Hecarim Build Guide by 7Striker7

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UNDER RECONSTRUCTION

22.4. - Established
23.4. - Edited with additional BBCode, "Countered by..." and "Countering" added. Core build changed a bit for more HP.
24.4. - Added screenshot of match history.
26.4. - General reconstruction (alternative builds, BBcoding, plying when countered hard, pure tank build etc).
(now) - Working on rebuilding chapters about countering other champs on top.

Introduction

Hey guys, first, before you will say that my english is bad: it is. I will probably make some mistakes, just relax, don't rage, I will try to do my best. In my opinion, language isn't as important as guide itself ;). Please, read the whole guide before rating it and if you want to rate it, comment why are you giving + or -.

First build is base build which fits into most of situations you can meet on lane. Second build is for situation when you meet very hard counter which doesn't allow you to farm enough creeps. You will be able to find all champions who counter Hecarim hard in chapter "Hard Counters". I'm currently working on it. "Countered by..." and "Countering..." will be replaced by chapter about playing against champions who don't counter you/are stronger but can't kill you if you won't fail much.

So... Hecarim. Hecarim is meelee fighter, tank and bruiser. Don't even try to play him as meelee AD carry, you will suck hard and feed. I don't recommend Pure Tank build, because Hecarim isn't pure tank at all. He lacks at CCs for being good pure tank. Also, don't jungle with him. Just let me explain why in one of following chapters.

Pros/Cons

PROS:

CONS:

+Nice damage connected with being tanky +Great initiator and chaser +Great escape and dodging mechanism +Good tower diving +Hard to get tower dived

-Squishy early game -Item dependent in early game -Easy to counter -Needs to farm a lot -Missing taunt or stun

Why not jungle?

Yes, Phreak says he jungles Hecarim, Hecarim is marked as jungler... But seriously, he is a bit low jungler. Hecarim has quite an expensive build (core one shown in item build costs 17330 gold). When playing jungle, you need to take defensive mastery tree, because without it you don't have enough sustainibility for finishing jungle (gank should be part of finishing jungle). But without offensive tree, you have quite low dmg and you can't take kills from ganks and your jungle is also quite slow. Not at all, but there are much faster junglers which can also gank after finishing jungle. If you want to jungle, go for it, but not while playing Hecarim.

You are also quite squishy on early levels without defensive mastery tree, which means that you can die easily during ganking. You need a lot of gold, lot of farm and that's not something you can get while jungling and your team isn't owning enemies on all lanes. Keep on mind that jungler should let AP and AD carry take kills from ganks if possible, Hecarim needs early kills/a lot of farm -> bad jungler. Do NOT jungle with Hecarim.

Summoner Spells

There is no discussion about Ghost. You are tank and chaser. When improved, it gives you another 35% of bonus movement speed, which means also 11-28 bonus AD, for 10 seconds. Not bad, take this to every game.


Teleport can help you a lot with your farm. You don't have to leave your lane for too long time, you can come to help another turret, you can teleport on any friendly unit and use Ghost+ Devastating Charge+ Onslaught of Shadows and hunt down that low HP enemy, you can backdoor somewhere... As second summoner spell I preffer this one.


If you don't want to take Teleport, feel free to take Exhaust. As bruiser you need sometimes to supress enemy AD carry. Do it with this, improvement Summoner's Wrath will also help you a lot with taking down carry even more quickly (Up to 55 armor penetration?)


I wouldn't recommend any other summoner spells. Flash is just fail on Hecarim, as well as Heal, Clarity or any other. Take these ones on squishies. Not on tanks (except ones like Rammus who can really use them somehow, you nearly can't) and chasers. As chaser, you will need Ignite only rarely. Don't take it, it isn't worth it.

Runes

M A R K S

greater mark of desolation: Great option for your bruiser work. Use it to take down offensively builded squishies (mostly AD carrys) even faster. Greater Mark of Attack Damage: Well, I personaly don't use them but they can work too. You can use them for at least some early game domination on lane, but quite a lot of champs can counter you even with these runes.

M A R K S

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S E A L S

Greater Seal of Armor: These are the only one Seals you should use. Armor Seals are just essential for nearly all Top Laners.

