Welcome to the Comprehensive, In-Depth, and Experimental Hecarim build.
Here you'll see not only what I believe to be optimal on Hecarim but also explanations, number crunching, and experimentation. The build will start with just my personal favorite, Bruiser-Carry. Others will be added as I do more testing with Hecarim.

Nowhere in this Guide will I be covering Jungle Hecarim. To quote someone else (name forgotten) His main spam, Q, does less damage to minions than his auto-attacks. His W caps on minion healing and is not very good outside of team-fights. Those being his main... Only... Abilities that are really usable in the jungle, I'd say him being tagged as a jungler is quite... off... There are many other junglers that excel much more than Hecarim in the jungle.

Thank you.

Self-Background
This will be my first guide on Mobafire so don't cut me any slack. I've been playing in the League since August of 2011 and mainly use Xerath, Mundo, Kennen and Zilean. I'll play whatever role in whatever lane my team needs. I consider myself a rather skilled player and try to play with others I see are on my same "level".
tl;dr: I play this game.

I've wasted enough of your time already. On to the build.

Pros No unit collision and bonus AD from movement speed because of his 2 in 1 passive Warpath. High base AS. Amazing Ganker and Initiator. Reaches his prime quickly by mid-game and doesn't fall off.

SP

SP

Cons Mediocre starting game. No gank potential if his E Devastating Charge is not taken while in jungle. Needs to be in the center of the enemy team to reach full potential.

This rune set is for my (so far) personal favorite build with all AD champs that can pull it off. The AD Bruiser-Carry. ArP reds shouldn't require explanation. The flat Armor and MR runes I take for the early game survivability, the item build contains a few sustain items, I personally feel per lvl is not necessary here.

I strongly, STRONGLY recommend getting Ghost no matter what build you use. It not only gets you where you want, or away from where you don't want to be faster, but also gives you a slight damage boost AND synergizes beautifully with your E Devastating Charge.

Regardless, viable choices include:

SP SP SP SP

Exhaust can be used to lock down the carry, to chase someone down, or to escape. I can see Surge being an ok choice, especially because your W Spirit of Dread and ulti Onslaught of Shadows stack off AP, but the 35% AS is not too bad at all; requires more testing. Teleport can be used to get to a location you need to get to faster, no explanation needed. Ignite for that extra damage. I would not recommend Ignite personally as I'd rather take things like exhaust or heal, which can be used to heal everyone, mostly yourself, in a team-fight as you will be assuming the role of Initiator.

You are Hecarim, you will be focused just because he's a new champion. (Tell me to remove this in about 2-3 months, thanks.)

I'll keep this short and simple.

S>S S>S S=S


Hecarim ignores unit collision and gains attack damage equal to 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20 / 22.5 / 25 % of his bonus movement speed.

The key element here is ignoring unit collision. You'll honestly forget what it was ever like to have unit collision, it's beautiful. Even better for escaping, chasing, and ganking. Do NOT take the bonus AD from move speed for granted, when you pop E Devastating Charge, get full distance, AND have full speed going. That's an extra 360+~40 damage alone. But do not depend or build around it.

Hecarim cleaves nearby enemies dealing 50 / 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 (+0.6 per bonus attack damage) physical damage. This ability deals 50% damage to minions and monsters.

If Hecarim damages at least one enemy unit with this attack, he gains a stack of Rampage, reducing the base cooldown of this skill by 1 second for a short duration. This effect can stack up to 2 times.

This is your spam ability, you're going to want to use this at all times late game, when you have no mana issues to speak of. Just keep spamming it on minions, and when you get into a team fight... That 190/second base damage will be saying "you're welcome". Remember, it resets your autoattack timer, take advantage of that if you can.

Hecarim deals 20 / 31.25 / 42.5 / 53.75 / 65 (+20% of ability power) magic damage to nearby enemies every second for 4 seconds, up to a maximum of 80 / 125 / 170 / 215 / 260 (+80% of ability power) magic damage. Hecarim gains health equal to 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 % of any damage those enemies suffer. Healing from damage dealt to minions is capped to 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 health.

This is your early in-lane survivability, which is why I take it so early. It begins to serve you much better when in team fights, as it will give health back to you from ANY damage dealt to enemy champions within the aura. It's hard to notice but still useful. As it does almost no damage, we max it last.

Hecarim gains 75% movement speed for over the course of 3 seconds. His next attack knocks the target back and deals a minimum of 40 / 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 (+0.5 per bonus attack damage) and a maximum of 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 (+1.0 per bonus attack damage) additional physical damage based on the distance he has travelled since activating the ability.

In my opinion, this is Hecarim's defining ability, his bread and butter, if you will. I max this first as this is the main damage, disrupts the enemy, allows you to do some major ganking, escaping, and activates our extra damage from Trinity Force. That first hit is going to scare the hell out of them.

Hecarim summons spectral riders and charges forward, dealing 100 / 200 / 300 (+80% of ability power) magic damage in a line. Hecarim creates a shockwave when he finishes his charge, dealing 50 / 125 / 200 (+40% of ability power) additional magic damage to nearby enemies and causing them to flee in terror away from Hecarim for 1 second.

Your ulti, it's alright. Good for initiating and escaping the enemy. It's on an average cooldown by late game so use it whenever you can. It's a very small damage boost and fears for 1 second. Not really hard CC but enough time for your team to go in behind you.

Item Build 1, Bruiser Hecarim

I start my build with Boots and 3 Health Potion. And stay in lane, playing passive-aggressive until I reach about 2200 gold. This gives me enough to go back to get Zeal and Phage, I grab Ionian Boots of Lucidity between phage and sheen for the lowered cooldown that you desperately need, getting Sheen, plus Trinity Force on my next back. Trinity Force is by far the most important item here, I've never before used a Champion that so well makes use of every stat on it, it is an absolute must.
I then finish off mid-game with Black Cleaver. This gives you enough damage and built-in tankiness to hold your own in team-fights and 1v1's.

If you opt for the MR boots over the CDR boots, get Null-Magic Mantle in place of where the CDR boots are, then grab Mercury's Treads after your Trinity Force as it will set you behind a tad in gold, but if you feel it's needed, dont gimp yourself.

The rest of the items really are up to what the enemy team has and how you can counter it. Teams I fight tend to have a strong AP mid, and an AD carry or two somewhere which is why I almost always take Randuin's Omen and Force of Nature. But if these are not the defensive items you need. Then grab a Maw of Malmortius and Atma's Impaler and go for it. But I highly recommend, for at least Bruiser Hecarim, that you build at least 2 resistance items.


If you have been fed or if the game drags on to the 50 minute mark, I will always start building and complete this item as my final item. Always. You're already tanky, disruptive, and do tons of damage. Now you shred health too?? Make them wish they built some resistances.