Troll's role is to survive until late game while being able to farm. Once at that stage, his role is to take out a hero as fast as possible using his extremely fast attack speed to inflict as much damage as possible. It's pretty simple really. Some people think he needs extreme late game with many tier 3-4 items, but they are extremely wrong. All Troll needs is some sort of damage, health, and a BKB. If you can achieve this, then all you have to do is follow your team and focus on one hero. Then move on to the next, etc. Troll works better with massive disables, for he has none of his own and it would be best if someone could hold the hero while Troll kills it. Besides late game though, Troll is not a ganking hero. Instead, he should be let to creep neutrals and farm and deny his lane in peace. There should never be a reason for Troll to leave his lane to go kill. Instead, let the ganking heroes come to your lane.
Note that the basic movement speed is 280. Troll would attack after 1.7 seconds, if he had no agility and items to boost his attack speed (so this his base attack speed). His stats gains are the following: STR 2.2, AGI 2.75, INT 1.0.
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Kleech:
"A very touchy skill, as you gain tons of bonuses but you must go melee form. As a rule of thumb, if you are with creeps and a enemy hero, this should NOT be on. Only turn this on when running away (+20 movement speed, it's something.), fighting a hero 1v1 (Bashes do happen, even at 5%), or neutral creeping. (Bashes and all bonuses help.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This is an AMAZING skill of Troll. At level 2 with its low mana cost it should be getting cast on heroes. By level 4, you reduce their farming ability, harassing ability, denying ability, and killing ability by 42%!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This is the overrated skill of Troll. "LOL 30% IAS! MAX FasT!" Well, sure, if it wasn't for the fact your creeps get the same 30% IAS. Because they do, they push faster onto your opponent’s side, which leaves you open to ganks. In the end they will be pushing to his tower ALOT, which just gives him free experience and counteracts your amazing blind." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This skill was nice to have before the animation change, but now it's so cool! Troll's hands turn to fire of the sorts and attacks really fast. With an extremely fast CD, you can use this to run away, neutral creep, or fight a hero." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________ B. Items Info¦ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Only this?
This what I'll be going over in the guide. Circlets give you starting stats and are a fast start to your bracers. You need to get these ASAP so you can survive more. Boots are then gotten of course, but if facing heroes with a slow you might want to get Boots before Bracers. Desolater is one of the easiest items to build, and Troll can farm it pretty early. It gives you a strong mid game, with early bonus damage and extra damage for the team. Boots of Travel increases your farming, letting you jump around the map and farm more then usual. Finally, Black King Bar gives you 10 seconds to hit heroes without getting stunned or hurt from spells (Though ultimates work most of the time!) Get Hood if they have a team full of spellcasters. It's pretty insane for an item, and if you can tell that you'll need it, change your build and get a RoR+Ironwood Branches so that you already have 1 RoR to start off with. Getting it will not only let you survive in your lane more, but also be able to tank more spells and disables while you are killing their team. Get it whenever you have money, but work hard on getting it AFTER Desolator. Grab an early Cloak if you really need it, but do not finish until after Deso. BKB can only protect you for 10 seconds, while Hood can make you tank longer until you have the hit points to shrug off the damage.
