Heimerdinger vs Zaahen Counter Pick

Zaahen grows into a fight rather than starting inside one. Cultivation of War hands him stacks of Determination for attacks and abilities landed on enemy champions, each stack adding attack damage, so his strongest state only exists after repeated contact. The reply is to refuse the first contact: 550 attack range against 175, a turret whose secondary beam passes through the approach, and a grenade that stuns anything hit directly. Over 153 top lane games on patch 16.13.1 that plan holds at 58.8%, difficulty Easy.

He is not fragile. Zaahen runs 640 base health to 2,578 at level 18 and 36 base armour to 121, against 558, 2,343 and 90.4, and Dreaded Return stabs forward before pulling whoever it hits toward him, the cleanest way to drag Heimerdinger off his own turrets. Aureate Rush supplies the dash, and Grim Deliverance heals him for part of the damage it deals, so a failed commitment is partly refunded. His physical damage meets 19 base armour, which is why one landed sequence still ends it. The Darkin Glaive slashes twice on his next attack while healing him and can be recast for another empowered swing, and that is where most of his stack generation comes from. Difficulty sits at 2 against 8, an unusually wide gap for a matchup decided this clearly.