Suggestions for Heimerdinger Changes

Let's be entirely honest: is just an annoying little troll in ANY lane he picks. His turrets give him INSANE staying power in-lane, and the fact that he can store another 3 turrets to just lay down the moment a gank comes his way makes him extremely difficult to corner for a gank. His other abilities scale well, and hold less power but retain usefulness. His rockets can clear a wave, or deal massive single-target damage while his grenade acts as a slow or stun, depending on how it's used and where it lands.

But his TURRETS, man. Those little machines make Heimerdinger unquestionably one of the strongest champions to bring to lane. Can he be countered? Yes, yes he can. But it doesn't change a few simple facts. One: His turrets are -permanent-. They deactivate after x period of time when he goes back, sure, but they never are removed from the map unless destroyed. Two: His turrets' charged shots are incredibly difficult to dodge because of their massive hitbox. I agree with the punishment for taking that extra chunk of damage if you aren't being safe, but they are so hard to avoid, you might as well not get in range.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like the fact that he's a strong champion. He needs to be, because he's got very little damage outside of his fairly average cooldowns. But I have to wonder if he's a little -too- strong right now. As such, I've made a list of potential changes that would simply make Heimeringer have more burst damage and have to -think- about how to use his turrets, rather than just lay them leapfrog and become ungankable. These could be lumped together to make one massive nerf, but I really think only one or two of these should be used to keep his skill cap where it is.

1: Turrets decay after x seconds, increasing with each rank of the ability taken. This would not only eliminate the 'turrets forever' Heimerdinger, but it would also mean that he can't just spam his turrets to keep 3 up in-lane, and 3 charges ready to use.

2: Turrets gain charges slower the more turrets are deployed. This keeps Heimerdinger from spam-placing turrets, and makes him think about where he should place them for maximum strategic value. It also prevents the issue of 'I FINALLY KILLED A TURR-- Oh, feck, there's another one.' from happening as often.

3: Turrets are worth MORE GOLD. Turrets really aren't worth much to a laner that manages to kill one through the insane interlocking fire that Heimerdinger has between his other turrets, and his abilities. Trying to take one out is high-risk, low-reward. 5g? I get more for killing a GP barrel. And that's EASY!

4: Turret charge shots STOP with the first two targets hit. Let's be honest, if you don't lower the speed or hitbox of the charge shot, it needs to have some other way to avoid it to make Heimer players think about where to best place turrets. This lets minion waves help tank out the biggest turret threat: The charged shot.

Now, I've tried to lay out potential solutions. These would all cripple the strongest aspect of Heimerdorker, yes... But in all of my experience, Heimerdinger is very low-risk, high-reward in lane. Melee champions can't get close to him, and ranged champs only have a hope of destroying his turrets. And, honestly, great Heimerdinger players rely way too heavily on a mechanic that just makes him damn near -unstoppable- in lane. I've played against him in top and mid, and midlane is really his only weak role. I've seen him go APC on bot rarely, and he destroys the lane as well because the ADCs are too squishy to get close to the turrets to kill them.

That in mind, you also can't cripple a champion's defining aspect.

I just hope that you guys at Riot, or you that make up the playerbase, can see that and understand that Heimerdinger is just an incredibly hard foe to face and that I -don't- want to see him gutted. Just gently rapped with the balance-hammer.