Trolling with the King of Trolls

Lore

It's an easy thing to offend a troll. A prickly and contentious race, trolls thrive on argument and strife, missing no excuse to raise their voices in dispute. Males grow to maturity in subterranean chambers beneath their matriarch's domicile, feeding and amusing themselves while contributing nothing. Often they stay for years beyond the age of maturity, while the matriarch provides them with sustenance. When young trolls are finally pushed from their sub-chamber, they gather with others of their kind, forming roving gangs of malcontents who complain loudly about all manner of vexation.

As much as trolls love to argue, imagine how rare it is for a troll to be driven from his own kind for being too difficult to get along with. Such was Jah'rakal's fate, a monger troll from deep in the Hoven. So deluded was he, so bitter and abrasive, that even other trolls found his company intolerable. After one particularly vitriolic outburst in which he claimed the lion's share of loot from their latest raid, his cohorts finally snapped. They turned on him, beat him with clubs, and drove him from the encampment. Enraged at his banishment, he returned the next day, armed with steel, and slew them all, one by one. He then swore a blood oath: he would ever after be a fighting force unto himself. Now he roams the world as the Troll Warlord, bitter and angry, the Imperial high commander of an army of one.

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Is a great Jack-of-All-Trades
+ If he does not get enough farm and is feeding, he can easily come back with just a Mask of Madness or Daedalus
+ Is an incredibly reliable carry
+ Has Haste Rune whenever necessary with Mask of Madness + Phase Boots
+ Can heal back up to full health when at low by right-clicking without Satanic because of extreme attack speed
+ Can switch from RANGED TO MELEE, WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED!!!

Cons

- Needs some practice to learn entirely
- Does not have good magic damage output
- Can be fairly countered with Crimson Guard
- Needs a good support at offlane to get required kills and farm
- Sometimes forces player to get too greedy and suicide in enemy's base

Why Did I Begin Playing Troll Warlord?

When I was just beginning DotA 2, I used to play Death Prophet. I had yet to see the amazing variety of heroes, items, aesthetics, setups, and loadouts in the game. And Troll Warlord fixed that for me.
I was in a pub as Death Prophet when I first saw him. Although it was late game, I was a noob and basically farmed the whole game. So it was nearly thirty minutes into the match when I saw in big, bold letters: RAMPAGE!!! TROLL WARLORD IS BEYOND GODLIKE, SOMEONE KILL HIM!!!
I located Troll Warlord on the mini-map, and realized he was on my team. So I walked over to him and followed him around for the rest of the match, watching his every move. It was magnificent, the elegance, the beauty, and the destruction that emerged from the King of Trolls. I was awestruck. After the match had ended, I pondered how such a glorious invocation could be created in a game. And it popped into my head: DotA 2 is completely unbalanced. But, I know now that is completely false because Undying flat-out blows.
But in all honesty, that was what pulled me into the game. The next match, I took up the responsibility of performing the Jah'rakal Ritual to my fellow allies. It did not work at all; I just got reported by nine people. But from then on, I practiced Troll Warlord until I completely mastered him. And here I am, showing the world what this masterpiece of a hero is really capable of.

Introduction

Troll Warlord is just an overall incredible hero. He is not picked in competitive very much, and is usually underestimated because people see him only as a carry and nothing else. But that is false, for he is extraordinary if used in the right hands.
Troll Warlord is capable of shredding Durables in an instant. His only weakness is stuns or disables, but even that only if long enough for the enemies to kill him. For if he is not killed while immobile, he can sprint out to safety with ease, or turn around and bash his enemies to the ground. (This DOES NOT mean you can 1v5 the enemies).
If you want to play Troll Warlord the right way, you will have to know when to switch from Melee to Ranged using Berserker Rage. This includes to get last hits because Melee is faster than Ranged. Also you must know when to use your Battle Trance to help your allies, if not yourself.
Being an Agility hero, you must note that he is not as durable as others, and this allows him to get picked off if the player does not have good map awareness. Basically, he needs efficient supports on his team to win.
His mana pool is not very high either, but as long as you only use Whirling Axes (Ranged) to SLOW, and not HARASS, you will be fine.

Skills

Berserker Rage - (Actually Berserker's Rage, DotAFire needs to fix that) This skill MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST be leveled first. If not, Troll Warlord will not survive the laning phase. Most carries in offlane level something they will need to get kills, but that is not the case with Jah'rakal. If one is not able to switch between Melee and Ranged, they can barely get last hits, and most of all, they will not hold a stat advantage. In Melee mode, Troll Warlord has 100 more health, 3 more armor, scaling movement speed, and greater attack speed. On top of all that, he has a 10% chance to bash for 0.8/1.2/1.6/2 seconds with a bonus 20/30/40/50 damage. The stats given by this ability is unmatched by other heroes at Level 1, and should be put to good use to harass and farm. Berserker Rage is a Toggle, and does not cost any mana or have a cooldown.

