There are tree's EVERYWHERE: Timbersaw Offlane, Complete Guide 6.81

Guide Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my guide to Timbersaw!

This guide is to help people new to the hero understand how to play him in the offlane using the methods and builds that have worked best for me. I'm no pro, but I've been playing Dota a lot for a long time now and I have a good understanding of the game.

Recently I decided (as I was fed up of supporting - my usual role) I would try learning somebody completely different and decided to get good with this guy. I've studied and practiced a lot and I feel I'm competent with him technically and, more importantly for this guide, gotten my head around which approaches will maximize your effectiveness at all stages.

Having only learned hm recently myself, I am in a good position to help others do the same, so here goes!

Please note that this is my first guide. All contributions are welcome. :)

Here is a link to the steam cloud publish.

Hero Introduction

Timbersaw is a melee strength hero that specialises in AoE pure burst damage. His Timber Chain makes him highly mobile, but only if there are tree's nearby! For this reason he is terrible mid and best suited to the offlane, where he can use his fantastic strength and abilities to gain high experience quickly.

He requires large amounts of gold to be effective but can utilise this gold incredibly in the mid-game, throwing around devastating bursts of Aoe pure damage with incredible maneuverability.

He is a great fun to play, and a good start and some skill can see you obliterate enemy teams.

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Lore:

Rizzrack could still hear the screams in his mind. He worked, frantically turning wrenches, twisting screws, building and carving and forging. Sleep eluded him; he only built. Months had passed since he had shut himself in his uncle's workshop, and his deliverance was nearly complete. He rubbed his back as his eyes drifted shut, and saw a blanket of flowers floating on the placid waves of Augury Bay before exploding into a cloud of pollen that silenced lives as it seized the lungs. He woke with a choking start. For hours the rhythmic sound of a whetstone filled the shop as he sharpened a set of massive blades, his mind filled with images of strangling vines garroting neighbors, enwrapping homes. The flooding of Augury Bay had been nothing compared to the violent horrors the waters left to take root beyond the city walls. But the saw-suit would make him strong and safe he thought, allowing himself this sliver of hope before the full might of his fear crashed into his fading mind. Branches and blood. When the city fell, Rizzrack fled trees that walked, and fought, and killed. Trees had shattered the gates and swarmed into the city. Trees had crushed and thrashed and stomped the last that Augury Bay could muster in defense, and stalked the few fleeing refugees. In addled silence Rizzrack unspooled the thick chain from the suit's arm, his hands quaking as he inspected each link and ran a trembling finger along the claw attached at its end. The saw-suit was ready.

With his hand trembling he sparked the bladed machine to life. Terror drove him, terror of what awaited him and of what he would have to face to have any hope of calming his mind. As the saw-suit shuddered to life he knew he must face this fear, and he knew he wouldn't like it one bit.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

+Fantastic burst damage
+Fantastic maneuverability with Timber Chain
+Durable
+Good in lane
+Good at farming neutrals
+All of his nukes can deal pure damage
+All of his nukes have an area of effect

Disadvantages

-Terrible right click
-Poor agility
-0 Base Armor
-Highly mana dependant, with a mediocre mana pool
-Highly dependant on gold
-Entirely ineffective against units with magic immunity
-No disable
-Highly vulnerable to silence and mana drain
-As enemy health pools get higher in the late game, his damage will scale off

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Hero's Timbersaw works well with

Timbersaw lacks a disable, and works particularly well with initiators who have stuns. As all of Timbersaws abilities affect an area, a hero with AoE disable will work particularly well a as combination, such as:

+ Tidehunter's Ravage
+ Magnus's Reverse Polarity
+ Enigma's Black Hole
+ Kunkka's Ghost Ship
+ Nyx Assassin's Impale
+ Lion's Earth Spike
+ Faceless Void's Chronosphere

He is also great with Hero's that provide you with Mana, such as:

+ Crystal Maiden
+ Keeper of the Light
+Outworld Devourer

Timbersaw and Clockwork make an extremely powerful ganking combination, with Power Cogs holding enemies in place for Chakram. However, both these hero's are normally deployed in the offlane, making it rare.

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Hero's Timbersaw is Good Against

Timbersaw is the best hero in the game against a large amount of sources of small damage. His reactive armor will stack up large amounts of armor and regeneration quickly, and his area of effect nukes will wipe them out.

