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4 Votes

Quick and simple guide to Lycan.

March 22, 2012 by Yeee
Comments: 2    |    Views: 50691    |   


Standard/Cookie-cutter

DotA2 Hero: Lycan




Hero Skills

Summon Wolves

1 3 5 7

Howl

10 12 13 14

Feral Impulse

2 4 8 9

Shapeshift

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18


Quick and simple guide to Lycan.

Yeee
March 22, 2012


Intro

Welcome to Lycan.

He is a carry that rushes into battle with aegis and bkb. Pick him if you like wolves, draculas, and right-clicking heroes to death.

As stated this will be a quick and simple guide because I don't care to make my guide all pretty and I know from life experience that people tend to lose focus if things are long and complicated. I like to keep things simple.

Gameplay tl;dr version

Jungling is ideal as Lycan is a quick junger once he gets a couple of levels on his wolves, coupled with melee quelling blade you'll find yourself clearing the camps in no-time. Your ulti gives an insane amount of potential dps if your enemies stand still. Thus opt for picking him when you have some decent disables on your team. Nevertheless, Lycan will be focused instantly in teamfights if they know they can stop you. Bkb should be thus gotten asap. You can even get it before treads, because you will have max movespeed in your ulti anyway.

NB: Lycan can also could also go long-lane solo or with a support. Ideally, if he lanes the long lane he should to so solo as he needs his levels fast. Best if you have allied jungler(s) to support your lane once in a while. You can just sit back and lasthit with your wolves.


Early: Jungle, big camps can be taken on easily when wolves are level 3. Hit 6, see if you can gank, if not, keep farming. rosh when you get vlads. Remember to micro the wolves when you rosh, tank with one, pull it back, tank with the other one, they will also not lose howl and makes you conserve your mana. Remember the timing of the Roshan kill so that you can get into posistion for the next one. You can also use smoke to sneak inside if you know the enemy has wards placed nearby.

Mid: Get bkb, keep killing. Also note that it's very important not to spend bkb activations mindlessly as even 1 second of magic immunity is pure gold for our hero. Push down tower(s) if you can after you have killed a hero (or heroes) to secure map-control.

Late: Get farmed, keep doing what you did mid game, Always try to secure roshan for yourself.
Travels + necrobook allows you to take down towers/raxes really quick all by yourself, especially with armor reducing items.

LateLate: Got Travels, full 6 slot build and more than enough more for buyback? Consider buying a new bkb if you have not done so earlier.

Wall of text/Item selection

Later in the game you want to spend your money based on your needs:

Basher is a really cost-effective item because it allows you to jump into with fights with bkb on and most likely disabling one hero from the bat. your wolves will also appreciate this. This can also be upgraded to Abyssal blade for even faster kills.
Armor reducing items such as AC, and Desolator allows for much potential allied damage increase from both wolves and allies, inceases your lifesteal as well. Especially in conjuction with HotD/Satanic. AC/Deso also make rax as soft as cake.
Vanguard if you're diving past enemy towers a lot.
Blademail if you see a tendency to be focused on more than usually.
Dagon for countering ghost scepters.
Diffusal versus omni, not ideal, but get it if no one else in your team can.
Heaven's Halberd against heroes that give you a hard time through their physical hits.
Mkb to counter evasion.
Mjollnir for AoE presence.
SnY if you're poor the poor supporting dps. Can also be disassembled to create HH + Manta later.
Necrobook for pushingpower if you feel a lack in that departement. Good with allied manta images.
Divine when you can secure Aegis or not die, (or gamble).
HoT gives great EHP with some armor, good if you find yourself going in and out of battle a lot.
Shadow Blade to buypass obs wards, gtfo when ulti is on cd and lulz. Can also be used for easier raxing with travels. NB: may be mana intense.
Satanic if things boil down to crucial 1v1s.
Battlefury if you have group disables such as lesh's stun, enigma's black hole etc. Eases the use of mana.
Armlet, if gotten early could provide of great service to you, but personally I find myself never getting this item because I feel like it delays other, more important items. The degen may also be counterproductive even though you have lifesteal. Another thing is that Lycan is a slot-intense hero, because 4-5 of your slots will most likely be filled up: treads, vlads, bkb, (wand/stick, tp).
Force staff to counter kiting and/or escaping when reviving from aegis/when ulti is on cooldown.
Same with Dagger. Also note that you can ninja your enemies with it when you revive to blink to a far away or fogged spot and get away.
You can also initiate with the latter ones making you lose less time running up to your enemies.
Guinsoo/Orchid if you need that very important disable/silence.
Travels for late push or solo raxing.

Remember, item builds are flexible!

Play this hero a couple of games so that you get a feel of how to build him as the game is progressing.

Conclusion

You don't have to be an astrophysicist to be a able to play lycan. Get core the core items: vlads, bkb. Kill, Push.
Adapt with items.

Best of luck and have fun.

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