Guide for Vainglory

The goal of this guide is twofold. Firstly, I want to give fellow  SAW players a guide that will help them improve their skills and give them good builds to follow. Secondly, I want to inform non-SAW players on how they can work with SAW and understand his limitations. By doing these things, I hope to reduce the controversy and salt that surrounds SAW.

Spawn Sprint: Whenever you spawn you should  Roadie Run right off the bat. There is no reason not to. The spawn gives you most of the energy back that you lose from using it. Once you reach mid game it basically gives it all back. The only possible setback is that you may not be able to use it right away when you get to your destination. But you shouldn't be using it right away 95% of the time. So use  Roadie Run when you spawn, always!

The Escape:  Roadie Run is one of the best escape tools in the game. Its a backup sprint that is always there. To ensure its always there make sure you don't use it unless you have to. (especially in lane!) And don't ever make the mistake of spending your second point on  Suppressing Fire to try to do extra damage. You will have no way to drop your stacks and run until level 3. I know its so tempting to try to kill that  Celeste or  Skaarf when they just won't stop with the pokes (#SAWproblems) but you gotta buy the  Roadie Run because the rest of the enemy team will squash you if they decide to come up to lane. You'll be a sitting duck with or without the spin stacks. Also, be aware that you move really fast with  Roadie Run with a CP build. This gives CP  SAW one of the fastest movement abilities in the game.

The Shank Escape: On top of the sprint,  Roadie Run also gives you a tactical roll when your stab something during the sprint. This allows you to light someone up and get a good distance away right after. But be careful with this tactic. Getting that close to the enemies leaves you very vulnerable. They can also still hurt you during the roll. There are some situations where you can get most of the sprint + roll for an even better escape. The gif below shows a good situation to do this.

Now in this scenario you are by your turret minding his own business when an enemy  Glaive pops out of your bush and afterburns you right into his turret's range. (typical  Glaive tactic) Him and  Fortress seem to have you and are going in for the kill. But don't worry, there is still hope! The first thing you do is activate  Roadie Run and make a beeline to the closest of the two gankers, in this case,  Fortress. Get to a point where you are to closer to your turret than  Fortress is, turn around so your back is directly facing the turret then SHANK that  Fortressand roll into safety. The defeated gankers will probably sulk back into the bushes. Don't be afraid to give them a parting  Suppressing Fire if its safe enough :^) (this tactic works with minions too, just be sure you are facing the right direction when you plant that knife)

The Wall Roll: Be aware that this is an advanced  SAW tactic. Even I have only used it a handful of times. Any pro knows that many abilities allow for clipping through walls on the map if the destination is past the wall. It can be done with the roll from  Roadie Run. Don't try to make situations where this can happen. It is not really worth it. Just keep in mind that it is possible.

In the scenario below,  SAW is getting hammered by  Krul and has too many weakness stacks to do anything. Luckily, for  SAW, he is right next to a wall that he can roll through.  SAW calmly plants the knife into  Kruland rolls through the wall into safety.

You can also use the Wall Roll to backdoor into the enemy base. If you take a look at the screenshots below you can see where you have to be to get it to work. You have to be facing the right direction and have the right angle for it to happen. Make sure you attack the bottom minion and step back carefully.

Note that this wall roll is VERY difficult to pull off and will take alot of practice. This tactic could prove useful if you need to sneak into the enemy base to finish off their crystal. Use at your own risk.

Minion Rolling/Gap Closing Roll: This is a semi-advanced  SAW custom maneuver that has many opportunities to be used tactically. However, I honestly don't think I've seen a  SAW on the fold that utilized this tactic effectively. (smh)

Basically, this tactic involves shanking minions or jungle monsters to get somewhere right away. A good example is a situation where a jungle 3v3 has broken out and the fight is starting to move away from you. Depending on where you are, it might be a good idea to shank a jungle monster to get within range of an enemy hero instantly and get off a few shots to finish them off. This same concept can be used in lane on a minion to surprise an enemy and potentially finish them off, or at least send them packing. Minion Rolling is also extremely useful when you have to clear enemy or friendly jungle monsters quickly.

The Finisher: The shank from  Roadie Run does increased damage based on enemy missing health. A good rule of thumb is that a shank will probably kill an enemy hero if they have 20% or less health remaining until it is overdriven. (be aware that a crystal build allows  SAW to do much more damage with the shank) Running up to an enemy and finishing them off with a shank is a very common  SAW tactic. One may think that enemies may become used to seeing it and prepare for it, but I've found that they mostly don't, even in higher ranked games! Even I forget that an enemy  SAW has that up their sleeve sometimes.

Any good  SAW knows the potential of the shank to surprise a melee enemy and finish them before they finish you. A good example is a  Krul that is slapping his stacks on you and is getting ready for the  Spectral Smite but has low health like you do. If you time it right you can shank him before he can drop that  Spectral Smite and get the kill. The timing for this tactic is difficult to master, but the more you attempt it the more you'll get used to the expected damage.

