heroes Stitches & Sylvanas Build Guide Updates

[Stan 5,240]

Build Guides Updated

We've updated both Sylvanas and Stitches build guides for the latest Heroes of the Storm content patch.

Click the links below to access the updated build guides, talent calc, and use the dedicated comment threads to share your thoughts and questions with the community!

• Stitches Build Guide
  • [Talent Calc // Comments]
• Sylvanas Build Guide
  • [Talent Calc // Comments]

Sylvanas & Stitches Gameplay Updates

As you probably know, Stitches and Sylvanas received reworks in the Heroes patch of December 11. A list of all changes that were deployed to live servers on that day can be found below.

Blizzard (Source)

Specialist

Sylvanas

Stats

• Health increased from 1425 to 1550
• Health Regen increased from 2.969 to 3.23
• Basic Attack damage reduced from 90 to 81

Abilities

• Withering Fire (Q)
  • Adjusted functionality:
    • Pressing Q once fires 5 Withering Fire arrows at the closest enemy
  • Mana cost increased from 0 to 25
  • Damage reduced from 48 to 39
  • Range increased from 6.25 to 8
  • Cooldown increased from 2 to 8 seconds
  • Cooldown now restores all charges
  • No longer gains charges on Minion kills
  • Nearby Heroes takedowns now refresh the cooldown of this ability
  • Fire rate reduced from .188 to .375 (50% slower)
  • Withering Fire cannot be cast while a previous cast of Withering Fire is still firing
• Shadow Dagger (W)
  • Adjusted functionality:
    • Shadow Dagger no longer spreads to nearby targets each time it does damage. 
    • Damage dealt by Sylvanas to the primary target of Shadow Dagger spreads its effect to all nearby enemies.
  • Mana cost decreased from 75 to 50
  • Duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
  • Damage reduced from 37 to 29
• Haunting Wave (E)
  • Banshee travel speed increased by ~6%
• Mind Control (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds
  • New functionality:
    • After a .25 second cast, launch a missile that impacts the first enemy Hero in its path.  Impacted Heroes are Silenced, Slowed by 30%, and forced to walk towards Sylvanas for 1.75 seconds.
• Black Arrows (Trait)
  • New functionality:
    • Activate to cause all Basic Attacks and Abilities to Stun Minions, Mercenaries, and Structures for 3 seconds over the next 10 seconds. 40 second cooldown
  • New Passive functionality – Banshee’s Curse:
    • Basic Attacks infect enemies with Banshee’s Curse for 3 seconds.  Sylvanas deals 25% bonus damage to enemies with 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Overflowing Quiver (Q)
    • Removed
  • Dreadful Wake (E)
    • Removed
  • Overwhelming Affliction (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Enemy Heroes with 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse are slowed by 15%.  Basic Attacks against Slowed enemy Heroes deal 1% of their maximum Health in damage
  • New Talent: Unfurling Shadows (W)
    • Quest: Each time Shadow Dagger deals damage to enemy Heroes with 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse, increase its damage by .5%
  • New Talent: Banshee’s Curse (Q)
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with Withering Fire increases Sylvanas’ Attack Speed and Ability Power by 5% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 5 times
  • Level 4
    • With the Wind (Q)
      • Removed
    • Mercenary Queen (Trait)
      • Moved from Level 1
      • Adjusted functionality:
        • Friendly non-Elite Mercenaries near Sylvanas deal 60% more damage.  Sylvanas Stuns and deals 30% additional damage to Mercenaries with 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse.
    • Possession (Active)
      • Moved from Level 7
      • Now requires 3 charges to be used on Catapults
    • Unstable Poison (W)
      • Moved from Level 7
      • Damage increased from 116 to 130
      • Now triggers on enemy minions who are afflicted by Banshee’s Curse, Black Arrows, or Shadow Dagger
      • Radius increased from 2 to 2.5
  • Level 7
    • Barbed Shot (Q)
      • New functionality:
        • Hitting the same enemy with 5 shots of Withering Fire causes the last shot to deal 350% bonus damage
    • Lost Soul (W)
      • Moved from Level 4
      • Adjusted functionality:
        • Reduce Shadow Dagger’s cooldown by 1.75 seconds each time Sylvanas uses a Basic Attack on an enemy Hero with 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse.
    • New Talent: Festering Wounds (E)
      • Haunting Wave deals 25% more damage and applies 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse. 
  • Level 13
    • Cold Embrace (W)
      • Moved from Level 16
      • Duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
      • Now also reduces the Armor of targets that Shadow Dagger spreads to by 10
    • Spell Shield (Active)
      • Removed
    • Remorseless (Trait)
      • Moved from Level 16
      • New functionality:
        • Increase Sylvanas’ Basic Attack range by 1.  Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes with 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse fire an untalented shot of Withering Fire.  This shot applies Banshee’s Curse.
    • Windrunner (E)
      • Adjusted functionality:
        • Teleporting with Haunting Wave resets the cooldown of Withering Fire.  Haunting Wave can be cast a second time for free within 5 seconds after teleporting
  • Level 16
    • Life Drain (W)
      • Moved from Level 13
      • New functionality:
        • Dealing damage to enemies with 3 stacks of Banshee’s Curse heals Sylvanas for 15% of the damage dealt.  Doubled against Heroes
    • Evasive Fire (Q)
      • Adjusted Functionality:
        • Hitting enemies with Withering Fire grants Sylvanas 6% bonus Movement Speed for 2 seconds, stacking up to 30%.  Basic Attacks refresh this duration.
    • Will of the Forsaken (Active)
      • Moved from Level 13
  • Level 20
    • Dark Lady's Call (R)
      • New functionality:
        • Reduce the cooldown of Mind Control by 30 seconds.  Heroes hit by Mind Control have their vision greatly reduced for 5 seconds. 
    • Withering Barrage (Q)
      • Moved from Level 4
      • New functionality:
        • Hitting an enemy Hero with Withering Fire decreases its cooldown by .75 seconds

