am i the only one getting pummelled by saw? in 3v3 he wasnt so bad but now i get like an eighth of my health taken away by a saw and his speed is almost the same as mine. i think saw really needs a nerf
2 Likes
Just an FYI, threads of this nature should be in either #vainglory-discussion:the-salt-mine or #vainglory-discussion:heroes-builds-and-items - but honestly it’s more a rant and is likely to fall under the former.
EDIT: why do those links look like that!?
To answer your post,
Yes and no.
SAW can be a real pain in the ass. I see whole teams during 3v3 struggle to approach him, even worse I see teams in 3v3 outright scared to approach him, even to gank. The first biggest issue I find is that a lot of players don’t want to die trying to kill SAW, even if it means they can kill him. Nobody wants to be the dude that got killed multiple times trying to take down a SAW. So they wait for someone else. Then it’s just a mess of people trying to approach him, getting shot once or twice, then retreating. Then everyone gets upset.
The trick is to approach him correctly, and there’s no other way around it. When SAW has full spin on his weapon, he has awful movement speed. He’s best to gank around this time but he’s also arguably his most dangerous because he’s shootin’ away all those huge hits you and your teammates are worried about. Based entirely on my own solutions and experiences, this is what I suggest:
-
Approach him with an Atlas Pauldron, if you are willing or able to get that item and can get close enough to him without dying, activating it, and getting some hits in. Sometimes, someone has to get in range of using it, die for the cause, then let their teammates do the rest of the work. Be careful regardless.
-
Wait until he uses Suppressing Fire, which will give him a tiny window of immobility and will give you and your teammates a small opportunity to get close to him without him being able to directly target any of you. If you can apply #1 to this at this time, do it.
-
Kite the ever-loving hell out of him. This can be difficult but can be learned with time, and it may never be perfect, but, having a speedy-footed hero that can move in, shoot, and move out enough times to harass him, you should be alright. This brings me into a last point:
-
Don’t focus on trying to kill him instantly, unless you’re fairly late game and have the confidence that you can do it. Harass him. Slowly take his health down in little pieces and use this strategy to keep him from having the confidence to push.
If anyone else can add anything or correct anything in my response that’d be great. But yeah, SAW is a pain in the butt, but far from a problem if you deal with him properly.
2 Likes
you’re forgetting Saw’s Lord and Saviour, adagio the ranged healer who backs him every time anyone tries to touch him.
I had to deal with this duo mid lane as Samuel… I must’ve pinged “i need help” like 5 times… why can’t I get help when i want it…
They’re busy pushing bottom lane… and uno what’s the most annoying thing? after 5 minutes of intense pushing bottom lane… they didn’t even take down 1 turret… meanwhile my mid lane is gettin destroyed because I needed to go back to shop…
3 Likes
Well, just somehow try to hold lane until your jungler and one of your laner rotates to the lane, and then all in him.
there is no jungler. it was 3 bottom. 1 mid. 1 top…
can you imagine that? 3 guys pushing bottom and still couldn’t take down a turret? i was completely dumb founded.
i ended up jungling and letting the mid die… because i was getting killed and I was kinda hoping one of them would grow a brain and take mid.
but nope… 3 still pushing bottom and top lane ringo still pushing top … so when they pushed mid to the base turret… YAY, finally get some help. lol.
it’s all good. its only Casual. They was probably trying something new.
Celeste counters Saw really really well.
1 Like
yup. agreed. which is why i was pinging celeste to come to mid and help… 
O boi…reminds me of the match when I ran into a trioQ who went all supports and constantly kept pushing mid…
No bot lane, had a top baron who kept feeding and I was the jungler…
I tried to save the bot lane, hoping that somehow the 3 supports can push mid, ofc they couldn’t and enemies were 2 top, 1 mid (lol) and 2 bot…
We lost like all bot and top turrets before taking their mid and then I just gave up and surrendered…
Was funny watching them trying to damage a saw who had SM and he just undid the damage done to him. Not once btw did the ardan/Lyra/grace come to help me or the Baron, and ofc I lost a 2v1 and couldn’t even farm my jungle.
He really isn’t OP, sure he’s strong when he is spun up, and this can be annoying to deal with; but he also has zero mobility. Let him clear his lane, drop back and farm under your turret. If he wants to over extend have your jungler gank him hard (decent junglers should be aware of his early game threat and rotate to keep him in check) if he keeps over extending keep ganking him.
Bad saw players have a tendency to push and over extend, that’s saws nature as he has extremely good early game clear. Reality is you’ll probably lose first turret, but again this isn’t an issue because if he continues to push he’ll over extend.
Right now Gwen and CP Vox are meta (for me); Vox is oppressive and is more than capable of dealing with saw especially once he’s completed his AC. And Gwens reduction on boomstick combined with a TB make her an early game monster.
You’re running into low tier players. In 3 v 3 in low tier saw is a god because they don’t work together to counter his early game power spikes, this is being transferred to 5v5.
If you got a decent jungler they’ll be rotating regaurly to offer support. Problem is your probably stuck with a tier 5 noob run in around causing mayhem.
1 Like
Let’s not rule out that Saw is a lot stronger(Meta) this update than normal. lol
But yes he’s easy counter.
1 Like
They nerfed him this update, his range and HP were reduced.
2 Likes
She destroys him after hitting level 8 but she can’t get close to him before that. She just needs to survive the early game.
Few can (Skarf maybe Celeste); just need to weather those first five minutes. After that he’s very easy to counter.
True, I just finally went threw patch notes. Opps… lol I must have read that somewhere.
Celeste can drop Saw at any point in the game. A, b, a while basic attacking during first wave will kill Saw. Just wait for him to use his B and he’s dead. lol
I feel Ike Celeste is underrated in 5v5.
1 Like
Range was the big nerf, used to be impossible to engage with him early on when he was spun up.
He is still strong I just don’t think he’s so strong that he needs to be nerfed anymore. His win condition is early game snowball take that away and he becomes a little potato
I predict that Celeste is going to be meta in 5v5; shes got huge AEO potential, built in vision, stuns and benefits from the CP buff as well as changes to SF etc. She was a late game monster in 3v3 and I expect it’ll be the same if not better in 5v5.
Mobility is the issue once the first turrets are down - she definitely works but you have to build your comp around her.
His weakness is burst damage krul. Trust me, i’m a god of 5v5.
1 Like
Good saws are a headache but in op.