Saw

Saw
Regular Scientists
He is not afraid of people or zombies... But everyone is afraid of him.
Main Stats
Type	Psycho
Rarity	Exclusive
Health 54 Melee Damage 10
Crit. Chance	60%
Crit. Damage	10%
Speed	13
Prepare Time	13s
Rage Cost	13
Behavior Stats
Agility	80
Aggression	90
Detection Range	80
Agility Penalty	50%
Aggression Penalty	50%
Morale Stats
Charisma	-300
Valor	9999
Charisma Radius	100
Abilities
Perks
Special Ability	Does double damage to the barricade.
Unlock Requirements
Price	925 (Circus Pack)
Player Level	Any

Saw is a psychopath armed with a chainsaw and dressed in a brown short-sleeve jumpsuit and a white hockey mask.

Dr. Sanchez is Saw's first exclusive skin. He is armed with a cement saw and dressed in a blue shirt, a white lab coat, brown pants, blue gloves, and a welding mask. His hair is now gray.

He can be purchased from the Circus Pack alongside Berserker and Queen for 925 money.

Overview

Saw is a Psycho that functions similar to a Damager. He has average stats for the latter class, and fairly slow attack speed. Saw possesses a unique critical attack: after winding up his chainsaw, he will deal up to 5 critical hits to his current target.

Saw's negative charisma causes him to inspire fear into his teammates. Simulataneously, he has extremely high valor, making him technically immune to the debuff.

On death, Saw almost instantly transforms into a Monk. After dying, he will roll backwards, and instantly turn into the zombie after getting up. The roll animation has invincibility frames during its first half.

Special Ability

Saw's special ability grants him a 100% damage buff against the barricade.

While it might sound marginal, it can significantly decrease the time it takes to finish missions, since Saw rarely has problems with reaching the barricade, or being available for a rollout when the right time comes. Compare this with Welder, who is difficult to send out, and with Builder, who has the exact same ability but is a much less versatile unit.

Gameplay

Main Campaign

Saw, being unlocked through purchase of an extremely expensive pack, may not prove useful for progression unless players deliberately avoid advancing Campaign missions to save up.

Nevertheless, Saw can be very powerful in his own right. Being a versatile combination of a fighter and a damager with extreme valor, Saw is practically immune to negative effects of the Fear debuff, and with enough raw stats to brute force through hordes with the proper support.

Saw however does have a few glaring flaws that must be worked around. His melee is already pretty sluggish, and his critical hit has a very long foreswing, which can be detrimental against threats that cause knockback or stun due to his very low range. Examples of such enemies include Small Insectoid, Blue Runner, and Monk. Saw's own transformation can also hamper future copies of him, but that's more of a minor inconvenience given he works best in company with other units. Speaking of support, Saw should never be used as the sole melee unit since rage doesn't regenerate on its own. Additionally, his negative charisma can inadvertently instill fear in most other units that are meant to work with him.

Skirmish

In League, Saw is not useful at all. His lack of bullet resistance means he'll be shredded easily by enemy ranged or melee units, and even if he gets within range, his slow animations mean it's rare for him to actually hit them, not to mention his on-death transformation can distract allied units. His only saving grace is his low price, which allows players pursuing cost reduction items to fit him in their formations as an additional meatshield.

Item Sets

Because of Saw's natural focus on critical attacks, Gentleman proves to be the best option for him in PvE. Gambling is inadvisable, as his critical chance is already pretty high. Boss allows Saw to see use as a support unit in context of Skirmish.

Cost reduction is one of the key buffs for Saw, as it boosts his playability exponentially. In context of regular missions, -4 to -5 reduction is usually enough, as it also allows Saw to have other stats at adequate values, especially in combination with Psychos 2/2. Full reduction is usually only recommended for Skirmish, since it can leave him without enough stats to function elsewhere.

Crit. chance books are the best choice for Saw, as they cause almost every attack of his to be a crit. +% Health is a tolerable alternative in context of Skirmish. Saw receives most benefit from flat buffs, since his base stats are relatively low. However, once his level is in double digits, he can meaningfully benefit from percentage buffs to health. Like with most melee units, Saw gets most use out of prep. time watches, with agility bonuses acquired as secondary buffs. Extra decreases to preparation time can also prove useful, usually in synergy with cost reduction.

Skins and Synergies

Saw, along with his respective skins, is a part of the following teams: Psychos and Scientists.

Name	Saw	Dr. Sanchez
Skin
Unlock Req.	-	300
Team	Psychos	Scientists

Saw has proven to be an important member for all of the above teams.

Because of his extreme crit. chance, he is the biggest powerhouse for Psychos' 2/2 and 3/3 synergies, with the latter also allowing him to have even greater damage output. The fact that Saw is relatively disposable compensates for any potential downsides, and he can be paired with Berserker for devastating effect.

In the Scientists team, Saw actually benefits little from most of the powers. Instead, he is important due to fulfilling a role of cheap, semi-spammable frontliner, which proves especially useful because of him costing rage. This is very important for the 3/3 power, as it guarantees that free Drones can be summoned often and won't damage other members of the team. Meanwhile, the 5/5 power's damage boost allows him to provide meaningful offensive support for the team.

Trivia

• The hockey mask Saw wears and the chainsaw he uses are references to Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise and Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.
  • His movement speed, preparation time, and rage cost all being valued at 13 further solidifies the reference to Friday the 13th.
• Saw revealed his voice in a trailer for update 2.1.0.
• Saw is tied with Cashier for having the highest base crit chance in the game among all units.
• Saw's "Dr. Sanchez" skin is a reference to Rick Sanchez from the show Rick and Morty.

Gallery

• 

  Saw as seen in the PvP trailer.

• 

  Dr. Sanchez and Charlotte in promo art for the discord Bus design competition.

• 

  Saw, Pepper, Witch, Zombie and Fat Zombie celebrating DAWZ's 7th Anniversary.