Developer Comment: Hail your Warchief! We hope you enjoy our changes to Sylvanas as much as we have. Sylvanas now boasts impressive skirmishing power while retaining her unique ability to shut down enemy fortifications. In exchange for this power, she now has a fair amount of counter-play with her abilities, which should make her interactions with other heroes more interesting. We're also experimenting with putting a uniquely large portion of her power into talents, which we would love to hear your feedback on once you get a chance to try her out!

Warrior

Stitches

Abilities

• Hook (Q)
  • Range reduced from 12.5 to 11
• Slam (W)
  • Cast time increased from .25 to .313
  • Cooldown increased from 6 to 7 seconds
  • Range increased from 8 to 9.5
  • Mana cost increased from 30 to 35
  • Added functionality:
    • Now has an Inner area that deals 40% Bonus Damage and applies a 40% slow for 1.5 seconds
• Devour (E)
  • Ability Effects now occur at the start of the ability's cast, rather than at the end
• Vile Cleaver (Passive)
  • New Functionality:
    • Basic Attacks apply Vile Gas to nearby enemies, poisoning for 45 damage over 3 seconds. Re-applying Vile Gas increases its duration rather than resetting it, up to 10 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Chew Your Food (E)
    • Removed
  • Dampen Magic (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Heavy Slam (W)
    • Removed
  • Hungry for More (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Quest: Regen Globes grant 30 permanent Health
      • Every 15 Regen globes, Stitches gains 5% permanent Movement speed up to a maximum of 20%
  • Savor the Flavor (E)
  • Additional heal over time effect duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
  • Moved from level 7
    • New Functionality:
      • Casting Devour on a Hero restores an additional 10% of maximum Health and Mana over 5 seconds and permanently increases Stitches’ health regeneration by 1.
  • New Talent: Patchwork Creation (Passive)
    • Increase all healing received by 15%.
    • Nearby Minion and Hero kills Heal Stiches (Minions for 30, Heroes for 300)
      • Hero takedown heal amount reduced from 300 to 240
• Level 4
  • Amplified Healing (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Restorative Fumes (Trait)
    • Removed
  • Putrid Ground (W)
    • Removed
  • New Talent – Playtime! (W)
    • Heroes hit by Slam reduce the cooldowns of Stitches's other Basic Abilities by .5 seconds. This cooldown reduction is increased to 2 seconds for Heroes that are hit by Slam's inner impact area.
  • New Talent – Chop Chop (W)
    • Hitting a Hero with the inner area of Slam increases Stitches' Basic Attack Speed by 50% for 4 seconds.
  • New Talent: Serrated Edge (Q)
    • Hooking an enemy Hero deals 5% of their max life as damage and decreases Hook’s cooldown by 4 seconds.
      • Cooldown reduction decreased from 4 to 3 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Last Bite (E)
    • Removed
  • New Talent - Blight (Trait)
    • Vile Gas heals for 33% of the damage it deals. Activate to apply Vile Gas to all nearby enemies and reduce their healing taken by 20% for 5 seconds. 40 second CD
