When it comes to junglers, the first thing I think of is ganks. As should everyone else. However, that's not all that it takes to jungle, there are a lot of things that make junglers who we know and love (or hate).
1) Ability to complete a jungle route: This is probably the most important part of being a jungler. The ability to actually, you know, complete the jungle. Preferably in one go. This, Heimer can do with ease. It takes some skill, but you can do it. Lowest health I get is just below 100 on red buff. But, kiting the red buff a bit through your turret should help prevent this.

2) A ganking mechanic: Heimerdinger has a wonderful ganking mechanic known as CH-1 Concussion Grenade. The stun on this is a good length, plus it has good damage, good scaling, and a blind effect. Yes, it is EXTREMELY slow. That is the one problem with it. However, similar to Amumu's Bandage Toss this will get you a gank. I will go more in detail on ganking with Hemie in a bit though.

3) Burst damage: Heimer has got this **** down. Land the stun, follow it with a turret behind them, then a Hextech Micro-Rockets that, at level 4 is ~220 damage, depending on whether or not your turret is hitting them. That's a lot of damage at low levels.

4) Being Useful: Yes, Heimer is useful, with 3 types of CC built in, he has a good amount of Utility with a good amount of damage. Late game, he is still doing lots of damage. His abilities have a relatively high amount of damage to begin with, and he has an okay initiator.

All these things add up to him being a jungler to be reckoned with.

There are many reasons, other then the aforementioned requirements of being a good jungler. First of all, I'd like to start off by saying, that I personally believe that Amumu is the best jungler in the game. However, in every, I mean every ranked match I've done, as few as they may be, Amumu is ALWAYS banned. So, saying, I'll play Amumu is consistently impossible. At this point, it is time to look for other options. This made me think of Heimer, while he was free this week. I need a lot of testing with this build, so bear with me as I slowly bring to light a very good jungler that seems to be completely unnoticed due to the "Heimerdinger... Jungler... LOLOLOL GET IN YOUR LANE AND BE USEFUL" mentality.

Now, let me point out why Heimer is a very safe jungler. You start on blue buff. Always on blue buff. You need a leash, but in the end, it's necessary to complete his route in any reasonable amount of time. So you're up at blue buff. But you want some protection on your golems/wraiths. So instead of just walking straight to blue buff, goto golems and set up a turret. you regain turret in 30 seconds. just leave it down there, and if the enemy decides to try and gank it before the game starts, you will know, and so will your bottom laner, and everyone else. Suddenly, it's not an intelligent move to try and counter jungle him. As long as one of the other lanes is watching the other camp, you shouldn't have to worry about being ganked.

Next, another reason he's a safe jungler. You take your stun, which is your ganking ability at level 2, so if someone wanders into your jungle to try and gank you low level, you stun them with a ton of damage walk behind them, turret, ping them a bunch so your allies know to come. And watch him die. Amumu can't take his until level 4, and Nunu, could take his, but post nerf I'm not sure if it's as worth it, some comments on this would be nice.

The final reason he's a safe jungler is that he jungles at high health. Never do I drop below 100, unless on red buff, which is not uncommon from what I've seen, but you'll still have an escape mechanism, and you should be able to easily avoid a gank at that low of a level. Just make sure your Smites are absolutely perfect in every way.

Not only is he a safe jungler but he is also a quick one, not too fast, but pretty fast. I usually complete at the 5 minute mark. Which isn't too bad. It's about 30 secs slower then my best Amumu jungles.

So hopefully these reasons have helped you to understand why enjoy Jungle Heimer as much as I do.

The runes I chose are pretty standard AP jungling runes. Armor so you don't die, magic pen because it's important for AP based champs, magic resist because it's nice and tanky, which he should end up being, and Quints of Fortitude because you need the health.

Just wanted to say, that I recommend the none scaling armor runes because they are most relevant when jungling at low levels, which is when you need the extra armor. However, having scaling magic resist runes is also important because you don't need them as much for the jungle but do want them for when you are needed in a team fight.