This makes him sensational against illusion hero's, such as:

+ Phantom Lancer
+ Naga Siren
+ Chaos Knight
+ Spectre
+ Terrorblade

It also makes him brilliant against hero's with a large amount of creeps, such as:

+Nature's *****
+ Enigma
+ Undying
+ Broodmother
+ Chen
+ Enchantress

Further, his pure damage is not reduced my magic resistance, making him very effective against hero's who are reliant on it, such as:

+ Viper
+ Pudge
+ Rubick

Anti-Mage is also very reliant on magic resistance, and he is definitely someone you can take down quickly if a member of your team places a well-timed stun. However, if he can right click you, you are screwed, so he is definitely not to be listed as someone you counter.

Hero's Timbersaw is Bad Against

I've listed the most prominent and effective counters to Timber below. Further to these, there are also several skills which will disrupt your timber chain, which are preferably avoided. Bare in mind that if you avoid everyone who counters you in any way you will never pick him, so just avoid teams with multiple counters and none of your 'strong against' targets.

Timbersaw is terrible when silenced, or has had his mana depleted. He is particularly bad against hero's who deal damage based on his mana pool or mana missing as this means every mana item you buy empowers their hero's ability to kill you. Hero's to avoid for this reason are:

- Anti-Mage
- Nyx Assassin

He is bad against hero's and item's who drain mana in general:

- Keeper of the Light
- Silencer
- Lion
- Diffusal Blade
- Necronomicon

Anyone with a silence will likely focus you with it, rendering you useless for the duration:

- Drow Ranger
- Bloodseeker
- Skywrath Mage
- Death Prophet
- Orchid Malevolence

Finally, magic immunity is great against timbersaw, meaning you will struggle against the following:

- Juggernaut
- Omniknight
- Lifestealer
- Black King Bar

Gameplay

Early Laning Phase

Get an Observer Ward off of a support and place your ward to block the oppositions small camp (pulling camp). This will make the lane phase much easier!

Sit tight in lane until you get level 2 and you have both Reactive Armor and Timber Chain, then you can start to pick up last hits but don't go too far from your tower. As the enemy creep wave pushes under your tower and any other safe situation allow the creeps to hit you 4 times to max out reactive armor. Timber Chain has a small cooldown but you don't have the mana for it yet, so save it for an escape or a gank. Your healing salve and clarity will save you from basing once and keep you in lane, which is exactly where you need to be early game.

If the enemy team has 2 or 3 hero's hanging around the lane you need to be very careful. This will mean losing out on some exp. and a lot of last hits but it means there is plenty of space for your allies. Wait for when their supports rotate and then you have some space to farm and compete with their carry in lane.

When you get to level 6 it's gank time so rotate or have others rotate to you.

Early Game

After you have your Arcanes and level 6 you have some mana to use, hopefully your gank went well and you are on your way to Perseverance. Make sure you carry a tp scroll and get stuck into some farm, take a couple camps, preferably in the enemy jungle if you can do it safely,but don't start trying to rinse the jungle you will just have to base.

As you are all AoE you should be stacking camps in your jungle if you go there to get a bit of farm, as you pretty much clear them with the same amount of mana and in the same time as a normal camp. If you have a bit of mana spare, and you can definitely pick up a clarity or two in order to do this, take an opportunity to stack a big camp in your jungle once or twice and clear it. This can boost your farm and get your Bloodstone quicker, don't take too much farm from your carry though. You should alternate between being in lane getting exp and farm, ganking or maybe taking a stacked camp if there is no opportunity to do anything else. If you are close to your bloodstone, you can't achieve much or help much at that present time definitely finish up your stone in the jungle.

Definitely take the opportunity to clear an enemy camp if it is safe.(Definitely take enemy stacked camps, for example, by a tinker or a tiny wisp - these are probably worth dying for if you can clear them).

Mid Game

When you have your bloodstone, hopefully by 20 minutes latest, you can start bombing around everywhere clearing spare camps, ganking and fighting and clearing creep waves to push. Always look for an opportunity to do something productive, if not, stack a camp and clear it. You won't have to base with this item, which means you can move around the map continuously looking for ganks or pushing lanes, obviously try and contribute to what your team is trying to accomplish. Pick up an appropriate durability item if required.

