It's about time for a dedicated DotA 2 post, don't you think?
The game is officially out of beta and on Steam. You have no excuse not to go check it out - it's totally free to play! The only things you can buy or unlock are cosmetic and have no impact on the game. This is how you do free-to-play, people. Pay attention. Now, you can go read as many reviews as you like - the game currently enjoys a very high score on Metacritic in the 90s, as of this post. But once you do try it out, you may find yourself overwhelmed with the amount of heroes and items to learn about and try. There's over a hundred of each! I thought I'd go ahead and break down a few of the heroes at a time, giving my own impressions of them and how they work in the overall game.
Disclaimer: I am not a DotA expert. I did not play DotA 1. I am not even that great at the game. These are just my impressions and ideas. Take it as you will.
In no particular order:
Gyrocopter:
He's an old pilot in a rocket-laden flying machine of destruction! What's not to love? Not only is Gyrocopter one of the strongest heroes in the game, he's one of the most versatile. He has 4 active spells that are easy to use, all of which offer very good utility and damage. Gyrocopter fits into many lane setups, and can fulfill just about any role your team requires. I highly recommend Gyrocopter as a great hero for the newcomer to pick up. Why is he so good and versatile? Let's figure him out:
Spells:
Rocket Barrage is Gyro's first skill, and it packs a punch. It delivers rapid fire rockets at every enemy in a small radius around him - ideally, you want all of those rockets to hit a single isolated enemy, rather than being distributed to a bunch of creeps. If they all hit one target, they will do considerable damage over a short period of time. Rocket Barrage has a low cooldown and mana cost, making Gyrocopter a very strong ganker in the early and mid game, without many items at all. To make the full use of this skill, you'd need phase boots and a shadow blade, for the extra movement speed needed to keep up with your target. This spell is really good!
Homing Missile is Gyro's second skill. Gyro plants a large missile on the ground, which slowly homes in on an enemy target. If it's not destroyed mid-flight, it will do decent damage but more importantly stun the target. This is a spell that's often overlooked or even outright skipped when building Gyrocopter as a carry, but it's a decent stun and distraction that improves Gyro's early lane presence. Try to plant it out of the line of sight of enemies, on the other side of a tree line, stun them, and then rush in to finish them off with Rocket Barage. Homing Missile isn't usually very effective, but it's pretty fun to use.
Flak Cannon is Gyrocopter's 3rd spell, and perhaps his most powerful. As the magical damage of his other 3 spells falls off in the late game, Flak Cannon only grows stronger. It allows him to temporarily split his physical attacks among all targets within 1000 range (that's quite far!) with absolutely no loss of damage. This is phenomenal when you have a few big damage items that boost how much damage Gyro is putting out. Without this spell, Gyrocopter wouldn't be the fearsome carry he is today. Use this during all team fights, as well as for lane harassment (remember, 1000 range, and it hits ALL enemies nearby!), and to farm very quickly. It's so fun watching an entire wave of creeps just melt all at once! Just be careful, as this one has a long cooldown.
Finally, we have Gyrocopter's ultimate spell, Calldown. Two giant missiles are called down in a targeted area, doing damage and slowing everything under the blast radius. It's not one of the best ultimates in the game, but it has very good utility, especially early and mid game. Remember, the second rocket blast slows much more than the first one.
So, all of these spells combine with the fact that Gyrocopter is an Agility hero to make him extremely versatile. His spells provide a lot of burst damage and a stun, plus a massive AOE slow and damage, to aid in ganks or teamfights all throughout the game no matter how much gold you have. But if you DO happen to accumulate a lot of money, Flak Cannon and high attack speed makes Gyrocopter a dangerous carry that becomes more and more powerful as the game progresses.
When building items on Gyrocopter, your choices will depend on your role on your team. Are you a hard or semi carry? Will the team rely on you late game for physical damage? Then you better build those agility items. Ring of Aquila is standard, transitioning into Manta Style and Butterfly. Make sure to grab a Black King Bar somewhere in there. Super late game, a Satanic is a common pickup, allowing Gyrocopter to regenerate his entire life bar during a flak cannon attack. Now, if you're playing a more supporting role, you'll want to get some wards occasionally, maybe a dust of appearance, and focus on letting all of your spells loose in ganks and teamfights without dying. Gyro can make an impact whatever he's doing. Because of this, it's never terribly bad to pick Gyrocopter in any team lineup. Enemy heroes he performs best against are illusion heroes like Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, or Dark Seer, since Flak Cannon gives him the ability to kill all of them at once.