Whirling Axes (Ranged) + Whirling Axes (Melee) - This skill is Troll Warlord's semi-burst damage and debuff-inflictor. This skill changes depending on what mode Berserker Rage is set to. In Ranged form, Jah'rakal sends out five spinning blue axes in front of him, covering a small cone-shaped AoE. This skill barely does any damage, but that is not what it is for. It grants a 30% movement speed slow to anyone it hits - it is a Unit Target so it always hits - making sure that Troll Warlord can catch up to his enemies and beat them to a pulp. It can also be used as a Point Target, like Nyx Assassin's Impale. The Melee version of this skill sends out two flying axes that rotate multiple times around Troll, starting from the center and increasing in radius, then returning to the center. The range is not very bad, and with the right practice and judgment, can be used to secure the last hit on enemy Escapers. Along with the 225 damage AoE nuke when maxed, it grants a Blind debuff to all enemy units hit. Blind causes the enemy to suffer a 60% miss chance for a maximum of 7 seconds. And that is what gives Troll Warlord the upper hand in team-fights. He is excellent at melting enemy carries with the bashes, slow, blind, and right-clicks of death.

Fervor - Troll Warlord's passive skill should be first leveled at Level 10. Although it is an excellent spell, he does not have enough early game damage to make Fervor worth the level point. His two other skills also must be maxed for early-game kills and ganks. This skill makes consecutive right-clicks on the same enemy increase Jah'rakal's attack speed by a scaling 16/22/28/34. A maximum of 4 stacks of Fervor can be applied to a target. When you switch targets to right-click, the first attack will have the extra attack speed obtained from the last unit, but the second will reset it to 0 stacks to begin building up again. One should note that Fervor does not reset until attacking another unit; it has no duration like Ursa's Fury Swipes. It also stays when toggling Berserker Rage on the same target. Late-game, this skill becomes a massacre, annihilating enemies completely, and because it also works on towers and mechanical units, makes him a great pusher.

Battle Trance - This skill applies a global buff to all allied heroes and [Troll Warlord]] himself. The buff grants 180 attack speed for 7 seconds. When used in team-fights, it is able to dominate your team's right-click capabilities. It can also be used for pushing towers, but the user should know if the enemy team's Glyph of Fortification is available. If not, go ahead, but if it is available, then wait for the enemies to activate it before using Battle Trance. Do not be concerned about using this ability for your own needs - it only has a 30 second cooldown. Always activate this along with Whirling Axes and Mask of Madness when picking-off enemy heroes. Even if said enemy hero is a support and can be killed without Battle Trance, you must activate it to secure the kill and also thwart incoming ganks from other sides without taking any chances.

Roles

Troll Warlord's only role is a carry, according to his in-game bio. But, if used correctly, he can become the greatest Jack-of-All-Trades in the game, able to take on any role at any time. This does not necessarily mean he is the best at performing those roles, but it is enough to make them work.

Carry - Being his main role, Troll is an unbeatable carry.
Pusher - Troll is an extremely good pusher. His ultimate, Battle Trance, gives attack speed to all friendly heroes. This stacks with his passive, Fervor, making his attack speed go incredibly high, easily reducing towers to scraps.
Nuker - Most people don't consider Troll Warlord as a Nuker, but truly, he himself is a nuke. He runs into the enemies with maximum movement speed, smashing anything in his path with Whirling Axes (Melee), using Whirling Axes (Ranged) to slow, and right-clicking everyone to death.
Disabler - Troll's Whirling Axes ability serves as a multi-disable. When in Melee form, he can AOE attack multiple using, destroying their health and causing most of their attacks to miss. If this isn't enough to kill them, they will probably run away. This is where Ranged mode Whirling Axes come in, doing small damage but also slowing the enemy's movement speed by 30%, allowing him to quickly catch up to his prey.
Jungler - This role is not taken up by Jah'rakal early game, but after buying the Phase Boots and Mask of Madness, one can through Neutral Camps very quickly, not taking any damage because of the lifesteal. I Support - Well obviously, a Carry cannot be a Support at the same time. The closest one can get to supporting with Troll Warlord is using Battle Trance at the right time to help the team.
Initiator - Troll is the ultimate initiator, being able to dash into the enemy team and lure them to his allies without being hit. He can also use his Whirling Axes and Battle Trance to run into battle, his team following him.
Durable - Troll is a very squishy hero. You may wonder how is a tank because of his low health. Once he gets Mask of Madness, Troll is able to attack so quickly that his lifesteal makes up for the damage he takes, leaving him at close-to-max health.

