Bug Fixes

• Level 4
  • Playtime!
    • Mana restored is now bundled together when multiple Heroes are hit.
    • Tooltip updated to include Mana restored when hitting Heroes with Slam's inner area.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Hook [Q]
    • Now shows progress to Extended Hook as Stitches levels up.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Hook [Q]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Hook to not reveal their caster if the Hook is visible.

Bug Fixes

• Level 13
  • Meat Hook
    • Fixed an issue that caused the refresh duration to not match the full duration of Meat Hook.

Bug Fixes

• Level 7
  • Putrefaction
    • Fixed an issue with Putrefaction's healing reduction.

Updates

Base

• Shambling Horror [Trait]
  • Added a duration indicator.

Bug Fixes

• Level 16
  • Digestive Juices [E]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Digestive Juices to not display a damage preview.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Putrefaction to display floating text multiple times at once.

Bug Fixes

• Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard.
• Fixed an issue that caused Putrid Bile's Pools to not have their damage modified by other Heroes effects placed onto Stitches.

Updates

Base

• Health reduced from 3060 to 3020.
• Health regeneration reduced from 6.38 to 6.29.
• Shambling Horror [D]
  • Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Tenderizer [Passive]
    • Slow amount reduced from 25% to 20%.
    • Slow duration reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Pulverize [W]
    • Slow reduced from 80% to 70%.
    • Armor reduction duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're overall happy with Stitches's position, but his stickiness is overshadowing why players pick other Tanks.

Updates

Base

• Vile Gas [D]
  • Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Hungry For More [Passive]
    • Maximum Health bonus reduced from 30 to 25.
• Level 4
  • Playtime! [W]
    • Slam Inner Area cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
  • Vile Cleaver [D]
    • Additional functionality: Slam applies Vile Gas to all targets hit.
  • Tenderizer [Passive]
    • Healing reduced from 2% to 1.75%.
• Level 7
  • Serrated Edge [Q]
    • Hook cooldown reduction reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
  • Putrefaction [Trait]
    • Healing reduction increased from 30% to 40%.
    • Vile Gas healing increased from 60% to 75%.
• Level 13
  • Meat Hook [Q]
    • Healing per second reduced from 5% to 4%.
    • Duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds.
  • Chop Chop [Q/Trait]
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
    • Attack Speed bonus reduced from 50% to 40%.
    • Additional functionality: Basic Attacks against Heroes refresh the duration.
• Level 16
  • Digestive Juices [E]
    • Devour cooldown reduction reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
    • Damage reduction duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Hungry Hungry Stitches [R2]
    • Additional functionality: Heroes are Slowed by 75% for 1 second after Gorge ends.
  • Master Hooker [Q]
    • Hook cooldown reduction reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
    • Healing reduction reduced from 100% to 75%.

Developer Comment: Stitches is successfully lumbering his way through the Nexus in his own way – with a massive health pool and lots of healing. We think a small reduction on both ends will be healthy without tripping him up. We're also reducing his Hook cooldown reduction on both Serrated Edge and Master Hooker, so Stitches will have to work harder to play with his food.

