Hello, this is my first guide, hope you enjoy it!

Firstly, I play Hecarim in top lane and I feel he can fit top/mid/jungle roles, but top is where he excels at. Also this guide is made only for solotop Hecarim

Hecarim has the ability to trade with almost ALL heroes in the game during lane phase, and winning all of them with or without minion support by abusing his Q W and E spells. I will go deeper on these later.

There are two different builds that you should use as a top lane Hecarim

Marks:

These should be Flat Attack Damage regardless of who you're matched up against. 's scales one to one off of attack damage and the extra harass and last hitting power is a powerful tool.

Vs. AD Bruiser

Seals:

Flat Armor to reduce your opponent's harass to a minimum.

Glyphs:

Flat Armor to reduce your opponent's harass to a minimum.

Quintessences:

Flat Armor/Movement Speed are both good options. I myself have played with Movement speed against everything and I feel they work better.


Vs. Anything Else

Seals:

Flat Armor will negate some of the auto attack damage that will be dealt to you by ranged AP champions. Every bit of health counts!

Glyphs:

Flat Magic Resist will lower the amount of damage you take early on- allowing you to quickly regenerate your opponent's harass.

Quintessences:

Movement Speed is the best option here.

Running 9/21/0 grants you a much more powerful early game than most players are equipped to deal with. While running 21/9/0 may seem like an attractive option, the extra sustain and damage reduction from having 21 in the defensive tree is too good to pass up.

You want to pick up two points in both Tough Skin and Indomitable for an extra four damage reduced from minions allowing almost all trades to go in your favor when there is minion support.

Vs. AD Bruisers

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Starting Items:

Boots 4x Health Potion
OR
Cloth Armor 5x Health Potion

First Trip Back: 800 Gold+

Philosopher's Stone

In case of a pushed lane giving your opponent no chance to go back anytime soon: 600 Gold+:

Ninja Tabi Sight Ward

Subsequent Trips:

Ninja Tabi / Philosopher's Stone

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Vs. Anything Else:

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Starting items:

Boots 4x Health Potion

First Trip Back: 800+:

Philosopher's Stone

Subsequent Trips:

Mercury's Treads


After The First Few Items:

Sheen Phage

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1. Core Items: Tier Two Boots Philosopher's Stone and Trinity Force

2. Against AP laning opponent: Tier Two Boots Philosopher's Stone and Force of Nature

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Situational Items: Frozen Heart Quicksilver Sash Shurelya's Battlesong Randuin's Omen Force of Nature Aegis of the Legion

After you get you Trinity Force/ Force of Nature , you will want, in no particular order, to work towards some of these items.

Which item you buy next is completely dependent on how the game is progressing. There are times where single Chain Vest or Negatron Cloak will go for defensive items.

Ignite Ghost

These are hands down the best summoners for Hecarim

Ghost gives you 35% movement speed with Summoner's Wrath . It also gives Hecarim more AD for the duration. Also given how easy it is to chase/dive/escape with Hecarim , this just makes you completely ungankable, and gives you opportunities for very aggressive lane play.

Ignite is self-explanatory, though because Hecarim is an early game beast and can trade with almost anyone all the time because of Rampage and good use of his E steroid. Popping ignite early gives you 5 AD+5AP which is huge in level 1-4.(Given that you pop it on level 1-2, you get it back from cooldown approximately when you hit level 4-5.

Situational:

Exhaust , Exhaust works wonders against bruisers like Tryndamere and Riven, but I myself only use Ignite.

Passive: Warpath

Pretty self-explanatory itself BUT, ignoring unit collision is what gives Hecarim advantage early trades with minion support. You can dash on your enemy, spamming Rampage and run away through your enemy/own creeps making it very hard for a melee character without a gapcloser to deal damage back to you. It also helps for chasing enemy champions.

Q: Rampage

Explanation: This is your bread and butter skill, this is what makes you ultra strong in early trades against your opponent. You just want to get the 2 stacks before attacking an enemy champion straight on. It basically gives you an extra small range auto-attack every 2 seconds without any cooldown reduction at all. It also goes with a Sheen EXTREMELY well.

W: Spirit of Dread

Explanation: This skill gives you early sustain and high health leech when you're against multiple targets (creeps, champions.) Also a very strong mid game skill that helps you survive ganks/lets you be in the fray in team fights longer.


E: Devastating Charge

Explanation: This high cooldown steroid makes you basically ungankable, and is a very strong gapcloser spell when ganking/chasing. You will always want to hit your target on the last second to maximize the damage.

Tip: When you're chasing a target and you pop E, this spell doesn't collide on the enemy before you click on your target meaning you can run by your enemy behind him while spamming Rampage. Then you can bash your enemy backwards giving you damage/time to finish him/her.

R: Onslaught of Shadows

Explanation: This high cooldown massive range+AoE spell makes Hecarim a very good initiator, an even better ganker and tower diver. It also gives you one more OP escape mechanism.

Tip: If you manage to win your trades early and keep yourself in relatively high % of health. You got your cooldowns ready and your opponent is about 10-50% health, you can towerdive him/her EVERYTIME by the time you/both of you hit level 6. Remember to have Rampage stacks, start with Devastating Charge , R yourself in to the enemy hero and tower range. Pop W and keep spamming Q, burn ignite(if necessary) and hit him/her your E.

If the enemy champ by now isn't dead, you're doing something horribly wrong.

Pros:

-Contrary to the popular belief, he is super strong early/mid game.
-Ungankable
-Can help/gank to jungle/middle very easily because of his mobility.
-Ability to initiate fights.
-Deals high amounts of damage only with trinity force.
-Ability to snowball VERY hard.


Cons:

-Doesn't scale too well to late game. (Meaning 40+ minutes when people start to get full builds)

I will add these later with videos and possible commentaries.

In summary, I really feel like Hecarim is very underestimated as a toplane hero right now. I also feel this guide covers him pretty well and gives you the tips and best choices of items for him.

Also I will constantly edit and make this guide better, if you got some tips how to make this better feel free to comment and give constructive feedback.

Coming later: Match-ups, more in-depth stuff to every section and general improve of appearance, I just need to learn how to use this guide thing first :D.

Thanks for reading my guide!