Introduction
“The strong shall eat the weak.”
Troll Warlord is an agility semi-carry who is famed for his ability to transition between melee and ranged attack forms. Although capable of incredibly high attack speed and damage output, Troll Warlord is not picked very frequently either in competitive Dota or public matchmaking due to his squishiness, recent ultimate nerf, and weakness in the laning phase.
Troll Warlord's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Incredibly high attack speed
- Low cooldowns on abilities
- Extremely strong in pushing line-ups
- Good agility gain
Cons
- Only works well in line-ups designed around him
- Really very squishy if Whirling Axes (Melee) aren’t available
- Mana issues
- Not the best laner
- Nerf to his ultimate has made him much less viable
Item Build
One of Troll Warlord’s major weaknesses is his laning phase. He’s not ideally suited to any particular lane, and this weakness is one of the main reasons he is not picked much competitively. His squishiness and lack of escape mechanism makes him ill-suited to the offlane, as a safe lane farmer he is often outstripped by other carries later on, and in the mid lane he generally lacks ganking capability or lane dominance (and you really need one or the other to justify the mid lane). Some teams do make it work though, and he is sometimes picked competitively. When he is, it is usually for the mid lane role.
Starting Items
Good starting items for Troll are:
- A set of Tangos, Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, and a Stout Shield.
Troll has quite low health and is really very fragile in the early and the mid game. For this reason a Stout Shield is recommended to help deal with any lane harass and for those early engagements where its damage block can be life-saving. This build also gives him plenty of regen early on as well as some early cost-efficient stat gain.
Early Game
Early on you want to grab some Boots of Speed and get working on upgrading them into Phase Boots. These are the upgraded boots of choice because, although Troll would benefit from the health boost of Power Treads, the attack speed is largely wasted on him given his passives, he desperately needs some early damage, and Phase Boots will allow him to chase much more effectively and cut down on enemy kiting.
Finally, upgrade the Iron Branches into a Magic Wand to complete your must-have early game items.
There are four situational items to consider at this point: Bottle – if you’re mid, invest in a Bottle. It’ll help greatly with your mana problems, allowing you to use your low cooldown abilities liberally, and will allow you to grab some runes.
Poor Man’s Shield – If you intend to keep the Stout Shield and don’t need to sell it for inventory space, consider upgrading it into a Poor Man’s Shield.
Ring of Aquila – Alternatively, Ring of Aquila gives really good stat gain, some armour, and will help solve your mana problems if you didn’t go for a Bottle. I would consider it core if your farm isn’t amazing, as it will go towards allowing you to become involved in teamfights despite being quite poor.
Drums of Endurance – if you struggle to get farm, consider the Drums & Aquila build. These two together give you a lot of cost-efficient stat gain, some decent auras, and will make you somewhat combat ready. They’re also super easy to build into, so you need not lose much unreliable gold should you die in teamfights (remember to spend your unreliable gold before dying if possible).
Core Items
Troll Warlord’s standard build is twofold:
Helm of the Dominator – HotD gives you a small damage boost, some armour gain, and most importantly a lifesteal passive. For a hero that becomes an attack speed monster, lifesteal is a fantastic.
On top of that, HotD has two additional advantages: 1) the lifesteal will allow you to jungle effectively without needing to worry about the neutral creeps whittling away at your health. And 2) you can dominate a jungle creep and use it to stack your team’s ancients, which you can then clear later on once you have some more damage.
Remember, if going HotD, don’t purchase any other items with unique attack modifiers. The only exceptions are Eye of Skadi and Maelstrom/Mjollnir – these items will stack with HotD’s lifesteal.
Black King Bar – The only time I wouldn’t buy BKB on him is if the other team has no stuns, or if their only disables go through Spell Immunity anyway – both highly unlikely, but not unheard of situations.
In all other situations it is a compulsory purchase, giving you some much-needed health, a small damage increase and all-important spell immunity which protects you from (most) stuns and disables and will allow you to get stuck into the fight and deal the DPS you’re intended to bring to teamfights.
Situational
Shadow Blade – Shadow Blade is a popular core choice in public matchmaking. It has its place on Troll, and that is namely when he is being played as a ganking Troll (usually in the mid lane). Shadow Blade gives him mobility, an escape mechanism (albeit an unreliable one), and damage-oriented stats, and it allows him to chase , so if you intend to gank and get stuck in early on then it’s a good option. If you intend to farm it out and only fight when teamfights are forced, stick with the HotD into BKB build.
Luxury Items
Daedalus – Daedalus is a great item on Troll, and one of the more popular luxury pick-ups for him for good reason. Incredible damage gain and the chance to convert this damage output into a critical strike. With Daedalus a Troll Warlord going to town in a teamfight simply cannot be ignored because his insane attack speed abilities will soon see him dishing out tonnes of DPS.
Desolator – Do not purchase this is you bought a HotD/Satanic! Their unique attack modifiers do not stack. However, if you skipped HotD then Desolator becomes a viable luxury item because the damage is nice, it's quite an inexpensive offensive item, and the minus armour makes you hit harder. The minus armour doesn't just work against enemy heroes and creeps either - it works on buildings, making you a very quick base pusher. But please, please, please remember not to stack it with other unique attack modifier items!
Monkey King Bar – You may need to get this if the enemy carry is likely to build a Butterfly or Heaven’s Halberd, or has built-in evasion (like Phantom Assassin). A good damage item that counteracts the aforementioned items/heroes, but not as popular as Daedalus.
