Introduction Top
Hi! I am Hardkore and I have been a fan of MOBA since DotA 1. I would like to welcome you to my guide about Crystal SAW. The menacing masked man of death. Let's get started!
Who is SAW? Top
SAW is a range-based hero with good escape mechanism
Roadie Run
Sprint Boots, excellent crowd-control
Suppressing Fire, and somewhat feared ultimate
Mad Cannon (due to the damage it inflicts). In decent to good matches, you as SAW is better off soloing in the main lane. DON'T PUT 2 HEROES IN THE MAIN LANE. Well, you can choose to do this if the opposing team does it too. But EXP will be shared amongst the two of you (and we don't want that). But if there's a dire need for you to go jungling, go ahead and jungle (since you can sweep jungles quite easily too).
Game Progression Top
I noticed I mentioned a lot of early game, early mid game, late game and so forth. Here I try to explain how I categorize each phase.
Early Game
People just bought their starter items. Most people will know what their role in the early game is s.t. Carry/Roamer/Ganker/Support etc. In here, do your best to level up and get as much gold as you can to buy your early game items.
Early Mid Game
People setup ganks, even with limited items, with teamwork you can kill enemies. Some heroes and gamers are exceptional and can kill 1-on-1 even with limited items. Don't be the one to feed.
Mid Game
You have your first core item
Shatterglass. Ganks are everywhere. Your
Suppressing Fire hurts a lot. So do your best to be a good teammate and pull some ganks / provide good defense.
Late Mid Game
You have all your core items now. Usually the battle ends here (due to the Surrender feature). Don't let the game drag too long because late game enemy carries can turn the tide.
Late Game
All six item slots are filled with final items. Game is too long already. Find a way to beat your enemy. Should one more Kraken do the job? Should you dive and destroy their turrets and Vain crystal? Whatever the decision is, this will spell your victory or loss.
Why Crystal SAW? Top
Although I have read some guides saying Crystal SAW is nerfed. I have played as Crystal SAW in version 1.1.1 and he is still a monster (this is based on the early guides I have read about Crystal SAW). To play as Crystal SAW, these are your strengths (Mid Game items shown):
Your
Roadie Run and
Suppressing Fire HURTS LIKE HELL (coz of
Shatterglass)
You can farm creeps quickly = more gold (coz of
Suppressing Fire and
Shatterglass)
You have excellent mana recovery (coz of
Void Battery and
Chronograph)
You have quick ability cooldown (coz of
Chronograph)
You have superb escape mechanism (
Travel Boots and
Roadie Run)
Why not Weapon SAW? Top
As Weapon SAW most of your game will happen late mid game to late game. As Crystal, you can help your team even in early mid game. The main theme here is to stay in the heat of the battle as much as possible, teleport to base only when critical. Your
Suppressing Fire will start hurting when you add the components for
Shatterglass, (namely,
Heavy Prism and
Eclipse Prism), and you can use this to harass the main lane or to support/initiate/kill in jungle ganks.
I have played against Weapon SAW's already, heck, I even played a lot as Weapon SAW before. I noticed he is just too slow/drains quickly for my type of play.
Late mid to late game, fighting a Weapon SAW 1 on 1 will hurt you even if you have defensive items. Speaking of defensive items, normally I use
Metal Jacket, but
Atlas Pauldron's 65% attack speed reduction looks really tempting. If the enemy plays all out Weapon items. You need to gank/stun him with a teammate. Finish him off with your
Roadie Run.
Item Build Explanation Top
First off, an
Energy Battery is a must for your sustainability. This will allow you to dish more
Suppressing Fire versus a Weapon SAW. This will allow you to harass your opponents early in the game.
Halcyon Potion should be used when your health is around 50%. I am quite sensitive when it comes to my HP. As much as possible I try to have full HP whenever possible.
Early Game
We prepare the components for our
Shatterglass. This is important to make our abilities more effective. As you can see, I prefer to have my items as Tier-2 because they are cheaper. Therefore, before building Shatterglass, I purchase a
Chronograph first.
Mid Game
Upgrade to
Shatterglass. Going with the theme of Tier-2 items. We upgrade to
Void Battery and
Travel Boots next.
Late Mid Game
Our core items are complete. As you can see, the only Tier-2 is
Void Battery. Actually you can decide here whether to make it a
Frostburn or
Eve of Harvest (Check the Sideboard). You can also purchase any of the Sideboard items. Never forget to bring
Halcyon Potion and other consumables like
Scout Trap and
Flare Gun.
Early to Mid Game Top
Since this is an advance guide, always insist to play as solo in main lane. The other two will play as roamer/ganker.
Here I will provide the things you need to remember in order to survive and flourish.
Most of these things will apply to any hero.
Focus on last hitting creeps
This is an important skill for you as a MOBA gamer to master. Do some practice on your own. Killing a creep will earn you gold.
Don't stack too much
Spin Up when facing 2+ enemies
This is true if you don't have
Roadie Run available. Else, you are a sitting duck facing enemy fire. Normally, even if you have full
Spin Up, enemy damage still hurts a lot (especially if there are 2+ enemies hitting you).
