Introduction

Hecarim is a champion that specializes in fast clearing jungle camps and high mobility. Thanks to Hecarim's passive, Warpath, he is able to increase his AD when his movement speed is increased. With this build, you will have an AD of 350 ± 30 with a DPS of 720 ±30 depending on the armor/magic resist item you will choose.

Why 2 Zephyrs?, you would ask. Y U Dumb?, you will ask. First of all, to create an effective assassin you to have a huge DPS (you need attack speed) and tons of movement speed. The two Zephyr will give a combined +20% movement speed as well as -20% CDR, which will help you reach the cap of -40% CDR.

The Statikk Shiv will help you with more attack speed, more movement speed and critical chance, which when fully built, you might have a critical hit every 1.3-1.6 seconds (rough estimate from the top of my head) (30% critical chance with 2.3 attacks per second). If fighting with a warrior of about 120 Armor, you might be able to take him down pretty quickly because of the great critical chance and attacks per second you give. In a second, you might deal about 300-400 AD (against an armored champion), which is pretty neat (without considering sheen and additional AD from a critical chance)

The purpose of Trinity Force is to give you more Attack Speed, AD, AP, and the awesome "buffs" of Sheen and Phage. The last item, you will have to evaluate the situation and pick the item that best fits the game you are playing.

The whole purpose of this build is to be an assassin. During team fights, when a player tries to run, you will easily catch up to him, since you will have around 600 movement speed.

What i would recommend during team fights is that you not stay in the middle of it. It is important because you have average health and are not tanky enough to withstand the enemy's team "attention". You can be around the circle created during the team fight and try to shut down the ones trying to escape or the ones who aren't in the middle.

When solo engaging, if the enemy is not near an enemy turret, you should engage with Hecarim's ult with a combination of your E. All this after you have pressed your W to gain health and additional DPS. Unless the enemy is super-ultra fed, you will take him down fast. When the enemy is near an enemy turret, do not engage with your ult nor your E. Your movement speed is enough to engage. After a few seconds of battle, the enemy, if getting low on health, will try to get cover near the turret. Then you ult with your E activated, calculate until the end of the fear inflicted by the ult and then knock him back to try to get him farther from the turret as possible. If he persists to escape, do not do lots of auto-attacks. Follow him to the turret while pressing Q like a BAUS with mixtures of few auto attacks to stay in range.

With Hecarim's movement speed, you can easily disengage from fights by either running and give them false hopes that they will catch you, or just press E or use Ghost and dash like a track horse to safety.

I don't personally like to tank Hecarim up because he is a mobile champion. He is the jungler (not necessarily the tank) and needs high mobility. With 50 AD both zephyrs give to Hecarim, along with Trinity Force's 30 and perhaps Mercurial Scimitar's 60 AD, you will have about 280±30 AD, which will increase even more thanks to Hecarim's passive for about 60 AD.

One downside of this build is that every time an enemy champion tries to escape, your team will be: "Catch Him!" or "Finish Him! (Mortal Combat Style)". Anyways... hope this build works for you and comment on the section below. :D

Why of the use of Smite and Ghost?

- Smite is unquestionable when jungling. You must have it

- Ghost is, in my opinion, better than flash on Hecarim because it allows you to catch up to enemy champions really fast, as well as to increase the probabilities of a clean, running escape. Thanks to Hecarim's passive, ghost will also increase Hecarim's AD by a substantial amount of points, which might make a difference.

- Teleport, in my opinion, is not viable with this build because you are already able to move around lanes pretty quickly. Even more with Boots of Mobility's + 105 MS and ghost or Boots of Moblity's +75 MS. But, if you want to be constantly ganking or harassing lane enemy champions, this is viable.

- Exhaust is no good. Enemy champions already suffer from Icy, by Trinity Force and with your high mobility, you can make up for Exhaust.

- Clarity can be used in Hecarim early-mid game, when no blue buff is present because Hecarim's Q is very mana consuming.

I personally do not see any difference late game of +18 AD, +10 magic/damage penetration... which is why i like to invest in DPS, which is more attack speed, which will make a difference late game.

