Hello and welcome to my Heimerdinger Middle guide for patch 9.8. I would like to start off the guide with some info about who I am and some other important info.

My name is EuphoricToaster, i am a Heimerdinger one trick pony who has reached Diamond elo in both Season 8 and Season 9. I've only peaked at Diamond 4 but i am confident i could climb quite a bit higher, just haven't had the time or the motivation for it. At the end of Season 8 i mixed in some bottom lane due to ADCs being in quite the weak spot, but other than that I have purely played Heimer in the midlane.



Other than that I am also a moderator of both the /r/HeimerdingerMains subreddit and the HeimerdingerMains discord, so i keep very up to date with everything that happens with the champion. I have personally talked to some of the Rioters who have worked on Heimer as well as a lot of the high elo Heimer mains.

Note: Keep in mind this is an In-Depth Guide, and NOT something to just quickly glance at for tips. There are endless amounts of those types of references out there and I wanted to do something that instead had basically all the information you could ever need, so some details and explanations will get lengthy. The only exceptions is I do not include most damages or stats for Heimerdinger or his abilities, as they are easily referenced from the wiki.

Heimerdinger, in my experience, is one of those champions that just kind of picks you, rather than you picking the champion up. His play-style and the types of things you can do on him are so different than any other champion in the game. The rain of "?" pings whenever you do something really funky just never gets old.

Heimer is a champion that has a LOT of room for creativity in how you use his kit. You can do so many unique and creative things with your turrets that playing him really never gets old. You can do everything from basic things such as placing H-28G Evolution Turrets over walls, to soloing/stealing objectives and brush camping to one-shot someone.

Heimer is also a fantastic Solo Queue champion because he is pretty strong at all points of the game, can do well in both 1v1s and teamfights and there's a lot of opportunities to abuse your enemies lack of knowledge on the limitations of Heimer. In lower elos (up to Platinum) there are so many people who don't know what Heimer really does or how you're supposed to play against him, so it can lead to so many free lanes.

Lastly there's the appeal of the character himself. It always feels hilarious to be a goofy little scientist waddling around and then BMing your opponents with dance/laugh spam when you beat someone or do something impressive.

So Heimerdinger is a strange champ in that he can and has seen common play in pretty much every lane. There are some ups and downs to every lane which i will talk about in this section as well as why i specifically choose mid as my primary lane and why I think that its generally the best lane for Heimer in Solo Queue.

Top Lane:

So Heimerdinger a while back received a nerf to his H-28Q Apex Turret in 8.1 which REALLY hurt his top lane performance imo. The base damage of H-28Q Apex Turret was literally HALVED, from 200/270/340 to 100/140/180 which is a HUGE nerf to the ability. The reason why this hurts his top lane performance is that H-28Q Apex Turret is the ability used in 1v2s. Normally you'd drop the your H-28Q Apex Turret and other turrets, kite around them and try to blow one of them up or double them, but the base damage nerf makes this a lot harder in the early to mid-game. Combine that with the fact top lane is naturally a longer lane to mid (further from your tower) means if you cant win the 1v2 you're at a much bigger risk of dying to a gank. These is even harder now in this meta imo because of how high damage everything is, giving you less time to work with. For top lane there is also the problem that Heimer as a champion is countered by Mercury's Treads + Hexdrinker/ Spectre's Cowl so anyone who is smart enough to do this generally just starts winning the lane after they gets those and its going to be a long time before you get Void Staff, which is whats needed to cut through that Magic Resist. Some Heimer players have supplemented this weakness by skipping the Lost Chapter item and going into Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment and just kiting out the opponent but i personally haven't had much experience with this style of build, and the lack of mana/CDR feels pretty bad to play.

Bot Lane:

Bot lane, under ideal scenarios, is actually the best lane for Heimer imo because you have the peel and stun setup via a support. So ideally if you have a good support main friend you can duo with and rely on, you can do very well with bot lane Heimer. However, if you play Ranked solo, there's a lot more RNG involved in getting a competent/reliable support and one who knows how to play with Heimer and make use of his strengths. Playing bot lane solo can still be pretty good (probably second to or as good as mid) but i generally just don't like the games where its basically a 1v2 because your support is useless or auto-filled or etc and mid lane is just more independent and self-sufficient.

Mid Lane:

Finally, there's mid lane, which imo is the best lane for Heimer when playing Ranked by yourself. The lane itself has more gank paths than side lanes but it makes up for it by being much shorter than side lanes so its quicker and easier to get back to your tower. Heimer is also a champion that has lane priority (can rotate to teammates/objectives faster/easier/without losing as much or anything) in a lot of matchups, so your junglers are gonna love you for shoving the enemy in and helping them secure Scuttle Crabs. Additionally, because you shove so well you also have more roaming options midlane than you do in a side lane if you have an opportunity to roam, although sometimes it can just be better to stay and pressure the enemy turret for plates. Finally there's matchups, which mid lane imo is the most generous with. Generally there's only a couple of matchups that are incredibly hard ( Yasuo/ Irelia) but everything else is at least lane-able. When you compare that to top where you can be countered easily by cheap tank itemization, or bot lane where you have ADCs that out-range you ( Caitlyn/ Jinx) or ADCs with low cooldown dashes or ( Lucian/ Vayne) to dodge your stun, then mid lane feels a lot nicer to play overall imo.

In the "Threats & Synergies" section in the top part of the guide, for threats I ONLY INCLUDED MIDLANE MATCHUPS. In this section I will talk about particularly troublesome threats from other roles. Also, synergies for Heimerdinger are pretty redundant, so theres no real point writing synergy tips for a bunch of champions. Instead, I will just state in this section the type of champions he likes to have on his team.


Synergies:

Generally the main thing you want to have on your team as Heimerdinger are champions that have Crowd Control/Engage/Pick, as Heimer has insanely strong followup engage. Its also especially nice if these champions are tanky to act as a front line and to peel if necessary. Sources of hard Crowd Control guarantee you land your abilities and combos on champions and will allow you to turn most teamfights into your teams favor from your insane burst. So champions like Sion, Ornn, Malphite, Jax, Sejuani, Jarvan IV, Rek'Sai, Alistar, Thresh or etc are all great to have on your team with Heimerdinger and the champions with multi-man teamfighting abilities such as Ornn and his Call of the Forge God or Malphite and his Unstoppable Force are especially nice since there is the ability to combo these directly into your own CH-3X Lightning Grenade combo. Besides Crowd Control champions, generally its nice to have a good damage split on your team, such as a high-damage hypercarry adc like Vayne, Jinx or etc so they cant just get away with building mostly Magic Resist into your team. High damage early-mid game ADCs like Lucian or Draven also can work well if they are able to generate an early lead. Other than these types of champions, Heimerdinger fits okay into most other team comps because his CH-3X Lightning Grenade is very valuable to teams in the majority of games.


Top Lane Threats:

Bruisers:
Mobile bruisers such as Jax, Aatrox, Riven, Kled, Irelia and Renekton can be pretty troublesome if they get ahead and itemize a bit of Magic Resist. Some of these champions get free Magic Resist via their kit like Jax and hit Ultimate Ability Grandmaster-At-Arms, so he doesn't even need to itemize that much Magic Resist to be able to take you down. Against most of these champions with a gap closer into Crowd Control ability you ARE able to buffer in your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade when they jump on you, but if they have tenacity from the like of Mercury's Treads and or Sterak's Gage the stun wont last long and they'll pretty easily be able to run you down if you don't burst them down enough to kill them or at least low enough to scare them off. Aatrox and Kled as well have anti-burst passives that make them especially troublesome to deal with ( Aatrox with his World Ender revive and Kled with his Skaarl the Cowardly Lizard dismounting). While still in the laning phase and any of these champions are on the enemy team (ESPECIALLY Kled and Riven that I've noticed from my games) be VERY CAREFUL of a flank by these champions. I've noticed numerous times that top laners like these with high mobility will often do a flank behind the mid river wall near your tower if they are gaining no advantages in their own lanes. Kled sometimes will just use his Chaaaaaaaarge!!! straight at you to dive you with his midlaner and then get a free tower aggro drop with his dismount, making it pretty hard your you to do anything against it before its too late. Outside of the high mobility bruisers, champions like Olaf and Nasus can still be very troublesome if they have Magic Resists and decide they want to kill you. These champions can just chain their slowing abilities on you and run you down, with you lacking the burst needed to kill them if they itemize correctly.

