Skill Build
Lv1 - Berserker Rage__Lv10 - Fervor
Lv2 - Whirling Axes___Lv11 - Battle Trance
Lv3 - Whirling Axes___Lv12 - Berserker Rage
Lv4 - Fervor_________Lv13 - Berserker Rage
Lv5 - Whirling Axes___Lv14 - Berserker Rage
Lv6 - Battle Trance___Lv15 - Stats
Lv7 - Whirling Axes___Lv16 - Battle Trance
Lv8 - Fervor_________Lv17+ Stats
Lv9 - Fervor
Item Build
Starting -
Early -
Mid -
Late -
Situational -
___Luxury - 
Gameplay
Role: Ganker, Carry
Strategy: Focus on last hitting in lane. If against weak lane and lane mate has a stun, try to get kills and play aggressive.
If against strong lane, use ranged form to last hit. Focus on farming in laning phase.
When level 7 and you got Phase Boots, go out and try to gank with your team. If ganks go well, keep ganking, if not, focus on farming. If the other team plays defensively, farm.
Team Fights: Try to enter after the other team uses most of their nukes and disables. Focus on the most dangerous opponent, usually the carry or spellcasters.
Late Game: DO NOT DIE. Never engage opponents alone. No matter how buff you are, 4 or 5 heroes are probably strong enough to kill you alone. Stay with the team and don't go rambo.
Combo: Use Whirling Axes, use Phase, run up to your opponent, switch to ranged, Whirling Axes, switch to melee, ult, attack.
In late game, save Whirling Axes against the enemy physical DPS carry.
Lv1 - Berserker Rage__Lv10 - Fervor
Lv2 - Whirling Axes___Lv11 - Battle Trance
Lv3 - Whirling Axes___Lv12 - Berserker Rage
Lv4 - Fervor_________Lv13 - Berserker Rage
Lv5 - Whirling Axes___Lv14 - Berserker Rage
Lv6 - Battle Trance___Lv15 - Stats
Lv7 - Whirling Axes___Lv16 - Battle Trance
Lv8 - Fervor_________Lv17+ Stats
Lv9 - Fervor
Item Build
Starting -
Early -
Mid -
Late -
Situational -
___Luxury - Gameplay
Role: Ganker, Carry
Strategy: Focus on last hitting in lane. If against weak lane and lane mate has a stun, try to get kills and play aggressive.
If against strong lane, use ranged form to last hit. Focus on farming in laning phase.
When level 7 and you got Phase Boots, go out and try to gank with your team. If ganks go well, keep ganking, if not, focus on farming. If the other team plays defensively, farm.
Team Fights: Try to enter after the other team uses most of their nukes and disables. Focus on the most dangerous opponent, usually the carry or spellcasters.
Late Game: DO NOT DIE. Never engage opponents alone. No matter how buff you are, 4 or 5 heroes are probably strong enough to kill you alone. Stay with the team and don't go rambo.
Combo: Use Whirling Axes, use Phase, run up to your opponent, switch to ranged, Whirling Axes, switch to melee, ult, attack.
In late game, save Whirling Axes against the enemy physical DPS carry.
