This guide is uncompleted, but comments are welcomed. More pictures and eye-candy will be added later.
Guide Introduction and Important Notes
So I have decided to finally write a good guide for one of my favourite heroes, Troll Warlord. This guides contains all tactics and builds I can think of at the moment.
Unimportant stuffs or long-rambling explanations will be put into spoilers, therefore just read the non-spoiler parts if you want to skim through it.
Although I never played in a real competition before, I have played DotA in competitive clan matches enough to understand how Troll Warlord should be played, in public games or in competitives.
If you spot any missing information, incorrect information or uncovered tricks or tactics, tell me and I would be happy to make ammendments to the guide.
Author's Hero Introduction
Pros
●Average health overall, but high health for an agility hero
●One of the few heroes who can permanently stun single heroes.
●One of the few heroes who can easily attain maximum attack speed.
●Role: Carry.
Troll Warlord is a hardcore carry hero who is one of the few heroes who can solo the entire team, if insanely farmed.
●Role: Anti-Carry.
Blind reduces an enemy carry hero's ability to dish out damage by almost half.
●Role: Carry Supporter
Troll Warlord's Battle Trance benefits all heroes on the map, therefore providing extra DPS to all carry heroes (as well as spellcasters of course)
●Berserker's Rage gives him little extra health.
●Role: Hero-Hunter
Troll Warlord is a very powerful 1-versus-1 hero, and therefore of course, is a powerful hunter. You need your core items to hunt. Just locate any lone hero you spot, and run in and cast your Battle Trance and autoattack him to death.
●Global-ranged ultimate, benefits all allied heroes.
●Very short cooldown ultimate
●High survivability with HotD/Satanic and BKB.
●Flexibility
Troll Warlord can be Melee or Ranged. Therefore apply whichever form whenever offense or defense is required.
●Low mana dependency
Troll Warlord's skills are all below 100 mana cost. The cheapest skill, Blind, only costs 20 mana.
●Good attack animation: Neither too fast nor slow.
Cons
●Can be very easily killed by nukers and stunners if BKB is not farmed yet
●Almost totally useless unfarmed
If you're an unfarmed Troll Warlord, leave the game to other carry heroes, and go to the jungle and farm, Battle Trancing in every hero battles your team encounters. An unfarmed Troll Warlord is delicious food because chain-stunners will easily finish you off before you even land a stun. If your team does not have a carry hero, you will need to go on a farming-frenzy, otherwise the game is already lost, if your team's only carry is unfarmed.
●Requires warding in jungle if jungling in competitive games.
●No natural escape mechanism (although Blind can be considered as an escape mechanism, if you want to try your luck)
●You will be the first one to be aimed if you do not have an initator. Everyone knows that a carry hero must be gotten rid of as soon as possible.
●Will be hunted almost all the time by a decent team, preventing you from farming hard.
Therefore, get someone to ward the jungle for you, so that you know when to run whenever you see red dots moving towards you.
●Very weak in early game, therefore easily ganged by roaming heroes.
●Farming almost the entire game can be boring, but that is what you should be doing.
Background Story
PlayDotA.com Hero Introduction
Hero Statistics
Skills
Beserker Rage
This skill turns your ranged Troll Warlord into a melee Troll Warlord. At maximum level, this skill provides you with a 10% chance to stun. Although this may seem little, combined with Fervor, this can allow you to permanently stun an enemy hero. It gives you +100HP in melee form.
Blind
This skill is used for harrassing enemy heroes in your lane, and devastating an enemy carry hero's DPS during a battle. It gives a +44% chance to miss for enemies you cast this on, for only 20 mana. This means that their farming capability will be slashed to almost half. Blinding a farmed enemy hero during battle can turn the tide of battle, as he will be dealing only about half of his original damage.
Fervor
This skill is the signature skill of Troll Warlord which other heroes do not have. Simply put, the more you attack, the faster you attack. You do not have to buy many speed-increasing items as a result, as you already have free attack speed. At maximum level, just 5 hits give you a whopping +100% attack speed.
