Pros → Low Ban Rate & Pick Rate → Flexible pick (Top, Mid, Support, & Bot) → Low skill floor and high skill ceiling → Effective at controlling objectives (Baron, Dragon, Herald, Towers) → One of the best wave clears in the game → Capable of 1v2 (or even 1v3), can get free kills from enemy ganks → One of the highest DPS outputs of all champions → Can poke and zone enemies easily → High AoE and CC

Cons → Extremely squishy and immobile → Vulnerable to CC → Weak when behind → Wave clear is too strong, making it hard to freeze or slow-push → Difficult to carry 1v9 → Damage drops significantly without H-28G Evolution Turret, making him vulnerable to ranged champions

PASSIVE ABILITY

Hextech Affinity (Passive): Heimerdinger gains 20% bonus Movement Speed when near an allied Turret, H-28G Evolution Turret, or H-28Q Apex Turret. This passive is quite powerful, as the 20% bonus movement speed allows you to kite skillshots more easily, avoid all-ins or ganks, and chase down enemies.

Q

H-28G Evolution Turret (Q): Heimerdinger can store and place up to three turrets. This is his primary ability, which interacts with other abilities and is used for clearing minion waves, short and extended trades. If your turrets are down, your damage output and waveclear become significantly worse.

Most of this applies to H-28Q Apex Turret as well.

• The stats of the H-28G Evolution Turret are determined at the time of deployment and do not change with items like Conqueror or ability level. Level turrets before placing them to maximize effectiveness. In patch 14.2, Heimerdinger's turrets now update every second to reflect level-ups, rank-ups, and AP purchases, making Conqueror a strong option.
• When deploying a 4th turret, either the inactive or oldest active turret will be destroyed.
• Enemies hit by CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade charge the turret for 100% per hit, and Hextech Micro-Rockets charge it for 20% per missile (100% total).
  Once fully charged, the turret shoots an empowered attack that deals increased damage, has a larger AoE and range, and pierces through enemies. This attack counts as AoE for certain runes and effects, while regular turret attacks are single-target.
• The H-28G Evolution Turret prioritizes enemies that you auto-attacked or hit with abilities, so be sure to auto-attack enemies in range.
• Turrets prioritize H-28G Evolution Turrets over minions.
• H-28G Evolution Turret provides vision even when disabled, which can be useful for anti-invade vision.
• The turret's HP scales with Heimerdinger's AP, and this scaling increases as Heimerdinger levels up.
• Omnivamp is only 33% effective for H-28G Evolution Turret, so building a Riftmaker on Heimerdinger is wasteful. In Patch 14.1, Riftmaker's omnivamp now works 100% for pets and AoE damage, though it's reduced against minions. However, this still doesn't make Riftmaker a viable option on Heimerdinger.
• Avoid deploying all your turrets immediately after they become available. It's often more beneficial to save them for combos with other abilities, especially if you're facing enemies who can easily destroy them. In difficult matchups, consider freezing the lane and keeping your turrets for potential jungle ganks instead of constantly pushing the lane.

W

Hextech Micro-Rockets (W): Heimerdinger launches 5 rockets that cross on the cursor and then spread out. First missile deals around 55% of the total damage, while next 4 missiles deal reduced damage. It's used mostly for poking enemies and charging H-28G Evolution Turret for burst damage and is pretty spammable once you have enough mana.

• Since the first missile deals the highest damage, it's usually more effective to spread out the missiles to increase the likelihood of hitting at least one rocket. It’s better to land one missile for full damage than to miss all and deal no damage.
  
  
  
  
• If Heimerdinger kills a minion or champion with Hextech Micro-Rockets, the remaining missiles will continue to fly in their original trajectory. This can be used to effectively trade while farming.
  • Hextech Micro-Rockets can be an excellent tool for clearing large waves of minions, as you can last-hit multiple minions with a single use of the ability.
• You can also use Hextech Micro-Rockets to check bushes. Spread the missiles out to cover a larger area for maximum visibility.

E

CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade (E): Heimerdinger throws a grenade that stuns enemies at the center of impact and slows those in the surrounding area. If you hit your target, the laser beams from your turrets will be fully charged. This ability is really important, as missing it can leave you vulnerable to enemy all-ins. Use it strategically, and aim carefully. If you can land this ability in turret nest, you're almost guaranteed to win the fight. If it's on cooldown, be careful and play more safely against engage champions.

• CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade can be challenging to land, especially on fast-moving targets. Having teammates with crowd control (CC) can significantly improve your chances of landing the hit. Additionally, the closer you are to the target, the less time the grenade takes to land, which can make it easier to stun enemies who are near you. Using it directly on yourself can result in an almost instant hit.
• When the grenade lands, it briefly provides vision in the area where it impacts. This can be useful for checking important objectives (like dragons or baron). However, due to its long cooldown, it's not recommended to use it just for checking bushes.

R

UPGRADE!!! (R): Heimerdinger enhances the next usage of basic abilities.

• The damage of your next basic ability increases with the level of UPGRADE!!!, not with the individual ability levels.
• You can recast UPGRADE!!! after 3 seconds to cancel its effect and refund the cooldown.

RQ

H-28Q Apex Turret (RQ): Upgrades H-28G Evolution Turret to H-28Q Apex Turret. Its beams are better splash damage and it slows enemies, making it primarily a defensive AoE option.

• H-28Q Apex Turret can be used to keep enemies from important objectives, dealing significant damage and slowing them if ignored.
• If you are in danger of being crowd-controlled, placing an empowered turret can help. It deals damage and can provide opportunities to turn around the situation once the crowd control effect wears off.
• This turret is much more durable than the H-28G Evolution Turret, making it ideal for solo objectives in the mid-late game. By placing it first, you can allow it to tank damage and secure objectives more efficiently.
• H-28Q Apex Turret can be placed even when you don't have other turrets available, making it a useful tool when everything else is on cooldown.

RW

Hextech Rocket Swarm (RW): Upgrades Hextech Micro-Rockets to Hextech Rocket Swarm. It fires four missile waves instead of one. This is a mostly single-target/aggressive option.

• You can move while using Hextech Rocket Swarm, which allows you to reposition if you miss your target or want to cover more enemies.
• You can use Zhonya's Hourglass after casting Hextech Rocket Swarm. The rockets will continue to fire while you are in stasis.

RE

CH-3X Lightning Grenade (RE): Upgrades CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade to CH-3X Lightning Grenade. It bounces three times and has a larger area of impact. This ability is effective in team fights or when used for picks.

• CH-3X Lightning Grenade is great for shutting down mobile champions like Irelia and Akali. The multiple bounces make it harder for them to escape the stun.
• In team fights, it can lock down the entire enemy team, allowing your allies to follow up with their abilities. However, if you need more control over an objective or want to prevent enemies from diving, consider using the H-28Q Apex Turret instead.
• It can bypass spell shields like Malzahar's Void Shift, Morgana's Black Shield, and Sivir's Spell Shield if you hit them with two bounces. Additionally, it can be effective against Cleanse and Quicksilver Sash, though hitting those can be trickier.

Arcane Comet is a great rune for poking enemies in the early game. Using Hextech Micro-Rockets lets you proc it repeatedly. Arcane Comet's cooldown is also reduced when you deal damage, meaning your H-28G Evolution Turret can significantly shorten its downtime. Best used against ranged matchups, especially midlane and botlane, where you can't stack Conqueror so you need to stick to poke playstyle.

Summon Aery is an alternative to Arcane Comet. It works better if you can reliably proc it (usually against melee champions) or in specific matchups (like against LeBlanc, who can easily dodge Arcane Comet). However, this rune is rarely useful, as Conqueror is often a better choice in these scenarios, but it still works.

Manaflow Band is really good for Heimerdinger, as he heavily relies on mana. This is especially true if you don’t plan to buy a mana item. To stack it, simply hit enemies with Hextech Micro-Rockets or drop a H-28G Evolution Turret on them.

Transcendence is valuable for its Ability Haste. It's especially useful against enemies who constantly destroy your turrets, such as Vel'Koz, Xerath, Syndra, and Taliyah (especially if you take it alongside Ability Haste rune shard and mana items like Blackfire Torch or Luden's Companion). This allows you to spam Hextech Micro-Rockets more frequently and quickly replace destroyed turrets.

Absolute Focus works well for Heimerdinger, providing 3-30 Ability Power as long as you stay above 70% HP. Best against melee matchups for more burst and uptime, but is also useful for scaling combined with Absolute Focus and Rabadon's Deathcap.

Scorch is an early-game rune for harassment and poke, but Gathering Storm is usually better (>=20 minutes).

