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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
Solid waveclear- Powerful high-range pull effect
- High maximum Health
- Good self-sustain
- Decent damage
Weaknesses
Low crowd control- Lack of mobility
- Weak peeling
Stitches's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Gorge Build
Recommended
Stitches's Gorge Build revolves around Hook
followed by 
Gorge to pull enemy Heroes
completely out of position, ready for your team to kill them.
The additional Movement Speed provided by 
Hungry for More
at Level 1 helps you run faster without having to use 
Shambling Horror
just for the extra Movement Speed, unless you need to remove a Slow from yourself.
This way you can usually keep it for another moment.
Putrid Bile Build
Advanced
Stitches's Putrid Bile Build, other than using Hook
to pull enemy Heroes from ranged distance,
can also use 
Putrid Bile to Slow
and damage them from melee distance.
The extra Armor and healing from 
Patchwork Creation
at Level 1 is great for suriving longer while creating space for your team.
Use Vile Cleaver at Level 4 to easily debuff
multiple enemies and get more Armor as a consequence, then activate
Shambling Horror to double it when needed.
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 an Offlaner 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 knock the rest of the enemy team away
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-based 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.
Shambling Horror increases your Movement Speed, in addition to making it impossible to be reduced below that value.
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.
Stitches's 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
- 07 Jul. 2022 (this page): Builds updated.
- 07 Jul. 2022 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 26 Nov. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 26 Nov. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 26 Aug. 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 26 Aug. 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 26 Aug. 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 03 Aug. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 03 Aug. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 25 Jun. 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed and updated for the latest Balance Update.
- 22 May 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 22 May 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 17 May 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 17 May 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 17 May 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 22 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 22 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 13 Dec. 2020 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 13 Dec. 2020 (this page): Builds updated.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 (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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game. He also produces more teaching content on his Tips of the Storm page on Ko-fi.
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