I killed trolls with just rags and a lvl 1 crude bow with wood arrows. And NO dodge rolling. Just running. The trick is to eat all stamina food. Berries, honey especially. Then mushrooms, which will give you more stamina then meat, but less health.

Now you can dash around like mad and kite him across the map. I actually prefer to do it in the forest, because he has to go around trees, so I can happily plink away at him from a distance.

Watch your stamina meter, don't let it run out, when the troll is directly behind you! They have long steps and catch up to you quickly. So try to evade him, watch that stamina bar and stick him with arrows.

If some troll cave is near, lure him there. The entrance is good fortress for you and you can kill him with bow and wooden arrows relative easy.

Find two big pine trees and you can use them as cover circling around because level 2 troll is also faster than normal troll and it will brake most trees.

Using trees as obstacles does slow them down. Watch out for falling trees, but that gives you another hidden advantage because you can jump over logs while they have to walk around. If the forest is dense enough you might even lose aggro and have to go back and get their attention again. Don't be in a big rush. Dispatch the adds as you run around and then line up your shots. The troll may turn erratically as it tries to avoid obstacles.

But I generally only do it that way if there's no handy ditch to shoot across.

Originally posted by GinsengSamurai:

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Learn the art of log rolling!

I spent about 6 hours rolling logs around in my first Valheim game to get birch logs. Showed up for our first boss fight wielding a finewood bow. I am not fully sure if it was worth it, but it certainly gave me a slight edge. Wish we could name our weapons. I have it hung up on my wall to remind me of the simpler harder days. ^_^

i was determined to log roll an the one OAK near an early game base.. took many in game days to get enough trees to hit it!!

using trees helps because free wood...

Wait until you meet 1 and 2 star trolls. Even with the top bow they are tough.

Although at that point you got the armor and shields to melee them and trolls can be parried into a stun.

As other pointed out trolls are great for road clearing. Equip a good shield and just stand where you want the area cleared and block. The ones with a tree club work best.

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

No, you'll lose more arrows due to less line of sight.

Actually I have lost more shots into the swarms of greydwarves trying to hit the troll behind them.

Ok, I got the log rolling thing working and then did some hit and run on some pine trees and now I got the Finebow. I will go back for a troll tomorrow.

They can be parried. Otherwise, kite them with the best bow you can get.

Trolls are dodge roll practice. Rolling gives iframes, just like in another certain game. Position doesn't matter, armor doesn't matter, just get the timing right and it works.

Originally posted by Dr. Snorbulizer:

Died five times.
I'm using fire arrows and trying to kite him thru the open fields.
Is it smarter to fight him in the forest and use the trees as obstacles?

No, you'll lose more arrows due to less line of sight. Kite them in the open... a lot of open ;)
Try to get yourself a Finewood Bow though.
Tip: You do not need a bronze axe to get Finewood ;)
Learn the art of log rolling!
Fell trees with a stone axe nearby to silver birch trees. Then roll those felled logs into the silver birch so that they do damage to it. With practise, you'll be able to fell the silver birch and get yourself Finewood ;)

Learn to roll. LEARN TO ROLL.

Seriously, you might die a few times but once you learn the timing, rolling makes trolls trivial. Absolutely worth it. Also, use pierce weapons, anything that isn't blunt damage really. While rolling, you are pretty much invincible, keep this in mind.

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Learn the art of log rolling!

I spent about 6 hours rolling logs around in my first Valheim game to get birch logs. Showed up for our first boss fight wielding a finewood bow. I am not fully sure if it was worth it, but it certainly gave me a slight edge. Wish we could name our weapons. I have it hung up on my wall to remind me of the simpler harder days. ^_^

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Learn the art of log rolling!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fQGPZTECYs

If possible, you want to also start fights with trolls by shooting them when they're unaware. You can get a big damage increase on them, and start the fight with a big chunk o health gone already.

I then finished them off by kiting them around the big trees in the black forest, and shooting them in the face with a bow. If the bow is strong enough, it staggers and stuns them for a second, allowing you room to break contact and get farther away. Then you just keep shooting them in the face.

I'm pretty sure from seeing this in another thread, but shooting them in the head doesn't give any damage bonus, but it did seem to stagger them more often.