Bad against...[]
- Brain Sap's pure damage ignores stacks of Reactive Armor.
- Nightmare prevents Timbersaw from using Timber Chain, setting him up for chain stuns and burst damage.
- Enfeeble highly reduces regeneration granted by reactive armor.
- Fiend's Grip immobilizes Timbersaw and drains his low mana pool, preventing escape afterwards. It also pierces Black King Bar.
- Bane's multiple disables often force Timbersaw or his teammates to spend gold on a Linken's Sphere.
- Doom shuts down Timbersaw completely, negating his mobility and preventing him from doing any damage. It also breaks Reactive Armor's passive bonuses from Aghanim's Scepter.
- Infernal Blade can stun Timbersaw several times in a fight, potentially interrupting Timber Chain. Also it's useful since Timbersaw has high HP due to the damage scales based on max HP.
- Searing Chains prevents usage of Timber Chain.
- Timbersaw is vulnerable to magical burst damage, which Ember Spirit provides with Fire Remnant and Flame Guard.
- Timbersaw's abilities deal pure damage, thus they cannot remove Flame Guard.
- Time Dilation is similar to a long duration silence, making Timbersaw useless in team fights, or forcing him to adapt his build.
- Time Walk negates Timbersaw's burst damage.
- Time Lock provides magical damage and lock down, and is effective against both Reactive Armor and Timber Chain.
- In conjunction with Time Lock's magical damage, Chronosphere can destroy Timbersaw before he has time to react, and creates a large obstacle that obstruct's Timber Chain's mobility.
- Timbersaw is completely powerless against Phantom's Embrace if Chakram is out.
- Cold Snap can prevent Timbersaw from using both Timber Chain and Chakram due to the frequent stuns interrupting the lengthy cast animations, as well as stopping him mid-chain. This can negate Timbersaw's attempts to escape or dole out extra ability damage.
- Later in the game, Invoker's heavy magical and pure damage can be difficult to avoid, meaning Timbersaw's armor is less useful.
- Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
- In addition, Lion can follow up with his Earth Spike and Mana Drain combo, preventing Timbersaw to escape with Timber Chain. And he can finish Timbersaw off with Finger of Death if the latter's HP is low enough.
- Heartstopper Aura effectively negates Timbersaw's large HP pool as well as HP regen.
- Death Pulse together with health and mana regeneration from killed creeps helps Necrophos and his teammates survive Timbersaw's burst damage.
- As a tanky hero that stays in the middle of teamfights, Timbersaw is an easy target for Reaper's Scythe.
- Arcane Orb deals constant pure damage, which bypasses Timbersaw's Reactive Armor.
- Sanity's Eclipse can hit targets inside Astral Imprisonment, which helps Outworld Destroyer finish off Timbersaw before he escapes with Timber Chain. It can also drain his mana, limiting his ability to escape should he survive.
- Rolling Thunder's stuns make it harder for Timbersaw to escape with Timber Chain.
- Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
- Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw, especially when combined with Decrepify.
- Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
- The stun and damage over time from Shackles mitigates Reactive Armor's HP and armor regen.
- Skywrath Mage's long range and low cooldown magic damage spells can easily harass Timbersaw out of lane.
- Ancient Seal is not only a long lasting silence, (one of Timbersaw's biggest weaknesses) but it also makes him even more vulnerable to magical burst damage.
- Arcane Curse deals repeated stacks of damage to Timbersaw because he relies on constantly using his abilities.
- Glaives of Wisdom deals pure damage and when cast manually, nearby creeps will not attack silencer, making it an effective harassment tool. The intelligence steal is also especially potent against Timbersaw since he often uses up all of his mana throughout the entire game.
- Although Last Word takes a while to trigger, it will break Timbersaw's ability combo and can be used to silence him.
- Global Silence will silence Timbersaw no matter where he is on the map. This can be used to help allies get a kill on him, or prevent Timbersaw from killing someone.
- Ball Lightning makes Storm Spirit a target difficult to chase, even for a hero as mobile as Timbersaw.
- The magical damage from Static Remnant and Overload together with Storm Spirit's high mobility allows Storm Spirit to jump on Timbersaw and burst him down, even if he tries to escape.
