Lycan/Guide

Carry
Lycan will most commonly be played in the safelane. With a starting point in Feral Impulse or Howl for bonus attack speed to last hit with, especially if you add a on top of that. Early levels in Summon Wolves is not as good since they do not deal enough damage and cost too much mana. Once you have acquired and  or, you should take down the enemy tower of your lane. Then you can rotate to push other towers with your teammates if they managed well in the laning stage. Otherwise, you can farm the jungle instead and give your lane to the supports so they can catch up in gold and experience. After taking a few outer towers to gain map control, you should think about killing Roshan with or its upgrades; be sure to ask your team to help and go in with. From then on, you will either want something to take down towers even quicker ( and ) or to start properly fighting your enemies ( and ). In the mid and late game, you will have enough mana to Summon Wolves and have them scout and follow enemy heroes, giving your team vision to safely push and gank.

5-man push
Choose to max Howl out before the final point in Feral Impulse on the generic build (Feral Impulse scales linearly whereas extra points in Howl also comes with cooldown reduction). If your team has a couple of summons and auras of its own ( and for the obvious examples), and the opposition lacks methods to clear creep waves and summons, you can force all outer towers very early in the game. With the map-control advantage, you should be able to take down Roshan and possibly push for high ground and/or the throne before the twenty-minute mark.

Since Lycan will still require a decent amount of experience to be effective, you may consider putting him in the mid lane to get his levels. As mentioned previously, his huge base damage should allow him to get his last hits (you can even use Howl to secure them further) and perhaps some denies, and he can possibly harass the enemy mid laner with his wolves.

In this scenario, you'll still want to rush except if someone else on your team is better suited for it. You probably won't want to skip since you'll want to finish the game as soon as possible so you'll need mid game items. Maybe a level 1 will be more than enough and before upgrading it you can get an  or a  to tank some tower shots at little cost.

General

 * When taking on Roshan, it is advised to use a to avoid being spotted by enemy observer wards. Teams facing a Lycan will do their best to prevent early Roshan kills by planting observer wards near the pit; given that a detected Lycan is easy prey while doing battle with Roshan, slipping past those wards will do wonders for his lifespan.
 * At level 7, with items like and  or, Lycan can solo Roshan. Summon Wolves and tank them alternately with the hero, but do not let them die until the re-summon is ready. Keep Shapeshift just in case the enemy comes for you, so you can escape.
 * Any item that provides armor reduction (Desolator, Medallion, Assault Cuirass) or an aura benefits both the wolves and the Necronomicon units. Keep in mind that the melee Necronomicon Warrior has the second lowest Base Attack Time of the game of 0.75 seconds (after Visage Familiars), which makes him scale really well with Howl's attack speed bonus. Adding reduced armor to the mix will considerably increase your total DPS.
 * You can buy a to disable and slow your enemy from distance to hunt them.
 * Lycan is probably the hero that benefits the most from a since the summons will benefit from Feral Impulse and Shapeshift (critical strike and 650 movement speed), AND their aura will also make your own wolves stronger... There are few scenarios where you want to skip it. Although they can be inefficient in a fight, they'll always be great to take down towers.
 * When jungling, be sure to try and keep your wolves alive as long as possible, do not use them to tank damage unless their timer is low.
 * Be wary of centaurs in the jungle, if you and both of your wolves are near to the large blue centaur, it will use a stun. Avoid this by having one wolf wait away from the centaur and bringing it in after the large centaur is dead.
 * After reaching level 6, keep an eye on the other lanes, if an opportunity presents itself, do not be afraid to activate Shapeshift and go for a gank, the 18 seconds duration allows you to cross more than half of the map. If the enemy middle player is a squishy hero like, you can typically kill them even if they are on full health while affected by Shapeshift.
 * There are plenty of reasons to not go to the jungle:
 * Maybe your mid lane requires the constant protection of your supports, and it is usually a bad idea to entirely abandon a lane. In this case you might as well alternate between the lane and the closest big camp and try to farm both.
 * Maybe the enemy offlaner got a considerable amount of exp, and they could kill your supports if you leave them alone.
 * Maybe your supports are already farming the jungle, like with.
 * Maybe the jungle is unsafe because the enemies have a roamer or two like and/or  and you have no vision to see them coming, and you'd rather stay safe with your supports. You should probably consider taking down the enemies' tower as fast as possible to get an edge in map-control in this scenario.
 * Try to make rotation for ganks or Roshan kills at nights when Lycan's abilities prevail and enemy vision around the map dwindles.


