About me Pathing Building My Notes

Hi! I am Ruined, I peaked D2 last split on this account

I Currently play on multiple accounts, This one i am currently playing on the most.

This is my personal discord link, feel free to dm me through it or ask questions whenever.

If you want to not do that, you can DM me @ "ruinedjg" on discord

I play amateur competetive LoL, im not a hecarim one trick, but a hecarim enjoyer, i played mainly evelynn last split, dropped her this season, i also play bel'veth and kindred.

I will be updating this as the meta shifts and i test builds.

In most cases as Hecarim you want to do one thing, and one thing only. Full clear towards volatile lanes, this means if both top laners have ignite and aggro runes, they are worth pathing towards since it is volatile and they want to/will fight first 3 waves and be low or die. Same idea goes for bot lane, as an example: Samira Nautilus with ignite exhaust is looking to fight and die first 3 waves. Same idea goes for Nilah Blitzcrank, or any other early game dueling champs with hard cc. Lanes that are sub optimal to gank would be un-interactive lanes, like seraphine sona, or senna yuumi. Or ornn top. Base your team comp off of where you want to path for success. Play for full clear, get scuttle, look for gank before or after it. If no gank opportunity, recall, and rinse and repeat. Something a lot of players do is forcing plays that you dont need to, a big rule of thumb to succeed and increase winrate is taking guaranteed plays, I dont do this enough, it will help you win lots of games and not throw away free wins, guaranteed plays are things like 100% success rate ganks, like enemy botlane is under your T1 and 30%> HP while you have R and ghost, if you **** that up you might want to play a new champion (situationals apply, such as being fed or having someone roaming bot at the same time to help them get tower etc, play with brain not emotion).

Now, the fun part, itemization and rune setup/decisions. There are a lot of ways to play hecarim to make him work, if you are below HONESTLY Masters elo, you can run conq and phase rush every game in standard pages and not have to worry about it to much. If you want to get used to the champion or are using this to learn him, you shouldnt be worried about getting the perfect runes every game, you should learn which path best suits you and run it, learng the bad matchups and how to play from behind with it, aswell as play while ahead and sustaining a lead with him. Make your own concious decisions in game, and have a good reason for it, and you will grow as a player. Making mistakes and learning from them is VITAL to improving. Lots of good players and talented streamers forget what its like to be low elo, even though they consistently make new accounts and play in lower elos while complaining the whole time. So its okay to not climb 400LP in 2 days playing something you like or are good at, chances are you are making a lot of mistakes that you dont realize, take some time to analyze and think about your gameplay, try your best to be unbiased.

Now, with that ****ty rant over, lets get into what you are reading all this for, my bad takes on builds and why i think you should run them.

Phase rush Assassin: This rune page is good into squishy teams with lots of dodgeable CC, you can sprint around, dodge leona R and E, space people and one shot the backline. That is when you should run this page with the build.

Phase rush Bruiser: Run this when the enemy team is tankier, but still has someone you want to obliterate and sprint out of there at mach 10.

Conqueror Bruiser: Build this when the enemy team is mostly melee, has sustain and cal duel you. Ex. Renekton top, Ivern jungle, any melee midlaner can be inserted here, Samira Nautilus botlane with exhaust. (if there is way to much cc, take tenacity rune)

Predator: (insert picture of dantes here). This is lore accurate Hecarim build, the true predator, you want to one shot that annie under her tower for first blood? Go for it. You want that lulu recalling in the bush? Ghost + R + Dance on her decaying body. Build boots first back, go ***sassin build. One shot squishy target and leave.

Now for boots:

Lucidity boots: These are good in most cases, if you are phase rush assassin you build these every game.

Plated Steelcaps/Mercury Treads: Build these when you play Phase Rush Bruiser or Conqueror Bruiser, analyze the enemy team comp and make a decision. Lots of CC/AP? Merc Treads. Lots of AD? Steelcaps. Lets say that the enemy went 4 AD, but all of them have hard CC, or most of them have CC, etc. Go merc treads, but build an armor item like Deadmans Plate, or Deaths dance.

General Item options not included in my build paths:
Some items i didnt include or you may be confused on, i will do my best to explain the reasoning between most of them here.

Anathemas Chains: This item is good when someone on the enemy team (Kindred, Evelynn etc.) is fed as hell, this helps you NOT get one shot by them, and lets your fear last for longer on them. TL;DR build against someone giga fed, or someone that will fist you in fights.

Deadmans Plate: This is a good armor item when you go bruiser hecarim, its passive ability works well with hecarim and can help you get to objectives and be on the map with your gold spent faster.

Serpents Fang: Buy this when the enemy team has lots of/ or annoying shielding, like karma,lulu, etc. Dont buy this against someone who has a singular small shield like yone or yasuo. Buy this item 4th or 5th.

Kaenic Rookern AND Force of Nature (FON): Good MR items against people like Evelynn that you should build. If the enemy team has 1 or 2 people that have AP, go something like hex drinker instead, but if they are HEAVY AP or their AP champs are fed, you can go tank items.

14.1- This patch ends today (1/23/2024. The guide is up to date.
14.1b- This patch didnt change Hecarim at all.

14.2- This patch comes out today, stride is worth testing i think, could be a generally decent item first 3 core items in bruiser build.
14.2b- no changes to hecarim from 14.2
14.3- Hecarim bad champ still :(
14.5- Skipped playing him for a whole patch since he was actually horrible. 14.5 feels good with item changes, is viable in standard play again.