I never said it wasn't viable, i said it was typical pub trash.
If you farm basher into abyssal it usually means you're going to be useless for quite a while, it also means you won't be able to push as hard as you need an insane amount of farm for abyssal. BoT in a pro game won't get you far either.
Lycan isn't "easily" kiteable, what the fuck? he runs at a 522 move speed and can't be slowed, if that's "easily" kiteable then i don't know what the fuck is hard. You want a Force/Dagger/blink skill to manage to get away from him(stun if he doesn't have bkb), and not every hero has that.
If the situation calls for it, get a BKB up asap after vlads/med/PT, if they don't have too many stuns, you get a necro book up which will improve your pushing potential by a lot. After that you buy AC/Deso OR IF YOUR TEAM LACKS STUNS YOU CAN GET A BASHER.
But in pubs people don't play him like that, and people don't know how to properly play against him, so he just farms jungle for 30 minutes and come out with mega items that will melt anyone he hits.