Lycan is a safe lane carry who excels at chasing down enemies and pushing towers. He relies somewhat on Shapeshift to team-fight effectively.
It’s very effective to buy items that make his summons deal more damage, such as minus-armor and aura items.
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[/column]Lycan Skill Build Order
- Feral Impulse
- Summon Wolves
- Feral Impulse
- Summon Wolves
- Summon Wolves
- Shapeshift
- Summon Wolves
- Feral Impulse
- Feral Impulse
- Talent
- Howl
- Shapeshift
- Howl
- Howl
- Talent
- Howl
- –
- Shapeshift
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Lycan summons 2 controllable wolves to aid him in combat. The wolves are usually maxed firstly because they allow you to take towers very quickly and they give you more kill potential in the early game. At level 3 they gain the Cripple passive, giving them a chance to reduce enemy attack speed.
You can use the wolves to body-block enemies while you’re in your Shapshift form as you’ll gain increased movement speed. These can also be used to scout runes and areas around lanes to prevent ganks. You can also use them to follow enemy heroes with the move command, which is by default bound to M. The wolves can be used to get last hits in lanes while you jungle with your hero. This strategy will help you climb the Dota 2 ranks, although it will require much more practice in the long run.
The wolves are quite squishy, although they have high magic resistance. You should keep them away from enemies with Cleave and similar effects, as they can be killed very squishy.
Lycan grants bonus damage and health to all allied heroes and units under their control. Has double the effect at night. If you have allies with summons, you can get some earlier points in it or max it over Summon Wolves. It can also be good if you have allies that are very active in the early game. Stay alert for when your allies need the extra damage/HP from Howl during fights. Howl has quite a long cooldown, so use it when you need to push a tower. At night-time, your team will gain a significant amount of bonus damage and destroy towers very quickly.
Lycan and units under his control gain increased damage and HP regen. Maxing Feral Impulse early gives Lycan a lot more sustainability in the early game, and the extra damage makes his Wolves and any other units under his control deal more damage. The amplified damage does not affect raw damage items, only your base damage through your attributes. This is usually gotten at level 1 as it gives you a bit more last-hitting damage and some HP regen. You should always max Feral Impulse by around level 8, as it gives you a very significant amount of sustainability and DPS.
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Lycan transforms into his Wolf form and all units under his control gain a chance to crit, increased movement speed, cannot be slowed and gain increased night vision. You really need Shapeshift to fight effectively, and when it’s on cooldown, you should be farming and playing safe. As you cannot be slowed, you can use it to split-push and escape easily. In the late game, you can swap your Boots out for an item in your inventory during Shapeshift, as it makes up for the movement speed.
The extra damage will help you farm faster and deal more damage in fights, especially as it will translate into more crit damage during Shapeshift. If you are playing against a line-up with lots of physical damage, then the armor can be good, but only if it will make a bigger difference than the damage would.
As Lycan really relies on Shapeshift, the cooldown reduction is usually a better option. It’s also great on Lycan because it helps with Howl, which also has a long cooldown, as well as Necronomicon and BKB. The HP regen can be good if you and your summons are taking a lot of damage in fights, as all of your units will get the regen.
The extra shapeshift duration can be good if team-fights are lasting a long time, as it will help you to chase down enemies or escape more easily. The extra damage can be good if you don’t need a longer Shapeshift duration due to shorter fights. In most situations, the increased duration is a better choice as it will help you to fight more effectively. After all, 8 seconds can make or break a team fight that would decide an entire Dota 2 esports match.
The extra health will provide each of your allied heroes with a total of 800 HP for the duration. This is very strong if you need to tank up against the enemy team for whatever reason. The extra wolves will allow you to summon 5 wolves at a time. This is less strong if you’re against heroes with strong cleave or cleave-like effects, such as split-shot, as they only have 320 HP and 1 armor. However, they do have 80% magic resistance which makes them a very good DPS boost if the enemy line-up don’t have much AoE.
Lycan really needs a Stout Shield to allow him to jungle in the early and mid game and to tank him up against early harass damage. A Healing Salve and Tangos should give you enough regen in your lane. Your damage is quite high, even in the early levels. For these reasons, you usually don’t need a Quelling Blade, but it can be good if your last-hits are being contested.
Power Treads are the boots of choice on Lycan because they give him more DPS in Shapeshift and HP.
A Dominator can be a great item if the enemy line-up doesn’t have much wave clear or spells that devour creeps. It will give you another creep which is good because it will benefit from the passives from Howl, Feral Impulse and Shapeshift.