Tanks:
Most standard, low damage top lane tanks like Maokai or Malphite aren't much of a threat on their own, so you most likely wont be in a situation where they are going to 100 - 0 you on their own. Mainly, the threat of these types of champions are their engage oriented Crowd Control which is followed up by their team, so generally if you position correctly and dodge their main engage moves, you shouldn't have much trouble against them since they're so easily kiteable. When, if you're against some of the high damage super tanks however, such as Sion and Cho'Gath, things get a little more difficult. Champions like these quickly get to the point where they can run you down and kill you on their own, just with their base damages while you're unable to burst them down through their raw stats. If these champions become enough of a problem in a game you will likely need to get a Void Staff in order to be able to even scratch them. When you're against tanks that build Magic Resists, you generally want to interact with them as little as possible until you have Void Staff and just focus on getting to their carries or disengaging their engages/assisting in bursting them down if you need to front-to-back teamfight against them.

Jungle Threats:

Tanks:
Most tank junglers pose a big threat to Heimerdinger because they make use of Aftershock to greatly increase their resistances and their kits usually have multiple forms of hard Crowd Control, making it very difficult to either burst them OR escape from them. Tank junglers such as Rammus, Sejuani, Zac and Nunu & Willump are difficult to deal with as Heimer. Not only do Rammus and Sejuani make use of Aftershock but they have abilities that give them even MORE resistances meaning they're pretty much impossible to burst early on if they're able to get onto you. With Sejuani you can at least damage her to cause her Fury of the North passive resistences to drop, but theres no counterplay to Rammus using Flash + Frenzying Taunt on you beyond taking Cleanse which i specifically have started doing because its the only way to deal with that. Zac can use his Stretching Strikes on one of your H-28G Evolution Turrets to knock you back, which is also annoying. Nunu & Willump as well can Consume your H-28G Evolution Turrets but you can at least use your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade to stop him when hes using his Biggest Snowball Ever! to stop a gank.

Assassins:
Heimerdinger fairs well into most of the assassin junglers pre level 6 because if they ever jump on him, hes able to burst down very easily ( Kha'Zix for example). Post level 6 though, a lot of them become a problem, such as Nocturne, Rengar and Evelynn. Against all of these champions you have to rush Zhonya's Hourglass second item just so you actually get to play the game. With Nocturne and Evelynn there is at least some counterplay as you can deter a gank/all-in with a well timed CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, just keep in mind that Nocturne has his Shroud of Darkness spellshield so you should use your Hextech Micro-Rockets first BEFORE your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, so you're able to actually get the stun to land. Kayn and Rhaast as well are generally easy to deal with because they have 2 abilities ( Reaping Slash and Blade's Reach) that lock them into an animation, giving you free opportunities to stun him. He can still be problematic though if he gets fed, or especially if he goes Shadow Assassin (because of that forms absurd damage), but generally hes not hard to deal with.

ADC Threats:

Generally when it comes to ADCs, the biggest threats are champions with long ranges (such as Caitlyn, Jinx or Ezreal), high mobility (such as Lucian or Vayne) or waveclear that matches yours, namely Sivir (her Spell Shield also is quite annoying). High range ADCs are really hard for Heimerdinger to deal with because they can clear your turrets from a long distance away and because their distance makes them harder to land good stuns on. Generally you just want to do your best to poke these champions out with Hextech Micro-Rockets and go for a CH-3X Lightning Grenade if you see a really good opportunity, or if another member of your team engages onto them first. Lucian and especially Vayne are pretty much impossible to deal with if they play correctly. Even if you sit on your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade they can still dash + Bilgewater Cutlass/ Blade of the Ruined King and then Flash if you try to stun them with CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade and they're still able to chase you down if you Flash with the active slow and their movement speed from their kits ( Vayne and her Final Hour + Tumble invisibility is also insanely hard to play against).

Support Threats:

The main support threats are champions that are able to flash on you and chain crown control, namely Leona who is the most deadly of these champions. Champions like Alistar at least have to get into much closer range to do their combo on you. Other than that its mostly just minor annoyances such as healing from Soraka/ Sona or Morgana and her Black Shield. Heimerdinger thrives against most other supports such asenchanter supports like Janna and Nami because they all have low mobility and are incredibly squishy. He also thrives against hook champions like Blitzcrank and Thresh because you can use your H-28G Evolution Turrets to easily block any of their hooks.

Flash is the most important and powerful summoner spells in the game. It is mandatory on the majority of champions in the game, especially on an immobile mage such as Heimerdinger. Take this every game.

Barrier in my opinion is the best go-to secondary summoner spell to take on Heimer along with Flash. Unless i specifically need one of the other summoner spells listed below, barrier is just a great choice into most mages and assassins. Barrier has an incredibly low cooldown and the shield it provides you is great against all-ins and 1v2s. Additionally, in lower elos people often forget you have Barrier and can get baited to engage on you, just for you to turn and kill them with the help of the big shield you get.

Ignite is another great summoner spell choice for Heimer and can be more fitting to some peoples playstyles than Barrier although i personally prefer Barrier generally. If you don't default to Ignite mid on Heimer like some people like to do, it still is a great choice against laners with a lot of healing such as Vladimir, Sylas and etc. It can also help in lanes where you normally wouldn't has much kill pressure by providing an extra chunk of true damage in all-ins.

Teleport is fantastic summoner spell choice on Heimer as well (imo its the best along with Flash for botlane Heimer since you have a support to peel for you so you don't really need Barrier). Generally i will take this into lanes where the enemy laner has VERY low kill pressure on me, such as vs champions like Zilean. It can also be a good choice vs champions that don't really want to interact with you but would rather roam to a sideline, such as Aurelion Sol since it can help you match some of their rotations.

Cleanse is a very situational but imo MANDATORY summoner spell to take in some lanes. When facing enemy laners with reliable/un-dodgeable hard CC such as Twisted Fate or Lissandra its a crucial pickup, ESPECIALLY if the enemy jungler is a high damage jungler or has a lot of deadly hard CC themselves such as Rammus or Sejuani. Its also worth mentioning that Cleanse cleanses the damage over time of Ignite, so its a good pick into champions that want to stun you and burst you with the aid of Ignite such as Annie.

This set of runes is the most frequent page i run. In my opinion it gives you pretty much everything you could ever need: poke, mana sustain, a ton of AP and a ton of health sustain. If i'm against a melee laner that i can poke with autos a lot, i may however go for Aery.

Sorcery is the primary tree we choose for Heimerdinger as in my opinion it offers the best keystone and rune choices for him. It provides easy access to things such as mana sustain and especially raw ability power, which Heimer absolutely loves since everything in his kit scales extremely well off of ability power.

Arcane Comet in my opinion is the best and most consistent keystone rune to go on Heimerdinger. Summon Aery Used to be the best Sorcery keystone for Heimerdinger because it was able to proc off of every single source of damage from Heimerdinger (barring things like Ignite), but recently turrets were changed to also be able to proc Arcane Comet off of their autoattacks (although Heimers autos still do not proc comet). This recent change in my opinions has made Arcane Comet take the edge over Summon Aery in every lane besides possibly melee matchups. Arcane Comet as it stands now is quite great on Heimerdinger because not only does your entire kit proc it, but your entire kit ALSO lowers comets cooldown for every source of ability damage that hits an enemy champion (this INCLUDES turret lasers and autoattacks). In that late game, with multiple turrets attacking an enemy, the cooldown between Arcane Comet procs, without ANYTHING but just turret autoattacks, is mere seconds. Arcane Comet is proced even MORE frequently than that when you combo with spells.

In the first line of minor Sorcery runes, i default to Manaflow Band in most matchups because we can quickly and easily stack it, and after that point we get 250 extra mana to work with after every back plus a small amount of mana regen. While this rune isn't absolutely needed it is a VERY nice quality of life rune. However, if i am against a lot of AP threats such as an AP assassin mid and AP jungler, i will often go Nullifying Orb because it provides an extra line of defense against these champions. The cooldown on this rune is also VERY low (60s) so it will be up pretty much any time you're going to be all-ined.

In the second line of minor Sorcery runes, i go Absolute Focus for its additional AP which Heimer loves. The AP IS however conditional, but when combined with our secondary rune tree choices which offer us sustain, we will have the free AP from Absolute Focus up probably around 70% of the time. Another good all-around choice in this line of runes is Transcendence because it provides us with 10% CDR which is really nice on Heimer. The problem with this rune however is that it does NOTHING for us until level 10 and in the current meta of early game/snowball you want to be generally taking runes that give you something in the early game, ESPECIALLY on champions like Heimerdinger who already have a good early game, making it even better.

In the third line of minor Sorcery runes, i go Gathering Storm, frankly because everything else in this rune line is just pretty abysmal. Scorch used to be a good rune choice for Heimer, but since they changed it to having half the cooldown and damage, you have to proc it twice as often to get the most out of the damage, which just isn't realistic or worth it anymore. That, also combined with the fact that when Gathering Storm hits its first breakpoint, its most likely already going to be doing more than us than Scorch will, means there really is no reason to go it. Gathering Storm also provides us with some nice late game insurance, so that if the game does go on quite long, we only get stronger and stronger.

