Heimerdinger/Strategy

		"Some things must remain buried." Strategy is highly subjective and may become outdated without any notice. Because of this, the League of Legends Wiki has decided to retire strategy pages and would recommend using other platforms (such as YouTube) to find guides. For more information visit this thread. This page continues to exist for archive purposes.

Champion Spotlight

Recommended Items

Summoner's Rift
Starting	2
Early
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Twisted Treeline
Starting	2
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Howling Abyss
Starting	3
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Tricks

Playing As Heimerdinger

• Turret placement can be a deciding factor in a battle. Against most enemies turrets are best when they can support each other, but if the enemy has a lot of area of effect damage your turrets can be destroyed quickly. Placing turrets in brush can lead to a surprise attack in your favor.
• The success of CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade is very important to Heimerdinger's survival. The slow and stun both are capable of keeping enemies in place long enough to punish them, but it is also the first line of defense against a surprise attack.
• Spreading out Hextech Micro-Rockets leads to more reliable damage and more efficiency against multiple targets, but focusing it creates the biggest impact.

Playing Against Heimerdinger

• It's better to destroy all of Heimerdinger's turrets with the help of creeps than to fight them one at a time.
• Be wary of Heimerdinger's UPGRADE!!!, as he can use it to find an answer to most trouble he gets into. Once his ultimate is down, go in for the kill!

