Missing Hero Report: Troll Warlord

I'd like to file a missing hero report, his name? Jah'Rakal. Occupation? Er... a Warlord of... trolls.

Anyhow, with the advent of 6.84, Troll Warlord has gone missing. Sure there were some "nerfs" to Berserker's Rage and whirling axes which I felt were negligible at best. If anything, he got a solid buff in the fact that he can now buy Abyssal Blade (2 second stun that goes through bkb anyone?). So what's the reason behind Troll's disappearance? Was there some indirect nerf to him? Or has he simply fallen out of favor with the arrival of a new meta?

Berserkers rage nerf was actually pretty huge but the biggest reason was just the fact that he was a fotm hero.

His laning stage is not that good anymore, meaning, he can actually be contested in lane.

The berzerker's Rage change made him a worse laner, which is important since Troll has this timing window between his strong points. He was a really good laner, like incredibly good, but he needed to farm like HotD and SnY (I think at least despite how often the hero turned up, I've forgotten the exact timing window), before he could really turn up to and win team-fights, and be well Troll.

But the damage change significantly nerfed his damage output in lane, and thus making him a worse laner, losing his free vision from Axes also hurt him a little, in that he became easier to juke.

But primarIly, the meta shift back away from passive game play into more aggresive early death balling meant that his timing window becomes a major weakness.

Sanvitch has got it down.

Also, in addition to a more early game meta, there was other additions in the last patch that will slightly kill the play of heroes like troll, namely, the items.

Glimmer Cape means less solo ganks.

Lotus Orb adds 10 Armor, which makes it another addition to late game armor items. All we had before was Shivas and AC, which there was not supposed to be more than 1 per team.

Silver Edge severely cuts carry damage and is a reason for Shadow Blade resurgences.

Solar Crest allows placing blinds and the armor in/decrease is mad.

Octarine Core allows for heroes like Leshrac, OD, and Razor to do things other than keel over and cry late game.

Guardian Greaves also doubles as an armor item, another nerf to right clickers.

And Moon Shard is nice, but its not really for agility carries (until last slot), but rather for Strength ones like DK and Tiny, or Int right clicker ones like OD. Only Agi type that severely benefits from it is the overnerfed Void.

So besides that whole gold changes, It was the new Items I think that weakened traditional AGI right clicker. I feel like PA got hit so hard this patch too. AGI carries got legitimate competition now.