S E A L S

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G L Y P H S

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Well working Glyph. Most of champs on top don't have Magical based damage, so you will need Magic Resist more in mid and late game, not in early game. Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Still there are some Magic damage dealing champs you can meet on top, like Vladimir, Kennen or hybrids like Yorick. Flat Magic Resist can help a lot against them.

G L Y P H S

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Q U I N T E S S E N C E S

greater quintessence of desolation: These runes work perfect when taking down enemy squishies. There is needed no more explanation. Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: Great for even better farm and for at least some top lane dominance in early game. Still it won't help you against some champs. In late game almost useless. Why not Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed? Because you don't need more movement speed (you probably won't chase down anyone before building Trinity Force) and because it gives you only about 4.5 bonus AD on level 18, much less on early levels. Don't take these ones, they aren't worth it. You need much more early power from your rune build.

Q U I N T E S S E N C E S

Masteries

O F F E N S E

Summoner's Wrath : For improving your Ghost and/or Exhaust, if you carry it. Brute Force : For more AD and better early game. 2 points can be placed to Butcher instead of it for even better farm ability, but i think it isn't necessary. Alacrity : You just have to take it for unlocking Weapon Expertise . Weapon Expertise : 10% Armor Penetration can help you with damage output a lot.

O F F E N S E

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D E F E N S E

Hardiness : More armor is something you always need on top. Resistance : The best option for putting that 1 remaining point to. Durability : Great Mastery, should be carryed by most of champs. Vigor : Most of enemies you meet on top are stronger in early game or have better harass. This Mastery isn't must at all, but I personaly use it. Indomitable : Good for more early sustainibility. Veteran's Scars : Great HP boost for first levels. Evasion : Not in base build, but can be taken instead of Vigor , which becomes useless in mid and late game, where this Mastery helps much more. Initiator : It doesn't hurt to take more movement speed, cooldown reduction would be useless for you. Honor Guard : Great tank Mastery, just take it. I don't use Mercenary , because you can get enough kills during teamfights and you also don't have a lot of assists, you aren't jungling tank. Juggernaut : You can meet some CCs from enemy team while engaging their carry. This can help a lot.

D E F E N S E

Spells

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This is quite nice passive. Thanks to it you will have enough AD even when building only 2 tanky DPS items and the rest of your build will be pure tank. It still doesn't give you so much bonus AD, don't stack phantomd dancers, it isn't worth it. Unit collision ignoration helps you a lot when dodging some skillshots from champions like Lee Sin, also very usable while chasing enemies or being chased.


Probably the best thing on this spell is fact, that it has just 2 seconds cooldown (when stacked, without Cooldown Reduction). That works great together with Sheen or Trinity Force. Also it can help you a lot with some last hits, mostly when being pushed under your turret. It also scales with your Devastating Charge. Try to use this right before you hit your enemy with it, use that bonus AD you have.


This is great ability when your team does huge amout of damage. Hecarim works great with champs like Brand. This spell also saved me many times together with Guardian Angel or together with damage of your turrret while getting tower dived. Don't spam it too often to minions, you will run out of mana. Save it for damaging champions.


Nice spell for chasing down enemies, escaping, or knocking enemy carry out of teamfight. Also stops channeled spells like Infinite Duress or Nether Grasp. Just be careful with this, don't knock back enemy targeted by skillshots. Champions like Fizz would hate you for this ;).


In my opinion one of the best ultimates in game. Its great escape mechanism, great spell for initiation, it fears enemies, you can go through walls with it... And it deals nice AoE damage in place where you stop. Usually it takes about 1/5 from enemy carry HP bar, together with your other spells its nice burst damage output.

Item Build, Gameplay

Early Game

Base

Well, as you can see, I start with Doran's Shield. This item works great in most of situations you can meet on top. Don't take Doran's Blade, I will explain why below.

I have seen some Hecarims starting with Boots of Speed and 3x Health Potion... Well, don't do it. Boots of Speed give you only 5 AD on level 1 and nothing more. Movement from them will maybe help you with surviving your fail, but with nothing more. Don't buy them. If you will give even 1 kill to enemy top laner, it will make your laning much more difficult.

