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Many hands make light work.
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Bad against...[]
- Berserker's Call can keep Lycan in place during his Shapeshift even through Black King Bar.
- Counter Helix is very effective against Lycan because of his summons.
- Culling Blade will prevent Lycan from running away with Shapeshift when he drops low.
- Primal Roar allows Beastmaster to keep Lycan in place after he used his Shapeshift.
- Rupture completely negates Lycan's high mobility.
- All of Lycan's summons are good sources of healing with Bloodrage.
- Quill Spray can be used to kill Lycan's summons.
- Bristleback allows him to stay alive against Lycan while dishing out counter attacks
- He can overpower Lycan with his Warpath instead.
- A well landed Fissure can potentially take Lycan out of the fight for several seconds, who heavily relies on precious seconds from Black king bar and Shapeshift to fight.
- Aftershock reduces the effectiveness of his summons and can prove quite irritating for Lycan.
- Echo Slam is very powerful with the sheer amount of Lycan's units and will cause him to think twice when pushing towers.
- Can cast Demonic Conversion on one of Lycan's Wolves, making this a numbers fight.
- Malefice will greatly reduce his ability to engage
- Midnight Pulse can steep an area making it harder for Lycan to engage in.
- She can Enchant one of the wolves to her side.
- Lycan will struggle greatly to harm Enchantress through her Untouchable which can seriously slow down Lycan's attack speed even if Lycan is spell immune.
- Stroke of Fate deals more damage when it hits more targets which makes it very effective in dealing with Lycan and his units.
- Soulbind prevents Lycan from running away and makes him very easy to deal with.
- Tidebringer can be used to kill Lycan's summons.
- Can also build into Heaven's Halberd which will disable Lycan's auto attacks, crippling him even more.
- Her Mana Shield is too tough for Lycan to break.
- Mystic Snake can hit for a massive damage once it spread between his summons.
- Guardian Angel completely negates all of Lycan's damage since Lycan mainly deals physical damage.
- Purification can also be a problem for Lycan, as Purification deals damage around the target, which poses a problem for him and his summons.
- Phantom Assassin's Blur is a real problem for Lycan, as he relies entirely on direct attacks to deal damage.
- Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to catch up to Lycan after he uses Shapeshift.
- Great Cleave will kill Lycan's summons very rapidly.
- Warcry will allow Sven and his allies to tank Lycan's damage, which is mainly physical.
- Storm Hammer will damage and stun Lycan's as well as his summons.
- Kraken Shell grants him massive physical attack protection
- Anchor Smash will wipe the area, clearing Lycan's wolves.
- All of Timbersaw's spells deal AoE damage, killing Lycan's summons very quickly.
- Reactive Armor will gain stacks quickly because of Lycan's summons.
- Arctic Burn allows Winter Wyvern to escape Lycan, even when he uses his ultimate.
- Splinter Blast is very effective in dealing with Lycan's summons.
- Cold Embrace saves allies from Lycan's raw physical damage and can buy allies enough time to turn the tide of battle.
- Winter's Curse stops Lycan in his tracks and is very effective because of his summons.
Others[]
- Treant Protector grants protection against his attacks with Living Armor and his ultimate, Overgrowth is a massive AoE disarm and root that pierces spell immunity, causing trouble to Lycan. You will find yourself in need of an ally's dispel or forced to pop Black King Bar for its dispel.
- Dragon Knight's insanely high armor and splash damage can cause Lycan to struggle taking him down.
- Keeper of the Light has a blind, which causes Lycan to miss his attacks.
- Pugna's Decrepify prevents the target from taking physical damage or doing damage, which poses a huge problem for Lycan, as he mainly deals physical damage.
- Faceless Void can lock Lycan down with his Chronosphere pinning him down as long as his ultimate is up.
Items[]
- Town Portal Scroll is rather efficient against Lycan, as he lacks disables to stop a teleporting Hero from escaping. And if he is split-pushing a lane, this might make him turn around. If not, stay alert as he might dive.
- Heaven's Halberd is a good counter to attacks, on which Lycan heavily relies.
- Blade Mail's return damage might cause Lycan to stop attacking his victim. If not, Lycan will take loads of returned damage.
- Ghost Scepter and Ethereal Blade prevents the user from taking physical damage from Lycan as Lycan is mainly a physical damage dealer while also making Lycan more vulnerable to magical damage. However, Lycan can easily counter this problem by purchasing Nullifier, which will give him more attack damage and a dispel to remove the ethereal buff on the hero who tries to use it to protect himself against Lycan and Black King Bar to remove the ethereal debuff from himself.
- Rod of Atos limits Lycan's mobility during his ultimate. Later it can be upgraded into Gleipnir that can limit mobility of both, Lycan and his wolves while also passively providing a chance to release a chain lightning that can bounce on Lycan and his wolves. However, Lycan can counter this with Black King Bar, a common item on Lycan.
- Crimson Guard reduces the damage taken from Lycan's units and drastically improves how long a tower survives his push.
Good against...[]
- Lich possesses a lot of slows, which Lycan doesn't care about when he Shapeshifts.
- Lich has no in-built escape, which makes him a good target for Lycan.
- He can send wolves to defuse Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.
- Magnetic Field is useless against melee heroes, so Lycan can attack Arc Warden without missing.
- Flux doesn't affect Lycan that much, because Shapeshift grants immunity to slows and because he is never alone.
- If their Tempest Double has been called, Lycan can still kill Arc Warden before the double expires.
- The Wolves's speed causes the knockback from Gust to be ineffective.
- Drow Ranger lacks escapes and loses her Marksmanship when someone is near her. Lycan can take advantage of these weaknesses of Drow Ranger.
- Lycan's ultimate makes him immune to slows from Ursa's Earthshock as well as allowing him to outmaneuver Ursa during Enrage. Lycan can also easily chase down Ursa while shapeshifted, should Ursa try to flee.
Others[]
- Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.
- You can easily kill a squishy Sniper, due to your high movement speed and his lack of escape.
- Once you get a Black King Bar, squishy spellcasters like Zeus, Skywrath Mage and others will be probably easy to deal with.
- Heroes with low armor and little mobility, like Huskar, Io, etc. will also have an unfortunate fate.
Works well with...[]
- His Inner Beast also work on Lycan's own minions.
- Creeps enchanted with Holy Persuasion benefit from Howl.
- Plenty of those creeps provide auras that strengthen Lycan and his minions.
- Lycan is a notable solo-pusher. If he over-stayed his welcome in the enemy's base, perhaps he can be kept alive with Hand of God.
- Nature's Prophet is (like Lycan) a jungling and laning hero, so his absence while fighting Roshan is not a great concern for his teammates. Finally, the Prophet's ability to teleport directly into Roshan's pit is also useful for avoiding enemy wards (using Nature's Call in Roshan's Pit with Sprout is advised, however, in order to remain undetected by said wards).
Others[]
- Perhaps your allies don't have any summons, but maybe they'll bring one in through purchase of a Helm of the Dominator. You might as well do it.
- Heroes that can reduce the armor of enemies can greatly increase Lycan's damage, such as Slardar's Corrosive Haze.