Satanic – Very expensive but it doubles up as both a fantastic offensive and defensive weapon. You get a nice chunk of health, strong life steal from your attacks, and the chance to heal yourself back up when low on health using the Unholy Rage active. I like to liken this to the health effects of Roshan's Cheese. As long as you're able to attack, you basically get your health pool completely regenerated.
Since HotD is one of Troll’s core item items, Satanic makes for natural late-game item progression.
Butterfly – The ultimate luxury item for any agility carry. Troll is no exception here. Butterfly gives you lots of agility, attack speed, damage, and evasion - three stats he thrives on and one which will make you much harder to bring down, or which will force opposing cores to go for a Monkey King Bar.
Other Situational Items
Boots of Travel – Boots of Travel are great for the late game, when you need to free up a slot which would otherwise be taken up by a TP Scroll. With this, you combine your Boots and TP Scroll slot into one, allowing you to put a slot to better use as well as allowing you to teleport to the front lines if you die or if you’re off split-pushing.
Divine Rapier - Finally, there's always the Divine Rapier option if your back's against the wall and defeat is almost imminent or you feel you're so far ahead you just want to have fun. Just be sure to warn your teammates of your intentions in advance.
Skill Build
Beserker’s Rage allows Troll Warlord to shift between melee and ranged attack forms. It is skilled first for the laning flexibility this grants you, but is maxed last, as it scales poorly with levels. When in melee form Troll gains a flat additional 100 health, 3 armour, a 1.55 second attack speed, and a 10% chance to bash. Additional levels increase the bash damage and duration slightly, and also grant an additional 10 movement speed per level.
Beserker’s rage is useful for allowing you to switch to ranged attack form when laning under pressure, or when fearing a gank, whilst melee attack form is useful for actual engagements with heroes and for boosting your move speed.
Whirling Axes is a magic damage nuke that also provides additional benefits that depend upon whether you’re in melee or ranged attack form. It is always skilled second and maxed first – it scales well with levels and is essential in teamfights.
When in melee form (good for actual fighting and escaping), Whirling Axes causes a set of axes to spin around Troll and follow him. These axes have a ranged of 450 units, and hit enemy units that come within that range of Troll, dealing 75/125/175/225 magic damage. They also grant enemies within 450 units of Troll a 60% chance to miss when attacking for 4/5/6/7 seconds.
When in ranged form (useful for when you need to posture defensively in lane, and for quickly casting when chasing or escaping), Whirling Axes becomes a projectile ability which travels 900 units in the direction cast. Any enemy units hit by this ability are dealt 75 magic damage and slowed by 30% for 3/3.75/4.5/5.25 seconds.
Fervor is a passive ability which increases Troll Warlord’s attack speed. It is skilled last but maxed second. Fervor increases Troll Warlord’s attack speed by 16/22/2834 per stack when targeting a single enemy, up to a maximum of 4 stacks. Thus, the max attack speed Troll can gain from Fervour is 64/88/112/136. If he changes targets the bonus is lost and reset to zero and starts all over again.
Battle Trance is a global active. It is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). Battle Trance increases the attack speed of all allied heroes that are alive on the map by 60/120/180 for 7 seconds. It has a 30 second cooldown and costs 75 mana to cast.
Gameplay Tips
Shift to ranged form using Beserker’s Rage if you fear an enemy gank on your lane or you are under consistent harassment from the enemy laners. This will allow you to stand somewhat back from the creep wave, closer to the relative safety of your tower.
If you’re able to approach the creep wave without being harassed, using melee form to secure last hits and creep denies – it is easier to do so in melee form than ranged form, as the latter has a long delay.
When rotating between lanes, or to and from the base and jungle, be sure to switch to melee form – you will gain 10/20/30/40 move speed, as well as an extra 100 health that could be life-saving if enemies have set up an ambush for you.
During teamfights you almost always want to be in melee form when actually taking on enemy heroes. This is because Whirling Axes in melee form will cause enemy heroes with a 450 unit radius of Troll to miss with their attacks 6% of the time, giving you some much-needed survivability. That’s on top of the increased armour, attack time, and health that melee form grants you.
When chasing, or attempting to escape, quickly switch to ranged form and throw Whirling Axes out onto the relevant enemy heroes – this will slow them for 3/3.75/4.5/5.25 seconds. Then quickly switch back to melee form to increase your speed.
If attempting to escape, use the Whirling Axes slow trick above, then shift to melee form and cast Whirling Axes again in order to evade a good portion of the damage no doubt directed at you.
Fervor’s attack speed bonuses to take effect when attacking towers and other enemy buildings, making Troll a decent pushing hero. Combined with Battle Trance he is able to quickly build up right-click damage on enemy towers.
Remember that if you switch targets the bonus from Fervor is lost and you must start over again. If possible, you should try to stick to focussing just a single enemy in teamfights before moving on to your next target.
Troll is only truly useful in line-ups that suit his skill-set. You need to have allied heroes that will benefit greatly from Trance either in teamfights or in terms of pushing. Similarly, you will also need heroes that work around your laning requirements as well as help compensate for your slow start.
Battle Trance has a very short 30 second cooldown. So long as you have the mana to cast it, be sure to cast it whenever the following happens:
- Someone (or a number of your teammates) are pushing an enemy tower
- During every teamfight that breaks out
- Whenever your teammates are ganking the enemy
- Whenever your teammates get ganked and decide to stand and fight
- When your team is doing Roshan
- If you’re clearing an ancient stack, or someone else on your team is doing so with physical attacks
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
