Heimerdinger analysis and proposals

Heimerdinger is currently a joke.

Pick him in any game above gold elo, and you are not going to succeed; if you win, it is in spite of Heimerdinger, and not because of him.

His problems stem from one spell: his H-28G Evolution Turret. Namely, how squishy it is.

I do not exaggerate when I say that there is not a single champion who is likely to face Heimerdinger who cannot deal with his turrets, either by killing them faster than Heimerdinger can place them or by simply being able to ignore them and go for the throat. Most of the time, it's their game to lose, not Heimerdingers game to win.

Heimer has always had this problem. Before his rework, his turrets were a good deal harder to kill (as they should be; they costed 100 mana). They had higher HP, significant resistances, and a pocketed heal in Heimerdingers ultimate.

Heimerdinger is meant to be the best in the game at doing two things: controlling an area with his turrets and slowly but surely destroying every structure in his path. Heimer is still good at pushing, but not quite as good as he once was.

Back in the day, Heimerdingers turrets hurt. A lot. He only had two of them, but they were some of the best units in the game at killing structures. Each of them dealt 62 damage per hit, for a total of 217 DPS across both turrets, compared to 179 DPS coming from todays turrets (though this does increase to a whopping 305 DPS if you drop an ult turret).

The turrets used to be upgraded at each rank, as well. These upgrades were a second turret at rank 2, armor/MR shred at rank 3, +100 HP at rank 4, and splash damage at max rank. I feel like these upgrades did a great deal to solidify Heimerdingers identity as an inventor, a tinker. As much as I love the beam attack, I was saddened to see this go.

fun fact: Heimerdingers grenade used to damage structures. He also used to have a cap of 6 turrets (though they didn't get any special bonuses per rank).

Let's look at some characters similar to Heimer in some other games.

Torbjorn. He is also regarded as a joke, but less so than Heimerdinger. His turret is an absolute monster, capable of killing any DPS in a matter of moments. It's not too hard to kill with a counterpick, but you can deal with it.

The Engineer. Unlike the other two, this guy is not only viable but necessary. His turrets are not only strong enough to hold their own on the battlefield, but are strong enough to keep people trapped inside their spawn room. Any who cross its path unprepared will be blown into bloody chunks. Despite this power, he is far from broken. Killing his turret is an effort for a group, but is hardly impossible.

Gazlowe. I will not claim to be a HOTS expert, but I will do my best to explain this. Gazlowe is not a god of death like the others in this category, but he is the best of them at objective control. He tends to spend most of his time using turrets to clear out the jungle, securing objectives and pushing lanes with the mercenary camps he captures.

Meanwhile, Heimerdinger. His turrets deal significant damage, but not enough to be a major threat considering how easy they are to kill (unless you facecheck a bush with 3 of them and a Heimerdinger in it, or foolishly decide to kill Heim without first dealing with the turrets.) They are GOOD at securing objectives, but there are champions who do it better.

Heimer is THE turret guy in League. His turrets should be fucking bad ass.

Alright, moving on to proposals.

Passive: Techmaturgical Repair Bots Turrets are now healed for 1 HP every second, instead of 10/15/20/25/30 per 5 seconds. Apex turrets recieve double healing.

You'll see why in a moment.

Q: H-28G Evolution Turret HP: 150-575 (+5-40% AP) >> 6 Armor: 10-80 >> 0 MR: 25-65 >> 0 Mana Cost: 20 >> 50 Basic attacks and spells deal 2 damage to turrets. AOE effects deal 1 damage to turrets. DOT effects and aura damage do not damage turrets. Bye Bye Lazers: No more beam attack (for now)

Alright. Killing Heimerdingers turrets is now much harder in the early game, but is still possible. If you find it annoying that you can no longer simply destroy them without really thinking about it or sacrificing something, GOOD. These things are meant to be a pain in the ass to kill, but not impossible.

W and E will be unchanged.

R: UPGRADE!!! New (passive) Tinker: At each rank of "Upgrade!!!", Heimerdinger will be able to choose between two alterations to make to his turrets. Rank 1: Cannon or Gatling Cannon: -50% attack speed, but +50% damage and 2x range (3x range versus non champions). Gatling: +50% attack speed, beam attack unlocked (charge per hit reduced, obviously). Rank 2: Communications or Plating Communications: Turrets no longer go offline when Heimerdinger is absent or dead. Plating: +3 turret HP Rank 3: Explosive Shells or Acidic Shells Explosive Shells: Turret basic attacks deal their damage in an AOE around the target (250 for Cannon turrets, 150 for Gatling turrets). Acidic Shells: Turret basic attacks reduce the armor and magic resist of their targets by 3 on hit. Lasts 5 seconds, stacks infinitely.

Heimer can now tinker with his turrets to fit the situation. If he feels that he needs to be a siege champion, Cannon/Plating/ES will do nicely. To take down objectives fast, or simpy shred through teams trying to kill you, nothing works better than Gatling/Plating/AS. Split pushing is easy as pie with Cannon/Comms/ES. Setting up death traps in the jungle is hilarious with Gatling/Comms/AS.

Now you may be wondering how this effects the Apex Turret. Well, not much.

H-28Q Apex Turret HP: 850-1450 (+25-200% AP) >> 10/12/14 Same rules as Q turrets.

The Apex turret doesn't receive tinker buffs. I think we can all live without this thing pelting your turret from 3300 range.

Alright, that's enough for now.

Keep em raised boys.