[Introduction]
How is it going guys! My name is Rezone and I'm a Master Tier Midlane main. I peaked at 290 LP Master Tier in Season 9 and have 8.5 Million Mastery Points on Heimerdinger! I upload gameplays, guides, tips and pretty much any other League of Legends related content you could ever ask for!
I was the BEST HEIMERDINGER EUW in Season 7 & 8 and I'm best known for inventing the Holy Trinity of Tilt build on Heimerdinger a couple of seasons ago (Banner of Command, ZZ'Rot Portal and Rylai's)! I've also recently competed in TWITCH RIVALS where I played Heimerdinger ADC and came joint first against other streamers such as TFBlade.
I peaked 270 LP Master tier in Season 9 and have been Master Tier every season since! I like to think that I bring my own unique playstyle to Heimerdinger! He's a very fun champion to play, and brings adaptability to his builds - and potentially changing every time you use his ultimate.
Barrier is one of the most under appreciated and in my opinion..strongest summoners int the game, especially for Heimerdinger!
Comet serves as a potent poking tool on Heimerdinger due to its reliable and consistent damage output in the laning phase. With Heimerdinger's ability to deploy turrets and control space, Comet synergizes exceptionally well by adding an extra layer of harassment. When Heimerdinger lands abilities like his W - Hextech Micro-Rockets or E - CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade, Comet almost guarantees additional damage, enhancing his poke potential. The precision and frequency of Comet's activation align perfectly with Heimerdinger's playstyle, allowing him to continually pressure opponents, chip away at their health, and assert dominance in the lane.
Domination serves as an excellent secondary tree for many champions due to its diverse set of runes that complement different playstyles and strategies. The tree offers various options that can amplify burst damage, sustain, or utility depending on the champion's needs. Runes like "Cheap Shot" synergize well with champions who have built-in CC or consistent ways to impair opponents, providing additional damage. "Taste of Blood" offers sustain in lane, enhancing survivability during trades. "Zombie Ward" and "Ghost Poro" contribute to vision control, which is crucial for map awareness and objective control.
Heimerdinger’s build depends on multiple variables. I’ll break down what I build on Heimer, but let it be known that he is really versatile so you can build a lot of different items on him. There are few different approaches to builds for Heimerdinger especially in Season 14: Ludens will usually be your main go to starter item followed by different iterations of AP orientated burst items!
Luden's Companion - Luden's Companion is a great option for Heimerdinger. It offers great wave clear, extra trading potential in lane and tons of other useful stats including a great amount of AP and Mana. If you’re ahead early, you could go for an early Hextech Alternator for extra damage and to further your lead, and then build Luden's Companion straight after.
Shadowflame is slowly becoming a strong go to as a new addition to builds, many teamcomps consist of high end barrier casters or users so this choice helps mitigate their impact and increase your penetration. This works very well when purchased alongside Void Staff allowing you to melt enemies late game. Ludens is a fantastic choice as a to compliment this, having the combination of Ludens burst and the NEW Shadowflame spell crit will allow you to nuke down any enemy FAST!
Zhonya's Hourglass is usually a core build on Heimerdinger with him being relatively squishy and easy to lock down if he misses his grenade - if building Ludens as your first item then this should be potentially prioritised as a 3rd buy. It offers you extra protection and will help save your life throughout the remaining of the laning phase and in team fights. Heimerdinger is an unforgiving champion when being played into an Assassin matchup. Zhonya can be delayed depending on team comp, if you feel confident that you won't get bursted down or if you are playing barrier, then you can prioritise a high burst build instead.
If you’re ahead, a Rabadon's Deathcap is a great suggestion because of the damage it provides. It also synergizes incredibly well with an aggressive playstyle with Electrocute and compliments your AP with every significant buy after it. When you’re against assassins like Zed or Talon, going for a Zhonya's Hourglass here is a great option because it prevents them from killing you.
Liandry's Torment - SITUATIONAL - Liandry's Torment in Season 14 is completely taken based on teamcomp alone, don't force this too early or get used to rushing it as it not longer gives you mana - old habits from Season 13 need to be overcome. You should go Liandry's Torment when the enemy has a lot of tank champions on their team such as Dr. Mundo, Ornn, Zac or any significant high health champions. If the enemy doesn’t have much sustain, you can go Stormsurge instead.
A great item that works well with Season 14s new AP additions is Void Staff. The extra pen will come in handy versus teams and champions that are very tanky. It will ensure that your turrets deal tons of damage to the enemy in late game team fights. There are some very strong MR items this Season and late game Void will be a fantastic addition!