Changelog:
| 7/14/11 - Guide started as a draft guide 7/29/11 - Guide published 7/30/11 - Updated some stuff 7/31/11 - Added some images and notes 8/1/11 - Added more images and “Extra Info” section 8/6/11 - Minor updates 9/3/11 - Minor updates 3/18/12 - Updated items, skill info, and allies. 9/30/12 - Updated to 6.75, edited situational items, skill build, and item build |
About:
| Version 6.72 brought buffs to this unloved hero and had improved his gameplay for the most part. IceFrog replaced his mediocre Blind skill with two new actives, a ranged and melee version of Whirling Axes. This changed his gameplay by allowing Troll to deal some burst damage and chase more effectively. I've always personally loved Troll's
insane IAS and when I read the changelog, I wanted to try him out. This
guide is about my findings and what I think can maximize Troll's effectiveness in casual Dota. This is also my first guide and item/skill/gameplay suggestions are welcome! Please comment and rate but only rate after you read the entire guide!  Troll has also received various buffs in the past couple versions (6.73 - 6.74) to his attack speed skills. Although they may not be as big of a buff as Whirling Axes but it is still useful nonetheless. Also, with the coming of DotA 2, mechanics that were a hassle in WC3 will be improved (being able to Bash and Crit in phase boots and toggling melee and ranged forms with Berserker Rage) and a smoother gameplay will help players control and use Troll. Another buff came in 6.75 to Troll’s ultimate, Battle Trance, making it last on all his allies for the full duration as Troll. |
Table of Contents:
Recent Hero Balances
The Troll
Info and Stats
Gameplay
Skill Build
Item Build
Extra Info
Game Progression
Playing With Other Heroes
Conclusion
Thanks
Recent Hero Balances:
6.75 – Battle Trance now lasts full duration for allies 6.74 - Battle Trance attack speed bonus increased from 60/100/140 to 60/120/180 6.73 - Fervor increments now increase while attacking towers 6.72c - Fervor AS bonus rebalanced from 5/10/15/20 AS per attack with a max of 100 to 20 AS per attack max of 40/60/80/100 6.72c - Ranged Whirling Axes now does 75 damage 6.72 - Blind replaced with Whirling Axes 6.72 - Cast point reduced by 0.3 6.72 - Berserker Rage transformation time removed 6.69 - Battle Trance self duration increased from 8 to 10 seconds 6.69 - Fixed melee/range item to update properly for Berserker Rage transformation 6.67 - Berserker's Rage bash rebalanced from 5/5/10/10% chance for 2 seconds bash and 25/50/25/50 damage to 10% chance for 0.8/1.2/1.6/2 seconds bash and 20/30/40/50 damage 6.63 - Battle Trance attack speed bonus increased from 60/80/100 to 60/100/140 |
To see every Heroes' balances since 6.48, check link:
Hero Balance Compilation 6.48 onwards
The Troll:
Pros and Cons:
Pros
[+]Can choose to fight in ranged or melee
[+]High base damage
[+]Fast attack animation
[+]High MS
[+]Abilities give IAS
[+]Good AGI gain
[+]Decent STR gain for a carry
[+]Longest lastingBashability (2 sec)
[+]Global Ultimate
[+]Low mana costing skills
[+]Short cooldowns
[+]Ganker and carry
Cons
[-]Must be in melee to gain many benefits
[-]Will be aimed in team fights
[-]Squishy
[-]No escape mechanism
[-]Lowest base INT and gain
[-]Low Bash chance (10%)
[-]Switching targets hinders DPS
When to pick Troll?
You can pick him whenever you want but these may screw up your game:
- If your team already has a lot of carries
- If your team has few disables
- If the enemy team has a lot of disables
- If the enemy team is heavy with nukes
easier to playTroll
- Enemy team has lots of squishy Heroes
- Enemy team is full of carries
- Your team has a auto attack DPS strategy (lol)
- You're lucky
- You're a good farmer
| Strength: 17 + 2.2 |
| Agility: 21 + 2.75 |
| Intelligence: 13 + 1 |
| Damage: 38 - 56 |
Level 25 Stats
| Strength: 69.8 |
| Agility: 87 |
| Intelligence: 37 |
| Damage: 104 - 122 |
| Armor: 1.97 |
| Movespeed: 300 |
| Attack Range: 500/128 |
| Attack Animation: 0.3/0.3 |
| Casting Animation: 0.51/0.3 |
| Base Attack Time: 1.7/1.55 |
| Missile Speed: 1200 |
| Sight Range: 1800/800 |
Skills:
Battle Trance
This skill is what gives Troll his insane IAS instantly. At level 2 of Battle Trance, it gives what Fervor gives, instantly, and at level 3 it gives more. It also applies this IAS to everyone on your team. Effect: Increases the attack speed of Troll and all his allies by 60/120/180. Mana Cost: 75 Cooldown: 20 AoE: Global Duration: 10 Notes: Does not affect illusions or summons. Uses: Increase Fervor Counter Using Battle Trance will greatly reduce the time it takes to build up your bonus attack speed from Fervor. It also gives high IAS for a full 10 seconds at a low mana cost so it's like already having your bonus IAS from Fervor but you can keep building it up. Pushing When there are four allied heroes attacking a tower, it will go down fast. When you use Battle Trance, it will drop even faster. As you are pushing, if the opposing team uses the fortification and TP in, just run back, and 20 seconds later, you can try to take the tower again. The short cooldown allows you to use Battle Trance frequently. Paired with the new Fervor, Troll is easily able to backdoor low hit point towers. He may also backdoor naked barracks. And since Troll has so much IAS, he doesn’t need as much damage to backdoor. Helping Teammates You don't have to be around the same area as your teammates to help them when you cast Battle Trance. The bonus IAS is given to all allies on the map. If you notice one of your teammates in a losing fight, use Battle Trance. It could bring your teammate out on top. The attack speed is also great when using it when you have teammates that rely on attack speed to fight effectively. Heroes like Slark, Barathrum, or anyone with a % chance passive. It also increase auto attack DPS by a LOT. Last Stand When you are running away with low hp and you will probably die even if you keep running, or you hit a dead end, just cut a corner, use Battle Trance and attack. You will deal quite a bit of damage and if a Bash procs, you can even come out as the victor. Notes: Battle Trance As you can see, he gets a LOT of IAS but no damage from his abilities. At level 25 and some IAS items, he nears the IAS cap of 400. This is what sets Troll apart from other carries. DPS is dependent on two main components, damage and IAS. Troll is already given all the IAS he needs. No other carry has spells that give them damage or IAS to such an extreme with the exception of Ursa’s Overpower (only last for # of attacks).
