Troll Warlord/Guide

Carry
Troll Warlord should always be played as a carry. A good Troll player is constantly farming, pushing, or taking objectives. One of the first important items on Troll Warlord is, which can be upgraded to. With this item, one can farm the jungle without losing much health. Combined with and  (or ), you should be able to fight in early team fights. You should find a good balance between farming and pushing, depending on your team's situation.

You will usually want to start with a point in Berserker's Rage, as Troll Warlord is definitely stronger in melee form, with additional movement speed, a lower base attack time, and bonus armor which really helps your laning phase.

Then, depending on the game situation, you can either take a point or two in Fervor (for a more farming playstyle) or max out Whirling Axes (for a more kill-centric playstyle). Maxing both skills in tandem can be effective as well, as long as one optimizes farming and fighting appropriately. Fervor does not scale all that well with extra levels. The first point is already half as good as the fourth. One overly-simple way to look at it is that taking a second point improves Fervor by 33% (from 15 to 20 attack speed), the third by 25% (from 20 to 25) and the fourth by 20% (from 25 to 30). Do not underestimate extra levels in Berserker's Rage; +10 flat movement speed is always nice to have, and the increased duration on the root will make the difference between a kill and a close escape for your enemies. Although the extra attack speed from leveling Fervor will help you "perma-root" an opponent, the duration of the root scales better. Granted, you need to proc a root first. Overall, there is no obvious way to spend your skill points to maximise your damage output or your kill potential.

You always pick up your Battle Trance when you are able to do so, at levels 6, 12, and 18.

General

 * Troll Warlord is faster in melee mode, making it easier to chase or escape from enemies. It also increases your armor, so switching to melee form whenever damage is received reduces the overall damage you take.
 * You can opt for the strategy to kill Roshan early. Troll Warlord with and a few points in Fervor can easily kill Roshan thanks to his root and high attack speed against single targets. In addition the use of a smoke may allow a sneaky Rosh.
 * When your target enemy is starting to become harder to chase in melee form, keep in mind that you still have a ranged form. Ranged Whirling Axes can aid in crippling them, so that you can revert back to melee form to finish them off.
 * Augment Troll Warlord's power with damage-boosting items, since his power lies in his excellent attack speed.
 * Ally buffs such as 's can also be a good source of boosting damage.
 * Because of its scaling boost to attack speed Fervor is usually leveled up last with 1 point at level 4 for tower pushing/Roshan/beating on a single hero. Having your movement speed and root duration higher will greatly benefit your survivability and chase, since Fervor is good with even only one skill point.
 * Try to focus on one target rather than switching from one to another, since Fervor makes him more dangerous the more he attacks the same target with each blow.
 * Attack speed items such as and  allow you to build up Fervor quickly, but do not scale well if you opt to max it early on.
 * If you are 6-slotted, sell any attack speed items for higher damage items. With all skills leveled, Troll Warlord easily achieves his maximum attack speed, so items like are much less useful.


 * You should always be in melee form while moving, fighting and farming to gain bonus movement speed and the chance to root, as well as a lower base attack time. The bonus movement speed will also help you flee from an enemy, as will the bonus armor.
 * Try to finish off running heroes, zone enemy melee heroes or last-hitting creeps by changing to ranged form.
 * When toggled on, exchanges Whirling Axes (Ranged) with Whirling Axes (Melee).


 * Only real purpose of this spell is to slow the opponent.
 * The melee and ranged versions of Whirling Axes have separate cooldowns. Keep this in mind when in battle, so that you can output more damage with them.
 * You should go in melee form after casting this spell to gain bonus movement speed, making chasing more efficient.

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 * This spell is your main damaging nuke, as the damage scales with level.
 * Axes whirl in a circle around your hero, extending to a radius of 350 units before coming back, each axe having a radius of 100 units.
 * Inflicts a blind effect on enemy heroes and creeps, causing them to miss some of their attacks.
 * You should use this spell for farming, pushing, teamfights. However, it does not affect Roshan.


 * This ability provides much of your damage output.
 * Try not to constantly switch targets to prevent your Fervor stacks from resetting.
 * Most effective for one-versus-one, destroying buildings and Roshan.
 * Synergizes with Berserker's Rage to facilitate rooting consecutively.


 * Battle Trance helps Troll Warlord survive longer in fights.
 * When attacking during Battle Trance, Troll Warlord can only use his abilities.
 * When Troll Warlord is not attacking during Battle Trance, he can be controlled like normal.
 * Troll Warlord during Battle Trance does not need to turn to target his abilities and items.
 * Use Battle Trance when Troll Warlord is attacking a target to stick to the same target, e.g. or buildings.
 * Try to use Battle Trance after Troll Warlord has exhausted all of his defensive items like, extending his survivability even further.
 * If you think the enemies can disable you during teamfights, use Battle Trance early on to stay alive.
 * Try to stay in melee form to better root the enemies with Battle Trance's increased movement and attack speed.
 * Switch to ranged form if the enemies are escaping, or if they are all at low health so Troll Warlord can just finish them off.

Items
Starting items:
 * sustains health so you can stay longer in lane.
 * restores health as well.

Early game:
 * helps to sustain in the lane against enemies that can spam spells.
 * increase attack damage to complement Troll Warlord's high attack speed, whilst allowing him to chase faster when he is in his melee form.

Mid game:
 * allows Troll Warlord to farm faster while also providing great HP and mana regeneration since he has a low mana pool and does not easily regain his mana due to his abysmal mana regen.
 * is core on troll because Battle Trance only lasts 6.5 seconds. Every second matters, and stuns and disables potentially make you unable to do anything for several seconds, wasting the spell's potential.
 * provides lifesteal which works well with your high attack speed. Getting this can help you take out Roshan in the early game by yourself. It also upgrades into, which helps with his survivability in the late game.

Late game:
 * provides a massive agility and attack speed bonus as well as evasion. In addition, the evasion, combined with the blind provided by Whirling Axes provides a great deal of survivability.
 * provides Troll Warlord with stun and bash, which he can take advantage of due to his high attack speed. The item also gives damage block and health so he can survive in fights.
 * provides an active that will allow Troll Warlord to hit enemies without the fear of dying and gain full health in a fraction of a second. The passive status resistance is what makes this item a must, as Troll Warlord doesn't like to be interrupted in fights so that he can focus one target.

Situational items:
 * is a decent alternative that increases his farm speed, allowing him to get more items quicker thanks to Chain Lightning. This can be upgraded later into, upgrading Chain Lightning that allows him to shred through illusions whlist providing Static Charge on himself to ease his fights against numbers.
 * is always a decent choice, for extra movement speed and agility. Upgrade it into either a for some durability, or a  for the illusions, dispel and disjointing projectiles.
 * offers cost-effective attack speed and damage increases, strong initiation and mobility, and a mediocre escape. It also upgrades in the improved.
 * allows Troll Warlord to get on top of the enemies to root and kill them. Can be upgraded later to for extra damage and movement speed upon cast.
 * provides good agility and intelligence while allowing you to get up close and personal with its active. Not only that, but it also allows you to deplete their mana quickly thanks to Troll's passive and dealing monstrous damage against mana-reliant opponents.
 * give your attacks a great deal of damage. Because maximum attack speed is easily achievable with his ultimate and passive, Troll Warlord can focus on damage and get multiple Daedalus to crit more often and lifesteal even more.
 * counters evasion from the enemies due to its magical damage procs, and gives an increase to attack damage which complements attack speed bonuses from Fervor and Battle Trance.

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