Bug Fixes

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

Hero Updates

• Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard.

Talents

• Level 16
  • Flare Up [Trait]
    • Flare Up is now flagged as a Trait Talent. Undocumented

Bug Fixes

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

Hero Updates

Stats

• Health reduced from 3060 to 3020.
• Health regeneration reduced from 6.38 to 6.29.

Abilities

• 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' position, but his stickiness is overshadowing why players pick other Tanks.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• 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.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• 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' 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' 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' maximum health by 30.
      • Reward: Every 20 Regeneration Globes gathered increases Stitches' 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' 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' 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.

Hero Updates

Abilities

• 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.

Hero Updates

Stats

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

Abilities

• 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.

Hero Updates

Stats

• 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.

Bug Fixes

• The following damage effects no longer activate tower aggro: Undocumented
  • Stitches Gas Flare

Hero Updates

Abilities

• 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

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

Bug Fixes

• Fixed various Movement Speed bugs that had occurred with the increased Movement Speed patch.

Hero Updates

Talents

• 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!

Hero Updates

Abilities

• Slam (W)
  • Mana cost increased from 35 to 40

Developer Comment: As we promised in the past, we took a look at the overall Mana tension of all the Heroes in the game. We also have some philosophies about Mana that we want to keep going forward. They are:

1. Mana should be a meaningful part of the game, particularly in the early stages when wave clear is at a higher premium. We believe that as the game progresses, Mana tension should become less important as Heroes gain more base Mana and the game's focus shifts to team fighting.
2. Mana tension doesn't have to be the same for every Hero, but every Hero should feel it to some degree, otherwise it serves no purpose.
3. We like that some talents heavily mitigate Mana tension.

When we took a look at Mana tension in the game, we saw that, overall, things are in a fairly healthy spot, but could be fine-tuned and improved upon. We like the tension that the heroes who are closer to the middle of the spectrum have, with some examples being Malfurion, Tychus, and E.T.C. Our goal with these changes is to bring the outliers closer to the center. We are open to your feedback going forward if you think that the game needs to be stricter or more lenient in this area, or if you believe there are any outliers that we missed.

Bug Fixes

• Stitches: Fixed a number of issues caused by using Helping Hand on an allied Hero using a Channeled ability that grants Unstoppable.

• Stitches: Fixed an issue that could prevent Stitches' Hook from landing at point blank range.

Hero 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

Hero 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.

Hero Updates

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
• Gorge (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds
• Putrid Bile (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 75 seconds
• 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
  • Stoneskin (Active) Undocumented
    • 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
  • Hardened Shield (Active) Undocumented
    • Removed
  • 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.

Bug Fixes

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

• Stitches: Slam will now reveal its impact area and targets.

Design & Gameplay

Channeled Healing Abilities

• Alextrasza's Life-Binder (R) and Rehgar's Ancestral Healing (R) abilities are no longer cancelled under any conditions other than enemy abilities that remove the target from play (Devouring Maw, Gorge, Cocoon.)

Bug Fixes

• Lunara & Stitches: Fixed an issue that could cause permanent screen shaking if Lunara was hooked by Stitches under certain conditions.

Bug Fixes

• Fenix: Plasma Cutter is now correctly interrupted by Stasis effects, like Stitches’ Gorge and Anub’arak’s Cocoon.

Bug Fixes

• Gall: Shove can no longer be cast while Cho is being pulled by Stitches’ Hook.

• Stitches: 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

• Brightwing: Soothing Mist will no longer Heal allies who are standing nearby while Brightwing is inside Anub'arak’s Cocoon, Lt. Morales’ Medivac, Stitches’ Gorge, or Zagara’s Devouring Maw.

• General: Fixed an issue that allowed certain Abilities to affect enemy Heroes in their own Hall of Storms:
  • Alarak – Telekinesis (W)
  • Brightwing – Emerald Wind (R)
  • Dehaka – Drag (Q)
  • Medivh – Ley Line Seal (R)
  • Stitches – Hook (Q)

Bug Fixes

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

Bug Fixes

• Tychus & Stitches: Tychus can now be affected by Stitches’ Gorge while in Commandeer Odin.

Bug Fixes

• Junkrat: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities, like Genji’s Dragonblade and Stitches’ Hook, could hit Junkrat during Rocket Ride just before he makes impact.

Bug Fixes

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

Hero Updates

Abilities

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

Talents

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

Bug Fixes

• Kharazim – Fixed an issue that Stitches’ Vile Gas to deal damage to Kharazim while casting Seven-Sided Strike.

