"Please, do feed the troll" TatsuyaKaito's Competitive Guide to Ja'rakal (Work In Process)

Introduction

"You can't have a war without a Warlord!" - Ja'rakal

Hi there! this is TatsuyaKaito's Competitive Guide to Ja'rakal, The Troll Warlord. I've been playing this hero even way back to DOTA 1. He is mostly seen in Pub games. I would say that he is a fairly complex hero to use, even though most people would say that he is a right-click hero for noob players. But I believe that he has the potential to play even in the competitive leagues.

This detailed guide would show how to capitalize on his strengths and improve on his weakness, and also, strategies to maximize his fully carry potential. Now enough talk. let's get killing, Ja'rakal's axes are getting too dry.

Pros / Cons

Pro's
+ Versatility: can choose to fight ranged or melee
+ Very fast attack speed and animation
+ Short skill cooldowns
+ Low mana cost skills
+ Global Ultimate
+ Can perma-stun enemies
+ Can bring down towers fast
+ Has a slow and blind skill

Con's
- Squishy/ Low base health
- No escape mechanism
- Disables and stuns render him useless
- Will often be Focused fired and targeted in clashes
- Must stay locked on one target at a time

Skills

Berserker Rage [Q]

CASTING METHOD: TOGGLE
TARGETTING METHOD: INSTANT
ALLOWED TARGETS: SELF

Allows the Warlord to use his throwing axes as melee weapons, gaining bonus damage, attack speed, movement speed, hitpoints, armor, and a chance to bash targets on attack. Berserker's Rage also changes the functionality of Whirling Axes.

Bonus damage: 15
Bonus HP: 100
Bonus armor: 3
Bonus movement speed: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40
Base attack time: 1.55
Bash chance: 10%
Bash duration: 0.8 / 1.2 / 1.6 / 2
Bash damage: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50

Notes: This is Ja'rakal's signature skill. This is what makes The Troll Warlord unique to all other heroes. The ability to switch from ranged to melee instantly! You can harass enemy heroes while in ranged mode, then switch to melee if they want a fight. Although the chance to bash is low at 10% at all levels but, at level 4 you can actually perma-bash enemies if you have enough Attack speed and if you are lucky.

We just put one point in this early game since you just need to focus on farming. We will max this out after Whirling Axes which is a much more important skill early game.

Whirling Axes (Ranged) [W]

Troll hurls a fistful of five axes in a cone shape over 900 range, slowing and damaging enemy units.

Range: 900
Damage: 75
Movement speed slow: 30%
Slow duration: 3 / 3.75 / 4.5 / 5.25
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 20 seconds

Important thing to note is that this skill and the melee version is that they have Independent Cooldowns, meaning that they do not share the same cooldown. When you use this skill you can still use the melee version and vice-versa.

Notes: This skill is one of two of Ja'rakal's nukes. Although the damage is low at 75 dmg at all levels, what we are really after is the slow, a 5.25 second, 30% slow is a lot to ask for. Use this to chase fleeing enemies or as an escape mechanism by slowing down your attacker. One thing great about this skill is the range and area covered by this skill. the range is 900 in a triangular cone-shape area. To give you an idea on how far and wide this skill is, look at the image below:

Whirling Axes (Melee)[W]

Troll unleashes a set of magical axes which whirl around him in a circle. Nearby enemies take damage and have a chance to miss on their attacks.

Radius: 450
Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 / 225
Miss chance: 60%
Duration: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown Time: 12



Notes: This is your main nuke skill. it has a shorter cooldown and shorter range than the ranged version. Primarily, you will use this skill to farm creeps since it has good damage and also a large circular radius. But it's true hidden purpose is to shut down DPS carries like Drow Ranger or Phantom Assassin which only relies on right-click Physical attacks with it's Miss Chance.

At 60% chance to miss, it's like only 1 of 2 attacks will only hit you. I've had many scenarios in which I was being attacked chased by a Drow Ranger or a Sniper thinking that they could kill me with their damage alone. I quickly turned to melee mode and used this skill and they were surprised that their attacks kept on missing which lead to their demise.

This is the skill that we need to Max out in the beginning because of the versatility it offers.

Fervor

With each continuous blow on the same target, Troll gains increased attack speed. If Troll changes targets, the stacks drop to zero.

Bonus attack speed per stack: 16 / 22 / 28 / 34
Max Stacks: 4

Notes: Ja'rakal's only passive skill. This is why he doesn't need any more Attack Speed/ IAS items because this skill and his ultimate provides all the IAS he needs. This is also what makes him very deadly on a 1-vs-1 fight. The only downside to this skill is that you need to target and to lock on to one hero only because switching targets drops the attack speed down to zero. So make sure you kill your target before switching heroes.

Battle Trance

Troll's presence on the battlefield increases the attack speed of himself and all allied heroes.

Radius: Global
Duration: 7 seconds
Bonus attack speed: 60 / 120 / 180
Mana Cost: 75
Cooldown Time: 30 seconds

Notes: A Great ultimate skill in my opinion, it's like a Global Mask of Madness to all heroes without the damage increase. Use this to push towers, in clash fights, in 1-vs-1 fights. Don't be afraid to use this skill as often as necessary. It has a very low mana cost and short cooldown. Use this even if you are far away in a clash fight. You must be aware when your allies are engaging. Using this skill in the right moment can either spell victory or defeat in a clash.

Items

Starting Items:

3x of GG branches is a nice investment for early game stats.

You will need to buy this so that you can get Ring of Basilius later on. The armor is quite useful if you are getting harassed

Getting one of each would ensure that you stay in your lane longer and farm longer.

Early Game Level's 1-8

A fantastic item for troll early game as it increases his EHP (Effective Hit points) by the additional block and some armor, it also increases his damage and agi a bit. Buy this item first.



Get this item second by buying sobi mask as you already have a ring of protection + a wraith band, the reason why you need this item is because it provides damage, agility and a .65 mana regen which helps solves troll's mana problem early game and more armor. Just remember to turn off the aura so that you will not push too much.



I prefer Phase Boots over Power Treads because first of all, you don't need the extra Attack Speed. and Phase Boots gives raw damage 24 which troll really needs. The Phase ability is especially useful when chasing enemies or escaping ganks.



I believe OoV has great synergy with Troll in early-mid game most especially when ganking or chasing enemies. and it's pretty cheap for the benefits it provides. a 4%/12% slow coupled with whirling axes' slow and you can pretty much chase to death.

Middle Game lvl 9-15

One of Troll's main core item. It gives everything that troll needs. More damage and armor and of course Lifesteal, the dominate active ability is especially useful. Dominate one of the Alpha Wolf which has the Command Aura and you get an additional 30% Damage increase aura which you definitely need to push towers and kill enemies.



You definitely need to get this after buying Helm of Dominator. BKB will solve Troll's main weakness and problem of being stunned/disabled. It also increases his HP and damage a bit which is really helpful.

Late Game lvl 16-25

At late game, your damage will be really high and with Troll's very fast attack speed. The critical strike will proc more often. You will see a lot of Red Numbers on your screen.


Armlet is also a late game great choice on Troll since it provides yet more damage and Str + HP to make him more tanky which he really needs to stay alive in team fights. The HP drain from the active skill doesn't really hurt that much since you will be getting it back or more even, from lifesteal.

Credits

Thank you to the following people who has contributed in making this guide!

- Peppo_oPacio
- Sando
- Fumbles16x

Changelog

7/13/2014

- Removed Shadow Blade as Core item and prioritized Black King Bar as primary Core Item.
- Changed Starting game items
- Added Armlet of Mordiggian as Core Late Game Item.