Battle Trance
Battle Trance is a very powerful skill, anytime, anywhere. You can use this to farm Ancient Creep Camps early, or out-DPS an enemy hero at early game, and also aid your allies who are in the midst of battle, even if you're on the other end of the map. This skill is also what makes Troll Warlord able to solo Roshan at Level 11 with just Power Treads, HotD and PMS.
Skill Build
Here is a list of all possible skill builds for Troll Warlord I can think of. If you have your own skill build not listed here, share it and give a reason why it is viable and I might add it to the list.
Standard Harrassment Competitive Build
Standard Farming Competitive Build
Rambo Pub Slacking Build (For Non-Serious Games Only)
Rambo Pub Build (For Non-Serious Games Only)
Item Build
Troll Walord is a carry-hero, and therefore most of his items are focused on getting more DPS.
Important: Add Beserker's Rage as your first skill and switch to melee form. Then buy the items. This is because Stout Shield and Quelling Blade have melee and ranged versions, and the melee version is a lot better. Even if you switch back to ranged, the item form remains the same. (You can do this later in game too if you do not want to add Beserker's Rage first. Switch to melee form, drop the items on the ground and pick them up again, and they will transform into melee forms)
Starting Items
Stout Shield (250 gold)
This cheap shield provides you with good survivability early game. It reduces damage done to you, so you can stay in lane longer and not be that fragile in early game. It upgrades to Poor Man's Shield which is a core item for Troll Warlord.
Quelling Blade (225 gold)
This is a cheap last-hitting tool which allows you more farming capability in jungle and in lane. It gives you more damage on creeps so you can get last-hits easier than your opponent who tries to deny.
Healing Salve (100 gold)
You will need this to stay in lane longer. If you accidentally go too far out and get nuked heavily to red health or got badly hurt in a battle, this will save your trip to the fountain.
(28 gold left)
If you randomed Troll Warlord, get these as extra items:
Slippers of Agility (150 gold)
This allows you to complete your PMS faster. Just one will do, because you can buy the other at the side-shop.
Ancient Tango of Essifation (90 gold)
More healing power for survivability on lane. If you get lightly nuked, you can eat this instead of waiting till you have 100HP before using Healing Salve.
(6 gold left)
Core Items
You require these items before you start going offensive
Ideal Farming Order:
Poor Man's Shield (Total: 550 gold)
PMS gives you extra survivability early game, at a very cheap price of 550 gold. It also adds that little damage to increase your last-hitting capabilities.
Power Treads (Agility) OR Power Treads (Strength)(Total: 1450 gold)
You can choose either Agility or Strength Treads, depending on your play style. If you like agressive laning, you may want to choose the Strength Treads, which gives you +190HP. If you need more damage than your enemy, get the Agility Treads so you can last-hit or deny better than him.
This is going to be your farming and DPS item you are getting in your lane. Farm the components in this order:
Helm of the Dominator (Total: 1850 gold)
This will be the next in line of items you will get. HotD will allow you to go neutral creeping without going back to base even once. It provides you endless of free life and increases survivability in teamfights. Once you got your HotD, you can start hero-hunting.
Once your core items are up, you can solo Roshan now, once you got your ultimate. Have your team to help you, guard you or ward for you, to prevent gangs.
Luxury Items and Extensions
Black King Bar (Total: 3900 gold)
In almost every game you play, there will be at least one enemy stunner. Therefore you must get this first. It offers a good damage of 24 and more HP, and allows you to avoid stuns, therefore you can just rush into teamfights for kills.
If, however, your enemies fail so hard that they don't even have a single stunner, just ignore this item. (Usually in public games)
Manta Style (Total: 4850 gold)
Manta Style gives you even more extra survivability, and a lot more damage and attack speed. Since everyone wants to aim you, get this item to confuse them. You can even use this item to dodge spell missles. It also gives extra movespeed to chase almost anyone you want.
Buriza-Do-Kyanon (5800 gold)
You do not need to get the final recipe yet. Crystalys at this time will do. Complete your Buriza-Do-Kyanon after getting Butterfly.
