Reactive Armour is bad, but my Timbersaw is better as a result

TLDR: Timbersaw can still win games with the right draft if you play him properly (i.e., are not recklessly suicidal).

I made a post previously about how garbage reactive armour is, and it's entirely true.

In his heyday, Timbersaw with level 4 reactive armour could tank tier 2 towers indefinitely, and now he can't even tank a tier one tower forever. He'll tank it better than most heroes grant you, but he's not in the state where he can solo dive a tier one tower against 2 heroes and know they won't even come close to killing him anymore, which he could for literally all of his existence until 7.32.

But, I've noticed something else. My winrate on Timbersaw is far higher than it was back in his heyday. I have 11 games on 7.32d so far, and have a 8 wins and 3 losses, while I once had a 46% winrate on Timbersaw.

Now, I know 11 games isn't that much, but I am certain that I am doing something right that I wasn't doing before. I recall in my past, I would think myself invulnerable when I had reactive up, recklessly dive whenever I could, and eventually find out that I really wasn't invulnerable when 4 heroes showed up, and then go "space created" and do it again. Or, I would win the lane just fine and just feed later in the midgame because I still acted like I was invulnerable with reactive up.

Now, knowing how garbage reactive is, I no longer depend on it as strongly. I have to buy regen where I could once rely on the reactive regen (Cause now the creeps do about equal damage). I sometimes even buy Vanguard on Timbersaw, all while thinking that this was 1.8k old Timber wouldn't have to bother with. Yet I'm winning games. How come?

First is that, knowing that Timber is weaker now, I pick him only when the draft is looking favourable. As an offlaner, I pick second, so I see the supports and hope for the best. I'll sort heroes into 3 categories: Yes pick Timber, Maybe, or No Way.

As a general rule, Timbersaw likes to play against meelee strength heroes, so most of them are in the Yes category, especially those that don't have stuns, like Abbadon, Omniknight, and Treant (also because I CUT THINGS THAT'S WHAT I DO).

However, strength heroes with stuns and magic nukes like Clockwerk, Tiny, Earthshaker and Primal Beast can still threaten Timber, and would not be in the ideal, but in the "maybe" category.

Heroes in the "no" category would be heroes that have very high magic damage, stuns, and/or silences. Some examples would be Skywrath, Lich, DP, Silencer, and WD. Heroes like Lion and Nyx also have mana burn. Heroes like Riki and Grimstroke are also extremely bad. Riki is for obvious reasons; Timbersaw doesn't like having to deal with undispellable silences, and Grimstroke's silence cannot be removed without attacks, and Chakram disarms Timbersaw, making BKB the only viable dispel for Timbersaw, which still doesn't deal with the leash that also cripples him.

I see those guys, I don't pick. I would risk picking Timbersaw for one maybe, but not two maybes. Side note, I also have found that Oracle is a great teammate for Timbersaw. The magic resistance from Fate's Edict is really nice, and Timbersaw disables himself with Chakram anyway. Oracle's healing is also really nice, and he can dispel all the stuff that Timbersaw hates.

Besides the draft, the other thing that I now do is to rely on Timbersaw's nukes far more. I still dive towers, but I do so by using spells to clear creepwaves, and let creepwaves tank the tower, rather than tank it myself like old Timber would have done. I think the general attitude shift of dealing more damage to creeps and heroes has also greatly increased my effectiveness.

Of course, it could really just be that I'm an immortal player now who plays proper Dota instead of suicidal recklessness, and I'm speculating that maybe some of my experience playing Pangolier, another mobile nuker, has also transferred over to playing Timbersaw as well.

Overall, with the proper draft and mindset, even with his reactive armour nerfs, Timbersaw still wins games and feels great.