 * Wolves can be used to scout runes at the beginning of the match and during the laning phase to avoid losing gold and experience.
 * Always Summon Wolves in the base when going out to jungle for the first time (at about the 0-10 second mark) since the wolves are fast enough that you can get a creep camp killed without using any mana.
 * Wolves' invisibility at level 3, very low base attack time and quick movement make them great deniers. Use them to destroy runes, aegis, and allied towers with all impunity if the situation is too risky, or too far away for you to go there in person. The most talented players will even manage to entirely body-block a hero in a narrow path with both wolves, and possibly deny yourself if certain debuffs are placed on Lycan.
 * Wolves can also be used to scout and keep tabs on particular heroes without them knowing. Select your wolf and hit M (default) and then click an enemy hero; the wolf will follow the hero but will not attack, so it will remain invisible. Do this with each wolf and you can get constant vision of two enemy heroes. This is great for setting up ganks or for evaluating whether to take a team fight in a particular area. Keep in mind that if your wolves lose vision of who they are following for too long, they stop following.
 * You can also use the wolves' invisibility to sneak past the enemy lines and teleport to them using, hitting one tier 3 while allied creeps disabled Backdoor Protection on another.
 * With a and another big item such as, you probably have enough DPS to even go through backdoor protection, as a last resort while the enemy is somehow distracted.
 * Use your wolves to stack two ancient camps at once. Then you can summon your necronomicon to take them down quickly.
 * Use wolves to grab last hits of lane creeps while you attack the neutrals, useful when enemies are missing or you want to accelerate farm.


 * Always keep an eye on the minimap. Save Howl to give teammates a decent damage boost, aiding them in fighting and securing kills.
 * Use Howl in lane not just for increasing your own damage, but also for all allies as well. They can use the bonus to harass the enemies or score their last hits.
 * Because Howl's cast point immobilizes Lycan, use it just before Shapeshift.


 * As the description says, the aura is applied to every unit under Lycan's control. This includes his wolves obviously, his units, and any unit he might have under control through.
 * Invest in Feral Impulse during the laning stage to resist enemy harassment with health regeneration and score last hits with attack damage bonus.
 * Health regeneration of Feral Impulse may offset some HP removal of.
 * Take advantage of Feral Impulse's attack damage bonus to select items and talents that provide strength or attributes to amplify damage gain, as items that give raw attack damage do not benefit from this boost.


 * Shapeshift is a very strong and versatile ultimate to use. When activated, it gives Lycan hasted movement speed, allowing a great deal of maneuverability in battle to chase down fleeing heroes or to escape from potentially dangerous areas. While Shapeshifted, you are immune to every kind of slow, including hexes and powerful slowing ultimates like or.
 * Up to a certain extent, once you start relying on your fast movement speed, you are more vulnerable to root effects like or, especially since Lycan seldom builds a.
 * Shapeshift is an aura and the 650 movement speed is shared with units under his control allowing the wolves and Necronomicon units to chase as well. Unlike Feral Impulse, the aura is global; if you're desperate to get a bit of damage on a building (to finish it off?) you can always use Shapeshift and only send your summons in.
 * Go farm and keep quiet when Shapeshift is down as Lycan is vulnerable and weak during this period. You cannot gank or escape without its speed. Though, you can try to push down lanes and back off early if you feel unsafe.
 * Select talents that lowers cooldown and increase Shapeshift's duration to increase its uptime. In the late game, you can even store boots in your backpack for a better sixth item since Shapeshift has taken care of any mobility needs. Of course, you will need to swap boots back when Shapeshift is cooling down again, but Lycan would spend more time as wolf than as human.

Items
Starting items:
 * sustains health in lane.
 * restores good amount of health in the early game.
 * gives attributes for cheap; use with Tango to get more heal.
 * helps Lycan with getting last hits.
 * blocks some physical attacks from heroes and creeps that may interfere with Lycan's farm.

Early game:
 * give basic movement speed bonus.
 * will improve wolves' damage output by reducing targets' armor. It can build into or.

Mid game:
 * gives you movement speed, attack damage, and ability to switch to suitable attributes.
 * controls a neutral creep, which will also benefit from Lycan's abilities.
 * provides the units to augment Lycan's damage. The bonus strength and mana regeneration are always nice too.

Late game:
 * gives armor and attack speed to Lycan and his allies (including his summons), and reduces the opponents' armor (including their towers').
 * improves Lycan's tower pushing and increases his damage. It also synergizes with an pickup and creates a huge armor disparity.
 * gives more strength and temporary spell immunity so Lycan can shred his targets without worrying about disables.

Situational items:
 * lets Lycan and teammates slip into Roshan's pit unnoticed by the enemies.
 * applies armor reduction to take down enemies as well as Roshan.
 * boosts damage output of strength heroes efficiently with bonus attack speed, attack damage, and strength. It also increases survivability with health regeneration, armor, and toggling of Unholy Strength to create more health.
 * greatly increases attack speed to farm creeps and heroes.
 * gives lifesteal, damage, and armor in an aura, so his wolves get more powerful as well. The mana regeneration also helps with his small mana pool.
 * applies double attacks and movement speed slow for Lycan to gank easier.
 * slows the target, so they will have a harder time retaliate or flee from Lycan.
 * boosts Lycan's survivability with strength, status resistance, and evasion. The bonus attack damage and disarm also helps him fight enemy heroes better.
 * gives superb navigation in the late game, allowing Lycan to teleport to and push down lanes or join allies in ganks. You can target any friendly creeps, including your wolves.
 * provides a reliable stun and random bashes to lockdown a target, aiding to Lycan's lacks of disables.
 * greatly increases health and health regeneration allowing Lycan to tank more effectively. The damage gained from it is also entirely from strength, which is amplified by both Feral Impulse and Vladmir's Offering. Lycan can also run out of a fight with Shapeshift at very low HP and come right back into it after a short rest.

Lycan/Руководство 狼人/攻略