The Butterfly (Total: 6000 gold)
The Butterfly is your ultimate weapon. It gives you a good addition of +30 attack speed and 60 damage (30 agi + 30 raw damage = 60 total damage). It also increases your survivability due to the 30% evasion.
Satanic (Total: 6150 gold)
Satanic is a powerful life-stealing item. It will save your trip to the fountain, or save your life. If you suddenly find yourself nuked by many heroes to red health, you can activate it and attack them for a while to green hp and run, or fight them back. Satanic increases your survivability highly also because of its +25 strength and +5 armour.
Monkey King Bar (Total: 5400 gold)
MKB is your final raw damage item. Since you probably have already maximum attack speed, you do not need anymore attack-speed items. This item gives you even more stuns and damage power. It is a very powerful counter to heroes with evasion like Phantom Assassin (note that Faceless Void's Backtrack cannot be countered with this), and will neutralise any hero with a Butterfly, providing you 100% sure-hit blows on them. Get this earlier, if there is a Phantom Assassin as an enemy in your game, probably before getting The Butterfly.
Note: MKB's stun and Troll's stun do not stack in a way that they prolong the stun. They, however, work independantly on each other. The longer stun will override the duration of the shorter stun, in this case, Troll's stun will be the priority stun compared to MKB's stun. Therefore, for example, if Troll's stun and MKB's stun both activate at the same time, MKB's stun would not activate while Troll's stun will stun for the usual 1 second.
Battlefury (Total: 4350 gold)
Battlefury gives you a lot of pushing power and is a counter to illusion heroes like Naga Siren and Phantom Lancer. You can clear illusions very fast with this item.
Lothar's Edge (Total: 3400)
Who could resist being annoyed by an invisible Troll appearing out of nowhere and permanently bashing them to death? This item is very good for hunting and escaping. However, in competitive games this will not be too viable as there will definately be wards or gems around.
Situational Items / Other Possible Items
Linken's Sphere (Total: 5175 gold)
Linken's Sphere can be a good replacement to BKB. However, I personally do not like to get it on Troll Warlord. This is because even one tiny spell like Zues's Arc Lightning, can trigger it off. Then you will be totally unprotected against stuns. It is better in terms of stats, as it provides 15 to all stats, however, it is unreliable as your enemy can just use one small spell to deactivate your Linken's Sphere and cast stun after that, and that it is way more expensive than BKB, and also that its mana regeneration is quite wasted for you.
Phase Boots (Total: 1500 gold)
Phase Boots can be an alternative to Power Treads. It gives more damage, but less attack speed, but overall, slightly less DPS. It also allows you to chase faster and easier for heroes you are hunting.
Hood of Defiance (Total: 2150 gold)
Since you will be getting BKB, you don't actually need this since you will be invunerable to magic during teamfights. But if you face an enemy team consisting of tons of nukers but no stunners, you can choose to get this instead of BKB to save money.
Blademail (Total: 2200 gold)
I personally do not like to get this item, but it is still a possible item on Troll Warlord. The intelligence is wasted as Troll Warlord does not require extra intelligence due to his very low mana spells. However, this item is good as it gives you extra damage, armour and also that enemies do not aim you that much for fear that you will turn on your Blademail.
Divine Rapier (Total: 6200 gold)
If you feel confident that you will not die, you may want to get this as one of your last items. Do not get this as one of your first items, as you would die very easily without survivability items. Or you can get this if your team is losing and you got tons of gold, to turn the tide.
Radiance (Total: 5150 gold)
This item adds a lot more powerful damage and pushing power, but you shouldn't get this until the last item. Reason is that you don't have the survivability yet to hold it.
Rejected Items
Assault Cuirass
Some of you might wonder why is this even here; which retard would get it for their Troll Warlord? I am posting it here because I once encountered a Troll Warlord go went straight for this item with only a Boots of Speed as his other item. Never ever get this item as you already have your Fervor. Just one ultimate and you're already nearing maximum attack speed. Plus Assault Cuirass costs a hefty 5550 gold. Why get +55 attack speed for five thousand gold when you already can get +60% attack speed by attacking 3 times?