Start off and buy tangoes and your circlets. Tangoes are a great regeneration item, as Troll takes lots of harassment and a Ring of Regen isn't going to cut it. He also could use stats, so circlets are bought to fix that problem. With that stats you'll be getting from Blind+Stats and Bracers, they'll really add up. Beserker Rage is gotten at level one for the movement speed increase. Not only that, it gives you some hit points and armor to help you survive 1 more hit when ganks happen, or when you face a hero 1v1. Never use this while farming of course, and abuse your chance to stay ranged. Troll is a solo hero. He needs to farm as quickly as possible, with little to no interference from allies. He also has Blind to help him survive versus non-nuking heroes. The best lane for troll is bottom Sent. Bottom lets you tower hug, and you’re near creeps to pull or neutral. Scourge Trolls have the best chance up top, were they can tower hug as well. Middle lane can be taken also, it's really a matter of preference. Stay near your base until the creeps spawn (1:30 in games, 3:00 in -lm) and begin to walk in front of your creeps. This should crowd them up behind you, and bring your opponent’s creeps closer to your tower, which gives you the ability to tower hug much easier. When you are at your lane, stay around the ranged creep and pace around it for a bit. When a creep gets low on hit points (Hold ALT to see) attack them. The same goes for your own creeps. This is called last hitting and denying. If you deny (kill your creeps) the other team doesn't gain as much experience. For more information, please check InDe_eD's Guide to Micromanagement. I used to have a link to download HPBar programs, but rules around the forums say I can't. You can of course contact me for more information about this program, as it is not a hack nor does it affect your gameplay in anyway. For these levels, play it safe. Starting at level 3, cast blind on a hero. You want them to always be blinded as much as possible, as it stops their farming/denying/harassing. Continue to beg and cry to the person who bought a chicken but didn't share with you. If he still won't, buy it whenever you have the extra cash. Right now you just need to concentrate on getting your two bracers and boots. If you are still having trouble, another bracer can be useful in helping you survive longer. Your hammer will help you last hit much easier, and will really boost your income. Finally, be wary of ganks. You are a late game hero trying to solo and farm up money for items. You have, on your own, no reliable escape mechanism, and need to survive and live. The more you die and get caught in ganks the worse it becomes. So, as Akuryou suggested, carry around a teleport scroll or two. If you see a gank coming to you, or are able to juke the gank for a little bit, teleport to a different lane, or even back to base. Including in this, please try your best not to push the tower you are laning in. The more you push, the farther into their territory you and the creeps become. This can lead to easier ganks on your hero or less time farming because you are scared of those ganks.
Gameplay
If staying in your lane is not possible without dying or getting harassed too hard, you'll probably want to go and neutral creep for a bit. A chicken can really help while you neutral creep. Of course, you don't have to take all the damage all of the time. If are you near a lane, you can creep pull. This is the time of the game where your chicken is needed. So, as already suggested, flame/spam/beg/buy your own until you get one. I would suggest buying your own right now though, because they'll be pissed off because you use the chicken a lot. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is this is the point in the game you should be neutral creeping the most. You've started to get your aura, and if you go into lanes too much you'll end up pushing which will open you to ganks. So, neutral creeping is the way to go. What makes Troll so well fit to neutral creep is that he can survive and farm fast in them. Blind the creep you aren't hitting, melee form every creep (and stay melee, for you need to move around the creeps fast) and use your ultimate whenever you want. Appear from time to time in your lane/ a lane, farm the creeps, and go back in. With your aura however, start denying the creeps @50% hit points, yet last hit when they are low. This is the best shot you have at counteracting your aura, and generally will keep the creeps closer to you. The common phrase for this is "lane-denying." I just call it "hit-your-creeps-alot-and-not-theirs-strat." To keep the creeps closer to your tower, you can also "pull your creeps" to fight the neutrals. To do this, you attack the neutrals and make them run into your lane while the creeps are passing. They will get attracted and start to fight them. For a better explanation, skim ThisIsBob's guide to creep pulling when you have time. Just know he doesn't cover every creep pull possible, and that you should always try and figure new ways to pull creeps around. Use your chicken to bring you items while you farm, and have it bring a flask so you can heal if a push appears. You aren't that much help to the team until you finish Desolator, so get cracking! Stay farming, and don't go help for ganks. Remind your team you'll pay them back late game, and keep farming. Unless the opposing team is hitting your base tower and they really need your help, you should be farming. If they do, use the teleport scrolls you've been carrying to move from lane to lane or back to base. You have been buying them, right? Always teleport with your scrolls on the tower for the +100000 Armor.
