* Rupture completely negates Lycan's high mobility.
* All of Lycan's summons are good sources of healing with Bloodrage.
Additional:
* Rupture completely negates Lycan's high mobility.
* All of Lycan's summons are good sources of healing with Bloodrage.
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health: Bounty Hunter, Templar Assassin, Riki, Clinkz, Weaver, Treant Protector, Nyx Assassin.
* 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.
* Heroes with the capability of removing or destroying trees greatly hinders the effectiveness of Treant Protector's abilities: Batrider, Nature's Prophet, Lina, Enigma, Mars
* Heroes with summons and illusions can find themselves easily bested by Lina, like Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Chen, Terrorblade, Naga Siren, Visage, Wraith King, Lycan, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Shaman.
* Light Strike Array and Dragon Slave allows Lina to destroy trees, countering Nature's Guise and Eyes in the Forest.
* Lina has many tools to bypass Living Armor's protection.
* Jakiro's area-of-effect abilities make him strong against heroes who rely on illusions and summons: Terrorblade, Naga Siren Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Lycan, Wraith King, Visage.
* With Dual Breath, Liquid Fire and Macropyre Jakiro can quickly remove all Living Armor from a target.
* Ice Path allows Jakiro to prevent Treant Protector from using Overgrowth while staying at a safe distance.
* 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.
* Her Mana Shield is too tough for Lycan to break.
* Mystic Snake can hit for a massive damage once it spread between his summons.
Additional:
* Can be easily petrified despite his speed.
* Summoned wolves will be targeted by Split Shot or Mystic Snake
* 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.
Additional:
* All of Lycan's damage is physical which is totally negated by Cold Embrace.
* Lycan often moves around with large amount of creeps, wolves created by Summon Wolves and neutral creep dominated by Helm of the Dominator which can be easily cleared by Splinter Blast or used as a great source of damage by Winter's Curse. If you catch Lycan with creeps nearby and affected by Shapeshift using Winter's Curse on him will most certainly end up with his death.
* 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.
* Spiderlings melt away Living Armor almost instantly.
* The vision from Eyes In The Forest may prove dangerous for Broodmother, however.
* Living Armor can be destroyed quickly with Ion Shell.
* 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.
* Brewmaster can waste a large portion of Lycan's ultimate by putting him in Cyclone.
* Lycan has no way to stop Brewmaster from using Primal Split by himself.
* Lycan's team often tries to push towers as a group, and Brewmaster excels at winning teamfights while trying to defend a tower.
* Paralyzing cask bounces between him and his wolves, keeping him stunned for long amounts of time.
* Kraken Shell grants him massive physical attack protection
* Anchor Smash will wipe the area, clearing Lycan's wolves.
* All of Treant Protector's abilities are worth stealing, and Rubick is able to cast them with no animation time.
* Corrosive Haze will reveal Treant Protector even when he is under the effects of Nature's Guise.
* Nature's Prophet's Nature's Call can destroy trees that Treant Protecter is hiding in, revealing him.
* Lycan's wolves deal little damage to Bristleback, and are easily killed by Quill Spray, even when they're invisible.
* Lycan's lack of burst damage makes it very hard for him to kill Bristleback, especially when his back is turned.
Additional:
* 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.
* Lycan is a hero focused entirely on single target physical damage and lacks disables or AoE damage. Due to this, he will have difficulties dealing with illusions or Naga Siren's Ensnare.
* Doppelganger can dispel Leech Seed. It can also destroy large amounts of trees, counteracting Nature's Guise and Eyes in the Forest.
* Primal Roar allows Beastmaster to keep Lycan in place after he used his Shapeshift.
* Firefly will cut trees with ease, cleaning-up an area that's been enchanted with Eyes In The Forest, and potentially revealing a Treant under the effects of Nature's Guise.
* Batrider's DoT spells are also good versus Living Armor.
* Melee heroes who rely on summons, illusions, or clones will trigger Counter Helix more often, thus taking more damage: Meepo, Lycan, Phantom Lancer
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons, (Naga Siren, Terrorblade, Phantom Lancer, Lycan,...) are vulnerable to Sleight of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has Battle Fury.