Hero 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

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

Hero 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

Bug Fixes

• Stitches: Casting Devour will no longer cause floating Talent Quest progress icons to appear before Stitches learns Savor the Flavor.

• Valeera: Stitches’ Putrid Bile will no longer cause a red “revealed” icon to appear over Valeera’s nameplate while she is inside Smoke Bomb’s area of effect.

Hero Updates

Stats

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

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

Bug Fixes

• Stitches: Savor the Flavor no longer grants bonus Health Regeneration after using Devour on non-Heroic targets.

• Stitches: The Hungry for More talent will now correctly grant maximum Health bonuses after collecting Regeneration Globes.

Hero Updates

Talents

• Level 13
  • Flea Bag (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 3 to 6 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing: The game camera will no longer become stuck if Stitches uses Gorge on Brightwing while she is casting Phase Shift.

Bug Fixes

• Damage Reduction: When two damage reduction effects, such as Resistant (25%) and Hardened Shield (75%), are simultaneously applied to a Hero, the larger effect will no longer be overridden by the lesser effect.

Hero Updates

Talents

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

Developer Comments: We’re removing the majority of our old Relentless- like Talents from the game, because we found that it wasn’t clear to the enemy team what was happening. Reducing the duration on very short disabling effects to begin with was hard to notice, and typically felt like a bug when it did happen. In some cases, we’re replacing these Talents with Hero specific ones that more clearly convey what’s happening, while fitting the gameplay of the Hero.

Bug Fixes

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

Hero Updates

Abilities

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

Hero 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.

Bug Fixes

• Greymane: Will no longer become stuck if Darkflight is interrupted by Diablo’s Shadow Charge or Stitches’ Hook.

Talents

Relentless

• Relentless and similar Hero-specific Talents will now only reduce the duration of Slows, Stuns and Roots. Silence effects will no longer be reduced by this talent.

Developer Comments: With an increasing number of CC effects entering the Nexus we found ourselves constantly asking ourselves “Should Relentless work against this?” which quickly turned into a rabbit hole of ‘what-ifs’ and ‘how comes’. We agreed that the talent was going to continue to become stronger as we moved forward and decided to limit the number of effects that it can reduce.

Hero 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 Comments: 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

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

Hero 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’ Movement Speed is increased by 10%.

Talents

Dampen Magic

• Maximum charges reduced from 2 to 1.
• Duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.

Developer Comments: While we feel that Dampen Magic has done its job of mitigating Ability Damage, it also has so much uptime that it can be difficult for enemies to know when is a good time to fire off their full damage output. We’re removing the second charge and increasing its duration, which should make it a bigger moment and help enemies to more easily know when the time is right to attack.

Talents

Dampen Magic

• This Talent has been redesigned
• Dampen Magic charges now cause all incoming Ability Damage to be reduced by 50% for 1 second

Developer Comments: Similar to Block, Dampen Magic is the first of many efforts we will be making to create more meaningful counter-pick Talents (in this case, against spell casters). We found that the original iteration of Dampen Magic did not truly fulfill its purpose of mitigating spell damage due to how many spell effects are done with incremental damage. This buff should make the Talent more universally viable against enemy spells.

Bug Fixes

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

Hero Updates

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

Developer Comments: 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.

Design & Gameplay

Battleground Monsters

• Battleground-specific creatures are now universally defined as Monsters (ex: Neutral Garden Terrors, Sky Temple Guardians, etc.)
• Several Talents and Abilities have been changed to reflect this new categorization, and the following no longer affect Monsters:
  • Mercenary Lord
  • Johanna's Knight Takes Pawn
  • Lunara's Cruel Bloom
  • Rexxar's Easy Prey and Bird of Prey
  • The Butcher's Chop Meat
• The following now affect Monsters:
  • Anub'arak's Beetle, Juiced
  • Azmodan's Demonic Smite
• Several Talents that could previously trigger against both captured Mercenaries and Minions will now only affect Minions (ex: Seasoned Marksman, Black Soulstone, etc.)

Bug Fixes

• Players can no longer accidentally queue Abilities or Activated Talents while Gorged by Stitches.

Hero Updates

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

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

Bug Fixes

• A Hero that activates Ice Block while simultaneously coming under the effects of Stitches’ Gorge will now properly retain Ice Block’s visual effects for the duration of the Talent’s effects.

