Grimstroke stats, abilities and strategy [7.41a]
Disables enemies with a swipe of his brush
Skilled at manipulating battle from the outskirts, Grimstroke studies every movement and assesses each line, deciding when to emerge from inky darkness to disable his victims and bind them together with a swipe of his brush. He delights in unleashing phantom thralls to vex opponents, as he carefully considers how to dispatch multiple enemies with one fateful stroke.
Win Rate 51.9%
Pick Rate 4.1%
Attributes
582 +52.8/lvl
375 +45.6/lvl
21 +2.4/lvl
18 +1.9/lvl
25 +3.8/lvl
Stats
Damage:
47 - 51 + 3.8/level (171 - 175 at level 30)
Range:
600
Armor:
3.0 + 0.3/level (14.5 at level 30)
Movement:
290
Roles
Carry
Durable
Nuker
Pusher
Support
Escape
Disabler
Initiator
Facets
Abilities
ABILITY: Passive
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: Breakable
Grimstroke's attacks and spells cause affected enemy heroes to leave a trail of Ink behind them and deal less damage to Grimstroke for 4s.
Provides vision over affected heroes.
Grimstroke's illusions (including Dark Portrait) also have Ink Trail.
DAMAGE REDUCTION: 5%
Patch 7.41
- Now also applied when an enemy hero is affected by any of Grimstroke's abilities
- Now also applied by attacks from Grimstroke's illusions (including Dark Portrait)
- Grimstroke now takes 5% + 0.5% per level less damage from enemies affected by Ink Trail
Stroke of Fate
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Yes
Grimstroke paints a curved path of ink with his brush, damaging and slowing enemies. The damage is increased with each enemy the ink hits.
Can be put on alt-cast to have the path be straight.
BASE DAMAGE: 100 / 160 / 220 / 280
BONUS DMG PER HERO: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80
BONUS DMG PER ILLUSION/CREEP: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40
MOVEMENT SLOW: 50% / 60% / 70% / 80%
SLOW DURATION: 1.75
11 / 9 / 7 / 5
100 / 110 / 120 / 130
1400
LEVEL 25 TALENT: +70% Stroke of Fate Speed and Travel Range
LEVEL 20 TALENT: +80% Stroke of Fate Damage
Patch 7.41
- Can now be put on alt-cast to send the stroke straight
The corruptive force of Grimstroke's ink, drawn from the reservoir of his fallen people, consumes any enemy caught in its path.
Phantom's Embrace
AFFECTS: Unit
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
DEBUFF: Yes
Summons a phantom that moves quickly towards the target, latching to it when she arrives. Once latched, the phantom damages and silences. If she survives the full latch duration she rends her victim for heavy damage and refreshes Phantom's Embrace's cooldown. Hero attacks against the phantom count as 3 attacks each.
The phantom falls off if the target becomes invisible or spell immune.
The phantom will return if the target dies during the latch.
LATCH DURATION: 5
ATTACKS TO DESTROY: 6 / 6 / 9 / 9
PHANTOM DPS: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40
REND DAMAGE: 120 / 200 / 280 / 360
30 / 26 / 22 / 18
80 / 100 / 120 / 140
900
LEVEL 20 TALENT: +3 Hits to Kill Phantom
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +65 Phantom's Embrace DPS
Grimstroke holds no sorrow for the downfall of his people. Only for Yaovhi, she who was most dear to him, does he feel even a semblance of longing.
Ink Swell
AFFECTS: Unit
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: Allies Yes, Enemies No
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Yes
BUFF: Yes
Grimstroke shrouds an allied unit in ink, increasing its movement speed. Enemies in range of the allied unit are damaged with inky tendrils over time. After 3 seconds it applies damage and stun in an area around the unit in proportion to how long ink tendril was near any hero.
BUFF DURATION: 3
MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS: 20%
RADIUS: 375
MAX DAMAGE: 90 / 180 / 270 / 360
MAX STUN DURATION: 1.6 / 2 / 2.4 / 2.8
INK TENDRILS DPS: 30 / 45 / 60 / 75
MAX THRESHOLD DURATION: 2.5
27 / 24 / 21 / 18
120 / 130 / 140 / 150
650 / 700 / 750 / 800
Aghanim's Shard
Ink Swell dispels the allied unit when cast. Causes Ink Swell to deal 40% more damage and heal the target for 40% of the damage Ink Swell deals.
DISPEL TYPE: Basic Dispel
LEVEL 25 TALENT: +150 Ink Swell Radius
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +15% Ink Swell Movement Speed
LEVEL 10 TALENT: -4s Ink Swell Cooldown
Now that the rise of the ink tide no longer threatens to overwhelm Grimstroke, its tendrils of power are never far from his hand.
Soulbind
AFFECTS: Unit and area
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: Yes
PASSIVE: No
DEBUFF: Yes
Binds a targeted enemy hero to its nearest allied hero within the bind radius, preventing both from moving away from each other. Any unit-targeted ability that either bound hero receives also gets cast on the other hero. If the bind is broken before the duration expires, the initial target will be bound to its nearest allied hero in the radius.
If bound to another unit, affected units are leashed and prevented from blinking.
Provides vision of both leashed units.
DURATION: 6 / 7 / 8
BIND RADIUS: 600
70 / 65 / 60
150 / 200 / 250
700 / 800 / 900
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +25% Soulbind Spell Damage
The Ascended were chosen sons of Ashkavor, granted immense power by the bonds forged between their own souls and those they were charged with protecting. In the years that followed the ruination of his kin, Grimstroke discovered much more sinister applications for the binding rituals...
Dark Portrait
Scepter grants new ability
AFFECTS: Unit
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: Yes
PASSIVE: No
Creates an ink illusion of a target enemy hero. Illusion is debuff immune, has 95% magic resistance, and has bonus movement speed and attack damage.
ILLUSION DURATION: 25
ILLUSION OUTGOING DAMAGE: 125%
ILLUSION DAMAGE TAKEN: 275%
ILLUSION MOVESPEED BONUS: 30%
35
200
1200
No dark creation is beyond the skill of the master's hand.
Talents
+70% Stroke of Fate Speed and Travel Range
+ 0.0%
+150 Ink Swell Radius
+3 Hits to Kill Phantom
+ 0.0%
+80% Stroke of Fate Damage
+15% Ink Swell Movement Speed
+ 0.0%
+25% Soulbind Spell Damage
-4s Ink Swell Cooldown
+ 0.0%
+65 Phantom's Embrace DPS
Win Rate
Pick Rate
Strategy
Use Stroke of Fate to secure range creep last hits and hit opponents at the same time.
Communicate whenever you want to use Ink Swell on an ally so it doesn't go to waste.
Stroke of Faith can be used to stack an additional camp from distance.
Focus on using Soulbind on mobile heroes or heroes with 
Black King Bar.
Buy 
Aghanim's Shard later in the game to dispel off roots, silences, and slows from your cores with Ink Swell.
Aghanim's Scepter allows you to scale well into the late game by creating illusions of high damage right clickers on the enemy team.
Use portals to roam around the map and set up kills with your control spells.
With
Aghanim's Shard, you can hold Ink Swell and use it as a dispel tool to take off roots and silences from an allied hero, similar to Aphotic Shield of 
Abaddon.
Counter Strategy
Stroke of Fate does more damage the more units it hits. Play on the side of the creep wave.
Help remove Grimstroke's Phantom's Embrace from your team mates by attacking it.
The longer you were next to Ink Swelled unit, the longer you will be stunned.
Against Grimstroke's Soulbind, avoid staying close to your cores, especially the mobile ones.
Magic resistance and debuff immunity items are great against Grimstroke.