Gyrocopter in 7.41f: what changed and how he looks statistically

Hi! Today I’m taking a look at Gyrocopter in patch 7.41f, and the reason is pretty clear: the hero has once again landed in the zone of targeted tweaks, and by the numbers his position looks far from stable. I think it’s especially interesting right now to break down not just the fresh changes, but also how they fit into his usual playstyle.

Role and abilities

Gyrocopter is an Agility hero, ranged, with a complexity rating of 1 out of 3. In terms of roles, he is first and foremost a Carry, but can also serve as a Nuker and Disabler. In the official description, he is presented as a hero who flies across the battlefield with a ready arsenal and shreds nearby enemies with his cannon and rockets.

• Rocket Barrage — a spell with a short, aggressive focus on nearby enemies.
• Homing Missile — a guided missile that gains speed along the way, stuns and deals damage on impact; enemies can destroy it mid-flight. The Aghanim’s Shard upgrade increases the missile’s target prioritization.
• Flak Cannon — the next several attacks are accompanied by barrages against all enemies around the hero, while attack effects work only on the primary target.
• Afterburner — an innate ability: the hero briefly gains movement speed when dealing damage to an enemy with attacks or abilities.
• Side Gunner — an ability from Aghanim’s Scepter.
• Call Down — another tool for area pressure and slows.

In terms of his kit, Gyrocopter looks like a hero who loves fighting from range and values tempo. I think his real strength is that he can pressure a single target without losing value in large teamfights.

Changes in recent patches

Working from the newest changes back to the older ones, 7.41 looks like a series of small but fairly noticeable nudges. In 7.41f, there are no separate Gyrocopter changes in the provided data, but the previous versions already made it clear where the developers were pushing the hero.

• 7.41e — Rocket Barrage mana cost was reduced from 85 to 75.
• 7.41e — Homing Missile mana cost was lowered from 120/130/140/150 to 120.
• 7.41e — Homing Missile cooldown was reduced from 30/24/18/12 to 26/21/16/11 seconds.
• 7.41d — night vision was increased from 800 to 1000.
• 7.41d — Flak Cannon no longer increases night vision range by 200.
• 7.41d — Call Down slow was increased from 50% to 60%.
• 7.41d — Side Gunner no longer attacks two targets simultaneously while Flak Cannon is active.
• 7.41d — the level 25 talent for reducing Flak Cannon cooldown was buffed from 4 to 6 seconds.
• 7.41c — Afterburner duration was increased from 4 to 5 seconds.
• 7.41b — Flak Cannon cooldown was changed from 26/24/22/20 to 25 seconds.
• 7.41b — Call Down cooldown was reduced from 90/75/60 to 75/65/55 seconds.
• 7.41 — base movement speed was reduced from 320 to 315.
• 7.41 — Chop Shop was removed from the game.
• 7.41 — Afterburner became a new innate ability.
• 7.41 — movement speed gain for heroes is +1, for creeps — +0.5; haste duration: 3.9 + 0.1 seconds per level.
• 7.41 — the Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade for Flak Cannon became a separate ability.
• 7.41 — Side Gunner became a new Aghanim’s Scepter ability, with the old mechanics.

It feels like the hero didn’t get one sharp buff, but rather a set of careful adjustments that make him easier to play and slightly shift the focus of fights. This is especially noticeable in mana costs and cooldowns: Gyrocopter is clearly being helped to join fights more often.

Statistics

According to OpenDota, over the last 7 days in public matches Gyrocopter was played 159,277 times, and his win rate was 47.2%. That is 106th out of 127 heroes by win rate and 99th by number of games.

Looking by rank, the spread is fairly even, but without any standout upward spike:

• Herald — 47.1%
• Guardian — 46.8%
• Crusader — 46.9%
• Archon — 47.1%
• Legend — 47.1%
• Ancient — 47.2%
• Divine — 47.3%

In professional matches over the most recent period, OpenDota shows Gyrocopter with 24 picks, 13 wins, which is 54.2%, and 16 bans. By those numbers, he looks noticeably better than in pubs, and that seems important to me: in organized play, his toolkit apparently comes together more cleanly.

Items and opponents

According to OpenDota, in professional matches Gyrocopter’s build usually goes through a few very clear stages. I’d say it clearly shows how the hero builds tempo first, then adds damage and survivability.

• Starting out: Iron Branch, Faerie Fire, Circlet, Tango, Observer and Sentry Wards, Blood Grenade.
• Early game: Boots of Speed, Falcon Blade, Power Treads, Blade of Alacrity, Wraith Band, Urn of Shadows.
• Mid game: Blade of Alacrity, Ogre Axe, Staff of Wizardry, Dragon Lance, Aghanim’s Shard, Diadem.
• Late game: Demon Edge, Daedalus, Reaver, Satanic, Black King Bar, Blink Dagger.

The matchup picture in pro games is interesting too. There are opponents Gyrocopter tends to do well against, and those that are especially unpleasant for him.

• Best against: Earthshaker — 40 games, 70.0% win rate; Dazzle — 48 games, 66.7% win rate; Dark Seer — 24 games, 66.7% win rate.
• Worst against: Treant Protector — 71 games, 26.8% win rate; Alchemist — 33 games, 30.3% win rate; Omniknight — 23 games, 34.8% win rate.

Looking at the item builds and the list of awkward opponents, I get the impression that what matters most for Gyrocopter is not losing tempo and not letting the game drag into a scenario that favors the enemy. When he gets to stack damage and use his big area spells on time, the hero looks much more convincing.

Conclusion

In 7.41f, Gyrocopter did not get a separate line in the patch notes from the provided data, but his earlier 7.41 treatment looks pretty coherent: his mana, cooldowns, mobility, and Aghanim’s Scepter mechanic were all adjusted. Stat-wise, he’s not shining in pubs yet, but in professional matches he’s holding up noticeably better. In my opinion, this is one of those cases where the hero doesn’t look especially easy for regular play, but with the right tempo and a good understanding of timings he can deliver a very solid result. We’ll see how he continues to feel after all these targeted tweaks.

Source: official Dota 2 and OpenDota data.

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