Late game, it's a pushing frenzy. You'll need to move around the map a lot easier, so that's why we bought BoT. Late game is only about pushing and counter pushing. Pushes become a lot easier if you gank first, which leaves pushing at 4v5. Use runes and warding to take control and catch someone off guard. Doubling runes makes your ganking loads easier. For information on how to do this, please go to MasterJoe's Guide to Runes! Next we'll be building parts of BKB. These two can be switched if the situation calls for it. BKB allows you to do more damage in team battles without the worry of getting nuked or disabled. Do note that all ultimates including DOOM will go through BKB. Others include Beastmaster's Stun and Bane's Grip. Though the damage of the Grip will not be taken, the disable will still hit which is your worst nightmare. If disables are really owning you, you might want to get BKB before BoT. Besides that, most Scourge teams don't have many disables, so BKB can be held for later. Even if you didn't get the gank, team battles will happen. You will get focused fired, and you have to be able to accept that. Be careful and stay back until the fight begins. Nukes will be thrown around before, and you don't want to be caught in the middle of them. Always blind the damage dealer of the group, as Blind's effectiveness never falls. NEVER start a fight. Let someone else start for you, like Earthshaker or Sand King. Activate your ultimate, and focus on a hero. With Desolator, it's much more effective if you have everyone on your team focus 1 hero at a time. That way the orb effect is used to its fullest potential. If you do win the battle, straggle up what's left of your team and continue to push the lane.
This must seem like the smallest list of items for late game you'll see. Black King Bar makes you a GOD. You can't get disabled (mostly, though Bane/BM/Tide/etc do stun you) and you can just go crap over everyone on the team. You are in a key role of the team, motivating everyone to follow your lead. It's hard to explain when you should use Black King Bar, but know they will try and bait you to use it too early. Activate it when you know the real battle is going to start. If you activate it too early, they will pull out and wait for it to end. Once your immunity is over, they will push and focus you without your BKB. That's why it is extremely important to use this at the right time. These levels are the same as the last levels, with the regular pushing, counter pushing, and ganking. Boots of Travel becomes extremely powerful, because you can go farm for a while, and come back to help push or defend. After a battle, you can teleport to your creeps in a different lane and push with those. If you end up being the only one alive while the other team is pushing, buy teleport scrolls. By teleporting to the towers and getting the +100000 Armor, you can hopefully delay the battle for a couple of seconds. Other ideas late game are Roshan. You can get him pretty easily with your Desolator, as negative armor really hurts the early levels of Roshan, letting you kill him fast. Also, with your great ultimate and huge damage, you can backdoor towers if your team can make a good distraction.
G. Other Items¦ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
After you finish the build, you need to get more damage and survivability. Therefore, the best way to go is Butterfly. With +60 more damage, +30 IAS, and +30 Evasion, it's one of the best items to get on Troll. After you get that, you can get Heart to increase your HP. It will help you live and survive faster in battle. Past this, finish off with Buriza to have insane criticals that will go off so many times with your insane attack speed. Your final slot, if you did or did not get Hood, is to get BKB. With this full build, you have 3,000 HP in Melee (2,900 w/o), 780 damage cricts, and WTFECK IAS and 30% evasion with 10 seconds of immunity. GG.
Yes. It's the perfect item for Troll. It gives him fast damage to help him farm faster. Desolator gives him an orb that gives not only Troll damage, but the rest of his team benifits too. Also, the parts aren't extremely expensive which makes it relatively easy to farm for. In a 1v1, the heavily favored Monkey King Bar would win. As heroes stack armor, Monkey King Bar does indeed become favored, mostly for the fact that it grants Troll a 15% IAS, which influences how much damage he can put out in 1 game second. Desolator beats out Monkey King Bar when heroes have their armor under 14. Keep in mind though, this orb affects ALL heroes, which makes it worthwhile past this armor number. Also, Deso is 1000 gold cheaper for the same basic damage. Finally, most heroes's armor is usually below or around 14, which means it will most likely be a strong choice of item to get in games.
Completely sure mathcraft is correct. Damage is factored in with: Boots, x2 Bracers, -Said Item-, Stat points, Average Damage @25, Fervor Aura, Rampage, and any bonuses provided by the items.
No. Why on earth would you ever get this? Troll needs damage and survivability. Small health and +16 damage is NOT damage! Please, don't even try that. The slow, would seem okay with Troll's IAS, but it's not needed and the orb could better be suited elsewhere.
