General Discussion

General DiscussionWhy does Lycan have such a low pick rate?

Why does Lycan have such a low pick rate? in General Discussion
Eric

    I noticed that Lycan's pick rate is really low - pretty much 2nd place for least picked. What's going on with him?

    WarCrabft

      Lycan is a niche pick. He and his summons get destroyed by wave clears, and he does not offer any silence, slow, root , stun compare to your traditional offlane/initiator.
      Lycan does massive physical damage to heroes and structures, his Aghanim offers a massive boost in mobility and damage to a carry, but when your opponents have multiple wave clears especially toward late game Lycan just does not offer a lot compare to Tide, Mars, Underlord..etc.
      A similar hero that is more well rounded is Beastmaster that gives everyone a high amount of attack speed, scouting hawk and BKB piercing ultimate, and his lane dominating boars.

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      '96 Neve Campbell

        Cause hes a situational pick and most people are off-put by heros which have a lot of summons or micromanagement associated with them

        kowareta

          cause only 10% of your offlaners pick sth different from wr/viper/undershort and 1% of them are fine getting reported by team for picking pos 3 lycan

          and obviously people who abuse certain heroes end up being in higher mmr, lycan picked very often actually not as much as tinker tho

          Phoenix

            Because not so many players understand how to play Lycan properly. Any picks can work in this patch, basically.

            Eric

              Really? I thought Lycan wasn't micromanagement heavy - but that might've been years ago. He must've gotten nerfed too hard or something.

              sexy rose~

                I think in normal skill brackets all ppl have problem at controlling jungle heroes (lycan-chen-beastmaster_ also pl and LD). we are too lazy to practise such heroes. I always see drunk ppl pick butcher and ruin games in my bracket (don't want to complain, just sayin bracket is ez and shit)

                Phoenix

                  Lycan is not about micro, it is about items optimisation to be online in the game. Same with visage

                  alireza14

                    Its picked in Immortal cuz its only a good hero when good players play it with good players.

                    Phoenix

                      btw teach me how to play Chen @Kowareta

                      funhaver

                        boring hero

                        sexy rose~

                          teach me how to reach immortal @Kowareta

                          Free 2 Play Scootz

                            It’s because he doesn’t really suit any of the roles rn. Most games you need a stun from your offlaner which he doesn’t have. Doesn’t really have enough scalability as carry and he just isn’t a mid or sup. Basically he’s very situational.

                            Reptilian Agenda

                              I stopped playing Lycan this patch after falling in love with the hero 3 patches ago. Many people have hit on multiple issues with this hero, and some of those issues are intertwined. The way the Devs balanced the game over the past few patches didn't make Lycan a bad hero, but it did take away his identity, which is why he has an awkward fit in the offlane spot.

                              The biggest problem in my opinion, and I know not to many will agree, was when they took away 100 ms off his ult when they put a max move speed cap across the board. They overcompensated for power creep, punishing heroes who didn't deserve it. When agi stats gave bonus ms, a bunch of heroes who had no business being fast caused balance issues, but instead of just taking away agi provides bonus ms and putting a move speed cap on items that provide ms boost, they just decided to take away speed from everyone, even the heroes that were dependent on it and were balanced with it for years. Now, Lycan is not nearly as scary and snowbally, because with 100 ms less on his ult, many heroes can actually escape this guy now, or make the chase long enough for their teammates to rescue them. They added slows to try to compensate, but the slows cant work until Lycan's wolves hit the enemy running, and then on top of that, it's a chance proc, so there is no guarantee the slow will be when you need it.

                              The last big issue, and what people would probably argue is the bigger issue, was removing Necrobook from the game. The issue with Necrobook was not it being used for heroes it was designed for, but for being abused by heroes it wasn't. Pos 4 heroes rushing it like a more practical midas, helped secure offlane T1 pushes and bolster their net worth if the map opened up for more farm that carries weren't taking. So you ended up having a significant net worth disparity between the supports of one team and another. This shouldn't have been Lycan's, Beastmaster's, or Enigma's problem. Apparently a lot of pros were complaining about Necrobook, to just remove it, and the Devs did just that. Like Pros can be dramatic and overexaggerate as well as us lower scrubs, but Devs are supposed to be a steady rock and examine all possibilities when it comes to balance. Them removing Necrobook was lazy, and while it hurt Zoo meta temporarily, Helm of the Overlord still allows it to thrive, so what was the point of removing Necrobook? All it did was kill Lycan. Helm of the Overlord is 6300 and not enough stats for Lycan to hit harder. Necrobook was cheaper and gave him more stat damage, helping him scale better as a carry. I don't mind how Helm of the Overlord is built. Nothing is wrong with the item, but if they had HOO and Necrobook, Lycan would have more role flexibility. Some games you go off and HOO is better. Some games you go mid or safe, and Necrobook would be better. Necrobook also gave Lycan a lot of utility in fights that prevented supports from escaping, so when they took out that item, it killed like a third of Lycan's identity. Some might argue it killed half of it, which gave rise to the rebirth of his old damage build.

                              So yeah, if the Devs just fix the ms cap thing and put necrobook back in the game, Lycan will be played more again.

                              kowareta

                                https://www.dotabuff.com/players/858685788/matches?hero=lycan&lane_role=safelane&enhance=overview
                                watch and learn pleb
                                he is one of the best safelaners but your 5 will grief you

                                kowareta

                                  https://www.dotabuff.com/players/858685788/matches?hero=lycan&lane_role=safelane&enhance=overview
                                  watch and learn pleb
                                  he is one of the best safelaners but your 5 will grief you

                                  Phoenix

                                    Yes but you're dropping rank with Lycan

                                    kowareta

                                      no i dont think so, i have 57% winrate recently

                                      Phoenix

                                        I want to practice Chen also, give me some insights

                                        kowareta

                                          dont

                                          Phoenix

                                            why

                                            kowareta

                                              my shaman has no Q lvl 9
                                              plz dont talk to me
                                              whatever i played last 4 years was not dota
                                              i have no idea about this game