Yes, it turned out a little bit longer than expected. In notepad it didnt seem like that much text though. Sold boots for the aegis. You're right though, boots are for beginners :)
Relatively cheap components, that actually add something (quarterstaff adds little (900), talisman of evasion(1800), eaglesong (3300). Unless you can farm 3.3k at once, or get an ultra kill, getting the eagle song is not practical, even if you do get it, it adds 25 dmg and speed, demon edge (900 cheaper) gives +46
one short question, when using mkb and pop flak cannon, do other attacks beside main target also 100% hit?
I don't play this hero much since they nerf it and i prefer medusa for split shot purposes
This hero can be played very similar to medusa
But i like your build very much except the part that helm of dominator is not a core after BKB
Just because i like wolf pet hanging around with me during split shooting :p
@Flop: Yes
@Ani: If you get hotd, obviously you will want to stack ancients with it, but getting the item just to stack ancients when you need survivability more (drums or bkb) is not a good idea imo.
Assuming there is a reasonable team, it should not be impossible for someone to stack the ancients
rejecting treads is somewhat silly because it helps him cope with early burst (especially in a contested/lost lane) if trilanes are going against each other and gyro's on the losing end of it -> situational. daedalus is also situational considering lategame that item pretty much allows him to completely control other carries -> situational.
what would you say about taking stats over levels past lvl 1 barrage (i usually go q-e-e-w-e-r-e then max stats and come back for homing missile) since there's very few opportunities for a carry gyro to be standing next to the enemy for a prolonged period of time barring the laning phase
and the midas xp never hurts if you can pick it up early and allows him to get to the lategame faster, tho i'd agree hotd is better but if you can get away with picking up both then its somewhat situational
i believe you would want raw damage instead of atk speed for gyro
Since his split shot is only for 6 times and the cd is too long
@Trash(I hope you dont change your screenname, else it might seem offensive later on :D) Barrage is required for zoning out people, aswell as following up initiation from your allies, alternatively, you can use it to deal as many damage as possible when getting initiated (especially naga ensnare which still allows you to cast spells). Try diving gyro on low level, you usually regret it.
Also, if your allies pull the camp, and the enemies decide to contest it (especially 3v3 lane) your rocket barrage is absolutely necessary. The homing missile is just annoying, but very situational.
Rocket barrage is awesome early on, but falls off somewhat in later game, I think barrage is better than stats. If you are desperate for stats, upgrade ring of basilius, or get drums
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[color=#ffa500]The sky's the limit, but not for[/color] [color=#008000]Gyrocopter[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Intro:[/color]
Gyrocopter has turned into one of my favorite dota heroes recently, when I first tried him out a few times I did not see his true potential and found his abilities underwhelming, that is what you get for following suggested item build :).
In this guide I will put most focus on the following topics:
- Pros and cons
- Items (early/mid/late/situational/rejected)
- Rejected items
- Positioning
- When to pick
- When not to pick
- Little tricks/tips
Alright, lets get started.
[color=#ffff00]Pros and cons:[/color]
[color=#008000]Pros:[/color]
- Able to deal a ton of damage during teamfights
- One of the best spells in the game; flak cannons
- Early game killing potential
- Can easily farm huge waves of creeps/ancients
- Reasonable int & agi stats growth
- Can push towers early game because of how the hero is played
- Great against illusion heroes
- A good carry hero in wombocombo games
[color=#ff0000]Cons:[/color]
- Low range (can be fixed with flak cannons for a period of time)
- Still a bit squishy, gyrocopter prefers his enemies not to get in melee range
- Not the ultimate super instant win late game carry
- Not a good splitpusher
- Does not farm the jungle efficient (he prefers big stacks over farming 5 camps)
[color=#ffff00]Abilities :[/color]
For full explanation on gyrcopter's spells, take a look at: http://dotabuff.com/heroes/gyrocopter/skills
- Rocket barrage: Works against siege creeps, we all hate it when the siege creep's bounty does not go into our pocket, rocket barrage (granted that there are no targets nearby) will increase the chances of getting that bounty.
- Homing missile: Underwhelming spell, which is just annoying, not super. It can situationally be good to max it early on against an offlaner, but usually rocket barrage and flak cannons deserve priority.
- Flak cannon: This is where gyrocopter's strength come from. Unlike for example Luna's moon glaives, this ability will not automatically damage buildings. If you wish to damage a building, the only way is to right click it. (more on this later)
- Call down: Not a super ulti, but just what gyrocopter needs, slow to the enemy team. The damage is nice early game, in late game the ulti is more of an utility than damage dealer.
[color=#ffff00]Roles:[/color]
Gyrocopter is listed as: disabler, initiator, nuker. His true role however is [color=#ffff00]carrying[/color] his team to victory.
Disabler: Gyro does not have a reliable disable.
