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Ring of Protection
Quelling Blade
ClarityClarityClarityClarity
Ring of Basilius
Morbid Mask
Vladmir's Offering
Power Treads
Skull Basher
Black King Bar
Abyssal Blade
Desolator
Divine Rapier
Armlet of Mordiggian
Monkey King Bar
Heart of Tarrasque
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Hello and welcome to a guide on how to play Lycanthrope! When you are through reading/skimming over this guide You should have the basic knowledge on how to play Lycanthrope. He is in my Opinion the best Hero in the game!
This is the first guide I have ever written, so any suggestions/help would greatly be appreciated. Currently My record with Lycanthrope is 24-4.
Pros:
- Great Carry
- Fast Jungling
- Solo Roshan as early as level 7
- Extremely good at chasing
Cons:
- No innate CC
- Not very useful to the team prior to 15 minutes.( Vladmir's Offering+ Power Treads)
I like to pick Lycanthrope whenever several conditions are met.
1) There is no other jungler.
2) There are two heroes than can play solo lanes (one being possibly 1v2).
3) Your team didn't already auto-lock 4 carries.(At least two support heroes need to be picked already).
The First Rune:
At 0:45 before the game starts, Summon Wolves and rush one to the bottom river rune, and one to the top river rune. Wait for the runes to spawn, and if you have a teammate near by spam ping for them to go get it. If no teammate is nearby and you fear the enemy will take the rune, kill the rune (with your wolf).
As The Game Begins:
As soon as you have determined the fate of the first rune Summon your wolves again (Still at the fountain) and wait for your mana to regenerate. Leave the base, running swiftly to the small neutral camp. After you kill the small camp run out of the vision of the camp and wait for the game time to reach 1:00 and then rush the small camp again. (You will need to resummon your wolves).
Jungling as the Radiant:
After your first two small camps, Run towards another camp (any camp will do) Check to see which camp it is. Don't fight the Ursa camp, and Centaur camp After this there is no set order to the jungling path. Just make sure to kill the small camp as often as possible.
Jungling as the Dire:
As the dire, just continually kill the three camps that form a circle (the small camp being the top). Be sure to skip centaur camp until level 3 at least.
Make sure to Micromanage your wolves!!
All you need to do to micro your wolves is individually select the one being attacked, and run it away from the camp. This will cause them to attack your other wolf and then return the wolf so that it continues to deal damage.
As Soon as you get enough gold to purchase your Ring of Basilius You need to do so and Send it via 
Animal Courier! This will ensure you have your increased mana regeneration as soon as possible!
Continuing On:
Continue to jungle until you have earned your Vladmir's Offering and Power Treads (Both sent via Animal Courier as soon as you have completed each). Once you have farmed both of these items it is time to Roshan.
Preparing for Roshan:
In order to Roshan you need your wolves summoned with full hp and enough mana (and the cooldown ready) to summon them again. Also, it is very wise to purchase a Smoke of Deceit and go invisible before you reach the river (this will prevent any enemy wards from seeing that you are trying to do Roshan). If you have placed a point in Howl make sure not to cast it while fighting Roshan because the sound may tip off the enemy team.
Fighting Roshan:
The fight is simple enough. Micromanage your wolves until he gets about half life (If both your wolves are too low tank it yourself for a bit) At about half HP let both your wolves tank Roshan again, and let them die. As they die Summon your new wolves. Before they die you should be able to kill Roshan, if not just tank it yourself and make sure your wolves don't die!!. After Roshan is dead make sure to pick up Aegis and run away!
Post Roshan:
After Roshan you should be jungling significantly less but You still want to kill the large camps as often as possible.
Before Level 6:
You should not be helping your teammates, almost never. The only time you should is if you are getting a free kill and NOT dying. this is the case oftentimes if you are on the Dire side and the two enemies top try to tower dive your solo laner (Or on bottom lane if you are Radiant). You will still not get kills unless there is some form of CC available to you from the solo laner.
Level 6 until Roshan:
Ganks are fine here if you have the mana for your ultimate AND your wolves are out, but you NEED a very good stun and some damage to help you achieve a kill. Also If there are 5 enemies on bottom, Push the top lane You will be suprised at how much damage you can do to the tower with you and your wolves.
After Roshan before Basher:
You should be able to fight almost anyone 1v1, but be careful and don't go all eye of the tiger (tunnel vision). What I mean by that is you are Very good at chasing, but the guy you are one hit away from killing might have 4 teamates about to pounce on you and kill you. Also you should be looking to split push constantly. At every opportunity you need to split push.
