Can we talk about Heimerdinger?
Tl;Dr - Heimer is a weak champion who hasn't received any changes since 4.20. His passive is doomed as it is to strong on ARAM, Q can be killed nearly instantly and range, waveclear, or sustain render him useless. EWR are fine, would appreciate some QoL changes at the cost of some negative changes to bring Heimer into a postivie state. A rework would be appreciated.
Heimer has been in a weak spot for a while and is yet to receive any changes. His last change in the game (other than two bug fixes) was on patch 4.20 changing his health regen from 0 to 11 per 5 seconds and making his passive no longer affect him. While this was a straight up buff as Heimer now has some synergy with health regen items it has deemed his passive near useless unless you're on ARAM or you're the ever elusive support Heimer. I don't think Heimerdinger will get a new passive anytime soon mainly due to RIOT Augusts claims of
"Heimer's passive is a glue spell. Even though you don't notice it, that regen makes seiging with a heimer on your team VERY strong as you have teamwide healing to mitigate poke. Seiging is one of the things you'd bring him for. Set up turrets to control a location and take objectives. Now all that said, Heimer passive has a problem. It's incredibly strong but no one sees to think so (as is evidenced by this thread). Don't believe me? Try poking a team with a Heimer on it in ARAM. This means the power/satisfaction ratio is pretty far off (as it always tends to be with auras) so that could justify it to be worth changing at some point. Not sure what we'd give him though as the guy has historically already had most of what he needs in up front fighting power."
Which in my honest opinion is meaningless. While his passive is good on ARAM it's again ARAM not the core gamemode of league (sorry ARAM enthusiasts) and having power in a map where you don't even chose your champion as a reason for a lack of changes is honestly ridiculous. Being strong on ARAM does not equal being strong on Summoners Rift.
One of Heimers main issues stems from his core identity being his Q H-28 Evolution Turret. You place it down and essentially gain a static pet which you can only control who it targets via auto attacks. The issue with this is it is his core identity, his main source of damage, and the reason Heimer will be in this poor state until it is changed.
That last statement sounds odd however when you consider Heimer has some of the most counterplay in the game. Again an odd statement however a majority of his power budget is placed in his Q in that he has some rather poor stats, high cooldowns, high mana costs, and his only form of CC is extremely difficult to land especially for newer Heimer players. Heimerdingers Evolution Turrets have the issue that there are 3 ways to beat them. *Be ranged, have sustain, or have waveclear. I can't think of many champions who don't fit any of these categories and thus many can clear without much cost other than some damage. Along with this his turrets are squishy as all hell almost any champion has a spell that can clear them instantly or give them an auto or two and they're done for. On a 24-20 second cooldown this is rather punishing. Along with it his standard and ultimate turret has some of the best counterplay in the game being walk away. You wouldn't constantly walk near baron if he was perma aggro'd so why would you walk into 3 Heim turrets unless you're willing to take some damage.
Heimerdingers W and Heimerdingers E as they stand are fine however my only complaint is there is not much reason to max E other than reducing it's cooldown as the damage does increase but not the slow/stun length or strength. Ultimate is also fine as is.
As this game progresses Heimerdingers state will continue to get worse. I'm not asking for Heimerdinger to become some overpowered mustpick/ban champion however I feel as though he could use some QoL changes (and maybe a passive good outside of ARAM) so he actually has a chance to be relevant in the game. If some things have to be weakened to raise Heimers power thats fine.
I can't recall the last time anyone was actually happy to see a Heimerdinger on their team or the enemy team due to how he currently is and this unfun playstyle is what brought us the Yorick changes. Maybe something similar could happen for Heimer?
*As for the ranged part only 7 ranged champions don't outrange Heimerdingers Q. Gnar at level 1 50 range short, Graves and Urgot are 25 range to short, and Karthus, Vladimir, Morgana, and Thresh are exactly 450 range just like Heim turrets.
