Trolling like that guy you hate-- Ja'Rakal, Troll Warlord

by the way, armor counts for more later in the game - for starting items, stout is better than ring of protection. I know your build is that you're getting basi/aquila, but if you're building poormans/vanguard anyway then why not start with a stout? it's the best damage block item in the laning stage. Also you should include vladmir's if you have desolator in luxury, and even then you'd only get lifesteal in melee mode - which can be dangerous with low hp. nice guide +1

I have been experimenting with different builds on maxing different skills first and second. Honestly I have to say I wish I had done more extensive tests BEFORE writing this guide. I think I was wrong.

Maxing out Fervor, Berserker Rage, and Whirling Axes in that order was great for passives, and pretty good for jungling but it did leave my ganking ability a little bit to be desired. The difference seemed minor at first but the Melee Whirling Axes gets a lot of kills early game.

Maxing out Fervor, Whirling Axes, and Berserker Rage in that order kept the passive attack speed that was nice but still left Whirling Axes weak at the low levels where they deal the most damage. Fervor was also wasted more often than it was used while laning.

Maxing out Whirling Axes, Fervor, and Berserker Rage in that order felt pretty good. This was the original build that I followed when I first played Troll Warlord on Dota 2. I liked it except that I always felt like It would have been better if the stun duration was longer on Berserker Rage earlier in the game.

And then I came up with this. Grabbing one rank in each, then maxing out Whirling Axes, Berserker Rage and Fervor last works really well. It has the potential to lock then in place (with Berserker Rage having longer stuns) and the burst damage needed to bring them down quickly (with a more damaging Whirling Axes Melee) while ganking. When I jungle I liked it better when I had at least 2 or 3 ranks in Fervor so I went with a hybrid build.

I'm going to update my guide.

Whoops, forgot Huskar was ranged. My point still stands.

Thx for the info, I might have to try something like Skadi Life Stealer now.

Multiple melee heros like Huskar >_< ?

Unforunately, that no longer works. However, I tried using Eye of Skadi and Helm of the Dominator on multiple melee heroes, including Axe, Huskar, and Magnus. They stack on those heroes, so I assume they stack on Troll Warlord, no matter what mode he is in.

Switching between melee and ranged changes items to work with whatever type you are currently using. If there is a melee only effect it will work while you are in melee regardless of whether you purchased it while melee or in range. The items change with you.

I am going to take a guess here. I know if you buy vanguard on troll when melee then switch to ranged you still get the melee block. The same thing might work with skadi.

Played 3 games where I grabbed Monkey King Bar. Its not quite as good as Deadalus but I was able to get Monkey King Bar with Crystalys by skipping my usual Hyperstone. Here is what I learned. Troll Warlord already has ridiculous attack speed. I was trying to Hyperstone so he could stack Fervor faster. It didn't really work well. That Extra 80 damage was a lot more of a benefit than I thought it would be.

I also tested a couple different builds and discovered that ranks 3 and 4 of Fervor are wasted most of the time. I may have had 2 or 3 fights against players where I got up to maximum stacks. In Jungle I was only able to use it against the largest monsters but the Whirling Axe damage turned out to be better for killing the weaker ones. You were right about it Drakon. I still say the longer stun duration from Berserker Rage is worth grabbing mid game.

Yeah, it does stack with Lifesteal. But, the game says that it stacks with Lifesteal in ranged heroes, implying that it only works on ranged heroes. That is incorrect; it works on melee heroes too. :)

Well the tooltip for Eye of Skaldi on Dotafire says that it stacks with Lifesteal. I just always assumed that the in-game tooltip said the same thing.

The game is wrong. Just checked in a private game, and Eye of Skadi does stack with Lifesteal orb effects on melee heroes.

Eye of Skadi and life steal only stacks on ranged heros. Since his BaT(base attack time) is lower in melee he can hit more so late game he should be melee. Also He gets his bash in melee.



PS: MKB gives mini bash too