Grimstroke vs Skywrath Mage

How this matchup plays

Trying to blow up one person with Skywrath Mage often backfires against a Grimstroke. The whole point of Skywrath is to dump all his single-target damage spells onto one hero, but Grimstroke’s Soulbind completely flips this script. Suddenly, that huge burst of magic damage is hitting a second target — sometimes even the Skywrath himself if he gets caught. Even outside of his ultimate, Grimstroke's Ink Swell provides a stun and damage that a fragile hero like Skywrath has trouble surviving if he gets too close to the fight.

The laning phase can still be tough, as Skywrath Mage has a lot of spammable harass that can wear Grimstroke down. Later on, Skywrath has to play with extreme caution. He can't unload on the first enemy he sees during a teamfight. He’s forced to wait for Soulbind to be used on someone else, for the leash to break, or try to silence Grimstroke before he can even cast it. This hesitation gives Grimstroke and his team a window to control the fight, making Skywrath’s primary job much harder to execute.