If Fervor is level 4 and Battle Trance is level 3, the IAS bonuses add up to 87(Base AGI) + 100(Fervor) + 180(Battle Trance) = 367. If you add in Janggo and Lothar’s it becomes 367 + 14(Janggo) + 30(Lothar’s)
= 421, (21 over the IAS cap) faster than a normal hero with a BAT of
1.7 with 400 IAS and exceeding the 3 attacks/second mark (3.23 atk/sec).
We can see why we don’t need to focus on IAS at all when we work on the item build for Troll. |
Gameplay:
Jungle or Lane?
FervorTroll'sTrollFervor
Which Lane?
TrollScourgeSentinel
Skill Build
Basic Cookie Cutter build
Berserker RageWhirling Axes
Whirling AxesBerserker Rage
Whirling Axes
Fervor
Whirling Axes
Battle Trance
Whirling Axes
FervorStats
FervorStats
FervorStats
Battle Trance
Berserker RageStats
Berserker RageStats
Berserker RageStats
StatsBerserker Rage
Battle Trance
StatsBerserker Rage
| Skill Justification Berserker Rage is taken first for its benefits or Whirling Axes if you try to get first blood. Whirling Axes is maxed as soon as possible because it is most effective in the early game as a nuke. It will make you more of a threat and gives you some defense. Fervor is more beneficial than extra levels into Berserker Rage so that's taken second. At level 11, you'll have about 270 IAS naked from your skills alone (100 from Fervor, 120 from Battle Trance, and the rest from your AGI). This is enough to make leveling up Berserker Rage worth it because you have more chances to proc a Bash and it's his last remaining skill anyway. Stats may be taken over Fervor and Berserker Rage if you are having a hard time surviving. |
The Jungle buildNot Recommended
Level 1 - Berserker Rage
Level 2 - Fervor
Level 3 - Fervor
Level 4 - Whirling Axes
Level 5 - Fervor
Level 6 - Battle Trance
Level 7 - Fervor
Level 8 - Whirling Axes
Level 9 - Whirling Axes
Level 10 - Whirling Axes
Level 11 - Battle Trance
Level 12 - Berserker Rage
Level 13 - Berserker Rage
Level 14 - Berserker Rage
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Battle Trance
Level 17+ Stats
Skill Justification
Berserker Rage is taken first for its benefits. Fervor is maxed as soon as possible because it is need to build up your IAS to jungle. Whirling Axes is more beneficial than extra levels into Berserker Rage so that's taken second. It can be used as a nuke to help jungling as it is also an AoE. Take Berserker Rage last as it's his last remaining skill and more beneficial than stats.
