Stukov Abilities and Strategy

• Use Bio-Kill Switch primarily to heal allies affected by Healing Pathogen.
• Cast Healing Pathogen onto Heroes who will spread it to as many allies as possible.
• Weighted Pustule is useful for harassment and light disengage. It can also secure kills on fleeing enemies.
• Channel Lurking Arm onto choke points, or use it to cancel channeled enemy Heroics.
• Massive Shove can be used to push enemies far away from team fights, or simply to Stun them against nearby terrain.
• Use Flailing Swipe to peel and disengage if a fight is not looking favourable for your team.

Bio-Kill Switch should be thought of as your primary healing tool first; it is usually going to be very inefficient to use the cooldown for dealing damage or applying slows. Bio-Kill Switch detonations instantly heal for more than twice the amount that Healing Pathogen can heal over time. Additionally, it delivers healing five times stronger than the damage of Weighted Pustule detonations.

Using Bio-Kill Switch will remove Healing Pathogen, and healing over time will cease. You want to wait to activate Bio-Kill Switch as long as possible to maximise healing. However, it is important to detonate Healing Pathogen right away if an ally will otherwise die. Due to its long cooldown, it can be best to hold Bio-Kill Switch when only minor healing is needed.

Healing Pathogen is Stukov's only healing Ability, although it can be greatly amplified with Bio-Kill Switch. Planning each use of Healing Pathogen is essential. Try to spread Healing Pathogen to all nearby allies who need healing, before detonating Healing Pathogen. It is best to cast Healing Pathogen onto the ally who most urgently needs healing. This allows you to activate Bio-Kill Switch on the priority target immediately if you need to, but also allows you to wait for it to spread when possible. Remember to use yourself as a vessel to spread Healing Pathogen, by moving near the priority target. After it spreads to you, you can move toward other allies to manually spread it to them.

Weighted Pustule deals a small amount of damage, but is primarily useful for the Slow debuff that it applies. When applied to multiple enemy Heroes during team fights, Weighted Pustule can help your team to disengage or secure kills. Weighted Pustule detonations should coincide with Healing Pathogen. While there are always exceptions, Weighted Pustule detonations will generally be much less impactful than those used for Healing Pathogen.

A good way to detonate Weighted Pustule is to cast it onto an enemy, immediately after casting Healing Pathogen onto your teammates. This way, you can detonate Healing Pathogen at an ideal time, and still get some bonus damage out of Weighted Pustule.

Lurking Arm is an extraordinarily powerful zoning Ability. This versatile Ability can be used to deny access to choke points, cancel enemy Heroes channeled Heroics, and even for waveclear. By channeling Lurking Arm onto choke points, enemy teams can be at a huge disadvantage while trying to contest these areas. Due to its low cooldown, casting this onto an enemy Hero who is channeling a Heroic Ability is another great way to use it. Lurking Arm is also Stukov's best Ability for waveclear, as a well placed cast can completely remove an enemy Minion wave.

Be aware that you are vulnerable while channeling Lurking Arm. Pay close attention to your surroundings, and cancel the channel if you need to reposition. Lurking Arm has a low cooldown, so you will be able to use it again shortly. Cancel Lurking Arm as soon as it is no longer useful in the current position; you can recast it somewhere else that much sooner.

Flailing Swipe is a great way to break up tightly grouped enemies, making it easier for your team to get a pick during team fights. It is also a powerful disengage tool when a fight is not looking favourable for your team.

Massive Shove is an amazing Heroic Ability that can remove an enemy from a team fight completely, in ideal situations. Even in closed in areas, it can displace and stun enemies out of threatening positions. While Massive Shove's channel time varies depending on the distance before collision, it will usually take the same amount of time to complete as Flailing Swipe. The primary difference to consider here, is that Massive Shove grants 50 Armor while being channeled. Combined with the very short cooldown, these features make it the Heroic to take in most games.