Greystone Build

This is a community-driven one-for-all Greystone build guide. You are welcome to update it if you see any aspect of his gameplay is missed. All updates are moderated.

Last updated on Jun-04: Crit build replaced with Tainted tank. Updated Deflect description. Updated gameplay guide and added synergy with Phase. Added "Maximum Utility" deck build

Table of Contents

1. TL;DR
2. Overview
   1. Strengths
   2. Weaknesses
3. Abilities Analysis
4. Deck Considerations
5. Deck Build #1 (Tainted Tank)
6. Deck Build #2 (Maximum Utility)
7. Gameplay
   1. Early Game
   2. Mid Game
   3. Late Game
   4. Tips and Tricks
8. Heroes Synergy
9. Greystone Updates

TL;DR on Greystone

Greystone is a melee fighter who never backs down from a challenge. An incredibly durable, skilled swordsman, Greystone takes the fight to his enemies and is capable of fighting even when his enemies can't.

Focus on buying cards that increase your Physical Damage and Attack Speed.

Greystone excels in combat. Make Way is a powerful ability that will deal damage in a vortex around you. Use this to engage enemies or to quickly clear minion waves.

"Assault the Gates" allows Greystone to take the fight to his enemies, leaping to target areas and dealing damage. This ability allows him to engage, disengage and even traverse terrain.

Deflect will allow you to take hits better, once in a few seconds Greystone will block 100% of incoming Basic Damage.

And finally your Ultimate is Reforged. This will cause Greystone to turn to stone just before he dies. After a short delay he will come back to life, crashing down on his enemies ready to fight once more. Use the fact that you can cheat death to your advantage.

In teamfights, dive enemy carries with "Assault the Gates" and force enemies to burn their resources. Even if they manage to bring you down, Reforged will allow you to keep fighting even when your enemies can't.

Lore of Greystone

Coming soon.

Greystone Overview

Greystone's Strengths

1. Early game tanky (thanks to Deflect)
2. Strong solo laner
3. With Assault the Gates has gap-closing or escape.

Greystone's Weaknesses

1. Has no CC abilities
2. Vulnerable to CC when his Ultimate is triggered

Greystone's Abilities Analysis

- Noble Strike (Basic Attack)

Greystone slashes with his blade, dealing Basic Damage.

• Base damage is 58 and increases by 1 each Hero level up to 72 at level 15.
• Attack speed slightly increases with Hero level.
• Ability Card scaling factor is 70%.

- Assault the Gates (Alternate Ability)

Greystone leaps as far as 1000 units to a target area, dealing Ability Damage in a small area when he lands.

• Base damage is 75 and increases by 45 each ability level up to 210 at level 4.
• Base cooldown is 18 seconds and decreases by 3 each ability level down to 9 at level 4.
• Ability Card scaling factor is 40%.

This ability can be used not only to engage the enemy but also to escape and traverse terrain.

Damage of this ability is nearly identical to Make Way of the same ability level. Due to relatively low damage Assault the Gates is commonly used only as a gap-closer or an escape tool. For the same reason it is OK to keep this ability at level 1 until all other abilities are maxed out.

Assault the Gates can be used in the middle of a jump to reach higher places or to juke an enemy.

And here is one more interesting case of using the ability:

- Make Way (Primary Ability)

Greystone summons a fiery whirlwind that deals Ability Damage in an area around him over a short period of time.

• Base damage is 100 and increases by 60 each ability level up to 280 at level 4.
• Base cooldown remains the same 12 seconds at all ability levels.
• Ability Card scaling factor is 75%.

During 5 seconds deals damage in 10 hits. Hitting Assault the Gates does not interrupt Make Way. As any AOE ability Make Way will destroy wards (if you have them visible) and Iggy & Scorch's Flame Turrets.

- Deflect (Secondary Ability)

[Passive]: Every cooldown, gain an effect that will deflect the next instance of incoming Basic Damage. The Cooldown is decreased with each level of this ability.

• Base cooldown is 9 seconds and decreases by 2 each ability level down to 3 seconds at level 4.

How it works. When Deflect is up you will hear a specific audio cue and Greystone's shield will start glowing. When a Basic Damage is deflected everyone around will hear another specific audio cue and see a corresponding animation. Since Greystone does not receive any damage from a deflected attack, no minions aggro is triggered to attack your opponent.

During early game Deflect will work as a protection against poke damage from your opponents on the lane.

Damage from other sources. Deflect will block any instance of incoming Basic Damage. That includes damage from Towers, Inhibitors and Core. It also includes damage from River minions. However Jungle camps or lane minions will never trigger Deflect.

