Troll Warlord is one of the strongest hard carries in the whole game. His signature ability, Berserker's Rage, allows him to switch between melee and ranged autoattacks, both with their pros and cons. He is most devastating in a one vs. one situation because of his ability Fervor but he also can put out major damage in teamfights with Whirling Axes either slowing the enemy or making them miss. Finally, his ultimate Battle Trance gives the hero and his team increased attack speed, useful for taking objectives such as Roshan or enemy buildings.

Troll Warlord should always be played as a carry. A good Troll player is constantly farming, pushing, or taking objectives. One of the first important items on Troll Warlord is Morbid Mask icon.png Morbid Mask, which can be upgraded to Mask of Madness icon.png Mask of Madness. With this item, one can farm the jungle without losing much health. Combined with Phase Boots icon.png Phase Boots and Sange and Yasha icon.png Sange and Yasha (or Manta Style icon.png Manta Style), you should be able to fight in early team fights. You should find a good balance between farming and pushing (Dependent on your team's situation). A good use of the hero's ultimate is to assist his team with pushing or fighting without him to get bonus gold through assists or towers.

You will usually want to start with a point Berserker's Rage as Troll Warlord is definitely stronger in melee form, with additional movement speed, a lower BAT and +6 armor which really helps your laning phase or jungling.

Then, depending on the game situation, you can either take a point or two in Fervor (for a more farming playstyle) or max out Whirling Axes (for a more kill-centric playstyle). Maxing both skills in tandem can be effective as well, as long as one optimizes farming and fighting appropriately. Fervor does not scale all that well with extra levels. The first point is already half as good as the fourth. One overly-simple way to look at it is that taking a second point improves Fervor by 33% (from 15 to 20 attack speed), the third by 25% (from 20 to 25) and the fourth by 20% (from 25 to 30). Do not underestimate extra levels in Berserker's Rage. +10 flat movement speed is always nice to have, and the increased duration on the bash will make the difference between a kill and a close escape for your enemies. Although the extra attack speed will help you "perma-bash" an opponent, the duration of the bash scales better than an extra point in Fervor. Granted, you need to proc a bash first. Overall, there is no obvious way to spend you skill points to maximise your damage output or your kill potential.

You always pick up your Battle Trance when you are able to do so, at levels 6, 12 and 18.