Stitches Abilities and Strategy

• 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.

Hook (Q) Stitches

• Mana: 75
• Cooldown: 16 seconds

Pull the first enemy hit towards Stitches and deal 91 (+4% per level) damage.

After reaching level 13, Hook's range is increased by 40%.

Hook is a Basic Ability that allows Stitches to briefly Stun and Displace towards him the first enemy hit from high distance. After reaching Level 13, you will automatically unlock extra range.

Use it to engage from range or to deny an enemy Hero their chance to flee. Sometimes you can even use it from melee, just to briefly make the target unable to act.

If you manage to Hook an enemy Hero and your team is ready to follow up with crowd control and burst damage, you may be able to get a kill before the real team fight even starts.

Hook can Pull enemies through impassable terrain as well, allowing for interesting plays on narrow Maps (such as Cursed Hollow). The same is true for impassable terrain created by Abilities (for example Force Wall by Tassadar).

The brief Stun that happens when hitting enemies with Hook allows Stitches to not only interrupt Stationary Channeled Abilities (such as Mosh Pit by E.T.C.) but also Mobile Channeled Abilities (for example Jug of 1,000 Cups by Li Li).

While laning, you can occasionally use Hook on enemy Mercenaries to Displace them within the range of your Structures, a trick that is extremely useful against Mercenaries who can outrange Structures (for example Giants).

Hook and Helping Hand share their cooldowns, meaning they will always go on cooldown together and be available again at the exact same time.

Helping Hand (1) Stitches

• Mana: 75
• Cooldown: 16 seconds

Activate to use Hook that can hit allied Heroes. Hitting an allied Hero this way reduces the cooldown of Hook by 8 seconds.

After reaching level 13, Helping Hand's range is increased by 40%.

Helping Hand is a Basic Ability that allows Stitches to briefly Stun and Displace towards him the first allied or enemy Hero hit from high distance. After reaching Level 13, you will automatically unlock extra range.

Use it to save allied Heroes from danger, a play that is particularly strong if you can manage to Pull them through impassable terrain. Remember that any enemy Hero on the way will be a valid target, meaning that the enemy team can stop you from saving someone by intercepting Helping Hand.

Avoid using it when they are channeling an Ability because it will be interrupted like when using Hook against enemy Heroes.

When you use Helping Hand, Hook goes on cooldown as well. If Helping Hand hits an allied Hero, the cooldown of both those Basic Abilities will be halved.

Slam (W) Stitches

• Mana: 35
• Cooldown: 8 seconds

Deal 104 (+4% per level) damage to enemies within the target area. Enemies in the inner impact take 50% more damage and are Slowed by 45% for 2 seconds.

Slam is a Basic Ability that deals moderate damage to all enemies in a wide cone-shaped area in front of Stitches. Enemies within the inner area take 50% additional damage and are Slowed.

Use it to Slow melee Heroes who are threatening your team as they are easy to hit with the inner area that applies it. The wide area covered by Slam makes it a great tool for dismounting enemy Heroes, especially useful against enemy Tanks.

Devour (E) Stitches

• Mana: 55
• Cooldown: 20 seconds

Deal 319 (+4% per level) damage to non-Heroic units, or 114 (+4% per level) damage to Heroes. Restores 20% of Stitches's maximum Health.

Devour is a Basic Ability that heals Stitches for a huge chunk of his maximum Health and deals some damage to the chosen enemy, almost tripled against non-Heroes.

While it deals damage, avoid using Devour when full Health as you may find yourself in trouble a dozen of seconds later and not have it available due to its moderately long cooldown.

On the other hand, do not wait to be extremely low on Health because a well-timed crowd control may stop you from casting any Ability until you die and the short range will make it impossible to cast if kited.

In case of need, the increased damage to non-Heroes may be useful to quickly take down enemy Summons (such as Summon Water Elemental by Jaina) while healing.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Putrid Bile (R) Stitches

• Heroic
• Mana: 75
• Cooldown: 75 seconds

Emit bile that deals 37 (+4% per level) damage per second to enemies within, Slowing them by 35% for 1.5 seconds. Gain 20% Movement Speed while emitting bile. Lasts 8 seconds.

Putrid Bile is a Heroic that Stitches can channel for 8 seconds to move at increased Movement Speed and infect the terrain surrounding him. The infected area will hit enemies once per second, dealing damage and Slowing them for 1.5 seconds. Each portion of infected area will stay that way for 4 seconds.

While channeling Putrid Bile, you want to place yourself along the path that enemy Heroes are most likely to take, forcing them to move through the infected area if they wish to progress. This gives you and the rest of your team time to position accordingly and/or deal damage to enemy Heroes affected.

The main characteristic of Putrid Bile is the Slow component, something that partially makes up for Stitches's lack of peeling.

Stitches does not have any mobility tool, so the Movement Speed bonus he gets during Putrid Bile can help him mitigate this weakness while trying to engage or escape. In particular, you should not hesitate to use it just to survive.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Gorge (R) Stitches

• Heroic
• Mana: 70
• Cooldown: 65 seconds

Consume an enemy Hero, trapping them for 4 seconds. When Gorge ends, the enemy Hero takes 274 (+4% per level) damage. The trapped Hero cannot move or act and doesn't take damage from other sources.

Gorge is a Heroic Ability that allows Stitches to remove an enemy Hero from the battlefield for 4 seconds, move them around with him, and then free them in front of him.

In particular, Gorge is a Stasis effect that completely removes the target enemy Hero from the battlefield for a few seconds, therefore it does not allow them to eventually contest a Control Point and it interrupts any Ability they are trying to cast, unless they are Unstoppable (for example Johanna with Iron Skin active).

Due to its low range, Gorge is usually cast immediately after Hook. After that, you should usually run towards your team so that they can focus the enemy Hero that has been caught and/or behind your Gate so that they cannot escape while attacked by Structures surrounding them.

Sometimes, when your team is ready to follow up immediately after Hook connects on an enemy Hero, the correct play is to not use Gorge to avoid delaying the kill by 4 seconds or, even worse, give the enemy team enough time to save them.

Since Gorge will always expel the consumed Hero directly in front of Stitches, you should try to face a corner or dead end so that the enemy Hero has nowhere to flee. If you want to help your team with their aim, do not move a lot during the last second so that it will be easier for them to guess where the enemy Hero will land.

While casting Gorge, Stitches gets some Unstoppable frames that briefly make him immune to crowd control. You may use this knowledge to your advantage in some rare scenarios (for example against Chromie targeting you with Temporal Loop).

Shambling Horror (D) Stitches

• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Activate to spread Vile Gas in a large area every second and prevent your Movement Speed from being reduced below 110% for 4 seconds.

Vile Gas

Hitting enemies with Basic Attacks or the inner area of Slam afflicts them with Vile Gas, dealing an additional 36 (+4% per level) damage over 4 seconds. Deals 150% more damage to Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters.

Shambling Horror is a Trait that passively applies Vile Gas to enemies hit with Basic Attacks or with the inner area of Slam. Vile Gas deals damage over time, increased against Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters.

You can activate Shambling Horror to spread Vile Gas around you and briefly gain a small but useful amount of Movement Speed which cannot be reduced by enemy debuffs. This effect can also be used right after casting Gorge, to move faster towards allied Structures and/or allied Heroes, especially if enemy Heroes applied a Slow debuff on you right after you used Gorge.