This is a little complicated and diluted to be honest. However, it's, as of right now, the best way I've found.

First, turret, it's your main damage source since it attacks faster then you and deals a good amount of damage.

Then the Stun Grenade because it does the most damage, which will help you get through the next two camps.

Then rockets, since all you need is three to hit the entire camp, plus you can shoot it as you run if the other jungler is ganking you. Especially on such a short cooldown as it should be with blue buff. Final reason is that it does more damage then a leveled up turret or a leveled up grenade.

Then stun grenade again, since if you miss, you want them to fear the damage of that grenade, and at level 2, they will. Even if you fail to stun them with it, you can do a decent amount of damage if you hit them, and then hit them with rockets.

Next, you need another level of turrets, the reason for this is explained in a moment.

6th level get your ult, period. It increases the range on your stun, and gives you 5 rockets meaning your more likely to hit with it. If you're ganking, always activate your Ult AFTER placing turrets, so they also slow. This extra slow on the turrets could mean a successful gank.

7th you get another level of turrets so now you have 2 turrets to use, now jungling is a breeze, and if an ally needs a lane held, that lane will be held down.

Then you start leveling up your grenade, getting your Ult as often as possible, and then grenades, and then you get turrets. To me, they just aren't as important as the burst damage you get from your other abilities. Extra 125 health, and then area damage just isn't important to me. So that's why I wait.

Flash and Smite. Smite is important to getting through the jungle, I don't think you can get through Red Buff with out it. However, flash is exchangable, I just consider it the best summoner spell we have. Hands down. However, ghost is a very viable option seeing how slow Heimy is.

Jungledinger is a little complex at first, and requires you to place things correctly and for your teammates to leash properly. Other then that small requirement, it is very small in all actuality, then you are good to go.

First of all, your route:
Blue Buff - Health Pot
Wolves
- Health Pot
Wraiths
- Health Pot
Red Buff - Health Pot (if necessary)
Golems - Health Pot (I actually usually end up with one left over.)
Blue Pill
Buy Boots 2/3 HP pots and 2 Sight Wards
Gank?
Wolves
Wraiths
Gank?
Continue to clear jungle as much as possible until you see a chance to gank.

The method for jungling, and where to place turrets, when to use abilities, etc.

Pictures for great justice.

I want to point out that my Turrets do not pull aggro, I pull the aggro. The turrets are a good portion of your damage and you need them up. I also would like to point out that my turret is not engaging Blue Buff or Red Buff. This is because I want to draw them out, the Blue Buff by the person who is leashing it, and the Red Buff, by going q-w-e and then repeat w and e until completed. You want the turret focused on the main enemy. If it's shooting one of the caster guys, you're losing a lot of damage. So make sure you're very careful about this.

A common route for most junglers. One thing to note is that unlike some junglers, you can't really take Dragon solo until late levels. Not sure on exact level, but it's around 8 and even then requires a complicated process of kiting it through turrets. Having it attack turrets, then back to you, then more turrets, etc. Very annoying and takes a long time, so it's not safe to do and I wouldn't recommend it, unless you are well fed and you can guarantee that the enemies won't either gank you with sight wards, or just simply pass through and just kill you in a hit or two since you'll probably be at low health. I wouldn't recommend it until level 10 at the lowest.

Another thing you should be doing, is holding lanes for allies who need to blue pill. This is something is inherently built for, so it should be a piece of cake, try and get it near their turret. You want to stand near it as much as you can while you're holding a lane since your passive ability Techmaturgical Repair Bots applies to towers as well. So whatever little amount of health that you can give it, if it needs it is better then you standing in some random place not doing anything.

So hopefully this all makes sense so far. And hopefully you're reading my wall-o-text and learning something. If you continue to keep your jungle farmed by simply, set up turret, grenade, missles, then walk away, as long as your sure the enemies will die, you will prevent the other team from getting it, and will keep you leveling with everyone else.