9 glyphs of cooldown reductions that equal -10% CDR. With the masteries of -10% CDR and both zephyrs with -10% CDR each, you reach the cap of -40% CDR, which will help you alot with your ultimate because it will reduce 40 seconds of cooldown. With the Q, you will be pressing it very consecutively because of its already low CD minus the 40% CDR. In conclusion, you want -40% CDR.

3 quintessences of movement speed because this is a build for an assassin and you have to be mobile. With Hecarim, more speed means more damage.

9 Marks of Attack Speed: Higher flat DPS

9 Seals of Attack Speed; Higher flat DPS

I include 9 points in offense. Upgrade to Summoner's Wrath to increase your Ghost. Put four points in Fury for higher early game DPS. Put four points in Sorcery to get -4% CDR to complement with the other CDR mastery to get a -10% CDR. Again, you want high DPS.

I include 21 points in utility because of Nimble and Intelligence. I recommend the other points in utility to be spent as shown because it offers Hecarim what he needs: movement speed, mana regen, mana, a biscuit, -CDR in summoner spells, as well as increase of experience gained to level up faster.

I do not put points in armor or magic resistance because, for me, 2 armor or 3 magic resist will not make a difference of like "wow"... Again, we are building an effectively mobile assassin.

Personally, I start with Rampage, Hecarim's Q because it offers lots of damage in a small amount of time. After clearing blue or red, you are level 2 and go to the next camp. At level 2, I upgrade to Spirit of the Dread, Hecarim's W because it offers radial damage as well as healing, which is always welcomed. When reaching level 3, I recommend to upgrade Rampage to clear faster. I do not recommend to upgrade to Devastating Charge, Hecarim's E, at level 3 because it has relatively high cooldown, which will only allow you to do it once during a camp clear. Only upgrade to Devastating Charge at level 3 if someone is being harassed at such point where assistance is substantial. I recommend to start ganking at level 5 when Rampage is level 3, unless assistance is necessary in lanes. After reaching level 6, upgrade Rampage as soon as possible and after that, concentrate in upgrading Spirit of the Dread, which is essential in team fights and Hecarim's sustainability. Upgrade Devastating Charge fully until level 18 because this ability is used to catch up to enemies only. Devastating Charge is only letal when fully upgraded but the other skills must be learned first to sustain Hecarim during fights. (Keep in mind that Hecarim's ultimate must be upgraded whenever possible)

Jungling Strategy

If there is no invasion, follow these steps:

1) I highly recommend getting blue and going smiteless, because allies quickly lower blue's health.
2) after getting blue, upgrade to Spirit of the Dread (most likely you will reach level 2 after getting blue) and kill the wolves.
3) After killing the wolves, go to wraiths and smash them
4) After killing all wraiths, if hp is lower than half, use 2 health potions consecutively. By now, you will have 1 or 2 Health potions available. Probably only one... unless your ally takes blue's damage, which will greatly help you.
5) After getting your health about 50%, with the healing effect still active, charge on red and use smite.
6) If you are confident and still have a health potion, go after golems and use your biscuit. After killing golems, attack wraiths and then wolves again.
7) Recall and buy items specified above.
8) Gank and farm on monsters only.

If invading the enemy jungling camps,

1) Invading, you go to blue and scare enemies away. 1 ally (ranged) must be in the bushes near blue to watch for enemies. Another (ranged ally) must be behind the wall behind blue to avoid smite of enemy jungler. The other 2 allies must help you get blue. This time, do not use smite because your allies will give their full attention to blue so your health won't lower drastically.
2) go down and kill wraiths and remember, your last attack to the big wraith must be with rampage and as far from the camp as possible (wraiths will chase you if you go a bit far). This way, you will enjoy CDR from Rampage's effect when charging now towards Red.
3) kill red and head towards your blue.
4) with this strategy, if the enemy jungler is mad at you, he might try to steal your blue so by killing red, you don't waist your time waiting for the enemy jungler, instead, you go to blue expecting him with red's true damage buff. He'll probably be still level 1, if you catch him trying to steal your blue, and will easily take him down. Use Ghost if he tries to escape.
4) If the enemy jungler isn't there, kill wolves and then return to blue.
5) kill blue, charge against wraiths and then golems
6) recall.
7) gank and farm monster only