Mid game team fights are your most influential periods of the entire game. You can decimate them with your AoE pure nukes flying everywhere with no mana concerns, just make sure you don't start clicking buttons, think about what you are doing before and during a fight, try and hit as many as possible with your nukes and try to move to and from good positions. You will often be able to escape if the fight goes badly, you need to look for when the fight is lost and can't be helped and get out of there, but make sure you don't just abandon your team in a close contest. If you are truly buggered just deny yourself with bloodstone.

Late Game

You need to make sure you are in every fight in the mid game and the late game. If you are up against magic immune targets, e.g. enemy carry with bkb, just target somebody else for the duration. Remember your necronomicons have true sight, and can cripple casters with their mana burn. You will be able to take down support quickly in fights so do.

When you have the correct items your maneuverability allows you to push lanes very effectively. Moving in and out of lanes swiftly with Timber Chain and clear waves extremely fast. With a Necronomicon you can also push structures effectively too. This improves map control for your team by forcing enemies to defend towers close to their base. You're no Naga Siren but you can keep the lanes pushed effectively and still not miss any important fights with your Boots of Travel.

Skills

Whirling Death

In the case that Rizzrack gets surrounded by the vines and plants of nightmares, he has an immediate chainsaw defense.


Notes:

- This ability reduces affected targets' base primary attribute by 15%. This means it will reduce the base damage of hero's hit by it by 15%. Further, it will have the following effects:

• Against strength hero's it will reduce their base health pool by 15% (Their health pool before items that provide strength or additional hitpoints).
• Against agility hero's it will reduce their base armor and attack speed by 15%.
• Against intelligence hero's it will reduce their base mana pool by 15%.

- While the damage is blocked by magic immunity, the stat reduction debuff is not. This is the only part of any of his skills which works against magic immune units.

- The stat reduction lasts for 7 seconds, with the 8 second cooldown this means you could inflict target(s) continuously with the debuff.

- Whirling death can be used while channeling.

- The stat reduction is applied before the damage.

- Hit opponents next to a tree if possible, as this is a nice skill element to improve the effectiveness of the skill. However, don't target the wrong enemy in a fight or gank just because they are next to a tree. Also, hitting multiple enemies not next to a tree is definitely preferable to hitting one who is.

Considerations:

This move scales wonderfully against all hero's, but particularly strength hero's who have the health pool reduced by the primary attribute reduction. For example, a level 25 Doom with a Heart of Tarrasque would have his health pool reduced by 484.4 from whirling death, all before he takes damage. Remarkable for a low cooldown, low mana cost AoE nuke.

Use in team fights:

In team fights you are obviously trying to hit as many enemies as possible with this, however, with a small 300 area of effect radius this isn't always possible, so make sure you target the correct hero with it. Carry's are the obvious choice, and this is one of the few weapons you have against magic immunity, so use it. If your team has a specific plan with their initiation, such as bursting down a particularly troublesome enemy, make sure you are straight in there with a Whirling Death.

Use in lane:

In lane this is a fantastic harassment tool. The 600 diameter means you can usually hit their carry and a last hit simultaneously, even if they are ranged. This not only damages them, but also reduces their ability to last hit and harass you with the stat reduction, as well as the other effects listed above. It also means on occasion you can get a last hit you ordinarily wouldn't be able to get. Just make sure you use it productively and effectively, don't just burn through your mana with it.

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Timber Chain

You never know when you might need to escape from malevolent saplings.

Notes:

- The chain travels at a speed of 1600/2000/2400/2800

- The chain looks for a tree in a 90 unit radius of the target.

- The latch range for a tree is 50 units greater than the cast range at all levels.

- Destroys the target tree once Timbersaw arrives.

- Can be used to pull Timbersaw across impassable terrain.

- Always casts to its maximum range in the targeted direction.

- Timber Chain can be interrupted by stuns, but damage is dealt in small area near hero.

- If Timber Chain is used on a tree and Astral Imprisonment is used on the caster along the way, he will still be imprisoned; but will appear near the tree when the the imprisonment ends.

Considerations:

In order to play Timbersaw well, you need to be good with this skill. Clicking on a tree is not hard, it's all about decision making. Firstly, learn both the safest AND the quickest routes in and out of the lanes. Sometimes they are the same. You can start off with just a few for your offlane to start with. The map below, created by Bonkerelli, should help, but learn this with practice too. Use the quickest routes when you're in no danger and you're just trying to get somewhere else as quickly as possible. Use the safest route, obviously, when escaping - this will change with different people chasing you. Correct the right tree to avoid people with stuns and silence.

