Greymane Build Guide “I am the alpha!”

Last updated on Apr 18, 2022 at 13:15 by Derenash 29 comments
General Information

Welcome to our guide for Greymane, a Ranged Assassin in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.

1.

Greymane's Overview

Greymane is a Ranged Assassin that thrives on aggression. With an unusual ability to transform into a melee Hero to temporarily reveal a different set of Abilities, Greymane offers unparalleled versatility in terms of damage-dealing. His lack of defensive Abilities and Talents and limited utility, however, may spell his downfall... in the hands of an unprepared player.

2.

Greymane's Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
  • +Outstanding on-demand burst damage
  • +Excellent PvE damage output
  • +Potent duelist
  • +Flexible pick that can work in almost all compositions
  • +Decent waveclear
X Weaknesses
  • -Offers zero utility beyond raw damage
  • -Low survivability albeit having a reasonably-sized Health pool
  • -Particularly weak when playing "from behind"
3.

Greymane's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Attack Build

Recommended
Level 1 Viciousness Icon Wolfheart Icon ?
Level 4 Eyes in the Dark Icon Thick Skin Icon ?
Level 7 Quicksilver Bullets Icon
Level 10 Cursed Bullet Icon Go for the Throat Icon ?
Level 13 On the Prowl Icon
Level 16 Executioner Icon Alpha Killer Icon ? Eager Wolf Icon ?
Level 20 Hunter's Blunderbuss Icon

Greymane's Basic Attack Build revolves around improving his Basic Attacks and thus sustained damage output. Although it provides less waveclear and burst damage than its counterpart, it provides Greymane with more consistent sustain damage.

Executioner Icon Executioner greatly increases Greymane's damage, and should be the pick in most games where you have any kind of crowd control. If you do not have many Abilities to trigger Executioner in your team, Alpha Killer Icon Alpha Killer is a great option for more power in teamfights, while Eager Wolf Icon Eager Wolf is better in the PvE.

Worgen Build

Situational
Level 1 Viciousness Icon Wolfheart Icon ?
Level 4 Thick Skin Icon Eyes in the Dark Icon ?
Level 7 Wizened Duelist Icon
Level 10 Go for the Throat Icon Cursed Bullet Icon ?
Level 13 Unfettered Assault Icon On the Prowl Icon ?
Level 16 Alpha Killer Icon
Level 20 Tooth and Claw Icon Unleashed Icon ?

Greymane's Worgen Build, as the name suggests, is totally focused on dealing high damage as a Worgen. This build may not have the reliability provided by Quicksilver Bullets Icon Quicksilver Bullets, but it has a much better kill potential and higher burst damage in melee form.

Considering this build has several Talents that require Greymane to play as Worgen in fights, it is much riskier to use. We do not recommend using this Build against Team Compositions with good single target damage and several crowd control tools to punish you. Otherwise, this build provides an excellent chase potential, dive capability, and a good way to dodge skillshots with Unfettered Assault Icon Unfettered Assault.

Cocktail Build

Situational
Level 1 Perfect Aim Icon
Level 4 Eyes in the Dark Icon Thick Skin Icon ?
Level 7 Incendiary Elixir Icon
Level 10 Go for the Throat Icon Cursed Bullet Icon ?
Level 13 On the Prowl Icon Running Wild Icon ?
Level 16 Executioner Icon Alpha Killer Icon ?
Level 20 Hunter's Blunderbuss Icon Unleashed Icon ?

Greymane's Cocktail Build focuses on dealing high damage to the opposing team's backline. Differently from Greymane's other builds, this one does not have a good early game, as it will only be useful after stacking Incendiary Elixir Icon Incendiary Elixir. However, once stacked, Greymane will start to deal massive damage in fights.

Gilnean Cocktail Icon Gilnean Cocktail requires an enemy in front of a Hero to actually damage them. For this reason, we only recommend this build on maps with several Minions or Monsters where fights happen, such as Infernal Shrines or Tomb of the Spider Queen.

4.

Greymane's Synergies and Counters

V Greymane synergizes with

Greymane's excellent damage output scales well with anything that might improve his Attacks or give him extra resistance during Worgen form. Otherwise, strong initiation and team fight presence goes a long way to opening windows of opportunity for him to pick off Heroes that are out of position. He also has a good synergy with Malthael, as Cursed Bullet Icon Cursed Bullet is excellent with Last Rites Icon Last Rites.

X Greymane is countered by

As an Assassin with a rather telegraphed play style, Greymane is very vulnerable to any form of targeted crowd control. Given that his Basic Attacks are his main source of damage, he is also greatly hindered by any form of debuff that might blind him or reduce his Attack speed.