Domination is the secondary tree we choose for Heimerdinger it provides us a TON of health sustain over the coarse of a game.

The first Domination rune we opt to take is Taste of Blood. This runes provides us with a lot of nice lane sustain to try and stay topped off as much as possible and help win any sustain based war of attrition against enemy laners. Turrets themselves proc this rune, so its pretty easy for us to proc.

The second Domination rune we opt to take is Ravenous Hunter. This rune used to be amazing on Heimer because the healing it provided was 1:1 with H-28G Evolution Turret auto-attack damage, however post 9.7 the healing effectiveness on this rune is only 33.3%. That said i still very much like the feel of this rune and i always feel lacking in sustain when i skip it. Even though it is mostly a scaling rune, you will visibly be able to see your health slowing going up from your turrets. Also, when you DO get it stacked, the amount of sustain this rune provides is can feel quite nice since your turrets more often than not will be attacking things and healing you.

This set of runes, which takes Summon Aery instead of Arcane Comet is also a very good page to run. Although after the recent changes to turrets that allow them to proc Arcane Comet with their autoattacks, i generally now only take Summon Aery into melee matchups. Summon Aery enhances your autoattacks, so in melee matchups this extra added damage adds up to be a lot over the course of the early laning phase (its cooldown early is MUCH lower than Arcane Comet) and can help generate an advantage by poking your enemy laner out, denying him creeps or causing him to have bad back times.

This set of runes, which instead takes Domination primary and Sorcery secondary is also a great rune page that I know a lot of other Heimerdinger mains take. The main difference between this and Sorcery primary rune pages is it takes Electrocute and therefore is more burst oriented and less poke oriented. The extra burst of Electrocute feels VERY NICE, but my main problem with this page is that your main reliable way to proc this ability is stunning and comboing with your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade which has a very high base mana cost of 85, so procing Electrocute on cooldown is going to end up being quite mana costly. It is noting however that every H-28G Evolution Turret has unique auto-attacks that each (1 per turret) count towards procing Electrocute and the same applies to their turret lasers as well. In this rune setup Ghost Poro is often swapped out for Eyeball Collection and Absolute Focus or Gathering Storm is often swapped out for Manaflow Band as well.

With the recent nerf to Absolute Focus combined with the 66% healing reduction Ravenous Hunter gives from pets, the standard rune setup i usually go has received a bit of a hit, which has made other options a lot more appealing. I still prefer taking Domination as a secondary, but this rune setup taking Inspiration as a secondary (which is a VERY popular secondary choice right now) also is a very nice choice. With this setup we take take Transcendence (with probably an early Fiendish Codex buy after Luden's Tempest, for a quick 40% CDR) instead of Absolute Focus because we no longer have the reliable sustain from Domination, Biscuit Delivery for lane sustain and most likely Cosmic Insight for the 45% CDR, which feels REALLY nice to have. Perfect Timing Is also a viable option into lanes or team comps where you are going to NEED a Zhonya's Hourglass anyway (so the early free stopwatch can really save your butt) and Time Warp Tonic is also an okay option since we go Biscuit Delivery and likely Refillable Potion, but since Heimer doesn't go Corrupting Potion he wont get AS much use out of the rune as other champions.

This is the PERFECT first buy item if you're able to save up 1300g before your first back. Lost Chapter gives you everything you could ever want: CDR, Ability Power, mana/mana sustain and it builds into Luden's Tempest. If you are about to back and are close to being able to afford this item its often worth to try get the extra gold you need to get this item, but just be sure not to greed and overstay if you're low on resources or if there is a likely threat of being killed. If you CAN'T afford this item on a first back, you will want to pick up a mix of the other items below.

Generally always picked up after Lost Chapter as the final Luden's Tempest component, but if you back, cant finish Lost Chapter, aren't having any mana issues and feel like you can utilize the Blasting Wands high AP to get a kill in your lane or to pressure your opponent, it can be a pretty good buy.

A great early buy into an AD assassin lane that helps nullify some of the damage you might be taking from them. Generally, i will go this after Lost Chapter if i back but don't have full Luden's Tempest money and if I've been taking a lot of poke damage from enemy mid. The main champions this helps against are Zed with his Razor Shuriken poke and Living Shadow + Shadow Slash combo, and Talon with his Rake poke. If you're not taking much damage from these champions, its not really a necessary buy before Luden's Tempest, but you will likely be going Zhonya's Hourglass second item anyway, so it wouldn't be a bad buy still, even if to just cover your damage reduction needs in case you mess up and get chunked. Sometimes even just picking up a Cloth Armor early in this lane if you don't have the gold for other components is a nice buy as well.

If you don't have lost chapter money, a Dark Seal combined with Lost Chapter components feels pretty nice. If you're in a lane where you REALLY need mana to keep up, you might want to go Sapphire Crystal instead, but if your mana management has been fine, the extra AP and snowball potential of Dark Seal always is nice to have. Dark Seal is often bought along with Refillable Potion to get some nice extra healing from the potions and together they solve all your early game potion needs.

If you don't have Lost Chapter money, Boots combined with Dark Seal, Refillable Potion and or Lost Chapter components what you want to be getting. If i haven't felt like i need the extra Movement Speed in the early lane phase, it's not that high priority of a buy because we have our Hextech Affinity to help us out anyway, but in lanes where dodging are VERY important, like vs Xerath, Boots are REALLY good early buy to help us avoid as much poke as we can.

If you have an extra 150g left after backing, getting this item will solve all our potion needs for the rest of the game. This item is often combined with Dark Seal to make our potions even more efficient.

If you have 75g to spare on a back and don't already have a Control Ward in your inventory then you should ALWAYS buy one. Even if you have one out on the map currently, it's really nice to have the spare just in case it gets cleared. In league vision is crucial, so maximizing the vision you can have on the map is a no-brainer.

Sorcerer's Shoes are the main boot choice for AP mages in general. Since there are limited sources of Flat Magic Penetration in the game, its a no brainer to go these boots the vast majority of the time. The only times i would ever consider going another type of boots is if i was vs a full AD comp with auto attacks, where i would probably go Ninja Tabi or if i was vs a team where i really needed the Tenacity from Mercury's Treads to try and help deal with a team with either a lot of hard CC in general or some targeted hard CC (ie: cant be dodged).

Luden's Tempest is the best Lost Chapter item imo for Heimer. It gives you all the stats you want in an early game item (mana, AP, CDR, flat damage) and unique damage passive on Luden's Tempest is very nice for poking, bursting or even just clearing waves. While Archangel's Staff is a terrible item on Heimer because it takes a long time to scale up, I have heard of some other Heimer mains having good success with Everfrost. Everfrost provides similar stats to Luden's Tempest with a cheaper cost and a a nice active you can use to catch people out and land easy stuns. The main problem i have with Everfrost is that it has a much higher cooldown than the Luden's Tempest and Heimer is a champion that's looking to poke often so he makes full and quick use of the magic damage passive.

Zhonya's Hourglass is a great buy on Heimer, however it is purchased FAR too often in my opinion by a lot of other Heimer players. A lot of people get this after Luden's Tempest pretty much every game which is a really bad habit. You should ONLY go Zhonya's Hourglass that early if you NEED the unique stasis active, such as vs assassins mid ( Zed, Talon, Fizz, etc) or if you're vs a dive comp (like an enemy jungle Jarvan IV). If you buy Zhonya's Hourglass in situations where you really don't need the active, you are just wasting gold on a mediocre amount of stats and delaying other core items such as Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff.

Rabadon's Deathcap is basically a mandatory item on every AP champion these days. The raw amount of Ability Power and damage you get from this item is absolutely insane. This item is especially powerful on Heimerdinger because EVERYTHING in his kit scales VERY well off of AP. Each individual H-28G Evolution Turret auto-attack has a 30% AP ratio and each laser has a 55% AP ratio for example, which its pretty nuts when you look at how many of these you can pump out. Even H-28G Evolution Turret and H-28Q Apex Turret health scale off of AP, which feels very nice.

Void Staff is another item that's basically mandatory on all AP champions these days. Getting 40% total Magic Resist penetration can be a massive damage increase against enemy champs that have stacked Magic Resist. Even against squishy champions this item can be very nice because of the way the % Magic Penetration on Void Staff stacks with the Flat Magic Penetration of Sorcerer's Shoes and Oblivion Orb/ Morellonomicon. The % Magic Penetration of Void Staff is applied first and THEN the Flat Magic Penetration, so with these three items you will probably be doing True Damage with your skills to most squishies.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a fantastic item on Heimerdinger. It is incredibly cheap, provides decent stats and has a very powerful slow passive. This passive can be applied by all your spells and even your H-28G Evolution Turret turret autos or Luden's Tempest passive damage proc. While this item feels really nice to get, it still is pretty situational. Generally i pick up this item early if i don't REALLY need any of the other core items and I am against a team with 2-3+ melee champions that can be easily kited. This item is also a great item pickup if you're pretty behind and just want to provide some utility for your team.

