I have abandoned league of legends for 2 months and came back recently. I read patch notes and saw that Hecarim got nerfed. Nerf may seem to be soft to people who haven't played Hecarim much but it's actually big. Your Rampage is almost 2 times more expensive mana-wise. The only reason why Hecarim was in meta for few patches is Rampage manacost buff, it was very low, allowing you to spam the sh*t out of your enemies and still have some mana to escape/heal. I think there is still people who play Hecarim toplane and they might be succesful at what they do, but I don't really enjoy playing this guy. If you ever consider playing Hecarim in patch 5.11, you should rush Homeguards enchant somewhere in early-mid game to replenish your mana from going back.

At the moment I'm not going to rewrite this guide for afternerf- Hecarim, I might do this later. I'm sorry for those who enjoyed the guide and want it to get updated.

TL;DR: I DO NOT recommend playing Hecarim toplane in the current meta due to Rampage manacost nerf (you can play him jungle quite effectively if you're good, though). I'm not going to rewrite the guide atm, but I recommend building early Homeguard enchant every or almost every game.

Hello:) I'm Diamond EUW Top main. My favourite champions are Riven and Hecarim
I was Gold S2 and S3, ended up being Plat5 S4 and already got Diamond in S5.


Hecarim is strong toplaner with decent lane sustain. His playstyle can be compared to Irelia's, because both of this champions relies of Trinity Force and they both have similar roles in teamfights.

Hecarim is good for those who like fast gameplay, who like cathing people out of position and for those who like split-pushing. Hecarim becomes a great tank Late- and Mid-game and he can change game result.

I climbed from Platinum 4 To Diamond 5 almost exclusively playing Hecarim.

Pros:

*Bullying melees
*Can be played different ways
*Strong engage
*Decent sustain
*Oneshots carries mid-game
*Very tanky mid- and late-game
*Amazing split-pusher


Cons:
*Can't tank and/or do damage when behind
*Big mana problems early-game

Must have item. Take this EVERY game. Some people say Iceborn Gauntlet is better when you're behind, but I think it only lowers your potential to comeback with surprising burst Trinity Force provides.
I recommend to avoid building this item if you're new to Hecarim. This items relies on your ability to catch enemies and is almost absolutely useless if you are behind. I recommend to take this only if EVERY member of your team is ahead and you just want to secure your victory with more damage. IMPORTANT! If you take Youmuu's Ghostblade, DON'T take Zephyr and go for Mercury's Treads. Reason is CDR cap. Frozen Heart gives you 20%, Spirit Visage gives 10% and Youmuu's Ghostblade gives 10%. DON'T WASTE ITEM STATS!
Situational item. It gives us ~4-5 more AD than Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi. Take this item if enemy team ADC is FAR-FAR-FAR-FAR behind and they don't have CC at all or you're not afraid of it. Take Zephyr later on. I recommend you to better buy Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads but it's up to you.
Interesting item. It gives tons of early CDR and looks amazing on Hecarim since he's very CDR reliant BUT you will be forced to sell this item later on for Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads which will be waste of gold. You can take those, I really think they're good, but I usually don't do so.
This item is good if you need health and enemy team composition runs 2-3AP. If they have Physical damage, I recommend going Randuin's Omen, since it's MUCH better against physical damage champions
I usually don't get this. It's good if enemy team has Morgana but I still think it's not needed. It has the same passive as Spirit Visage so getting both of these will be little gold waste. If you have BIG problems with skillshot dodging take this, otherwise don't.
Meeeh. This item looks good at Hecarim, but better ask your support/jungler to take this. It's kind of expensive and delays your Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage. Don't take this at toplane.
This item is very good if enemy composition runs 2-3 AP champions. I think this item may be worth it, but Hecarim is usually away from your carries so aura and active is useless for them. This item is still VERY-VERY good and I'm big fan of it. If you consider buying this, go for it!
I haven't tried this item myself and I think it's not that great since we benefit more from movement speed boosts, than from slowing enemies. Hecarim usually can chase his enemies to death, so it's Frozen Mallet is not needed.

Hecarim's kill combo is really easy but I think I should talk about it a little bit.

Your kill combo is: Devastating Charge and stack it a little bit > Onslaught of Shadows getting your Devastating Charge at max stacks > Click at enemy and use your Rampage mid-air to benefit from Warpath with the movement speed Devastating Charge gives.

It's pretty simple. You will master this combo after one-two games.

That's the most important part to know as Hecarim.

To lane properly as Hecarim you have to have good understanding of creep wave control. You have to know, when to push, when to freeze, when to let your opponent push.

I recommend you to push your lane if you have good vision control: you have wards around your lane and look at minimap for enemy jungler location often. Shoving your enemies under the tower may force them to miss so cs or waste mana for them ( LeBlanc, Cassiopeia, Lissandra). It also helps if you cannot kill your lane opponent ( Shen, Sion, Malphite) because pushed lane gives you an opportunity to roam, which is the key of winning games as Hecarim.