Protips for  Roadie Run:

Always have it as a escape. As stated earlier, you can't afford to not have it on the ready. Never allow yourself to be a sitting duck.

Don't try to finish off a ranged hero with  Roadie Run as a last resort if you're far away, especially if you're 1v1ing them. You will most likely die before getting to them.

Don't use  Roadie Run to run down to the jungle shop from lane unless your allies are near the shop themselves. If you get ganked in the jungle and don't have  Roadie Run, you have no escape. Doing this also drains ALOT of energy.

Combine  Roadie Run with your boots. Using one after the other will give you a huge lead on your foes in a retreat.

Don't attempt to turret dive with  Roadie Run for a kill unless you are very healthy and are sure you can do it. You look really dumb when you  Roadie Run under a turret and don't stab anything. You will also look very dead in a few moments :^)

The Suppressing Poke/Snipe:  Suppressing Fire has a big, but narrow, damage range. Dropping it on the enemy laner not only damages them, but slows them as well. If you anticipate their movement you can trap them deep in your Suppressing Zone and get a health advantage. Be aware that they can still attack when in the Zone. It is best to land this ability when the enemy is just on the border of the circle. Note that the Zone extends somewhat out of the selection circle. Don't anticipate this though, it leaves a margin for error. Try to land the  Suppressing Fire thinking the damage will only stay in the circle.

The Roadblock: This is a personal favorite of mine. I will explain this tactic with an example. The screenshot and gif below shows a retreating  Catherine trying to reach the safety of her turret. From the way its looking your team won't be able to catch up enough to finish her in time. Being the smart tactical  SAW you are, you drop the Suppressing Fire through the wall so it's placed right in front of  Catherine for some extra damage and the more important slowdown so your teammates can finish her off. That's the Roadblock in a nutshell.

The Suppressing  Suppressing Fire: This tactic actually holds true to the ability's name. There may be a scenario where your team has to fall back or retreat and the enemy is out of vision range. It may prove useful to drop a Suppressing Fire at your team's back to give the enemies a warning of what lies ahead. After all, you do get full spin afterwards, and nobody likes a full spin  SAW. You may even land some damage on the enemies. Just be careful when doing this as you do leave yourself vulnerable. This tactic is best used when you're healthy in case they call your bluff and charge at you.

The Iniating  Suppressing Fire: If you're feeling lucky or just want to catch the enemies off guard you could start a team-fight off with a  Suppressing Fire. Be aware this is VERY risky and I don't recommend doing it if you're new to SAW. There are pros and cons to this tactic:

Pros:

The enemies will have to choose to react or not react to your  Suppressing Fire. Whether or not they choose to attack they will no doubt have a slower reaction time to you. This buys you and your team a little time.

As mentioned earlier using  Suppressing Fire gives you a huge amount of aggro. While the enemies target you your teammates can get busy hammering away damage on the enemy team.

Cons:

You will be late in helping take out the enemy team if combat starts quickly. Since you are going to be the biggest damage dealer for your team this can be a really big disadvantage.

You might die! Even with armor/shields you are still very squishy. By the time you actually get to fire it might be too late!

The fight might not start right away. Its very possible that you will use  Suppressing Fire and lose your stacks before the fight starts.

(Why did I make a pros and cons section for this tactic????)

Protips for  Suppressing Fire:

There may be a situation where you are hidden and an unsuspecting enemy is coming your way. It may be a good idea to activate  Suppressing Fire in the opposite direction so they don't see it until it is too late.

Any hero that doesn't tank up in the late game can still take a big amount of damage from  Suppressing Fire on a WP SAW.

SAW's ult is probably the most unique ult in the game. The reason I say this is because it really isn't an ult in the traditional sense. It just modifies your next few basic attacks. The only two things this ability offers is increased damage at lower enemy health and splash damage. It also makes you shoot slower. On the outside this ability may not seem like much, but it can be very useful regardless of what build your have.

The Finisher Cannon: Like Roadie Run's shank, the damage of  Mad Cannon scales with enemy missing health. This makes  Mad Cannon a very good way to finish off enemies. It works especially well in taking down tanks with loads of health.

The Shell Stack: This is a crystal build custom tactic. When you load those explosive shells the timer for Mad Cannon's cooldown starts ticking. When you get into late game and are preparing for the inevitable teamfight load the shells really early. Think about it this way, if you have 9 rounds to fire and a fully cooled  Mad Cannon, thats 18 shots of doom on the ready!

Protips For Mad Cannon:

When firing on an enemy, activate  Mad Cannon when they drop below half health, you will kill them faster. (especially when they're tanky)

Don't activate  Mad Cannon unless you have to. Carelessly using it will leave you with reduced attack speed until you get rid of them. It also takes a hefty portion of your energy bar when activated.

Stutter stepping greatly reduces the time in between  Mad Cannon shots.

The missing health damage from  Mad Cannon is constant and is not changed by the items you buy. Keep this in mind in the rare event you have to roam  SAW.

The  Sorrowblade: This is the most important item in the build. It gives you the power  SAW needs to rip apart enemies, and it gives you a good damage base to build crits on. If you buy the  Sorrowblade in a timely manner. You will have the highest dps in the match, no question.