Orchid Malevolence
Ok so some guy said that he saw someone own with this item. This is a horrible item to begin with. Remember: Troll doesn't even need a single drop of extra mana. This expensive recipe costs 5025 gold which is half wasted. The 20 intelligence is wasted; the +225% mana regeneration is wasted. The only thing good for him is the +30 attack speed and +45 damage. Even Battlefury which costs 4350 gold can deal a bombarding +65 damage and 35% cleaving attack, giving also a HP and MP regeneration boost.
Vladimir's Offering
Also can be considered a bad item on Troll Warlord. As an agressive melee hero, you need the most lifesteal compared to others. Therefore HotD is a must. You don't need the MP regeneration, moreover you don't want to be too big of a target for the enemy. If you are holding the Vladimir's Offering for the team, you are surely the first to be aimed if your opponents are smart.
Urn of Shadows
Since you are supposed to be killing heroes all the time, you will get a lot of charges. But the MP regeneration is wasted, therefore let another hero buy it, not you.
Cranium Basher
A big reminder is that Cranium Basher's stun does not stack with your own stun. You will still be dealing the 10% chance of stun even if you are holding a Cranium Basher. If you want to get it, you are spending 3100 gold on +30 damage and +6 strength, which is a total waste of gold.
Sange and Yasha
Why not get SnY+HotD? Even though the maim will not proc, you might think it is good due to HP and damage increment. Do a comparision with Manta Style stats and you will find that Manta Style is a better item for Troll than SnY.
Mjollnir
Like Assault Cuirass, this is a horrible item. It mainly adds attack speed which you already have tons of it. A total waste of money.
Diffusal Blade
You need HotD and only HotD. You need to lifesteal to survive, mana-stealing won't get you anywhere.
Eye of Skadi
Eye of Skadi is too expensive to farm up. Plus you require lifesteal to survive teamfights from early to endgames.
Stygian Desolator
Again, HotD is a better and cheaper choice.
Hands of Midas
You don't need this. Troll Warlord is one of the best neutral creepers in DotA.
Ethereal Blade
Ethereal Blade is not worth its price for most heroes. Troll Warlord doesn't have a single nuke. Sending your enemy to the ethereal world will not help you deal any more damage than its Ether Blast. Plus, if you cast it on an enemy, you can't attack him physically, which Troll Warlord can only do, and you can't attack any enemy for a short period of time. Its as if you're buying an item to stun yourself during fights.
Item Builds
Item Builds vary depending on the level of game you play, and your opponent hero picks.
Standard Competitive Build (1)
This build works on almost every lineup. BKB to protect you from stuns, HotD/Satanic for more survivability during fights, Manta Style for even more survivability plus DPS and Butterfly as your ultimate DPS item.
Standard Competitive Build (2)
This build works on almost every lineup. BKB to protect you from stuns, HotD/Satanic for more survivability during fights, and Butterfly for massive DPS increase. MKB helps to never-miss heroes with Butterfly or evasion skills, nullifying their evasions.
Fun Build
You can use this in a pub game if you are confident that your enemies has no stuns at all or minimal stuns that won't affect you much. So just forgo BKB if you want to. Lothars will give you supreme hunting and escaping powers.
Playing Style
Early Game
During early game, you need to lane, as there is no way you can solo the neutral camps without tanking heavy damage. Take the bottom lane if you are Sentinel and top lane if you are Scourge. Play very defensively, as Troll Warlord is extremely weak during the early phase of the game. Therefore, get a babysitter to lane with you to protect you when you farm. If your babysitter has a stun, and the enemy at the lane is a solo, try to play as aggressive as possible, by running up to autoattack the enemy when he gets stunned. If the creeps push too far out, where enemies are likely to gank you from, do neutral-pulling. Farm up at least a Helm of Iron Will before you leave the lane to do neutral creeping.
Mid Game
Late Game
End Game
Tips and Tricks
Change to melee then buy stout shield, drop and retake PMS
Roshan Lvl 11
Beserker Rage can dodge missles
Allies and Opponents
Good Allies
Bad Opponents
Changelog
Guide Introduction and Important Notes
So I have decided to finally write a good guide for one of my favourite heroes, Troll Warlord. This guides contains all tactics and builds I can think of at the moment.
