Hey everyone. First time I've written a guide, so please bare with me. This is mainly for my own purposes, but I figured I'd publish it to get other people's opinions and to potentially help people who are new to playing with Heimer. Keep in mind that this guide is for a pure AP Heimer. You won't be getting any extra HP, armor, or magic resistance. A lot of people might disagree with that, but I'm used to playing with a good team with at least one awesome tank to suck up all that damage while I sit in the back and deal damage. Of course every game is different, and if that is impossible then you can always switch your build and throw on some defensive items. But that is not the purpose of this guide. This is just to show people how to play and build a pure AP Heimy. I appreciate any comments you have, and I hope this helps. ;-)

For the runes, following with the pure AP build, you'll find 3 Quints of Potency for about an extra 15 AP right off the bat. This can really help you dish out some extra damage early game and get some kills. Combine that with Marks of Insight for magic penetration, and then Seals of Focus and Glyphs of Celerity for cooldown reduction. I've got no mana regen runes because mana is the least of your worries with this build. The mastery set and item build more than take care of that.

I go 9/0/21, attempting to max out everything we need in utility, and adding some extra AP, cooldown reduction, and magic penetration in offense. I find this set works really well for a pure AP Heimer.

I always start off with a Meki Pendant and 2 Health Pots to start the game. The point of these items is to maximize your early game longevity, and keep you in that lane as long as possible. For a good game you should be able to stay out long enough to get the Tear of the Goddess and Sorcerer's Shoes on your first buy. Some times you can also last long enough to snag the Blasting Wand, which is a great start. These items will give you another long stay out farming with those turrets, so your next buy should easily give you the Archangel's Staff and either a Needlessly Large Rod or at least a Blasting Wand. From there you'll want to complete your Rabadon's Deathcap, then go for another Archangel's Staff. At this point you're sitting on 2 Archangel's staffs, Sorcerer's Shoes, and a Rabadon's Deathcap. If the game has gone on this long, then you have a good idea of what you need. An Item that I highly recommend is Morello's Evil Tome, because it gives you extra AP with a great 20% Cooldown Reduction, and some extra mana regen to boot. For your last item, you have to go based on how the game is going. If you see that the enemy team has stacked magic resistance items, you will want to build a Void Staff. If they are slacking on their defense, I would most definitely build another Archangel's Staff. With 3x Archangel's Staffs, you have a HUGE mana pool, and it's ever increasing the more abilities you use. Combine that with a passive that turns 9% of your max mana into AP, and you're set. With all that AP, go ahead and increase it by 30% with the Rabadon's Deathcap. In a long game, with this full build, you should be hitting somewhere around 850-900 AP with Heim.

Personally, I think the best thing about Heimy is his rockets. They are one of the best harassing abilities in the entire game. They hit up to 3 ppl at once, and they have a great range. Not to mention they hit amazingly hard with a full AP Heim. The drawback is they only hit the 3 closest enemies to you, so there is a risk of hitting minions. This really isn't that big of a deal. The more you play this character, the more you get used to using those rockets correctly. I can go the first 10 minutes of the game with out ever missing with my rockets. Second most important thing for Heim are his turrets. Some would argue that his Grenades are too important to pass up, but part of this build is based on massive amounts of farming and harassing. You drop your turrets in the correct spots to farm the creeps, while you use your rockets to harass and potentially kill. The Grenades don't become as important until mid to late game when you need that CC and heavy damage they offer.

Clarity and Ghost are the only two skills I ever use for Heimer. Clarity, combined with the Meki Pendant and Health Pots, will help keep you in your lane for a very long time. It gives a lot of Mana and has a short cool down. And why ghost and not flash? Because Heimy is really too slow for Flash to make that big of a difference. Too often will you flash away and run only to have the enemy just slowly catch up to you. 9 times out of 10 Ghost will do a better job of getting Heimer away. He can maintain speed getting away from the enemy while he drops turrets, rockets, and CC's with grenades. Overall a way better choice for this character than Flash.

Heimer can lane anywhere, but he is fantastic Mid. Very rarely do I find anyone that I can't lane against when I'm playing Heim. You have to make great use of your turrets for farming and holding a line against the enemy, but you don't want to place them too far up so that the enemy is constantly killing them. If you keep having to place new turrets you will exhaust your mana too quickly. Smart placement, so they are behind the wave but close enough to snag kills is key. And then, patience. You stay back and keep moving while last hitting. Then right when there are only 3 enemy minions left, and one of them drops to half health, you start moving in range of the enemy. Right when that 3rd creep dies you throw out those rockets and then drop back again. You keep doing this and you'll find your enemy completely harassed, zoned out and turret hugging. You'll control the lane, and get a ton of gold while your enemy gets none. And since Heim is so good at lane control, it shouldn't take you too long to push that turret. A few levels in once you've forced your enemy back to base for healing, you push in and kill the minions with your rockets, and drop 2 turrets next to the tower and take it down quickly. You take out that tower, push the wave a bit further, and head back to base for your first purchase. After that you own the lane, and you can easily move to whichever lane needs the most help and gank. By now you've got hard hitting rockets, two turrets, at least a level 1 grenade, and your ulti. This is a great ganking combination you can get behind the enemy. And now that you've gone in and ganked, one enemy might be running away with low hp. What do you know, you have ghost to catch up to them, and a long distance rocket that will finish them off. Heimer can solo the dragon by level 9 or 10 easily, and from there its about taking down turrets, ganking enemies, farming your tail off, and finishing your build. If the game gets to late game and you have time to finish your build, there are few characters in the game that hit as hard as a fed Heimer late game. Just play with caution, and in team fights ALWAYS stay behind your tank. Try to bait them in. Stand close behind your tank with one turret. When they jump, drop your second turret and hit the ice. Then get a direct grenade hit so it stuns, and by now you've already hit your rockets and are waiting for the cool down. They're either dead or running away by now, and you're chasing them with your rockets. Heimer... is awesome!

By the way, I can't figure out quite yet how to copy my image of my match history, so I'll just list them for you and figure out how to do that later.

6/5/21
4/0/8
5/11/13
5/12/36
3/13/24
4/2/8
5/6/3
10/2/7

All but one of those was a victory(the one I played with pubs), and please keep in mind that I'm a level 24 and I play with all level 30's, with more masteries and experience than me. I end up taking some deaths for being squishy, but if I can do half damage or more to 3 enemy characters at once, and die once for 3 assists and maybe a kill while my team continues to push the lane, it's worth it to me. Most of those assists you see is me doing most of the damage and my team finishing them off, not just running in and scratching the enemy. Heimer hits hard, but this game is all about the team, and specifically Heimer is all about assisting the team. He is not a carry. He is there to nuke the enemy so your team can win. ;-)