Always look on your mini/bird's view map
The map on the top-right portion of the screen is a
VERY IMPORTANT component of the game.
1. The map is where we setup plays (Use GO command to tell the team where you would like EVERYONE to be at)
2. Show where NOT to go (Use AVOID command), you can also use this to inform your teammates where enemies are mostly at
3. Show where you like to go (Use the On-My-Way (OMW) command)
4. Check the status of our defenses (including
Scout Trap)
5. Inspect the
Center Gold Mine... I'll make a chapter for this later :)
6. See where your teammates and enemies are
Stay alert for missing enemies
Missing enemies may result in your death. There are ways to lessen it though / if not avoid.
1.
Scout Trap - this 50 gold item can save your ***. Place it within the bush near your front-most turret (left side of Kraken)
2.
Flare Gun - this is a more expensive option but will make all enemies visible for a short amount of time.
3. Don't stray too far - the right bush near Kraken is the usual ambush spot. You can plant a mine here but this spot usually detonates the mine (you will spend more when you place your mines here)
Use your turret for protection
Turrets increase damage to heroes progressively and early game this results in a quick death for everyone. Use this for your protection. Enemies thinking they can dive in and kill you will result in quick gold for you. Play smart. I will provide a chapter for Tower diving in the future :)
Harass enemies with
Suppressing Fire (smartly)
Having said that, use it when you have
Roadie Run available (if you like to activate this ability and you know your current position is risky). Suppressing Fire is a long-duration ability, meaning if you fail to hit your mark and enemies out-maneuver you, they can earn free hits/or even kill you.
Your goal is to get your mid to core items quickly.
Also be aware/alert on these things...
Check/Attack/Defend center gold mine
Support team for possible ganks
Aid allies when being ganked
Check your health, don't feed your enemies
Why max the first 2 abilities? Top
Check out the Level 4
Roadie Run in comparison to a Level 5 Roadie Run...
Cooldown
Lv4 - 10.5s
Lv5 - 9s
Missing Health
Lv4 - 28% (meaning if enemy lost 500 HP, you deal 140 damage)
Lv5 - 45% (here if the enemy lost 500 HP, you dish out 225 damage)
Base Damage
Lv4 - 300 damage
Lv5 - 380 damage
Why Level 5 then? Because it can KILL your opponent quickly.
Now let's check
Suppressing Fire...
Slow Duration
Lv4 - 2s
Lv5 - 3s (this is a lot of enemy slow status)
Total Damage
Lv4 - 610 damage
Lv5 - 1030 damage (this is significant)
It's a no-brainer why we shouldn't Level 5 Suppressing Fire then... right?
Now let's check
Mad Cannon...
Cooldown
Lv4 - 80s
Lv5 - 60s (Not important to us since we have
Clockwork
Number of Shells
Lv4 - 7
Lv5 - 9 (Also not important since we can easily replenish our shells with
Clockwork)
Wait is that all? Energy cost is also higher (we don't want that). Clearly, there is no need for a level 3 Ultimate here since you can do SO MUCH MORE with both Roadie Run and Suppressing Fire at Level 5.
Ability: Roadie Run Top
Roadie Run increases damage proportionally to the amount of crystals you have. It is better to hit your enemies with this ability if they have lost a portion of their health. Roadie Run is an awesome skill. It has several functions.
Catch up a fleeing hero
Roadie Run to chase the hero
Travel Boots to run even further
Basic hit with
Mad Cannon shells
Slow and let your teammate have the kill / score the kill with
Suppressing Fire
Escape the scene with another
Roadie Run
Run away like crazy
Roadie Run >
Travel Boots > Walk a bit >
Roadie Run and more
Roadie Run
When you perform this ability and make a successful hit with your dagger, you perform a leap backwards based on the direction you hit the enemy. Be careful when choosing the direction to hit your enemy. Find a direction where you will not be too far from the enemy so you can land a few good
Mad Cannon hits.
In my experience, even level 12 heroes are at the mercy of this skill. I noticed though that Shield reduces the damage to some degree... I tried hitting a Level 12 tanky-build
Catherine and shamefully walked away.
At the time of this writing, there is a bug for this ability. The bug is, sometimes when you are already within dagger-distance to your enemy YOU WON'T STAB. Instead, you run (
towards your enemy, even if he/she is in front of you already) then pause a bit and run some more (in short, you are a sitting duck waiting to be killed). The beauty of this skill is the STAB DAMAGE and the BACKWARD LEAP. If you can't do any of those it sucks. I experienced this a few times and missed some kills. Twice, I paid the price by feeding because of this bug. It has already been reported though and hopefully will be fixed on the next patch.
Ability: Suppressing Fire Top
Suppressing Fire is your main farming/harassing skill. As your crystal damage increases, so does the damage of this ability. With low cooldown and high mana regeneration, I cannot stress this enough... SPAM THIS SKILL.
Use this to quickly eliminate creeps
Use this to harass fleeing or attacking heroes
This skill has an added slow effect, with crystals, you are ensured your enemies will either fight you or flee with low HP. Follow this up with a
Roadie Run (or if you are still pursuing the enemy, finish it with another Suppressing Fire).
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