INTRODUCTION Top
Hi everyone! I'm
ExarKun, a long time player of Vain Glory (even going back to its Kindred:Asunder days) and this is my guide for Breaking Point
SAW! Ever since the update that added
Joule, Crystal SAWs have been nerfed to the point of extinction. Weapon is the way to go now, and I have jumped the bandwagon to the Weapon SAW supporters.
Most weapon SAWs never miss a
Serpent Mask since it is one of the best complements to SAWs
Spin Up passive skill. The main difference can be seen with what they go with to compliment it. Most of the time, players go with the pure attack power route, going with multiple
Sorrowblade or using a
Tension Bow to complement their
Serpent Mask. Others choose the Attack Speed Route to fully capture the Life Steal of Serpent Mask, using
Tornado Trigger and
Alternating Current.
Each of those builds have their own strengths and weaknesses. So let me introduce you to a new kind of SAW that is highly reliant on mind games.
EARLY GAME Top
STARTING ITEMS:
Weapon Blade and 2x
Halcyon Potion
GOAL: Farm the lane as long as possible to get enough gold to buy
Heavy Steel.
TIPS:
- Don't be afraid if your facing
Ringo or
Adagio in the opposite lane; if your stacks are at max, you could kill them before they can kill you in a 1v1 scenario.
- If enemy team has either
Joule,
Catherine, or
Glaive,
stay alert!
- If it's a
Joule, minimize your use of Suppressing Fire. SAW, while using this skill, is extremely vulnerable to a Rocket Leap. The stun takes away your max Spin Up stacks so you're at a disadvantage in battle. Best bet is to just build stacks using normal attacks and Roadie Run as soon you see a the landing radius of Joule's Rocket Leap.
- If it's
Catherine, don't attack near the brushes since she could come out of there and stun you and reset your stacks. OR you attack while in the brushes (their side, not yours) so you can see her coming and you can Roadie Run yourself out of there.
- If it's
Glaive, rarely go beyond the center circle of the compass to farm since Glaive could Afterburn and knock you back to their turret. At Level 1, you have no chance of escaping since you don't have Roadie Run yet.
-
Go into the jungle to support your teammates at your own risk! Remember that your strength is in the lane with your Spin Up stacks. Chasing down weak enemies or escaping from an early game team fight in the jungle is terribly costly with SAWs abysmal move speed.
- Once you have
Heavy Steel just keep farming the lane. No need to become more aggressive. Just keep at it until you really need to go back to base to heal... or you died since you got caught in a 3 on 1 attack while using Suppressing Fire (it happens if you're not careful). By the time this happens, you should have enough gold to buy a
Serpent Mask
WAIT A MINUTE! I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BREAKING POINT BUILD!? Top
You may be wondering, if this is a
Breaking Point SAW, where's the Breaking Point? The Breaking Point comes next. It's better to buy a
Serpent Mask over a
Breaking Point at this stage of the game. Here are my reasons for not building a
Breaking Point first:
- There are rarely any team fights at this stage. The strength of Breaking Point is to have all three enemy heroes engaged in a team fight with your team and have that team fight last long so that you get enough BP stacks. With the rarity of a team fight, Breaking Point as your first Tier 3 item may not be as effective as Serpent Mask
- Lack of Hero fights would waste your early game farming capability. Serpent Mask grants +90 damage and +20% Weapon Life Steal, which are both important to early to mid game farming. Higher damage = faster farm. Higher sustain = longer time staying in the lane.
With that said...
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BUY A BREAKING POINT!? Top
From my experience, buy it once the first turret is destroyed (whether the opponent's or yours). Destroying the first turret highly increases the probability of team fights happening, so the Breaking Point becomes a whole lot more useful.
How to fully utilize Breaking Point with SAW:
-
ABS (Always Be Stacking) - Keep attacking with SAW and, as much as possible, don't let your
Spin Up stacks reset. The stacks are important so that once an enemy hero decides to engage, you would have enough attack speed to fully utilize the 1 or 2 Breaking Point stacks you implemented per second, before they realize you're doing way too much damage and they decide to run away... or DIE.
-
In a 1v2, stand your ground.