- Reforged (Ultimate Ability)

Passive: When Greystone dies, he turns to stone. Enemies within 900 units get a 3.4 seconds Slow of between 125 and 550, depending on how close they are to Greystone. After 3 seconds, his spirit re-enters his body from above, giving him % of health. He then comes back to life, knocking up and dealing Ability Damage to all nearby enemies.

• Base HP returned is 50% and increases by 10% each ability level up to 70% at level 3.
• Base damage is 180 and increases by 80 each ability level up to 340 at level 3.
• Base cooldown is 180 seconds and decreases by 50 each ability level down to 80 seconds at level 3.

You will save all your buffs after coming back to life.

So to actually be killed Greystone has to be damaged down to 0 HP, get Reforged and then again get down to 0 HP while his Ult is on a cooldown. Only this way a kill will count, amber will be payed to enemy team and buffs will be dropped.

When Ultimate is ready it's visible to everyone on the battlefield - Greystone's dragon will glow with fire. When you play Greystone you'll additionally hear a sound (like dragon's roar) as soon as ult becomes ready.

Greystone's Deck Considerations

Coming soon

Core Cards for Greystone

Healer Token - A standard starting card for early sustain against poking damage.

Radiant Mantle - AoE damage around Greystone. Good for wave clear and chasing an enemy. Also an added to the damage you deal during a team-fight.

Tainted Magick - A very good combo with your Make Way

Ash of the Witch - Another card for sticking to your target very well combined with Make Way

Thermo-bond - A good counter to a CC-heavy compositions.

Greystone Deck Build #1 (Tainted Tank)

This deck will make Greystone hit 3K HP margin. Of course you will lack damage but there are some special cards to mitigate that.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
	✔			✔		✔		✔
		✔					✔			✔	✔
					✔				✔				✔
			✔									✔		✔	✔

Cards Used

Health Potion Healer Token Cast Token Madstone Gem Radiant Mantle Sage's Ward Tainted Magick Tempered Plate Tuned Barrier Adamant Edge Guardian's Ward

Explore this deck

Greystone Build #2 (Maximum Utility)

This deck for Greystone uses a lot of utility cards from the very early game. Along with pretty common Mantle and Tainted Magick it adds two more special cards.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
			✔	✔		✔				✔
		✔					✔	✔			✔
					✔				✔				✔
	✔											✔		✔	✔

Cards Used

Health Potion Healer Token Guardian's Ward Empyrean Mask Adamant Edge Tuned Barrier Tempered Plate Tainted Magick Radiant Mantle Thermo-bond Ash of the Witch

Explore this deck

Gameplay with Greystone

Early Game

Greystone is an Off-Laner. Until level 5 he soaks XP and makes sure the Tower is not down that easy. Since he's a melee hero landing last-hits will be not an easy task especially against a pair of ranged ADC + Support.

During the first wave Greystone can clean up one Jungle camp. And keep doing so in case his lane is not pushed towards his Tower. Though Greystone has Deflect and Assault the Gates he's not that tanky during the game opening so be very careful. It's better to stand back and soak XP passively than being forced to get back to base or even being "assisted" to do so immediately.

Mid Game

When you have your ultimate Reforged ready you may start diving your enemy in a lane or during teamfights. In case allies are diving a tower you are the one who should take damage from it. You are not Rampage of course but trading your ult to a tower is a good deal.

Though be careful since Reforged does not recover much HP and you still don't have it a lot so don't dive deep if as a result you'll get a focus fire of 2-3 enemies after being back to life.

If taking a fight try to always be near a ledge you can jump to with your Assault the Gates. It will greatly help to escape a team-fight and save your ultimate for some really important moment

Late Game

Pretty similar to the Mid Game though with more HP you'll have more moments to decide whether you should keep fighting till your ultimate is activated or still jump away with Assault the Gates. Focus enemy carries and keep moving around them when you manage to get close. Since Greystone does not have CC (except of his ultimate) you should do body-block and kiting. It is really hard for a ranger to hit Greystone dancing in front of their face.

Try to keep Assault the Gates for the middle or end of any teamfight for escape of gap-closing purposes. 

Tips and Tricks with Greystone

• Ledge juke

Heroes Synergy (Coming Soon)

Greystone and Phase

Reforged and Linked

Greystone is that guy who's in the middle of every fight (or at least should be). When his Reforged ultimate is triggered he's almost always the one to take focused fire. And Phase is exactly the Hero to help here. Her pull with Telekinetic Link can save the day and bring Greystone to safety when he did his job (or at least should have been).

Greystone Updates

40.0 (May-16 2017)

Stoic - has been reworked:

• Basic Armor bonus was removed
• Max Health bonus was removed
• Every 9 / 7 / 5 / 3 seconds Greystone will block 100% of the damage from the next Basic Damage instance that hits him.