Freezing lane is good if your enemy is melee and will get tons of harrass from you without being able to harrass you back ( Riven (if behind), early-game Nasus, Lee Sin). Freeze your lane if you're ahead and don't have any opportunity to roam or to stop farm-reliant champions like Nasus

You should let your opponent push you under the tower if you got unfortunate early levels and gave some kills. It gives your jungler opportunity to gank.

TL;DR: Push and roam when ahead, freeze to avoid farm snowballing and stay under the turret when you're far behind.

As a Hecarim, you want to have longer trades with your opponents because of heal that your Spirit of Dread provides and low cooldown on Rampage when stacked.

I can't really tell you how to lane, you should find your own playstyle, but I can give you few tips:
1. You can fight in creep waves better than most of the champions, one signle Rampage used in a creep wave heals you for at least 60 HP when Spirit of Dread is active and that's one autoattack from an enemy. Keep that in mind
2. Try to keep your Rampage stacks up, but don't waste all your mana on these. If your opponent won't realise you have 2 Rampage stacks and will go for a trade, you will outtrade them.
3. Don't waste your Spirit of Dread. This ability gives you hard healing and you can heal around 100 HP from your burst at lvl6. Enemies often forget about this, so this is your advantage.
4. READ THIS! If your jungler will let you take wraiths jungle camp, TAKE THEM! I STRONGLY recommend doing this against Riven. Buy Crystalline Flask > take Wraiths camp > Go back to base > Buy Cloth Armor (If against Riven) or Vision Ward and tons of Health Potions and Mana Potions > Use your Teleport to go back to lane. With this you're going to have level advantage (Only 1-2 creeps will die by themselves when you're away) and will have great lane sustain.

That's VERY important thing to do as Hecarim. Roaming lets you help other lanes with your awesome ganking potential.

Your primary target is going to be mid-lane and most mid-lane champions don't have good escapes, so going for a gank with just your E active force them to use their Flash in 75% times. After flash is wasted you can go for a kill gank.

If their midlane is good-warded or playing very safe you can try to counter-jungle. For this I recommend you to buy a Vision Ward and place it in your lane river/tri-bush and use your trinket ward in the enemy jungle. Take their camps, kill if possible. IT'S DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD! You either help all the lanes by shutting down enemy jungler or get behind gold- and level-wise because you missed cs on your own lane!

Mid-game is where Hecarim shines.

Your main aim is to oneshot enemy carries (ADC is usually much easier to kill). And for that we will need our Trinity Force and Stealth Wards around the map. Every time support lefts their ADC alone — go for a kill. With Trinity Force and Ignite you will be able to oneshot ANY ADC unless they outplay you.
TL;DR: Kill every lonely squishy target on the map >:)

If you played everything correctly and enemy team didn't place enough wards, you will never have a 5v5 teamfight mid-game. Doing a 5v4 teamfight is easy for Hecarim: Use Devastating Charge > Onslaught of Shadows on their backline > Spirit of Dread > Spam Rampage (Try to knock someone from the backline into your team). Don't be afraid about getting killed, our Spirit of Dread provides us infinite healing against champions in its radius for 4 seconds: you with your team will do tons of damage to keep your HP Bar fine even without any tank items.

If enemy team composition is unengageable, you're far behind or you just want to apply more map pressure — go SPLIT-PUSH!

That's loved playstyle of many players and it really annoys enemy team. They are forced to stop you all the time and you usually get 2-3 people from enemy team at your lane, when your team can take objectives or do favourable fights. And you know what's even better? YES, Hecarim will almost always ESCAPE. You don't even need Flash for this, that's why I don't take it.

Proc Sheen with your Rampages and towers/inhibs will go down in no time. BUT, don't forget to ward your back or you will get killed for nothing, that's the most important part of split-pushing.

The hardest period of the whole game for Hecarim. Your damage is relatively low now and your main role is to zone their carries or to protect yours. You can't do easy oneshots for single targets because everyone groups up at that moment of game. Take Greater Stealth Totem or Oracle's Lens and give your team map control. If you're the only one in your team who can engage, do it when you think you should. If you have more engagers, it's better to wait for their engage and then try to use your Onslaught of Shadows to zone enemy carries/protect yours.

Usually, if you got to late game with Hecarim, you have to pray for your team to carry you. You are no more than a meatwall and yes, Sion does his meatwall job MUCH better late-game.

I STRONGLY recommend you to turn "Autoattack" OFF in Game Settings. If you get rooted and use Devastating Charge while being rooted when ANY enemy unit is in autoattack range, you WILL AUTOMATICALLY AUTO THIS TARGET! It killed me at least 6 times in my 50 Hecarim games.

Hope this guide helped you to learn Hecarim. I will add more information later and I plan to make this guide in-depth. Maybe there will be some videos. Also working on better guide design.

Leave your match histroy screenshots with winning streaks in comment section:) they will be in this chapter;)

English is not my native language, if you find some spelling errors, feel free to PM me with these and I'll fix them.

Wish every of you good luck getting your Diamond!