Heimer and Kalista Free week. Counter tips?

Eljin·12/9/2014, 12:56:05 AM·3 votes·1,543 views

Ok, so Heimerdinger and Kalista are coming up in the rotation. Being the sad little lowbie I am, that means I'm pretty much guaranteed to face them in about every match I play. The rest of the champions I've played before and feel good about understanding the fight and what to do, but I've played H/K once each up to this point, and have very little clue what to do against them. I fully expect to see Heimer top lane quite a bit, and maybe even Kalista in the top, but in bot lane when I am supporting for sure.

So, hit me with everything you have. How do I stop these two?

15 Comments

Drunk Rummate12/9/2014, 1:00:10 AM4 votes

Kalista loses to any marksman with reasonable burst. Lucian, Graves, Corki, Ezreal, Draven are all really good picks into her. Vayne is also decent.

If you're supporting against Kalista pick Morgana. Trust me. Just do it. You'll land the easiest bindings of your entire life once you get used to her passive.

Alternatively pick Leona and just get lots of zeniths on her. Once you get your ult it's either a flash or her life almost 100% of the time since her dash is lower range than the width of your ult.

Heimer is weak vs ranged mages with lots of wave clear. Ziggs, Syndra, Orianna, Ahri, Xerath are all really good picks into him.

50Shades of Wade12/9/2014, 2:45:53 AM3 votes

Kalista's auto attacks are like Draven's axes, except you don't get an indicator on the ground where she's going to land, so just watch her movements for a little bit and you'll get a feel for it.

As far as the Dong goes, you pretty much have your jungler camp him and engage away from his turrets and dodge his grenades and missiles since he has no other escape abilities. Try picking a ranged champ who's AA range is farther than turret range.

As far as laners that you're considering buying, stay away from Ahri and complex mechanical champions. Karma is a good champion, as is Malphite, for your level and forecasted skill level. Champions you can buy in addition are champions like Annie and Ryze. If you're looking for a 4800 IP champion, buy Orianna.

The primary thing you want to focus on right now is improving your game knowledge and decision making and your mechanics. Leave champions like Riven, Yasuo, Zed, Fizz, etc., and come back to them once you've hit max level, understand the game more, and climb to an ELO where champions like this are necessitated. Right now you can simply outplay people with simpler champions and come out victorious. You have to learn your limitations, the enemy champion's limitations, and how to work with that field. Perfect your CS, learn how and when to poke/trade/all-in (but focus 98% on CS), and learn your power spikes and whether or not you have kill potential or can be killed.

The most important thing I can tell you is to not be afraid of a champion matchup. Always go into your lane matchup confident and ready to play your best. Counter picks do not exist until high ELO's in ranked play. There are champions who will have kit advantages, naturally, but learn to play around it.

Example: You play a ranged champion into Zed. He just used his full combo of Shadow, Shuriken, and Shadow Slash, to farm. You can now walk towards him and auto attack him and fire your abilities into him and force him to back off, potentially causing him to lose CS and experience.

Watch Lastshadow9's coaching videos on YouTube. Try to focus all of your attention on the lower ELO ones (silver/gold) and try to learn as much as you can through them and improve your gameplay.

Just because someone is 4 inches taller than you doesn't mean that they can jump higher than you. Remember that and your matches will go just fine.

Leti the Yeti12/9/2014, 4:12:36 AM2 votes

Kal, I've not seen to be a threat, dont worry

Donger, thats easy... what you do is kill his turrets first

gangplank btw, is a beast against donger, you can drop your ult at "donger HQ" and just go all-in on that

DrCyanide12/9/2014, 1:02:12 AM2 votes

Gangplank worked OK against a Kalista the one time I ran it, and I suspect he would work against Heimer too.

Pick off Heimers turrets with Q for extra gold. If he stuns you, Oranges get you moving again. The biggest thing is don't let him keep his turrets alive.

Kalista players will keep trying to go too far back from you. Run up, Q her, then run back. In that time, she'll auto attack you once, then be further away from the creep wave. If she slows you, Oranges! Keep wards around to look for the jungler, since she'll probably bind to him if she's going solo.

