I have to say, this year’s International is the best! I don’t care if people whined about hats or some reward at a particular level or they did not get the rares or ultra rares. This has to be one of the best TI I’ve seen since I have started Dota 2. As you might have known, last night after the conclusion of lower bracket semifinals Valve out of nowhere announced two Dota 2 new heroes named Mars and Grimstroke.
Dota 2 New Heroes Grimstroke and Mars
Last night valve announced two heroes, one of them is Mars which I wrote about in two of my articles. Mars was just teased and it seems like he will be released in Winter. We do not know the exact date of his release and we have to wait. Valve accidentally leaked some information about Mars in previous updates and you can read more about him here.
Let us talk about Grimstroke now shall we?
Grimstroke, which is playable from now, is an Intelligence-primary hero who’s the last of his race, he uses his paintbrush and ink to slow and disable enemies — or help them escape a sticky situation. Here is what he looks like:
Lore
Here is the lore of him,
“Graceful, sophisticated, cunning and cruel, Grimstroke channels vile forces through the profane ink of his runebinding brush. Groomed from a young age to become a guardian of his people, Grimstroke’s path to power was instead built upon a sacrifice he was all too willing to make: the lives of his entire race. Consumed by the very magic that was meant to protect them, Grimstroke’s kindred now exist only as inky revenants, bound forever to his brush—their anguished screams and viscous forms apparent in the strokes of each dark mural he creates.”
The reason I was saying that Grimstroke has a Japanese vibe to him is due to his appearance. He has a mask on his face and carries a big ass brush with him. Which shows nothing but Japanese culture.
Abilities
According to the official Valve site, abilities of Grimstroke are as follows,
- Stroke of Fate — Grimstroke winds up and paints a path of ink with his brush, damaging and slowing enemies in its wake. The damage increases with each enemy the ink strikes.
- Phantom’s Embrace — Grimstroke commands a phantom to latch onto his enemy, damaging and silencing it. If the phantom survives the latch duration, it rends the victim for heavy damage and refreshes Phantom Embrace’s cooldown.
- Ink Swell — Grimstroke covers himself or an ally in ink, silencing the target while granting bonus speed and immunity to attacks. The ink damages nearby enemies over time before bursting, damaging and stunning in the area based on how much harm it caused along the way.
- Soulbind (Ultimate) — Grimstroke binds an enemy hero to its nearest allied hero in range, preventing each from moving away from the other. Unit-targeted spells that hit either hero affect both. If the bind is broken before it expires, the initial target will again be bound to its nearest allied hero in range.
Out of all abilities his ultimate is the most interesting one. Any Unit-targeted spells that hit either hero affect both. Which is pretty much scary and game-changing in my opinion. He has two disables and a slow, so it’s likely you’ll be dealing with him as a ganker.
You can watch the official teaser trailer down below
So, what do you guys think about Grimstroke since we know very little about Mars, I think Grimstroke is pretty much OP after reading his abilities so I suggest you, stay away from ranked matches. Let me know down in the comments about Dota 2 new heroes announcement.