Unimportant stuffs or long-rambling explanations will be put into spoilers, therefore just read the non-spoiler parts if you want to skim through it.
Although I never played in a real competition before, I have played DotA in competitive clan matches enough to understand how Troll Warlord should be played, in public games or in competitives.
If you spot any missing information, incorrect information or uncovered tricks or tactics, tell me and I would be happy to make ammendments to the guide.
Author's Hero Introduction
Pros
●Average health overall, but high health for an agility hero
●One of the few heroes who can permanently stun single heroes.
●One of the few heroes who can easily attain maximum attack speed.
●Role: Carry.
Troll Warlord is a hardcore carry hero who is one of the few heroes who can solo the entire team, if insanely farmed.
●Role: Anti-Carry.
Blind reduces an enemy carry hero's ability to dish out damage by almost half.
●Role: Carry Supporter
Troll Warlord's Battle Trance benefits all heroes on the map, therefore providing extra DPS to all carry heroes (as well as spellcasters of course)
●Berserker's Rage gives him little extra health.
●Role: Hero-Hunter
Troll Warlord is a very powerful 1-versus-1 hero, and therefore of course, is a powerful hunter. You need your core items to hunt. Just locate any lone hero you spot, and run in and cast your Battle Trance and autoattack him to death.
●Global-ranged ultimate, benefits all allied heroes.
●Very short cooldown ultimate
●High survivability with HotD/Satanic and BKB.
●Flexibility
Troll Warlord can be Melee or Ranged. Therefore apply whichever form whenever offense or defense is required.
●Low mana dependency
Troll Warlord's skills are all below 100 mana cost. The cheapest skill, Blind, only costs 20 mana.
●Good attack animation: Neither too fast nor slow.
Cons
●Can be very easily killed by nukers and stunners if BKB is not farmed yet
●Almost totally useless unfarmed
If you're an unfarmed Troll Warlord, leave the game to other carry heroes, and go to the jungle and farm, Battle Trancing in every hero battles your team encounters. An unfarmed Troll Warlord is delicious food because chain-stunners will easily finish you off before you even land a stun. If your team does not have a carry hero, you will need to go on a farming-frenzy, otherwise the game is already lost, if your team's only carry is unfarmed.
●Requires warding in jungle if jungling in competitive games.
●No natural escape mechanism (although Blind can be considered as an escape mechanism, if you want to try your luck)
●You will be the first one to be aimed if you do not have an initator. Everyone knows that a carry hero must be gotten rid of as soon as possible.
●Will be hunted almost all the time by a decent team, preventing you from farming hard.
Therefore, get someone to ward the jungle for you, so that you know when to run whenever you see red dots moving towards you.
●Very weak in early game, therefore easily ganged by roaming heroes.
●Farming almost the entire game can be boring, but that is what you should be doing.
Background Story
PlayDotA.com Hero Introduction
Hero Statistics
Skills
Beserker Rage
This skill turns your ranged Troll Warlord into a melee Troll Warlord. At maximum level, this skill provides you with a 10% chance to stun. Although this may seem little, combined with Fervor, this can allow you to permanently stun an enemy hero. It gives you +100HP in melee form.
Blind
This skill is used for harrassing enemy heroes in your lane, and devastating an enemy carry hero's DPS during a battle. It gives a +44% chance to miss for enemies you cast this on, for only 20 mana. This means that their farming capability will be slashed to almost half. Blinding a farmed enemy hero during battle can turn the tide of battle, as he will be dealing only about half of his original damage.
Fervor
This skill is the signature skill of Troll Warlord which other heroes do not have. Simply put, the more you attack, the faster you attack. You do not have to buy many speed-increasing items as a result, as you already have free attack speed. At maximum level, just 5 hits give you a whopping +100% attack speed.
Battle Trance
Battle Trance is a very powerful skill, anytime, anywhere. You can use this to farm Ancient Creep Camps early, or out-DPS an enemy hero at early game, and also aid your allies who are in the midst of battle, even if you're on the other end of the map. This skill is also what makes Troll Warlord able to solo Roshan at Level 11 with just Power Treads, HotD and PMS.