Stormsurge is an AMAZING item in Season 14, one of the best additions for Mage orientated champions. The passive delivers lightning to the target after a two-second delay, causing magic damage. Should the target perish, lightning erupts across a wide area, granting gold to the user. Stormsurge merges burst damage and mobility, perfectly suited for aggressive mage playstyles. Heimerdinger is perfect with this as it can proc from his turrets.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is an unbelievable item that works insanely well on Heimerdinger, even in Season 14. As most tanky teams consist of melee champions, this item allows you to kite around these melee champions and allow you to create a gap between you and them. Furthermore, this item synergizes incredibly well with your kit and the other items you'll buy.
When you’re up against teams that have multiple tanks (tank top/jungle and support), you should go for a Liandry's Torment build instead. It is good versus champions such as Zac or Garen. Liandry's Torment has become situational, it's very low risk and works tremendously well into Heimerdingers kit. Having the ability to proc Liandry's Torment with turret auto attacks makes laning and trading very easy at any point in the game.
TOPLANE ITEMIZATION:
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is an unbelievable item that works insanely well on Heimerdinger, even in Season 14. As most tanky teams consist of melee champions, this item allows you to kite around these melee champions and allow you to create a gap between you and them. Furthermore, this item synergizes incredibly well with your kit and the other items you'll buy.
Blackfire Torch is an AMAZING item in Season 14, one of the best additions for Mage orientated champions. The item itself has a great amount of base AP but shines when used on Heimerdinger, the extra ability power damage and burn works ridiculously well! This combined with Liandries turns Heimerdinger turret auto attacks into hellfire!
SITUATIONAL Liandry's Torment in Season 14 is completely taken based on teamcomp alone, don't force this too early or get used to rushing it as it not longer gives you mana - old habits from Season 13 need to be overcome. You should go Liandry's Torment when the enemy has a lot of tank champions on their team such as Dr. Mundo, Ornn, Zac or any significant high health champions. If the enemy doesn’t have much sustain, you can go Stormsurge instead.
Zhonya's Hourglass is usually a core build on Heimerdinger with him being relatively squishy and easy to lock down if he misses his grenade - if building Ludens as your first item then this should be potentially prioritised as a 3rd buy. It offers you extra protection and will help save your life throughout the remaining of the laning phase and in team fights. Heimerdinger is an unforgiving champion when being played into an Assassin matchup. Zhonya can be delayed depending on team comp, if you feel confident that you won't get bursted down or if you are playing barrier, then you can prioritise a high burst build instead.
If you’re ahead, a Rabadon's Deathcap is a great suggestion because of the damage it provides. It also synergizes incredibly well with an aggressive playstyle with Electrocute and compliments your AP with every significant buy after it. When you’re against assassins like Zed or Talon, going for a Zhonya's Hourglass here is a great option because it prevents them from killing you.
Sorcerer's Shoes are the stable choice on Heimerdinger, these are rarely deviated from. They offer you extra pen and movement speed. Penetration is so important on Mages including Heimerdinger. It is also very good versus tanky team comps.
Shadowflame is slowly becoming a strong go to as a new addition to builds, many teamcomps consist of high end barrier casters or users so this choice helps mitigate their impact and increase your penetration. This works very well when purchased alongside Void Staff allowing you to melt enemies late game. Ludens is a fantastic choice as a to compliment this, having the combination of Ludens burst and the NEW Shadowflame spell crit will allow you to nuke down any enemy FAST!
Hextech Affinity is Heimerdinger’s Passive
P - Heimerdinger gains bonus movement speed when he is near an allied tower, or near one of his pre-placed Turrets. This extra speed can be especially helpful when combined with the movement speed buff of Ludens or movement speed reduction of Rylai's! Dodging skillshots can be extremely easy when utilising this correctly! Some people think that this is a lack lustre passive but its most definitely not, this is one of Heimerdingers hidden strengths.
H-28G Evolution Turret is Heimerdinger’s Q
Q - Heimerdinger periodically stocks up on turret kits, which he can have a maximum of 3. He can deploy one of these turrets at a target location that lasts until it is destroyed. If he places more than 3, the oldest one will be destroyed.
Casting his Ultimate and upgrading his turrets will deploy an Apex Turret which lasts for 8 seconds. The magic of Heimerdingers turrets is the fact they are coded as spells, this means they can proc the same things that spells would. This means that they can proc burns from Liandries and Demonic along with slows from Rylai's. This can be extremely useful when having all 3 or 4 turrets down at once, maximising damage or maximising slows!
Hextech Micro-Rockets is Heimerdinger’s W
W - Heimerdinger unleashes a wave of rockets that deals damage to the first target hit. For each rocket that hits a champion, the beam charge is increased for all his nearby turrets. Enemies can be hit by multiple rockets, but they will take less damage the more they’re hit.
Casting his Ultimate launches 4 waves of rockets. Targets receive less damage the more rockets they’re hit by. Ult W should only be used when you have a large amount of AP or aggressive build, early game this should not be prioritised as the damage can be very misleading. Unless you have 3 turrets down and the target is stunned for a long period of time it's much easier and efficient to use Ult Q.
