Hecarim is my favorite champion to jungle with. He was made to jungle. He has amazing ganks and can run through the jungle camps with ease. In this guide, I will try to describe to you how I play Hecarim and hopefully you will be able to play him with ease as I do. I try to build my Hecarim as a tanky jungler to allow for easy ganks and give me the potential to turret dive to get extra kills.

Starting off with summoner spells, I pick Ghost to go along with Smite. Ghost is the perfect summoner spell for Hecarim because of his passive ability, Warpath. Not only does he ignore unit collision but he gains attack damage based off his bonus movement speed. If you are trying to chase down an opponent, pop your Ghost and your E, Devastating Charge, to not only catch them but do additional damage as well and hopefully secure the kill.

As a jungler, I start off with Spirit of Dread, which is not only an AoE but also heals you for a percentage of damage that you do. This ability is perfect for a jungling Hecarim. At level two I take Rampage to help go through the jungle camps easier. Level 3 is when I take Devastating Charge. This plus Ghost allows me to do some early ganks to help disrupt the enemy team. I take points in Ranpage at levels 4 and 5 and then ulti, Onslaught of Shadows, at level 6.

After level 6, I have my prefered method of maxing Rampage by level 9 and then Spirit of Dread by level 13, leaving Devastating Charge last to max. I personally find Devastating Charge to be more of a utility spell that I really only need 1 point in until later in the game. if you have conflicting preferences, leave a comment and I'll be sure to give it consideration.

For Marks I get Greater Mark of Desolation for the late game aspect. Attack damage might help with clearing the jungle quicker but later in the game, it's all about team fights and the Greater Mark of Desolation will help you do more damage to enemy champs compared to attack damage runes.

For Seals and Glyphs I go for Greater Seal of Armor and Greater Glyph of Armor. These Seals and Glyphs give me an extra 21 armor at the beginning of the game which will help you greatly in the jungle.

Lastly, for Quintessences is use Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed. These will boost your movement speed by 4.5% which will increase your attack damage because of your passive.

For Masteries, I previously went 0/9/21 to focus more on experience and gold but I've changed to 0/21/9 because it makes me more tanky and helps out a lot more in the late game, while my previous 0/9/21 was better for early game.

Defensive Tree:

• Summoner's Resolve - Gives you an extra 10 gold every time you use Smite
• Hardiness - Gives you an additional 6 armor to help you in jungle.
• Tough Skin - Reduces damage you take from the jungle camps.
• Bladed Armor - Returns 6 damage to minions and jungle creeps
• Durability - Increases health per level
• Veteran's Scars - Increases starting HP by 30 (up to 102 with runes)
• Evasion - I choose this over Indomitable because I think reducing AoE damage by 2% is better than reducing overall damage by 2 points, which isn't that much in my opinion.
• Initiator - Not only does it increase your movement speed, that in turn increases your attack damage.
• Honor Guard - This is very similar to Evasion since it reduces damages by a percentage rather than a set value, which is more useful in my opinion.
• Juggernaut - Increases your health by 3% and reduces CC effects by 10%

Utility Tree:

• Expanded Mind - Increases your mana per level.
• Improved Recall - Decreases your recall time.
• Swiftness - Not only increases your movement speed, but also your attack damage because of your passive.
• Runic Affinity - This is a must need for junglers because it allows you to have the red and blue buffs by an extra 20%.

To start off the game, I get Cloth Armor to give myself some extra armor for the jungle camps along with 5 Health Potion to heal up between camps. In my opinion this is the best combination for survivability in the jungle because it is very demoralizing to be killed by jungle creeps. Afterwards I get Boots which I upgrade Mercury's Treads for the tenacity. You could also start off with Boots and 3x Health Potion, I have had success with both starting items.


In my opinion, these items can have the potential to being important for Hecarim before you enter the tanky stage.

• Wriggle's Lantern will not only give you life steal but it is also capable of being a ward for your teammates. This item is also more of a Early-Mid game item and would be sold later in the game as you will want to become tankier.
• Trinity Force will give you a lot of extra damage because of its passive ability. It also gives AD, AP, crit chance, health, mana, attack speed and movement speed, all of which can be vital for Hecarim.

These items give you the tanky attributes.

• I put Mercury's Treads in this tanky section because of the added tenacity that you are given which can help in team fights.
• Warmog's Armor gives you a lot of extra health and health regen.
• Frozen Mallet is a great item for Hecarim. This item will give you extra attack damage, health, and your basic attacks will slow your opponent's movement speed.
• Maw of Malmortius gives you extra attack damage and magic resistance. Its passive ability also gives you an extra 1 AD for every 2.5% of health you are missing and acts as a shield if you you fall below 30% of your max health.
• Atma's Impaler will increase your armor and also your attack damage due to all of the extra health you will get from Warmog's Armor and Frozen Mallet. I would replace Wriggle's Lantern with this item because by that time in the game, you'll be tanky enough to not need lifesteal that much.

Of course these items would come if you are having a good game gold-wise. If you are short on gold, keep farming and go for dragon whenever it's available.

The image above is my jungling route. I start off at blue buff because it helps you avoid any early mana problems and gets you to level 2. Afterwards I go to wolves, wraiths, and golems which get me to level 3. At level 3 I'll attempt an early gank in any lane that wants it but if no ganks are needed then I'll go for red buff. I will usually repeat this process until level 6 where I focus more on ganks and help push lanes. Late in the game I will stop jungling, unless I'm going for buffs, and I'll usually take the enemy buffs in order to disrupt any of their junglers.

10/22/12-Updated Masteries, Item Choice, Skill Sequence and Runes. Added photos to intro, jungle and conclusion.


10/29/12-Updated Runes and Items section. Will be adding more builds for the people who prefer to be damage dealers with Hecarim, maybe even a trolling build :D

So this concludes my Hecarim build. Please leave a comment if you have any comments, tips, or conflicting ideas. Thank you very much.