Heimer is different in that akin to urgot or illaoi, he primarily punishes you for making mistakes very heavily. Heimerdinger thrives on people who gets frustrated and try to force an engagement. As you do all of the hard work for him by getting into his turret field, otherwise he'd have to fight you without them .
There are few melee champions who can do absolutely nothing against heimer.
A majority can either:
- sustain through his poke
- farm safely from range
- kill his turrets
- Win the matchup at level 6
- win the matchup with adaptive helm
Adaptive helm crushes his damage as it will affect his Q, W, and all forms of his ultimate.
So quick refresher as few people buy this item. Taking damage from a spell, will reduce damage from more of that same spell.
This works for heimer's turrets, missiles (1 hits the rest are reduced), their ultimate forms and his ult E.
QSS also works wonders as his R+E only stuns a target once despite bouncing 3 times
Heimer's biggest problems in terms of counters are heavy AOE champions like wukong and lissandra, juggernauts with some CC and adaptive helm and champions who can outlast his combo like trynd.
The biggest problems I've had top lane are against darius, olaf, trynd, wukong, mordekaiser, singed and sion once he beefs up.
Ranged champs who mega counter him are malzahar, xerath, anivia, karthus, cass, vlad. Anivia being best
A good yasuo (who are few and far between) will demolish a heimerdinger.
Tanks generally just survive and eventually out shove and face tank me.
This of course doesn't matter if you don't change how you play.
Firstly care for bush cheese. stick to river sides of lane.
Early game you want to farm until you have your core item or adaptive helm. For AA champs like olaf/trynd that'd be tiamat. Darius would be phage ect.
You NEVER! fight him until you can survive his burst or have adaptive helm. If he goes in on you, run away early on. Tell your jungler not to gank, so many times I get double kills because the jg/laner end up on top of each other for an ez stun into lasers.
Olaf is an exception as he can poke heimer and smash his turrets with Q, sustain and CC proof through his E to decimate heimer early
Heimer's most devastating tool is his E, as landing it instantly charges his turret lasers (his ult+E can then make 3 lasers if he lands all 3). This is what makes ganking/engaging on him so dangerous.
His W is rarely used properly (should be spread to guarantee it hitting instead of concentrated to 1 point, as each missile after 1st deals less dmg). If they shoot all missiles to one point or use ult+W, you're facing a meh heimderdinger.
If he goes all flash and poles stick out of his head, his R has been primed. Note he can deactivate it at any time for around 5 sec CD (engagement window)
Best scenario, you keep smashing his turrets until he can't keep up due to cooldowns or you smash em all in one swoop. He's cucked now as his main DPS and slow generator via rylais is gone.
Moral of the story, be patient and let the heimer tilt when he doesn't get fed.