Tricks

Ability Usage

• The strength of Heimerdinger lies in his ability to hold lanes safely using his H-28G Evolution Turrets and keep enemies at a distance with the threat of his Hextech Micro-Rockets and CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade. This along with his deceptive amount of sustained damage can catch enemies unaware.
• A H-28G Evolution Turret can act as a ward, though this is not recommended since they cannot stealth, auto acquire enemies thereby revealing them, and offline turrets only give the sight range equivalent to that of a Noxious Trap. Use them as such only if you find yourself repeatedly ganked.
• Good H-28G Evolution Turret placement is crucial to their effectiveness. For example, placing one at the back end of your minion wave would make the turrets near useless (as the enemy minions are far away from the turret).
• Heimerdinger is capable of stagnating the mid lane and taking a turret without ever becoming aggressive. Coordinate with your jungler and attempt to ward all possible paths to mid so that you can be aware of ganks, then handle laning phase by maxing H-28G Evolution Turret and focusing on maintaining a 3-turret spread that will 'catch' and vaporize every minion wave and cause your minions to shove to the enemy turret. This does 3 very important things:
  1. It shrinks the lane down to less than half of its normal length. As a result, the enemy will have to CS under their turret for almost the entire game and you will have some soft gank protection.
  2. The turret formation (and maxed turret level) makes it too hard for the enemy to simply wipe away the turrets. They will focus spells and damage on taking one down, and you can instantly rebuild and punish them with a burst combo.
  3. The constant lane shoving will inevitably cause your minions to chip away at the enemy mid turret. It is possible to bring an enemy mid turret down without ever forcing your opponent out of lane or using basic attacks against the turret.
• When set up before minions appear, H-28G Evolution Turret can be used to disrupt the enemy jungler, forcing an earlier recall, and giving info on where the enemy jungler has been.
• Keeping turrets clustered is good against non-AoE based champions. Keeping them away from the minion path cuts down the AoE's effectiveness even more. A tight cluster can block skillshots such as Dark Binding or Mystic Shot, but are susceptible to AoE spells such as Tormented Shadow.
• Hextech Micro-Rockets is an extremely powerful tool for harassment and zoning, due to its long range and high concentrated damage, functioning as Heimerdinger's main source of damage early game.
• Hextech Micro-Rockets will hit the first enemy it makes contact with, so try to catch your opponent in an open area before using it for maximum effectiveness.
• CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade  stun is difficult to land by itself; throwing it after allied disables have been placed guarantees success. Being closer to the target area is also helpful as it lessens the travel time.
• Catch an enemy champion off-guard by stunning them with CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade immediately followed up by Hextech Micro-Rockets and quickly putting H-28G Evolution Turret next to the target during the stun.
• Since champions usually try to destroy your turrets upon sight, especially during early laning, use this to your advantage and punish them with Hextech Micro-Rockets and CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade.
  • Try to defend them, as each turret has strong sustained damage. However, getting turrets destroyed is not super detrimental to Heimerdinger due to the low mana cost.
• H-28G Evolution Turret allows Heimerdinger to play defensively and hold a lane or push minions quickly.
  • Holding the lane is highly recommended as it is where Heimerdinger shines, being able to regenerate the turrets' health as well as his own.
  • Keep in mind that Hextech Affinity affects his H-28G Evolution Turrets and allied champions.
• Heimerdinger's UPGRADE!!! greatly buffs the next skill he casts, each with a preferred usage point:
  • H-28Q Apex Turret summons a greatly enhanced H-28G Evolution Turret that deals splash damage, charges its beam attack faster, and slows its targets. It's best used as a defensive tool when an enemy directly attacks Heimerdinger, or during a teamfight in which you don't need hard crowd control or burst damage, as it deals high sustained damage that makes fighting near it very dangerous for your enemies.
  • Hextech Rocket Swarm fires a barrage of several waves of Hextech Micro-Rockets in a line in front of Heimerdinger. It's the strongest and burstier damaging ability that Heimerdinger possesses, although H-28Q Apex Turret deals more sustained damage, and thus it's best used when going for the kill on an opposing champion, or during a teamfight in which a large burst of damage is needed. Rocket Swarm can also be used as a burst of damage in absence of turrets; this can catch enemies off guard as a Heimerdinger with no turrets set up is an appealing target.
  • CH-3X Lightning Grenade lobs an enhanced CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade that bounces three times, each bounce releasing an explosion that deals damage, slows (the slow being much stronger than CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade's) and stuns enemies directly hit. Although the damage can only be applied once, the stun and slow can be applied multiple times. While it deals way less damage than H-28Q Apex Turret's or Hextech Rocket Swarm, CH-3X Lightning Grenade powerful crowd control potential makes it Heimerdinger's best enhanced skill for ganks or teamfights in which hard crowd control is required.
• If you're being pressed against your tower, set up your turrets so that if the enemy champion tries to kill them, they have to come within the tower's range.
  • This will allow you to continue gaining gold on last hits from the turret.
• Once you have 4 ranks in Hextech Micro-Rockets and 1 rank in CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade you can kill the Raptor camp without leaving lane. This will allow you to gain extra experience and gold to gain an advantage over your enemy.
  • If you can keep the enemy champion pressed against his/her tower, you can gain a bigger gold/experience advantage by killing off their Raptor camp as well.
• Having turrets ready can make it easier getting the blue buff, giving Heimerdinger a good amount of mana regen and CDR to spam his Hextech Micro-Rockets.
• Your H-28G Evolution Turret can serve as wards to maintain control over brush.
• CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade can be used to reveal a large area. This combined with its long range make it excel at scouting brush or jungle areas.
• Before leaving a lane, place both turrets and then Teleport back to one of your turrets being attacked since it will be invulnerable during the teleport time.
• Heimerdinger success in a 1v2 lane comes from keeping the enemy at his own tower.
• Using CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, Hextech Micro-Rockets and H-28G Evolution Turret, you should easily wipe out attacking minions.
• Maxing Hextech Micro-Rockets will allow you to spike enemy champions whenever their minion wave dies down to give you a guaranteed hit on them.
• Having at least 1 rank in CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade gives you a stun that you can use whenever an enemy champion comes in range of the tower / your turrets.
• Use your CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade to reveal areas in bushes and to allow use of Hextech Micro-Rockets when a target is located in a bush.
• Switch to a more defensive playstyle when facing pushers in your lane (e.g. Anivia, Xerath).
• Heimerdinger can be an unusually good jungler. His CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade can be used for fast clears and his H-28G Evolution Turret can absorb a lot of the damage from monsters.
  • For ganks, try to set up your H-28G Evolution Turret in the enemy's escape route. As they run past it, stun them with CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade and slow them with H-28Q Apex Turret.