Boots: I would recommend buying  Sprint Boots during the first shop visit if you have 600 gold. If you buckled and got yourself killed before getting 600 (it happens), wait until next shop to pick these up and just get another Weapon Blade.

It is really situational when/if you pick up the  Travel Boots. The best time to do it is after getting the first Tyrant's Monocle when you start building up defense. Never buy  Journey Boots unless you really feel that you need to. (or you have maxed everything else and are infused)  Halcyon Chargers are now a good option to have extra energy in the late game.

The Akimbo Monocles: Once the  Sorrowblade is built you need to continue to build more DPS to maintain your damage domination. Making the first  Tyrant's Monocle is the best way to do this. You won't have as much consistent damage as you would with a second sorrowblade right away, but that's not what's important about the Tyrant's Monocle This wonderful item has a 40% crit chance with +20% crit damage. Since the default crit damage is +50% damage, the  Tyrant's Monocle gives you a +70% boost to your normal damage every time you get a crit (which you get 40% of the time) Having another  Tyrant's Monocle brings you up to 90% more damage for 80% of your shots. Not to mention that each  Tyrant's Monocle gives you 50 weapon power each.

On top of the boost in damage the crits provide, they also have psychological effects on the enemy. If you come back into a battle with crits it takes the enemies off guard.

Defense: After you build the first  Tyrant's Monocle you need to think about defense. I suggest building an  Aegisif the situation allows for it so you can get that EXTREMELY USEFUL  Reflex Block. Get  Aegis if there are stun heroes like  Joule,  Catherine,  Ozo,  Glaive, etc. Any pro knows the power of the  Reflex Block.

Second  Tyrant's Monocle or  Bonesaw: At this point in the build your should have a  Sorrowblade, level 1 or 2 boots, one  Tyrant's Monocle, and a defense item. If the enemies at this point are armoring up, build the Bonesaw next. Only build the second  Tyrant's Monocle first if you think they're dummies and won't armor up.

Finishing the build: The last item should be the missing  Tyrant's Monocle or  Bonesaw. That will complete the build. You can also get more defense or buy a second  Reflex Block. Having two reflexes can help alot in many situations.

Infusions: Utilizing  Weapon Infusion in the late mid/late game is very useful. Using several infusions in a game is encouraged. But don't buy one every time you go back to shop. If you know a team fight is going to break out, definitely pick one up.

Situational  Breaking Point: Now that  Bonesaw has been lowered from its pedestal a little bit with its latest nerf, Breaking Point has become a more viable option.  Breaking Point can be very useful against tanky heroes and melee comps. Heroes that will feel the pain from breaking point the most are  Krul,  Reim,  Ardan,  Lance, Glaive, and  Catherine.

The best time to buy  Breaking Point is when the enemies have a little bit of armor and you're not sure if you should pick  Bonesaw or another  Tyrant's Monocle. If they happen to have any of the heroes mentioned above on their team  Breaking Point is probably the best choice.

Level 1 -  Suppressing Fire

Level 2 -  Roadie Run

Level 3 -  Suppressing Fire

Level 4 -  Suppressing Fire

Level 5 -  Roadie Run

Level 6 -  Mad Cannon

Level 7 -  Suppressing Fire

Level 8 -  Suppressing Fire

Level 9 -  Roadie Run

Level 10 -  Roadie Run

Level 11 -  Roadie Run

Level 12 -  Mad Cannon

The choices for when and where I reccomend to spend ability points for WP  SAW has raised some eyebrows, so I will explain.

The controversy comes from overdriving  Suppressing Fire instead of  Mad Cannon.  Suppressing Fire gets a huge power spike when overdriven. It goes from having 600 total damage to having 960 total damage. That's more than a 50% increase in damage, THAT IS HUGE. It also adds .5 seconds to the slow duration.

The only benefits  Mad Cannon gets from overdriving are a 20 second shorten on the cooldown and 20 extra crystal damage. Those benefits are negligible for WP  SAW. It also gets an increase in energy cost the more you level it up. That's why I recommend spending the second point on it at level 12. It may even be a good idea to not spend the second point until you go to smash the enemy Vain Crystal.

Crystal  SAW is best when used as a cleaner. What I mean by that is that you shouldn't be using your abilities at the beginning of the fight. Let your team do most of the damage and engage when you can maximize the missing health percentages that  Roadie Run and  Mad Cannon provide.

Another thing to keep in mind is that your basic attack gets more useless as the game goes on. Eventually it becomes useless.

Let's get into the item breakdowns:

Energy Items: Building energy items early really helps with SAW's energy consumption for the entire match.

Boots: I suggest getting  Travel Boots early on since you need to be more mobile with CP  SAW.

This guide probably has some grammar/factual errors. (I had to make the whole thing on my phone please be nice :c) Feel free to point out anything you see that is wrong with it and I will do my best to fix it in a timely manner.

Thanks for reading. I hope to see you out there on the Fold rocking your new  SAW skills!