Skill Build
Here is a list of all possible skill builds for Troll Warlord I can think of. If you have your own skill build not listed here, share it and give a reason why it is viable and I might add it to the list.
Standard Harrassment Competitive Build
Standard Farming Competitive Build
Rambo Pub Slacking Build (For Non-Serious Games Only)
Rambo Pub Build (For Non-Serious Games Only)
Item Build
Troll Walord is a carry-hero, and therefore most of his items are focused on getting more DPS.
Important: Add Beserker's Rage as your first skill and switch to melee form. Then buy the items. This is because Stout Shield and Quelling Blade have melee and ranged versions, and the melee version is a lot better. Even if you switch back to ranged, the item form remains the same. (You can do this later in game too if you do not want to add Beserker's Rage first. Switch to melee form, drop the items on the ground and pick them up again, and they will transform into melee forms)
Starting Items
Stout Shield (250 gold)
This cheap shield provides you with good survivability early game. It reduces damage done to you, so you can stay in lane longer and not be that fragile in early game. It upgrades to Poor Man's Shield which is a core item for Troll Warlord.
Quelling Blade (225 gold)
This is a cheap last-hitting tool which allows you more farming capability in jungle and in lane. It gives you more damage on creeps so you can get last-hits easier than your opponent who tries to deny.
Healing Salve (100 gold)
You will need this to stay in lane longer. If you accidentally go too far out and get nuked heavily to red health or got badly hurt in a battle, this will save your trip to the fountain.
(28 gold left)
If you randomed Troll Warlord, get these as extra items:
Slippers of Agility (150 gold)
This allows you to complete your PMS faster. Just one will do, because you can buy the other at the side-shop.
Ancient Tango of Essifation (90 gold)
More healing power for survivability on lane. If you get lightly nuked, you can eat this instead of waiting till you have 100HP before using Healing Salve.
(6 gold left)
Core Items
You require these items before you start going offensive
Ideal Farming Order:
Poor Man's Shield (Total: 550 gold)
PMS gives you extra survivability early game, at a very cheap price of 550 gold. It also adds that little damage to increase your last-hitting capabilities.
Power Treads (Agility) OR Power Treads (Strength)(Total: 1450 gold)
You can choose either Agility or Strength Treads, depending on your play style. If you like agressive laning, you may want to choose the Strength Treads, which gives you +190HP. If you need more damage than your enemy, get the Agility Treads so you can last-hit or deny better than him.
This is going to be your farming and DPS item you are getting in your lane. Farm the components in this order:
OR 
Helm of the Dominator (Total: 1850 gold)
This will be the next in line of items you will get. HotD will allow you to go neutral creeping without going back to base even once. It provides you endless of free life and increases survivability in teamfights. Once you got your HotD, you can start hero-hunting.
Once your core items are up, you can solo Roshan now, once you got your ultimate. Have your team to help you, guard you or ward for you, to prevent gangs.
Luxury Items and Extensions
Black King Bar (Total: 3900 gold)
In almost every game you play, there will be at least one enemy stunner. Therefore you must get this first. It offers a good damage of 24 and more HP, and allows you to avoid stuns, therefore you can just rush into teamfights for kills.
If, however, your enemies fail so hard that they don't even have a single stunner, just ignore this item. (Usually in public games)
Manta Style (Total: 4850 gold)
Manta Style gives you even more extra survivability, and a lot more damage and attack speed. Since everyone wants to aim you, get this item to confuse them. You can even use this item to dodge spell missles. It also gives extra movespeed to chase almost anyone you want.
Buriza-Do-Kyanon (5800 gold)
You do not need to get the final recipe yet. Crystalys at this time will do. Complete your Buriza-Do-Kyanon after getting Butterfly.
The Butterfly (Total: 6000 gold)
The Butterfly is your ultimate weapon. It gives you a good addition of +30 attack speed and 60 damage (30 agi + 30 raw damage = 60 total damage). It also increases your survivability due to the 30% evasion.