* Invisibility reliant heroes: Heroes with invisibility abilities or those that have invested into invisibility items are hindered by Bounty Hunter's Track. Few examples of such heroes are:Clinkz, Riki, Treant Protector, etc.
* Heroes that can summon units will have their summons destroyed very quickly if badly micro-managed, like Chen, Lycan, and Phantom Lancer.
* Heroes who summon multiple units that are not spell immune. Nature's Prophet,Lycan,Beastmaster
* Heroes with summoned units don't fare well against Dawnbreaker. (Phantom Lancer ,Beastmaster ,Lycan).
* Lycan cannot escape from a Pounce even if he uses Shapeshift, and has no disabling abilities to stop Slark.
* 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.
* Dragon Knight's insanely high armor and splash damage can cause Lycan to struggle taking him down.
* Heroes with the capability of removing or destroying trees greatly hinders the effectiveness of Treant Protector's abilities: Batrider, Nature's Prophet, Lina, Enigma, Mars
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* 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's cleave will cripple any of his summons.
* Could potentially build Heaven's Halberd to cripple Lycan even more.
Additional:
* 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.
* Treant Protector's Living Armor will also negate Tidebringer's damage.
* Lycan relies heavily on right clicks making Untouchable very effective against him.
* If he tries to run away Impetus will do huge amounts of damage.
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver, Dark Seer, Lycan, Centaur Warrunner.
* Monkey King is one of the few other heroes who can easily traverse through trees, counteracting Treant Protector's ability to hide in trees.
* Heroes that can maintain vision on Monkey King can see when he uses Tree Dance: Bloodseeker, Treant Protector with Eyes In The Forest, Sniper, Weaver
* Shapeshift allows Lycan to get close and disable Marksmanship.
* Shapeshift also makes him immune to slows like Drow Ranger's Frost Arrows.
Additional:
* 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.
* Another hero heavily based on attacks and no mobility, being an easy prey for Treant strong disarms and motion reduction skills.
* Mirana's Leap is ineffective if Lycan uses Shapeshift. It also allows him to dodge Sacred Arrow.
* Overgrowth has a great duration, which prevents the units caught from attacking, moving and Blinking. Heroes like Storm Spirit, Mirana, Anti-Mage and others won't be able to do much if they're caught.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster, Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Lycan, Naga Siren, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Shaman, Terrorblade, Visage, Warlock, Wraith King.
* Living Armor and Leech Seed can be used to save a hero from a Relocate gank.
* Overgrowth can be used to cancel escape attempts with Relocate.
* Once Treant Protector buys Aghanim's Scepter, he will gain access to Eyes in the Forest, that will allow him to enchant a tree which will grant him unobstructed vision in that location, allowing him to keep his allies alerted on Io and his Tethered's attempts to gank them, and which can also allow Overgrowth to damage them and root them if they are within a 800 radius of an tree affected by Eyes in the Forest.
* You can easily kill a squishy Sniper, due to your high movement speed and his lack of escape.
* Clinkz, Sniper, Lone Druid, Troll Warlord, Legion Commander and Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.
* Clinkz, Sniper, Lone Druid, Troll Warlord, Legion Commander and Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* Lycan can clear waves of Chen's creeps with his wolves from Summon Wolves, especially once Lycan takes +2 Wolves summoned talent. And even though Chen can convert one of his wolves with Holy Persuasion, Lycan can counter this by buying Helm of the Overlord to regain control of it. Uncontrollable wolves summoned from Aghanim's Shard upgrade Summon Wolves cannot be converted with Holy Persuasion.
* Shapeshift allows him to chase down Chen and kill him easily.
* Howl can reduce attack damage of both, Chen and his creeps.
* 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.
* Treant can give chase should Hoodwink attempt to Scurry away, and Nature's Grasp can slow her down so Treant Protector's teammates can pin Hoodwink down.
* Treant Protector can usually scout out Magnus in the trees with Eyes in the Forest and disrupt his initiation attempts. He can also counter Magnus' initiation with Overgrowth.
