This is a real down to Earth guide to playing Hecarim. No bulls**t. To start off, be sure to pick up your starting items and head for your blue side. Save your trinket as you'll need it later. Be sure to prevent any invades by sitting in river or river bushes. Start Gromp then move your way over to Blue buff. Note that if you smite Gromp you won't have much mana to fight Blue Buff with. However, if you smite Blue Buff, you won't have a damage buff and will need a longer leash, but you'll be able to clear a few seconds faster. Personally I would just smite Gromp. Tip: When attacking Blue Buff, kite him with your long basic attacks. You can trade a basic attack + Q + basic attack for one hit. This will allow you to move to the next camp with more health. I suggest moving right over to Red Buff for a number of reasons. One major reason is to make sure nobody is/ will be taking your Red Buff. You can place your trinket over the Red Buff wall into the bush closest to the river and check the bush next to you before starting to attack. Also you can gank mid lane at level 3 with Red Buff. One of two things will happen: You will get a kill/assist or the enemy mid-laner will pop flash. Be sure you used your smite on Red Buff to. You will be quite low on health. After or even before the mid gank you can get Scuttle Crab for more health and provide vision. From then on feel free to gank when needed and jungle when you can. Personally I don't like counter jungling as Hecarim, but if I do I prefer to clear the enemy red side. Pick a lane to punish and when a flash is down, be sure to help kill them. Good luck.

- You have a longer basic attack range than many other melee champions. Use that efficiently.
- Kite blue buff after every basic + Q + basic. You will trade 3 hits for 1. Saves you a lot more health.
- You basic attack animation can slow you down. After the damage is applied, IMMEDIATELY move forward. The animation continues for a fraction of a second longer than it needs to be and it wont make you move unless you cancel the animation. You can test what I am talking about on the Scuttle Crab. It will save you only a small amount of time but it's worth it when trying to catch someone.
- Your 'Rampage' stacks. If you can, try to get your 'Rampage' stacks up before going into a team fight or trying to gank.
- Your 'Spirit of Dread' heals you for ANY damage an enemy takes within your zone. Teammates can help heal you, if you say... needed to run away. However be aware that there is a healing cap on minions and a damage cap overall.
- Use 'Devastating Charge' efficiently by running behind an enemy (if possible) and knocking them towards your team. Don't be that guy that just carelessly E's the enemy carry back to safety because you weren't able to finish him off.
- Your 'Onslaught of Shadows' ignore all crowd control. So feel free to fly over that Veiger stun and disrupt their positioning (but like... let's not do that). You get what I mean. You will be stunned however after you come out of your ultimate.
- Baron steals are EASY. No joke. If your ultimate is up, fly over the wall fearing enemies away, using your basic attacks and abilities on the Baron. SAVE your E! you'll need it to run out of there. They're going to be angry. I usually ult in when Baron has about 1500 health. The fear allows you to get an easy smite steal and potentially give you a fraction of a second to start running. Use ghost if you absolutely need too. Good luck with that! Same goes for Drakes.