Updates

Base

• Hook [Q]
  • Additional Functionality: Upon reaching level 13, Hook's range is increased by 40%.
• Slam [W]
  • Cooldown increased from 7 to 8 seconds.
  • Inner area Slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds.
  • No longer deals additional damage to Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters.
• Vile Gas [Trait Passive]
  • New Functionality:
    • Enemies hit by Basic Attacks or the inner area of Slam are afflicted with Vile Gas, dealing 27 damage over 3 seconds. Deals 150% increased damage to Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters.
  • New Active Functionality:
    • Shambling Horror: Activate to spread Vile Gas to nearby enemies every second and prevent Stitches's Movement Speed from being reduced below 110% for 5 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Patchwork Creation [W]
    • New Functionality:
      • Gain 3 Armor for each enemy afflicted by Vile Gas, doubled while Shambling Horror is active. This effect stacks up to 8 times.
      • Passive: Gain 15% increased healing received.
  • Savor the Flavor [E]
    • New Functionality:
      • Quest: Hitting a Hero with Devour increases Stitches's health regeneration by 1.5 and the damage of Vile Gas by 2%, stacking up to 100 times.
  • Hungry for More [Passive]
    • New Functionality:
      • Passive: Gain 5% Movement Speed.
      • Quest: Gathering a Regeneration Globe increases Stitches's maximum health by 30.
      • Reward: Every 20 Regeneration Globes gathered increases Stiches' Movement Speed by an additional 5%.
• Level 4
  • Playtime! [W]
    • New Functionality: Basic attacks reduce the cooldown of Slam by .75 seconds and restore 5 Mana. Hitting Heroes with the inner area of Slam reduces its cooldown by 1 second.
  • Tenderizer [Passive]
    • Moved from Level 4.
    • New Functionality: Basic Attacks against Heroes Slow by 25% for 2.5 seconds and restore 2% of Stitches's Maximum Health.
  • (New) Vile Cleaver [Trait]
    • Basic Attacks against targets afflicted with Vile Gas deal 35% more damage and spread Vile Gas to nearby enemies.
• Level 7
  • Cannibalize [Passive]
    • Removed.
  • Serrated Edge [Q]
    • Moved from Level 4.
    • Cooldown reduction bonus increased from 3 to 5.
    • Additional Functionality: Hitting an Enemy Hero with Hook also restores 35 Mana.
  • Second Helping [E]
    • Moved from Level 20.
    • New Functionality:
      • Devour gains an additional charge with a 6 second cooldown between uses.
      • Loan: If Stitches is at max Health after using Devour he gains a shield equal to 15% of his maximum health for 10 seconds. Every death, reduce this shield amount by 3%.
  • (New) Putrefaction [Trait]
    • While Shambling Horror is active Vile Gas reduces healing received by 30%.
    • Passive: Vile Gas heals for 60% of the damage it deals.
• Level 13
  • Fishing Hook [Q]
    • Removed.
  • (New) Under Pressure [W/Trait]
    • Increase Slam's damage by 25.
    • Quest: Every 6 times Vile Gas deals damage to a Hero, permanently increase the damage of Slam by 1, to a maximum of 75 additional damage.
  • Chop Chop [Trait]
    • Moved from Level 4.
    • New Functionality: Hitting a Hero with Hook or activating Shambling Horror grants 50% increased Attack Speed for 5 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Lacerate [W]
    • Removed.
  • Pulverize [W]
    • Moved from level 13.
    • Additional Functionality: Heroes hit by Slam have their Armor reduced by 10 for 4 seconds.
  • Digestive Juices [E]
    • Additional Functionality: Deals an additional 140 damage over 5 seconds.
  • Gas Flare [Passive]
    • Renamed to ‘Flare Up'.
    • Additional Functionality: Activating Shambling Horror also grants the 150% damage bonus.
    • Bonus damage duration reduced from 8 to 4 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Potent Bile [R1]
    • Removed.
  • Shambling Horror [Active]
    • Removed.
  • (New) Gift From The Embalmer [R1]
    • Putrid Bile deals 100% more damage to Heroes.
    • Quest: Each time Putrid Bile deals damage to an enemy Hero, Stitches's next death timer is reduced by 2%, to maximum of 80% total reduction. Stacks of this bonus are lost on death .
  • (New) Master Hooker [Q]
    • Reduce the cooldown of Hook by 5 seconds. Enemy Heroes hit by Hook receive 100% less healing for 2 seconds. Allied Heroes hit by Hook are Unkillable for 2 seconds.
  • (New) Gas Bag [Trait]
    • Activating Shambling Horror grants you Unstoppable for 3 seconds.
    • Passive: Reduce Shambling Horror's cooldown by 20 seconds.

Developer Comment: Our favorite large lad is back and hungrier than ever! We're giving our best beefy boi a new baseline ability called Shambling Horror that should help him saunter in and out of combat a bit more consistently. This ability, combined with a plethora of new and reworked talents, should make his immediate presence more dangerous. We've also decided to bake in the benefits of the old Fishing Hook talent at level 13. This talent was simply too fun and effective to the point where it became impossible to design reasonable alternatives. We hope the totality of these changes will breathe new un-life into a Hero that has fallen out of favor over the years.

Updates

Base

• Slam [W]
  • Bonus damage to Minions and Mercenaries increased from 50% to 60%.