Sand King:
Here we are on the other end of the spectrum. A difficult hard support. Sand King is a desert scorpion who also happens to be royalty. He's the king of ALL sand. Not a bad gig! Let me tell you, those grains of sand worship the guy. Sand King, unlike Gyrocopter, is unquestionably a support hero. Don't expect to earn money and buy the huge items. He's got basically two workhorse skills: Burrowstrike, and Epicenter. The rest of his abilities are ok, but situational, and don't come into play during teamfights often. While you won't be the center of attention, you will always be involved in the middle of teamfights, making the big plays. I personally love Sand King, but have a lot of trouble getting a good start at the beginning of the game. You need to pair Sand King with a good lane partner with high damage and a stun to net early kills; or else, you need to roam and gank all around the map.
Spells:
Burrowstrike is Sand King's first spell, and his most useful throughout the game. It's a highly damaging stun that burrows Sand King under the ground, popping up under his target. It also has a very low cooldown, enabling him to use this repeatedly to chase down and kill the unlucky victim. As it burrows Sang King instantly to the target destination, Burrowstrike is also a very useful escape and dodge mechanism, enabling him to pass under walls or cliffs. Use this spell as often as you can and coordinate with teammates to destroy someone else's good time!
Sandstorm isn't just a kickin' techno song by Darude - it's also Sand King's second skill. The King summons a swirling sandstorm around him, rendering himself invisible - although immobile while the spell channels - and damaging everything in the area continuously. When moving, the sandstorm ends, and you remain invisible for two seconds, which is a great help to escape ganks or avoid projectiles. While the damage over time is decent and invisibility is always nice, decent players are going to reveal you with Dust of Appearance or a Sentry Ward, so it's not usually a great idea to sit in front of the enemy team for too long. I like to use Sandstorm as a quick burst of invisibility to dodge a spell or attack before escaping while the enemies shift their focus to someone else. It's fine to leave Sandstorm at level 1 for a while, added levels don't usually help you much unless you're being seriously targeted.
Sand King's third skill is Caustic Finale, and it's a passive ability. Any enemy he hits is filled with venom, and if killed shortly thereafter will explode, damaging all surrounding enemies. This skill has only one real purpose: flash farming! Hit a few creeps, Burrowstrike through them all, and watch the entire wave explode into a juicy pile of gold. It's what helps Sand King farm in the mid game, because he sure can't do it early game. Once you have Burrowstrike and Caustic Finale leveled up, and you no longer care about pushing the creep wave, you have no excuse not to be earning some money. And you will need that money for Sand King's ultimate...
EPICENTER! Probably the most epic ultimate in the entire game, Epicenter has enormous damage potential and is always flashy and exciting to pull off. Sand King channels for two seconds, summoning an earthquake centered on himself that lasts a few seconds. It will follow him as he moves (or Burrowstrikes!), letting him chase enemies or move into the thick of battle with it. This earthquake does insane damage to all around him, giving him the capability of bringing an entire team into low health on his own. There is nothing more satisfying in DotA 2 than landing an Epicenter and getting a multikill with it. The best way to utilize this spell is to channel it out of range of the enemies (if the channel is interrupted, the spell is ended, but still goes on cooldown! Be careful!), use blink dagger to teleport into the midst of the team, burrowstrike as many people as you can to stun them and damage them further, and let Epicenter do it's work. You can Sandstorm after the Burrowstrike to add a little more damage on top of this combo, too, but you better get out of there soon, or you'll be quite the dead scorpion.
As I said, Sand King is a support hero. His physical attacks do very little damage, and he relies entirely on his spells to aid his team. You'll want to buy Wards, Arcane Boots, and a magic wand so you can keep casting those spells. The only other item Sand King actually needs is a Blink Dagger! Crazy, right? After that, the most common item pickup is a Veil of Discord, boosting the magic damage taken by enemies, to produce even more damage from Epicenter. Aghanim's Scepter also boosts the damage of his ultimate, while decreasing the cooldown, letting you use it even more often.
The best way to play Sand King that I've found is to constantly move in and out of fights. Burrowstrike as many heroes as possible, then back away and let your teammates beat them up while your spell goes off cooldown, then move in and do it again. If you need to escape, don't forget to Sandstorm. Whenever there's a break in the action, go farm with Cuastic Finale! Get that Blink Dagger and Epicenter! It's good to be the King.
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