Introduction
“There's...a giant...tree-person...next to me. Ha ha. Stay calm. Hi there. Stay calm!”
Timbersaw is a melee strength hero that is most commonly played as a solo offlaner, although occasionally he is placed in the mid role. Thanks to Reactive Armor and Timber Chain he has great lane sustainability and an escape mechanism, making him a viable offlaner despite being a melee hero.
Unusually for a strength hero, Timbersaw relies heavily on his abilities for damage output, which is a key reason he needs the experience the offlane or mid roles provide him. One of Timbersaw’s greatest strengths is that his abilities for the most part deal pure damage.
Timbersaw's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Has an escape mechanism
- Great lane sustainability
- Great burst damage, most of which is pure damage
- Can be very tanky
- Good enemy stat reductions
- Mobile and fun to play
- Very low cooldowns on abilities
- Scales reasonably well, but…
Cons
- …Not as well as most offlane/mid semi-carries
- Escape mechanism can be interrupted
- Needs levels and some degree of farm
- Can be hard to play effectively
- Mana intensive
Item Build
Timbersaw is most commonly played as a solo offlaner. Sometimes he is picked as the team’s mid laner, but this is more common in competitive Dota than public matchmaking. For the purposes of this guide I’ll be assuming you’re playing him in the offlane position. If you do go mid with him then you should definitely add Bottle to your list of core early game items.
Starting Items
To start with you need the usual combination of regeneration and stats. A casual Stout Shield is also advisable as a melee hero likely to be in a contested laning situation. A typical starting build for Timber is:
A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, a Stout Shield, and 2x Iron Branches.
Early Game Core
In the early game try to soak up as much experience as possible. With Reactive Armor, your consumable regen, and Stout Shield, you should be able to absorb a fair amount of harass, should the enemy carry and/or supports try to zone you out. Often the support will stack and pull instead, freeing you up to actually get some decent last hits.
Your goal is to get Arcane Boots up and running as quickly as possible. Grab early Boots of Speed to secure your position in the lane, and then grab the energy booster (either from the side shop or you can duck back to the secret shop).
Finally, upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand.
Mid Game Core
With your early core you’ll be able to take part in early fights. Grab a Tp Scroll and be sure to teleport to another tower if your allies ever get dove. Timber is a great fighter in the small area around towers because of the amount of trees nearby and his ability to slow enemies in a small AoE, so he’s good at punishing tower dives.
Now you want to work towards your Bloodstone, which is the go-to core item for Timbersaw. There are two ways to build this:
One is to buy a Point Booster and Vitality Booster separately, then save up and when you have the gold required purchase up Perseverance and disassemble your Arcane Boots at the same time, using the Energy Booster from those to buy a whole Bloodstone, leaving you with basic Boots of Speed that you can then go on to turn into Boots of Travel is you want later on. This is the build most pro players use, but it’s not as common in non-competitive Dota.
The other option is to build the Soul Booster component without disassembling your Arcane Boots. The benefit here is you get a mini-Bloodstone (the best of the health and mana bonuses, as well as decent regen) much sooner, and you get the regen from not just the Soul Booster but also from your Arcane Boots. The downside is it takes longer to build your overall Bloodstone.
Luxury Extensions
Once you have your Bloodstone built you really are ready to rumble. You have lots of mana and health, making you tanky, and a tonne of health and mana regen, meaning you can spam spells without worrying too much about mana consumption and you’ll rarely need to return to the fountain.
Now you have plenty of great high cost items to select from going forwards. Good luxury pick-ups on Timbersaw include:
Scythe of Vyse – A great luxury utility item for a mana-hungry hero. Scythe will gives you some good stats, great mana regen, and 3.5 seconds of disable that will benefit your entire team. Always a good item to get on Timber.
Shiva’s Guard – A nice chunk of intelligence, a good boost to your armour (which will make you much tankier than simply stacking more health), and yet another item that provides utility for your team thanks to the enemy attack speed aura and the active Arctic Blast. Another all-round great luxury item for Timbersaw.
Boots of Travel – If you used the Energy Booster from your Arcane Boots to help make your Bloodstone then BoTs are natural extension to your basic Boots of Speed. In the late-late game when you’re becoming 6 slotted it frees up a slot that would otherwise be taken by a TP. Will also allow you to rejoin the fight very quickly when you do die because the Bloodstone charges will often mean you respawn very quickly; with BoTs you can teleport straight back into the teamfight.
Aghanim's Scepter - On top of the additional stats it provides, Aghanim's grants Timbersaw access to a second Chakram, so he essentially has access to two ultimates and therefore twice the damage output potential from them.
The only drawback is that it has its own independent mana cost, just like your regular ultimate, so utilising both will quickly drain your mana pool. As a result, although it is a great luxury option, it is best only purchased after items like Scythe of Vyse or Shiva's Guard, so that you have the mana pool and mana regeneration to sustain heavy use of both Chakrams.
Black King Bar – A little bit more situational than the other items listed in this section, but nonetheless always a decent item to purchase on virtually any hero. If you find you’re being locked down in engagements (stuns can be particularly annoying because they will cancel your Timber Chain) then go for a BKB.
Heaven’s Halberd - Halberd will make you even tankier than you already are. 20 strength is a nice boost to your health pool, whilst 25% evasion means you'll mitigate a lot of damage. It also has utility for your team, thanks to the ability to Disarm an enemy physical DPS'er for 3.0-4.5 seconds. A great option to go for if the enemy carry is right clicking your team to death.