If their taking turns to attack you, all the better for you since you keep stacking Breaking Point and you get some of your life back with life steal. If their attacking you at the same time, there is a chance you'll die and it's best to Roadie Run out of there. BUT, if it's a Ringo or Krul or Petal, don't run just yet. With maximum Spin Up stacks, you'll probably kill both of them first (with the right use of Reflex Blocks and Mad Cannon. Plus, don't forget, the Breaking Point is adding up every second they engage you) before they can kill you. At the very least, you could take out one of them out before the other kills you. Check their builds also, if they have Reflex Blocks, it would be best not to engage in a 1v2.
NOW THAT I'M BREAKING POINT SAW... WHAT'S NEXT? Top
Depending on what's happening in your game, once you have Breaking Point, the play style and item purchase order would be different.
Play Style General Rule: Serpent Mask is for sustain, Breaking Point is for the kill. So if you can't sustain enough, or you can't kill them fast enough:
RUN.
-
If you guys are winning the lane battle, and you have a higher level than your opponents:
-
Play Style: play the bully.
- Stand your ground and just attack minions, and attack the enemy hero that dares to kite you or come near you. (Except maybe Joule, Catherine, or Glaive).
-
Item Purchase Order: Another Serpent Mask would be your priority. The Reflex Blocks come next for added situational defense. With the right timing of Blocks and use of Mad Cannon, you could even take teams on 2v3. The Boots become optional if you're really dominating. A Shiversteel could be useful so that your opponents can't run away from your devastation.
-
If your team has a lower level than the opponents' but you're at least winning the lane:
-
Play Style: Keep to the early game strategy.
- Levels in a team fight matter (especially in a public match without any good communication), so stick to what you've been doing. Don't be overly aggressive, let your teammates take the front lines. If your teammates are squishy like Ringo or Petal, they'll probably be the targets before you, so stand your ground in a team fight and just keep attacking the enemy heroes. With Breaking Point and Serpent Mask, being avoided by an enemy hero while you're attacking them (since they have their sights on your dying teammate and your initial damage isn't great yet without multiple BP stacks) is a fatal mistake for them.
-
Item Purchase Order: Buy a Reflex Block then Boots. The Boots become crucial in this scenario since running away may be a lot more beneficial than killing one hero but ultimately dying. You are trying to keep your advantage in lane, and dying won't help in that regard. Especially since your team level isn't as high as theirs. Another Serpent Mask would be the next. Last would be the other Reflex Block.
-
If you're the one underleveled
-
Play Style: Stay back, stick to the turret or with your teammates. Don't lose hope if you're underleveled and you've died a few times. Breaking Point SAW is beautiful in the late game when the enemy team starts to become overly aggressive and start sticking together. It only means MORE STACKS for your Breaking Point (if you stay alive in the team fight that is... so Reflex Block(s) would be essential).
-
Item Purchase Order: It's best you start building a Reflex Block (actually, make that two) to counter the reason for your underleveling. If you are underleveled, it usually means you've become the majority meat for the enemy team's Hero Sausage McMuffin. Buy Sprint Boots in between purchases of the Reflex Blocks, and convert them into Travel Boots once you have 2x Reflex Blocks.
WOULDN'T BONESAW BE MORE EFFECTIVE!? Top
Aaaaaah. You finally asked the most crucial question (Actually, I asked the question.
BUT YOU WERE THINKING IT!). Anyway, and these observations are just based on experience and not some advanced statistical mumbo-jumbo that I calculated:
Breaking Point is more effective in late game team fights than Bonesaw (
in a selfish kind of way).
How can I prove it to you with just my experience you ask? Are you just going to take my word for it? Of course not! So here's the statistical mumbo-jumbo that I calculated in order to show you my experience is based on numbers! I mean... based on experience! Backed up by numbers! Or... something.
Anyway, in a late game 3v3 brawl, it's common that players tend to think less of their own HP bar and focus on their targets. The tankier the hero, the more this becomes prevalent (Remember,
MIND GAMES). With that said, the more these tanky heroes don't notice a huge chunk of their life being taken out; the more they'll engage. Hence, in the long run, the more tendency for them to get killed since your damage suddenly spikes up and they end up being blindsided. (
I thought you said there are numbers involved? I'M GETTING THERE!)