Developer Comment: Our previous buff to Slam did well for Stitches, but we don't believe it was enough to give him the distinction of being a uniquely powerful wave clearing Warrior. We're buffing it a bit further so that he is more able to fill this role.

Updates

Base

• Health reduced from 3150 to 3060.
• Health regeneration reduced from 6.56 to 6.38.
• Hook [Q]
  • Range increased from 11 to 12.
• Slam [W]
  • Mana cost reduced from 40 to 35.
  • Additional functionality: Deals 50% bonus damage to Minions and Mercenaries.

Talents

• Level 13
  • Fishing Hook [Q]
    • Bonus range reduced from 50% to 40%.

Developer Comment: For a long time we have held to the belief that one important aspect of what makes Johanna special is her ability to provide more wave clear for her team compared to other Warriors. While this is true, it has gotten to the point that it has begun to limit what kinds of effective team compositions can be made, as any team that wants to run heroes that don't have a lot of wave clear really need Johanna to be competitive. To help open up more possible team compositions and to give Stitches a needed buff, we're experimenting with giving him comparable wave clear, which also has the side effect that he should be able to land more Hooks due to the enemy Minions dying faster. We're also removing our last Health buff that we gave him, as we believe leaning into this direction of giving him more wave clear and buffing his Hook range are more unique ways to bring Stitches to the forefront of Warriors that players want to bring to their team.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Slam would go on cooldown when Stitches was interrupted during its initial cast.

Updates

Base

• Health increased from 3060 to 3150.
• Health regeneration increased from 6.38 to 6.56.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Chop Chop [W]
    • Adjusted functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero with Slam grants 25% increased Attack Speed for 3 seconds. Double the Attack Speed bonus and duration if they are hit by the inner impact area of Slam.

Developer Comment: The two defining unique attributes to Stitches are his ability to displace enemies from long range and his incredibly high Health pool that he is able to manipulate with Devour and various talent interactions. We're doubling down in his Health pool in this buff, which should let him stick around even longer in teamfights to harass enemies and protect his teammates.

Updates

Base

• Slam [W]
  • Slow amount increased from 40% to 45%.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Patchwork Creation [Passive]
    • Healing from Minions dying increased from 30 to 33.
    • Healing from Heroes dying increased from 240 to 255.
• Level 13
  • Fishing Hook [Q]
    • Moved from Level 16.
  • Meat Hook [Q]
    • Moved from Level 16.
    • No longer has a 4 second restriction after hitting enemy Heroes with Hook for its proc to reapply via Basic Attacks.
  • Pulverize [W]
    • Moved from Level 16.
    • Slow amount increased from 75% to 80%.
• Level 16
  • Lacerate [W]
    • Moved from Level 13.
  • Digestive Juices [E]
    • Moved from Level 13.
  • Gas Flare [Passive]
    • Moved from Level 13.

Developer Comment: We're giving Stitches some love by slightly increasing his crowd control capabilities and moving his Level 16 talents to come online earlier in the game. Since they add a lot of power to his ability to function as a powerful front line Warrior for his team, this should help him make plays for a greater portion of the game.

Bug Fixes

• Shambling Horror's movement speed has been updated to match the new base Hero move speed.

Updates

Abilities

• Level 4
  • Chop Chop [W]
    • Duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds
• Level 13
  • Digestive Juices [E]
    • No longer increases the damage of Devour to enemy Heroes
    • Additional functionality: Hitting enemy Heroes with Devour reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds
  • Gas Flare [Passive]
    • Bonus damage duration after hitting enemy Heroes with Hook increased from 4 to 8 seconds
• Level 16
  • Meat Hook [Q]
    • Bonus Healing increased from 16% to 20%

Developer Comment: Stitches like buffs. We like Stitches. We give Stitches buffs. When Stitches happy, you happy too!

Updates

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a number of issues caused by using Helping Hand on an allied Hero using a Channeled ability that grants Unstoppable.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent Stitches's Hook from landing at point blank range.

Updates

Abilities

• Gorge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 65 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Savor the Flavor (E)
    • Health regeneration per stack increased from 1 to 1.5
• Level 7
  • Cannibalize (Passive)
    • Healing increased from 1.75 to 2%
• Level 13
  • Digestive Juices (E)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Devour deals 40% more damage to Heroes

Updates

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 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

Developer Comment: Overall, Stitches is faring well with his new toys. There are a few places we think could stand some numerical changes, but we'd like to give him a bit more time to settle in with all the other changes that went out with this patch. We will continue to monitor the large lad, but felt there were some easy wins on talents that were obviously underperforming.

