Build Strategy
As the title implies, you are meant to stay in the lane. By all means, help with the kraken or when a huge encounter is going on - an Ace can help decide a match. Keeping an eye on the field is key when playing any hero. But as
SAW your main objective is to keep pressure on the lane.
Use two hands when playing. The hand closer to SAW for movement and the other hand for targeting. Stay with your lane minions for early game protection. Hopefully you have another laner or tanky hero (
Ringo,
Petal,
Catherine,
Joule). For this reason, choose
Ironguard Contract as your starting item. You may start with less power, but when you're able to get tier 2 and tier 3 items quicker the tides will very much turn.
Have one eye on the action and one eye on your
Spin Up stacks. If you see an enemy near by, decide how likely you would be able to take them down if they're at full health. If the answer is yes, get max
Spin Up stacks and be ready to sit and shoot. If the answer is no, either let the stacks fall off for more mobility or use
Roadie Run to get out of there, depending on the urgency of the situation.
While
SAW is a great sniper, he is slow like a snail, he's even slightly snail colored! Keep this in mind (not the hero color palette joke). You most likely won't be the one to chase a
Koshka or a
Taka down. Come to terms with this and focus on obliterating enemies that commit to the encounter.
This may sound odd, but go ahead and mow down enemy lane minions. At 12 stacks of
Spin Up you'll most likely get the killing blow and, more importantly, you'll get to the enemy turret quicker. Plus, the healthier your lane minions are, the more they can help out against enemy heroes and turrents.
Item Choices
Most of my choices are straight forward.
Sorrowblade for raw damage.
Bonesaw for making more of your damage make it to your target faster.
Clockwork for energy regen and improved cooldown times and
Tornado Trigger for more mayhem even faster!
Looking through most of the top rated
SAW guides I don't see too many people using
Bonesaw. Some have
Breaking Point, which is awesome for a build focused on encounters but Lane Crusher is meant to be as effective towards turrets as heroes.
Serpent Mask isn't in the core of this build, but I do reccommend grabbing it if you can. It's a great compliment to the damage you will be dealing; a constant 20% lifesteal keeps you in the lane meaning less down time and more gold. The reason it isn't in the core is because the other items are of higher importance, and I don't always find myself getting around to picking one up.
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