Counter Guide

How to Beat Heimerdinger

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

By the time you reach Heimerdinger's side of the wave, there are three turrets between you and him and a grenade already in the air.

A melee top laner walks into this matchup expecting a duel and finds a fortress instead. Every step toward him costs health, and the one time you commit, the grenade lands and his turrets charge up their beams. Nobody enjoys it. Still, Heimerdinger can't move his fortress quickly, and he has no dash of his own, so the champions who beat him either ignore the turrets or eat them. Our solo queue tier list tracks how strong he is this patch.

Matchup Snapshot Heimerdinger, the Revered Inventor

Where You Meet HimTop lane

Damage TypeMagic

Why He Is FrustratingYou fight his turrets first

MobilityNone

Biggest ThreatCH-2 Electron Storm Grenade [E]

Hardest CounterSion

What a Counter Needs

A way through his grenade, whether that's blocking it or ignoring it
Enough reach or bulk to kill turrets without trading your whole health bar for them

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Heimerdinger on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Heimerdinger

Sion429 games55.5%
Gangplank514 games55.2%
Yasuo664 games55.1%
Nasus1,400 games54.4%
Dr. Mundo560 games53.6%

Picks Heimerdinger Beats

Illaoi683 games43.3%
Darius1,166 games45.4%
Jax667 games45.6%
Aatrox661 games46.0%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the top lane against Heimerdinger. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 24,466 Heimerdinger games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Heimerdinger Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Three turrets at once. H-28G Evolution Turret [Q] stocks up to three kits, and each turret stays until you destroy it.
The grenade sets up everything. CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade [E] slows everyone it hits and stuns anyone caught in the middle for 1.5 seconds. If it hits a champion, every nearby turret gets its beam fully charged.
UPGRADE!!! [R] makes his next spell huge. The empowered grenade bounces three times, and the empowered rockets fire in four waves.
He's quicker near his turrets (Hextech Affinity [Passive] gives him movement speed there), so chasing him back into them is a losing race.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

He can't dash or blink. Once you're on top of him, he's walking.
The stun only hits the middle. Getting clipped by the edge of CH-2 Electron Storm Grenade [E] only slows you.
His turrets can't follow him. They're placed within 350 units of where he stands, and a fight dragged away from them is a fight he's having alone.
His turrets are soft on towers (they deal half damage to structures), so he pushes slower than his wave clear suggests.

Countering Heimerdinger

Any of these works on its own:

Get through the grenade. Block it, resist it or be immune while it lands.
Clear the turrets from range, or with something that heals or scales off killing them.
Catch him away from his setup. He has no way to run apart from his feet (and Flash).

Stuck in it with the wrong champion, you can still get through lane.

Playing Into Heimerdinger Without a Counter

Stand to the side of the grenade's path rather than straight in line with him. The stun is only in the center, so the edge is a slow you can walk through.

Take turrets down between waves, when he isn't standing there to throw a grenade at you. And track UPGRADE!!! [R] (it's a 100-second cooldown at rank one). When it's down, his next grenade is an ordinary one.

Best Heimerdinger Counters

Each of these beats him a different way.

Sion Charges Through the Setup

Sion doesn't have to walk through the turrets to hurt Heimerdinger. Roar of the Slayer [E] hits a minion and launches it up to 1350 units farther, damaging and slowing every enemy it passes through, so a wave between them turns into his weapon. Soul Furnace [W] shields him while he trades with the turrets (and he can recast it for damage after three seconds).

Unstoppable Onslaught [R] is the answer to the grenade. Sion is immune to crowd control for the whole charge, so the stun that stops everyone else does nothing, and the slam at the end pulls Heimerdinger in and stuns him. Even dying doesn't end the lane for him (Glory in Death [Passive] brings him back for a few more seconds of attacks).

Yasuo Blocks the Grenade

Wind Wall [W] destroys enemy projectiles for four seconds, and both Heimerdinger's grenade and his rockets are projectiles. Put it up as he winds up the grenade and his whole engage disappears into it.

Sweeping Blade [E] then gets Yasuo across the wave, dashing from minion to minion toward him. Keep the wall for the grenade, though. A stun in the middle of a dash drops him right where he is.

Nasus Eats the Turrets

Nasus gets Siphoning Strike [Q] stacks from killing any enemy unit, and Heimerdinger's turrets count. Every one he builds is four more stacks when Nasus finishes it. The lane Heimerdinger wants to play feeds the champion who outscales him.

When it's time to go in, Wither [W] slows him by 35% and it only gets stronger over five seconds (he has no dash to escape it). Fury of the Sands [R] adds magic resist and health on top.

Itemizing Against Heimerdinger

Mercury's Treads give magic resist and 30% tenacity, which shortens the grenade stun. Kaenic Rookern and Spirit Visage both bring health and magic resist, and Spirit Visage makes your healing and shields 25% stronger (worth a lot on Sion or Nasus). If you're an AD bruiser, Maw of Malmortius shields you against magic damage when he gets you low.