Banshee's Veil is a decent item, but is REALLY situational. Even against a lot of AP assassins such as Fizz the active of Zhonya's Hourglass is simply just better and more reliable than what Banshee's Veil offers. Not to mention the fact that we are are in a meta where most mid laners rush Luden's Tempest and the passive damage splash from this item actually breaks the Banshee's Veil passive shield, making it useless a lot of the time. The main times i pick up this item is when I am vs AP champs that are looking to flash stun and combo me, namely Annie and Syndra.

Morellonomicon is a great go-to item for pretty much any AP mid laner. The main component of Morellonomicon which is Oblivion Orb can be picked up after Sorcerer's Shoes and Luden's Tempest pretty much every game because of how great Flat Magic Penetration is. From there, you generally only wan to finish Morellonomicon early if you are against a lot of champions that currently already heal a lot such as Vladimir, Sylas, Soraka, Sona, Dr. Mundo, a Draven that rushed Bloodthirster or etc. If you currently do not need the Grievous Wounds passive of Morellonomicon its fine to just sit on Oblivion Orb and work towards other more important core items until you do need to finish Morellonomicon.

Mejai's Soulstealer is pretty much "Snowball: The Item" for AP champions. Since Heimer LOVES AP this can be a great pickup when you've got a 10 stack Dark Seal and have a back with enough gold to get Mejai's Soulstealer but not really any other important item. When you combine Mejai's Soulstealer with Rabadon's Deathcap, our rune choices, Elixir of Sorcery and possibly Infernal Drakes/Baron buff you can get INSANE levels of Ability Power.

Liandry's Torment until recently in my opinion was a really mediocre item on Heimer that you would only really ever want if you either had nothing else to buy or REALLY needed to do some tank busting vs HP stacking champions. However, in patch 9.6 H-28G Evolution Turret were changed to now apply the % Max Health burn passive of Liandry's Torment with their auto-attacks which is a MASSIVE buff to this item for Heimer so now, its just a great purchase in general. The problem with this item in my opinion though is that Sorcerer's Shoes, Luden's Tempest, Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff all are generally just more important buys, and going Liandry's Torment before some of these just delay their crucial power spikes.

Item Order

Pretty much every game you're going to want to go Sorcerer's Shoes → Luden's Tempest → Oblivion Orb (although Oblivion Orb isn't AS mandatory, as other items still often take priority) but then after that EVERY item buy is situational. Basically after this point you want to look at every item i listed above and think about which you would need more. Vs a dive comp/AD assassin and cant play the game without Zhonya's Hourglass? Then thats your next buy. Does the enemy team have a ton of healing that you need to cut down? Morellonomicon. Are you snowballing, back with 1250g+ and don't need the other items? Work towards Rabadon's Deathcap. Same scenario but you have a 10 stack Dark Seal and 1050g but not 1250g? Mejai's Soulstealer. There's no way i can run though every possible scenario and list the items you should buy for them, its a skill that generally comes with your game knowledge as you play more games. If you're a newer Heimerdinger player the best you can do what i said earlier which is thinking about every item i listed above after the core items, then going for the one you think you need most next.

Hextech Affinity is Heimerdinger's passive ability. When you're within 300 range of an ally turret (Turret/ H-28G Evolution Turret/ H-28Q Apex Turret) you gain 20% Bonus Movement Speed. Heimers passive ability before his somewhat recent mini rework used to be passive hp regen for him and his allies, but this new passive is much more directly useful. This passive gives us the ability to kite around inside our turret fields, dodge abilities, aids in escaping ganks and etc. Since Heimerdinger otherwise is a completely immobile mage, this passive ability is very useful.

H-28G Evolution Turret is Heimerdinger's Q ability. Heimer uses a Spare Part (which are generated every 20 seconds (effected by CDR) and build up to a cap of 3 Spare Parts) to place a automated turret next to him at up to 350 range. These turrets fire a basic attack at the lowest HP target within its range, or will change to any target Heimer auto-attacks or uses abilities on (be CAREFUL however, as this is a single target ability which will draw minion aggro Heimerdinger). These turrets charge a beam at 1.11% per second (this passive charge is effected by CDR but still is largely negligible) but can be 100% charged by landing all 5 Hextech Micro-Rockets or your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade (or their upgraded variants) on an enemy champion and turrets within 1000 range of the enemy, causing them to fire a piercing laser at the nearest in-range enemy champion or minion if no enemy champion is still in range. These ability activated lasers are Heimers main means of combo-ing, so you need get really good at landing your skillshots in order to be truly good at Heimer. This ability is generally maxed second as it mainly only gains laser base damage with each level and a minuscule amount of turret auto damage, while it scales better generally just with AP and champion levels. More creative and detailed usage of this ability will be discussed later in the guide.

Hextech Micro-Rockets Is Heimerdinger's W ability. Heimer shoots out a wave of 5 rockets (starting slightly behind him) that converge on the point you aim at, and spread back out after this convergence point until it hits its maximum range of 1325 or hits an enemy. Each of these rockets charge your H-28G Evolution Turret lasers by 20% for hitting them on an enemy champion, or by 100% for hitting all 5 against an enemy champion. This ability deals slightly less damage damage with consecutive rockets to minions beyond the first (60% of the initial rocket damage) and significantly less damage with consecutive rockets to champions beyond the first (20% of the initial rocket damage). Because of this damage reductions to champions, you're generally fine just poking an enemy laner with 1 rocket since it contains most of the damage, but hitting multiple obviously is ideal as it deals more damage, but this isn't as easy or guaranteed as just hitting the one can be. This ability is maxed first because its Heimers main source of wavedclear/reliable poke and because both its cooldown and base damage increase with every ability level. More creative and detailed usage of this ability will be discussed later in the guide.

CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade Is Heimerdinger's E ability. Heimer lobs a grenade over enemies to the point you aim at up to a maximum range of 970. This grenade will stun enemies within 135 units of the landing point or slow enemies between 136 and 250 units of the landing point, charging all nearby H-28G Evolution Turret lasers fully. This ability is maxed last because it only increases its base damage with every ability level and because its primarily a utility skill or catalyst for turret laser combos. More creative and detailed usage of this ability will be discussed later in the guide.

UPGRADE!!! Is Heimerdinger's R (Ultimate) ability. Heimer empowers his next basic ability, giving them new and unique effects. After 3 seconds of using UPGRADE!!!, if you have not used an ability then it can be recast to set it back on a 3 second cooldown, however the mana cost is NOT refunded. Note: Upgraded abilities and standard abilities (EXCEPT H-28Q Apex Turret, which will be discussed later) share the same cooldowns so you CANNOT use CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade and CH-3X Lightning Grenade succession for example. Important note: Heimerdinger's upgraded abilities scale ONLY with your UPGRADE!!! level, and NOT basic ability level, so it is often optimal to use the ultimate of an ability you do NOT have maxed. Heimerdinger's upgraded abilities consist of:

H-28Q Apex Turret is the upgraded version of H-28G Evolution Turret. Heimer places a larger turret withing 450 units (CURRENTLY BUGGED TO 350 UNITS) that deals more damage, has more health, more range, and charges 12.5% of its own laser every second. Hextech Micro-Rockets and CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade also charge its beam, just like your un-upgraded turrets. This turret also goes beyond the normal 3 turrets placed cap, meaning you can have your 3 H-28G Evolution Turret and 1 H-28Q Apex Turret placed at the same time. This ability is generally used in split teamfights, for zoning, objective taking, or 2v1s. More creative and detailed usage of this ability will be discussed later in the guide.

Hextech Rocket Swarm is the upgraded version of Hextech Micro-Rockets. Heimer launches 4 waves of rockets, similar to those in the basic ability. These rockets deal reduced damage beyond the first and even more reduced damage beyond the fifth. This ability is generally used to front-load burst (high upfront damage, minimum reaction time) targets you stun, clear waves and execute enemies outside of your regular Hextech Micro-Rockets damage range or enemies in fog of war (more missiles means more chance of hitting them). Each rocket hitting a nearby enemy champion charges nearby turrets by 20%, just like the basic ability. More creative and detailed usage of this ability will be discussed later in the guide.