5.

Greymane's Maps

Greymane's stronger maps
Battlefield of Eternity Dragon Shire Garden of Terror Sky Temple Tomb of the Spider Queen
Greymane's average maps
Alterac Pass Blackheart's Bay Braxis Holdout Cursed Hollow Hanamura Temple Infernal Shrines Towers of Doom Volskaya Foundry Warhead Junction
Greymane's weaker maps
None

Greymane's outstanding single-target DPS makes him particularly potent on Maps where there are multiple Mercenary Camps to be captured. Beyond this point, Greymane's relative relative well-roundedness does not make him particularly effective or weak anywhere, although his lack of self sustain might make him unsuited to offlane against some of the better duelists.

6.

Greymane's Tips and Tricks

  • Use Minions, Summons and Structures to trigger Gilnean Cocktail Icon Gilnean Cocktail's increased cone damage against Heroes.
  • Inner Beast Icon Inner Beast's duration can be increased by attacking anything — not just Heroes.
  • Razor Swipe Icon Razor Swipe is useful for quickly avoiding skillshots and area of effect Abilities.
  • A marker appears above Heroes that would die to Go for the Throat Icon Go for the Throat's damage.
  • Cursed Bullet Icon Cursed Bullet should not be used as a poke tool. It is extremely important to have it ready to follow up an engage on any character, as its damage is essential for the kill.
  • Darkflight Icon Darkflight's Cooldown runs while Greymane is in Worgen form. Cursed Bullet can be used during that form to become Human, allowing Greymane to instantly use Darkflight Icon Darkflight again.
  • Greymane gets 10 Armor during Worgen form. Use it to take less damage from unavoidable spells, like Pyroblast Icon Pyroblast.
  • If you are not in Melee range from your target, Go for the Throat Icon Go for the Throat can be used to give you 1-4 frames of unstoppable, removing blinds affecting you.
  • During a blind, you cannot refresh Inner Beast Icon Inner Beast's duration through Basic Attacks. At that moment, you should use an Ability to not lose the Attack Speed buff (assuming you picked Viciousness Icon Viciousness at Level 1).
7.

Greymane's Role in the Current Meta

Greymane's melee-ranged hybrid archetype allows him to benefit from both the safety of Ranged Assassin and the raw damage output of melee Assassins. While this allows him to perform well in any given situation, Greymane will never outperform "pure" ranged or melee damage dealers at their best. This flexibility also comes at the cost of utility — Greymane offers zero options for crowd control, and has absolutely no means of healing himself. These factors make him particularly reliant on teamplay to succeed.

In general, he tends to do well against team compositions that feature multiple ranged Heroes, and more particularly, "mage"-like Heroes, who tend to be weak against aggressive melee Heroes. If several reliable tools for crowd control are available to your opponents, it may be wise to look into another ranged Assassin to take up Greymane's spot, as he is not particularly strong when Worgen form can not be reliably or safely utilised.

8.

Changelog

  • 18 Apr. 2022 (abilities page): Updated Cursed Bullet's discussion.
  • 18 Apr. 2022 (this page): Tips section updated.
  • 15 Apr. 2022 (this page): Tips section updated.
  • 09 Feb. 2022 (talents page): Updated Talents and Builds after recent balance patch.
  • 09 Feb. 2022 (this page): Guide Updated after recent balance patch.
  • 17 Feb. 2021 (this page): Updated Attack Build.
  • 21 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Updated Talents and Builds.
  • 21 Oct. 2020 (abilities page): Updated Ability page.
  • 21 Oct. 2020 (this page): Guide update to ensure relevance in the current meta.
  • 24 Sep. 2020 (talents page): Talents and Builds updated to reflect current meta.
  • 24 Sep. 2020 (this page): Builds updated to reflect current meta.
  • 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in Current Meta section updated.
  • 19 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations updated.
  • 05 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Updated description for Gilnean Roulette.
  • 15 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
  • 30 Jun. 2018 (talents page): Updated Talents to account for the June 27 balance patch changes.
  • 07 Feb. 2018 (talents page): Updated Talents and Build to account for the Maiev's patch changes.
  • 14 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Updated Cocktail Party build.
  • 26 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Updated the amount of damage Cursed Bullet deals to 40%.
  • 26 Jun. 2017 (abilities page): Updated the amount of damage Cursed Bullet deals to 40%.
  • 19 Feb. 2017 (talents page): Added Cursed Bullet.
  • 19 Feb. 2017 (abilities page): Added Cursed Bullet.
  • 08 Jan. 2017 (this page): Guide updated and moved to the new format.
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