Dota 2: Return of the Gyrocopter

Almost a month ago no one thought that Gyrocopter would return to the professional Dota scene, but at ESL One Katowice this hero became the 2nd most contested hero of all the matches.

Gyrocopter’s story is very similar to other heroes in the meta. Especially Dragon Knight and Medusa, these two heroes were extremely popular in the last patch and still a good choice today, the popularity of Gyrocopter comes from the large amount of damage done in the early game. With the Medusa nerf and the rise of Terrorblades, this hero becomes a complete choice as a core carry or solo mid.

Compared to Medusa, Gyro is clearly stronger and more stable in the laning phase and also in teamfights. With Ultimate being a large AoE skill that deals a fair amount of damage, slows down the enemy extremely annoyingly, while the Rocket Barrage and Homing Missile skills are two skills that put a lot of pressure on the opponent in the laning phase and mid game.

As for Flak Cannon, there’s no need to argue. With talent lv15 +3 Flak Cannon, the ability to push lane, farm compensation, harras or create mutations in combat has never been so easy. While other core carries must have a ton of close items like Blink, Shadow Blade, and then have to combine with Nullifier to limit the opponent’s counterattack, Gyro just needs to turn on Flak Cannon and fire at any target doesn’t matter anyway. Although Blade Mail or Crimson Guard will also limit concerns, the fact that supports die suddenly in combat within a few notes is indisputable. And even if you have a pick counter or a suitable strategy, with a Gyrocopter having space to pull networth , out items, sooner or later, you will let go of the mouse.

How to build of professional players

The majority of successful teams at tournaments using Gyro often follow the usual build of maxing Rocket Barrage in the early game, then maxing Flak Cannon. There are a few cases where players max out the Homing Missile skill in the early game instead of the Rocket Barrage skill, but this is an untested and evaluated choice by professional pro players, so it is I don’t appreciate it.

When it comes to item leveling for Gyro, almost everyone will go up in a common way. Typically in the professional arena, Gyro’s starting items are usually Phase Boots, then Drum of Endurance, then Yasha and then S&Y and Black King Bar.

This item build and skill build allows Gyrocopter to be very effective in early game teamfights with high survivability and MS (running speed) from Drums, without affecting his farming speed. The last time this hero went missing was due to the Flak Cannon cooldown increase, but after that, gamers have found a way to adapt to this problem.

The +25 Damage at talent level 10 and +3 Flak Cannon attack at level 15, partially compensating for the Flak Cannon cooldown increase by 10 in patch 6.78, is what made this hero out of the meta. Combining these two talents together makes this hero able to clear all stacks, which improves Gyro’s farming ability significantly as well as the amount of damage he can deal in teamfights as discussed in the previous section.

Lately, building Stat-boosting items like Butterfly, Eyes of Skadi, and Santanic are still the most popular choices. Manta Style, Monkey King Bar, Abssal Blade and Nullifier are also just situational options. Diffusal Blade, Maelstrom(Mjollnir) or Desolator are the items you should get if you want to be praised by your teammates as “idiot,retard, noob, bobo, …”. Meanwhile, the choice between Blink and Shadow Blade also depends on the situation and the player’s feelings. But most people will evaluate Shadow Blade to be better with +dmg lineage and attack speed, movement speed and passive break ability when on Silver Edge. And Dvine Rapier is also a situational choice when you or the enemy are at a dead end. Remember that Divine is the only thing that exists, it doesn’t matter if the other items are present or not. So if you know your fate, hide well lest you lose Divine and eat 6 months on the island, you’ll be tired.

Although many people consider the Side Gunner skill (effect from Aghanim’s Scepter) a joke as it provides a very small amount of DPS and it is not worth spending an important item slot of a core, but sometimes it is extremely difficult. period is beneficial when combined with the lifesteal mechanism. By activating Satanic you can almost survive even when disabled, because the Side Gunner is not disabled and continuously heals you.

Is there any difference in the way Gosu plays?

The majority of this hero will be played in an aggressive fashion, with many teams using the hero in the 2nd core position. The purpose of using this hero is to team up with the opposing team’s offlane super duo, fast. quickly reach level 6 and wait to eat the stack, then start disappearing on the map both to farm, keep the creep wave as well as put pressure on the enemy turret. Besides, with being strong right from the early levels, teams with super duos who like to fight often will leave lane for Gyro to create more distance from the opponent’s Offlaner.

Gyrocopter relies heavily on skill sets, items, and talent. It is not subjective to say that Flak Cannon is the reason for Gyrocopter to return to the professional arena. Despite being increased to 50% cooldown, the amount of AoE buffed for the current skill is too strong, as it can hit targets within 1250 range at all levels. The explanation is that you just need to have vision in combat, you can shoot everything and no one can stop you. And with Flak Cannon’s 15 talent adding 3 attacks, again and again, the price to pay is the cooldown of the skill is not too concerned.

Conclude

With Medusa falling out of favor and Terroblade’s popularity, Gyrocopter finally has its place in the pro meta. Similar to Pub, picking a Gyrocopter is safer than picking a Juggernaut or a Specter. And if on a lucky day, your teammates stack a lot of yards for you, then victory is obvious. And thanks to the recent “small” updates, creep stacking will become much more popular, leading to heroes with strong farming ability will have a huge advantage. Will Gyro face straight nerfs from Icefrog in the future?