Updates

Bug Fixes

• Serrated Edge no longer deals bonus damage to friendly targets when using Helping Hand.

Bug Fixes

• Hook visual effects will no longer persist indefinitely if the target is thrown by Garrosh's Wrecking Ball while being pulled toward Stitches.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to become unplayable if Nature's Cure was cast while they were affected by Stitches's Gorge.

Bug Fixes

• Tychus can now be affected by Stitches's Gorge while in Commandeer Odin.

Bug Fixes

• Hook will now cancel abilities that can be channeled while moving, such as Azmodan's All Shall Burn.

Updates

Abilities

• Vile Gas (Trait)
  • Damage reduced from 18 to 17

Talents

• Level 1
  • Heavy Slam (W)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 50 to 40%

Updates

Talents

• Level 20
  • Bolt of the Storm (Active)
    • Removed
  • Regenerative Bile (R)
    • Renamed to Potent Bile
      • New functionality:
        • Healing and Movement Speed bonuses have been removed
        • Putrid Bile duration bonus increased from 2 to 6 seconds
        • Now increases the slow effect from 35 to 45%
  • Hungry Hungry Stitches (R)
    • Damage bonus has been removed.
    • Added Functionality:
      • While active, Gorge has increased range and can be repeatedly recast until the first target is expelled. Gorging a target outside of melee range will teleport Stitches to the target.
  • New Talent: Cannibalize (Passive)
    • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes heal Stitches for 5% of his maximum Health.

Bug Fixes

• Hook can no longer pull Stealthed enemy Heroes through allied Gates.

Updates

Stats

• Health increased from 2900 to 3000
• Health Regeneration increased from 6.043 to 6.25

Abilities

• Slam (W)
  • Damage increased from 96 to 104

Updates

Stats

• Health increased from 2738 to 2900
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.7 to 6 per second

Developer Comment: Stitches come back to play! Stitches big scary monster, don't need Armor, has lots of Health!

Bug Fixes

• The Hungry for More talent will now correctly grant maximum Health bonuses after collecting Regeneration Globes.
• Savor the Flavor no longer grants bonus Health Regeneration after using Devour on non-Heroic targets.

Updates

Talents

Level 13

• Flea Bag (Passive)
  • Cooldown reduction increased from 3 to 6 seconds

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Relentless (Passive)
    • Removed
• Level 13
  • New Talent: Flea Bag (Passive)
    • Whenever Stitches is Stunned or Rooted, reduce basic ability cooldowns by 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: See for Relentless changes.

Bug Fixes

• Vile Gas applied by a Retchling after learning the Restorative Fumes and Indigestion Talents will now properly Heal Stitches, rather than the Retchling.

Updates

Abilities

• Gorge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 80 to 70

Updates

Abilities

• Helping Hand (Active)
  • Pressing the Helping Hand hotkey (Default: 1) will now cast a Helping Hand modified version of Hook, instead of causing the next Hook to have the Helping Hand modification. Casting the Hook hotkey (Default: Q) will cast a normal version of Hook. These abilities share a cooldown.

Updates

Abilities

• Vile Gas (Trait)
  • New Functionality:
    • When damaged, Stitches emits a gas cloud that poisons nearby enemies over 3 seconds (no longer leaves Vile Gas on the ground)
  • Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
• Hook (Q)
  • Hook can now target allied Heroes by default. This functionality can be toggled on and off through a new “Helping Hand” button. (Default hotkey: 1)

Talents

• Level 4
  • New Talent: Restorative Fumes (Trait)
    • Each time an enemy Hero takes damage from Vile Gas, Stitches heals for 27 Health
  • Vile Cleaver (W)
    • Removed
  • Mercenary Lord (Passive)
    • Removed
• Level 7
  • Toxic Gas (Trait)
    • Radius increase reduced from 50% to 25%
    • No longer increases the duration of Vile Gas
    • Now increases the damage of Vile Gas by 50%
• Level 13
  • Helping Hand (Q)
    • Removed

Developer Comment: We decided to do a quick clean-up for Stitches. This consisted of getting rid of the lingering gas-cloud which hurt our visual playfield more than the enemy team. Oh, and we made Helping Hand baseline; nothing to see here, move along.