Other roles include Lane Support and Escape. One may easily see how Troll's massacre of attacks and stats allow him to take on these roles, too.

Items

Starting Items

Quelling Blade - This item synchronizes incredibly well with Troll Warlord. Its Passive, Quell, grants bonus right-click damage against non-hero units. On melee heroes, that bonus is 32%, and on ranged heroes, it is 12%. BUT, our buddy Jah'rakal is neither ranged or melee, he is BOTH. Therefore, he gets a bonus in either mode of Berserker Rage.
Ring of Regen + Iron Branch - These items, combined with a 200G recipe form a Headdress. I prefer this item on Troll Warlord instead of Ring of Aquila. The price is lower, and it grants Aura HP Regen instead of Aura MP Regen. The stats are meager compared to RoA, but it gives what Jah'rakal really needs, early-game health regen. If you decide that this is not safe and does not work, then Tango can be bought instead. But try to buy the Headdress soon.

Early Game Items

Phase Boots - These are the best boots for Troll Warlord. When activated, the user gains a 16% increase in movement speed. This along with Mask of Madness and Berserker Rage gives maximum movement speed to Jah'rakal. Buy Phase Boots from Side Shop directly after buying your Starting Items.
Headdress - And yes, that is BEFORE the Headdress] recipe. But be sure to buy the recipe directly after [[Phase Boots.
Mask of Madness - Now here is where the raging begins. But lets just start with some brief statements. *ahum* I HATE FRIGGEN HELM OF THE DOMINATOR AND EVERYTHING IT FRIGGEN STANDS FOR. AAAAAAAAAAAAH. Just don't do it. Please. Don't waste 45 minutes of your life and your entire experience with Troll Warlord by buying a Helm of the Dominator. It flat-out blows. The lifesteal is not as great, Mom's being 20% and Helm's being 15%. It also does not give what matters most to Troll Warlord: ATTACK SPEED. MoM's Active, Berserk, grants 100 Attack Speed bonus to the user, but in return, causes him/her to take 30% extra damage. Now why the hell would you take this over Helm, you ask. Well, let me put it this way; do you want a stupid Centaur who stuns in a -50000 AoE, or basically infinite attack speed to turn yourself into a mental serial killer who causes a "Quintuple Homicide" - GLaDOS. I vote the second one, and also, since Troll Warlord has the highest attack speed in the game, the insane lifesteal makes up for the 30% bonus damage taken, so it's a win-win situation for you.

Core Items

Daedalus - 'Welcome to Crit-Fest 2014!!! Today, we have here a certain Troll from the Hoven who crits like a maniac. Jah'rakal, please please the audience for me! Ladies and gentlemen, brace for impact. The Daedalus, when used by the enemies, is the bane of your existence. "Oh, in that case, let's get it on everyone!!!" No, seriously, this item even works on Dazzle if used right. Its Passive, Critical Strike, does what it sounds like:gives you a chance to CRITICAL STRIKE. Why would you not buy this item? It is a pricey item, upgraded from Crystalys, but for what it does, it should be worth more. The user has a 25% chance to crit for 240% damage on auto-attacks. That means that three-quarters of your right-clicks do about 250 damage per hit, while the other quarter does 800 damage per hit. Who in the right mind would refuse to buy this glory?!?!?!?!?!

Secondary Core Items

Black King Bar - Used in competitive by nearly every hero, this is one of the most common items bought. Its Active, Avatar, grants Spell Immunity and 100% Magic Damage Resistance. This means that you cannot be nuked and shut down in team-fights, allowing you to unleash your inner fury and wreck the enemies. But do not buy this item if the enemy's team is composed of primarily right-clickers. Some skills also pierce Spell Immunity like Witch Doctor's Death Ward. Others may seem like Magical Damage, but are actually Physical Damage, like Juggernaut's Omnislash or Death Prophet's Exorcism (Yeah, who knew?). So be sure you know the enemy team's skills.