Try to keep back. Just farm as many minions as possible, your Rampage can help a lot. With Vigor , Doran's Shield and Runes you should have enough Regeneration and Armor to be on lane as long as you want to. In early game you can't defeat quite lot of champions on top. So don't even try to do so, thats why I told you not to take Doran's Blade. You can beat Akali. You can beat Vladimir or Dr. Mundo if they are noobs. But you can't beat most of other champions. So once more, don't try to get kills and just farm.

After first brb you should be able to buy Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi, depending on enemy team. I prefer buying full boots as first item because movement speed will help you with taking lesser amout of harass and with escaping from range of enemy top laner. CCs can be pretty annoying, so I prefer Mercury's Treads in most of situations. If you have problems with enemy's harass, feel free to take some Health Potion. Farming and staying on lane is priority for you. If you are having problems with enemy's harass, feel free to rush your Spirit of Dread earlier, as it can be found in second build.

You shouldn't push lane, but Hecarim's spells just do it quite a lot and you need to use them because of healing from Spirit of Dread and keeping enemy top laner out of you/your minions. So, if you are pushing at enemy, buy also wards. Yes, Devastating Charge + Ghost make you almost ungankable. But, you know, there is big problem in that word "almost".

Now, try to farm for your Phage and Sheen. Why Phage as first? Because a bit more AD for farming is something you can use very well and because you are weak in 1v1. You need those bonus HP to not get killed. If you are doing very well at farming, you can buy both after second brb. After buying these items, you are succesfuly entering your mid game and are able to work with your team at least as initiator and chaser. Still you are quite squishy, so be careful when charging into enemy team.

Alternative

This start build is here only for one situation: while playing against hard counter. When you meet champions like Kennen, you have almost no chance to farm. You can get only about half of minions and that can cause serious problems with gold to you. Start with support build, which means building Philosopher's Stone, only basic Boots of Speed and Heart of Gold. Then you can finish your boots, start building Phage and Sheen and enter mid game. Just try to stay alive. Keep on mind that taking last hits is important, but giving no kills to enemy and taking at least experience is even much more important. Teleport should help you to defend your turret as long as possible. Ask jungler for some help, but keep on mind that ganking Bot and Mid Lanes is more important because of feeding both your carrys.

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Mid Game

First item you should build in mid game is Trinity Force. It will increase your damage very well. Its also time to start sticking with your team, its time for your crazy initiations with Onslaught of Shadows. Focus on building Hexdrinker and then finish your Maw of Malmortius, your first kills should help you. Maw of Malmortius is just greatly scaling with Spirit of Dread, you will heal more when taking more damage, but it won't save you at all. Shield from this item is also very nice. If you are meeting really big problems with enemy overfed AD carry or generaly with heavy AD team, you can build Thornmail instead of Maw of Malmortius. After finishing Maw of Malmortius or Thornmail I highly recommend you to build/finish Randuin's Omen, but its one of the situational items.

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Late Game

So, what now. Your core build is complete and late game is here. Your work is initiating all teamfights, defending turrets using your Teleport, chasing down low HP enemies and protecting your carrys. If you can save your AP or AD carrys life, do it, even if it means death for you. Don't do so only if your killing spree is longer then those carrys or if that player is useless. The rest of items from your build are situational. Buy also Oracle's Elixirs for your team, if your support doesn't or if he is dieing often.


If you are overfed and your team is winning, go for this. It can save you many times. Wait for ressurection, use Spirit of Dread, Rampage and escape with your Devastating Charge. Bonus AD from Maw of Malmortius and some other damage from teammates can help you a lot. Replaces Randuin's Omen. If your team starts loosing, sell it and build Randuin's Omen instead.


Works great due to its Active. Onslaught of Shadows is strong spell, with this just enemy team ruining spell. Ult, activate Randuin - "OMG, their carrys pwned us all!". Just keep on mind that it gives 5% CDR - your Rampage will have a little bit shorter CD then your Trinity Force. That can be sometimes really annoying.


This will give you some more Magic Resist, without it you wouldn't have enough of it. Movement speed is something you can use all the time and HP regen also can help you a lot.