So, onto the numbers:
If SAW is at Level 12 with the complete set of items I've listed (2 Serpent Masks and
Breaking Point), this would be his Weapon Damage: 90.8+15+(90*2)=
285.8
With
Bonesaw, it would be this: 90.8+30+(90*2)=
300.8
You did all that to prove yourself wrong?
WAIT! That's not DPS!
With Breaking Point and Maximum Spin Up, DPS would be: [1.12+(1.12*.3)+(1.12*.4)]*285.8=
544.16 DPS
With Bonesaw and Maximum Spin Up, DPS would be: [1.12+(1.12*.3)+(1.12*.5)]*300.8=
606.41 DPS
You're starting to make a fool of yourself. WAIT! There's more!
With Full 20 BP Stacks, here's your DPS: 544.16+300=
844.16
With Full 6 BS Stacks, here's your DPS:
606.41
You forgot to calculate the BS Stacks. NOPE. I didn't. That's your SAW's DPS with Bonesaw no matter how long the team fight lasts. But, again, THERE'S MORE!
With Full 20 BP Stacks DPS - Opponent's Armor: 844.16
With Full 6 BP Stacks DPS - Opponent's Armor: 606.41-(66*.6)=
580.01
(The 66 is the lowest armor possible in the game, Koshka at level 12 with no additional armor. I used it to calculate since it would mean the least amount that can reduce the DPS of Bonesaw.)
Wait... I DIDN'T FORGET TO CALCULATE FOR BP STACKS! With 20 stacks, that's full 100% Armor Pierce. You can bypass armor defense with 20 Stacks!
SO, YOU CONVINCED YET!? Hmmm. Isn't it almost next to impossible to get 20 BP Stacks? CRAAAAApfthshsfksfkjh.
You're right. That is a terribly inflated calculation of DPS. In a real game situation, that's almost impossible to get. So let's think realistically.
With an attack speed of 2.016 with Bonesaw, SAW can implement full 6 stacks in 3 seconds. So, let's calculate
DPS of Breaking Point with 3 stacks (which means 3 seconds): (544.16+45)-(66*.15)=
533.06
With Full 6 BP Stacks DPS - Opponent's Armor: 606.41-(66*.6)=
580.01
So, Bonesaw wins?
It's true that in those 3 seconds for Bonesaw to shred that armor, it is going to deal more damage. You have to remember though, that the scenario being a 3v3, only Koshka's armor would've been shredded. You're gonna have to start shredding again against the other heroes. By the time you get to that, you think you have enough life to sustain you to get a kill? Breaking Point stacks no matter which hero you're attacking. Once the team fight gets to 4 seconds of non-stop attacking, Breaking Point deals more damage than Bonesaw.
HA!
Where the hell do you find at least 4 seconds of team fight where heroes don't move out of range?
Ummm... hmmm...
Okay, admittedly Breaking Point is highly dependent on a long team fight where your Breaking Point SAW is not the one being targeted. Whereas a BoneSAW would help the team in that fight since it shreds enemy hero armor.
YOU MADE ALL THIS TROUBLE TO TELL ME THAT THERE'S A BETTER BUILD WITH BONESAW!? Top
Yeah. Deal with it.
Kidding! What I noticed with Bonesaw that didn't make it as effective in my experience (Yeah, I'm going back to experience here) is that the quicker I shred their armor, the faster they disengage from the fight, the less I get the kill since I can't catch up to them without endangering myself.
With
Breaking Point SAW, opponents tend to engage a lot more. Especially tanky
Joule and even other SAWs. So again, this goes down to the
mind games that
Breaking Point gives.
The initial damage they'd see isn't what's going to kill them, it's their thinking that they can kill you before you can kill them. That, is what's dangerous about BP SAW. You're using your opponent's hunger for kills against them.
Last few words: This is a really long guide that was probably a slog to read. If you made it this far, kudos to you! I'm not saying this is the perfect SAW build (there's even an argument that BoneSAW is better), but give it a try and see how it goes for you. Maybe BoneSAW is better and I'm biased. No matter the outcome for you, at least maybe you picked up some SAW play tips that could help you even with other builds.
See you guys in the Fold!
You call those words FEW!? SHADDAP VOICE IN MY HEAD!
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