Grux is a melee Figther who uses his abilities to tear through his opponents. His versatility allows him to lock down enemies and terrorize the battlefield.
Focus on buying cards that increase your Power and your Health.
Grux excells at initiating fights and isolating targets.
To take the fight to the enemy, use Charge to charge in and close the gap.
Once in melee range a well timed Double Pain will cause a wide area of damage and make enemies bleed.
As enemies try to retreat, use Smash & Grab to pull them back and keep them from escaping.
Grux’s Ultimate, Warlord’s Challenge, features damage and speed buffs along with a powerful stun that interrupts most enemy abilities. A strong ganker, combo his ultimate with Charge or Smash & Grab to devastate an enemy team.
Grux Overview
Grux’s Strengths
- Effective jungler
- Quick lane cleaning
- Enemy escape prevention
- Enemy isolation
Grux’s Weaknesses
- Squishy in early game
- High skill cap
Grux’s Abilities Analysis
– Chop (Basic Attack)
Grux swings his hammer blades in a chopping melee attack. This attack may be altered to apply Bleed when Warlord’s Challenge is active.
- Base damage is 58 and increases by 1 each Hero level up to 74.4 at level 15.
- Attack speed increases with Hero level.
- Ability Card scaling factor is 70%.
– Double Pain (Alternate Ability)
Melee cleave attack dealing Ability Damage and applying Bleed to all enemies. Bleed drains 1% of target’s over 5 seconds.
- Base damage is 60 and increases by 20 each ability level up to 120 at level 4.
- Cooldown and cost are the same at all ability levels. 5 seconds and 25 Mana respectively.
- Ability Card scaling factor is 70%.
– Smash & Grab (Primary Ability)
Wedge-shaped AOE that pulls all enemy units to Grux and deals Ability Damage. Enemies will be stunned for the duration of the pull.
- Base damage is 75 and increases by 45 each ability level up to 210 at level 4.
- Base cost is 70 Mana and increases by 5 each ability level up to 85 Mana at level 4.
- Cooldown is 14 seconds at all ability levels.
- Ability Card scaling factor is 40%.
Main Grux’s CC ability. Note that it has some channeling time preceded by a roar sound so that it can be kited. Very effective for the following:
- Cleaning up minion waves since it smashes an entire squad of lane minions into one place so that it’s easier to clean them up with Double Pain and Chop due to their AOE part
- Pulling in enemies into an allied tower’s range.
- Preventing an enemy from escape
- Interrupting channeling abilities (e.g. G.T.F.O or Black Hole)
Note that Smash & Grab does not pull in Jungle minions, so you won’t be able to let’s say steal a buff with this ability.
Jumping out of Smash & Grab range never works. If you are playing against Grux and trying to jump out of his Smash & Grab “cone” then you will be pulled in if:
- you were still in the air when channeling ended even if you are not above that cone
- your last step was inside the cone.
Smash & Grab can work even over a cliff and will pull you an enemy from a side lane right into the Jungle.
Keep in mind though that it can pull your enemies both up and down. Like this:
Another interesting thing about Smash & Grab is that it can pull an enemy out of an allied Dekker’s Containment Fence. Normally this it not something you either want or expect so… be warned. See how it actually looks like:
– Sharge (Secondary Ability)
Grux charges forward 1200 units dealing Ability Damage to all enemies in his path.
- Base damage is 40 and increases by 40 each ability level up to 160 at level 4.
- Base cooldown is 16 seconds and decreases by 2 each ability level down to 10 seconds at level 4.
- Cost is 40 Mana at all ability levels.
- Ability Card scaling factor is 25%.
Can be used for diving in but what is more important it can be obviously used for pulling back from a fight. Note that is has a slight charging time when Grux is standing still and can be interrupted.
– Warlord’s Challenge (Ultimate Ability)
Grux clangs his hammers together with such force that it briefly stuns all nearby enemies. While the hammers are ringing Grux’s Chops have increased damage and apply Bleed.
- Base damage bonus is 25% and increases by 25% each ability level up to 75% at level 4.
- Base cooldown is 90 seconds and decreases by 20 each ability level down to 50 seconds at level 3.
- Cost, Stun duration and Ultimate duration are constant at all ability levels. 40 Mana, 0.5 and 8 seconds respectively.
Another ability that applies Bleed along with Double Pain. This is the main tool to make your enemies melt down. When using this ability make sure you will be able to stick you your target otherwise it is gong to be wasted.
Grux’s Deck Considerations
Playing Grux you need to balance Damage and Sustain. Grux needs damage to be dangerous enough for enemy carries and he needs to have enough sustain to fight some considerable amount of time.
Sustain is normally built from Armor, HP and Lifesteal that allows Grux fight longer if dealing damage but makes him weaker when he’s not able to stick to his target.