CH-3X Lightning Grenade is the upgraded version of CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade. Heimer lobs a bouncing grenade which that has increased range and bounces 3 times. Each landing point stuns/slows in an area around it that is larger than the basic ability area. Successive hits on the same champion do not do extra damage but CAN reapply its CC if its able to (ex: an enemy spellshields or or uses Quicksilver Sash on the first bounce). Consecutive bounces however DO damage minions and monsters with each bounce, dealing its full damage every time. Each bounce hitting a nearby enemy champion charges nearby turrets by 100%, just like the basic ability. This ability is by far Heimers best upgraded ability because it has huge range, multiple CC points (making it great in teamfights, ESPECIALLY in funnel points), easily activates nearby H-28G Evolution Turret lasers and is MUCH more reliable of a CC than the basic CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade. This ability is generally used in teamfights, to stun and burst an enemy with more accuracy than the normal CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, to steal objectives when combined with Hextech Micro-Rockets and in general is our most reliable ability overall. More creative and detailed usage of this ability will be discussed later in the guide.

28G Evolution Turret - Tips, Tricks and Usage

H-28G Evolution Turret Functionality and Interactions:

• When placed turrets will attack the closest nearby enemy unit.
• Turrets will attempt to attack the same targets as any other turrets in range.
• Heimerdingers autoattacks and abilities apply a refreshing high priority mark on enemies, causing turrets to target them.
• Being attacked by enemies causes turrets in range to swap focus to them.
• Turrets have a moderate sight range to them.
• When out of range of turrets, they go on an 8 second timer, and if you do not come back within range in that time, they will deactivate. This can be used for neat tricks by being JUST out of activation range of turrets, baiting them to come clear it, and then unexpectedly combing them.
• Deactivated turrets have a reduced sight range.
• Turrets snapshot your AP/your level when you place them, and do NOT update as your AP changes or as your level changes. They DO however update their Magic Penetration values as if you gain some.
• Blinds such as Teemos Blinding Dart can blind H-28G Evolution Turrets if used directly on them.
• Jaxs Counter Strike will block H-28G Evolution Turret autoattacks.
• Pantheons Aegis Protection will not block H-28G Evolution Turret autoattacks.
• H-28G Evolution Turrets will passively charge their lasers at a rate of 1.11% per second (reduced by Cooldown Reduction), however this passive charging is largely negligible.
• Melee autoattacks (including Sheen and similar items) do 40% increased damage to H-28G Evolution Turrets.
• Killing a H-28G Evolution Turret grants 5g and 0cs to the enemy that kills it.

H-28G Evolution Turret stats:

Turret placement in lane:

Generally you want to keep your turrets in a loose triangle, as seen in this picture below:


At the start of the game (assuming you don't invade as a team), you do NOT want to just go and place all 3 turrets immediately, instead, you want to just start by placing one, then continue to place more right before you hit the turret cap until you have all three down. You want to do this because it means you will then always have reserve turrets in case some fight or flank happens and because the less turrets that are down, the easier they are to protect from enemies attempting to clear them. How far apart you place these turrets depend on the matchup. You want to place them as close to each other as you can so that lasers from each turret are in range and have the best chance of hitting the opponent, but not close enough that the turrets can be hit along with the wave by an AoE ability. As the waves generally start crashing in-front of or behind the center point of the lane, you generally want to inch the triangle forward one turret at a time, to maximize the uptime of your turrets and keep as many in reserve as you can (as opposed to recreating an entirely new triangle forwards or backwards in the lane). An example of a triangle that's been moved forward one turret from the default center point of the lane is seen below:


Another important point to talk about is when a fresh wave is about to crash into your turret triangle which would cost you 1-2 turrets, in this case you can let these turrets fall if you have plenty in reserve OR you can save these turrets simply by tanking the wave while your minions catch up, and then guide the minions back into your minions, wherever you want the waves to crash into each other. Forcing the waves to crash further ahead in the lane saves turrets and gives you mid priority but does have the disadvantage of making you easier to gank, so use your best judgement as to when to do it. While the turret triangle is great to use you do NOT always have to use it. Sometimes you can just use 1-2 turrets forward in the lane if they're being killed easily for example, of if you want to place some further back defensively in case of a gank. If you're in a REALLY bad lane where turrets are dying almost instantly, you should try and conserve as many as you can so that you have them when they really matter (all-ins, 1v2s, 2v1s, etc) and just try and shove the wave with Hextech Micro-Rockets and a minimal amount of turrets.

Turret placement out of lane:

Out of lane, turret placement is extremely situational and open ended. I most likely will not be able to describe all situations and their related turret positioning but i will do my best to cover most of the important or frequent ones that come to mind.

• Contesting Scuttle Crabs:
  When you have lane priority and are the first of the mid laners to rotate to help your jungler secure the scuttle you can use turrets differently depending on the enemy junglers current position to help secure the crab and possibly even a summoner or kill. If the enemy jungler is already between you and your jungler you can place turrets between you and him to cut off his escape and then place more turrets closer to/in range of him depending on the skirmish plays out, and 2v1 him. If the enemy jungle has not yet entered the river, you can place turrets between you, the scuttle and where the enemy jungler is coming from. This means if the enemy jungle wants try and get to scuttle he has to come through your turrets and you. In this case your turret will also auto-attack the Scuttle Crab and cause him to scuttle away towards your jungler
  
  
• Dragon taking note:
  When taking Dragon and there's a decent chance of it being stolen by the enemy jungler (say from a Lee Sin, whos great at stealing Dragon by using his Resonating Strike + Smite combo), do NOT place turrets in the pit. Heimerdingers H-28G Evolution Turret take very little damage from Dragon so they can tank its hits for quite a while and not reset its aggro, which traps Dragon in the pit making it vulnerable to being stolen.
  
  
• Blue Side Dragon Taking:
  When taking a Dragon on blue side you have 3 directions enemies can come from: blue buff, from the left (via mid lane or the back of blue), and from the right (bot lane). In this case you want to place your turrets near the lightly spaced around the front of the dragon pit (usually 2) and keep one ore more in reserve. Then if enemies begin to approach from a direction you have extra turrets in reserve to place away from the Dragon to help zone them away from your team.
  
  
  Blue Side Dragon Taking

  
  
  
• Red Side Dragon Taking:
  When taking a Dragon on red side you have 3 directions enemies can come from: over the back of the pit, from the left side (mid lane/raptors) or from the right(bot lane/tri brush). If you're starting a fresh dragon with no enemies nearby, i usually ward over the back wall (or turret over the back wall as turrets grant vision, but you should only do that as a last resort for vision as it gives away you're doing the objective) and place a turret directly at the back of the pit. Putting the turret here means i can combo or poke anyone who comes close to ward the pit. Then as we continue to take the dragon i place more turrets towards any side enemies seem to be approaching from. If they are playing back and hesitant i will place the turret inside the pit near near he edge from where they're approaching so i can combo them if they approach, or if they're playing closer and trying to come in early i place turret(s) directly in the river to zone them away from my team.
  
  
  Red Side Dragon Taking

  
  
  
• Blue Side Baron Taking:
  When taking baron from on blue side you want to place your turrets along the right side of the pit spread out towards red buff and ward over the back wall. This placement means you're able to combo anyone who approaches from the topside of red or the botside of red. If enemies try and move in through the right in the river, you can rotate turrets down the edge to the right lip, so you can combo anyone approaching from the river but near the topside walls. If they approach along the center or bottom of the river you should rotate your turrets down towards the center front of the pit, or possibly in the river itself to zone depending on the situations. In this last scenario youre often faced with the decision of either continue to DPS the baron down, or turn and fight, so you will have to use your best judgement in these cases.
  
  
  Blue Side Baron Taking

  
  
  
• Red Side Baron Taking:
  When taking baron from on the red side you want to place your turrets spread out along the front side of the pit. A proper spread should be enough to cover enemies approaching from all blue side direction.
  
  
  Red Side Baron Taking

  
  
  
• General Placement Out of Lane:
  Outside of the scenarios i Have discussed, how you position your H-28G Evolution Turret out of lane is EXTREMELY situational. Generally you want to focus on putting your turrets in offensive or defensive positions/arrangements depending on the situation while trying to keep all of the other things i mentioned about your turrets in mind. This is something that will take time and a lot of games to get the game knowledge about, but if you really put the effort in a lot of the placement simply becomes second nature and you don't actively think about it as much.

Do NOT sit on 3 reserve turrets:
NEVER sit on all 3 of your reserved turrets unless they are ALL in they're optimal locations. Even then, refreshing these turrets can be helpful as they will now have max HP and updated stats (since Heimer's turrets snapshot his stats when the are initially placed, and do NOT update as your stats change).

Turrets can be placed over most walls:
H-28G Evolution Turret and H-28Q Apex Turret can be placed over all but the thickest of walls. They act pretty much the same as wards in that if they are past the halfway point of the wall they will be pushed to the nearest valid position on the side they are closest to. After a while you can get used to doing this with smart cast, but starting out or if you want to be precise you can toggle the indicator and try and place them inside the wall, towards the opposite side of the wall and past the middle of it, like so:


Some good uses of this trick are:

• Placing a turret over a wall to get vision (since active turrets have a moderate vision radius to them).
  