Warmog is well working tank item. Buy this or Sunfire Cape, but I can't recommend Sunfire Cape because I build in nearly every game Randuin's Omen and it would be just useless stacking of Armor. You don't need more Armor, you need more HP.


Impaler is very good item when combined with Warmog's Armor. There is nothing more to say, just keep on mind that if you want to buy Warmog's Armor + Atma's Impaler, you will be quite low on Magic Resist, so you will probably need to take Force of Nature with this. This of course means, that you won't have any free slot for Randuin's Omen, which is replaced by Atma's Impaler.


Quicksilver is after boost just great item. You should come into teamfights as first and all the time be focused on AP or AD carry. That means that you will probably take some CCs and/or Exhaust. Counter it all with this and do Hecarim's best - be unstoppable carry killer. Use it to replace Force of Nature, but keep on mind that you will loose some movement speed because of it.


Ghostblade can work very well on Hecarim. When used together with your Devastating Charge it gives awesome mobility. Remember, this item gives you even more Armor Penetration, together with 9x Greater Mark of Desolation 35 (45 with 3x Greater Quintessence of Desolation, or 55 with Summoner's Wrath + Exhaust!). That's not good for enemy AD carry, is it? But still... No defensive stats, and also it gives 15% CDR, so with this your spamming with Rampage will be too fast for Trinity Force cooldown. I would preffer taking it instead of Maw of Malmortius.


Sunfire can work quite well with your Spirit of Dread and doesn't harass you with any useless CDR BUT it doesn't slow enemies like Randuin's Omen does. It is nice item for you, can replace Warmog's Armor, but I would carry it only if my current situational build has a bit low Armor. Against heavy AD damage is better Warmog's Armor+ Thornmail then this.


Why should you kill enemy AD carry? It will kill itself and you can focus on AP carry. No, its never so easy, but still this item is great option agains heavy AD team or overfed AD carry. Carrying this together with Randuin's Omen means you will be low on Magic Resist or on HP, depending on your last item. If you have really big problems with enemy AD based damage, build this instead of Maw of Malmortius, but this is very extreme choice affecting your damage output.

Fail Items

Aegis can be found in a lot of Hecarim builds, but I wouldn't take it. This item should by carried by your support. If you don't have any support and nobody other is going to buy this, you can take it. But not in any other (normal) causes.


Mallet gives nice HP bonus and also some AD, 100% chance to slow is beter than 25%... But I think this item isn't worth buying when you already have Trinity Force. I just think that there are better items, still this one can be useful when combined with Atma's Impaler and Warmog's Armor, but you will have too low Magic Resist - Madred's Bloodrazor, Deathfire Grasp, Null Zone and other will destroy you.


Wow, more healing from Spirit of Dread, slow from it and from ult, more dmg with ult... Don't be silly and forget it, it absolutely isn't worth buying. Also don't even think about buying items like Abyssal Scepter and other. No trololo hybrid Hecarims. Also don't take Hextech Gunblade, you don't have hybrid damage, you have physical damage.


These boots are just useless **** for you. You will have enough movement speed with Trinity Force and with Force of Nature. Why building even more? Also there is no defensive benefit from them, your passive won't give you more then 5 bonus AD on level 18 with this. Also don't even think about buying any offensive based boots, like Berserker's Greaves. Useless.


Madred is just useless for you, as well as any other item with on hit effects. You don't have bad attack speed but you don't deal normal attacks all the time. Do you buy attack speed on Irelia? Do you build on hit items (except Trinity Force) on Irelia? It's too expensive with too low benefits, don't buy it, even if your enemy has Dr. Mundo with 3x Warmog's Armor.


Don't even think about it. You have enough damage for taking down carry, why buying more? It won't give you more kills, it will just make you less tanky and that can be big fail. Don't buy this, as well as you shouldn't rush items like The Black Cleaver or Phantom Dancer. You are bruiser, but not meelee AD carry.


Shurelya's Reverie... Well, its very well working item for you. But tell me, why Cooldown Reduction? Why taking this, while it gives you just so low tank benefits? Why taking this, while support should take it for you and use it right before you initiate teamfight? Its not worth wasting item slot. Good item, but it shouldn't be carryed by you.

Countered by...

