Intro
Beginning the game
If you have never played before, hop on Battlenet and it shouldn't take too long to find a game, once you do, join it and wait until the game starts. Once the game has begun, the host must pick a map for the first round to be played on, they will usually decide based on the amount of players, as each map varies in size.
Once the map is chosen, you will have to choose weather you want to be the Troll, if you haven't played the game before, choose to play as an elf. Once the Troll has been decided, you will be able to take control of your elf. You have a short time before the Troll appears and this should be used for building up your base.
Choosing a base
Look around on the mini-map for a suitable base. Ideally it should have enough room to build all the buildings you will need as well as only having one entrance. If you have not played before it is worthwhile asking to base with someone, if this is the case, you can use a base with more than one entrance and have each player control their own entrance. This being said, it is worthwhile teaming up with someone in a base with only 1 entrance if you are new to the game.
Building your base
When you have found your base, you will need to block it off so that the Troll cannot simply run in and kill you, to do this, we use a rock. Go into your elf's build menu and select the rock, you will now have to place it down at the entrance to your base. It is worth noting that only 1 rock is needed, even though two can fit, as long as you place the rock in the middle. This is because the Troll can only fit into gaps of 2 squares or more, but elves can fit through 1 square gaps. (E.g. if the entrance is 4 across and the rock is 2 across, you must place the rock so that it is in the middle and there is 1 square free on each side)
Once you have built your rock, you should build your tent. Go into the build menu and select the tent, and then place it somewhere out of the way, preferably in the back corner of your base, (NOTE: Do not place any buildings directly against the tree line - this will be explained later), you should now notice that you are gaining an income of 1 gold every second. As you upgrade your tent, you will gain more income and be able to buy better walls and towers to fend off the Troll (Who also gets stronger by doing damage to your wall).
What to do now
You should aim to get your tent to it's highest level, this is done by going to the tent and clicking the upgrade button. However, it is not as simple as that, before being upgraded, certain buildings are required for each tent/house level, you can see these required buildings by hovering your mouse over the upgrade button.
After building your tent and rock you already have the required buildings to upgrade your tent, however you must wait until you reach the correct amount of gold, while waiting, there is a good chance you will be attacked by the Troll, refer to the next section for dealing with these attacks.
Getting attacked
Sooner or later you are going to be attacked by the Troll, sometimes you will be the first person attacked, sometimes you will be left for last. It is worth noting that the Troll doesn't know where everyone is, he/she has to find all the elves by running around the map and/or using his/her abilities such as farsight.
At the start of the game it is very important not to 'Feed the Troll', this term refers to allowing the Troll to attack your wall/rock without resistance, which in turn gives money to the Troll which it can use to buy items which increase its stats such as damage and attack speed.
To avoid feeding the Troll, when you get attacked you should immediately go to your rock and prepare to repair it as it gets damaged. You should then open up your spells menu and cast 'divine shield' on your rock. While the Trolls attacks are rendered useless by the divine shields effects, you should build some towers. Go to the build menu and select the tower, plant them close to your rock or somewhere where they will be able to hit the Troll while he is attacking.
The ultimate aim for the elf is to kill the Troll, so you should always keep building more towers and upgrading them.
The other spells;
Entangling Roots: This spell is useful for briefly stopping the Trolls feed or as a killing blow, if the Troll is nearly dead but hasn't ran away. It causes roots to spring out of the ground and wrap themselves around the Troll, leaving him momentarily motionless.
Silence: This is a spell used directly for stopping the Troll using his wind walk ability, in which he renders himself invisible. This spell is quite useful early on in the game before a True Sight Tower can be built.
Blink: Useful for running from the Troll when your base is destroyed or for base jumping (see below).
Other tactics;
Alternating: If in a base with two or more elves, it is worth organizing your spells so that the Troll can be held in an extended entangling roots or so that your wall has a dive shield for 30 seconds etc.
Base jumping: This is useful if you have set up base right next to another elf, if your neighbor is under attack, you can blink in to his base and help repair as well as lending aid in the form of your abilities.
Introduction to Lumber
Soon enough you will see that lumber is required for you to advance to the next level house, at this point in time you should go to your hall and buy it. All the elves will be reaching this point around the same time, so it is important to get the lumber as soon as possible, because as each lot of lumber is bought, the price for everyone goes up. Because the amount of lumber required is 32, you will need to either buy 4 lots of 10 lumber or you can buy 3 lots of 10 lumber and ask for someone to give you 2 spare if they bought 40.
If you bought 40 lumber and someone asks you for 2 lumber, it is polite but not necessary to send it over to them. To do this, you select one of their buildings and type into the chat 'gl 2' which stands for 'give lumber 2'.
Getting wisps
After you upgrade your house with that 32 lumber, most things will begin to cost you both gold and lumber, so it is worth investing in a tree of life, which trains wisps. Plant the tree somewhere out of the way and you will see that it has the ability to train wisps, which give you a lumber income. You can now see why we didn't want to block off the trees earlier in the game, because it is quite important to have wisps on them.
I usually start off with 2 basics and an advanced wisp to get me through the next house, but there are various techniques. You will notice that buildings such as towers and walls will begin to ask for lumber, so it is wise to continuously be upgrading your wisps to keep up a strong economy.
End Game
End game refers to when the Troll has maxed out all his items and the elves or elf have all the top buildings. Unless the Troll has a Dog and good strategy, elves generally win end game. The end game wall is almost indestructible when being manned by two top repairers as well as an elf, and with enough end game towers, even the most powerful of Trolls will succumb to the mighty power of the elf.
Death
As a final note I would like to talk about Death. If you are killed by the Troll you have a choice of helping the Elves or helping the Troll. If you choose to help the elves then you can go to the center of the map and use your steal and invisible abilities to effectively steal money for use by the elves that are still alive. If you choose to play as a Troll you must attack walls or other buildings to gain money and then buy items which will allow you to make the difference in a fight.
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