It is extremely hard to jungle with the new Troll because he just doesn’t have enough IAS to clear creep camps fast enough without dying. It MIGHT work if you are extremely lucky with the neutrals camps but Troll is a lot stronger in lane anyway.
| Justification: Mix and match some of the above items. Stout Shield if you have aggressive ranged enemies in your lane, Quelling Blade for easier last hits, some regen to stay alive and GG Branches for Magic Wand, some stats, and a good game. Notes: You will not have enough starting gold to purchase every item so buy what is most fitting to the situation. |
Early Game
[
]Total Cost - 2434| Justification: Because of his high IAS, Troll
doesn't need to get any more IAS. Instead he should try to optimize his
DPS by getting damage items. Check out this link to get a better
understanding of optimization of DPS: Dota: Fun to Think and Imagine - DotA Guides. We have Phase Boots because it gives the most damage for boots and it gives you burst MS for getting closer to the enemy and for jukes. The Magic Wand and Bracer are just for some extra HP and clutch moments where you need that little bit of HP or mana to kill someone or get out alive. If you feel you do not need the extra stats from Bracer, feel free to skip it. Ring of Basilius is useful if you plan to gank a lot. The passive mana regen is very beneficial especially since Troll has very cheap spells. Feel free to skip Ring of Basilius too if you don’t plan on ganking or don’t need the mana regen. Bottle is probably the best item that a ganker can have since it gives him sustenance to keep hitting up the lanes and it allows him to keep a powerful rune with him to use when needed. Like Ring of Basilius, you can skip it if you don’t plan on ganking. Always carry a TP for ganks and counter-ganks. Notes: You cannot Bash or Crit while phased. |
Mid Game
>[][]Total Cost - 7350| Justification: Lothar's
comes to mind because it offers an escape mechanism, a surprise attack
mechanism, some decent damage, and a good amount of attack speed. Try to
build it by buying the Claymore first. It gives a lot of damage for its cost. However, you may choose to get a Shadow Amulet instead if you plan on pushing towers (read “Extra Info”). The Janggo is for escaping/chasing, build up from Bracer, and to help with Troll's horrid INT a bit. Crystalys is the logical follow-up because it is a pure damage item. More crits due to high attack speed. If the enemy team is disable-heavy, get a BKB. Get a Mask of Death
when you feel you do enough DPS to make good use of it. It can even be
used for taking on Roshan or to upgrade and use the creep to stack the
ancient creep camp. |
Late Game
>Total Cost - 8850Justification: If you think you can deal damage without dying, build up your Crystalys to a Buriza and then finish off your build with a Satanic. Note that Satanic
has an active 175% lifesteal! When you’re dishing out 1300 DPS, that
means you can gain all your HP back in a few second. It works almost
like an Aegies if timed well. Some might think that Buriza isn't as good as other items such as MKB or Butterfly but the crit chance makes it pull through. Troll's DPS hits about 1300 at the Late Game. Buriza gives the most damage besides Rapier.
 This compares Buriza DPS to MKB and Butterfly. As you can see, Buriza’s is only above the other two items because of the crit damage. Note that this is total DPS without taking into account armor, damage block, chasing, nukes, etc.
At level 18, about the time Troll gets Buriza, it gives a theoretical 190 added damage per attack. Troll
will have an average base damage of 109 (62(base) + 47(2.75AGIgain *
17Lvs) = 109). He will have a total added damage of 161 (24(Phase) + 12(Janggo) + 30(Lothar's) + 81(Buriza) = 147) leaving Troll with a total damage of 256.
The crit that Buriza gives is a 25% chance to hit for 2.7x normal damage or 1.7x bonus damage every time you crit. On average, Troll will hit for 25% of that 1.7x bonus damage per attack or 42.5% more damage per attack (0.25 * 1.7 = .425). 42.5% of 256 is 109. Add that to 81 and you get 190. In a nutshell, Buriza adds 81 damage and 37.5% of every other damage you get from stats and items. Of course this is all theoretical probability and things can be different in reality. There have been times where i procced a crit three times in a row and some where I only crit once after 8 attacks. |
Get
one of these after you got the above items and any situational items
needed. Chances are, you won't have inventory space or the game will be
over by the time you get to buy one of these.
Buriza-Do Kyanon
Justification: I am not kidding when I say this. Even though you already have one, Buriza still gives the most damage (besides Rapier). Chance to crit does stack totally, but multiplicative, not additively. Basically, a second Buriza will add 81 + 28.125% of your total damage on average.
Buriza-Do Kyanon
Justification: I am not kidding when I say this. Even though you already have one, Buriza still gives the most damage (besides Rapier). Chance to crit does stack totally, but multiplicative, not additively. Basically, a second Buriza will add 81 + 28.125% of your total damage on average.
The second Buriza will crit 25% of the time the first Buriza doesn't crit. The first crit has a 75% chance to not crit so