  
• Placing turrets over walls to combo. The closer a turret is to the enemy the more likely you are to hit lasers on them as the less distance the laser has to travel, so placing turrets over walls to combo over the wall is optimal.
  
  
• Simply dropping turrets over a wall to add damage to a fight you can't otherwise get to.
  
  
• You can place a turret over a wall that an enemy flashes over such that it grants vision of said target and can possibly target them and finish them off if they are on low health.
  
  
• Doing objectives over walls. Camps and even Dragon/Baron can be done completely over walls as Heimer. For things like basic buffs or camps you can just place 1 turret over to grant visions, then more turrets to tank and DPS and then use your other abilities to burst the camp. Doing Dragon/Baron over the back of the walls is a bit more involved so i will cover them in the next section instead.

Turrets can be blastconed:
You can place turrets around blastcone plants and pop them all over the wall at once, which can be useful in a few situations:

• Popping a turret over the wall towards Baron to grant vision of the area (as popping the turret over this way instead of just placing it over will send the turret further/closer to the pit.
  
  
• You can place and pop a few turrets over walls to surprise and burst unsuspecting down from over the walls. Bursting them this way basically instantly places all 3 turrets near them.
  
  
• Popping turrets over walls to combo a team on Dragon/Baron. You can pop a blastcone and send 3 turrets over a wall against a team trying to take one of these objectives. You should either do it right when they start it to get them off, or right near the end and combine the turrets popping over with the objective stealing combo which i will discuss later in the guide (although its simply CH-3X Lightning Grenade + Hextech Micro-Rockets in quick succession).

Turrets can block abilities:
Our H-28G Evolution Turret can block/absorb any skillshots that stop on collision with units, this hugely swings some matchups in our favor once you get used to/fast enough at predicatively or reactively placing them. For example in matchups against champions with key pick abilities such as Zoe and her Sleepy Trouble Bubble or Morgana and her Dark Binding, the ability to consistently block these dangerous skillshot greatly hinders their ability to make any picks on your our nearby allies. Also, you can use this tactic into any of the hook champions such as Blitzcrank, Pyke, Thresh, Nautilus and etc to completely block their ability to ever hook you, which makes Heimer a fantastic choice into these champions. I cant count how many times I have had these hook champions attempt to flash hook me, just to get it blocked by a well timed turret.

Note about csing when using turrets:
When it comes to csing minions that are in range of your turrets, you sometimes kind of have to go with the flow of what the turrets are doing rather than try and dictate their targeting. What i mean by this is that by forcing a turret to swap aggro from a low minion to another low minion may cause you to just miss both CS, so its sometimes better to just go about it one CS at a time, following what your turrets are focusing.

Wave management when using turrets:
Due to the nature of H-28G Evolution Turrets automatically attacking creeps within range, Heimerdinger naturally pushes the wave, meaning you cant force a freeze unless you move your turrets off the wave (although you can still freeze and sometimes use a turret in the early game to help with csing a bit). The problem with this is CSing without turrets, and without spamming abilities (ie: just with autoattacks) can be a bit annoying and takes a LOT of practice to get down, ESPECIALLY if you have a decent wave size and they all target 1-2 minions which can make the timing extremely precise. Thankfully permashoving the wave is often the best thing to do on Heimerdinger as it gives you priority to help your jungler, pressure tower, poke the enemy laner under tower, or look for good backs or roams. The only times I really attempt a freeze are when I am behind and want really safe CS or possibly if I am really ahead and want to deny CS or force them to be forward in the lane, becoming vulnerable to a gank.

Hextech Micro-Rockets - Tips, Tricks and Usage

Rockets start BEHIND your model:
Hextech Micro-Rockets actually start slightly behind Heimerdingers model, so you can hit enemy minions or champions behind you with minimum possible delay/reaction time.

Rockets can be "fanned":
By placing the cursor close to Heimerdinger, you can fan out the rockets over a very large area. This is VERY useful because the initial rocket damage does about half of the total damage of the ability.


There are quite a few situations this trick can be useful in:

• It can be used to deal near-guaranteed poke damage against an enemy champion. Against champions that can be slippery and hard to hit with a full Hextech Micro-Rockets, its really nice to be able to just fan it out and make sure you get consistent poke in.
  
  
• It is also useful in situations where multiple enemies are spread out in front of you, as hitting both enemies with 1 rocket each effectively deals the abilities full damage overall despite only hitting 2/5 rockets on enemies.
  
  
• If a low HP target flashes over a wall into fog of war, and there are multiple directions they could go once they are over, you can fan your rockets to make sure you don't miss and that you secure the kill.

You can use rockets to pierce a wave AND hit an enemy champion:
If there an enemy champion hiding behind a enemy minion, you can use your rockets to both kill the creep with the first few rockets, and hit the final rockets on the enemy champions. This is exceptionally easy because rockets deal a ton of damage to minions and can be even easier when you get more points in you rockets and if the enemy minions is low.


Rockets are an excellent fog of war check:
Hextech Micro-Rockets has a pretty good range to it (1325 units) and covers a very wide area when fanned, so it is an excellent tool to use for checking brushes or fog of war for enemies or objectives.

CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade - Tips, Tricks and Usage

Fishing for stuns:
CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade has a very long travel time/slow projectile speed, which generally makes the ability hard to hit. Most of the time in lane, when you use it, it will be for disengage or you will be "fishing". What i mean by "fishing" is you're throwing out your stun predicatively to a position you think your enemy is going to move to. These predictions generally aren't something that can be taught, its something you have to learn through playing the game and by acquiring gamesense and the ability to read patterns in your enemy. That said, i can share the most common example of fishing for a stun, which is throwing a stun, as an enemy goes to cs, at the location they will have to be in to last hit one of your minions (this ESPECIALLY applies to cannon minions, as people GREED for these HARD, especially at lower elos). The exact distance/location of these depends on the enemy laners autoattack range or if they plan to use an ability to do it. You generally need to "feel it out" against most people, which gets back to having to develop gamesense and the ability to read people, but it eventually becomes mostly second nature.


Note: Be VERY careful when stun fishing against certain champions, like assassins, as they can HEAVILY punish you for wasting your grenade cooldown.

Target distance = stun delay:
Due to CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade having a very long travel time/slow projectile speed, it takes longer to hit targets that are further away. However, the inverse is also true; enemies that are closer to you take less time be hit and when enemies are practically on top of you, the ability comes out almost instantly (its purely just the cast time when throwing it 0 units away). This is a VERY important thing to point out, as it gives you a near-guaranteed stun on enemies that are going to jump on you (like Jax, Xin Zhao and etc), which allows you to disengage or burst them down.

Grenades grants vision:
CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade briefly grants vision when thrown into fog of war. This can be useful for doing things such as checking objectives/brushes or starting a combo on someone over a wall (note: the vision only lasts long enough to get one volley of lasers). Although BE CAREFUL, CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade is your only utility skill, so you should not just be throwing it out willy-nilly.

H-28Q Apex Turret - Tips, Tricks and Usage

H-28Q Apex Turret stats:

Heimerdingers H-28Q Apex Turret can be pretty situational, but generally if a fight is breaking out and enemies aren't lining up for a good multi-man CH-3X Lightning Grenade stun, then it can be a solid option. Some example situations where it can be worth considering are:

• When getting 2v1ed and the enemies aren't lining up to stun both, you can put your H-28Q Apex Turret down and kite back away from enemies, since its autoattacks slow, or you can use it to burst someone who jumps on top of you.
  
  
  2v1

  
  
  
• When fighting, or about to fight a very spaced out teamfight away from chokepoints, when it will be difficult or unlikely to hit multiple people. Just placing H-28Q Apex Turret down will slow people coming from dangerous flank directions and might deter a disadvantageous fight in general.
  
  
  Spread Out Teamfight

  
  
  
• H-28Q Apex Turret can be very useful for zoning When doing an objective and most of the enemy team tries to approach from one area/direction. Dropping H-28Q Apex Turret means they would have to pass through or focus it down while they're constantly being slowed, damaged and at risk of being engaged on if they try to continue to approach the objective.
  
  
  Zoning An Objective

  
  
  
• If you know you're about to be CCed and you're unable to avoid it, its often a good idea to just put down H-28Q Apex Turret to to get some damage and slows out and possibly set up for a turn or combo if you manage to survive.
  
  
  Using RQ Before Being CCED

RQ autos slow:
The autoattacks of H-28Q Apex Turret slow by 25% for 1 second, so it can be a great tool to setup combos. If an enemy is in low-medium range of you, you can put it down, wait for the auto then start the combo while they are slowed, which should be guaranteed providing they have no mobility skill left. Even then, you can sometimes catch them after they flash/use a mobility skill, if the turret fires an auto before they use it, as the autoattack will travel with them.