Whenever you go into a fight, be sure to know what tree you will escape too if it goes badly. Especially do this if you are fighting in the river.



Use in team fights

With any hero the most important factor is to keep a cool head, consider everything that is happening and decide what is the best thing to do. You need to think of these things before entering a fight, don't just dive in. In all fights, especially ones in which you were initiated on, you need to think fast and do these things fast but that will come with practice. In summary: don't just panic click buttons!.

Your goal with Timber Chain in team fights is to hit as many enemies as possible with the pure pass damage AND put yourself where you want to be on the map with it. The second one takes priority, but definitely try and maximise your damage. Ping (short for move with Timber Chain =D) in close to key targets, preferably next to a tree, to use your full damage combo. Ping through enemies to high ground or a good spot to throw out a Chakram. Dont ping into a Black Hole or a Juggernaut who is about to ulti. If their carry has used a bkb, but they still have a Shadow Shaman with Serpent Wards up, go for the Shaman and take him down fast. Be careful where you ping to as you will be stuck there for 4 seconds (a long time in a team fight). It's all obvious but it is so so easy to just not consider these things when you are diving into a big team fight.

Use in Lane

Skilled at lvl 1 almost always, and just sit on it until you need to escape, or if you are going in for a kill. When you have plenty of mana you can harass or push with it but just don't get it stuck on cooldown just before they try and kill you.

If you are forced to base then use it on the way back, recharge and save your teleport scroll for going back out again (if you tp back you and timber chain back out into lane you will have less mana in lane, whereas, if you timber chain back you recharge that mana you used and tp into lane with your full mana pool).

Chasing people down

Obviously you want to use this skill to keep up with them and, if possible, deal damage by passing through them. Enemies will normally anticipate this and avoid tree's, especially ones on the opposite side to you. You can still kill them though, by using your Chakram to force them into the position you want by blocking off other routes. This way you force them to choose between being hit with your Timber Chain or hit with your ulti.

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Reactive Armor

The saw-suit is equipped to react to the slightest touch with fortified defenses.

Notes:

- Normal attacks from heroes, creeps and towers trigger this ability.

- The armor and HP regen buff is applied at the beginning of the attack.

- Each time you are attacked you get a total of 16 health back from regen

Considerations:

This ability compensates Timbersaw's terrible base armor.

Use in Lane

Get an early point in lane so that every time an enemy harrasses you you get health regeneration and armor. This combined with a stout shield gives you incredible durability against early game right clicks, and often makes harassment a waste of time.

To fully utilise this ability in lane, you should deliberately, and very carefully, allow enemy creeps to attack you. ONLY DO THIS IF IT IS SAFE TO SO! Don't stick your neck or dive the creep line, do when creeps are following you behind your own tower. You let 4 creeps attack you to get the max 4 stacks.

Each time a creep attacks you it deals 19 - 23 damage, but your stout shield will block 20 damage 60% of the time, so 60% you take 0-3 damage and regenerate 16 health, and 40% of the time you take 18-22 damage (with damage reduction from 1 armor) and regen 16 health. This means it's worth taking a hit for 1 stack, each stack you add it gets better and better and it allows you to regenerate your health! It also gets your armor up. Just make sure you are careful and do it well, just allow a melee wave to very briefly attack you 4 times when the creeps are following you under your tower.

I ordinarily make do with one point in this in the early stages but getting level 2 in this skill is definitely worth it if you feel the extra stacks are situationally better than the extra range for Timber Chain. Put a maximum of 2 points in this early on, it is unlikely you will rack up enough stacks frequently enough to make it worth it.

Use in team fights

You can use creeps to go into a fight with full stacks when you can, only do this if it doesn't affect you entering the fight at all. Mostly, as long as you've skilled this the job is done.

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Chakram

The ultimate in anti-flora weaponry.

Notes:

- Chakram returns to Timbersaw if he goes more than 2000 units away. Destroys trees.

- The Chakram travels at a speed of 900.