• Heroes that are simultaneously struck by Diablo’s Overpower and Stitches’ Hook will no longer be thrown outside the playable area.

• Heroes with the Relentless Talent that become Polymorphed will now properly receive damage from Brightwing’s Unstable Anomaly Talent when Polymorph expires.

Hero 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’ Movement Speed is no longer reduced while using Gorge
  • Targets under the effect of Stitches’ 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 Comments: 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

• Stitches will no longer become briefly unresponsive after casting Hook on a target that has just died.

Talents

Bolt of the Storm

Developer Comments: We love this talent and think it can create a lot of really interesting moments, but the cooldown was just too short. At 70 seconds we think this talent is still a great level 20 pick, but now players will have to be more strategic with how they use it. Forcing someone to use their Bolt to avoid a gank can now be a meaningful moment with this increased cooldown. We hope this also entices players towards choosing their Heroic upgrades instead of Bolt when the situation calls for it.

• Cooldown increased from 40 to 70 seconds

Imposing Presence

Developer Comments: Statistically, it was almost never wrong to choose Imposing Presence. With this nerf, it’s still a great counter in the right situation, and as a result, we’re hoping we’ll see more play from our Basic Attack assassins.

• Attack Speed slow reduced from 50% to 40%
• The Attack Speed slow will now be removed when attacking a target that has not learned the Imposing Presence Talent

Mercenary Lord

Developer Comments: We’ve combined the talent Superiority into Mercenary Lord, and removed the damage reduction from structures to prevent degenerative backdoor strategies. The combination of the damage reduction vs. Mercenaries and the ability to empower these Mercenaries felt like a logical pairing. We hope incorporating the two talents into one will make this level 4 choice an enticing one, as the two talents separated had a low pick rate.

• The functionality of the Superiority Talent has been rolled into Mercenary Lord, which is now available to the following Heroes at Level 4:
  • Anub'arak, Arthas, Azmodan, Gazlowe, Nazeebo, Sonya, Stitches, and The Lost Vikings
• New combined functionality reads: Non-Boss Mercenaries near your Hero deal 50% more damage. Reduces damage taken from Minions and Mercenaries by 50%.

Superiority

• This Talent has been removed, and its functionality has been rolled into the revamped Mercenary Lord Talent

Bug Fixes

• Anub'arak’s Web Wrap and Stitches' 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’ Hook to become visually stuck to an enemy Hero and fail to pull the target under certain circumstances.

Talents

Regeneration Master

• Initial +4.0 Health Regeneration removed
• Each Health Globe now grants +1.5 Health Regeneration

Hero 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

Bug Fixes

• Stitches’ Hook can no longer pull a Hero that is about to be consumed by Zagara’s Devouring Maw outside of the Ability’s area of effect.

Hero Updates

• Health reduced from 1060 (+260 per level) to 1060 (+230 per level)
• Vile Gas (Trait)
  • Radius decreased by approximately 25%
  • Damage scaling decreased from +2 per level to +1.5 per level
  • Toxic Gas (Talent)
    • Radius increased from 25% to 50%
    • Damage over time effect duration reduced from 2 to 1 seconds
• Slam (W)
  • Pulverize (Talent)
    • The stun and bonus damage components of this Talent have been removed.
    • Now reduces cooldown of Slam by 2 seconds
    • Slows enemies hit by 75% for 1 second
• Gorge (R)
  • Hungry Hungry Stitches (Talent)
    • Duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
    • Now removes the Movement Speed slow from Gorge
• Putrid Bile (R)
  • Regenerative Bile (Talent)
    • Now increases Movement Speed by an additional 10% while Putrid Bile is active

Bug Fixes

• Corrected an issue which caused the visual effect for Stitches’ Vile Gas Trait to persist longer than intended.

• Stitches will no longer occasionally become briefly unresponsive after casting Hook on one of Zagara's Banelings.

• Stitches’ Putrid Bile Ability is now appropriately paused, and will no longer be cut short, upon entering Zeratul’s Void Prison.

• Visual effects for Stitches' Vile Gas are now visible on Sky Temple bridges.

Talents

Regeneration Master

• Now grants 4 Health regeneration upon learning the Talent

New Level 20 Talents

Hardened Shield

• Activate to reduce all incoming damage by 75% for 4 seconds; 60 second cooldown
• Found on the following Heroes:
  • Anub’arak, Arthas, Chen, Gazlowe, Muradin, Sonya, Stitches, Tyrael

Hero Updates

• Hook (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 14 to 16 seconds
• Gorge (R)
  • Damage reduced from 200 (+50 per level) to 100 (+25 per level)

Bug Fixes

• Heroes will no longer be teleported back to Stitches if they are Gorged when Stitches comes under the effects of Anub'arak’s Web Blast.

