Gord's Indepth guide for Mid Lane Timbersaw

An Indepth guide for Mid Lane Timbersaw.
This guide is going to cover: Skill build, Item build, Early Game, Mid Game, Late Game and the general mentality while playing Timbersaw

Skill Build

After getting your ult, either max Timberchain or Whirling death depending on what you are more confortable with.
Why this skill build? Simple! Mid lane has no tree early on to latch to, so your best harrass and LH tool is going to be Whirling Death, but after you get your ultimate, you can be a lot more agressive, so grabbing more points into Timberchain gives you that agression that you need early to mid game. But if your lane enemy is harrassing you alot, consider getting an extra level in reactive armor and skipping Timberchain until level 8, so you can survive your lane better and get your core items.

How to use your Skills in a Effective Way.

Whirlling Death is an amazing spell, it reduced the enemy main stat by 15% and does Pure Damage when cutting a tree, works very well as a harrass tool and at level 16 can one shot a creep wave when coupled with your ult.




Timberchain is Rizzrack's best skill, it deals Pure Damage to any unit you have contact with while in timberchain and it's also a great escaping, chasing and ganking tool, coupled with Chakram you can easly escape any gank by timberchaining into trees and making a path to escape with, or a great killing tool to position better the Chakram.




Reactive Amor is a very simple and very powerful passive, gives you a whooping 16 HP regen and Armor for 16 seconds, so at level 4 you can regen a total of 256 hp just by reactive armor alone and it can be charged in small camps or creeps, so if you know that a fight is going to breakout, you can quickly charge an extra 16 armor by just taking damage from creeps.




Chakram is what makes you the beast that you are mid game, gives a lot of killing power, at level 1 you can deal 200 Pure Damage for only 100 mana (6.79 nerf), things that you have to remember while using Chakram, it deals damage when you throw it and when you retract it, but at the same time if you leave it there it deals damage over time and slows the enemies by the % of hp that they are missing, but keep in mind that you can't attack while Chakram is out, so when chasing someone with very low hp, use Chakram to catch up to him.

Item Build

This is my preffered item build while playing Mid Timbersaw, the explanation for every item is going to be listed below:


Gives you just enough sustain to get the quick bottle, also ♥♥♥♥ trees!


A very key item to sustain your hp and mana during the early to mid game. One timberchain sometimes means life or death, and that can be both your life or theirs.


Gives a lot of mana and an amazing active for you and your team, dissassemble it later to build Bloodstone.


it's very good against heroes that spam spells in the laning phase, like Skywrath or Batrider.


Bloodstone is your only core for the simple reason that this item is amazing on Timber, it gives a lot of mana, hp and regen, with the add bonus of giving you insane reduced death time.


BoT can be game changing when your death time is nearly 0 because of bloodstone, since you can just die in the team fight and return right away, and it has a very nice synergy with timber's mobility.


The best single targetted disable in the game, it also gives alot of mana regen and stats.


It's so good against teams with an heavy Physical Damage line up or non BKB carries.


Some line ups can just perma stun you to death, so it's a must to get BKB in those situations.


When a BKB can't save you, try Linken's, it blocks spells that BKB doesnt, like Fiend's Grip, Doom, Roar, Lasso...


It's such a key items against right clickers with no magical damage, it's also so good against Drow, since it will be impossible for her to solo kill you when you have this item.


Insane HP and HP regen, makes you a lot more tanky and it synergys heavily with your passive, good against magical damage focused line ups.


It's a cheap way to survive from long duration Silences like Night Stalker's Silence or Orchid, can also be used to catch up to certain enemies or stop TP scrolls.

Aghs is one of the best items for Timbersaw if used properly, the only problem with this item is that you need alot of mana to sustain the double ult, so I would recommend getting it after bloodstone.

Gives you alot of damage and tons of farming potential, only grab it if you are drowning on money.


Perfect item against heavy Magic Damage line ups, and can be built into Pipe if nobody is doing so.


May look like a troll item, but can be so devastating when you are 5 levels ahead of everyone, you will be able to solo kill Supports in less than 2 seconds.


If your dagon is giving alot of kills and it's already level 5, E. Blade is a great option. Keep in mind that it doesnt amplify pure damage, that's why this is more or less stomping/ trolling item that is used in combination with Dagon


Already finished E. Blade + Dagon 5? Well make that a double kill then.


They say everything works in pubs, when you are stomping everything works even better, right?



About Vanguard and Blademail.
I don't recommend getting those items, why?
SIMPLE, Vanguard is a ♥♥♥♥ item by itself, since it falls of like a brick on the ocean in the late game and Blademail becomes useless after everyone buys a BKB, Timbersaw needs item that makes him relevant later on, and how does one becomes useful later on when their carries have items like BKB? Killing their supports, and those items don't help on doing so.