From Basher to Black King Bar:
If the team does not have much CC, You should ROFLSTOMP any hero 1v1 and some squishies 1v2. If you strike fear into their hearts you can fight even 1v3 if they are all running. You can still split push, but make sure to be with your team if a team fight commences. Carry around a Scroll of Town Portal helps a lot.
Black King Bar and Onward:
Nothing stands in your way. Although be wary that Black King Bar doesn't make you immune to all CC. Do not fight a team with an enigma 1v5........ Feel free to dive towers if you are confident you will get the kill(s) and escape safely. Remember you have aegis and Try to act like you DON"T have it. If you make a mistake and die you oftentimes can still escape or get more kills after you respawn.
Pulling Creeps:
Be sure to pull for the lane that is solo when it is needed. This means to aggro the creep camp near the solo lane, and pull the creeps into the lane as the wave comes. This will make the wave attack the creeps (make sure you get all the last hits on the creeps for the gold). What this accomplishes is it will take a fully pushed lane and bring it back to the tower so that the solo lane can safely farm.
Starter Items:
I chose these as starter items, because it is what I prefer. I like the 4x Clarity because it allows me to never have to wait for mana for my wolves. This means I can fight more camps in the same ammount of time (more gold/xp) Choosing 4 clarity over some health regen is Risky though with enemies counter jungling, although with proper tanking, micro, and map awareness you should not be at risk.
Vladmir's Offering:
Hands down the best item for Lycanthrope. Every stat given is needed for you and your wolves. After building this item you will notice a great performance boost.
Power Treads:
Better stats for Lycanthrope than any other boots.
Skull Basher:
This item will help you stay on top of the enemy. With your incredible speed and the stuns there is no way for them to escape(also greatly improves your 1v1 performance due to the stuns).
Black King Bar (AKA Black Wolf Bar):
Do NOT get this item if they have very few cc's. (I don't count silence as a CC on Lycan due to you should just cast your spells before you go in to fight.) You can get by without getting this item if they are not very smart and don't try to chain CC you. Else, get this item. Because of the obvious reason of immune to magic.
Note** If the team has a lot of CC's you should get this item before Skull Basher
Abyssal Blade:
I love this item at this stage of the game. Everyone is building BKB's ( Black King Bar) and such. The stun on this goes THROUGH BKB. Turns an unstoppable carry with BKB to a 3-4 hit death from lycan during the duration of the stun.
All of the other items are acceptible, but After Abyssal Blade the game is usually over. Sometimes I manage to build Heart of Tarrasque or Monkey King Bar, I build the Heart for extra Tankyness, and the MKB for extra damage.
This happens to me occasionally. There are different types of counter jungling from my experience.
Observer Ward:
Wards are placed on your camps so that they do not respawn.
1) this is easily remedied if the enemy team has no jungler, just farm the enemies jungle instead. This is risky but oftentimes well worth the risk as it allows you to free farm, just pay close attention to the nearby lanes if they go Missing it is most likely to hunt you.
2) You can also jungle somewhat without the small camp.
3) If all else fails go help your solo lane some until you get level 5 and you should be able to farm the bigger camps very easy from then on, although I HIGHLY suggest against this, it is a last resort.
Roaming Gank
This can be very nasty, it is when the enemy lane comes to kill you while you are just being innocent killing neutral camps. You will most likely die if they have some sort of Stun/CC.
1) The best way to counter this is to pay close attention to the nearby lanes, and when they go missing be extra cautious.
2) If the enemy team has no jungler, you can go to their jungle, although you can be ganked there as well, oftentimes it will happen less because they expect you to be in your jungle.
3) If you know they are comming to gank you make sure your teammates know and are comming to help! Sometimes you can turn their ganks around on them. This will make them not want to try to gank you again.
These are the two ways I have seen counter jungling occur, although I would hate to have both of these happen on me. Just use the tips I've suggested, and if you are falling WAYYY behind due to counter jungling then don't hesitate to go to the solo lane and farm there for a little bit and get your moral up and running again.
There's not much to team fighting for Lycanthrope. Just have your wolves summoned, ult, howl, and start charging squishies!
Who to target?
1) The CARRY! THE ONE doing all the damage!
2) The SQUISHIES! They go SPLAT!
3) You are also known as the Janitor, keep mopping up all the low health enemies.
Don't forget to have an escape route if things are turning out badly.
In Conclusion, Lycanthrope is my favorite Hero. I hope he will quickly become your favorite as well! And remember Das Tier in Mir!
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