How to SAW?

So I won the summer saw skin and wanted to use him more but I have never used him before. I was wondering if I could get some help with how to build him from start to finish and any overall tips for how to play him in different modes.

I would like to recommend SawPort.

you will get the same result anyways.

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I would like to recommend normal skin Saw.

you will get the same result anyways. (2)

Watch this guy:

Watch his earlier videos, he shows how to snowball effectively and play with your team and with the weaknesses of the enemy.

I found him quite hard to get used 2. watching Pro’s play is probably the best way to learn.

but a few tips I’ve picked up along the way:

Pick your A first and use it as a mini boots, to run away from danger.
max your A first, not B.
Buy damage items to start. I usually go double knife.

if you want to hit your A to run, tap a direction first, then tap A. OR is your target too close to you to run? use your A to stab and BE AWARE of the direction you’re stabbing, so you jump back where you want to.

I only EVER activate my B to slow down an enemy. Saw is at his most vulnerable when he’s rooted in place during his B, so be smart about when to use it.

I’m still not very good at utilizing his ULT effectively, but i find it’s useful to build stacks when your B isn’t available.

The number ONE tip for effective SAWness? be aware of what you’re targeting at all times. Are you hitting a minion? a Hero? who’s closest to you?

well, that’s the basics. You can learn all about counter building, Crit builds, Cp builds, etc as you go.

SAW SHOOT TURRET. SAW PUSH LANE. SAW WiN

SAW THINK FORUM DUMB FOR NOT ALLOWING ALL CAPS

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A guide on how to SAW

  1. Don’t.
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@MacAulay
@PlazaLord
@ImNotNubEnimore

OP is asking for genuine advise and you load him up with Salt? Stop doing that sort of bashing guys…

@Neffarious He is difficult to use well, not impossible but difficult. He is better in 3v3 than in 5v5

@Ve3nNo0wM has given you the best response here.

A Saw that pushes and does not feed is a good Saw. Make sure you stay alive.

CP Saw is an assassin with his A and deals great damage with B too. He is a Niche pick that can work well but that takes a lot of skill.

WP Saw is all about auto attacking. Don’t ever use your B when it is not safe. The self root can and will kill you if your enemies are competent.

Stacking defense on him with Raw WP+Crit and SM can keep you safe if you have map awareness and vision of possible gank routes. Use your A to run away. If enemies chase you turn around and stab them while running. You will roll back in the opposite direction even faster. I’d recommend both aegis and Slumbering husk, journey boots. SM/SB TM TM.

Good Luck. Stay safe don’t feed and you will succeed.

Sorry bud, I was just making a little joke. Didn’t mean for it to come across so serious and salty.

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I know, but there were three people doing that while the man asked a serious question only to be loaded with salt lol.

Thanks, I realised why people hated saw in a 3v3 game but I also learned how to build him at least. Now I just have to get used to him and abilities.

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Ok so,

SAW. As WP, which most people go, the first thing I personally recommend you do is get a heavy blade [edit: that’s if you like a challenge. If you want to play it safe, which I recommend as well, get a Book of Eulogies and a T1 Blade]. Work towards your serpents mask. After, go for the another heavy blade, then build your defenses up. I sugggest both T2 armor and shield at this point, then go for your spellsword. You’ll need it to maintain your abilities, which you’ll mainly use to secure kills. Your B is mainly used to get your stacks up to full when needed, your A is a finisher, and your C is both a finisher and initiator. After you’ve got armor, serpents, and spellsword, go for another heavy blade, then get your crit item. Push to get your breaking point, then get your crit. Your last item will be the sorrowblade. You don’t need it to finish a match but having it at the end, along with your slumbering husk, will make your end game that much more potent. As WP SAW, you don’t have to worry as much in your range, but enemies who outrange you will give you a hassle. As others have said, pushing turrets and lanes is your main objective. Draw enemies to you and make them regret tempting fate. As for abilities, you want to start with your A then get B, max your A asap then Max C then lvl 4 B.

Now as CP SAW, you want to get an energy battery and a heavy shard first, and your first ablility should be your B. As CP SAW, the game is to snowball and play it safe at the beginning. You want to aim for your eve of harvest as soon as possible, upgrading to heavy shard first. After you’ve got an eve, get an hourglass, then get a piercing shard. That will help your early dmg immensely. Next, get at least 2 T1 defense items. After, you want to go for a heavy shard again to complement your piercing shard. Next, get your defense to T2 and go for a clockwork. You’re not going to be doing amazing dmg at this point and it will be midgame so you’ll still be playing it safe, but having your abilities on a lower cooldown will help you immensley as CP saw. Next you want to get your power spike in a shatterglass. Once you get this, you’re not out of the clear. Upgrade your piercing to a broken myth, and you should be good for the rest of the game, but after, upgrade defense to a husk and get another crystal shard. As for abilities, you want to again get b first, then a, then get at least 2 points in C before you max B. Then you want to max your C and get lvl 4 B. Some people would disagree, but your A, in a realistic match, will always be a finisher or escape rather than a essential fight ability. As CP SAW, your positioning must be exceptional. You must be patient and line enemies up to take the full hit of your B. Don’t chase kills. You have to wait until the end game to that. Also as CP SAW, you must manage your ult missle count. That is your main source of kill power besides finishing with A and you can’t waste ult missles on minions. You will only basic attack when your ult isn’t up. If it is, use your B and let turrets and teamates clear minion waves unless it is absolutely necessary. You are an assassin instead of a pusher as CP SAW. Never forget that. Do not be afraid to jungle early game to at least get a crystal orb, but keep your distance and use your cams. As an alternative on CP SAW, I would suggest a SuperScout instead of clockwork. Your abilities won’t be up as often so you’ll have to master timing even more, but the extra vision for both yourself and your team will help you a lot as CP SAW.