- Slow stickiness is 0.5

- Passthrough damage may only be dealt to the same target once in each direction. In other words, a target can only take the initial 100/140/180 damage from Chakram once, no matter how many times they enter or leave the AoE. However, the moment the return is activated, that target becomes valid for another instance of 100/140/180 damage if Chakram touches it.

Considerations:

Timbersaws ultimate and a source of whopping AoE pure damage. If you have your Bloodstone you can use this all the time with it's low cooldown, clearing waves and clearing camps,clearing tree's that are in your way, but use this mana more wisely earlier on.

Initiation and General Use

Usually Timber Chain is the best skill to initiate a gank or fight, due to the range being longer. However, if there are no tree's then Chakram is best. Sometimes you should initiate with Chakram anyway as they are on low health and you want to slow them as quickly as possible, you should always follow this up with a Timber Chain/Whirling Death whilst they are slowed if possible.

Remember, when choosing where to place Chakram, always anticipate where the enemy is going to be, and place it there. Unless they are stunned or harshly slowed, never just send where they are standing.

Sometimes another member of your team will initiate, with a stun for example, and you want to land Chakram on them first so that they take dps from it for the entire duration of the stun, hopefully dealing enough damage to build a strong slow, making it very difficult for them to escape.

You can stand outside of a lane where the enemy cannot see you and then initiate by hitting them with Chakram, it will cut down all the trees between you opening a path to them. Then, with no tree's in your way you Timber Chain a tree on the opposite side of the lane damaging them. You retract your Chakram and send it out again this time blocking their route to the tower, or wherever they are running too.

You can use Chakram to force opponents where you want them to go. This creates a lot of room to increase your skill with Timbersaw, if you can recognise and execute opportunities to force opponents into a good spot for you to Timber Chain/Whirling Death, force them into an allied player or generally block off their escapes. When playing Timbersaw you need to be continuously aware of where tree's are and where you can place a good Chakram.

Note that you cannot auto attack whilst using this ability. This doesn't matter too much as your right-click stinks anyway.

Item Build Summary

1. Buy Starting items as listed. GET SOMEONE TO GIVE YOU AN OBSERVER WARD!
2. A Magic Wand vs some/most opponents
3. Arcane Boots
4. BLOODSTONE!

Now choose one of three options (very frequently should be 1 or 2):

- Build a durability item straight after bloodstone, that is good mid-game (mek, drum, vanguard, blade mail). Then get BoTs and Necro afterwards.If you have a lot of gold, you can obviously pick up a good late game durability item here, or an orchid if you really need one.

- Build straight into BoTs and Necro after Bloodstone and then pick up a late game durability item (see list) afterwards. Make sure you pick the right one!

- If you are swimming in gold and you've got an early bloodstone you have the option (you shouldn't necessarily do this if you're ahead a lot) of buying a dagon and bots and ping around the map executing people snowballing out of control.

Boots of Travel and Necronomicon are used to improve your teams map control by pressuring enemy towers, and just generally backdoor like a scumbag :)

Items in detail

STARTING ITEMS

Stout Shield

A must buy! Stout Shield combined with your early point in Reactive Armor gives you brilliant durability in lane. And don't sell until you need the slot mid/late game.

Tango

Standard regen to keep you in lane more.

Healing Salve & Clarity

These two item's will save you from basing once. You want to stay in lane as much as possible early for levels and gold.

Iron Branch

GG!

Observer Ward

Unless you randomed Timbersaw (happy days!) you won't have enough gold to buy these so get a support to give you one.

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EARLY GAME ITEMS

Arcane Boots

Sitting on unfinished items really does suck. This allows you to utilise the Energy Booster that will eventually build into your Bloodstone really nicely early on. Gives you a bit of mana to play with.

Magic Wand

A situational item really, as it is a very poor use of gold if you don't get charges very often. If you do get charges, however, it is awesome and a must buy against opponents who regularly use abilities.

Perseverance

Provides regen that will keep you out of base and doing useful things. The next step to the promised land of those who own a Bloodstone.

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CORE ITEMS

Bloodstone

Here it is, the promised land, you kept faith and made it eventually, and now it's time to wreck everything. Burn mana at all times, moving around farming, ganking and pushing. Getting this thing is like being born again!

DO NOT PURCHASE ANOTHER ENERGY BOOSTER! Disassemble your arcanes and use the energy booster to complete your Bloodstone! Brown boots are fine for the moment.

