Stitches Build Guide “ROAAAARR!”

Table of Contents

• ×Introduction
  • 1. Quick Reference
  • 2. Introduction
  • 3. Strengths
  • 4. Weaknesses
  • 5. Role in the Current Meta
  • 6. Contents
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Abilities
  • 1. Hook
  • 2. Slam
  • 3. Devour
  • 4. Putrid Bile
  • 5. Gorge
  • 6. Vile Gas (Trait)
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Talent Build
  • 1. Talent Build
  • 2. Common Talent Paths
  • 3. Level 1 Talents
    • 3.1. Descriptions
    • 3.2. Recommended
    • 3.3. Situational
  • 4. Level 4 Talents
    • 4.1. Descriptions
    • 4.2. Recommended
    • 4.3. Situational
    • 4.4. Not Recommended
  • 5. Level 7 Talents
    • 5.1. Descriptions
    • 5.2. Recommended
    • 5.3. Situational
  • 6. Level 10 Talents
    • 6.1. Descriptions
    • 6.2. Recommended
    • 6.3. Situational
  • 7. Level 13 Talents
    • 7.1. Descriptions
    • 7.2. Recommended
    • 7.3. Situational
  • 8. Level 16 Talents
    • 8.1. Descriptions
    • 8.2. Recommended
    • 8.3. Situational
    • 8.4. Not Recommended
  • 9. Level 20 Talents
    • 9.1. Descriptions
    • 9.2. Recommended
    • 9.3. Situational
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Strategy, Tips, and Tricks
  • 1. General Stitches Strategy
  • 2. When Not Team Fighting
  • 3. Team Fighting
  • 4. Summary of Tips and Tricks
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Synergies and Counters
  • 1. Heroes Stitches Works Well With
    • 1.1. Arthas
    • 1.2. Tyrande
    • 1.3. Uther
  • 2. Heroes Stitches Is Countered By
    • 2.1. Tracer
      • 2.1.1. How To Play Against Tracer
    • 2.2. Uther
      • 2.2.1. How To Play Against Uther
    • 2.3. Zeratul
      • 2.3.1. How To Play Against Zeratul
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Map-specific Advice
  • 1. Battlefield of Eternity
  • 2. Blackheart's Bay
  • 3. Braxis Holdout
  • 4. Cursed Hollow
  • 5. Dragon Shire
  • 6. Garden of Terror
  • 7. Infernal Shrines
  • 8. Sky Temple
  • 9. Tomb of the Spider Queen
  • 10. Towers of Doom
  • 11. Warhead Junction
  • 12. ChangeLog

General Information

Welcome to our Stitches guide for Heroes of the Storm. Here you will learn everything you need to know in order to play Stitches in a competitive environment, whether you play on your own or with a team.

Note that this guide is still in our older format and it will eventually be moved to the new format. More information here.

About the Author

Straften is a Grand Master ranked player in both Hero League and Team League. He has a passion for theorycrafting, and regularly tests new features early on the PTR. He explains his strategy, reasoning, and implementation in these guides.

1. Quick Reference

2. Introduction

Stitches is a low-mobility Tank, capable of pulling distant Heroes to him with Hook. Stitches has a lot of health and powerful self-heal with Devour. He works best with Heroes who can follow up Hook with strong crowd control, which will help to secure picks throughout the game.

3. Strengths

• Hook can pull an enemy Hero completely out of position, allowing you and your team to kill them
• Hook can pull allied Heroes out of danger, or into otherwise advantageous positions.
• Good sustained AoE damage
• Strong self-sustain with Devour
• Good disengage with Putrid Bile
• Gorge can isolate enemy Heroes
• Hungry for More talent allows Stitches to greatly increase his maximum Health

4. Weaknesses

• Lacks hard crowd control besides Gorge
• Lacks gap closers
• Lacks burst damage
• Relies on landing good Hooks in order to maximise his effectiveness

5. Role in the Current Meta

Team compositions that Stitches excels in usually play off of Hook, where Heroes with Stuns, Roots, and burst damage can instantly kill or crowd control a pulled enemy Hero. Uther, Jaina, and Kerrigan are all fantastic Heroes to pair with Stitches. Stitches is strong against vulnerable enemy Heroes who lack escape. Enemy teams with multiple Warriors or slippery Heroes like Tassadar and Tracer, (who can avoid the Hook altogether) can make playing Stitches very difficult.

Stitches is most effective when you use Hook to pull a vulnerable enemy backline Hero into the midst of your team, winning a team fight before it even occurs. Stitches should always be in a position to threaten a Hook on the enemy team, forcing respect for Hook's area of influence. Once a team fight breaks out, Putrid Bile can be used to Slow the enemy Heroes' advance or retreat. Vile Gas inflicts damage over time in an AoE around Stitches, which can add up to a significant amount over the course of a team fight. However, Stitches' lack of crowd control and gap closers can make him more vulnerable to focused attacks than other Tanks, as he cannot quickly reposition himself.

6. Contents

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 5 pages:

• Abilities: a quick overview of your hero's abilities;
• Talent Build: learn how to choose your talents;
• Strategy, Tips, and Tricks: master your hero and his abilities;
• Synergies and Counters: find out the heroes you are best suited to counter and those you should avoid fighting;
• Map-specific Advice: learn how to excel in each of the maps.

7. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 14 Jun. 2017: Updated TLDR builds for Malthael's patch.
• 12 Jul. 2016: Added mention of hooking allies in the list of strengths.
• 17 May 2016: Updates following Chromie's patch.
  • Updated Hungry for More's description in the Talents section. Talent recommendations remain unchanged.
• 25 Apr. 2016: Updates following author transfer.
  • Updated text in Introduction, Strengths, Weaknesses, and Role in the Current Meta.
• 07 Sep. 2015: Updates following Lt. Morales patch.
  • Updated text to reflect the buffs to Stitches.