RQ is great at tanking objectives:
H-28Q Apex Turret is great at tanking Baron, it has a ton of health and will absorb the bulk of the barons damage besides the unavoidable AoE. Turrets tanking Baron also prevents you from receiving the "BARON'S GAZE" debuff, which reduces damage you would have done to him by 50%. With enough Ability Power and proper placement Heimerdinger can completely solo Baron, however i will go into this more in a future section.


RQ can be used when lacking other cooldowns:
If you need damage to finish someone off right now, and have no other cooldowns, you can just place H-28Q Apex Turret and let it do the work. You can even do this against low HP targets who flash over the wall.

Hextech Rocket Swarm - Tips, Tricks and Usage

RW moves with you:
Heimers Hextech Rocket Swarm has the weird property that it fire 4 waves of rockets that each originate from Heimers current position at the firing of each wave. They also all fire after a short cast time, and it is not a channeled ability. These odd qualities can be used in some interesting ways such as:

• You can walk while firing the Hextech Rocket Swarm, dragging the rockets out over a larger area:
  
  
  Rocket Walking
  
  
• You can flash mid- Hextech Rocket Swarm and hit multiple targets with seperate waves:
  
  
  RW + Flash
  
  
• You can use Zhonya's Hourglass mid- Hextech Rocket Swarm (RW -> Zhonyas in quick succession as the Zhonyas will be buffered in as soon as the Hextech Rocket Swarm cast time ends) to stasis while the bulk of the rockets are being fired out:
  
  
  RW + Zhonyas

RW is GREAT for waveclrearing:
Hextech Rocket Swarm can instantly clear an entire minion wave, INCLUDING cannon waves and your UPGRADE!!! has a really short 100/85/70 second cooldown (60/51/42 seconds with 40% CDR). This can help you in various ways and can be used when:

• Your enemy laner backs while the waves are crashing in the middle of the lane, so you can ult the enemy minions and shove the wave in, denying him gold and exp to creeps that die to tower.
  
  
• You want to back right NOW for some reason (low hp, lots of gold, etc), so you can instantly clear the wave and guarantee yourself a good back, missing minimum minions.
  
  
• The enemy backs while your already at their tower (presumable by you chunking them out) so you can ult the next incoming wave, causing a massive wave of your own minions to build up on the tower, doing a lot of damage to it and forcing someone to come respond to it.

RW can be fanned too:
Similar to Hextech Micro-Rockets, if the enemy team is low HP and spread out over a large area and your CH-3X Lightning Grenade doesn't look like a good choice, you can fan the Hextech Rocket Swarm to hit them all. You can also do the Rocket Walking trick cover even more of the area of the direction you're shooting towards.


RW fanning is a great option for executes in fog:
If a low HP (but not low enough to die to Hextech Micro-Rockets) enemy flashes over a wall into fog of war, with multiple exit routes, you can simply fan Hextech Rocket Swarm, into fog of war to execute them. You can add the Rocket Walking trick once again to cover more area.

CH-3X Lightning Grenade - Tips, Tricks and Usage

Use RE vs funnels and chokes:
In any situation where enemies funnel into corridors/chokes or just group/huddle together in general, this should be your go to ability in every one of those scenarios. Generally the only times you should use H-28Q Apex Turret or Hextech Rocket Swarm is if one of their specific use conditions is met.


RE vs spellshields and cleanses:
As stated previously in the guide, CH-3X Lightning Grenade is able to stun someone, be Quicksilver Sashed or Cleansed and stun them again on a consecutive bounce. CH-3X Lightning Grenade will also break spellshields on the first bounce (like Malzahar's Void Shift, Morgana's Black Shield and Sivir's Spell Shield) and stun them on consecutive bounce.

Landing the stun isn't 100% necessary:
Even if you do not stun a target, they are still slowed by 80% for 2 seconds, which is still a pretty strong CC.

Do NOT underestimate the range of the ability:
I don't have an exact measurement of the maximum range of the final bounce of this ability, but I have estimated it at about 1450-1550 units, which is massive. You can even to Flash + CH-3X Lightning Grenade if you see a great stun opportunity, or are chasing a fleeing opponent and really have to.

Do NOT underestimate the width/area of this ability:
As seen in some of the pictures above, the hitbox of all of the CH-3X Lightning Grenade bounces are pretty big. The total area pretty much covers an entire jungle corridor, and the stun area is about half of that.

• Due to a bug introduced in patch 8.24, using H-28Q Apex Turret into H-28G Evolution Turret is nearly instant. There's supposed to be an internal cooldown between placing any type of turret, but RQ into Q is merely cast time with no internal cooldown. This little bug is taken advantage of in a lot of out combos. Note that i HAVE contacted Riot multiple times, in multiple different ways trying to get this and some of Heimer's remaining bugs fixed, but they still have not been fixed.
  
  
  RQ + Q
  
  
• Heimer can REALLY abuse cannon waves because of how turret aggro works. When a cannon wave hits the enemy tower, and the aggro switches to the cannon minion, you can drop multiple H-28G Evolution Turret or even H-28Q Apex Turret too and do some serious damage. This also works without a cannon minion, but you have to lead with H-28Q Apex Turret after the aggro switches to a healthy melee minion because melee minions can only tank 3 shots.
  
  
• If someone uses Teleport nearby (ex: on a minion, tower, ward for a flank) Heimer is EXTREMELY good at bursting people that TP near him because you have time to setup your turrets and do an ideal full combo. This trick is even MORE useful nowadays since they made Teleport unable to be cancelled.
  
  
  Bursting a Target Using Teleport
  
  
• Heimer is very good at counter-sieging because your CH-3X Lightning Grenade and H-28G Evolution Turret will both clear a wave and damage enemy champions, which often allows you to follow up with a clean shot of Hextech Micro-Rockets as well. People rarely expect this and even if you don't get a kill, you often still deter the siege and possibly get summoners.
  
  
  Countersiege Oneshot
  
  
• Heimer is an excellent champion at stealing Baron and Dragon but there's a common misconception that Hextech Rocket Swarm is the best ability for it. Hextech Rocket Swarm Deals a lot of damage but its somewhat staggered and it able to be blocked by enemies. In my opinion, the best way to steal baron is through timing the hit of your CH-3X Lightning Grenade and Hextech Micro-Rockets. Since we max Hextech Micro-Rockets first i find its better to upgrade our stun and combo that with our rockets and if done correctly should easily out-damage smite. Not only that but each bounce of CH-3X Lightning Grenade damages monsters again, giving more opportunities to steal if you miss the initial timing. On top of that, you can use combo your CH-3X Lightning Grenade with H-28G Evolution Turret beams for even MORE AoE damage that can steal the objective, or at least even pick up some kills on the champions doing the objective.
  
  
• Heimer can very easily solo objectives, without any help form his team whatsoever. Dragon is honestly a joke to take, and Baron while being a lot harder is feasible with enough AP from snowballing or just having a game to late.
  
  • Soloing Dragon: You can pretty much solo Dragon after 1-2 items VERY easily. If you're doing dragon from the front you can just spread your H-28G Evolution Turrets out so they don't get hit by its attacks and just DPS it down with turrets and abilities. If you notice your turrets not lasting that long (early in the game/low AP), you can just tank the Dragon to keep your turrets alive, otherwise your H-28G Evolution Turrets can just tank everything with no issues. You are also able to do the Dragon from behind the pit, completely outside of it. You just need to be far enough along in the game so that your turrets have decent health, then just spread them out over the back of the pit to avoid AoE attacks from the dragon. This can be a very useful trick if you have the appropriate vision control or lane priorities/towers taken to be able to do it without the enemy jungler just walking up and smiting it.
    
    
    Dragon over the Back Wall

    
    
    
  • Soloing Baron: Taking baron on your own is a bit more tricky. Generally, if its still early into the game (20-25m) you're going to want 450-500 ability power at least to be able to do it. The amount of AP you need, or how comfortably you can do it gets lower and lower for each Mountain Dragon you have. Infernal Dragon also helps by boosting your Ability Power. When you want to solo Baron post spawn from the front, you're going to want to drop H-28Q Apex Turret close to Baron to take aggro and tank, then quickly place your H-28G Evolution Turrets spread out behind your H-28Q Apex Turret, while staggering your other abilities in between internal cooldowns of your H-28G Evolution Turret to maximize your DPS.
    
    
    Soloing Baron
    
    Baron is also able to be taken over the back wall solo, HOWEVER this is significantly harder than it used to be because our H-28Q Apex Turret placement range currently is bugged to 350 units instead of 450, so we can't easily place it out in front of our H-28G Evolution Turrets to tank the barons hits. You can still do it if you have really high Ability power or if you manage to get your H-28Q Apex Turret out further than your H-28G Evolution Turrets so it tanks all the barons hits, but since the bug appeared I've generally moved away from doing this unless i'm in a game with absurd amounts of Ability Power.
    