Initiator: Gyro can start a (team)fight with call down, but there are far better initiators in the game.
Nuker: A simple magic missile from venge will deal more damage in a team fight than rocket barrage, the role of nuker is not deserved. (Rocket barrage in teamfights is still awesome though, if positioned well, you should be hitting one or two heroes with it, not the entire team, and definitely not with creeps around. (Speaking of creeps, they die in 2 hits from flak cannons anyway).
His true role: [color=#ffff00]Carry[/color]. Gyrocopter's ability to make enemy squishies/supports vanish in teamfights in two or three hits (without even having to focusfire them!) is absolutely amazing, the only drawback is that flak cannons will only be active for 6 shots, so better make them count.
[color=#ffff00]Item choices:[/color]
[color=#800080]Starting items[/color], I like to start with the following items: 2x branch, 1x tango, 1x ring of protection, 1x slippers of agility. I used to go 3x branch, however having to sell one in order to get boots or magic stick is annoying.
Reasoning behind the items: Brances to provide some stats boost, slippers to increase base damage (this gives him a total of +5 so far), tango for regen (who would have guessed) a ring of protection to take some creep damage in tower aswell as harrasment as gyrocopter has a low range attack. Ring gets upgraded into ring of basilius
[color=#800080]Early game items[/color], ideally we have managed to kill 20 heroes by the 10 minute mark, at which point we are rich enough to buy whatever item we want. Luckily those games hardly ever happen, settling with the following items should make you strong enough to cause some mayhem to the enemy team:
- Phaseboots (absolute must have, finish as soon as possible)
- Ring of basilius/Aquila (you can upgrade it if you want, stats are always welcome to gyrocopter)
- Magic wand
[color=#800080]Mid game items[/color], an item which is often picked up on gyrocopter is black king bar, being able to deal damage with flak cannons without the risk of being disabled (assuming bkb is used before stuns etc) is a true nightmare for the enemy team.
Is bkb an absolute must have on gyrocopter? no, it is not, bkb is a must have whenever the enemy team has a lot of disables and the ability to get you killed during this disable.
I get bkb in ~90% of my games as gyro, but use your own judgement when you can get away with not getting it.
Another item we often see is manta style. Gyrocopter is an agility hero, and greatly benefits from yasha, attack speed, movement speed, damage, it is great, but is it worth it? Do we actually benefit from the manta illusions? Unfortunately, unlike Medusa, Gyrocopter can not deal aoe damage with his illusions. I like manta whenever I need a cheap jack of all trades item (removes some debuffs, gives attack speed, movement speed, stats).
I do not think that getting both, bkb and manta are worth it most of the time. If the enemy team has no lockdown or nasty nukes (lion, visage, etc) then manta should be prefered over bkb.
A must have item: Monkey king bar, once you have acquired the mkb, enemies will melt from your flak cannons. (get bkb or manta before mkb)
This leaves us with the following items:
- Phase boots
- Ring of basilius / Aquila
- Magic wand
- Bkb / Manta
- Mkb
- TP SCROLL
[color=#800080]Late game items to consider:[/color]
- Satanic (hp, lifesteal), get this whenever you are not tanky enough or want to play it safe (yay!)
- Butterfly ( get this whenever you require more damage and evasion_
- Boots of travel (Sick of buying 100 tps for that annoying prophet, lycan, PL or whatever form of splitpushing the enemies are throwing at you? get travels!)
- New bkb
[color=#800080]Situational items:[/color]
- Divine rapier (Yes, the rapier of throws, get this if you absolutely have to, are you behind in raxes/towers or just in a general bad situation? get this, with your flak cannons rapier you might be able to turn the game into your favor. )
http://i.imgur.com/UOFX3VG.jpg << example of time ticking against you with PL & Lycan splitpushing all the time
- Linkens (against doom for example, really, really situational)
- Refresher orb (This might sound crazy, and I only have purchased it once I believe, but being able to refresh flak cannons when being the aggressor is absolutely killing, it is kinda pointless in a defensive situation though as you can not really force the issue.)
- Helm of the dominator in early/mid game (I personally dislike getting this, it gives lifesteal, ok, that's nice, but it delays our bkb by nearly 2000 gold. We do get 20 damage from HoTD and 5 armor but it generally is not worth it, if you expect that teamfights will be back and forth for a bit, it might be worth it, but generally working towards the bkb is more important. HotD is a good pickup against damage over time spells or if you need to manfight an enemy hero like shadow fiend early on.)
- Blink dagger (positioning yourself into the enemy lines, usually not worth it)
- Drums of endurance (Ok, it is not a very cheap item, but definitely a valid choice, it gives hp, movement speed, basically everything we want, except for damage. Drums AND aquila are too much of an investment, basilius and drums are ok, get drums if the enemy team is pushing hard and you need to join your team defending. Alternatively, if for whatever reason you are falling behind, I consider drums to be a reasonable catch up item. )
PS: Gyro loves drums 3min 36sec
[color=#ff0000]Rejected items:[/color]
- Shadow blade (Yes, the standard item build defines it as core item, but what does it add to our idea of dealing a lot of damage to a team, rather than sneaking up to a single target?)
