Chozo said:
Don't know what balance patch you're talking about. Is it the one where he went from 5 max turrets -> 3 max turrets? I've only been playing since the latter. In any event, the sheer amount of Heimer bitching seems to be due to the fact he's free this week, since I tend not to see a lot of him otherwise.
There was a balance patch not too long ago that changed his ultimate and turret ability. His ultimate used to upgrade a single turret and yeah, his max turrets used to increase with skill points in the turret skill. Now the turret is upgraded based on the ability level.
Chozo said:
I run ghost + teleport, because I find that Doran's Ring + mana pot usually tides me over against most people until mid-late game where Heimer's mana becomes less of an issue. That's neither here nor there, though.
I don't think Heimer is a good mid because one of the qualities of a good mid (beyond, usually, being a ranged attacker) is that they have a powerful ult that is advantageous to get early on. Upgrade is not that ult. Plus, I've been on too many teams that seem to think that:
1. Heimer destroys first mid turret
2. ??????????
3. VICTORY!
People seem to psychologically overestimate the value of taking out the first mid tower to the point that they want Heimer there over a character that, practically speaking, is going to be a lot more effective there in the long run.
And you seem to really overestimate how hard it is to gank Heimer. Having someone peel off from a lane to help gank a mid Heimer is not the drain on exp/gold/lane presence you think it is, at least not in my experience. If you need three people to gank one Heimer chances are he's hanging out near his friendly turret, which means he's not pushing yours.
Ok few things here.
First off, Cleanse is almost mandatory on just about every champion. There are too many stuns, disables, roots, etc in this game for you not to have cleanse at your disposal. Did warwick just ult on to you in an attempt to take your lane dominance? Cleanse, grenade his face and watch him die by your completely OP turrets...throw a rocket in there if you want to rub it in. Did Annie just drop a Tibbers load on your head? When she moves in for the incinerate....Cleanse, grenade her face and watch her die by your completely OP turrets. You get the idea...
The other summoner skill is up to preference, I just like clarity on heimer because opponents will constantly try to take out your turrets. With clarity you can be ensured that you will have enough mana to plop another turret right in its place when one goes down.
Practically speaking, Heimer is a good mid because you want to win the game. He's good early, exceptional midgame, and exceptional late game. Getting a good ganker or a carry leveled fast is nice, but ultimately you want to win the game. And gankers and carries can do that... but not as well as heimer. This is what Heimer does, he just wins games... he is the Vince Young of LoL champions. Not to mention a heimer mid usually shuts down whoever went mid against him, so that means unfed carries on opposing teams...and unfed carries may as well be feed for your team. That's all I can say about that.
I think you are underestimating the effect of losing an early tower. A tower is global gold and exp, this is huge for your team. Taking dragon, getting towers is early is a huge momentum shift for your team.
As far as ganks on heimer are concerned, it is a big deal. When you have to pull a champion from a lane prior to level 6 because mid tower is about to die and your mid has had to blue pill twice... you're setting that champion back in gold/exp as well as potentially causing another lane to get pushed or the alone laner to get ganked in the 2v1 situation.
Chozo said:
But then I'm level 27 and I play with people who think Malady is good on Teemo because "it stacks with the poison," so who knows.
Give some time for your ELO to raise
when you start playing against teams of all level 30s with 350+ wins... you will see how a heimer without a counter (the only real counter to a heimer is another heimer) completely changes the game... and how its a constant uphill battle for the other team against his push.
hobart said:
I'm a little confused as to how Riot plans on implementing their banning/drafting system. In DOTA and HoN... all characters are available on the select screen (unless in a Ban Pool game) and any can be drafted/banned.
In LoL tho... having had players purchase Champions... what now? Will all purchased champions plus weekly free pool be available for bans/drafts? Just weekly pool? Only purchased champions?
I'd imagine players would have the option to ban all champions but only draft ones they own. But who knows...
