Thanks to Shapeshift, the hero has a perfect movement speed (which can't be reduced) and a lot of damage with crits. Shapeshift lasts long enough, so the boost is enough for any standard team fight. Lycan can equally well stand on the side lane or farm jungle camps. In the case of forest farming, wolves are magnificent. Summon Wolves can not only deal good damage and help farm. Wolves are a powerful strategic weapon; that is, they have the ability to invisibly scout the area.
Lycan has an outstanding pushing potential and can quickly destroy enemy buildings on his own from the beginning of the game. In 5x5 battles, Lycan can give volcanic damage and, at the same time, due to protective artifacts, will live long enough.
Instead, Lycan feels the lack of mana, especially at the beginning of the game. It’s not the most straightforward hero to master. Skills are clear, but the player shall master control of a group of summons. At a minimum, you need to be able to control wolves well (at least for scouting) and not just group them with the hero and run. Lycan hasn’t control options. You can partially compensate for this by buying certain artifacts.
We see a lot of teams pick Lycan on the offlane. Undoubtedly, this hero is powerful against enemy carry in particular (Spectre, Visage, Arc Warden, Invoker, Faceless Void). Lycan's main advantage is getting a high level early. Otherwise, playing him is the same as playing on the easy line: collect key items and just win the game. It seems to me that many TI11 participants are training this hero and looking for different subtleties on how to counter this hero.
You will have mistakes and control problems when learning to play as a Lycan. However, this is not so scary - play and learn. The biggest mistake will be delaying the game to the deep late. Every time you farm in the jungle, answer one question: could you push right now? Moreover, you should not ignore the call of teammates to push. If you miss it, don't be surprised if you end up in low priority because you are a real ruiner, even if the score is 25-0. GLHF!