In summary, CP SAW is a mid-late game assassin and viable against ranged heroes to a degree, while WP SAW is a close range, in your face deleter who chews through enemies over a few seconds rather than nearly instantly and punishes all enemies in his range rather than just 1-2, which is about as many kills you’ll get with CP SAW without your team, maybe 3.

Also of note: CP SAW almost always beats WP SAW if you pit them against each other.

Lastly, generally CP SAW is good against non CC heroes. Interruptions in any ability will hurt you badly, as your damage sources are few and far between and come with long cooldowns. Non CC heroes will suffer from a 3-4ths to full build CP SAW as one barrage of C will be enough to kill at least 2-3 enemies, especially if you’ve readied the chamber already, which means you use C and load your missles then wait until your C is on cooldown again so you can use up your already loaded missles and then reload again instantly to double the barrage. CP SAW is heavily weak to CC and long range heroes.

WP SAW is best against any hero that has to attack in his range, and turrets (also of note, CP SAW is not as good with pushing turrets as WP SAW, but is better at capturing all objectives with his A). Anyone who outranges him will punish him, and he has no real response, unlike his CP counterpart. Anyone in his range will usually die, and fast. He is a deathtrap, and when supported by a team, a walking grim reaper. Time your B use effectively, and your A. Don’t waste building full stacks if you don’t have to, as you might need it when jumped. WP SAW can also effectively jungle, and well.

If there’s anything I haven’t gone over, let me know and I’ll re-edit this to address it reasonably.

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Thanks for the in depth response this helps a lot!

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I’m sorry, but that just isn’t ideal. First, you’re missing boots. That can work, situationally, but you are amping up straight WP without armor pierce, and supplement it with just one crit item. That means your crits happen 1/3 hits, and the damage increase over time is negligible.
Cooldowns on WP Saw are mostly irrelevant, so Spellsword is a waste of a slot.

The baseline should likely be: Boots, Def, 4x damage.
For a crit build with some sustain, you can go Serpent’s Mask and then pick between these options: 3x Tyrant’s Monocle / 2x Tyrant’s Monocle + Breaking Point / 2x Tyrant’s Monocle + Bonesaw

The entire CP build recommendation is similarly sub-optimal. First, it can pay off to start with Book of Eulogies (and even Weapon Blade as second item) for sustain. Shard and Battery are no foregone conclusion.
Second, Eve of Harvest is simply not a good choice on Saw. It looks awesome on paper, but the HP you recover does not add up vs the utility and damage output you lose in that slot.
Following your suggestion, you will be irrelevant as a damage source until your 3rd completed item (meaning the percentage of HP recovered is also marginal when totalled), with a described playstyle for CP Saw that includes both “snowballing early” and “playing it safe”.

Most experienced CP Saw players will go Shatterglass first, the majority of times. Personally, I like the utility of a Frostburn. You will still lose out on damage, but turning your C into an AoE slow is kinda neat. Also helps with escapes, when you shank your pursuer and roll away.

To break it down: Boots, Def, 4x damage
One of the damage items can be Clockwork or Aftershock (but probably not both), and then you can find your own balance between raw damage (stacking Shatterglass) and utility (Frostburn and Spellfire).

How to SAW:

  1. Start the queue.
  2. Choose a better hero.
  3. Push lane.
  4. ???
  5. Profit.
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You don’t need boots on saw with cooldown and proper positioning. Your A on 4 or Max is a 5-6 second cooldown dash once you build T3 items, making it redundant to build boots. I agree that you could add armor pierce, but seeing as SAW has sustained high dps as WP, he’s going to chew through enemies anyway, and I don’t see the abilities of the armor pierce items as worth the loss of dmg on WP saw, as TB becomes irrelevant with his att speed annld bonesaw is not applicable if an enemy escapes, especially if you’re solo pushing a lane. The cooldown and energy along with dmg spellsword provides gives you a means to use your abilities to either evade, engage, or finish enemies with the bonus missing health dmg.

I don’t believe in buying wp items to start if you’re going cp, as all heroes can survive in their playstyle as cp effectively with good strategy. Eve of Harvest provides sustained healing during the time when saw is stacking hits with his C, as well as his B, and can provide a last minute chunk of health with his A. Aftershock is useful on CP SAW for dmg but I don’t find his cooldowns to be worth it, however it is easier to get kills as a CP SAW with Aftershock early. Unfortunately yes, you are irrelvant as CP SAW early to a degree. Pushing dmg first is not completely practical on CP SAW because your killing power is in 9 second bursts at minimum. Agreed that frostburn is a grest pick on SAW but I prefer the extra dmg over the slow as enemies with dashes will escape anyway.