Early game Grux may use special junglers’ cards that increase damage to camp minions.
Core Cards for Grux
Cup of the Vampire
Since Grux applies bleed with his Double Pain 20% of additional Lifesteal is what he needs for sustain in a close combat.
Tainted Magick
With Warlord’s Challenge enabled activate this card to deal even more damage to your enemies.
Grux Build #1
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Starter Hand
Health Potion
Mana Potion
Strike Token
Early Build Order
+ Strike Token
+ 
Adamant Edge ← 
Lesser Health Lesser Health Lesser Health
‒ Strike Token
+ 
Rust-Breaker ← 
Minor Strike Minor Strike Minor Strike
‒ Strike Token
‒ Health Potion
+ Blink Charm
Final hand
Rust-Breaker ← 
Major Strike Major Strike 
Major Pierce
Amulet of the Veteran ← 
Greater Health Greater Health Greater Health
Brawler’s Ward ← 
Mana 
Cast 
Basic Mana
Meltdown ← Major Strike Major Strike Major Strike
Blink Charm
Rust-Breaker ← 
Strike Strike Strike
Grux Build #2 (Damage and One Armor)
This build focuses on pure damage. Due to small Penetration this build is more suited for focusing non-armored enemies and minions. Armor here is one-sided (against one type of damage) so you should decide what is the type of damage you are suffering the most from.
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Starter Hand
Health Potion 
Flashfire Piston
Early Pick
Flashfire Piston < Strike Strike Minor Strike
Mana Potion
Windcarver Blade < Strike Strike Strike
Mid Game
Tuned Barrier < 
Greater Barrier 
Barrier Greater Barrier
Windcarver Blade < Major Strike Major Strike Strike
sell Health Potion
Assassin’s Ward < Greater Drain Greater Drain
Rust-Breaker < Major Strike Major Strike Major Strike
Final hand
Flashfire Piston < Strike Strike Minor Strike
Windcarver Blade < Strike Strike Strike
Tuned Barrier < Greater Barrier Greater Barrier Greater Barrier
Windcarver Blade < Major Strike Major Strike Strike
Assassin’s Ward < Greater Drain Greater Drain
Rust-Breaker < Major Strike Major Strike Major Strike
Total:
- 280.3 Damage
- 32 Pen
- 28% Lifesteal
- +100 HP
- 39 Attack speed
- 264 of armor of one type
Grux Build #3 (Optimal DPS and Sustain)
This build focuses on optimal DPS by balanced values of Damage and attack speed. Assuming you are not missing your basic attacks). Additional HP and lifesteal should help in mitigating damage as well as quite significant protection from one type of damage (in this example it is Energy Damage).
Windcarver Blade < 
Major Kinetic Major Kinetic Major Strike
Assassin’s Ward < Minor Strike Minor Strike Minor Strike
Tuned Barrier < 
Minor Barrier Barrier Greater Barrier
Amulet of the Veteran < Major Strike Greater Health Greater Health
Thirstfang < Strike Major Strike Greater Drain
Windcarver Blade < Minor Strike Major Strike 
Kinetic
Total:
- 166.7 Damage
- 97.5 Attack speed
- +1000 HP
- 32% Lifesteal
- 16 Pen
- 198 of armor of one type
Gameplay with Grux
Early Game
Grux is very effective in cleaning jungle camps so most often you will want to start in the Jungle with Beastmaster’s Key or Stalker’s Key. Early ganks is also where Grux excels even alone. When possible run to an overextended enemy from the back and deal damage. Prevent him from escape with your Smash & Grab.
Mid Game
Keep cleaning the Jungle and optionally lanes that overextend to your part of the map (if no allies does that). In team-fights your main goal is being in the face of enemies team dealing damage to carries. In the perfect case you land your Smash & Grab and isolate one enemy Hero for an instant kill.
Late Game
Late in the game you most probably have Lifesteal and will be able to survive more damage while keeping damaging your opponents. All the above comments from the Mid Game section are relevant here.
Tips and Tricks with Grux
- Approach your enemy without using Stampede. You will need that in case of retreat or to keep sticking to your target.
- Use Smash & Grab from a hidden place. E.g. from the Jungle near any side lane (see above) or from a shadow pad.
- After a successfull Smash & Grab do body-blocking to prevent your target from running away.
Heroes Synergy
Grux and Dekker
You have got Caged
Any melee Hero can benefit from Dekker’s Containment Fence. Grux is not an exception here. When an enemy ranger has no way to escape you know what to do (and you might not even need to activate your ult).
Grux and Steel
Slam and Grab
As you know Smash & Grab can be possibly kited. But when preceded by Steel’s Shield Slam your enemies have no chance. Also this double stun (possibly followed by Steel’s Shockwave) will make enemies stay steel helpless and taking damage from your carries.
