hi, my name is ludopatia93 and i'm silver III.
i main support but i wanted to show you the way i play heimerdinger and why i think he is a very strong pick in the toplane.
firts of all i want to say that this guide is aimed at low elo players by showing them how heimerdinger can be very effective from bronze to gold if played correctly in the top lane.
here's how it works

let's begin by explaing why you should play heimer in the top lane and why he can be such a good pick.
the top lane is normally considered a passive lane, an Island where 2 tanky champs are supposed to farm safely till they reach the point where they are tanky enough to join their team and start teamfighting by being the first line and the primary initiators.
these types of champs are usually melee, they have almost 0 nuke and aoe damage and suffer from being shoved to their turrets, and guess what? the dinger is an almost unstoppable pushing machine, who literally vaporize minions wave in a few seconds if his turrets are left on the field, CREATING PRESSURE.
this is the Whole point in playing heimerdinger top lane, creating pressure and leaving behind the other top laner.

PRO'S
very easy to play
farm like crazy
Amazing poke, sustained damage and nuke damage
almost ungankable ( explain it later)
strong siege and objective control

CON'S
by being AP he needs a team that fits with him, a strong supp/jungle initiator (amumu, thresh, leona) and possibly an AD mid/jungler cause enemy team may stack too much magic resist and you are done.
not the best initiator (UPGRADE granade surely can stun a Whole team if used correctly but this use of your ultimate Leaves you without ur primary damage source, moreover requiers the follow up of your allies.
no escape (if caught alone with no turrets/ allies/ zhonya/ you're complety Death, so he requires good positioning

flash is mandatory. heimer has 0 mobility and flash is simply too good not to be picked:you can use it to flash away from deadly situations, reposition yourself in a fight, flash the wall to escape/chase or even surprise the enemy team by using flash + UPGRADED rockets and melt someone creating a 5 v 4 situation

TELEPORT is a must have for the top lane: the point is that you are placed in the farthest lane from where the action is supposed to happen ( DRAKE).
you can use tp to come back to lane in a blink of an eye without losing any creep, keep pressuring your opponent, or tp gank a lane that needs help and finally if a fight a breaks out in the drake area you can istantly join the action and bring your effort there.


i take magic pen marks, mana regen seals, AP glyph and AP quints for runes.
this may leave you confused (WTF no armor and no magic resist???) THE TRUTH is that you simply DON'T NEED ANY DEFENSE IN THE LANING PHASE. no top lane will be able to walk nearby you and attack you, simply because they will take so much poke by your lovely turrets that they may end up dead at lvl 2 simply trying harassing you, moreover you are a ranged Champions; wich allows you to keep the distance from those pesky renektons or garen when they try to bully you.
there's another reason why you should take mana regen seals and ap glyph: the mana regen allows you to spam more abilities in the early game, allowing you to constantly poke your enemy with your rockets and grenade, and ap glyph combined with ap quints and doran's ring allows you to start with 50 AP, which is massive in the early game. your turrets if placed correctly will grant you so much damage that none will be able to even touch you in lane without ending up dying.

start doran's and 2 pots, and walk you way to the toplane.
here's a VERY IMPORTANT THING TO SUCCES WITH HEIMER IN YOUR LANING PHASE. 99% of the time the jungler will start his jungle route on the bot side by taking gromp or the golems, but if for some reason he asks you a leash for the opposite side do not negate it, but here's the point: you MUST QUICKLY LEAVE 3 TURRETS DOWN BEFORE THE MINION WAVE SPAWNS. in the 99% of the time just leave a turret nearby the river but so that the turret can attack minions, then placed another turret near the brush and one in the brush. HERE START THE UNSTOPPABLE MINIONS ONSLAUGHT. even before the other enemy top laner can farm a creep you have just farmed all the melee minions, starting your neverending push!! last hit the caster minions and move you turrets forward, just as close to the enemy turrets as possible: I GUARANTEE, THERE'S ABSOLUTLY NOTHING THAT THE OPPONENT CAN DO ABOUT IT.
just think about it: if he tries to take down your turrets first of all he draws the aggro of the other turrets, leaving him with less then 50% of his health, is it Worth losing that health for Killing a turret that you can replace in a matter of seconds? by doing this he also lose creeps, wich means gold. same if he tries to attack you! if he manages to reach you and hit hard he will be still focused down by your turrets, not to mention the minion aggro. this is the main reason heimer top is so devastating. more than the half of the top lane meta champs are melee, they cannot harass you or destroy your turrets, even less of them has aoe damage to safelty take them down. even jayce or Vladimir can do nothing about it, if they focus on your turrets they will farm almost no minion and they will be sieged by your immense pushing abilities, losing too much mana (jayce) or health (Vladimir).
so by constantly shoving you wave to the enemy turrets you do 3 important things:
-PASSIVLY DESTROY THE ENEMY TURRETS never letting him touch yours. watch the health bar of the enemy turrets after a few minutes of the neverending siege, you will be surprised how much is it low even if you never touched it.
-THE ENEMY LOSE FARM. farming under turret result in losing almost half of the minion wave, watch your creep score and his after a few minutes, you will surely have a great advantege on him, which means more gold for you
-YOU DRAW THE ATTENTION OF THE ENEMY JUNGLER: think about it for a second. the enemy jungler is the only one who can try to stop you,that means that the map is open for your allies! (early drake, no gank pressure because if the jungler sits top it means that bot and mid can push and be aggressive with no risks, and your jungler can counterjungle with 0 no risks too!!)

if the enemy jungler never shows you can endlessy siege the other top laner, wich means that he will be behind in gold ( so in items) for the mid game when the fights will start happening, (poor renekton, ten minute with a long sword and a cloak). but let's admit you got ganked and you lose the 2v1 and they got the kill (and i swear, 90% of the time the guy who will tank the 3 turret's damage, rockte's and grenade will join you in Death)
guess what?? you come back using tp, with at leat double the gold of the other top laner and the onslaught starts again!!

after some minutes of this havoc, around 10th minute you can afford to buy that much needed zhonya. now you are invincible, you got 120 AP wich is massive, you now deal reeeeal damage, and 50 armor which is not bad considering that the majority of the enemy top laners and junglers are AD. so keep the pressure, thanks to the doran's and mana regen from runes you will have Always mana for a turret plus rockets/ grenade, and your passive grants you enough health regen to never leave top lane.
same as before thanks to your shove you will slowly get the enemy's turret, and if the jungler show his face again you canc try the doublekill bait( put 3 turrets close enoush and stand by there, when they try to jump on you UPGRADE the big apex turret, stun the target who gets focused by turrets and use zhonya's active a moment before dying).

once you have pushed your way to the enemy's inihibitor 2 things can happen:
if one of your lane has lost your job is to itemize against them, you are the top laner, you are the tank! build iceborn and tabi for a fed adc, or if the enemy xerath is out of controll abyssal and banshee.
the fact is that you don't need to buy those expensive ap item because you are not the one who is supposed to do the big damage!! that is the cary's job, just peel for them, soaking up damage and poke the enemies, and again, KEEP THE PRESSURE, EVERYTHING MELTS if focussed by your turrets. when the big 5 v 5 breaks out just position your turrets near the carrys and stun whoever tries to take down them, if the enemy adc or apc is left alone quickly flash in front of him, UPGRADE YOUR rockets and BOOOOOM!!!! one shot him.