Damagecopter or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Flak Cannon

Introduction

Most other guides have Gyrocopter in a ganking role, but in this guide he is built as a carry. This is the way Gyrocopter is used in competitive DOTA 2 when he's used at all. As you can see on his Dota Academy page he has farming priority 1. A nice game to watch is RaidCall D2L: Season 2 -- Mouz vs No Tidehunter where Gyrocopter was picked each round on either side in the best of three.

The reason Gyrocopter is an effective carry is simple: Flak Cannon. Doing 6 times 200+ damage in a 1000 AoE in under 5 seconds is nothing to sneeze at. Not only is Flak Cannon great in team fights, it also helps you farm very quickly by demolishing creap waves, jungle camps, and ancient creeps.

Items

The starting items are normal with some regen and some stats.
Depending on the lane you might want to take a Stout Shield or Ring of Regen instead (also available at the Side Lane Shop).
If you are mid you want to go for a fast Bottle.

Power Treads are the first core item to get. They give movement speed, attack speed, and either +8 damage or +152 hp. I like to take Boots of Speed first, then Band of Elvenskin and finally Gloves of Haste.

Yasha is the second core item. It provides some nice stats, but most importantly gives you the movement speed advantage over most heroes. Letting Gyrocoper get in and out of fights is crucial to dealing good damage and staying alive.

Monkey King Bar is the final core item. It provides the raw damage to use with Flak Cannon. I prefer getting the Demon Edge first, because it is more damage for your gold than the two Javelins.

After getting the core you probably want to buff up.

• Black King Bar is great against magic damage and stuns.
• Assault Cuirass is great against physical damage and buildings.
• Heart of Tarrasque is a safe item that helps you take any damage and regens very fast.

• Daedalus gives great damage and a chance to crit against your main target. Extra Flak Cannon bullets don't crit!
• Desolator gives great damage and removes armor on your main target. Again, it does nothing on Flak Cannon bullets.

Yasha

• Manta Style is not that useful because ranged illusions are very weak and they don't get plus damage from your items.
• Sange and Yasha is overpriced but better than nothing.

Boots of Travel

Aegis of the Immortal

Skills

Ideally you would max Flak Cannon and then put all points in stats, but that's not possible.
The earliest to get all stats is at level 19 which means we have 5 more points to spend.

• Rocket Barrage absolutely destroys heroes when they are alone, especially in the early game, so it is maxed first to get kills while laning.
• Homing Missile takes forever to actually hit, but it is useful to force an enemy solo lane back to their tower. One point is enough.
• Flak Cannon gives good harass, but it also pushes the lane which is usually not desired. One point for harass while in lane and then max it when laning is over.
• Call Down uses a lot of mana for relatively little damage and some slow. While not a bad ability I find stats more useful.
• Stats give you not only health and damage but also help with your small initial mana pool.

Level-by-level guide

• 1. Pick your lane. Safe lane is the best to get quick farm. Mid lane is fine if you are careful about getting ganked. Hard lane is a problem because you have a high chance to get killed there.
• 1-4. Hang out in lane, get last hits and try to farm up your items. Keep an eye out for players to Rocket Barrage.
• 4-7. Keep laning and occasionally use Flak Cannon to harass.
• 7-15. At level 7 you should have your Power Treads and be starting on your Yasha. People have their ultimates now and are looking to push or fight. Carry a Scroll of Town Portal at all times and just farm the lanes and the jungle.
• 15-20. You should be pretty powerful now. You can farm the ancient creeps. You do some real damage in team fights, but don't get cocky and take fights with a numbers disadvantage.
• 20-25. You devestate team fights now. You have the mana to spam Homing Missile and Call Down. You can push down towers and barracks with ease. If you aren't winning yet, try to get a good team fight and use the time that your opponents are dead to destroy their buildings.

Final Thoughts

I've used this build with good success, but I'm not saying it's perfect. You can experiment with Shadow Blade, Phase Boots, Drum of Endurance and Butterfly. The skill build should be adapted to your game and doesn't need to be followed strictly.

Leave your comments and suggestions below, and above all have fun!

P.S. secret tip for those who read to the end, use

Flak Cannon