A Necronomicon is a core item on Lycan because the creeps it provideds are very strong in the early and mid game with the passives it provides. It makes you a very strong pusher and you they can chase down enemies with haste movement whenever you are in Shapeshift form. If you’re facing some of the hardest Dota 2 heroes that can easily kill the necro units, it may be better to get items that focus on your hero.
A Mask of Madness can be a strong item if the enemy line-up doesn’t have much physical damage to take advantage of the minus armor. Make sure to use it after using all of your spells as you run into a fight.
If you opt to not buy a Necronomicon, then an Armlet will give you a lot of early and mid game team-fight potential. It’s generally not worth buying both of them because one will delay the other and they are most effective in the early and mid game.
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An Echo Sabre can be a good mid game damage item as it will help you to burst down an enemy faster. This can be good against heroes that are hard to take down or have a lot of sustainability.
A BKB will be needed in most games as Lycan. This is because although you gain hasted movement speed in Shapeshift, you are still very vulnerable to being kited and disabled by stuns and roots.
Lycan has relatively low armor throughout the game. The negative minus armor aura on enemies and the armor buff for allies is very strong for your summons. It will make you and your summons stronger against physical damage, and make them deal more damage to enemies. The extra attack speed is also very strong for your hero. Overall, Assault Cuirass is a very strong item on Lycan in almost every game.
A Vlad’s is another item that will tank up your summons in the mid game and make them deal a bit more damage. The bonus damage aura it provides stacks nicely with Feral Impulse as well.
A Desolator will give you more damage and a strong minus-armor debuff on enemies. This is strong because it will increase the physical damage your summons will deal.
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If you’re playing against a hero that is very hard to lockdown or that has very high mobility, then a Basher into an Abyssal Blade is a great option on Lycan.
In the very late game, you might need a Satanic if you are taking a lot of damage. The strength is great on Lycan as well, as it will give you lots of damage through Feral Impulse.
A Heart of Tarrasque will tank you up lots in the late game and give you a large amount of damage. If the enemy team is struggling to kill you as is, you will be mostly un-killable if you get a Heart.
A Moon Shard is a great 6th or 7th item on Lycan as it gives you a massive boost to your attack speed. This works really well with your crit chance during Shapeshift.
Travels can be a good pickup in the mid or late game. You can teleport to your invisible wolves anywhere on the map. This means that you can push out a lane and have a wolf near Roshan, for example, and teleport to it and kill him while the enemy team has to deal with creeps near their towers. This will also give you a way to see if the enemy suspects your Rosh attempt and if they have Dota 2 wards there.
A Nullifier can be a good item on Lycan if the enemies have strong buffs that make them hard to kill. The armor is great on Lycan, as he has relatively low armor, however the damage is less helpful. This is because raw damage items on Lycan aren’t amplified through Feral Impulse. Nevertheless, the ability to purge enemies and mute them can be very strong in certain situations. The slow is somewhat wasted as Lycan has no problem chasing enemies down in Shapeshift though.
If you’re against a caster team or heroes with evasion, then a Bloodthorn can be a great item on Lycan. The movement speed from Shapeshift allows you to chase down enemies and attack them with no problems.
An MKB can be good if the enemy team have lots of evasion. It doesn’t do anything to help your summons deal more damage, but if you’ve skipped a Necronomicon, then it can be a great item.
A Solar Crest can be a good item in the early and mid game if you are facing tanky heroes. The minus armor and accuracy it provides is very effective against tanky heroes and this will make your summons and your hero deal more damage to the enemy.
A Butterfly gives you lots of attack speed, a fair amount of armor and lots of evasion. The attack speed is great on Lycan as it allows you to crit more often and overall it’s a great item if you need to tank up against physical damage.
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Lycan has no way of dealing with illusion based heroes, which makes him easily countered by heroes like Anti-Mage and Phantom Lancer. That doesn’t mean that the best Dota 2 players won’t find a way around this, it’s just that it’s going to be much more difficult.
Lycan often can’t 1v1 heroes with bashes. Heroes like Troll Warlord and Phantom Assassin can deal with him quite easily if they get a few items.
Any hero that lacks a stun or root can easily be chased down by Lycan in his Shapeshift form. Arc Warden in particular is very vulnerable to him, as he relies slow is useless and he relies on a Hurricane Pike to not die to him, and even then Lycan can easily run him down.
Lycan has quite low armor for most of the game if he doesn’t buy items that give him armor. This makes him very vulnerable to heroes with minus armor spells/items.