- Aghanims scepter (Please don't get this, ever, global call down is cool and stuff but really, those 4200 pieces of precious gold could have gone into a manta or bkb, 2/3rd of your butterfly, or nearing completion of your mkb.)
- Hand of midas (Let me start by saying that I have tried this item a few times, never had any regrets buying it, but really, the attack speed bonus is not what we are looking for, we are looking for either survivability, damage or both.)
- Daedelus (only works on the main target when flak cannons are active.)
- Desolator (only works on the main target when flak cannons are active.)
- Power treads (We want damage, not attack speed lets say our hero is doing 100 damage per shot, we have 6 flak cannons, with power treads on agility we will be dealing 108 * 6 = 648 damage. With phase boots we will have 124 * 6 = 744 damage. The attack speed is wasted, the damage will be dealt slightly quicker, but the overal damage is way lower. Besides, with phaseboots we can position ourselves better and can more easily chase heroes with rocket barrage + phaseboots).
[color=#800080]Misc:[/color]
Why not start with a wraith band? Alright, I have tried it a few times, and I must admit, it is a nice pickup, however, we want to get a ring of basilius as soon as possible for +6 damage aswell as mana regen, all this without having to use the courrier to transfer a ring of protection.
Why mkb over butterfly? Your team often wants to 5v5 with you, the eaglesong costs 3300, demon edge "only" 2400, that is 900 cheaper, you can often get the demon edge just before a fight kicks off, this still is 46*6 = 276 aoe bonus damage. Butterfly should only be gotten over mkb if the enemy carry has an inbuilt bash (you should not have picked gyro anyway) or has managed to get an abyssal blade or daedelus (in which case you most likely got outfarmed if you do not have phase,bkb,mkb,butterfly by now anyway)
[color=#ffff00]Positioning[/color]
Gyro is very dependant on his positioning, without bkb, you will usually want to stay in the back of the fight, however, once you get bkb, you can(note: can, not must) be the hero in front, using call down to make sure enemies can not get away, activating bkb (if the heroes have disables), flak cannons, and double kill!)
Now this might be a bit too black and white, but this is very team dependant, let's say you have an invoker (quas/wex) in your team, he can initiate with tornado, you follow up with call down, barrage and flak cannons. If you are going in front, make absolutely sure that your team is behind you, and with behind I mean directly behind, not the other side of the map, we can not afford to die for this kind of play.
[color=#ffff00]When to pick[/color]
- A good moment to pick gyrocopter is when you want, or think the enemy will go for a 3v3 lane, flak cannon harrasment is one of the most annoying things to play against.
- Your team lacks a hardcarry, but does have other farm dependant heroes aswell.
- Against illusion heroes.
- Your team already has enough lockdown and is looking for a physical damage hero.
- Enemy has squishy heroes
[color=#ffff00]When not to pick[/color]
- When playing 4 protect 1, gyro can not carry hard enough, he can not do everything on his own.
- The enemy has disables that go through magic immunity (chronosphere, carries that get abyssal blade early on, etc.)
- This is not a 'do not pick', but gyro makes visage a happy guy.
- The enemy has heroes that show up, kill, and leave.
[color=#ffff00]Friends: (Heroes gyrocopter likes to be in the team with)[/color]
- Naga siren (song/calldown, flak cannon, ultrakill. Ensnare + Rocket barrage is scary to lane against aswell)
- Alchemist (has a good stun, in which scenario your homing missile might actually be useful early on, and he can weaken and tank the ancients which you will be farming with flak cannons)
- Pushing heroes in general
- Supports with good setup
- Heroes that offer protection (treant/abaddon/omni etc, although omni is not very practical)
- Dark seer (Vacuum into calldown into flak cannon murdering, gyrocopter likes it)
[color=#ffff00]Enemies: (Heroes gyrocopter would like to nuke from the beginning and is never happy to see them around his copter)[/color]
- Void (Chronosphere means dead gyrocopter)
- Sniper (luckily not seen often, but you can not get close against him, bash,bash, bash, bash)
- Weaver (Near impossible to kill, but still is a squishy, so in teamfights he should not be a mega threat)
- Shadow fiend (Too much damage)
- Doom (Everyone's enemy though, but gyro gets upset when he can not use bkb/flak before being doomed)
- Spectre (Too tanky, but gyro should be able to end the game before it gets to this point)
- Bane (Flak cannons with a lot of - damage, or fiends grip is not something gyro likes)
- Timbersaw (You will not kill him, ever)
- Magnus (Can pull you away from your safe spot)
- Batrider (same as magnus)
[color=#ffff00]Food: (Heroes that gyrocopter loves to see on the enemy team)[/color]
- Phantom lancer
- Suicidal clockwerks that lock themselves with cogs and rocket barrage
- Bounty hunter (Get close? here's rocket barrage)
- Brood mother (Spiders and flak cannons? 1000 gpm!)