Ace124312/9/2014, 1:00:06 AM2 votes

take out heimers turrets before u dual him and dont get stunned by his e as for kalista snare or stun her for prevening her from hopping everywhere

CLG Factor12/9/2014, 6:34:17 PM1 votes

Playing against himer can be hard, but If you have to do it get champions with long range pokes and fast wave clear and try to push him to tower (Make sure you ward well, or you might get ganked) oh and avoid picking melees or short ranged mages into himer Good example picks- Ziggs Xerath Bad example picks- Fizz Akali Talon

Konidias12/9/2014, 7:48:15 PM1 votes

With Heimer you 100% focus his turrets down. If he plops one down, your job is to remove it immediately.

He is super squishy so once he doesn't have turrets to protect him, he's fairly easy to beat. He absolutely can't hang around if he has no turrets.

I would recommend picking someone with enough range to take out the turrets safely. One more point about turrets:

They will fire the big laser blasts once the little white energy bar is full. You can either try to take out the turrets before the blast, or you can actually just dodge the laser, as it gives a little warning line indicator where it's going to shoot. So you can kind of bait it out and then avoid the laser.

Also, if Heimer ults a turret... just get out of there. It's safe to say if you are engaging Heimer when he's near turrets, you are doing it wrong.

As someone mentioned above, you have to be careful about a Heimer who is good with firing his rocket barrage... If you are getting nailed by it and he is literally never missing you, it's time to back off and play a bit safer. You won't beat him in a 1v1. But if he has no turrets up and he misses the rocket barrage... go HAM on him.

warpenguin55512/9/2014, 8:21:10 PM1 votes

Play lots of Lux Syndra Azir to counter Heimerdinger and Caitlyn to beat Kalista

Eljin12/9/2014, 1:05:32 AM1 votes

What about Heimer top? That's my big worry as that's where I faced him before. Mid lane I should be able to do what you guys suggested and deal with the turrets much easier.

Kalista can't cancel auto attacks, correct? So if I get a binding off when she starts the animation, it should hit her yes? Or do I wait for when she starts to hop and fire in that direction?

Edit: I don't have Gangplank, sorry I should have listed. I have Malphite, Garen, Morgana, Karma, Yorick, 4200IP, and the free week champions. Was thinking Ahri (or some other type of skill-shot mid laner) would be my next purchase.

Eljin12/9/2014, 4:58:22 AM1 votes

You guys are really making me want to buy Gangplank, haha.

Thanks for the tips though. Oddly enough, I did face a Heimer top lane in one of my matches I just did and won. Was a little hairy at the start, but slowly went my way after a very sexy jungler helped out. The Karma idea does sound great. R-Q, no more Yordle gunline.

Some Guy, thanks for the tips, those are great. It's not that I'm scared of the match-up, it's just that I don't understand it. I have a better grasp with this thread and in my games, but I didn't want to be caught flat-footed in game, unsure exactly how I was supposed to take the champion on.

Rikari12/9/2014, 5:02:27 PM1 votes

Heimer is only a big threat when you let him stack his turrets,drop them early,meaning no leash,so he has to cs like a normal noob. from there the only problem is his Ultimate Turret. He is also weak against ranged champs and/or wave clear,so Lux,Syndra,Ziggs etc work.

Kalista can be bursted down,isn't that great IMO. she has great escape potential though,so try to bait her closer. Her only source of damage is auto attacks,so thornmails and blinds help. Also Lucian isn't that great if they know what they are doing,she can dodge ALL his attacks.

Pryotra12/9/2014, 5:15:19 PM1 votes

As long as you continuosly farm heimers turrets, you should be fine in lane. Consider them like fire. Don't stay in fire, and don't let fire spread. They may not be much gold, but denying him his safety is worth it, as a bad heim will not try to protect turrets, run out of turrets while pushing, and die to easy ganks. Good heimers will simply back up, protect the turrets, or simply play as rocket dinger. I usually get turrets at lvl two, and place a few to see how my enemy reacts to them. if they are actively farming them I'll play rocket dinger. If not, I'll play turret donger because free power.

Dodging a good heimer's rockets are hard, but a poor rocket donger won't do much but make you dance. It's all about walking next to his focal point where the rockets converge. If it is near by, this is easy. If the donger is smart and fans them a little, he can still hit you with most of them and it will be incredibly difficult to dodge.

The nade is easy to dodge, unless the donger isn't a free week donger and is actually really good. Then your whole team is in trouble anyways.

I guess it's time for me to wear no skin this week. ;)