  • Cannibalize (Passive)
    • Moved from level 20
    • New functionality:
      • Heroes hit by Basic Attacks and Slam’s inner area heal Stitches for 2% of his maximum health.
        • Healing reduced from 2 to 1.75% of maximum health
  • Tenderizer (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Basic Attacks slow the target by 25% for 2.5 seconds. If the target is afflicted with Slam’s Slow, refresh its duration.
• Level 13
  • Flea Bag (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Mega Smash (W)
    • Removed
  • Indigestion (E)
    • Removed
  • New Talent – Lacerate (W)
    • Slam afflicts enemies with Vile Gas and reduces armor by 10 for 4 seconds.
  • New Talent – Digestive Juices (E)
    • Devouring an enemy Hero reduces their damage dealt by 40% for 4 seconds.
  • New Talent – Gas Flare (Passive)
    • Stitches deals 16 damage per second to enemies around you. This damage is increased by 150% for 4 seconds after successfully Hooking an enemy Hero
      • Damage per second reduced from 16 to 15
• Level 16
  • Pulverize (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Slam slows all enemies by 75% for 1 second.
        • Slow duration reduced from 1 to .75 seconds.
  • Shish Kabob (Q)
    • Removed
  • Toxic Gas (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Fishing Hook (Q)
    • Range bonus increased from 40 to 50%
  • New Talent - Meat Hook (Q)
    • Hooking an enemy Hero restores 16% of maximum health over 4 seconds. For 4 seconds, Basic Attacks against the Hooked Hero will refresh the duration of this healing effect.
• Level 20
  • New Talent – Second Helping (E)
    • Gain an additional charge of Devour. Devouring an enemy Hero reduces the cooldown of your Heroic ability by 5 seconds.
  • New Talent – Shambling Horror (Active)
    • Passive: Stitches is no longer affected by Slowing effects
    • Activate to gain 50 Armor for 4 seconds. 60 second CD.  

In addition to the patch, a balance update with more tuning went live this week with slight buffs for both Heroes to bring their win rate up a bit.

Blizzard (Source)

Specialist

Sylvanas

Stats

• Maximum Health increased from 1550 to 1650
• Health Regeneration increased from 3.23 to 3.44

Abilities

• Shadow Dagger (W)
  • Damage increased from 29 to 32

Developer Comment: We are still gathering and evaluating data on Sylvanas, but her win rate is looking a little low, so we are giving her some small preliminary buffs while people figure out how to play with her updated kit and talents.

Warrior

Stitches

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 3000 to 3060
• Health Regen increased from 6.25 to 6.38

Talents

• Level 4
  • Chop Chop (W)
    • Attack Speed slow duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
• Level 13
  • Digestive Juices (E)
    • Damage reduction bonus increased from 40 to 50%
    • Duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds

What do you think about the reworks so far? Let us know in the comments!

[Kaelos 74]

My finger is grateful for Sylvanas Q rework but her other stuff got nerfed hard :s

[ShadowerDerek 69]

Sylvanas talent description isn't out yet.