Ch-2 Electron Storm Grenade is Heimerdinger’s E
E - Heimerdinger throws a grenade that stuns targets who it directly lands on. If the target is near the grenade, they will be slowed. If the grenade hits an enemy champion, all the turrets will gain 100% beam charge. Heimerdingers grenade takes some time to get used to as it isn't instant, it stays in the air for a short while. Mastering this allows you to flash, grenade or grenade then turret to instantly charge a beam.
Casting his Ultimate throws a larger grenade that bounces 3 times that deals damage, slows targets who are near it and stuns targets that are directly on top of it.
UPGRADE!!! is Heimerdingers’ Ultimate
R - Heimerdinger will empower his next ability. The empowered abilities damage is modified and has no cost. Heimerdinger’s Ultimate can also be used while he is CC’d.
Each Ultimate you use will depend on many factors. For example Ult Q is great for 1v2 or even 1v1 scenarios as it asks as a barrier or extra person in a fight, landing a grenade will shoot off its beam and allow you to do a great amount of burst damage.
Ult W is primarily used when you have a stable amount of AP and your target has been CC'd. You can easily 100-0 someone with this but only in the later parts of the game, don't get baited by using Ult W early! Most times Q or E will be the better choice.
Ult E is a fantastic way to play Heimerdinger into teamfights, combine this with 3 turrets and you will get a tremendous amount of CC aswell as damage!
[PROS AND CONS!]
Pros
★ Lots of burst damage.
★ Is hard to gank by enemy Junglers.
★ Can land his CC on multiple enemies at once.
★ Heimerdinger has a lot of early game pressure.
★ He can easily turn around 1v2’s into favourable trades.
★ Flexible pick. He can be played in multiple lanes and in multiple roles.
★ Can prevent the enemy laner from roaming by keeping them pushed in.
Cons
★ Turrets can easily be destroyed if you place them poorly.
★ Very low base stats which makes him easy to kill.
★ Is mana hungry, especially in the early game.
★ Lacks early game burst to be a hyper carry.
TIPS AND TRICKS!!
★When sieging a tower, the tower will focus your turret and quickly destroy it. It’s a good option to try and siege objectives when there is a cannon minion being focused by the enemy tower as it takes some time to kill. This allows your turrets to deal more damage to the tower before they die.
★ Heimerdinger has great objective control in the early game. Make sure you team up with your Jungler to take early Dragons and secure the Rift Herald.
★ When trying to steal the Baron from the enemy, use your turrets for vision, your empowered grenade for the steal, and your W for follow up damage. Heimerdinger’s damage output, especially when trying to steal objectives is heavily underestimated.
★ Use your empowered H-28G Evolution Turret when the enemy tries to gank your lane. It will help turn around the exchange.
★ When receiving an allied gank, your empowered CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade will be useful as it can CC the target and help you take them down.
★ Empowered Hextech Micro-Rockets shouldn’t really be used in team fights. You will find more use from your empowered CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade or H-28G Evolution Turret.
★ Fighting in high traffic areas and around objectives is good for Heimerdinger, as long as he can place some of his turrets down beforehand.
★ Heimerdinger can cheese very easily thanks to his turrets. Don’t be afraid to camp inside a high traffic bush and wait for the enemy to walk past before trying to execute them.
Heimerdingers playstyle has changed significantly since the durability patch along with most artillery or control mages. His playstyle is focused on poking more than ever with pressure and lane control at the core. Focusing on cs rather than early trades allows you to gain momentum in the lane and allows you to recall efficiently while having a stronger presence than your opposing laner. Playing like this pays off dividends as your turrets being buffed allows you to out sustain your enemy laner and forces them into an early recall/TP while allowing you to crash waves and get even further ahead. While doing this you must ward effectively and track the jungle the best you can as the constant pressure means that you are susceptible to ganks, especially against junglers or laners who have gap closers/dashes. You can be very mana efficient early by just using Electrocute procs, scorch and turret autos to slowly win trades.
Electrocute/Ignite is a burst heavy playstyle that works tremendously well into melee or low range matchups and team comps. I'd personally take this set up into something like a Sylas mid with a Lee Sin jungle, the reasoning being that I can burst either of them down during a gank and usually escape unharmed. This is obviously high risk high reward and takes some getting used to with champions being tankier than ever! You more than likely don't have any kill potential until level 4 or 5 so I'd focus on auto attacks to proc Electrocute and mana manage until then - I must iterate again that this is match up dependent but if pulled off allows you to snowball like an AP assassin. Never take Electrocute when playing against a tank heavy jungle like Zac or Serjuani regardless of the midlane matchup - this is when you transition to a potential poke orientated gameplay focused around comet.