You should always be getting this first, it not only solves your mana issues, but also gives you 500 hit points and 9 health regen which is great durability at all stages but incredible at 20 minutes.

Situational Durability Item and other options

After Bloodstone you have several options. Most of the time, this is a good spot to pick pick up a tank item (see below for options). You then complete your cores afterwards in time for the late game.

Please note that whilst a correctly picked durability item is gonna be really good, it isn't really a prerequisite to being able to be effective, especially with a level advantage. Your nice health pool, reactive armor, and your maneuverability will normally make you survivable enough, although getting more durable will often be preferable.

You can also rush Boots of Travel (see below) straight away and get bouncing around the map if you want map control.

If you got a very quick bloodstone and have a good level advantage you can get an offensive item (see below) to get loads of kills and snowball super hard. Your level advantage should provide you with durability.

Some items, such as force staff, make you very hard to kill by providing additional maneuverability that combines well with Timber Chain. If used skillfully this can definitely save you better than any durability item although it won't keep you in fights longer.

Boots of Travel

After you've disassembled your Arcanes to make Bloodstone you need new boots, and these are the best by far. The phenomenal +100 movespeed gives you even more maneuverability and it allows you to teleport around the map. As you are sooo good at clearing creep waves, and you have such good maneuverability, you are perfect for pushing lanes (in similar fashion to Tinker). Ping into a lane clear a couple waves and tp into the next lane, rinse and repeat, and these boots will allow you to do that and still never miss a gank or team fight!

You will have a huge influence on the game at all stages with this strategy by putting pressure on enemy towers and creating map control for your team, racking up huge farm in the process! Just make sure you use this item well and don't miss a team fight!

As stated above, you can keep browns for a while and get a different item, building BoTs later. You have to get them at some point though else you will have your thumb up your *** a lot late game and your effectiveness in fights scales off.

Necronomicon

Your final core item, it gives you tower damage! When perma-pushing lanes out you should be forcing enemies to come and defend towers, giving your team map control. With this item if they fail to defend it quickly enough you simply destroy it. Any time you have space to push you can simply wipe the creep waves pop these out at the tower and get out of there into the next lane. If you have a lot of space (you've just won a fight) do that but stay in the lane and continue forward of the tower clearing waves. It builds up a huge momentum of allied creeps, which combined with your necro's, will wipe out buildings.

Your warriers also provide you with true sight and mana burn. So you dont have to **** around with detection as much and you can attack casters with this really nicely in fights.

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EARLY GAME DURABILITY OPTIONS

Items that can be be potentially picked up earlier on in the game as appropriate before bloodstone.

Urn of Shadows

A cheap item that provides health regen, mana regen and strength. A useful item, especially if you get good charges - they can really help your team, but often not worth postponing bloodstone for, however.

Poor Man's Shield

It's rare to buy this item on a non-agility hero, but it is unquestionably efficient against certain opponents. It will make you immortal vs harass in lane, and against large amounts of small damage (see adv & disadv section above) it will block colossal amount of damage, which combined with your Reactive Armor will make you very tanky, all for an extra 300 gold. The upgrade also gives you an extra armor due to the agility.

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MID GAME DURABILITY OPTIONS

Some of the durability options after Bloodstone. These items are more effective mid game than late game. I would only buy these if you decide to get an item straight after bloodstone, before bots/necro.

Drum of Endurance

Great attributes that buff your health and mana pool as well as additional movespeed for you and your team. You should never buy this if someone else on your team has one or is going to have one, there are better people at carrying this item for your team, but it is still good item on Timbersaw and is very gold efficient.

Mekansm

Great attributes, great heal, great armor, great regen. An awesome item on Timbersaw and the no.1 item choice for durability. However, you shouldn't ever get one if someone else on your team has one,and there is often someone else who needs it more.

Vanguard

Not the most gold efficent item, but does improve and incorporate the damage block from Stout Shield into a complete item, that provides health and mana regen.

Tbh, it should improve more than it does when completed, the improved damage block is good, and good on this hero, but it's the cheapest component that improves with completion, the only other thing that improves is a measly 1 extra health regen - ****-a-doodle-do! Against our 'damage block is particularly good against' list I would probs still pick this up after bloodstone (a must must must must have vs Phantom Lancer it blocks vs every illusion). Also,if your team already has a drum and meka this is an ok mid-game item.

