Heroes’ first shapeshifting hero is coming. We look at his kit, where his power lies, and how to utilize him best.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm introduced the backstory to the Alliance’s equivalent of the undead; the beastly worgen. As a human-werewolf hybrid, these characters were able to shapeshift at will. This race intrigued me both as a player and a lore fanatic. The awesome horror lore of werewolves with a Warcraft twist? Sign me up! (Too bad I play Horde…)
The leader of the worgen, Genn Greymane, has been announced as a hero. He will be joining the Nexus as another melee warrior. Now I can live my dream of being an awesome Worgen without feeling like I’m disobeying my people. I had a chance to sit down and play Greymane at Blizzcon, and was able to figure out his kit on a basic level. What does he do? Where does he excel?
Human Greymane:
Trait: Curse of the Worgen
While in Human form, Greymane’s attacks become ranged.
Q: Gilnean Cocktail
Straight-line skillshot nuke. Deals small damage to struck target, then splashes in a cone behind them for more damage.
W: Inner Beast
Increases Greymane’s attack speed. Basic attacks increase its duration. Cooldown does not start until effect ends.
E: Darkflight
Leaps to an enemy and transforms into Worgen form.
Worgen Greymane
Trait: Curse of the Worgen
While in Worgen form, Greymane’s attacks become melee but deal 40% extra damage.
Q: Razor Swipe
Performs a small dash, dealing damage to all enemies in the dash. Low cooldown.
W: Inner Beast
Same as Human form.
E: Disengage
Rolls in a line and transforms into Human form.
Heroic Abilities:
R1: Go for the Throat
Marks a target, making them Vulnerable, then leaps to them after a short delay as a Worgen.
R2: Marked for the Kill
Leaps at a target, dealing large damage. If this kills an enemy, you are able to cast it again for a brief period of time. This effect can happen multiple times.
The Goods and Bads of Greymane
Goods
- Huge flexibility in terms of role. Being in Human form allows you to dish out sustained damage behind a bruiser and poke in lane. Being in Worgen form allows you to chase down low enemy targets, and deal powerful burst damage.
- Mobility. Razor Swipe is on about a 4 second cooldown, while Darkflight/Disengage on are about 7-8 second cooldowns. This allows you to dart in and out of battle at lightning speed, and will be one of the biggest factors in picking Greymane.
- Inner Beast. This. Ability. Is. Nuts. It’s an attack speed steroid on a relatively low cooldown that can be extended with basic attacks. A talent at level one also increases the duration/the amount it is extended by on basic attacks. Good Greymane players will be able to keep this up all throughout a fight, and combined with his powerful flexibility with auto attacks, Inner Beast will increase a Greymane’s damage output significantly.
- Strong laning phase. Gilnean Cocktail is a surprisingly powerful poking tool. This wave clear and poke potential gives him an edge on a lot of heroes during laning.
Bads
- Heroics. These are kind of underwhelming. Marked for the Kill it is basically a glorified Hunter’s Mark. Take this with a grain of salt however - I did not actually play with the ability. It just doesn’t seem very powerful on paper. Go for the Throat SEEMS like a really great option - good damage and ability to be reset. Its issue, however, is its cooldown. This ability has a 120 second cooldown. I found it very hard to actually utilize in fight due to the fact that it often wasn’t available to use!
- Squishiness. battle.net claims that Greymane is a melee warrior. Not quite sure why this is. Not only is he able to be bursted down very quickly, but he has no options for self sustain.
Overall, Greymane seems like a very powerful hero. His mobility is top tier, and he has the damage to compliment it, able to match his teams need based on his different forms. I had a blast playing him, and while he is complicated, he seems like a very satisfying hero to master.
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