Ladies and Gents, we present Stitches: Terror of Darkshire
Take care when traversing the shadowed trails of Duskwood… Ever since Abercrombie the Embalmer unleashed his abomination upon Darkshire, Stitches has wandered the road aimlessly, hungry for the flesh of low level Alliance players.
In our ongoing coverage of Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm alpha, we will be taking a look at the individual heroes that populate the void that is Blizzard’s ever-growing universe. The first hero that caught our eye during our time with the game is every low-level Alliance player’s fan-favorite character Stitches, the abomination that patrols the roads of Duskwood in World of Warcraft. He’s a horrible mass of what we can only assume to be rotting human flesh, stitched together by the Embalmer Abercrombie to strike fear in the hearts of wayward travelers.
Stitches is a Warrior-class hero who specializes in soaking up massive amounts of damage and controlling enemy movement, usually through stuns or pulling mechanics. Stitches himself specializes in initiating battles with his ability to throw his massive meat hook into an opposing hero and pulling them to himself. This ability is devastating if preformed correctly, as an unsuspecting opponent could suddenly find themselves surrounded by Stitches allies. It never stops being fun when we grapple a near death player into our grasp to smash them with Stitches’ Giant Meat Cleaver.
Once enemies are in close, or there is a wave of creeps, Stitches can devastate the ground with his Slam attack. Slam deals damage in a cone area around Stitches, which helps clear enemy creeps out of the way to help push the lane forward and advance his team. Stitches also has the passive ability to emit Vile Gas every time he is damaged, the gas surrounds his body slowing enemies as well as damaging them. Vile Gas combined with his Slam ability helps make Stiches a great lane pusher as he can quickly clear lanes of enemy creeps.
Stitches also has considerable amounts of health, making him quite the damage sponge as he soaks up incoming attacks. On top of his increased health as a Warrior class, Stitches can also heal himself by devouring enemies. If the right talents are chosen, Devour can restore a sizable portion of Stitches’ health - making him that much more “tankier” on the battlefield.
Furthermore, most of Stitches’ talents buff his tanking abilities and we find we we’re picking them more than the slight damage buffs. Without buffing his attacks, Stitches is already a formidable character, and we’ve racked up plenty of kills with proper use of his Hook attack.
On top of all of these talents and abilities Stitches still has his two Heroic Abilities: Gorge and Putrid Bile, both of which help Stitches impede enemy movement. With Gorge, Stitches will consume an enemy Hero - trapping them inside his sizable stomach while they take damage. The trapped enemy is unable to take any action or move while inside of Stitches for three seconds, which helps disable an opponent and interrupt their team chemistry. Putrid Bile, on the other hand, see Stitches emit toxic bile on the ground where he walks, slowing and poisoning any enemy caught within the muck. This is another extremely useful area of effect (AOE) attack that stacks up with Stitches’ other AOE abilities. Putrid Bile also aids in escaping from enemy heroes, with its slowing ability.
Like all of the Warrior class characters in Heroes of the Storm, Stitches brings a lot of utility to the table while being able to dish out as much damage as he receives. With the talents Stitches can take some time to bring down and his ability to disrupt enemy movement and positioning makes him more useful than most other Warrior Heroes. This is not to discredit other Warrior Heroes, but in the right hands Stitches can devastate enemy Heroes by forcing fights with his hook.
Stitches likes to play - and we like to play with him.
Brian Kale
@brianwkale
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