self healing based on attacks, damage or abilities. So any damage you take in combat will remain until you get some kind of healing from a third party. Now you will see how Greymane becomes a tricky champion because reading the room and proper timing is essential to being a good player. Even when using the extra 40% damage boost for wave clearing and camps you still lose HP and you don't have much to spare in the first place.

When in worgen form, stay in this form as short as possible. Mount up and move away from dangerous locations and enemies ASAP. Do not rely on Disengage as a true escape. Its useful but many enemies can close the gap if you get caught out of place. The worgen is really there to close gaps and land kills. Once the job is done run away, don't engage and don't chase down enemies. There will be other builds that ignore what I'm saying here. But for a max range and attack speed ranged attack build, being in melee range is very dangerous.

The best strategy I have seen and used revolves around being in human form 90% of the game. Use your W: Inner Beast with the Viciousness talent to build stacks on stacks of extra attack speed. This really adds up when taking towers and keeps. Throw your Q: Gilnean Cocktail when your timer is about to run out to reset the stacks. DO NOT overextend for any reason, staying alive is more important than getting some extra damage or feeding a kill to the enemy team. Position yourself to soak lanes and poke enemy champs as the human. Honestly I find most of my kill and run schemes work with ganks and running a lane with another player. When the enemy is about 25-30% HP you are in the best place to rack a kill. HOWEVER before you do dive in, look around and see if enemies are close. If they are make sure you have the HP and team comp to dive in, GET THE KILL, and escape. Too many players dive in, get stunned and miss the kill and/or get killed themselves. This is not acceptable play for greymane. You deal a LOT of damage but at the sacrifice that you are really exposed when you finish enemies off. So you have to learn when is the right time to pounce and when to soak exp and let them go.

A strong combo that deals a good 20-35% damage if properly landed begins in human form. Activate W: Inner Beast, get an auto attack off, use Q: Gilnean Cocktail on a minion in front of the enemy, try to get one last auto attack off, jump on the enemy with E: Darkflight and immediately use Q: Razor Swipe to close the gap after the leap. Now one last auto attack should hit and you have dealt a LOT of damage and should either scare off the enemy or killed them.

Don't be afraid to back off a fight or even back to base for HP and mana. Graymane is not a sustain champion especially if you have no healer. A good team will realize your role and not force you to overextend because they have bad judgment or think you can just dive in and kill safely. Your role is to assassinate and escape with a kill without a death. So if your team blasts you for not killing when they think you should, ignore them. When played right you can easily have a 8-0 or 10-0 just by being smart and waiting for the enemy to be out of position. Greymane is a very patient champ with high reward if played smart.

I hope this guide helps you play better as Greymane. He is my new favorite assassin because he has everything you need when you need it. As long as you position yourself right and make smart plays, you will outpace many enemies and land kills safely. Greymane can burst down single targets VERY well. He isn't great at killing groups of champions without Go for the Throat because his damage comes from a single combo against a single target. So patience patience patience.

Do avoid champions with longer range than you and CC at all costs. You cannot escape anything. This is your greatest weakness and good players will wait for you to mess up so they can beat you up really good. Don't be afraid to switch lanes to give yourself an advantage. Greymane is all about capitalization on advantages and the best way to get them is to make them happen yourself. So good luck and good hunting.

-theSug1