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Stitches Build Guide “ROAAAARR!”
Welcome to our guide for Stitches, a Tank in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
Stitches's Overview
Stitches is a Tank whose signature move is 
Hook,
a unique Ability that can be used to pull enemy Heroes from the distance
and allow allied Heroes to follow up with
crowd control and burst damage.
Stitches's Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
High waveclear- Powerful displacement
- High maximum Health
- Good self-sustain
- Decent damage
Weaknesses
Low crowd control- Lack of mobility
- Weak peeling
Stitches's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Putrid Bile Build
Recommended
Stitches's Putrid Bile Build is designed to improve his peeling abilities, as well as his survivability and utility for the rest of the team.
In particular, 
Pulverize at Level 13 and 
Putrid Bile
provide a powerful Slow to mess up the plans of enemy Heroes
who want to play aggressively.
We recommend this Build against dive compositions
because you will not be able to get value from Hook against them
and because it provides a fair amount of peeling as well.
Gorge Build
Situational
Stitches's Gorge Build is designed to empower his engage at the cost of peeling tools.
In particular, Fishing Hook at Level 13 increases
Stitches's threat range and therefore enables better plays with 
Gorge.
Due to its lack of peeling and its reliance on Hook,
we recommend this Build against poke compositions
but not against dive compositions.
Stitches's Synergies and Counters
Stitches synergizes with
Stitches works well with Heroes who can quickly respond to any successful Hook
by locking the target enemy Hero in place with crowd control
(for example Malfurion with 
Entangling Roots)
and that have access to burst damage to get a kill
before the enemy team can react (such as Jaina).
To compensate his lack of peeling, Stitches likes to be in team with Heroes that have access to crowd control. We recommend a Solo Laner who can act as a secondary Tank during team fights (for example Blaze).
If your team has access to a disengage tool (such as
Mighty Gust), they can use it either to save you from danger
or to Knockback away the rest of the enemy team
right after you Hook someone.
Stitches is countered by
Because so much of Stitches's ability to impact a match is baked into Hook,
he can be challenged by frontline Heroes who are bad targets for it
as they may use Unstoppable on demand, put a Summon on the trajectory,
easily dodge the skillshot, or run away right after.
Heroes who can save the target right after they get caught are good counters as well.
Due to his high Health pool and lack of mobility,
Stitches is also susceptible to Percent Damage
(for example Leoric with 
Drain Hope
and 
Entomb).
Stitches's Maps
Stitches prefers Maps where Hook can easily be used
through impassable terrain and/or near choke points while teams tend to group.
This way your team gets the opportunity to quickly take down an enemy Hero
before their team is able to respond.
The high amount of waveclear he provides makes Stitches a good pick on 3-lane Maps where the metagame strategy is to rotate between two lanes (for example Volskaya Foundry).
Due to his lack of mobility to escape himself
and peeling to protect the rest of his team, Stitches
does not like Maps where the enemy team can easily gank him
or flank his team before he can even get a chance to
use Hook from the distance.
Stitches's Tips and Tricks
Hook can be used to interrupt any kind of channeling.
Helping Hand shares its cooldown with Hook, but it will be halved when hitting allied Heroes.
Slam is a great tool for dismounting enemy Heroes and for waveclearing.
Devour should not be used when Stitches has more than 80% of his maximum Health, else you will waste part of its effect, unless you want to use it to secure a kill.
Vile Cleaver damages enemies after receiving Basic Attacks; consistently attacking the same target re-applies its damage.
Putrid Bile helps you to engage, peel, or disengage.
Gorge can be used to bring enemy Heroes behind your Gates, resulting in easy kills with the help of your Structures shooting at them.
Role in the Current Meta
Stitches prefers to be played as main Tank
in a burst composition,
so in a team that can provide both crowd control
and burst damage right after his Hook.
Due to his one-dimensional design, Stitches should not be drafted too early in order to avoid that the enemy team will exploit his lack of crowd control by picking high-mobility Heroes.
Changelog
- 13 Dec. 2020 (this page): Builds updated.
- 13 Dec. 2020 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 24 Oct. 2020 (abilities page): Ability and Strategy fully revised to match new standards.
- Tips and Tricks modified to add important tips that were missing and to remove obvious ones that were not worth mentioning.
- Ability Descriptions modified to better explain how to use Abilities effectively.
- 24 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Talent Builds fully revised to match new standards.
- Talent Builds and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
- 24 Oct. 2020 (this page): Introduction fully revised to match new standards.
- Overview rewritten to better describe the Hero.
- Strengths and Weaknesses modified to give a better idea about the Hero when being played right.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Synergies and Counters modified to mention notable Heroes that were missing and to remove misleading Heroes that were listed.
- Maps modified to focus on the main aspects of the Hero when evaluating a Map.
- Tips and Tricks modified to list important tips that were missing before and to delete more obvious ones.
- 10 Sep. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities and Strategy page reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Jun. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Jun. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Jun. 2020 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 15 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
- 15 Apr. 2020 (this page): Introduction partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Role in the Current Meta modified to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
- 14 Feb. 2020 (talents page): Updated Stitches' talents and builds in accordance to the latest Balance Update.
- 16 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added the current Anomaly (Experience Globes) to the guide.
- 29 Jul. 2019 (abilities page): Reviewed the Abilities section.
- 29 Jul. 2019 (talents page): Updated Stitches' talents and builds.
- 12 Dec. 2018 (talents page): Completely overhauled Stitches' Talents and Builds in accordance with his latest re-work.
- 02 Oct. 2017 (this page): Moved Stitches' guide to the new format and updated it for Ana's patch.
More Tank Guides
Elitesparkle is a multiple times Master player in Europe who plays Heroes of the Storm since its release. He is an active member of the community — especially on Reddit — who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game.
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