Sawbot

Sawbots are basically VS with disc or sawblade weapon components instead of weapons on extenders.

Contrarily to classical HS/VS or drums that features bars/discs/tribars, a sawbot's weapon is just (as the name implies) a saw or circular weapon (single component) attached to a motor. Middleweight and especially heavyweights can have multiple saws.

Ninja, BOT-204 (and their DSL counterparts), Sawmill, and Spinner from the West are sawbots, but Ripblade (Stock and DSL) isn't one because it has teeth on a disc.

Sawbots doesn't carry as much as kinetic energy as other spinners, so they do less damage per hit than classical bar/disc spinners and have generally more fragile weapons, but they do continuous damage, have lighter weapons, and their weapons can't generally be stopped . Also, if it loses one of it's saws, a sawbot won't wobble like a normal spinner would.

Stock

Forget about building a sawbot in Stock.

Sawbots absolutely suck in Stock RA2. First they do low damage, second their weapons can be knocked off very easily. See Spinner from the West.

DSL

If built well, a sawbot can be a fearsome opponent.

Generally, vertical sawbots are better than horizontal ones - but it's a matter of taste, you should try building both and feel the difference.

Your sawbot can be either damage-orientated (use classic sawblades or Backlash discs) or strength-orientated (best choice is WhirlWep discs but you can also use chewblade saws). Damage-orientated sawbots are extremely powerful but have vulnerable weapons, and vice versa for strength-orientated ones.

As all the saw-like components are lighter than 50 kg, you shouldn't use very powerful motors. Even an E-tek is too much except for the REALLY heavy saw designs, like two heavy replica discs or many chewblades in a drumlike design.

A TWM3R is a good choice for any classic sawblade, but for heavier discs like the replica discs you'd be better off with stronger motors, especially since the disc CAN be stopped if the disc isn't perfectly circular (toothed weapon) or if the motor is really too weak for the weapon.

Drills

A variant of the sawbot is a drill. These robots feature a lengthwise attack zone (compared to the vertical or horizontal attack zones of the traditional sawbots), although designs vary heavily depending on the weight class. Sub-Lightweight classes take advantage of the Chicken Drill glitch to deal lethal damage despite only having a single Razor per weapon motor. While the drill design is not optimal on heavier weight classes for stock, drills in DSL can be a threat simply by spamming light and damaging weapons onto small drums/discs in a lengthwise manner, such as Mindless Aggression 4.

Pros&Cons

PROS:

• Good to excellent DPS
• Weapons do not get stuck in the opponent, unlike some VS
• Does not wobble if a weapon is lost
• Gut-ripping specialist

CONS:

• Very fragile weapons : win fast or lose by points
• Virtually impossible to self-right without a srimech and almost never invertible
• Weapons are more exposed than most gut-rippers
• Lacks the punting force of a VS