The point of my guide is a team-based easily achievable build. Mjollnir does not give that to Troll. First off, let us look at Maelstrom. At 3,000 gold, it seems like a good orb for cheap damage. However, Troll is already a bad solo hero, and you should still be laning by the time you farm Maelstrom, meaning it would push your creeps to gank territory. Not only that, it does not give as much damage as Desolator gives, so your last hit is not as strong as it could be. If you are neutral creeping by the time this item is made, you already have your two hammers for Desolator, which can sometimes clear the creeps faster if you are unlucky. Now, Mjollnir wise, you've been forced to neutral creep because of your Maelstrom problem. Not bad, but it does shorten your time in lanes with your BoT you bought before, saying we follow the build. However, once you reach Mjollnir, I could instead take that Eaglehorn and have Butterfly, with a 30% Evasion to increase my survivability and by that, damage, in a battle. Mjollnir however, just gives you a buff which hurts random targets around you. With 500 Range, you're looking at Melee heroes (see: Tanks) and creeps (See: Useless.) So, the Static buff just seems overrated. I'd rather survive 30% longer then you then deal out a lucky 200 damage to that Centaur Warchief. And there's no point to buy this after Desolator, you can spend your money better on Buriza to have extra smecky crictials with your -6 armor heroes.
Bashers are not what you want to get in your game. You already have a passive bash in your melee form, why do you need more? Secondly, they scare your opponent more than usual, which will send more disables at you then usual. It takes up an item slot which could be better used some other place. More to the fact, you don't need to spend your time disabling heroes. You have a team for that. Your item slots can be better off with more damage and survivability. I'm going to stress this in about every item. That's all you need for Troll. Damage and survivability.
As I said with every other item, Troll needs damage and survivability. As lifesteal doesn't give damage, you might think it gives you the key to surviving. Well, it doesn't. Considering you get disabled a lot, your orb gets wasted all that time. If you do take the orb, your only damage item would be Buriza (MKB ruins your bash, others are orbs). With no other damage items, you won't be making any damage with your critical.
Troll seems like the ideal candidate for one of these. His job it to take out a hero as fast as possible without dieing. Sort of like a Clinkz, but more power in the battle. Without an escape mechanism, it should be a top priority, no? Well, no, it shouldn't. Lothars gives you good bonuses (+31 Dmg, +10% IAS) but it costs 3800, while most of that cash is just for the wind walk effect. For one, the wind walk is only a 9 second wind walk and it's cool down makes not too spammable. This means that you can't WW, BKB, kill one and get out. It doesn't work like that. Not only that, but wards, gems, and necronomicons are among the easy to counter items that can be bought to ruin your escape. And as such, Lothars would only be used as an escape mechanism, and nothing more. But if you have good teammates and good map sense, you should be able to dodge most of those ganks anyway. Blink Dagger then seems like the winner. Uncounterable, escape, and a mana cost you can handle! The only problem is that Blink is used to get in position for something, or as a starting attack. You are neither. You don't want to jump in first, as you would get disabled and focused faster than you can believe. You also don't want any sort of "position" as all you have to do is run and attack. So blink is useless as well.
Buffing Heroes Troll has all the damage he can want, and these guys amplify that damage. While Troll is pretty strong on his own, add other buffs and he can become a one man wrecking machine! Orge Magi gets speical mention, for he gives Troll lots of what he needs. He has a disable which can go for an extended period of time with Multicast, and also has Bloodlust to increase Troll's IAS to MAX (4 attacks a second) with his ultimate on, as they stack. Finally he has an AoE slow to help Troll chase down the fleeing heroes.
Long Disables Troll needs a disable. I cannot stress this enough. Without disables ganks can't happen, and kills are much harder to make. With a disable, Troll can tear the hero apart freely. BM can also use his hawk to help Troll survive by scouting around to help avoid ganks.
AoE Slows / Slows in General Troll doesn't have the greatest move speed, and with no disables, heroes can merely run away as soon as he starts to fight. Slows slow down the heroes which gives Troll more time to get hits in on them. Also paired up with AoE nukes like Lich can give Troll more room to farm, if forced to go in a lane. Shadow Priest gets another speical mention, as he is a great ally of Troll in this guide. He gives him free heals early game, a nice disable and slow for the taking, and negative armor to help out your Desolator. Finally, he has a free mini-Aegis on him, saving you cash whenever you die.
