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Gameplay[]

Playstyle
Troll Warlord minimap icon Troll Warlord due to his capacity to participate in fights at all moments of the game, he is one of the strongest carries in the entire game. His signature ability, Berserker's Rage icon Berserker's Rage, allows him to switch between melee and ranged attacks, both with their pros and cons. He is most devastating in a one on one situation because of his ability Fervor icon Fervor but he also can put out major damage in teamfights with Whirling Axes icon Whirling Axes either slowing the enemy or making them miss. Finally, his ultimate Battle Trance icon Battle Trance increases attack speed, gives lifesteal, and prevents death, but makes the hero less controllable.
Pros Cons
  • Fast attack speed.
  • Great at one-on-one fights.
  • Melee and ranged forms.
  • Repeated roots.
  • Destroys buildings quickly.
  • Very simple to play.
  • Monster in late-game.
  • Item dependent.
  • No escape mechanism.
  • Vulnerable to disables.
  • Depends on lifesteal and roots for survivability.
  • Fervor stacks may take time to build up.
  • Low mana pool and abysmal Intelligence gain.
  • Ultimate ability can backfire.

Carry[]

Troll Warlord should always be played as a carry. This hero should be farming, pushing and taking towers when possible. One of the first important items on Troll Warlord is Phase Boots icon Phase Boots, this allows you to gap close and move around more quickly. Sange and Yasha icon Sange and Yasha (or Manta Style icon Manta Style), you should be able to fight in early team fights. Black King Bar icon Black King Bar is usually the go to, to make sure no one can stop you during Battle Trance. You should find a good balance between farming and pushing, depending on your team's situation.

In order to secure the ranged creeps and to threaten favourable trades with the slow effect, you should start with a point in Whirling Axes and proceed to max it because it allows you to farm the best out of any of your spells.

Next you want to max Fervor for the farming and pushing. It also allows you to take towers much earlier than any other carry, which is a huge benefit to your hero. You should always have a point in Berserker's Rage so you can move around slightly quicker and have more survivability against being hit by creeps.

Pick up Battle Trance when you are able to do so, at levels 6, 12, and 18. The cooldown is very low so even using it to jungle is not unviable.

As for the talents, most players will grab the 10 extra movement speed at level 10.

Ability Builds[]

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Talents[]

Hero Talents
Battle Trance icon Battle Trance Strong Dispels25Whirling Axes icon Whirling Axes Pierce Magic Immunity
+10 Berserker's Rage icon Berserker's Rage Armor20+20% Battle Trance icon Battle Trance Movement Speed
+90 Whirling Axes icon Whirling Axes Damage15+5 Fervor icon Fervor Attack Speed
+25 Berserker's Rage icon Berserker's Rage Movement Speed10+2s Whirling Axes icon Whirling Axes Debuff Duration

Tips & Tactics[]

General[]

  • Troll Warlord is faster in melee mode, making it easier to chase or escape from enemies. It's very important when moving around the map and farming to use this mode to optimize time.
  • While Troll Warlord can kill Roshan earlier than most heroes with Morbid Mask icon Morbid Mask, it's generally a team effort and should be done as a team objective.
  • 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 Magnus minimap icon Magnus's Empower icon Empower can also be a good source of boosting damage.
  • Try to concentrate on one target rather than switching between them, as Fervor becomes more dangerous the more times he attacks the same victim.


Abilities[]

Berserker's Rage icon Berserker's Rage[]

  • 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 significantly 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).

Whirling Axes (Ranged) icon Whirling Axes (Ranged)[]

  • Use this spell to slow enemies.
  • This spell does little damage to heroes especially because it doesn't scale, however, you can secure the ranged creep with it if needed.
  • 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.

Whirling Axes (Melee) icon Whirling Axes (Melee).[]

  • This spell is your main damaging nuke, as the damage scales with level.
  • Inflicts a blind effect on enemy heroes and creeps, causing them to miss some of their attacks. This makes Troll one of the best 1v1 fighters in the game, reducing the enemy's chances of retaliation.
  • You should use this spell for farming, pushing and, teamfights. However, it does not affect Roshan.

Fervor icon Fervor[]

  • 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 icon Battle Trance[]

  • 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.
  • Try to use Battle Trance after Troll Warlord has exhausted all of his defensive items like Black King Bar icon Black King Bar, 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.
  • Note that this ability can backfire, especially during highground pushes. Enemies with fast movement speed can kite you all the way to the fountain, as the ability has a significantly long duration.
    • For this reason, it can be used as a last resort, when you're certain you will die, to try and dish out as much damage as possible before you die or your team can help.

Items[]

Starting items:

  • Tango icon Tango sustains health so you can stay longer in lane.
  • Healing Salve icon Healing Salve restores health as well.

Early game:

  • Magic Wand icon Magic Wand helps to sustain in the lane against enemies that can spam spells.
  • Phase Boots icon Phase Boots 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:

  • Battle Fury icon Battle Fury 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 Intelligence and Intelligence gain.
  • Black King Bar icon Black King Bar 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.
  • Sange and Yasha icon Sange and Yasha provides good stats. It provides status resistance, making Troll more resilient to disables. It also gives bonus movement speed, which synergizes nicely with Berserker's Rage's bonus movement speed. The Health Regen and Lifesteal amplification synergizes with Morbid Mask's (or later Satanic's) lifesteal.
  • Manta Style icon Manta Style Situationally better than Sange and Yasha, as it can dispel enemy disables.

Late game:

  • Butterfly icon Butterfly 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.
  • Abyssal Blade icon Abyssal Blade 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. Pairs up nicely with Berserker's Rage's root.
  • Satanic icon Satanic 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 bonus strength gives the needed durability to not get bursted immediately and thus allows you to get of your BKB and Ultimate.

Situational items:

  • Morbid Mask icon Morbid Mask 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 Satanic icon Satanic, which helps with his survivability in the late game.
  • Maelstrom icon Maelstrom 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 Mjollnir icon Mjollnir, upgrading Chain Lightning that allows him to shred through illusions whlist providing Static Charge on himself to ease his fights against numbers.
  • Shadow Blade icon Shadow Blade offers cost-effective attack speed and damage increases, strong initiation and mobility, and a mediocre escape.
  • Silver Edge icon Silver Edge breaks annoying enemy passives, such as Blur icon Blur, Counter Helix icon Counter Helix, and Bristleback ability icon Bristleback. It also upgrades from the aforementioned Shadow Blade.
  • Blink Dagger icon Blink Dagger allows Troll Warlord to get on top of the enemies to root and kill them. Can be upgraded later to Swift Blink icon Swift Blink for extra damage and movement speed upon cast.
  • Diffusal Blade icon Diffusal Blade 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.
  • Daedalus icon Daedalus 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.
  • Monkey King Bar icon Monkey King Bar 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.
  • Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter can be considered to dispel yourself or the enemy. Great against heroes with Aeon Disk icon Aeon Disk, since the dispel will the Aeon Disk buff. Great to dispel yourself against abilities that do not silence, such as Venomous Gale icon Venomous Gale.
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