Gyrocopter Item Build and Gameplay Guide

[DotaPH]

Gyrocopter Guide - Advantages, Weaknesses Drafting, Item Build and Gameplay

Advantages

• Great early burst damage
• Strong, multi-target attacks
• Good agility gain
• Powerful team fighter
• Fast farming ability
• Great DPS output

Weaknesses

• Somewhat item dependent
• Burst and stun are unreliable
• Short range without Flak Cannon
• Poor base damage
• Quite squishy
• No escape

Do not pick: If the enemy team has 2 or more of the following:

• Juggernaut
• Omniknight
• Lifestealer
• Weaver
• Rikki
• Bounty Hunter
• Broodmother
• Phantom lancer
• Sand King

If the enemy team is comprised mainly of ranged hero's making your missle useless.

Pick

• You need AoE Slower
• You need Crazy Initiator

Role: Disabler - Initiator - Nuker

Skill Build

• Level 1: Rocket Barrage
• Level 2: Homing Missile
• Level 3: Rocket Barrage
• Level 4: Homing Missile
• Level 5: Rocket Barrage
• Level 6: Call Down
• Level 7: Rocket Barrage
• Level 8: Homing Missile
• Level 9 : Homing Missile
• Level 10: Flak Cannon
• Level 11: Call Down
• Level 12: Flak Cannon
• Level 13: Flak Cannon
• Level 14: Flak Cannon
• Level 15: Stats
• Level 16: Call Down
• Level 17-25: Stats

Why take Rocket Barrage for level 1? This will gives you a ton nuke damage to a single target enemy. Very nice to be aggressive sinec ethe game start. Very good to hunt for firstblood.

Why not a Homing missile? actually, Rocket Barrage damage is bigger than a homing missile, but if you need the stun to get firstblood, this is also a good option.

Why maxed Rocket Barrage first? This is one of the most underrated spell in DotA. The early game damage is so high, just try this skill on a single target to make you sure about the quality of this skill.

Why maxed Homing Missile before Flak Cannon? You need Homing Missile mainly for ganking on early-mid game. And you will need Flak Cannon mainly for teamfight on a mid-late game. The rule of DotA: Nukes for early game, physical damage for late game.

Item Build and Gameplay

Early Game

First Items

• Healing Salve
• TangoIron Branch
• Circlet
• Ring of Protection

Core Items

• Tranquil Boots
• Soul Ring

Strategy: Depending on which role you are playing. As a farmer, just on Flak Cannon and last hit all the creeps. Farm your way up to Tranquil Boots then Soul Ring. You can go Soul Ring first if you are feeling confident and having aggressive teammates. Do not spend to much mana on Homing Missile spamming, especially before you up Soul Ring. Save your mana for Flak Cannon harassing.

Slowly farm up, you can get some kills if they make mistake like ignoring your Homing Missile. For middle lane, always try to launch your Homing Missile when they are leaving lane to scout/wait for the rune.

If another teammate help you gank them in the river while Homing Missile is following = free kill.

As a ganker/roaming, you can try to trilane for first blood. Just get someone to stun while you hit with Rocket Barrage. You can choose to either max Homing Missile or rocket first depending on the situation.

You can easily coordinate a gank with a strong early game hero soloing mid (like Tiny). Launch Homing Missile when they're going to take rune, cut off their path, get mid lane to come for a free kill.

However, expect yourself to be poor if you didn't manage to get any early kills/assist.

Mid Game

Items

• Crystalys
• Manta Style

Strategy: Once you got the Shadow Blade up, you should use it as the mobility and stealth tool. Windwalk through creeps and wards to avoid their vision. Usually they would think it is safe when they got the vision of that area, but windwalk just screws that up.

Try ganking if possible. Gyrocopter's Homing Missile is quite a great ganking tool especially when launch at the escape path (mostly behind the enemy hero). If enemy are sticking or too hard to gank, just push the creep wave with Flak Cannon and windwalk to other lane.

Late Game

Items

• Daedalus
• Monkey King Bar
• Butterfly

Strategy: Always save your Call Down for team battle. You do not need it to clear creeps. Do not initiate with Call Down unless you are very sure that your teammates can follow up fast enough. You should Call Down right after a stun/slow so at least someone would get hit. Example, your team Earthshaker hit 2 targets with a fissure, you should Call Down immeditately if you're confident of your teammate following up and winning the battle.

A proper Call Down will separate the enemy team, those that get hit inside and the rest waiting outside for Call Down to end. A Call Down without any other stun and slow is useless, since they can just walk out from the AoE.

Friends and Enemies

Friends

Mana Regen

• Crystal Maiden
• Keeper of the Light
• Outworld Devourer

Insane and Sick Combo

• Enigma
• Dark Seer
• Disruptor
• Earthshaker
• Puck
• Magnus

Just Give a try and think about a nice combination.

Durable

• Axe
• Centaur Warrunner
• Dragon Knight
• Lone Druid
• Ogre Magi

Omniknight
6.81 saw some major buffs to Guardian Angel, namely it now lasts 8 seconds at level 3, and TEN seconds if you get an Aghanim's Scepter. There's also Repel which will make Gyro magic immune, and now it doesn't remove positive buffs, either!

So basically you have a hero that can give a squishy hero who wants to focus on DPS a ten second window of invincibility where he can right click to his heart's content.

Enemies

Disabler

• Bane
• Lion
• Vengeful Spirit

High Damage Nuke

• Lina
• Lion
• Lich
• Zeus

Mana Burner

• Anti Mage
• Keeper of the Light
• Nyx Assassin

After serving through a lifetime of wars, upheaval, riots, and revolutions, the brass figured Aurel had seen enough. But in addition to a few trinkets and his considerable pension, the erstwhile engineer left with something far more interesting: a long-forgotten, incomplete schematic for a Gyrocopter, the world's first manned, non-magical flying device. Retiring to the tropical obscurity of the Ash Archipelago with little else but time and money, he set to work building the device. As the years wore on and the remains of failed prototypes began to pile up, he began to wonder if mechanical flight was even possible.

A decade and a day after his retirement, on a sunny afternoon with a southerly breeze, Aurel sat in his latest attempt bristling with indignation and expectant failure. With a grunt of effort he pulled the ignition cord and covered his head, waiting for the inevitable explosion. However to his great surprise he began to lift and, following a few panicked adjustments, stabilize. Within an hour, he was ducking and weaving with the breeze, level with the gulls, and Aurel found himself filled with the breathless wonder of flight. As dusk settled in he set a course back to his workshop, but no sooner had he turned his craft when a cannonball tore through his tailfin.

Disentangling himself from the wreckage, he swam toward the nearest piece of land in sight, and cursed to see the ship responsible for the cannonball collecting the debris. Days later, when Aurel returned to his workshop, he set to work on yet another gyrocopter, this one capable of carrying a much heavier, more dangerous payload.