Hi, this is the first build that I have ever made. Hecarim is a unique character with a very different play style to most champions. He introduces a new type of CC known as Terrify which causes enemies to run in fear away from Hecarim. .In this guide I will be explaining the choices I have made for Hecarim. Please note I am not saying that this is the best way to play Hecarim, but only the most comfortable way I have played him. With this build I focus on tankyness whilst still having late game damage. Please note that this is a JUNGLING build and not a laning build, hence my items would be different from someone who is laning with him. If you are looking for a good laning build just follow the link below as he understands the proper items that Hecarim needs and how he should be played.

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/first-hecarim-guide-on-mobafire-read-news-204010

pros

Good utility
Very good late game
Very good ganks
Can stick onto a target really well
Lots of AoE damage
Looks freaking awesome o.O
Super fun
Good escape mechanism/ chasing mechanism

Cons

Not very strong early game
Does not deal as much damage as other tanky/dps champions
No hard CC pre 6
can be counter jungled
Very item dependent
Team dependent since his ganking skills would be a waste if your team can not capitalize.

Runes

I go for the following runes:

X9 Greater Mark of Desolation
x9 Greater Seal of Armor
x9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
x3 Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed

I use these runes as they help me remain tanky which is essential since Hecarim is a tanky/dps with great initiation, hence it is vital that he is tanky. The Greater Mark of Desolation are used since Hecarim deals physical damage. Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed are used to utilize his passive to the max, also it helps in ganking and in clearing the jungler faster.

I like to take standard tank masteries for Hecarim giving 21 in defense and 9 in utility. I take these masteries because Hecarim isn't naturally tanky like Garen and so NEEDS all the tankyness he can get.

I take 9 in utility for the increased movement speed and the neutral buff duration.

An other mastery build which I've tried and found useful was 9/21 taking 9 in offence for more damage. Though I felt much more comfortable with 21/9.

Summoner Spells



Ghost is just awesome on Hecarim. Works so well with his move set especially Devastating Charge which is your main ganking ability. Also works REALLY well with your passive resulting in more damage and since you have no unit collision you are just gonna stick to your enemy, what more could you ask for? It is because of this that I take Ghost instead of Flash. Also is a good escape move along with Devastating Charge and when desperate Onslaught of Shadows, they can forget chasing you or running away from you.

Other viable choices



This is a good spell for Hecarim especially if against an other Hecarim. Helps you literally STICK onto someone but I see it as more of a laneing spell than a jungling spell.


Good if no one else on your team takes it. On the rare occasion that someone does run away from you its a good way to finish them off. But again its more of a laneing spell.


A very good spell on almost every champion. If you feel more comfortable with Flash than Ghost then simply take it instead, it is still a very good pick I just choose ghost because i feel that it works better with his kit.


Its a heal, how can it be bad??


A very good spell for Hecarim but not when jungling ;).


This is also pretty good, though I would get it when laning and obviously only against a team with heavy CC. This is because Hecarim is very weak against slows as they reduce his ad so a move like Exhaust is Hecarim's worst enemy.

Dont bother


This spell really needs no explanation. Just ignore it and imagine it was never there.


Not useful at all for Hecarim, would be a waste to get this spell


You not the support so don't take this.


You just dont need it.


Lol??

Hecarim is a very mobile character. This is show through 3 of his moves. His passive Warpath, his e spell Devastating Charge and finally his ult Onslaught of Shadows. I will proceed to explain his moves 1 by 1.

Passive

Warpath
Many people do not like his passive. I will agree that it is not the best passive, but its a very good passive for Hecarim's kit. He avoids unit collision which is good when ganking, how many times have you played as Rammus and go for a gank but cant hit the guy because of a damn minion in the way?? Exactly my point. It is also for escaping, always run though minions and hope that your chaser is an idiot and also tries to run through minions. Also the increased damage from movement speed is nice. Many people think that because of this you should get him phantom dancers. I completely disagree with this and will explain this when I'll be talking about his items.

Rampage
This is Hecarim's main ability. You will be spamming the **** out of this move because of its insanely low cooldown once u get 2 stacks. Its damage is nothing insane.BUT! Its AoE damage and very, very spammable. It will crush squishy characters like Brand or Teemo and is a very good skill as it keeps on procking Sheen. Hence it is important to always auto in between Rampage hits. The down side to this move is that it does 50% reduced damage to creeps and minions which slows down your jungle speed, but the fact that this move is so spammable compensates the reduced damage. Of course I max this skill first since it is my main source of damage.

Spirit of Dread
This is a very interesting ability which makes Hecarim sustainable in lane and in jungle, and makes him a tank in team fights as he just keep on healing him self. Yeah its on for 4 seconds but that's 30% ( at lvl 5) of any damage your enemies take in the given AoE. That's a huge amount. Lets say Vayne crits someone for 1000 damage, that 300 health at once and that's just from one person. Now imagine You have a Galio taunt happening with a Brand ult...exactly :) I this spell at lvl 2 and by lvl 5 upgrade it twice and leave it there till lvl 13. I get a second lvl of it because, well its sustain and sustain in a jungle is always good. Not only that but its AoE sustain making it even better :)

Devastating Charge
This is your main ganking ability. DO NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO GANK WITHOUT THIS SPELL, you will just be wasting time, wasting farm and wasting exp. Without this spell, you will fail 75% of the ganks unless the enemy laner is REEEEEEAAALLLY pushing your lane. This spell is very similar to Rammuss's Powerball its a movement speed increase and a knock back. The main difference being that the knock back is a much larger knock back and it does increased damage the further you move. This move can also be used against buildings and so is a good pushing spell. Many people max this last, just leaving it at 1 lvl and that's it. They do this because the movement speed bonus does not increase with level. This is not a very good argument. First of all it is your strongest ability in terms of damage, secondly it has a very long cooldown 24 seconds at lvl 1 and its only a 3 second movement increase. When you compare this to Rammus his Powerball is on a 10 second cooldown at all levels. This is why he can leave it at lvl 1 throughout the whole game. Because of this I try to level it up with Spirit of Dread though prioritizing the latter.

