Troll Warlord

I just recently did a game of all random and ended up playing troll. After I got familiar with him, he seems really, REALLY OP. He has amazing tower push, his ult is insane, and he can toggle between melee and ranged to alter his whirling axes! What's not to like?

Anyway, I'm a little confused as to why Troll isn't played in every match like Drow / Sniper / Riki are. He stomps really hard with just a little bit of farm, so why don't people pick him?

Ghost Scepter.Easily kited,susceptible to CC.

Hmm. Good points, for sure. Though, in my experience, at least, hardly anyone ever buys a ghost scepter in pubs. I guess the reason I stomped so hard was because I did build a BKB. :/ Plus, for chasing, I've found that its not that hard to catch people with phase boots plus troll's whirling axes which can slow.

I can understand why he wouldn't get picked in competitive play, but he still feels like a pub stomper to me, because not many players at that level focus on countering the other team. :/

He's not picked competitively because he's not enabled in Tournament Play and Captain's Mode,, so we can't really say for sure. That's really been my go to hero for easy wins now. And the topic of being kited is actually not really that great because that goes for most melee carries, and he has 320 base MS with one point in his Q, so he's actually one of the least susceptible to kiting in that aspect. He's more like one of those carries that you run a second carry on the team with because his ult brings such insane pushing utility and is up constantly. He has a 55%+ win rate right now, and I feel he really is the new Drow. He's mega pubstomp because he provides a lot of his own damage and all you need to be effective is lifesteal and magic immunity.

That's a good point, you really don't see a lot of Troll Warlord being played. I feel like some might prefer drow/riki/sniper because of long range/invisibility, so they don't have to be in the center of a teamfight, or at least be unseen, since there aren't many people who counter in pubs. Troll is definitely hard to shut down.

As Drow or Sniper even if you don't focus the right hero, you'll be okay and you won't die. Troll is a bit harder because if you focus a Lich instead of the Beastmaster, you might've just lost the fight for your team.

imo its the same with Dragon Knight and Skeleton King, both are really good (when decently farmed) but new players avoid them, because they require some balls to play... and so does Troll Warlord .... the thing with riki / sniper and drow is, that i.e. drow doesnt need any items in midgame except Shadow Blade and can still own squishy enemies due to her ultimate; while riki and sniper are rather noobfriendly in general.

But i totally agree: Troll Warlord is a strong hero and i even think that he will make (at least occasionally) an appearance in the competitive scene - especially now since the metagame is all about ealry - midgame and thats were Troll Warlord shines imo.

Yup I think so as well He is one of my most played heroes and tbh I mostly pick him when I see the enemy team picking a Lifestealer There was a game where the enemy team had a Lifestealer that farmed for 30 minutes in the jungle he had midas,treads,armlet,assault and crystalys he was very farmed but yeah I was with troll and all I had was phase ,dominator,daedalus and I literally destroyed that lifestealer he could not get out of bash and after I killed him he said "OP troll" and left the game .So yeah I think that he will get picked pretty often aswell cause Lifestealer is being used alot in competitive play and troll just shuts him down from bottom to top.

Yeah agreed, Troll is very strong (it's his ult that really strikes me as OP - 10 second effect with a 20 second cooldown!? Never mind the effect is the same for your team as having 9 Assault Cuirass auras (if they stacked), or 3 Hyperstones each - that's the equivalent of 30k of farm for your team...), if you have a team with much damage at all on their right click you can knock down rax insanely fast, and there's a lot of permabash potential.

Thanks for the huge response, guys. I think I understand a bit better now why he doesn't appear too often in pubs. Ah well, I guess that's their loss. :/