Satanic (Total: 6150 gold)
Satanic is a powerful life-stealing item. It will save your trip to the fountain, or save your life. If you suddenly find yourself nuked by many heroes to red health, you can activate it and attack them for a while to green hp and run, or fight them back. Satanic increases your survivability highly also because of its +25 strength and +5 armour.
Monkey King Bar (Total: 5400 gold)
MKB is your final raw damage item. Since you probably have already maximum attack speed, you do not need anymore attack-speed items. This item gives you even more stuns and damage power. It is a very powerful counter to heroes with evasion like Phantom Assassin (note that Faceless Void's Backtrack cannot be countered with this), and will neutralise any hero with a Butterfly, providing you 100% sure-hit blows on them. Get this earlier, if there is a Phantom Assassin as an enemy in your game, probably before getting The Butterfly.
Note: MKB's stun and Troll's stun do not stack in a way that they prolong the stun. They, however, work independantly on each other. The longer stun will override the duration of the shorter stun, in this case, Troll's stun will be the priority stun compared to MKB's stun. Therefore, for example, if Troll's stun and MKB's stun both activate at the same time, MKB's stun would not activate while Troll's stun will stun for the usual 1 second.
Battlefury (Total: 4350 gold)
Battlefury gives you a lot of pushing power and is a counter to illusion heroes like Naga Siren and Phantom Lancer. You can clear illusions very fast with this item.
Lothar's Edge (Total: 3400)
Who could resist being annoyed by an invisible Troll appearing out of nowhere and permanently bashing them to death? This item is very good for hunting and escaping. However, in competitive games this will not be too viable as there will definately be wards or gems around.
Situational Items / Other Possible Items
Linken's Sphere (Total: 5175 gold)
Linken's Sphere can be a good replacement to BKB. However, I personally do not like to get it on Troll Warlord. This is because even one tiny spell like Zues's Arc Lightning, can trigger it off. Then you will be totally unprotected against stuns. It is better in terms of stats, as it provides 15 to all stats, however, it is unreliable as your enemy can just use one small spell to deactivate your Linken's Sphere and cast stun after that, and that it is way more expensive than BKB, and also that its mana regeneration is quite wasted for you.
Phase Boots (Total: 1500 gold)
Phase Boots can be an alternative to Power Treads. It gives more damage, but less attack speed, but overall, slightly less DPS. It also allows you to chase faster and easier for heroes you are hunting.
Hood of Defiance (Total: 2150 gold)
Since you will be getting BKB, you don't actually need this since you will be invunerable to magic during teamfights. But if you face an enemy team consisting of tons of nukers but no stunners, you can choose to get this instead of BKB to save money.
Blademail (Total: 2200 gold)
I personally do not like to get this item, but it is still a possible item on Troll Warlord. The intelligence is wasted as Troll Warlord does not require extra intelligence due to his very low mana spells. However, this item is good as it gives you extra damage, armour and also that enemies do not aim you that much for fear that you will turn on your Blademail.
Divine Rapier (Total: 6200 gold)
If you feel confident that you will not die, you may want to get this as one of your last items. Do not get this as one of your first items, as you would die very easily without survivability items. Or you can get this if your team is losing and you got tons of gold, to turn the tide.
Radiance (Total: 5150 gold)
This item adds a lot more powerful damage and pushing power, but you shouldn't get this until the last item. Reason is that you don't have the survivability yet to hold it.
Rejected Items
Assault Cuirass
Some of you might wonder why is this even here; which retard would get it for their Troll Warlord? I am posting it here because I once encountered a Troll Warlord go went straight for this item with only a Boots of Speed as his other item. Never ever get this item as you already have your Fervor. Just one ultimate and you're already nearing maximum attack speed. Plus Assault Cuirass costs a hefty 5550 gold. Why get +55 attack speed for five thousand gold when you already can get +60% attack speed by attacking 3 times?