Talents

Mercenary Lord

• New functionality
  • Siege and Bruiser Mercenaries now deal 50% increased damage.
  • A player with the Mercenary Lord Talent must be within proximity of Siege and Bruiser Mercenaries in order for them to receive the damage bonus.

Resurgence of the Storm

• This Talent has been removed from the game.

Bug Fixes

• A Stitches that Gorges a hero and then becomes affected by Zagara’s Devouring Maw will now continue to hold onto the Gorge target until Devouring Maw expires.

• Bolt of the Storm and Zeratul’s Blink can no longer be cast while rooted.

• Fixed an issue which caused summoned units to deal half damage to Heroes with the Superiority Talent.

• Stitches’ Hook will no longer become visually stuck to targets that cannot be pulled.

Talents

Imposing Presence

• Attack speed slow amount increased from 30% to 50%

Resurgence of the Storm

• Cooldown increased from 120 to 180 seconds

Hero Updates

• Vile Gas (Trait)
  • Damage per second decreased from 14 (+2 per level) to 10 (+2 per level)

Bug Fixes

• When triggered by the Prescience Talent, Tassadar's Dimensional Shift will no longer disrupt Stitches’ Gorge.

Bug Fixes

• Chen's Flying Kick will no longer stop working after Stitches’ Hook pulls him to an impassable object.

Hero Updates

• Sprint (Talent)
  • Has been removed from Stitches
• Putrid Bile (R)
  • Now also grants a 20% bonus to Movement Speed during Putrid Bile’s duration
• Gorge (R)
  • Self-slow reduced from 30% to 15%

Bug Fixes

• Mercenary Camps that are captured simultaneously by one team with the Mercenary Lord Talent, and one without, no longer causes the Mercenaries from both Camps to gain the Mercenary Lord buff.

• Stitches can no longer spit Gorged Heroes into the waters of Blackheart’s Bay when the Ability’s duration expires.

• Stitches’ Hook projectile is now appropriately visible to enemy Heroes when the Ability is cast from the Fog of War.

• Stitches’ Putrid Bile will no longer continue to cast when that Stitches becomes Gorged by an enemy Stitches.

Talents

Block

• Has been moved from Level 7 to Level 1

With the addition of Artifacts, the following generic Talents have been removed:

• Minion Killer
• Path of the Assassin
• Path of the Warrior
• Path of the Wizard

Hero Updates

• Rewind (Talent) has been removed.

Bug Fixes

• Cloaked Heroes now properly emerge decloaked when released from Stitches' Gorge ability.

• Fixed several issues that could occur when casting Stitches' Hook on an unstoppable target.

Talents

Regeneration Master

• Health regeneration increased from 3 to 4 per stack

Bug Fixes

• Heroes under the effects of Gorge when Stitches is killed no longer remain stunned for the entirety of Gorge’s duration.

• Stitches will now appropriately releases his Gorge target at the Dragon Knight’s spawn location after entering the Dragon Knight.

Talents

Path of the Warrior

• Health gained per level increased from 25 to 35.

Hero Updates

• Stitches has received significant Talent changes
• Bribe and Spell Shield have been removed
• Vile Gas (Trait)
  • New Talent (Level 4): Vile Cleaver
    • Basic attacks create a cloud of Vile Gas on the target. This effect does not stack.
• Hook
  • New Talent (Level 13): Helping Hand
    • Stitches can now Hook allied heroes.
  • New Talent (Level 16): Shish Kabob
    • Hook can pull up to 2 targets
• Slam
  • Pulverize (Talent)
    • In addition to the 0.5 second stun, Slam’s damage is also increased by an additional 50%.
  • New Talent (Level 4): Putrid Ground
    • Slam now infects targets with Vile Gas. This effect does not stack.
• Devour
  • New Talent (Level 7): Savor the Flavor
    • Using Devour on an enemy hero permanently increases Stitches’ health regeneration per second by 2. This effect stacks.
  • New Talent (Level 7): Last Bite
    • Cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds if Devour kills the target

Hero Updates

• Putrid Bile slow duration increased from 1.125 to 1.5 seconds.
• Putrid Bile search radius increased from 2.5 to 3.