Bow and Arrow until you gain access to the Bronze Atgeir

Bow n Arrow: Use flint arrows or Bronze Arrows because Trolls are weak to pierce and both do MORE PIERCE damage than fire arrows. Don't fall for the fire arrow trap....Also aim for the head!

Bronze Atgeir: The Secondary attack (Middle Mouse Button) staggers them. Thus your attack pattern will be : Middle Mouse > Left Click > Left Click...repeat.

It depends more on player skill than on character skill.

This. Stay at range and use fire arrows. The long DOT of fire arrows will kill a troll faster than wooden or flint arrows (even though the troll is weak to piercing damage). You can shoot the troll with a fire arrow, make a dodge, and reposition yourself for the next shot while the troll burns.

Bow and Arrow until you gain access to the Bronze Atgeir

Bow n Arrow: Use flint arrows or Bronze Arrows because Trolls are weak to pierce and both do MORE PIERCE damage than fire arrows. Don't fall for the fire arrow trap....Also aim for the head!

Bronze Atgeir: The Secondary attack (Middle Mouse Button) staggers them. Thus your attack pattern will be : Middle Mouse > Left Click > Left Click...repeat.

just remember they are strong but very slow. if you keep your head you can pretty much just dance around a troll and make a fool out of it. you might die a few times getting used to their attacks but once your familiar with how they move trolls are a joke.

Atgeir like was stated above will stagger the heck out of them but it can be just as fun to zip around them with a dagger or use them for shield parry practice once you have a bronze buckler. Trolls are usually the first mob in the game that teaches a new player about parrying properly and i'd take advantage of that, its going to be an important mechanic throughout the game.

Also, don't fight them at night early on. Just run.

You can generally outpace a troll at a light jog, so i find a bow, arrows (preferably fire), 2 health foods and a stamina food are perfectly fine for taking on trolls. The 2 health foods will usually mean you can take a hit if you do make a mistake (but rarely can you take two if you are still in newb gear) and the stamina food means that you can still hop over obstacles or sprint for a little when the troll does get a bit too close for comfort. Fire arrows are often good because they will burn roughly long enough to take potshots, as in take a shot and jog for a little, and about the time the troll stops to take a swing and a miss at you it's about time to apply more fire as well.

As for skills, don't worry about it much. If anything, trolls are great for training your bow skill since you might not be the most accurate at the low level bow skils but that doesn't matter much when aiming at such a large enemy. "close enough" still hits it just fine. Plus they will take a decent amount of shots so you get ample opportunity to raise that skill in the process. The main concern is everything else joining in while you try to focus on the troll. Avoid greydwarf nests, dungeons or towers where skeletons tend to spawn (perhaps even the starred ones if unlucky), or fighting at night when everything spawns even more often. Depending on your approach you might even prefer to lure the troll into an open meadow with weaker enemies less likely to swarm you, but inversely the terrain and trees in a black forest can also help slow down the troll if you are already fine with navigating those same obstacles yourself (plus you can use the troll to break some of it, like fine wood or ores) for your own benefit.

Early game Log trolls are best to keep at bay with arrows as that log hits hard and range is longer, flint is better than fire and head shots count.

Early game Barehand trolls one on one can be taken out with melee. You can lock them in one spot just walking away and jogging back and forth from them juggling between their swipe attack and their double hand smash attack.

Example: swipe, walk back then jog in hit twice, walk back to miss next swipe attack.

then the double hand smash only activates every 5 or so swipes so be wary and start just waiting for that attack to be done before going in for more hits. Once the smash is done he will nearly immediately start a swipe so you might be able to get one hit in but it might be too close for your liking so either wait for the swipe to be over then proceed with meleeing in-between swipes

Lot of fire arrows, unzoomed camera and lots of smart movement should be enough even on low levels

It depends more on player skill than on character skill.

For kiting them with arrows, lead them though the thickest parts of the forest. The obstacles will slow them down. If you do too good a job of that they might even wander off and you'll have to annoy them again. They can't step over fallen logs, they have to go around. They can't fit between trees that are too close together. Every shrub and sapling slows them down a little. Watch out for the greydwarf train you will acquire. Remember that greys and skeletons are natural enemies and you can make them fight each other.

Continuing with that point, if you dig a ditch with steep sides, the troll can't cross it. Usually I use this to surround my base. If a troll is following me, I lead it to base and shoot it in relative safety. (Still have to dodge the thrown rocks, and make sure you're not standing too close if it's a log troll.) If I don't have a base nearby, sometimes I ditch around a rectangular area, must be three or more across in the center to avoid logs, and use that as a troll trap. You can either sprint jump across the ditch or devise a mob-proof bridge. (A single balance beam, or leave a small gap you can hop across.)

Third way I kill trolls is with an upgraded atgeir. The starter bronze one is risky because it does very little raw damage to the troll, but it quickly gets better. A spin attack from any atgeir will stagger a troll. Follow up with a normal attack or two for damage. Watch out for the stamina drain.

Other people do well with parrying the troll's attacks. I never really got the hang of it, and practicing the technique seems very risky.

Bow and Arrow until you gain access to the Bronze Atgeir

Bow n Arrow: Use flint arrows or Bronze Arrows because Trolls are weak to pierce and both do MORE PIERCE damage than fire arrows. Don't fall for the fire arrow trap....Also aim for the head!

Bronze Atgeir: The Secondary attack (Middle Mouse Button) staggers them. Thus your attack pattern will be : Middle Mouse > Left Click > Left Click...repeat.

Bows and distance, and lots of kiting.

Levels help but their impact is much smaller than food or gear. If you have very low bow skill that might get tedious, thats one skill where levels matter.

As for troll itself. Its succeptible to pierce damage, so arrows of coruse. But also spears and daggers. Meleeing Trolls is a daunting task, but you can learn their attacks and dodge (or parry with bronze blucker).

When playing single player remember to always look at terrain you are going through and how many enemies are there. 1v1 on known terrain is always easy. But trolls hitting stuff make noise which brings more enemies from afar, so get him to chase you to a safer spot first then fight.

ps: Bows are easy, but there are cases where you'll be presented with close quarter fight with troll later, if you want to win that, train in open area first.

Fire arrows work pretty well.

Anything. Levels hardly matter, and you're not going to have many that early in the game anyway. Just have a bow and plenty of arrows, or if you're feeling brave, a flint spear and some well-timed dodges can kill a troll in seconds.

Originally posted by prayl:

What skill levels are recommended for taking on trolls? I've just started exploring into the Black Forest, and can handle the stray skeleton or dwarf. But, I'm having trouble with trolls. What is the recommended bow skill for killing them far away from you?

Don't worry about skills. Just use your bow. You can kill a troll with the 1st bow and wood arrows.

Fire arrows and a Finewood Bow will do great. Alternatively, just time your dodges well and you can poke them to death with a spear.

I personally enjoy using them for slave labor and having them mine copper and tin for me so I can bypass the first boss and have him send me free lunch whenever there’s a raid.

No skill level is recommended. The setbacks of low levels are insignificant and more than likely you will be able to survive frequently enough to always retain those levels earned fast and easily in the first few hours.

All you need to do is kite them and you will consistently win fights risk-free. If you are unfamiliar, kiting is when you abuse both your range and mobility advantage, making it impossible for the enemy to get into attack range as you shoot and reposition accordingly.

For most enemies this is an instant checkmate no matter how superior your enemies are statistically. And the very small number of enemies that are able to counter this strategy with their own mobility typically have lower health relative to other enemies of their native biome. You can take those out before repositioning is needed.