Gathering Storm excels in the late game, and I recommend it over Scorch. It grants 48 Ability Power at 30 minutes or 80 at 40 minutes, nearly equivalent to an entire item. Paired with Absolute Focus, you can achieve 110 Ability Power in the late game, increasing to 143 with Rabadon's Deathcap.

Electrocute is a very niche rune, as Conqueror offers a similar playstyle but more overall strength. It’s typically chosen against champions who are hard to hit with Arcane Comet and difficult to burst with Conqueror, such as LeBlanc, Yasuo, or Akali. However, the Domination tree is generally weaker compared to Sorcery or Precision.

Cheap Shot offers a small damage boost and is a good primary rune (don't take it in secondary tree) if you don’t need the sustain provided by Taste of Blood.

Taste of Blood is a solid rune that helps prevent overextending. It’s especially effective against poke-heavy champions or in aggressive playstyles.

Sixth Sense is useful for revealing wards and setting up bush ambushes, but Oracle's Lens is usually sufficient for this purpose.

Grisly Mementos is an underwhelming rune that’s only worth considering for Heimerdinger support.

Deep Ward is an excellent rune for deep warding, extending ward duration significantly. It’s very effective in toplane for avoiding ganks (especially against champions like Nocturne, Zac, Shaco and etc.) and can also be situationally good in midlane, or the support role due to frequent warding.

Treasure Hunter is decent, granting up to 450 gold after killing five unique champions. It’s better suited for Heimerdinger support due to lower gold income and the ability to farm kills from three champions in botlane (Bot, Support, and Jungle).

Ultimate Hunter is likely the best hunter rune for Heimerdinger because UPGRADE!!! is an important ability that impacts skirmishes and teamfights.

First Strike is really niche rune. It’s most effective against melee team comps, where you can easily proc it for extra gold. The ideal scenario is a top lane matchup against a tanky champion. It’s a solid option when you can’t kill an enemy early and want to scale. The Inspiration tree is decent, as Heimerdinger is an item-dependent champion. This rune is also quite good on support, providing more gold generation. However, it’s not great in the early game or against ranged champions, as they can easily hit you first.

Magical Footwear is a fantastic rune as it grants boots for free (300 gold) and provides a small movement speed boost, which helps with kiting enemies. The downside is that you can't buy boots for the first 12 minutes of the game unless you get takedowns.

Cash Back is a nice rune that helps you get items earlier, becoming better than Magical Footwear once you spend over 5000 gold (around 2 items).

Triple Tonic is a good rune for making last-hitting easier with the first tonic and provides small power spikes with the second and third tonics.

Biscuit Delivery can be useful in hard poke matchups, as it provides sustain and helps you outsustain your enemies.

Cosmic Insight is a somewhat underrated rune, providing cooldown reduction for Summoner Spells and items. It synergizes well with Barrier or Teleport, but it also works with other spells.

Conqueror became one of the best runes for Heimerdinger after patch 14.2: "Heimerdinger's Q and R+Q turrets now update their stats every 1 second, reflecting level-ups, rank-ups, and AP purchases. They no longer snapshot their stats when summoned." It's very powerful against melee champions (though still good against some ranged champions), as you can easily stack it and deal absurd amounts of damage. It also makes you "immune" to ganks, as you stack it very quickly when the enemy jungler attempts to gank. It fits burst & battlemage playstyle really well.

Presence of Mind is probably the best Precision rune for Heimerdinger, as it can be easily activated through H-28G Evolution Turret, Hextech Micro-Rockets, or auto-attacks. It helps you maintain mana efficiently and allows you to skip mana items in certain scenarios.

Legend: Haste is similar to Transcendence and provides useful Ability Haste, which many S14 items lack.

Coup de Grace is alternative choice to Cut Down or Last Stand for bursting down enemies.

Cut Down is personally more enjoyable than Coup de Grace. It allows you to poke enemies down faster and is useful with Shadowflame to make use of its passive sooner.

Last Stand is an alternative to Cut Down and Coup de Grace and is more of a personal preference. It's more conditional, but also grants more damage. I still prefer consistency of 2 other choices.

Demolish is effective, as Heimerdinger often pushes minion waves quickly and can easily farm Tower Plates.

Bone Plating is very strong against champions who rely on all-ins and lack poke, such as Fizz, Yone, Pyke, etc. This rune is the only reason you might consider taking the Resolve tree.

Overgrowth is okay for added survivability. You can take it along with Bone Plating if you don't need Demolish.