Buying the correct items is important to do. I'd also like to remind you here that my item order is everything but set in stone. What I guarantee is that you will need to start with Cloth Armor, and 5x Health Potions. This is standard jungling. With this, the jungle should be a breeze.

Next you want Boots of Speed, a total of 3x Health Potions, and 2x Sight Ward. (I usually place the sight wards around mid, in the bushs above and below to prevent a gank.)

After this, you build Catalyst of the Protector, starting with Red Gem and then Blue Gem, and then recipe if you have too.

Then build either a Banshee's Veil, or a Rod of Ages. Deciding what to build is upto you. You need to determine whether have Magic Resist and such is going to be better then having health, more damage, and more mana. If they have a combo caster like annie who walks around with her stun showing, then Banshee's will be better, ganks will go off smoother as well if you're not "meeting her bear tibbers in summoner hell" the second you bat your eyes at her.

Finally, you build a Frozen Heart, a fantastic tanky item that has a good passive and CDR which means MOAR TURRETS and MOAR STUNS and MOAR ROCKETS.

These are all the items I can give you as recommendation. Though, if you didn't get a Banshee's Veil/Rod of Ages yet, you should get the one you don't have. Then finish your build with some tanky items based on the other teams characters.

As the tanky/dps that you now are, you need to actually, you know, tank the other team. This requires that you start buying items that will counter the enemy team. If they're heavy AD, then Randuin's Omen. Are they heavy AP, Force of Nature. Do you just need ******* health, Warmog's. Finally, if you are really fed, or it's just that late in the game, get a Gaurdian Angel. Or get this earlier if they have a balanced team comp. By getting items that will counter their team instead of a predetermined set item, you are a more useful asset to your team.

Some other viable/good items:
Will of the Ancients: Spell vamp is good on Heimer since his turrets will now heal him.
Spirit Visage: This will increase your health regen from your passive, and combined with will of the ancients will make you very hard to kill.
Zhonya's Hourglass: Not a bad item in general, especially if you find yourself getting focused a lot. Also, makes you deal more damage. So, more threatening + harder to kill = win. Just very expensive so it's a side item.
Rylia's Crystal Scepter: Causes your abilities to cause a slow effect. Works well against fast characters, just another situation of very expensive item vs other items that are also useful.
Thornmail: This is for when their AD carry is just stomping, tell everyone to get it if it's a major problem. But overall, only for a fed AD carry.
Soul Shroud: A good item, use it if necessary. Has a good aura and CDR. Good item, but suffers from strenuous cost syndrom.

This is the first version of Jungledinger, do I expect it to be perfect no. Do I expect to get up votes? Not really, especially on my first guide. Do I think that this is a viable alternative to other junglers, yes, I do. Hopefully you do too. Please, I beg of you, please comment, rate, tell me everything you did or didn't like about my build. I'm not a pro player, I'll be the first to admit it, but I think this build is worth a looking at. Hopefully you do too. Thank you for your time.

P.S. I will update as often as possible.
P.P.S. Please direct me to any videos of Jungledingers, doing it right, and doing it wrong so I can share it in my build.
P.P.P.S. Also tell me if there is a section I should add to this or something I need to cover better. I'm a little overwhelmed with the format and am to tired to reread everything atm. Thank you

Thanks to Jebus McAzn and his Amumu jungle guide for showing me the ways of jungling.

With Love,
PainasaurusRex

Mana, mostly. Heimer is always low on mana unless you have blue buff, which late game you want your AP carry to have. So I'm working on the best item for this. I'm thinking tear -> archangles but I'm not sure. The other option is Chalice since it provides magic resist which is very useful. So far, not sure on how to solve this.

Difficult ganks, need help figuring out the best way to gank. So far, I found that you have to wait for creep wave to pass and for them to be overextended, then you walk out, place turret, then fire rockets. It's easier to predict movements when they are retreating, to be honest, so this might make it easier, but it's still inconsistent.