Onslaught of Shadows
And finally the ultimate, and what an ultimate it is. Once I saw this move on the champion spotlight I knew i had to buy this champion. This ultimate is just incredible. It has a new kind of fear were people hit by Hecarim are feared away from Hecarim.

Basically

if you ult in this direction > they will fear in this direction <

This ult can be used for ganking, initiating, running away (can be used through walls), as a finisher.

It is a very good move to use during team fights as you can fear a whole team.

A good way on how to use your ult during a gank is like this.
Before you ult activate you Devastating Charge but do not attack them, fear them towards your ally with your ult, once your ult is over hit them with a fully charged Devastating Charge pushing them further back and and dealing huge damage. But only do this if you are sure that the person will be killed, because if they have a Flash you used all of your ganking moves and ended up without a kill or assist.
Last but not least, it looks awesome :D

This is my chosen item build and it's safe to say that is has almost always worked for me. Sometimes i change the sunfire came into a Frozen Mallet and the maw into a Force of Nature depending on the team i'm against.


Now some people say that you do not need a wriggles on Hecarim. I agree, you do not NEED one, but why not get one?? I mean, it gives you armor, attack damage, life steal, free wards, makes you jungle faster and is relatively cheap so I don't see why people try and skip this item. Late game I usually sell it though, I usually get an atmas to compensate for the damage and armor I lost though the build works fine without it.


Shurelya's is an AMAZING item for Hecarim. You can activate it for movement speed, gives you health, sustainability and cooldown reduction all at a low price. Buy it and try it is all I say. Nothing more fun than speeding down with Devastating Charge, Ghost and Shurelya's Battlesong ^^

Now many people suggest Phantom Dancers For Hecarim as it does well with his passive. I am 100% against this item on him. Howcome? Well let me explain. Hecarim's role is a Tanky/dps who in team fights is meant to initiate. Phantom Dancers gives attack seped, crit strike and movement speed which is good for his passive. With that said it offers no tankyness what so ever. Initiators need all the tankyness they can get as they need to survive the battle and disrupt the enemy when possible. In fact all the items in my build offer some kind of tankyness, be it health, armor, magic resistance, sustainability. Every item in my build offers one of those.

It is for this reason I do not buy a Youmuu's Ghostblade for him. The main reason people buy this for him is the movement speed increase on him. Shurelya's Battlesong does the same thing whilst giving me health, sustainability, cooldown reduction and everybody in my team a movement speed buff which is good if you want people to keep up with you while initiating. Now i'm not saying that Youmuu's Ghostblade is a bad item for him. But well...I just wouldn't buy it ^^

Jungling is quite easy with Hecarim. You will not be as fast as Shyvana for example, but he is still quite fast. Id say he is on par with Trundle no as sustainable though. The best jungle rout in my oppinion is the following.

Start at wolves and ask your team mates to help you, so that you kill them as quickly as possible and would not need to use a health potion. After that ask someone to pull blue buff and take it as quickly as possible. Always try to kill the last mob with Rampage to keep your stacks going, the more stacks the lower the cooldown the faster you jungle. After that head off to wraiths, then proceed to golems. After golems you should have at least 1 health potion left. Head on to Red buff and after that you should have enough health to kill wolves before needing to go back. A small tip of advice use Smite when Spirit of Dread is active so that you get even more healing.

the following are the possible ganking positions for Hecarim

Green being the best ganking position
Blue is an alright ganking position
Red is possible when you reach lvl 6 because you can either pull someone towards your turret and pull someone away from their turret.

The green gank positions are the best because it is very important that Hecarim gets behind the enemy so that he can push them away from their safe zone towards your team mate.

You should chose Hecarim when you have a team that can deal tons of damage, this is because you do not deal an IMMENSE amount of damage and so your team mates need to compensate for that. Your solo top should have a decent amount of CC, so someone like Yorick, Jarvan IV, Shen, Riven would be good. Though from my own experience someone like Singed, or Volibear work extremely well because of how they can fling enemies behind them making it super easy for you to get behind them and pushing them towards your mate.

As I said your team needs to be able to dish out tons of damage. This is so that you can use your Spirit of Dread at its maximum potential and When you initiate with your ultimate, your team must be able to quickly manage to dispose of any upcoming threats.

An other time one should choose Hecarim is when your team would have lots of movement speed buffs. Champions like Sivir, Janna, Galio etc... obviously this is because of your passive.

Do not choose Hecarim if:

your team is lacking CC, in that case it would be much better to chose someone like

Alistair or Amumu.

your team is lacking damage, would be much better to take someone like Shyvana or Master Yi

Hecarim is an extremely fun champion to play. Yes he does have a weak early game due to low damage, long cooldown on Devastating Charge and being extremely item dependent but once you get that out of the way, he truly is a force to be reckoned with.



This was one of my best games as Hecarim.


for those who can read the score its

19/5/15 ^^

Updates to the guide will be listed here

24.04.12
updated summoner spells

added clarity, cleanse and promote to the list

25.04.12
Took out Atma's Impaler from the core build as it worked fine without it.

Updated items section.

Updated Introduction section

26.04.12

Took Kindlegem out of the core build, just buy it with the Shurelya's Battlesong reason for this change was because it was taking too long to get the Trinity Force