    
    Soloing Baron Over the Back Wall
    
    If you don't want to/can't solo Baron, then if you have someone to tank the damage for you then it makes taking Baron ridiculously easy. Additionally if you set up your turrets before Baron even spawns, it can make taking it slightly easier because you don't lose some time having to setup at the objective (you always have all 3 turrets DPSing from the start).
• Brush camping is another important trick of Heimers. Basically, you setup in a brush where someone is likely to walk to/through/check, then blow them up with a combo. You want to setup 3 of your H-28G Evolution Turret and then either do CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade + Hextech Rocket Swarm against a singular person who is walking in a predictable fashion (like auto-pathing) or CH-3X Lightning Grenade + Hextech Micro-Rockets vs a group or someone who is walking somewhat erratically. The former is harder to land, but potentially saves your ultimate if you miss, the latter is more reliable but wastes its cooldown if you miss. When looking to brushcamp, here are some things you should keep in mind:
  
  • If placing near an active camp (Raptors, Red Buff, etc) you should make sure to place them in the brush, but out of range of targeting the camp, so you don't aggro it.
    
    
    Red Brushcamp

    
    
    
  • Setting up at the edge of the brush closest to where the enemy might approach from will mean you can hit them as soon as possible/at the max distance away from the brush. This also however makes them harder to hit since they are furthest away.
    
    
    Front Brushcamp

    
    
    
  • Setting up on the end of the brush furthest away from where the enemy might approach from means you are more likely to land a stun if they walk towards it (as your stun has to travel less of a distance/the enemy has less time to react) but risks them checking/warding the brush more easily.
    
    
    Back Brushcamp

    
    
    
  • You can camp in the top/bot lane brushes without aggroing moving lane minions but placing turrets into the wall as far as you can.
    
    
    Botlane Brushcamp

    
    
    
  • Don't be afraid to get creative! Some of the most common areas to camp can get predictable so feel free to experiment and find new and interesting places to setup and camp.
    
    
    Brushcmap Examples

    Yellow = Setup spots, Red = Possible enemy paths
    

Before going into the combos, i have a few terms that i use that i want to familiarize you with. These Terms are:

• Frontloaded Damage: Is when you do the most damage, in the shortest amount of time, giving the enemy the least amount of time to respond to your burst.
  
  
• Backloaded Damage: Is when you do more damage than frontloaded damage, but its over a longer period of time, giving the enemy a longer time to be able to react.
  
  
• Ability Buffering: When you use an ability, in the middle of the cast animation of another ability. This "buffers" in this next ability to be cast as soon as physically possible.
  
  
• "X + Y": Symbolizes using X ability and buffering in Y ability immediately afterwards.
  
  
• "X → Y": Symbolizes a brief pause after using X ability/before using Y ability.

When it comes to Heimerdinger's combos, most of the frontloaded combos will do all of their damage within the stun time of your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade or CH-3X Lightning Grenade (assuming the enemy has no tenacity), while the backloaded combos give some time for the enemy to dodge the last volley of turret lasers. This means you should always use your frontloaded combos if it will kill the target, otherwise you have to resort to the backloaded combo to try and kill them with the extra, albeit unreliable, damage.

Note: In the H-28Q Apex Turret combos we utilize the RQ → Q trick, but there are times when you can't afford to place the extra turret even though its placement is simply its cast time because there are scenarios where you cant afford to wait that extra split second.

Combo limiting factors:

• There is a short delay after a turret charges and begins firing a laser before we are able to charge it again. If you go to early you will either not charge or only partially charge the laser depending on the ability.
  
  
• There is an internal cooldown between placing our normal H-28G Evolution Turrets, so we have to both add in abilities during these cooldowns for combos and sometimes wait for this internal cooldown to end so we can finish our combos (mainly needs to be done for the backloaded combos using our Hextech Micro-Rockets).

E → Q

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: The most basic of Heimer's combos. Its the "bread and butter" combo for Heimer that we build off of for pretty much every combo that we do. Now, you might be asking "Why do you do E → Q instead of Q → E?". The answer to this is that E → Q allows us to throw the stun and visually hit-confirm the stun before it lands, meaning only place a H-28G Evolution Turret when we confirm the stun is likely to land. By doing this we possibly save us turret charges, mana, and we don't put a new turret in a possibly awkward position in lane for no reason.

E → Q + W

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: Same as the previous combo except we buffer in our Hextech Micro-Rockets after the stun, adding more frontloaded damage.

E → Q → W

Damage: Backloaded

Description: Our first backloaded combo. The timing for these can be tricky to do, especially considering it varies based on enemy distance, but it will eventually become second nature. After you place a turret, there is a short period of time you have to wait before you can place another one, so we have to wait a short time after we land our CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade before continuing the combo.

E → Q → W + Q

Damage: Backloaded

Description: The same as the previous combo, except if the enemy is far enough away we can fit in an extra turret laser.

E → Q + RW

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: A standard frontloaded Ult combo you can do if you land a surprising stun on a medium/low HP target. Most of the time when you do this combo you will also be able to do the next combo so long as you weren't too late on placing your first H-28G Evolution Turret.

E → Q + RW + Q

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: Same as the previous combo, you just put down an extra H-28G Evolution Turret at the end to get one final laser, so long as you placed the last turret early enough in the combo.

RE → Q

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: The most basic CH-3X Lightning Grenade combo. If given enough time time to prepare you can often put a H-28G Evolution Turret or two down before this combo as well. This along with all of the other CH-3X Lightning Grenade combos should be the ones you use in most teamfight situations. This combo can also trigger multiple volleys of lasers providing it more enemy champions on consecutive bounces.

RE → Q + W

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: The same as the previous combo, you just add in your Hextech Micro-Rockets for more burst. If there are minions in the way, you often have time to reposition and still land this.

RE → Q → W

Damage: Backloaded

Description: A backloaded version of the previous combo. In teamfight situations you wont need to do this because your RE will be hitting targets with multiple bounces anyway, procing multiple laser volleys, so it actually actively hinders you to backload your damage there. When using this vs a single target however, you may not get multiple volleys just with RE so this may be worth using in those situations.

RE → Q → W + Q

Damage: Backloaded

Description: Similar to the previous combo, except we add another H-28G Evolution Turret to squeeze out an additional laser. It being available to use depends on the enemy distance, and like the previous combo should only generally be used if you would only get 1 volley of lasers otherwise (and when the extra second volley is needed).

RQ + Q + E

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: As i mentioned in the previous section, since RQ + Q is pretty much instant, we should always try and add this into our H-28Q Apex Turret combos. This combos is the simplest H-28Q Apex Turret you will use, and is great to use when jumped directly by an enemy champion because of how quick it comes out.

RQ + Q + E + W

Damage: Frontloaded

Description: The same as the previous combo, we just buffer in our Hextech Micro-Rockets instantly after the stun. I'm not a big fan of this combo as compared to the next one because you only get the one volley of lasers. With the next combo you can get 2 out in a relatively short about of time still.

RQ + Q + E -> W

Damage: Backloaded

Description: A backloaded version of the previous combo that gives us a second volley of turret lasers. This is the most frequent H-28Q Apex Turret combo i use because you're usually able to get it out before getting bursted and it adds a lot of burst to your own combo. The enemy usually has expended their movement skill to get onto you, so its not likely they get away.

RQ + Q + E → W + Q |OR| RQ + Q + E → Q + W

Damage: Backloaded

Description: An even more backloaded version of the previous combo which allows us to squeeze one final laser out. If the enemy is far enough away you can finish with W + Q but if they are close you have to Q + W.

Below is an assortment of clips, highlights and etc showing off some of the things i have talked about in the previous sections as well as just some fun/funny clips i wanted to share.

Guide Changelist:

TBD 2019:

• Updating some matchups (the mordekaiser, ekko, sylas and akali matchups have changed) (WIP).
• Adding/editing the item/rune sections a bit (WIP).

October 24 2019:

• Caught up with the updates from all of the patches since this guide was last updated.
• Fixed the images to reflect the new turret 0.35 AP values.

April 24 2019:

• Added new "Early Buys" section to "Itemization".
• Added new Sorcery + Inspiration rune build centered around taking Transcendence over Absolute Focus due to the recent nerf to Absolute Focus. With the buff, theres not as much of an incentive to go Domination secondary because we don't need the sustain to keep our Absolute Focus up. The Domination secondary build I think is still the way to go, but this may change soon.
• Diana moved to "Minor Threat".
• Some minor additions to the ability sections, such as the notes of H-28G Evolution Turret procing Taste of Blood and H-28G Evolution Turret checking your current Magic Penetration, and not snapshotting it when you place the turret.
• Fixed input error in the ability leveling section.

April 21 2019:

• Full guide launched.

Patch Changelist: