Gyrocopter First Impressions

I always like to soften up my Windrunners with a massive crater.

He’s a strange one, and a hero that I have no previous experience with. Not a popular choice by any means, his ultimate is a little slow to hit and not all that powerful, while his Homing Missile too easy destroyed on the way to its target, I’m actually pretty pleasantly surprised with how he handles. 
Even though yes, he is awfully easy to spot heading towards you, and yes, his abilities are very clear and hard to miss, there are certain ways you can counter that, and with those, he turns into a  nightmare of an initiator. Slap a Shadow Blade on him and Rocket Barrage, his Q, goes from something you get frustrated with because it has no range into an AOE warzone in your immediate area as you stealth up to the enemy team. 
The Homing Missile, too, while slow, fragile and taking ages to get going, works great in the midst of a teamfight where there isn’t too much AOE flying around. Distract them with something scary like Phantom Lancer or Tidehunter, and you can sneak a big old bomb right up against their squishiest player, leaving them stunned and damaged for your team to pick off. It’s great, too, for finishing off melee heroes who have somehow managed to escape with a sliver of health. 
Along with Flak Cannon, which makes your basic attack hit in an AoE around you, up to the next six, is a general nightmare, Gyrocopter is a weird mix between carry and initiate, forced to farm in the early game before becoming essential to teamfights later on. He’s pretty squishy, unfortunately, which makes getting that farm awkward, and his abilities don’t really lend themselves to laning all that much, but there’s definitely a place for him, and with the right judgement in the middle of a teamfight, and the right item build to maximise on his strengths and try to plug the gaps that his weaknesses make, he’s got the potential to be devastating. 
Although when you’re playing with a Chaos Knight that decides that a Refresher Orb is a good idea, and that taking on the team 2v5 and coming out on top is both an acceptable and a possible thing to do, you do feel a little inadequate. Especially when it bloody works. But then you’ve just wiped the enemy team and you can push right down the middle, so I suppose that’s all well and good.