Bug Fixes

• Hook will now properly pull its target over unpathable areas of terrain, even if the enemy it strikes had been launched by another Ability.

Updates

• Hungry for More (Talent) has been reworked as a Questing Talent.
  • Quest: Collecting Regeneration Globes permanently increases maximum Health by 30, up to a maximum of 900.
  • Reward: Upon reaching 900 bonus Health, Stitches's Movement Speed is increased by 10%.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug affecting Stitches and The Butcher that could cause performance issues under certain circumstances.

Updates

• Devour (E)
  • Last Bite (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction on kill decreased from 15 to 12 seconds

Developer Comment: We started to notice a few situations where Stitches, after selecting Last Bite, would feel nigh unkillable when fighting near Minion waves or around Battleground Events that featured lots of small Monsters, like Infernal Shrines. We think this smaller nerf will embrace those situations without allowing them get out of control.

Bug Fixes

• The sand-themed visual effects for Bikini Stitches's Devour are no longer being used by other Stitches skin variations.
• The tree ornament visual effects for Greatfather Winter Stitches's Putrid Bile are no longer being used by other Stitches skin variations.
• Players can no longer accidentally queue Abilities or Activated Talents while Gorged by Stitches.

Updates

• Basic Attack damage increased from 74 to 85
• Slam (W)
  • Damage increased from 80 to 96

Developer Comment: Getting hit by a giant meat cleaver should hurt, right? Stitches totally agrees.

Bug Fixes

• Heroes that are simultaneously struck by Diablo's Overpower and Stitches's Hook will no longer be thrown outside the playable area.
• A Hero that activates Ice Block while simultaneously coming under the effects of Stitches's Gorge will now properly retain Ice Block's visual effects for the duration of the Talent's effects.

Updates

• Health increased from 1060 (+230 per level) to 1060 (+260 per level)
• Block (Talent) removed
• Regeneration Master (Talent) removed
• Imposing Presence (Talent) removed
• Stoneskin (Talent) added at Level 16
• New Talent (Level 1): Dampen Magic
  • Every 8 seconds, gain a charge that reduces damage taken from the next incoming enemy Ability by 50%. Stores up to 2 charges.
• New Talent (Level 1): Hungry for More
  • Collecting Regeneration Globes permanently increases maximum Health by 30
• Hook (Q)
  • Helping Hand (Talent)
    • Now also reduces Hook's cooldown by 8 seconds when pulling an ally
• Slam (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40
• Devour (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 55
  • Cooldown reduced from 24 to 20 seconds
  • Last Bite (Talent)
    • Now grants cooldown reduction for enemies that are killed within 3 seconds after being damaged by Devour
  • Indigestion (Talent)
    • Retchlings now apply the effects of Vile Gas to the targets they attack
• Gorge (R)
  • Duration increased from 3.5 to 4 seconds
  • Stitches's Movement Speed is no longer reduced while using Gorge
  • Targets under the effect of Stitches's Gorge will now be instantly expelled if Stitches enters Stasis (Divine Palm, Devouring Maw, Cocoon, Medivac)
  • Hungry Hungry Stitches (Talent)
    • No longer increases Gorge duration
    • Now increases Gorge damage by 40%

Developer Comment: We wanted to buff Stitches and position him to be more powerful against Mages. His regeneration build has been nerfed, due to the removal of Regeneration Master, but instead he now has a high Health build which also increases Devour's effectiveness. His core kit was improved at a basic level, which will help bring him back into competitive play. Finally, we wanted to clean up the rules associated with Gorge and the level 20 upgrade, so we cut the unnecessary components of those two Abilities.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Stitches's arm appearing strangely during some animations.
• Stitches will no longer become briefly unresponsive after casting Hook on a target that has just died.

Bug Fixes

• Anub'arak's Web Wrap and Stitches's Gorge will now work properly when used against Unstoppable targets, which is consistent with Zagara's Devouring Maw.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Stitches's Hook to become visually stuck to an enemy Hero and fail to pull the target under certain circumstances.

Updates

• Slam (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 55 to 45
• Devour (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 65
  • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 24 seconds