Blade Mail – A bit more of a defensive/passive option. Blade Mail is a good item to consider on Timber because, being a strength hero and having Bloodstone as a core item, you have such a large health pool. With Blade Mail you can use this to your advantage to take damage whilst return it to any fragile enemy DPS’ers that are foolish enough to hit you without a BKB. Blade Mail activation in low matchmaking will be ignored (meaning they die), and in mid-high tier matchmaking will often cause a knee jerk avoidance of attacking you unless you’re really low on health, allowing you to get off your damage combos with impunity for the duration.
Rod of Atos – A large chunk of health and mana, and a potent slow. This, along with Chakram (to slow) and Timber Chain (to pursue) will make you a superb chasing hero. Good for ganking and if your team is ahead, less useful if you’re playing on the back foot because the slow will be of little consequence to enemies.
Pipe of Insight – You’re a pretty good Pipe purchaser. Being naturally quite tanky means you’re unlikely to be insta-killed in teamfights, and your large mana pool (and mana regeneration) mean you can afford to cast Barrier without worrying about its impact on your mana pool. Arguably the most team-wide utility out of all the items listed in this section, Pipe of Insight will make it much easier for your team to break base.
Niche/Situational Item Pick-ups
A brief note for some more situational item choices for Timbersaw.
Bottle is core if you’re playing mid because of the potency a rune like Regeneration or Haste will have on Timbersaw.
Blink Dagger is sometimes picked up in the professional scene on Timbersaw, where positioning is so much more important. On us mere mortals, however, the gold is probably better spent on something else.
Mekanism. Timbersaw isn’t a common or ideal Mekanism purchaser, but it should be considered if the more natural purchasers on your team are too poor to afford it within a decent timing window. If someone else is working towards it you can safely ignore the item, but if your team really needs one (such as for early pushing, but they’re too poor to afford it), you can consider going for it before Bloodstone.
Drums of Endurance. They're cost efficient, easy to build into, and provide utility for your entire team with the move speed and attack speed auras. As one of the most cost-effective stat items in the game, the stat gain it provides a hero like Timbersaw- whose item progression revolves considerably purchasing stat-based items – makes it worthy of consideration, especially if you were forced to grab an early Bracer for whatever reason.
The major downside (and reason I’ve listed them as Niche on Timber) is that you want your Bloodstone up and running asap, meaning Drums would likely come after Bloodstone and Arcane Boots, at which point you may be better off just skipping straight to a more impactful luxury item. Still, it’s an item to consider if you’re poor and/or you want to bring some added utility to your team.
Skill Build
Skill Timber Chain first, because it is your escape mechanism. If you get ganked at level one Timber Chain is your best hope of surviving, even though it can be cancelled by stuns. For this reason try to avoid using it before the enemy disabler uses their stun. Often they’ll wait you out, in which case you’ve prevented them using the stun as they would ideally want to.
| Tip: Try to bait out stuns from good supports who are anticipating a Timber Chain. If you begin to cast the ability and immediately cancel this will sometimes cause enemy supports to jump the gun and stun you to cancel the anticipated Timber Chain. You can then use Timber Chain to safely escape once the stun duration has ended. |
Max Timber Chain first as well. On the face of it the damage doesn’t scale as well as that of Whirling Death (100/140/180/220 vs 100/150/200/250) but Whirling Death’s damage is magical unless you’re near a tree line, whereas Timber Chain’s is always pure damage. On top of that increased points in Timber Chain increase the ability’s range, allowing you to traverse greater distances.
A point in Reactive Armor is advisable at level 2 as you’re probably taking some measure of harassment in the lane, but it is maxed last. If you aren’t taking any lane harass then you can go all-in damage and not skill it at all if you want, but even then a value point is often worth it because it makes you that much more tanky.
Whirling Death is usually skilled first at level 4 but is maxed second after Timber Chain to max out your damage potential. Remember that Whirling Death will reduce the primary stats of any enemies hit by 15% for 7 seconds, so try and use it on the enemy cores during teamfights.
| Note: Whirling Death’s damage is magical unless a tree is cut down upon use (its radius is 300 units), in which case it becomes pure damage, so try to ensure you use it near trees. |
Always skill your ultimate, Chakram, whenever you can (levels 6, 11 and 16). It slows any enemies it hits, deals pure damage upon impact, and pure damage over time in a 200 AoE at the position chosen. This makes it a good ganking/chasing tool (cast it in front of wherever you expect enemies to move to), as well as a decent nuke.
Remember that whilst casting Chakram you cannot auto-attack, but you can use your other abilities. Combine Chakram with your other active abilities – Whirling Death and Timber Chain – to deal a huge amount of burst damage.
Gameplay Tips
Whirling Death deals pure damage if it cuts down a tree upon use. It goes without saying that you should try, whenever possible, cast it near tree lines so as to get the higher value damage out of the ability.
| Tip: You can cast abilities (and use TP Scrolls) whilst in the middle of being pulled towards a tree after casting Timber Chain. Try to time it so that you cast Whirling Death as you pass through enemies to deal even more damage. |
Use the impressive range of Timber Chain (800/1000/1200/1400) to skip over otherwise impassable train or take large short cuts, such as from one side of the river to the other.
Nature’s Prophet’s Sprout counts as summoning trees. This makes a Nature's Prophet on the enemy team something of a frenemy for Timbersaw, as you can use the Sprout trees to Timber Chain onto or to get pure damage from your Whirling Death. Unfortunately, the hero Treant Protector does not count as a tree for these purposes :(
Chakram is a good anti-push ability. If you send it out just in front of your tower/base, ahead of the oncoming enemy creep wave, you will slow and damage the enemy creeps, making their push much less effective.
Chakram can be similarly used to block off certain areas or chokepoints. If your team is retreating try to cast it behind you at any choke points to delay enemy pursuit. If chasing, cast it ahead of you at choke points to slow down an enemy retreat.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
