Hello, fellow nerds. This is JPlayah here to give you all the latest information on playing Hecarim in season 6. You're probably wondering why on earth anyone would build crit items on Hecarim. Like all good (or crazy) builds, this one begins with a story.

The first preseason patch for S6 shook things up a lot. Zephyr had been removed. Trinity Force had its movement speed reduced. What then, was I supposed to do for movement speed when playing as Hecarim?? Truly this was a distressing time. I sat down for a couple of hours while I contemplated the new items and masteries, trying to figure out how to make movement speed viable. Eventually, I looked at Zeal, saw how many items it builds into now, and realized...

Criticals

are

MAGIC

PROS
:: Tons of damage
:: Insane movement speed
:: Enemies will panic when they see you
:: Hit and run tactics let you get kills and leave before the enemy can process what happened
:: Your crits will heal you because of your OP keystone mastery
:: Your opponents might rage quit

CONS
:: Kind of squishy
:: Risky build
:: Weak early on

In order to use a champion/build effectively, one must know how to think. As crit Hecarim, you'll start off by farming obsessively. Do everything you can to make sure you last hit every minion in your lane. This should go without saying for every champ, but it should be important to you because the sooner you finish your core items, the sooner you can start ganking lanes and killing everything.

The more passive you are early on, the more overconfident your opponent will become. Thus, when you finish your Trinity Force and suddenly move to attack, you will appear to deal a surprising (and overwhelming) amount of damage, possibly enough to kill your opponent outright if you burst them with all of your abilities. Your opponent may rage at you in all chat after this, and if they do, it means you're doing it right.

If you rack up a few kills by the time you finish your core items, your goal should switch to killing everything in your path. Use your insane speed to jump enemies and blow them up, then run away while spamming your laugh and joke.

Last-hitting minions effectively is something which is difficult to explain, and is best figured out through trial and error. Fortunately, Hecarim has a number of tools in his arsenal which deal various amounts of damage. This gives you several options to work with and gives you a lot of potential to get last hits even in tricky situations.

Basic Attacks: Hecarim's basic attacks have a pretty short timer on them, meaning that he'll deal damage shortly after he starts his attack. His attacks also do a decent amount of damage, so you can last hit minions that have moderate amounts of health remaining.

Rampage: Your Q skill is a great way to get an extra hit in when you're waiting for your next basic attack to be ready. Use it to get a last hit on minions that only have a tiny amount of health remaining. Rampage will hit everything around Hecarim and it does less damage than his basic attacks, so keep these things in mind when using it.

Rampage + Basic Attack (with Sheen): Once you have Sheen, you can trigger it easily by using Rampage. This will make your next basic attack do quite a bit more damage, which can help you last hit a minion that your entire minion wave is focusing on. Remember that with Sheen, Rampage will always boost the damage of the next basic attack, so try not to let this throw you off your farming. Just keep in mind that your next attack will hit harder than normal and plan accordingly to ensure that you get a last hit with it.

Hecarim's power in ganking is all about his speed. Hecarim can move so fast that your opponent's reaction time will have a significant impact on how effective your gank is and how much damage you can deal when you first hit them. Because of this, your ganks are most effective when the time between your opponent seeing you and you reaching them is as short as possible. The faster you move, the shorter this time will be. Of course, the faster you move, the more damage you will deal, so you have every reason to want to move as fast as possible.

Begin a gank or an attack on an opponent by using your E, Devastating Charge. This ability takes some time to warm up, so run for a bit after you activate it (out of your opponent's vision range) before you charge in. If you time it right, you'll close the distance at blinding speeds and deal a tremendous amount of damage. If you make the final part of this charge from a bush or simply from out of sight, your opponent will likely be unable to react before you hit them.

Once you deliver this first attack, don't let up. Continue to run at your opponent, spamming your basic attacks and Rampage, and using your activated items and Ghost if needed. Do it right, and you will blow your opponent up before they have a chance to escape or fight back.

Hecarim's W, Spirit of Dread, is a powerful ability with a long cooldown. There's no limit to how much healing it can provide when used against champions, so activate it as soon as you feel that you've entered a tough fight. The healing can completely change the outcome of a fight, and it has great synergy with the damage that your allies deliver as well. Use it when fighting multiple opponents if possible.

Onslaught of Shadows is your tool of choice for entering team fights. The crowd control from the ability will disrupt every enemy that it hits, so try to cover the entire enemy team with the ability. After using it, you'll have a moment to strike your enemies with impunity. Make the most of the opportunity to deal free damage.