* The movement speed granted from Shapeshift means that Spectre has no way to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off supports. Furthermore, he will kite Haunt and cannot be slowed by Spectral Dagger.
* Lycan is often part of an early game push strategy which is often the best counter to Spectre because she needs a lot of time and space to come online as a late game carry.
* Anti-Mage relies on blinking and attacking. Overgrowth prevents both.
* Be wary that he will eventually farm up a Manta Style that fully dispels Overgrowth. Good players will wait for your ultimate to use their manta. Perhaps an ally has a silence or similar that would force him to use his manta before your ultimate.
* If Storm Spirit is caught in an Overgrowth, he is shut down.
* With the exception of Electric Vortex, he won't be able to cast any relevant skill.
* Shapeshift is useful for killing or escaping Silencer.
* Summon Wolves, can be used to hunt and harass silencer - even when Lycan himself can't fight.
* Lycan's high health allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* As Lycan commonly buys Black King Bar, he can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin and chase after him with Shapeshift.
* Lycan can also use his wolves from Summon Wolves to attack Nyx Assassin while he has Spiked Carapace active without getting stunned himself.
* Shapeshift increases Lycan's movement speed and renders him unslowable, allowing him to easily avoid and escape Ancient Apparition's abilities.
* Lycan has fast summons, both his wolves from Summon Wolves can do heavy damage to Ancient Apparition due to his immobility and low armor.
* Shapeshift allows Lycan to chase down Earth Spirit.
* Shapeshift allows Lycan to escape from Upheaval with maximum movement speed.
* Warlock doesn't have a good solution to deal with Lycan's wolves from Summon Wolves.
* Howl reduces a good chunk of Marci's attack damage that she relies heavily on, and the armor reduction works better on her because of her low armor.
* Shapeshift renders Lycan immune to slow from Rebound and Unleash.
* Clinkz will often roam the map alone, and Treant Protector's Nature's Guise allows him to set up kills with his allies on Clinkz from invisibility.
* Treant Protector's very high damage allowing him to trade hits or contest last hits with Clinkz, while Living Armor can be used to sustain the harass.
* Living Armor protects any of Treant's allies ganked by Clinkz.
* In teamfights, Treant Protector's Overgrowth can disarm Clinkz, preventing him from turning invisible and holding him in place even if he has a Black King Bar.
* Leech Seed slows Clinkz, preventing him from repositioning or fleeing away from danger.
* Lycan doesn't care much about Lich's slows thanks to Shapeshift.
* Chain Frost can bounce to the wolves that Lycan summons.
Additional:
* 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.
* Void's slow is useless against Lycan by activating Shapeshift.
* Night Stalker's single target abilities (with the exception of Void upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter) is not very effective against Lycan's Summon Wolves during the early and mid game.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes who can summon illusions and summons because Terrorblade has no abilities to deal with multiple enemies at once outside Reflection: Shadow Shaman, Naga Siren, Broodmother, Lycan, Enigma, Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Demon, Dark Seer, Nature's Prophet, Invoker, Morphling, Visage, Grimstroke with Aghanim's Scepter.
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* 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.
* Clinkz, Sniper, Lone Druid, Troll Warlord, Legion Commander and Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to catch up to Lycan after he uses Shapeshift.
Additional:
* Vision from Charge of Darkness will easier to catch Lycan Shapeshift and Charge of Darkness out of reach Lycan Summon Wolves and Lycan's other creeps. Until upgrade Aghanim's Scepter faster catching Lycan Shapeshift.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade, Naga Siren, Broodmother, Warlock, Visage, Nature's Prophet, Shadow Shaman, Lycan, Wraith King.
* Nature's Grasp severely slows down Spirit Breaker, reducing effects of Charge of Darkness and Greater Bash.
* Living Armor can mitigate a large portion of Spirit Breaker's damage since his attacks are slow.
* Treant Protector can also counter-initiate against Spirit Breaker with Leech Seed, Overgrowth and with his root from Aghanim's Shard upgraded Nature's Guise before he manages to escape.