If you are being invaded

1) with your team, go to the other blue and get the buff.
2) continue with jungling strategy if you have not been invaded
1.a) if your team wont go, fight golems, then wraiths. Heal yourself
2) charge against red's little lizards, not red yet.
3) recall
4) kill lonely red
5) kill wraiths then wolves
7) kill golems, then wraiths, then wolves again
8) if you are level 5-6 by then, gank, if not, continue farming monsters, unless assistance is necessary.
9) Place a ward in minute 7:30 in enemy blue and stay near the lane closest to that ward. When enemy jungler tries to kill blue, rush towards blue and use smite when blue has low health so that you can steal it.
10) write in the chat: /all "That's for stealing my blue!"
11) rush towards wraith and kill the big one
13) put a ward at red to do the same
12) rush towards golems and kill the big one
13) after stealing blue, wait 10-20 seconds and if the enemy jungler does not appear, write in chat: /all "sorry, I only needed the big ones"
14) with this, you will engage in sociological war. every once in a while, after ganking, go to the enemy's jungle camps and kill the big monsters, leaving behind the small ones. Do not let anyone mess with your jungle. Ward both jungle camps. It will let you steal buffs, defend your camp, and offer strategical view of opponent line-ups.

when dealing with counter jungling

1) ward your camp and attack enemy jungler when on sight. It will teach him not to mess with you.

When counter jungling

1) follow the same steps as when being invaded.

Staring Items

every jungler has to start with these to secure a fast clear.

Why these after camp clear items?

to clear jungle camps faster, Madred's Razors makes this possible with its Passive - Maim. You want to buy boots first because, beside increasing slightly your AD, it will increase your ganking because you will be able to travel faster more distance.

Why these mid-game items? What should I buy first?

Decide whether to buy Boots of Swiftness - Alacrity or Boots of Mobility - Alacrity first. Deiced whether you want to gank at a fast rate and be able to chase fleeing enemies in battle more effectively with boots of Mobility or to a gank and move around even faster when retreating from fights (Boots of mobility's +105 MS vanishes when entering a battle so you cannot take advantage of it with warpath or when chasing fleeing enemy). Choose one of these only because it increases your mobility and AD very notable. You will be able to buy these boots near minute 7-12. Next follow up with both zephyrs, buying first the Attack Speed items for high DPS. After buying one Zephyr, if you feel like you are not farming lots of minions when staying in a lane after a gank (the lane champion might wanna recall), buy the second Zephyr. If you want to clear minions faster, buy Statikk Shiv and then Zephyr again. With one Zephyr, its tenacity bonus will make you very difficult to catch when trying to escape or very difficult to slow down when chasing an enemy.

Why this late games? Too little tankiness...

Trinity Force is essential in this build. It is said that Hecarim with no Sheen is no Hecarim. Trinity Force gives Hecarim Sheen's passive as well as increased movement speed, AD, AP, AS, Unique Passive - Icy, and other stuff.
At late game, if you feel like you are playing with lots of AD champions with lots of ranged enemies, try buying Randuin's Omen, which will give you lots of health and armor. If the AD champions are more melee, purchase Sunfire Cape for the magic damage when fighting against melee champions. If in late game, you are being countered by AP champions with lots of crowd effects and average damage for late game, purchase Mercurial Scimitar. You will be able to clear all debuffs. If you are being countered by AP champions with little crowd effects and lots of damage from their part, try Banshee's Veil because it gives you more HP as long as Magic Resist.

When using this build

Pros
- High mobility
- One of the best junglers in the game
- High DPS
- Above average AD
- Assassin style
- Clean escapes possible
- Kill Securer
- Can engage in solo fights against max 3 non-tanky enemies at once and have high probability of success
- Amazing back door

Cons
- Little AP
- Cannot withstand enemy team's full "attention" during team fights at once
- Can go either armor or magic resist. Not both.
- Can be harassed greatly when being counter jungled
- Great Mana consumer