Hecarim Build Guide by Zanryu

Introduction

I've seen many Hecarim guides and I've tried many of them, but I couldn't be as cheeky as with mine. So I will post my little pony here.

Pros / Cons

Pros very fast very bursty ganks nobody can chase him and nothing can escape very good initiates

Cons never ever play this build as a laner some kind of squishy vulnerable to cc (most of all exhaust)

Impotant Notes

Cooldown Reduction and Rampage: Rampage can't be reduced under 1 second. So there is a soft cap of CDR on Hecarim: 25%.
4 seconds - (1 second (25%)) - 2 stacks Rampage buff = 1 seoond

On level 18 I want to get close to it with my build.


The Red Buff: Melees receive higher boni from the red buff than ranged champions. As Hecarim there shouldn't be a problem to get close to an enemy. If your carry desperatly needs it, be patient until your Trinity Force is ready. But don't forget: Red Buff + Slows are stacking.


Devastating Charge's animation: If you start a gank on a Veigar or Morgana don't be afraid to try to dodge their stuns/snares - it doesn't matter. If the animation of Devastating Charge started nothing can interfere the knockback, the damage or the position change of Hecarim.

Masteries

Summoner's Wrath : Ghost is a core speed up cd and boosting this summoner spell is always a good thing to increase his ganking abilites and AD.


Runic Affinity vs Honor Guard vs Summoner's Wrath : Without these skills you have 2 final points to choose between the remaining one-pointer.

Runic Affinity: Especially in the early jungle you need the bonus mana from the blue buff for being a faster jungler. Additionally the red buff will last longer.

Honor Guard: This new season 3 talent is less effective than the old tenacity mastery and should be taken if you want to play Hecarim more tanky with less utility.

Summoner's Wrath: It seems that additional 8% on Ghost aren't that much, but 8% of 410 are still +32,8 movement speed which also turns into 8,2 AD with level 18.

Runes

Flat damage, flat armor and magic resistance per level for the standard jungler.

The Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed increase the movement speed of Hecarim by roughly 15 at level 1 and increases with the Boots of Swiftness again.

Summoner Spells

Ghost and Smite are obvious choises.

More movement speed for ganking and smite for jungling.

Items and the early jungle

Movement speed is almost everything on Hecarim. You can be almost everywhere everytime and it increases you AD.
Additionally Hecarim depends on his Spirit of Dread in early jungle. Of course you can pick Devastating Charge on level 2 and start an early gank but your early jungle could be harder due the lack of heal.

As a jungler start with Hunter's Machete and 5x Health Potion.
Start with the wolf camp at 1:40 followed by the golem camp. The new jungle is designed to solo everything without a leash or pull. But never refuse help either.
Walk to your wraith camp and clear it. Return to the wolf camp because it aleady respawned when you reach it. This new route is necessary because the golems hurt almost all junglers extremly when you are not level 3. After the second wolf camp kill the red buff and finally the golems.

You should be level 4 now. Return home and prepare your first gank.

Buy Boots of Speed and additional Health Potions to continue in the jungle and for the ganks. For the most of time 3 potions ae enough.

Whether or not your first gank was a success, jungle a little bit more until you get 685 or 1050 gold to buy Boots of Swiftness and Sapphire Crystal or Mana Potion.
Approximately at 7:10 your blue golem will respawn and hand it over to your mid lane / mana laner. Now you should buy your Sapphire Crystal here. Else your mana will constantly be down and ganks get quite hard.

Continue ganking and jungling until you have 860 gold to buy the rest of Sheen. It is the main damage item on Hecarim and his damage source number one.

Spirit Stone is a new jungle item which allows you to clear jungle camps even faster and can be build into 2 fairly strong items, depending on the situation you are currently in.
With the receiving of Trinity Force your potential of ganking will increase by a giant amount again.

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Tips for ganking:

• While ganking and using Spirit of Dread you can use Smite on minions to regain some extra health.
• Try to come from behind. If it's not possible due the current situation, simply ride from the side.

Mid game

We want to receive as much damage as possible out of our boots. Build furor on your boots to receive a bonus movement speed buff after entering the combat with Devastating Charge.


Sunfire Cape and Hexdrinker/ Maw of Malmortius are the basic situtional items on Hecarim. If the enemy team has a good fed AD Carry build Sunfire Cape and otherwise.
Important Note: Sunfire Cape increases your health regeneration by 52,5 per 5 seconds on max level Spirit of Dread per adjacent champion.
Also possible is Force of Nature due some extra movement speed, but I think it's not necessary in this build.

