Heimerding is a unique Champion that is really funny and tricky. Still, the role of heimerdinger can be crutial in a team since he can push as well as defend positions. I think he can be played as mid or support but I've seen some people even play him jungle but don't expect a good map presence early game with him since he has to farm and since he's slow and lack ganking capacity, think of him as an unconventionnal pusher CC support/jungler.

As for me, I'm just someone who likes to share my thought about this champion.

poking capacities with rockets
Good sustainability with his passive
Awesome damage over time with his turrets
Good in laning against AD mid champions and melee AP
Decent CC with grenade
easy zoner
Ap champion that can push towers as fast as an adc
Can block path with turrets placement.
Can secure objective like dragon and baron
Can gank in the bush with turrets :)


Slow http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Movement_speed/Table
Low base health, armor and MR AKA squishy http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_champions%27_health
Turrets can be one shoted down by some champions.
farming can be tricky since you use your auto-attack
Some abilities affecting minions counter him : Syndra's Force of Will, Nunu's Consume, Master Yi's Alpha Strike

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power Total 15 AP

Why?

This boost of AP will make your opponent fear your Hextech Micro-Rockets early game. This will also boost you turrets damages.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration Total 8 Magic Pen.

Why?

These marks are the best for any mages. Check here for primary runes : Runes

Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration Total 11/5second at level 18

Why?

Heimerdinger is really mana dependant, during laning phase you can save your mana but in TEAM fight mid/late game you have to engage at your maximum potential.

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction Total -7.47%

Why?

Here you could also take ability power or magic resistance. I take cooldown reduction not to rely on the items for it.

I really don't know about the new tree. I feel like late offensive tree is not worth beside havoc and archmage. 1 mastery point for + 40 gold feels great and the cooldown reduction too.

Flash : Get it! one of your few way of escaping
Barrier : This spell is useful in the laning phase and give you a bit more survivability against ganks. It counters Ignite well too.
Teleport : If you think you can survive the laning phase without barrier, get Teleport instead. This spell is very useful for tactical push and for surprise ganks. If an ally have a ward behind ennemy line you can teleport and block the exit way with your turret. Else, you can use it to defend a tower and give you more freedom to move away from your lane.
Ghost : ghost can replace teleport if you think about roaming in the jungle.
Exhaust : A good option when you support to reduce the adc effectiveness.

Heres some tips about the mechanics of heimerdinger.

His passive gives life regen = if you poke for equal damage it's usually advantageous

He relies on his turrets to escape = put the turrets behind you instead of in front of you unless you want to be really aggressive.

squishy and easy to gank = you need some kind of map awareness, use wards.

His turrets attack who you auto-attack or who attacks you = you see someone in range, stop farming and poke him with your auto-attack.

Turrets can take damage for you = use them as obstacles, place them to counter skill shots, use it to tank damages for the jungler in the leashing.

His turrets have a zone of control = when fleeing, sometimes it's better to trick your opponent into your turrets by doing back and forth than just fleeing in a straith line.

Magic penetration and other on-cast effects affect turrets lazer not the bullets = if your boosting turret first wait later for the effects oriented items.

Heimerdinger can't be built as a glass canon, He needs to survive the longest possible to do his damage since he relies a lot on the damage over time with his turrets. Also, if you want to put turrets in the right place or make some poke, you sometime need to go a little bit in the danger zone. That said, Ability power and spell penetration is essencial.

STARTER ITEMS are mainly for sustaining and safe farming. Champions can't kill you alone in early game soo the jungler is the main danger.

Heimerdinger needs mana and vision early game, the more you have, the more you can play agressive. Wards let you move beyond you safe zone, doran's ring give you sustain.
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MAGIC RESIST ITEMS early game is handfull cause your probly gonna duel against an ap champion. Mercury trends have tenacity and can help against team composition with a lot of crowd control.

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CORE ITEM Cause it gives you ability power and a good active ability too turn the situation around. I must say it again, Heimerdinger is a tricky hero, to play well with him you must be unpredictable and zhonya's hourglass is the best trick you can have.

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MANA REGEN ITEMS are in my opinion optionnal, with the runes and masteries I suggested + 1 or 2 Doran's Ring, you should be fine.

Catalyst the Protector

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COOLDOWN ITEMS are really usefull since heimerdinger's cooldown are soo long. It helps all abilities including turret placement and the ultimate.

Note:

Banner of Command

This item is made for heimerdinger almost. Ap, CDR and 15% damage aura for minions helps buffing your turrets. Let's not forget the promote active ability that helps soaking the damage of the tower when pushing and helps your turrets survive for a long time. Sometimes I just promote for pushing passively a lane and for extra gold. If you want to see the math behind this item heres a nice link :

http://www.surrenderat20.net/2013/03/which-champions-benefit-from-banner-of.html
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MAGIC PENETRATION ITEMS are better at a certain rate then pure ability power. the hauting guise/sorcerer's shoes combo is good early game. If you dont want to emphasize on that wait late game for your void staff instead.

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THE ABILITY ITEM you'll want to have at a certain moment in the game. I dont recommend getting it before Zhonya's Hourglass because his 30% AP needs... AP, and because zhonya's active will save your butt and change team fights.

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DEFENSIVE ITEMS for your late game survivability. Gardian angel act a little bit like a second zhonya but lacks HP boost. Rod of age is good for sustainability and Rylai's for crowd control.

Note: Rylai's Cristal Scepter synergize with Liandry's Torment


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OTHER ITEMS FOR SPECIFIC USES

Mikael's Blessing

This item is good in team fights to give some sustain to the tank. It's a support item but it is built from chalice of harmony wich is the best item early game for mana regen.