Mastery Usage

Item Usage

• Heimerdinger is naturally squishy, and a tankier build is suggested.
  • Tanky AP items such as Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Abyssal Mask, Rod of Ages and Zhonya's Hourglass will allow him to survive longer.
  • A Catalyst the Protector gives Heimerdinger a good early game with some extra health and mana and with a great passive for the early game laning phase.
• A build that provides good mana regeneration early game will allow you to maintain your H-28G Evolution Turrets in the lane to assist with last hitting minions for gold. The mana regeneration will probably stem from a Chalice of Harmony, because using Hextech Micro-Rockets in particular will drain a lot of mana at once. In the late game it can be built into an Athene's Unholy Grail.
• A high cooldown reduction build will allow you to harass the enemy champion(s) with CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade and Hextech Micro-Rockets.
• Heimerdinger benefits from an Archangel's Staff greatly early game because of the mana/mp5/AP it provides. Heimerdinger has little need for mana early game due to his high ability cooldowns, but spamming H-28G Evolution Turret, CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, and Hextech Micro-Rockets end game will drain your mana pool quickly.
• Banner of Command's Valor passive has good synergy with Hextech Affinity, as the bonus damage applies to his H-28G Evolution Turrets.
• Heimerdinger's base health regeneration is much higher than most champions. As a result, items that provide bonuses to health regeneration are much stronger on him.

Countering

• Heimerdinger is a strong pusher because of his turrets. Make sure you play safe when laning against him.
  • Work with your allies to take down his H-28G Evolution Turret before engaging him.
  • Also, if you are a jungler and against a Heimerdinger, you can use Smite (if available) against his H-28G Evolution Turret.
• Heimerdinger's abilities all deal magic damage. Stack magic resistance items to mitigate his damage.
• Heimerdinger has very strong lane sustain thanks to his passive, making him more prone to shorter cooldown pokes, instead of long cooldown bursts, as he will be able to regenerate during the period.
  • However, if you commit to fighting him, he must go down quickly as his turrets will burn through your health faster than you may expect. If possible, try to destroy his turrets beforehand.
• CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade will only stun when you are in the center of the AoE. Avoid the spell missile to avoid the stun.
  • CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade missile speed is slow. If you see the spell coming, sidestep it.
  • Beware that even if the missile doesn't stun, getting hit by the AoE will still slow you a significant amount.
• Be careful when Heimerdinger uses UPGRADE!!! as it allows him to use an empowered ability. His Hextech Micro-Rockets has incredible damage potential if all of the rockets manage to hit you.
• If Heimerdinger throws a CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade into a bush, he gains vision of it regardless of whether it hits something or not. It isn't recommended to stay in the bush if he spots you in this manner.
• Heimerdinger is an incredibly squishy champion if caught out. Take any and all opportunities to attack him if he separates from his turrets or attempts to roam.
  • Additionally, Heimerdinger is weak in team fights if he has no chance to set up turrets. If a team fight begins and he is without his weaponry, have your team stick on him and melt him as quickly as possible.
  • If he is allowed to, a Heimerdinger with his turrets set up and UPGRADE!!! ready can be difficult to penetrate, as a fed Heimerdinger who is able to set up turrets is one of the most powerful opponents in the game.
• If all your abilities are on cooldown, don't chase him around his turrets, as the turret's damage will quickly add up.
• Unlike most mages, Heimerdinger can bring down fighters alone by kiting them around his turrets and landing a good CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade.
• Try not to push Heimerdinger to his turret, as his passive allow him to hold it for an extremely long period of time while farming easily.
  • His turrets will also be hard to take down when near a (real) turret.
• Heimerdinger turrets have a low mana cost, so destroying them will not affect his mana much, but they are easier to destroy. Be wary when eliminating them as he may be able to punish you with CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, Hextech Micro-Rockets, auto attacks, and the turret itself.
• Hextech Micro-Rockets will hit the first enemy unit in its path. Keeping a few minions in between you and Heimerdinger will negate most of his harass ability.
  • The rockets slightly arc onto their point of convergence or can spread out from it depending on where Heimerdinger chooses to fire them.
• Syndra, Nunu, Master Yi, and other champions with minion-specific abilities can use those abilities on H-28G Evolution Turret. In particular, Syndra can neutralize Heimerdinger's turrets by throwing them out of the lane.
• Veigar can be considered a good counter to Heimerdinger when they meet in a 1v1 lane. Veigar can gain AP from Heimerdinger's turrets by farming with Baleful Strike, both of them have similar mobility, Veigar can land his stun more easily, Dark Matter can one-shot H-28G Evolution Turrets in the mid game, and Veigar, in the early game, isn't a pusher. Also, Primordial Burst can finish off Heimerdinger before he can use his UPGRADE!!! if Veigar can land his combo in time.