- Templar Assassin Meld`s ability will break Timbersaw's armor, which makes it very easy to break through and not feel his Reactive Armor, which will allow the team to kill Timbersaw quickly, or drive him out of the fight.
- Templar Assassin's Refraction ability gives her the ability to avoid damage from Whirling Death, which will give her the ability to deal Timbersaw more damage than he will deal. However, he may easily burn through Refraction with Chakram.
- Viper Strike prevents Timbersaw from gaining stacks on Reactive Armor.
- Zeus deals enormous amounts of magic damage, being one of the best heroes to burst down Timbersaw early in the game.
- Lightning Bolt's mini-stun can stop Timbersaw's from escaping a fight with Timber Chain.
Others[]
- In general, Timbersaw struggles against highly mobile heroes that can avoid his abilities: Puck, Weaver, Ember Spirit and others.
- Timbersaw has a difficult time against magical and pure damage: Lina, Leshrac, Enchantress, Queen of Pain
- Abilities that counter Timbersaw's mobility can also be useful against him such as X Marks the Spot and Glimpse
- Bloodseeker's Rupture deals great damage against Timbersaw should he tried escaping with Timber Chain.
- Timbersaw wants to spam abilities to stay effective. Any kind of silence, such as Waning Rift, Silence, Geomagnetic Grip, Doom, and others are effective against him unless he itemizes for countering them.
Items[]
- Spirit Vessel reduces the amount of healing Timbersaw receives from Reactive Armor.
- Orchid Malevolence's silence negates Timbersaw's mobility and damage. This can also be upgraded into a Bloodthorn to help punch through his high armor.
- Black King Bar is a good pickup for carries, as none of his abilities damages through Avatar.
- Scythe of Vyse is an effective way of silencing Timbersaw, as its cast time is instantaneous and difficult to be reacted against.
- Diffusal Blade drains Timbersaw's mana, negating nearly all of his strengths by removing his abilities.
- Silver Edge breaks Reactive Armor's passive bonuses, preventing Timbersaw from building up stacks. Note that this will not remove any stacks that he has already obtained.
Good against...[]
- Timbersaw easily beats Kunkka on the midlane, due to the fact that he has huge physical damage resistance from Reactive Armor, which is why Tidebringer almost does not break through Timbersaw, and due to Whirling Death and Kunkka being a strength hero, Timbersaw can very much break through Kunkka and force him to leave the lane, or spend money on Tango.
- Spiderlings deal almost no damage against Reactive Armor. They also die quickly from Timbersaw's AoE abilities.
- Broodmother has no mobility ability except the movement speed buff from Spin Web, allowing Timbersaw to easily escape her Silken Bola with Timber Chain.
- Timbersaw's tree-cutting abilities make it difficult for Broodmother to hide, especially near the edges of the map.
- Whirling Death reduces Axe's strength by 15%, which makes him less durable, especially from early game. It's also stackable.
- Blade Mail are not effective against attribute changes, and Timber Chain can wait out Blade Mail's duration to wear off.
- Reactive Armor makes it harder for Axe to finish off Timbersaw with Culling Blade.
- Chakram disarms Timbersaw, which makes Axe's Counter Helix useless against him.
- All Timbersaw skills deal pure damage, which bypass Axe's high armor or bonus armor from Berserker's Call.
- Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw to endure the damage from Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift combo.
- Timbersaw's large amount of pure damage AoE nukes clears Chaos Knight's illusions quickly, drastically reducing his damage.
- Because multiple Meepos tend to clump up, they present an easy target for Timbersaw's many area abilities.
- Although be careful since Timbersaw cannot use Timber Chain to escape if rooted from Earthbind.
- Timbersaw can easily cut down the tree that Monkey King is standing on, stunning him for a lengthy period.
- Timbersaw can use Timber Chain to easily escape Wukong's Command and Primal Spring's slow.
- However, when facing Monkey King mid, Timbersaw might get harassed out of the lane because of Jingu Mastery.
- Timbersaw can easily cut down trees from Sprout, making it very difficult for Nature's Prophet to teleport away or trap enemies.