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Twin Shadows

This item is good for countering invisible guys with the little revealing ghosts and helps escaping and chasing as well with the slow effect.
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Abyssal Mask

A good item both offensive and defensive. The aura is not that big tho, soo take it only if your against a melee AP.

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Aegis of the Legion

Cool aura for your turrets and extra resistance for your team, I still prefer other items for defensive purpose. Take it if your supporting/jungling againsts lots of AP AoE.

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Quicksilver Sash

This item is usefull to dodge certain ability like Veigar's Event Horizon and Malzahar's Nether Grasp. Trigger it + zhonya's hourglass and your in business.
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Boots Enchantment

You have 2 options depending of your summoner spell. If you go for Barrier, Enchantment: Homeguard will help you get in position faster on the map. If you go for Teleport, Enchantment: Distortion will help reduce cooldown for flash and teleport, it can also be a good option when Jarvan IV is on the field for extra cooldown of your flash only.

Green Dot : your tower
Red Dot : ennemy tower
Red Arrow : Dangerous path for gank
Yellow Arrow : Less dangerous path for gank
Numbers : Turret placement

Laning phase

Objective : Your objective in this part is basically to farm better then your opponent. For this, you can 1. reduce his health with your rockets to a point he can be easily ganked by your jungler; 2. zoning him below his tower to reduce his creep kills. This is only possible if the opponent can't farm quickly enough and can't kill your turrets easily. 3. If your opponent is roaming, returning to town or away for whatever reasons, KILL his tower, use your big turret to shred it. Heimerdinger is slow and not the best for roaming unless you use teleport soo I recommend you to inform your allies about your opponent missing and to move between the lanes only if you have visibility. Other then that you can push but not too hard since your laning phase needs to be long enough for you to build Zhonya's Hourglass.

Safety first : In order to be safe you should always stay near your tower early game. Use wards to have vision in the bush and put turrets in order to make a defence path from the tower to you when you know you have a window of oppotunity. Your turrets placement is important, they must not be too far appart for each other in order to hit both the opponent and they must not be too close in case your ennemy has AoE abilities that could hit both of them and your minions.

Depending how well your doing, you can place your turrets in different ways in the lane.

while defending place your turret in 1 / 3 position.(see minimap) In the early game (Lvl 1 to 9) your tower should always be in this position while you farm. You can advance further to last hit minions with a auto-attack or rockets but in that case keep your distance from your opponent.

While moving forward you can place your turret in 1 / 2 position or 3 / 4 position. Also, Place a sight ward in the bush next to your turret to have a safe escape route or to see incoming danger. When you go back to base you can even buy 2 wards to have vision on both sides of the river, this helps you and the jungler as well.

While zoning your opponent you can place your turret in 2 / 4 position. This is risky but if the jungler have a hard time dealing with your turrets and your feeling confident you can play this card. Zoning your opponent will enable you to move out of the lane without being noticed.

While your opponent is away You can wait for a minion wave, preferably one with a siege minion, and put your turret in tower's range for extra damage. Place it after the tower hits the first minion because after a kill the tower's priority is your turret. This is really risky, because it removes your siege position.

While your away Just put a your turrets in the field to defend your tower and get some free kills and to save mana at comeback.

Gank prediction : you should keep an eye on your minimap to watch for incoming ganks at all time. In mid lane there is 6 possible paths where an opponent can gank you, one of them is under your tower's range soo I marked it as less dangerous but some jungler can avoid this tower hit soo you have to keep this possibility in mind. Against some jungler, you will be dead before he even enters the bush, soo it's a good option to place your ward further in the river. I'm thinking of : Jarvan IV, Lee sin, Amumu, Nocturne, and Shaco.

Get the blue : When you have the chance, get the Crest of the Ancient Golem. Put your turret and stun/blind the golem and you can creep it by yourself. You will be on steroid with this and be able to spam your spells, dont get too over-confident tho, cause people will want to steal it from you.

Communicate with the Jungler : the jungler is most likely to be around and can help in some situation, for ganks as well as for pushing.

Mid Game

With some good poking and defensive play you will win the laning phase. The longest the laning phase, the better since you need a lot of high cost item to be efficient. Mid game is the most tricky part for Heimerdinger I think since you'll probably have to defend your tower against a lot of opponent and wont gain much money from it, you will waste your mana at poking and building turrets. After the mid towers fall, you can go for dragon or help push other lanes depending on the needs. If you go for dragon the members of your team, put your turret near the river for them to defend from incoming attacks and be able to attack the dragon, if all the team is there you dont even need turrets to kill the dragon, just put them in bush for defence.

Team fights : Your role in team fights is to set a defensive area with your turrets and hitting ennemies away from danger. When you have Zhonya's Hourglass on you, you can act as a bait. This is also true for Barrier, Seraph's Embrace, Guardian Angel. If you have Mikael's Blessing, help first target as soon as he's low on HP, you can also use it on yourself if your in a bad situation.

Bush Ganking : you can block path with your turrets inside bushes where possible ennemies might flee or engage. That's the best way to gank with heimerdinger but be cautious cause you never know if the bush is warded, unless someone has oracle ;).

Late game

In late game you have 2 choices : split push or Team push. Heimerdinger is not good for escaping but somethimes backdooring with him is a good choice, especially if you have your Promoted siege minion. In team fights, your role is to predict where the fight will take place and set a trap, give vision/cc with your grenade and kill weak target with your missiles. Heimerdinger is not played like burst of damage champions, you need to play safer and you shouldn't overcommit in fights since your defensive quality are better then your offensive.

I don't want to say too much since you have to make your own way as heimerdinger. If you want to play tricky, adaptative and tactical then this is the right champion for you. Hope you enjoyed your reading and gained something from it.

Now teach them who's the BOSS!!!
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