Choosing rune shards for Heimerdinger is straightforward. Always opt for either Ability Haste + Adaptive Force or two Adaptive Force runes. Double Adaptive Force provides a stronger early game, while Ability Haste becomes much more important later on, as fewer items grant it after Season 14. For the third shard, it's generally better to go with Health Scaling, as it provides more value after Level 6. However, flat Health may be considered for the early game if you need extra heatlh.

One of the most common rune pages for Heimerdinger, especially if you're playing midlane or botlane. Arcane Comet is best into ranged matchups for poking enemies, and the Sorcery tree is really good for stacking Ability Power with runes such as Absolute Focus (can be swapped with Transcendence for more Ability Haste in hard mage matchups, you can also take the Ability Haste shard along with that) and Gathering Storm (can be swapped with Scorch for better early game). Manaflow Band allows you to spam Hextech Micro-Rockets more often, and you likely wouldn’t want to swap that with anything else in that row. I would recommend building items such as Blackfire Torch/ Luden's Companion and Liandry's Torment as these items fit poking playstyle very well.

Precision is probably Heimerdinger's second-best tree, as Legend: Haste provides plenty of Ability Haste, and Cut Down (can be changed with Coup de Grace or Last Stand) increases your damage. If you really need mana, you can swap any of these for Presence of Mind.

Into matchups where Arcane Comet can’t land consistently and Conqueror can't be stacked, you might consider swapping it with Summon Aery, but such matchups are rare.

This is also one of the best rune pages for Heimerdinger, most commonly used in the toplane. Conqueror can be stacked quickly against melee champions, making it great for both bursting enemies and extended fights. It also excels in 1v2s against the enemy jungler.

For the Sorcery tree, take Absolute Focus and Gathering Storm to further boost your Ability Power for higher burst potential. If mana is an issue (e.g., you want to rush Rabadon's Deathcap as your first item for even more burst potential), you can swap either rune for Manaflow Band.

Combat summoner spells like Ignite or Exhaust feel better than Teleport with this rune page, but the choice still depends on the matchup.
This rune page is really niche, as Electrocute (wouldn't really swap it with Dark Harvest as it's pure trash) and the Domination tree are generally bad. It works best in matchups where you can’t stack Conqueror quickly, can’t land Arcane Comet consistently, and don’t really like Summon Aery. For example, it can be useful against champions like LeBlanc, Akali, Yasuo, and others.

We take Taste of Blood for additional sustain in lane (I typically wouldn’t swap it with Cheap Shot as it's inconsistent). Deep Ward is the only good rune in that row (unless you’re playing support) since it provides valuable early-game information through deep warding. For example, placing a Faker ward can give you full insight into the enemy jungle's clear path. Ultimate Hunter is the best option to maximize your powerful UPGRADE!!! (while Treasure Hunter feels underwhelming, you can opt for it if you prefer).

Sorcery is the most powerful tree, so we take it here as well.

This is another really niche tree, as First Strike is a heavily nerfed rune. However, the Inspiration tree itself is decent. We take Magical Footwear for extra gold (you can swap it with Cash Back if that’s your preference). Triple Tonic is a nice addition for its extra waveclear, Ability Power, and additional skill point (though it can be swapped with Biscuit Delivery if you’re up against heavy poke). Cosmic Insight is a solid choice for faster summoner spell cooldowns and is the only good option in that row.

Sorcery is the most powerful tree, so we take it here as well.

Resolve as a secondary tree can be situationally taken against assassins like Fizz, Zed, Pantheon, Pyke, etc., mainly for Bone Plating (this rune is the only reason to pick Resolve as a secondary). For the second rune, you can choose Demolish to take turret plates faster and improve split-pushing, or Overgrowth for survivability.

While Domination is generally a weak tree, you can consider taking it for Deep Ward, which is useful if you often struggle with ganks and need better map awareness. Ultimate Hunter is also valuable for reducing the cooldown of UPGRADE!!!, allowing you to use it more frequently. Additionally, Taste of Blood can provide some sustain in the early game. If you're playing support, you can pick other vision-focused runes in the secondary tree, but Deep Ward remains best.

Generally, Inspiration is not worth taking over Precision or Sorcery. However, Magical Footwear or Cash Back can provide a decent amount of gold, which is especially useful as support Heimerdinger. You can also opt for Biscuit Delivery against heavy poke, Triple Tonic, or Cosmic Insight.