Grinex - Hero Guide and Analysis

Grinex The Riftstalker

                -Hero Description

Grinex is an extremely mobile ganker with his skills, and can kill squishy heroes quite easily when paired with another stunner, just as long as you know how to use his stun. But his carrying potential shrinks in comparison to other ganker type carries, like Monkey King, Nomad, and the ever painful Silhouette.

 - Hero Growth

His stats are good early game, although his low 1.8 int gain is disappointing, considering that you have to spam your skills to be able to output decent damage. His agi growth is decent, which gives you a bit of damage, although it’s still low when compared to other carries/gankers out there.  His str growth is horrible, a meagre 1.8, but seeing as you’ll basically be jumping from the shadows every time you gank, it’ll do fine early to mid game, but once you go to the late game clash phases, you’ll be shrinking from the pain magic damage dealers will do to you.

- General Hero Analysis

Grinex is a bit underpowered, like Blitz was before he got buffed. Somehow, all he seems to offer is a ton of invis spells and a lot of movement speed. But, to put it simply, that won’t do in a MOBA, where if all you have is speed, the enemy might not bother trying to outrun you, and just try and get as bulky as they can. Since all you can do to buff up your damage is get a lot of items, you’re pretty much forced to farm for a long time, or kill enemy heroes 24/7, just to get decent damage output, since his spells do little damage on their own.

But, if you try and build him as painful as he can be, you’re going to end up with him being really soft. He doesn’t have much that builds up his bulk, unlike other carries which generally have skills or traits that make them harder to kill, like Pred’s Stone Hide or Arachna’s Harden Carapace.

TL;DR, Grinex is a hero with bad scaling, but can be a monster if your team manages to keep your opponent’s farm down, and you get good farm for most of the game.

-Skills Analysis

Q – Shadow Step

Type: Magic                                        Range: 450

Radius: 375                                        Cast Time: 0.5 Seconds

Cooldown: 14 Seconds                    Mana Cost: 125

-Click an enemy and drag the cursor in a direction to launch yourself with them 350 units in the chosen direction dealing 50 / 80 / 110 / 140 Magic Damage.

Slamming the target into a hero, cliff, tree or building, applies a 1.0 / 1.2 / 1.4 / 1.6 seconds stun and deals 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 Magic Damage to both enemies.

-This is Grinex’s one and only skillshot, which requires that you hit the enemy against something else to properly stun. This is quite underpowered, seeing as it’ll only deal a maximum of 260 magic damage.  The stun duration is also quite short, a meagre 1.6 seconds, which’ll ony allow for 1-2 hits.

W-Rift Stalk

Cooldown: 1 Second                      Mana Cost: 50

On Activation: Applies Rift Stalk to self for 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 seconds. Gains one charge every 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 seconds. Max of 2 charges.

Rift Stalk Effects

25% MS boost, stealth with a 1 second fade time.

-Basically a Genjuro with a fade time, and no slow, this skill gives an initiation tool, and an escape mechanism. But because of the fade time, if you use it as an initiation tool, you have to reach your  opponent in less than 9 seconds, otherwise you’ll be easily seen. It’s easy to use, and gives a lot of mobility to Grinex, but it desperately needs the fade time removed.

E-Nether Strike

Passive

Activation: Upon Spell Cast, applies Nether Strike to Grinex, giving him an additional 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 Physical damage for his next attack.

-This skill gives Grinex his much needed damage, although it lacks proper scaling, and is pretty low compared to other damage buffs out there. And due to the fact that it only activates upon spell cast, it requires repeated spamming of skills to output damage

R-Illusory Assault

Range: 1200

Cooldown: 50 / 40 / 30 Seconds

Mana Cost: 100
Target: All visible enemy heroes within radius

On Activation: Activate, sends out shadows of Grinex at nearby enemies for 4 / 5 / 6 seconds. Shadows deal 40 / 60 / 80 Physical Damage every 1 second and leave behind a shadow trail. You gain the effects of Illusory Assault while on the trail.

Illusory Assault effects: +12% Movement Speed

Skillset recommendation:

2-1-3-3-3-1-3-1-1-4-4-2-2-2-AB...AB

I recommend building your skills like this. The 3^rd is maxed early, as it is your main source of damage early game, one level of stun and the invis, as it doesn’t really scale that much with levels, kind of a one-point wonder, IMO. The ult is taken at levels 10 and 11, as it does minimal damage at level 1, and you don’t really need another invis early in the game. The level 1 and 2 skills can be interchanged, depending on the situation. If you’re ganking at level 1, get the stun, if not, go for the invis. AB is for attribute boost, in case this wasn’t known.

Also, on a sidenote, if you’re going for solo mid, get the ulti at level 6, but the general order should still be the same, max 3^rd, one point for stun and invis.

Item Builds:

Starting Items:

Hatchet for easy last hitting, RotB for the much needed regen, and iron buckler for an easier time against attacks, either from creeps or heroes.

Laning Items:

Boots is by preference, go ghosts for the damage, steams for the AS and stats.

Helm is taken if youre getting harassed a lot and you feel that it wont stop soon. Energizer is taken if you’re on the aggressive side, for an addition to your already fast MS.

Bottle is just for rune control if you’re mid.

Core Items:

Shieldbreaker if opponents are very squishy, and you know that you can burst them down quickly.

Frostburn if you need to get that snare Grinex doesn’t have, that much welcome MS, and a bit of damage.

Shrunken is core, it’ll allow you to stay in teamfights much longer, and hit to your heart’s delight.
Abyssal, take it first if you're getting killed in the lane too often, and need to jungle, otherwise get it after your chosen Attack Modifier.

Luxury Items:

Luxury, take your pick, it’s pick and mix for this part, you can get any of these items, they all benefit Grinex a lot.

Best Lane partners:  IMO, i find that he works well with any ranged support with a stun, or even an immobilize/hex, like Witch Slayer, Pollywog, Nymphora, Aluna. With the stun, you can hit and hit and hit without fear of them escaping. Nymphora works extremely well, as she can keep up your high mana usage everytime you try to get a kill.

Hero Rating: 7/10

Suggestions for him: stat growth buff or a buff for his skill sets.

Have any tips, criticisms, or suggestions you’d like to add? Feel free to comment, although keep the flaming to a minimum. Much Thanks. :)