- Destroyer (I eat OD's for breakfast, if they are lucky, they can get close to gyro before dying from flaks. MKB minibash kills him, BKB makes sure gyro does not take damage from orb)
- Squishy heroes that die in 3 flak cannon hits(cm comes to mind for example)
[color=#ffff00]Laning phase & Skill build:[/color]
Gyrocopter is a pretty flexible hero, he is happy in a 3v1 lane in his favor, and does not mind going 3v3 right from the beginning.
[color=#008000]Skill build 3v3:[/color]
1: Rocket barrage
2: Flak cannons
3: Barrage/Flak cannons (The choice should depend on whether you need more harrasment, or prefer more damage from rocket barrage)
4: Barrage/Flak cannons (same as with 3)
5: Rocket barrage
6: Call down
7: Rocket barrage
8: Flak cannons
9: Flak cannons
10: Homing missile)
11: Call down
12-15: stats
16: Call down
Proceed leveling stats, max homing missile last
[color=#008000]Skill build 3v1 ver 1:[/color]
Same as 3v3
[color=#008000]Skill build 3v1 ver 2:[/color]
1: Rocket barrage
2: Homing missile/Flak cannons (Only go for this route if you are very likely to make a kill with it)
3: Rocket barrage
4: Flak cannons/Homing missile (By level 4 you should have gotten that kill anyway, if you did not, it usually is not worth skilling the missile anymore)
5: Rocket barrage
6: call down
7: Rocket barrage
8: Flak cannons
9: Flak cannons
10: Flak cannons
11: Call down
Proceed as 3v3 build
As you might have noticed by now, I dislike homing missile because it is not reliable enough to be worth maxing, Gyrocopter loves additional stats, so we should get this over a higher level of homing missile. I do think it is worth it to get atleast one point in the missile. Interrupting that channeling spell, or getting the last very needed stun off in a team fight can be game changing.
[color=#ffff00]Little tricks/tips:[/color]
- When sieging a base and flak cannons are activated, try to target buildings (tower/raxes) instead. If you focus a hero with flaks on, it will not damage the building, but if you target a building with flaks on, all nearby enemies will also get flak cannon damage. This also applies to tombstone
- When an enemy hero is trying to escape, but there is a gap in between you that you can not close (e.g. solo tower dive), activate flak cannons and hit creeps/towers/other targets, the enemy hero will often still get hit once or twice, it might be enough to get that kill.
- When you turn on rocket barrage to chase someone, you can use phase boots to go through units/heroes that could have blocked your path.
- If you are absolutely sure a team fight will happen (including initiation etc) in ~10 seconds, it can be wise to turn on flak cannons so the cooldown starts decreasing.
- Against silencer/doom ultis, activating flak cannons might be wise before they get the chance to ruin your day. Silencer can be countered by waiting to use bkb, but this will leave you open for disables, which is worse than silence.
- Throw call down where you think the enemy will be when it actually hits (like mirana/pudge)
- Before finishing mkb, you are still able to farm big creep waves using flak cannons and barrage.
- Feel free to take some risk with call down, the cooldown is pretty low. You can even use it to wipe a
big creepwave you don't have time for. Lets say the game is at the 80 minute mark for whatever reason, saving cooldown from flak cannons will be more important than calldown.
- When going all in for whatever reason (mega creeps, 5/6 raxes down, whatever), you should sell boots (phase or travel) and get as much damage as possible, whether it be a second divine rapier or second mkb, just get the damage. You have 6 shots at making this work
- Take advantage of your early fighting capabilities, gyro can easily snowball.
- Ancient apparitions chilling touch & flak cannons do work together, but each unit hit will reduce the counter by 1. So imagine, we have 4 creeps, we use flak cannons, AA is giving us his buff, which happens to be max levels, thus granting 6 counters, the flak cannon shot will consume 4 of them.
[color=#ffff00]Conclusion:[/color]
Gyrocopter is not the best late game 1v1 hero there is, however he can easily turn the fight into 5v1 by killing the other 4 heroes off with flaks and raw damage, which should be enough to turn the fight into his favor. Item progression is important with Gyrocopter and should be maintained, preferably by teamfighting, a Gyrocopter that has farmed for 40 minutes will still lose against a lot of carries that did the same (void, spectre, anti-mage, etc)
I hope you enjoyed reading my take on Gyrocopter.
Special thanks to dotabuff for hosting this competition
lightwing