* Aghanim's Scepter gives Treant Protector access to Eyes In The Forest ability, which allows him to turn trees into wards that provide vision, allowing him to keep his allies warned about Spirit Breaker's attempts to gank them. Eyes In The Forest will also trigger Overgrowth if Spirit Breaker is in range of the tree affected by it.
Additional:
* Spirit Breaker's slow attacks cannot harm a hero shielded by Living Armor.
* Heroes with abilities that can save teammates are also effective such as Shadow Demon, Dazzle, Oracle, Bane, Pugna, Tusk, Winter Wyvern, Io, Underlord, Treant Protector and Keeper of the Light.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include Spirit Breaker, Lycan, Storm Spirit, Earth Spirit, Void Spirit, Slark and others.
* Phantom Assassin's Blur is a real problem for Lycan, as he relies entirely on direct attacks to deal damage.
* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.
* Overgrowth prevents Phantom Assassin from using Blink Strike even through her spell immunity.
* Living Armor reduces Phantom Assassin's physical damage whenever she attempts to gank an allied hero.
* Once you get a Black King Bar, squishy spellcasters like Zeus, Skywrath Mage and others will be probably easy to deal with.
* Lycan and Weaver has abilities that allow them to move at maximum movement speed, and those abilities can't be dispelled, potentially wasting the slow from Demonic Purge.
* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage, Nature's Prophet, Warlock.
* Clinkz, Sniper, Lone Druid, Troll Warlord, Legion Commander and Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* Heroes that provide vision will see Fiend's Gate coming: Techies, Templar Assassin, Treant Protector.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Lycan, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Timbersaw.
* A Lycan with Shapeshift can always run down Puck for a very quick kill due to its low armor. It is important to abuse as many cliffs and trees as possible to escape from a Lycan.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage output to be effective will fare badly against Muerta's Pierce the Veil: Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade, Drow Ranger, Lifestealer, Anti-Mage, Alchemist, Lycan, Clinkz, Sniper.
* Heroes with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta: Storm Spirit, Earth Spirit, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Lycan, Chaos Knight, Tusk.
* Heroes who have summons, which can be quickly cleared by his powerful area of effect skill: Nature's Prophet, Enigma, Lycan
* Heroes with powerful rooting abilities will disable most of Pangolier's skills, a bonus point if it pierces spell immunity since it will also be able to stop Pangolier during his Rolling Thunder: Treant Protector, Meepo, Crystal Maiden, Dark Willow, Underlord, Naga Siren
* Keeper of the Light has a blind, which causes Lycan to miss his attacks.
* Heroes with hastes: Dark Seer, Lycan
* Melee heroes with low mobility can be kited and killed by Viper: Treant Protector, Kunkka, Alchemist, Troll Warlord, Wraith King, Tiny, Sven.
* Heroes who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective: Clinkz, Pugna, Nature's Prophet, Dark Seer, Lycan, Tusk
* Heroes that depend on disrupting fights with ability combos or big ultimate abilities are vulnerable to the long stun of Fiend's Grip: Disruptor, Death Prophet, Enigma, Faceless Void, Invoker, Lich, Magnus, Mars, Medusa, Outworld Destroyer, Phoenix, Puck, Queen of Pain, Shadow Fiend, Treant Protector, Underlord, Winter Wyvern, Witch Doctor, Zeus.
* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.
* Heroes who rely on summons will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Lycan, Arc Warden, Warlock, Chen
* Heroes with global abilities can give Legion Commander's opponent an edge in Duels from anywhere on the map: Nature's Prophet, Ancient Apparition, Zeus, Invoker, Treant Protector
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Lycan
* 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.
Treant Protector
* Timbersaw can use his plethora of tree cutting abilities to level entire sections of the forest, making hiding in the trees more difficult for Treant Protector and his team.
* Timbersaw can easily cut down Treant Protector's Eyes In The Forest once his team has detection. He may even do it unknowingly due to the sheer destructive and chaotic nature of his abilities.
Additional:
* Not only are all of Timbersaw's active abilities capable of cutting down trees, but Whirling Death and Timber Chain also require it to be effective, counteracting both Treant Protector's Nature's Guise and Eyes in the Forest abilities.