Orchid Malevolence
Ok so some guy said that he saw someone own with this item. This is a horrible item to begin with. Remember: Troll doesn't even need a single drop of extra mana. This expensive recipe costs 5025 gold which is half wasted. The 20 intelligence is wasted; the +225% mana regeneration is wasted. The only thing good for him is the +30 attack speed and +45 damage. Even Battlefury which costs 4350 gold can deal a bombarding +65 damage and 35% cleaving attack, giving also a HP and MP regeneration boost.
Vladimir's Offering
Also can be considered a bad item on Troll Warlord. As an agressive melee hero, you need the most lifesteal compared to others. Therefore HotD is a must. You don't need the MP regeneration, moreover you don't want to be too big of a target for the enemy. If you are holding the Vladimir's Offering for the team, you are surely the first to be aimed if your opponents are smart.
Urn of Shadows
Since you are supposed to be killing heroes all the time, you will get a lot of charges. But the MP regeneration is wasted, therefore let another hero buy it, not you.
Cranium Basher
A big reminder is that Cranium Basher's stun does not stack with your own stun. You will still be dealing the 10% chance of stun even if you are holding a Cranium Basher. If you want to get it, you are spending 3100 gold on +30 damage and +6 strength, which is a total waste of gold.
Sange and Yasha
Why not get SnY+HotD? Even though the maim will not proc, you might think it is good due to HP and damage increment. Do a comparision with Manta Style stats and you will find that Manta Style is a better item for Troll than SnY.
Mjollnir
Like Assault Cuirass, this is a horrible item. It mainly adds attack speed which you already have tons of it. A total waste of money.
Diffusal Blade
You need HotD and only HotD. You need to lifesteal to survive, mana-stealing won't get you anywhere.
Eye of Skadi
Eye of Skadi is too expensive to farm up. Plus you require lifesteal to survive teamfights from early to endgames.
Stygian Desolator
Again, HotD is a better and cheaper choice.
Hands of Midas
You don't need this. Troll Warlord is one of the best neutral creepers in DotA.
Ethereal Blade
Ethereal Blade is not worth its price for most heroes. Troll Warlord doesn't have a single nuke. Sending your enemy to the ethereal world will not help you deal any more damage than its Ether Blast. Plus, if you cast it on an enemy, you can't attack him physically, which Troll Warlord can only do, and you can't attack any enemy for a short period of time. Its as if you're buying an item to stun yourself during fights.
Item Builds
Item Builds vary depending on the level of game you play, and your opponent hero picks.
Standard Competitive Build (1)
This build works on almost every lineup. BKB to protect you from stuns, HotD/Satanic for more survivability during fights, Manta Style for even more survivability plus DPS and Butterfly as your ultimate DPS item.
Standard Competitive Build (2)
This build works on almost every lineup. BKB to protect you from stuns, HotD/Satanic for more survivability during fights, and Butterfly for massive DPS increase. MKB helps to never-miss heroes with Butterfly or evasion skills, nullifying their evasions.
Fun Build
You can use this in a pub game if you are confident that your enemies has no stuns at all or minimal stuns that won't affect you much. So just forgo BKB if you want to. Lothars will give you supreme hunting and escaping powers.
Playing Style
Early Game
During early game, you need to lane, as there is no way you can solo the neutral camps without tanking heavy damage. Take the bottom lane if you are Sentinel and top lane if you are Scourge. Play very defensively, as Troll Warlord is extremely weak during the early phase of the game. Therefore, get a babysitter to lane with you to protect you when you farm. If your babysitter has a stun, and the enemy at the lane is a solo, try to play as aggressive as possible, by running up to autoattack the enemy when he gets stunned. If the creeps push too far out, where enemies are likely to gank you from, do neutral-pulling. Farm up at least a Helm of Iron Will before you leave the lane to do neutral creeping.
Mid Game
Late Game
End Game
Tips and Tricks
Change to melee then buy stout shield, drop and retake PMS
Roshan Lvl 11
Beserker Rage can dodge missles
Allies and Opponents
Good Allies
Bad Opponents
Changelog
Jah'rakal the Troll WarlordAuthor: LightningZLaser
Map Vers.: 6.66b
Offense is the Best Defence
Informative Guide to Troll Warlord
Last Comment:27/10/2010
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Current Rating: 0.00
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