Early Game/ Laning Phase

The laning phase is the most important part of the game for Timber, since it dictates how your game is going to be, Timber can't really go agressive in the Mid Lane pre 6, but Whirling death is an amazing LH/ Harrass tool, even more against STR heroes since it removes 15% of their main stat, thus reducing their overall HP, but other than Last Hitting and Harrassing when you can, try playing passive and get your early game items, after you hit level 6 start using your chakram to lower their hp and push them near their tower, when they are close to their tower and you are confident that you can kill them, just Timberchain into his face and kill him, be warry about TP support or rotations from their supports though.
But never overcomit for a kill, it's more important that you farm your Bloodstone ASAP than killing their mid, you are mid to get quick levels and some farm, kills are just an add bonus from being mid.
Now let's see some hard match ups for Timber.

Just give up on trying anything, you are going to have 19 mana during the entire laning phase, he is going to make you cry while he denies everysingle creep on the lane, I recommend getting some tissues and extra levels in Reactive Armor so you can sustain better in lane against his harrass and mostly because you won't have mana to do anything, one of the hardest match ups to any hero to face, the only way to win that is by support ganks.



Refraction makes her very hard to kill while giving her alot of damage, she is going to deny alot and harrass you with psy blades, the best thing you can do is survive and try to get some last hits and exp, your chances of killing her alone are very little.



Very annoying match up, his range + poison are your doom in the laning phase, he can deal a lot of damage and solo kill you very quickly at level 6 if no trees are around.





Very hard to kill and her coil coupled with silence are amazing against timber, the best thing you can do is get exp and try to get some farm, but be careful, a good puck can easly kill you if you are out of position.




The doom of every single melee hero in the game due to Shadow Strike and an amazing escape (Blink), very unlikely to kill her in the laning phase and very hard match up.





This match up can be hard pre 6 due to headshot and his high range, but after level 6 you can easly solo kill him or drive him out of the lane with chakram.





Even though your crazy amounts of pure damage are a great counter for him, in the laning stage he is one of the most annoying heroes to lane against, just play passive pre 6 and only harrass him when you can, when you get your ult, use chakram to push him towards his tower and procced to dive his ass and enjoy the free kills.



Are you expecting to have a good game with a nice laning phase? WELL ♥♥♥♥ YOU, because someone that hates fun just picked ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Silencer, and that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is probably going mid, what can you do about it? You can sit in that corner and cry... ALOT, because he is going to spam at you with his infinite mana pool with no mercy, and the only ♥♥♥♥♥♥ way to be able to deal with that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is by purchasing a Black King Bar, and you ain't getting one anytime soon.




Disclaimer: The owner of this guide don't actually hate on you for picking Silencer, but if you do, ♥♥♥♥ you!

Mid Game

Your mid game starts when you hit level 10. At that point you are supposed to get that ASAP, to do so farm, and farm alot, only gank or fight when you know that you are going to get a kill.
After finishing you need to be active in the map, pressuring their carries and killing their supports, remember that you are able to deal insane amounts of Pure Damage, but NEVER, and I repeat NEVER overcomit for a kill, every single bloodstone is precious for Timbersaw, so while ganking, be careful to not die, vision is a must if you want to snowball out of control, having vision of their supports makes it so much easier.
If everything is going fine and you have like 8 kills in 14 mins, consider buying items that helps the snowball momentum.

Remember that Timbersaw is one of the most mobile hero in the game, so use that chase power in your favor, and when things look dire to you, never give up, you can easly escape ganks.

Just don't panic and you are going to be fine, most of the times, when they miss every single spell on you.

Late Game

Late game after every single key hero in the enemy team has bought your objective in team fights is to quickly murder their supports, or atleast disrupt them, and then focus on their main heroes, most of the times you are going to need a or a of your own to be able to plain out kill their supports, but if the enemy carry doesn't have a use Whirling Death on him to reduce 15% of his base damage and disrupt his focus, even late game Timber still does alot of damage and you are one of the best heroes against Illusion based heroes like Cancer Phantom Lancer, since you have a lot of AoE damage and you can reduce alot of his damage output by reducing his AGI.
Timbersaw is also one of the worst heroes to fight in the base, since there is little to no trees in the base, so the only thing you can do is use chakram or use some of those expensive items that you farmed for.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading this guide, this is my first big guide that I made and I hope you like it.
if you did like it please be sure to subscribe to the short version of this guide to use it ingame by using the following link:
Gord's guide for Mid Lane Timbersaw!
Remember when playing Timber, play for fun, the wins are an add bonus to it :D

Sorry for any mispells or grammar errors, english isn't my main language!
Currently playing mostly Timber because I really feel like it, if you want to see my dota buff click on THIS[dotabuff.com].
-Gords, 2013, Most of the Rights are Reserved. I think...

[EnchantedEarWax]

Best guide on timber ive read so far.
I was wondering how his new Agh's scepter would fit in all this? I seems like an core item to me.

[Magictac]

nice

[Trickmaker]

cool guide, keep it up

[DefQon]

easy

[ฺ]

Nice guide gord! sure gonna give some tries with timber