Upgrade your Spirit Stone after you finished either Sunfire Cape, Hexdrinker or both.
Spirit of the Ancient Golem for more tankiness and tenacity or Spirit of the Elder Lizard for raw damage.

End game

If you simply have no clue what to build last on Hecarim try Youmuu's Ghostblade.

Wriggle's Lantern: It is an famous item on junglers, but it isn't deeply needed on Hecarim who already has a strong self heal due to Spirit of Dread.
You can also build a Thornmail out of the Cloth Armor if the enemy AD Carry is hardly fed.

Of course, each other offensive item is possible: Last Whisper against tanks, The Bloodthirster etc.

Other Items

Mercury's Treads aren't very useful on a speedy ganker like Hecarim. The loss of 20 (and additinal percentages and AD) doesn't fit to the magic resistance and Tenacity, which is not a useful stat on Hecarim. Many people think that tenacity is important on a bruiser but, especially in the early game where the crowd control isn't that strong, the Boots of Swiftness are far more superior. It is still a viable choice in the end game. And don't forget to upgrade them with Enchantment: Furor

I've also seen many Hecarims with Phantom Dancer. Remember that this item is good for movement speed, but Hecarim doesn't really need crit chance or attack speed. Additionally it has no defensive parts like the other items.

If you got too much feed through your epic ganks this item is very useful and can be build out of Cloth Armor.

It is a good alternative to Trinity Force. It is cheaper, adds more mana, cooldown reduction and a 100% chance to slow as a field. It will add a bunch of soft control to Hecarim.

Skill usages

I think there aren't any specific notes for Rampage just spam this skill everytime you can hit something or while damaging a tower to activate Trinity Force.

The same goes for Spirit of Dread.

Devastating Charge is the main initiate and gank skill of Hecarim. Because its damage increases with the distance traveled during the time, it can deal incredible damage when you have Trinity Force. The charge is an amplified basic attack and can also be used against towers.
The charge also synergizes with Onslaught of Shadows and other forms of speed boost like Ghost, Youmuu's Ghostblade or Zilean's Time Warp.
I level this skill as the second spell, because its damage is just too good as an initiator. Additionally the cooldown decreases by 8 seconds.

Onslaught of Shadows: This is a very good tool for every kind of fun. It is also a skill shot, because you can only fear the targets in the circle of the skill shot. So you have to predict where the enemies will head to.
You can also escape with it over a wall or escape a Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab (it will strech until your charge runs out^^).

Interrupting: Hecarim can interrupt channeled ultimates like Absolute Zero or Death Lotus with both Devastating Charge and Onslaught of Shadows. Even Galio's Idol of Durand becomes interrupted if you run into the taunt with the charge activated.

Team fights

Due to his ultimate Hecarim is an awesome initiator and enterer, just like Malphite, but for an initiate this build is too squishy. With this build you can rather focus the other squishy targets very well.

Start with Devastating Charge and, if the carry is nearby you attack him. If he's out of the current range or on the other side of the battlefield use Shadows of Onslaught to reach him and burst him down.

After the carry died attack the next one with the lowest armor and so on.

Your best friends

For a speedy Hecarim speed is everything. Who would have guessed?
So I made a compilation of movement speed increasing champions.

Top Lane:

• Gangplank's Raise Morale: 4%-10% as an AOE buff
• Kayle's Divine Blessing: 18%-30% as a single target buff
• Jayce' Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate: 30%-50% after passing through the gate

Mid Lane:

• Galio's Righteous Gust: 20%-52% while on the track
• Karma's Spirit Bond: 10%-20% as a single target buff, or when running through the bond
• Orianna's Command: Dissonance: 20%-40% after walking through the field

Bot Lane:

• Janna's Tailwind: 3% global while she's alive
• Lulu's Whimsy: 35% as a single target buff
• Nunu's Blood Boil: 11%-15% as a single target buff
• Sivir's On The Hunt: 20% a an AOE buff
• Sona's Song of Celerity: 4-20 flat passive + 6%-14% after activation
• Zilean's Time Warp: 55% as a single target buff
• Jayce' Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate: 30%-50% after passing through the gate

Video Examples

In this example, I chaged in with Devastating Charge and Onslaught of Shadows to grab a double kill between the both mid lane towers and left the fight with 18 HP through the jungle.

Changelog

05.12.2012

• Updated to Season 3
• Removed jungle route chapter and put it ino early jungle

04.08.2012

• Added Jungle Route

27.07.2012

• Added Guardian Angel
• Changed Additional Items to the lock of the other guides

13.07.2012:

• Added dicussion about Summoner's Wrath to the masteries.
• Split the item thread into multiple threads.
• Added best friends section