Blade Mail

Situationally an extremely good item on Timbersaw at all stage vs the correct opponent(s). This is not a core item, as against some teams it will only force them to target someone else, someone who is likely less durable or less good at escaping than you. However, against ****ing Skywrath Mage and various others who unleash damage on an area, or cause huge damage over time, Blademail is the way to go!

Hood of Defiance

Get this against a team of nukers and build it into Pipe of Insight later on. Don't get it if someone else on your team has one as only one of you will be able to upgrade it.

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LATE GAME DURABILITY OPTIONS

These items are great at all stages and you can pick them up late in the game as well as after Bloodstone, if you have the gold.

Shiva's Guard

A brilliant item on Timbersaw at all stages of the game. Against general physical damage this is the best durability item, and should be chosen accordingly. If you have ok gold, I would recommend getting this instead of a vanguard against the illusion hero's etc as well, because the active damage/slow and the attack speed aura are all superb against them as well as the armor.

Linken's Sphere

You should always buy this against hero's targeting you with a specific spell that is messing you up. Skywrath Mage's Ancient Seal is definitely one of them, Both Bloodseeker's skills are another. Doom as well, you get the idea. It'll make you much more slippery in general, allow you to initiate better and you can help your allies with it too.

Pipe of Insight

Against a team full of nukers this will do the job. Only one per team obviously.

Black King Bar

Sometimes teams will just be able to hold you down and keep you silenced or stunned and a Linken's isn't gonna cut it. Some abilities will go through this item, like Bloodseeker and Doom ultimates, but for the rest this is the way to go. < You probably picked him vs the wrong team in this scenario. This is another way of dealing with Skywrath Mage but no good vs Bloodseeker.

Heart of Tarrasque

Gives you a monster health pool and health regen, definitely a late game luxury.

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SITUATIONAL OFFENSIVE OPTIONS

Dagon

Gives you yet more burst damage and mana.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

Great Mana and mana regen. The move speed makes you more mobile and the active can be used in a variety of ways. It can help you escape or set up a Chakram nicely. As it is cheap it is a good option if you have a really **** start and won't be able to get a bloodstone quickly.

Scythe of Vyse

One of the best extension items on Timbersaw later on. Gives you 190 health, 455 mana and 150% mana regeneration and best of all, a 3.5 second disable! Definitely consider this item if you have the gold.

It's actually possible to build Timbersaw without a bloodstone using this item but this is definitely not the most efficient way of increasing your mana and health pool and regen. Only consider this if you really know what you're doing and the situation is correct.

Orchid Malevolence

Good mana, mana regen and a silence. A great way of stopping certain hero's from using their abilities and will counter just about anyone you are worried about. However, it will only counter one of them, definitely a good choice in the right circumstances.

Again, it's actually possible to build Timbersaw without a bloodstone using this item but this is definitely not the most efficient way of increasing your mana and health pool and regen. Only consider this if you really know what you're doing and the situation is correct.

Rod of Atos

Underwhelming item really although the range of it's slow is really really good. The health and mana is nice and it's cheap as chips.

Force Staff

Yet more maneuverability (I still can't spell that word without spell check and I've used it about 500 times in this guide). Great when your opponents are good at disrupting Timber Chain and it works whilst silenced.

Blink Dagger

Brilliant initiation tool that's been used a lot since the mana cost was removed. It makes your initiation range awesome and propels you into fights and ganks very quickly.

Balance Changelog

6.80

- Base Strength reduced from 25 to 22.

6.79c

- Fixed Whirling Death not restoring enough HP after the debuff wears off.

6.79

- Chakram mana cost increased from 75/125/175 to 100/150/200.

6.78

- Base Strength increased by 3.
- Int growth increased from 1.8 to 2.4.
- Chakram initial mana cost rescaled from 125/150/175 to 75/125/175.
- Chakram move speed increased from 800 to 900.

External References

Dota 2 wiki: Timbersaw

Here he is on Liquipedia.

Here you can watch Dondo play Timbersaw like a boss

Play Video

Purge tries Timbering about

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v Radiance, yuck!
Play Video

Another mid Timbersaw this time from s4

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Thank you for Reading

I hope this was helpful.

As I said before this is my first guide and I'd appreciate any feedback or constructive criticisms so please comment!