Had an 80%+ WR on Saw when I used to play her, so here are some of my tips.

WP Saw:
Build:
SM TM TM TM Journey Boots Slumbering Husk
Max B, then A, and 0 points in C until you have to.
At the start, buy BoE and Weapon Blade. Harass the enemy laner, take their healer treant if you can. If you are partying with the jungler you can take the Gold Toad and Weapon Buff to dominate the lane even more (in certain circumstances you don’t want to do this).
Deny the enemy laner farm. Do this by trading in lane. Whenever they go in to last hit the minion, attack them. They will either lose the gold or take massive damage. You can also zone out the enemy laner, by camping just outside their turret range and attacking them whenever they come in your range. Makes sure you don’t die of ganks this way, get some vision in the area. Your B is also great to deal some chip damage.
Around 6 minutes you should take a turret. Saw falls off fast in mid game. Use his strong early game to your advantage. He can 1v1 pretty much any hero early game, and even 1v2. In the bot lane, you are 2v1’ing the enemy top laner, so you shouldn’t be dying at all, and getting in some nice kills.
If you have a jungler that can gank well, like glaive, its a lot better. A proper afterburn will guarantee you a kill and a massive gold and experience lead.
When you start getting crit, you will be doing massive damage regardless of the armour the enemy buys. This is your time to shine. You will melt enemies and turrets like butter, so get your roamer, and push! Push hard, but also push smart. If you see mid or roamer or jungler disappearing, don’t continue pushing. Push at times when you know the enemies are going to be unable to help their top laner. By around 15 minutes you NEED to get the second turret or have a major gold lead for your team. You can solo GhostWing and with your roamer quickly kill BlackClaw
In teamfights, make sure to position yourself so you aren’t prone to being focused, but also are close enough to do damage. Unless 3 or more enemies have a Metal Jacket, don’t bother with Bonesaw. If you are dying to a mage with long range, boots into them whilst stutterstepping. You can kill them before they kill you. If your roamer is smart, they will buy Wartreads earlier for you.

Extra tip:
If you can learn to stutterstep with Saw, its going to make your experience with him so much better. His movement speed when you are stutterstepping isn’t too bad. Definitely do this when you are chasing enemies or are retreating against enemies. You can get in a lot more hits in by doing this, and even 4 hits can kill an enemy when you have crit. If you are fully spun up and don’t have your A, never try to run away without fighting, Its always good to fight instead of running away at the speed of a sloth. A cheeky thing I learnt when I mained Saw is that you can turret dive with full stacks. If the turret is currently attacking a minion, time your dive so that you attack the enemy just when it shoots. You can get in 4+ hits in and that should be enough to kill them, especially if you have crit. If there are no minions around, and the enemy laner is just outside of your range when you are outside the turret ring, you can go in, autoattack once and retreat. The turret takes time to shoot you, and by the time it aims you you will already be outside of its range. This takes some practise, but once you get the hang of it the enemy won’t even be able to go any further than their turret. Really good for zoning.

P.S if you are vsing a mage or enemy that has long range (Idris, skaarf, Celeste, Samuel, pretty much any hero with a skillshot), you won’t be able to be aggressive in lane. If you can’t be aggressive, you’ve pretty much lost cause your less of an asset in teamfights (during mid game) than other heroes (like ringo) as you are very slow and are easy to kill/run away from. In this case try to swap lanes with another ally or build SM BP Def Def Optional Journey Boots
Here you can sustain damage, and can still somewhat pressure the lane. You will shine more in teamfights/skirmishes where you can build BP stacks and do your crazy damage when you’re fully spun up. It will still be quite hard to position in teamfights without taking massive damage and still being able to not fall behind and be out of the fight completely.

OR go CP Saw
Start with double Crystal bit and your B. Save your B for the enemy or if the enemy isn’t there the minion wave/jungle monsters.
CP Saw build is SG SF CW BM Slumbering Husk/Aegis Mage boots (forgot their actual name)
Max B then A, and only invest 2 points in C.
B is your main source of damage. Extremely high damage, kind of like Joule’s Ult but with slightly lesser damage and range, but with a slow and lesser cooldown. Use its range to your advantage, you can outrange most heroes.
Don’t dive in with your A unless you are guaranteed a kill and you know you won’t get cc’ed/have a reflex block. Bad Saw’s use their A to initiate in a teamfight, don’t do that cause you will most likely get stunned and deleted. Its alright in a 1v1 if you know you’ll do more dmg than you’ll receive.
You are mainly a mid game hero, where you can do MASSIVE damage in both teamfights and 1v1’s, so this is where you dominate.

Tldr:
If you can snowball, you will most likely win. If you fall behind, you most definitely will lose. If its equal, its up to your team to be coordinate with your slow ass, or you will lose.
If you know what you are doing, its not too hard to snowball. If you can, get a good roamer and jungler, and you’ll be raking in kills and turrets.

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