Guinsoo, Refresher
Again, I'm stressing the fact about disables. Why is refresher put into here? Well, you only get refresher to double your ultimate, and usually those ultimates are disables. So, 99% of the time the hero buying a refresher will most likely be using it for more disables. YAY!
Chicken, Observer Wards
Woohoo! Anyway, the tangos are nice and all, but Troll needs more than that. He needs a good supply of flasks coming to him after he's done creeping and running to a team push/fight/etc. Also, Troll is easy to gank and you don't want to be running around with cash and no way to spend it. Also, being that big gank target, observer wards placed by your big farming intelligence heroes can save you from those ganks.
Early Game Harassers / Chain Nukers Troll has a counter to physical harassing, but when it comes to spells he's got nothing. He can't harass back either, so that's out of the question. Later on they'll become weaker, as you gain more HP with your stats and strength gain, and you can tear through them. However, they will make your early game hell. Request ganks and neutral creep a lot to get through these guys, knowing full well they're food for you later on.
Early Push Strat Troll needs late game to win. This is probably a sure proof plan to take him down and make him near but useless. You can't stay farming, as not many teams can hold 4v5 vs. early push. It's still a pain if you stay and defend, for you can't farm your items and really you can't do much during the battles. You'll probably want more bracers, 2-3 in this case. Bracers are always recommended if you are having trouble, for the more hit points you get the better.
Heavy Ganking Heroes Troll is a huge gank target because he has no escape ability besides a silly 42% blind and +20 movement speed. With the more deaths Troll gets, the more he is set back and the more he might be weak late game. Observer wards and good calling from lanes should do the trick on them. Don't play too aggressive, and neutral creep if the creeps have gone too far. (Pulling works too.) Also figure out the tells of the enemy and use them. If they are extremely passive then start harassing you, you are in for a gank. If they are aggresive, then wait for awhile, they might be planning your death soon.
Dagon, Aghanims
Dagon and Aghanims both give your opponent stronger nukes. Troll can't do much against nukes until he gets more hit points or a BKB. They'll most likely buy this item to use against you and focus you.
Vanguard and Assault Cuirass
An early Vanguard can counter any sort of harassment you'll try to give to the hero. Also, all tanking items just means it takes longer for you to take down the hero. Best way to counter this is to not focus the tank, but if the tank plays well that's not an option.
No Reliable Escape Heroes I hope I've stressed enough Troll should not be the ganker of the team, but if you need to go kill something to take out your anger, so be it. You'll still want to go with an ally of course. These heroes are the easiest because they have low hit points and do not have a reliable escape mechanism. Disable and get a quick kill. If you have enough time, run in melee form first, and once they run away go ranged.
Intelligence w/o disables In team battles, there are two ways you can look at something. Take away the support heroes and leave the carry to fend for themselves, or focus the carry heroes and leave the support to hold their own. As "support" is to "support" it's better to take them out first, plus it's easier to take them out, for the carry heroes are most likely protected by the others.
Early game will be Troll's weak point. Blind will keep him alive versus orbwalking heroes, but be prepared to get hurt badly. Bane and Omniknight both have heals, and a rush of Arcane with Omniknight can keep them at full hit points all game. Sand King and Lina is a strong combination at the lane, with the regular double stun. Sand King is able to go around ganking, as he also works well with Bane's classic Sleep/Grip/Free Epicenter Channel during lane time. Sand King is a strong tank and Omniknight can buff Troll late game to make him rip stuff up. Top lane doesn't have the best control, but they have the ability to survive well. With Sap and Heal, they can survive most lanes well. If needed to harass, Sleep/Heal/Sap could be used. Omniknight rushes Arcane ring and Bane works on Necrobook, while ganking around the map whenever Grip is up. Troll goes Blind + Stats (of course) and just tries to survive. This build is your best bet versus most orbwalkers, just work on surviving. Keep Troll in middle as much as possible, unless they are pushing hard. No jungle hero means all the creeps are yours, so feel free to farm ones if the creeps push out too far. Finally, Lina+Sand King is a strong lane taken from the -LM lane of Leshrac/Sand King. With Bane around to gank, Sand King leading in stuns with Lina's after can score early kills while having support from Bane when needed. Sand King rushes Blink while Lina can get whatever she wants, including Euls or Blink or BoT.