- Timbersaw's abilities quickly clear out treants.
- Reactive Armor negates most of the damage of Nature's Prophet's treants, and Timbersaw can often allow himself to be attacked in order to heal himself.
- Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from Stifling Dagger, as well as ganking attempts.
- Phantom Assassin is a hero with moderate HP pool, and usually appears in the front line of battle. Because Blur does nothing against spells, she is vulnerable to Timbersaw's skills.
- Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his Timber Chain.
- Phantom Lancer's lack of burst damage and constant attacks will increase Reactive Armor to max level immediately.
- Coupled with Timber Chain, it makes an easy escape and almost impossible for Timbersaw to be killed by Phantom Lancer.
- Whirling Death and Chakram can instantly destroy large groups of illusions, negating Phantom Lancer's advantage, although Phantom Lancer usually builds Diffusal Blade. It can be a problem in late game.
- Razor deals mostly physical damage towards the later game, and Timbersaw is also very mobile, making him a difficult kill to earn.
- Timbersaw rarely resorts to attacks, thus does not suffer when his damage is stolen with Static Link.
- Timbersaw can use Chakram as a scouting tool to find Slark if he tries to Pounce into the trees.
- None of Timbersaw's abilities require a target to be cast, allowing him to hit Slark inside Shadow Dance.
- Reactive Armor can be effective protection against a Slark who attacks quickly, since the strong armor and health regen cannot be stolen by Essence Shift.
- Timber Chain makes Timbersaw very mobile, meaning he is among the very few heroes who can actually give chase to a fleeing Slark.
- Timbersaw can take down Terrorblade's illusions with his area damage burst.
- Reactive Armor plus another armor item reduce much of Terrorblade's damage.
- Timbersaw can use his plethora of tree cutting abilities to level entire sections of the forest, making hiding in the trees more difficult for Treant Protector and his team.
- Timbersaw can easily cut down Treant Protector's Eyes In The Forest once his team has detection. He may even do it unknowingly due to the sheer destructive and chaotic nature of his abilities.
Others[]
- Whirling Death's primary attribute reduction is extremely potent against strength heroes, as it will reduce their maximum health for a considerable duration, and can even stack with itself.
- Reactive Armor makes Timbersaw very effective against heroes that control a lot of units, such as Broodmother, Lycan and Undying.
- Timbersaw's ability to destroy trees can be a serious problem for some heroes that use them, as either a way of enhancing their spells like Treant Protector, or heroes that tend to hide inside of them like Tinker and Monkey King.
Works well with...[]
- Bounty Hunter's scouting abilities helps Timbersaw avoid and prepare for ganks.
- Track can enrich Timbersaw in the early to mid-game, when his ganking and fighting potential is high.
- Crystal Maiden's abilities slow enemies and helps Timbersaw land his abilities.
- Frostbite is one of the best abilities to set up an easy kill if Timbersaw is around.
- Arcane Aura helps meet Timbersaw's mana demands early on, making his laning stage much easier.
- Chakram's slow keeps enemies inside Enigma's Midnight Pulse longer.
- A Black Hole on a few enemies followed by Timbersaw's combo usually spells a clean team wipe.
- Reverse Polarity is an excellent ability for clustering and setting up the enemy team for a Timbersaw burst combo.
- Chakram's slow makes it easier for Faceless Void to hit enemies.
- Chakram can deal a huge amount of damage if used on enemies trapped inside Chronosphere.
Others[]
- Timbersaw really likes it when his enemies are stunned or ensnared, as that makes Chakram's damage over time more effective and landing his combo much more easy. Heroes like Vengeful Spirit, Bane, Shadow Shaman, and Tidehunter are very useful.
- Timbersaw uses a lot of mana throughout the whole game, so heroes and items that provide him mana are appreciated. Arcane Boots help a lot, and heroes like Keeper of the Light and Io makes Timbersaw's early game much easier.
- Omniknight and Oracle can cover one of Timbersaw's biggest weakness of being vulnerable to strong magic damage and disables, potentially making him a nearly unstoppable monster in a teamfight.