Luxury Items

I will not go over these in detail, but note that ANY of these items works on Troll Warlord. I will discourage the use of Blink Dagger too much; Shadow Blade functions better. One thing I will say though is that Skull Basher and Abyssal Blade are LITERALLY BANNED on Jah'rakal. No, I don't mean in competitive, I mean in ANY match. 'This Item is Disallowed for This Hero' is what the game says when you try to buy it. And it is for a reason. Think about it, nearly maximum attack speed with 25% to bash for 2 seconds, along with the bash from Berserker Rage. That is basically an infinite STUN-LOCK. That would make Troll Warlord unstoppable and overpowered, so must be banned. What a shame.

Combos

Most people have their key bindings set to QWER for abilities. I have mine set to 123456 for abilities, WASD to move the screen, and ZXCVBN for items. Yeah, don't ask, I'm weird, I like it better. But I will try to put this into most people's perspective.
As Troll Warlord, you only have one combo that you must master. This combo is 2-Click-1-C-X-2-4-SpamRightClick. In other words, W-Click-Q-MoM-Phase-W-R-SpamRightClick. Note that this combo begins with Jah'rakal in Ranged Mode.
Basically, what you are doing is:

Whirling Axes (Ranged) to slow
Berserker Rage into Melee mode
Mask of Madness and Phase Boots to gain maximum movement speed
Whirling Axes (Melee) to nuke and blind
Battle Trance to gain insane attack speed
Spam Right-Click on your enemy to hopefully proc a bash, gain four stacks of Fervor, and finish the kill.

This combo applies to both team-fights AND picking enemies off one by one. No, it is not a waste, just trust me on that one. Troll Warlord does not have big mana problems. The whole combo put together costs 200 mana combined. It can be pulled off multiple times before having to return to base.

Notable Allies and Counters

Allies

Crystal Maiden - Who doesn't want some extra mana regen with Arcane Aura? Also, Frostbite is great for keeping enemies in place for you to kill.

Shadow Shaman - Like CM, Shackles keeps enemies in place. But be sure to give them a friendly reminder not to kill steal with Ether Shock.

Windranger - Once again, Shackleshot binds, but Powershot also kill steals.

Outworld Devourer and Shadow Demon - They have traps: Astral Imprisonment and Disruption. While the enemy is trapped, you can sneak up right beneath them and combo them to death. OD also has an added Essence Aura so you don't lose a lot of mana, and SD comes with Demonic Purge for an amazing slow.

Heroes with Ranged Stuns are very good also; they stun and you Haste Rune into their face to kill them. Examples of this would be Nyx Assassin's Impale and Lion's Earth Spike.

Notice how all of the above heroes are Intelligence heroes: almost every intelligence hero works well with Troll Warlord.

Counters

Not to over-exaggerate Troll Warlord's amazingness, but he basically has no counters if played right. Just watch out for those Sneaky Nyx Assassins with the stuns. Anyone with a good, lengthy disable will be sure to give you a hard time. So Black King Bar would help a lot.
Oh wait, I forgot...
Techies
But then, again, who doesn't Techies counter?

Also, know when you should pick Troll. Take a look at the enemy's team and check for major targets. This would include squishy heroes who are two-shotted by crits, and also those who have no escape or disable. Do NOT pick Troll if the enemy has heroes like Slark or Spectre. They don't just have escapes, they have escapes that damage you. For instance, Slark's Shadow Dance allows him to damage you while invisible, and Spectre's Haunt attacks all your allies, and you don't know which one's the real one until he poofs in. If they do end up choosing heroes like this after you pick Troll Warlord, be sure to stay on your feet and watch the mini-map. Thwarting enemy gank attempts always leads you to victory.

Conclusion

I , Disrupt.FooSquash, have played over 160 games with Troll Warlord and have an over 60% winrate with him. He was the first hero I ever mastered and I am still a way to go from being able to play at a high level (I'm around 1.8k MMR because your abandon rate is your skill level according to Valve.) He is a very easy hero to learn if you already have a lot of experience and may become a 6.82 metahero. I hope you enjoyed the guide and provide constructive criticism please. Add me on steam if you want to play with me.

This guide was written at the same time as Disrupt.Pythenogoria. He wrote a guide on Meepo and also published it yesterday. I believe it's known as "Cheapo Meepo," be sure to check it out!

Thank you to everyone who has read my guide so far. I understand that MoM makes Troll Warlord very squishy, but you guys can try it for yourself and see how it goes. For some, you guys may fail miserably, and I will be happy to take the blame. For others, you may wreck face and love me forever. If you guys want to see the power of the MoM+Daedalus for yourself, I am on DotABuff, and I will also add a video of myself destroying with this build as soon as I can. Once again, thanks to everyone who took their time to read this, I really do appreciate it.

Troll Warlord is love, Troll Warlord is life.