Pantheon is big problem for Hecarim. It is mainly caused by his Spear Shot spamming and by his early burst damage. Thanks to Pantheon's passive, Aegis Protection, he can dive you before reaching level 6. You also can't damage him a lot, because he will catch your Sheen attacks into his Aegis Protection (but it doesn't catch your Rampage, which deals too low damage when compared with Pantheon's burst). You can just stay back and try to take at least some farm, but it's not easy to farm when facing this champ.

This is almost the same like Pantheon. Parrrley spam connected with healing from Remove Scurvy is just too strong for you. You can't kill him and he will make your farm pretty harder.

Again the same. Vorpal Blade spam makes your farm harder. He has bigger early damage and bigger early sustainibility. You can't defeat him and he doesn't allow you to farm.

Good Wukong can counter you. He has a bit bigger burst damage, but main fact why he wins is, that Wukong usually carrys Ignite. Damage from it and debuff will make you loose against him. Still, you can farm enough when facing him. Just don't try to kill him, you will be the one who will get killed. Your power is balanced, but that Ignite makes Wukong all the time stronger. He also can do a bit more dmg with his ult.

This champ doesn't have so dangerous long range harass but you stand absolutely no chance when fighting with him. He is too much stronger then you, he can just stand nearby his creeps and everytime you go for last hit, he will just take out 1/3 of your health bar.

Lalalala Demacia! And you are dead. Garen has huge armor and Magic Resiatance from his Courage. He also has bigger damage output on early levels. And he has much better HP regeneration from Perseverance. The worst on him is his dive with Courage + Judgment + Demacian Justice. You can't do anything to him, he will just dive and harass you to your death, if your jungler won't come enough often (and he won't, top lane has the lowest priority for ganking, babysitting top = fail).

Countering...

Akali can't do anything to you. She doesn't deal enough damage into your magic resistance, your damage is bigger. If she fails enough, you can also kill her easily, because her Twilight Shroud doesn't help against your AoEs at all. Harass her, wait for end of Twilight Shroud and then ult on her while she is waiting for cooldown. Can be difficult only when being forced to dive.

Somebody thinks Dr. Mundo can counter Hecarim. He can't, just let me explain. Due to your Warpath you should be able to avoid nearly all of his annoying Infected Cleavers. When he attacks you in meelee, just spam your Rampage, use normal attacks when he doesn't have cooldown on Infected Cleaver and when he does, keep behind your minions, let him throw all those Infected Cleavers into them. When doing this, you will deal more damage to him then he does to you. But he can survive it all due to his regeneration. After reaching level 6, you have absolutely no chance to kill him in 1v1. But he can't kill you or even harass you as well, which means you have free farm.

This is similiar to Dr. Mundo. You won't be probably able to take Cho'Gath down, but he has nothing to attack you with. Due to your Devastating Charge (especially finishing jump) he is not able to hit you with his Rupture. Free farm.

In nonranked games you can meet another Hecarim on top. Most of players build Hecarim as massive DPS with offensive mastery tree. With 25 armor penetration from your runes and with defensive bonuses from masteries you should be much stronger in 1v1 then these DPS ****s (tested many times). Just keep on mind that if you use Devastating Charge to attack enemy Hecarim, he can use his Devastating Charge to escape and you won't be able to chase him down.

Summary

With this build and with enough of minion kills (you should have about 200 when leaving the lane and at the end of game more then 300) you should be able to initiate and tank teamfights, destroy enemy carrys and win the game for your team. Hecarim is pretty hard to kill due to his mobility, most of your scores should be close to legendary. If they aren't, you were hardly countered on top and couldn't play against that, or you just need to try it few times again and practise. Remember, your Rampage is one of the best minion farming ability. Thank to smart using of it you can have nearly 100% of minion kills on your lane. Warpath can help you with last hiting too and also will help you with avoiding a lot of enemy spells. Don't harass, don't try to kill, farm. And then you can carry the whole remaining game.

Thanks to:

• jhoijhoi for her Making A Guide
• IceCreamy for his How to use Columns
• SilverSeer for ideas how should visual and graphic part of guide look like.
• all who upvoted this guide to make me work on it and try to make it even better.