Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
x
x

Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment.
You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment
I liked this Guide

I didn't like this Guide




Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Choose Champion Build:
-
Hecarim Off-Tank (AD focus)
-
Hecarim High Sustain
Recommended Items
Spells:
Ghost
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Warpath (PASSIVE)
Hecarim Passive Ability
Introduction
Hi guys, HandOfTheArchon here, this is my



Note: I am not going to link or post any videos that show unbelievable scores because that won't always happen and I don't want to mislead people, everyone plays differently and what might work for one person might not work for another. The only videos I will put up are tutorials and perhaps an example of how the preferred build's sustain works.

About the Author
Hi, I'm HandOfTheArchon and I play on the EUW server, I've been playing League of Legends since season 1 on and off because I'm a casual gamer, recently coming back in season 3 in February. I've tried every role in the game and can say that I can play ADC, Mid or even support, but my main is solo top. This is my most favorite area and my best for I am an inexperienced jungler and I dont like the support style of play. While playing solo top I have played various champions and have found that my favorite selection consists of











Introduction to Hecarim








Pros
|
|
Cons
|

Runes




Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: This rune allows
Hecarim to get around the map even quicker to setup ganks, roam and escape ganks, this also scales well with his passive
Warpath which increases attack damage for a percentage of your MS. This will undoubtedly make
Hecarim the fastest champion in the match and allow you to get your boots at a later stage if you want to rush
Black Cleaver or
Spirit of the Elder Lizard first. These will replace the need for
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage because your attack will increase as you level up from your MS and you'll be faster overall which is greater than the flat attack damage you gain.
Greater Mark of Attack Damage: These runes give Hecarim a much needed attack damage boost which your not getting from your masteries,
Rampage does little damage early and you will find it hard to farm without these, however if your against tanky champs you can always swap these for Greater mark of armor penetration, either mark allows you to harass more and farm well or better depending if you start with
Hunter's Machete or not, but getting the
Long Sword allows you to make your mind about which item you want to build first between
Spirit of the Elder Lizard and
Black Cleaver. Also, most champions at top will be using
Greater Seal of Armor runes and the ARpen you get from greater mark of armor penetration will allow you to ignore some of their armor, so these runes may be a more viable choice but it's really player preference and these aren't set in stone.
Greater Seal of Armor: This rune is useful against most AD champs and will allow you to survive for longer combined with
Spirit of Dread against top laners because with
Hecarim you have to get in close to harass and he has a large model so its easy to poke if the enemy champion is ranged or has ranged abilities. Most champions will be using either
Greater Mark of Attack Damage or greater mark of armor penetration so these flat armor runes would be the best choice either way, unless of course you are facing a pure AP top such as
Ryze, however this doesn't happen often and you must keep in mind what champion the jungler is using.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: These runes are used typically when going top because most champs you face are primarily AD champs and if they deal magic damage such as
Akali it will only be later on of which your runes will have scaled enough to be close to the benefit of using flat magic resistance runes, however if your enemy champion is AP based, then you can swap these for
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. The scaling runes are also better mid or late game when the APC's are dealing heavier damage because you would be getting more MR than the flat MR runes by this point.
Useful Summoner Spells
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Alternative Summoner Spells
![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |


- This is Hecarim's passive and increases your attack damage for a percentage of your MS. This is a great passive to have in conjunction with summoner spells like
Ghost and skills like
Devastating Charge. Also your
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed scale up your attack speed by a good amount early game giving you an edge of attack damage and MS.

- Rampage is Hecarim's main tool of destruction and farming, this skill has a low cooldown which gets even lower if you use it consecutively, provided you are hitting an enemy minion or champion etc. This ability may have low damage to begin with but allows you to farm well by finishing off low health creeps and with your superior MS you can use
Rampage consecutively while chasing, but be cautious, giving chase and spamming this ability too much can easily deplete your mana early game, but late game this becomes less of an issue. Also this ability scales well with your core items and maximizes their potential.

- This ability gives
Hecarim a high amount of sustain throughout the game and scales amazingly with the core items and makes you nearly impossible to kill late game. This is especially useful during solo top because you will find that you won't have to go back to base too often and can farm at your own leisure depending on the enemy champion.

- This skill is more of a utility because it allows you to move around quickly, closing gaps and setting up ganks and escaping etc. The MS increase doesn't scale as you level up and is not a primary source of damage for
Hecarim, it is therefore better to level
Rampage and
Spirit of Dread first. Don't forget the MS increase scales your attack damage from your passive so make sure to hit your enemy just before the four second marker and try to get behind the enemy if possible to push him away from his turret or towards your creeps/ jungler.

- This ulti is a great CC and allows you to dive into the enemy team which usually secures the team fights if your team is ready to engage after you, however missing this ult will land you in a bad situation and will not make enemies fear away from their turret unless you run behind them with the ult, remember that
Hecarim can choose how far he runs with his ult so if your low you don't have to run behind them into their tower etc.
Off-Tank Skill Sequence
Rampage is maxed first because it the main tool of damage and is the main farming tool for the off-tank build. This ability scales well with the core items.
How to use
Rampage effectively:

Rampage only uses little mana but has a short cooldown which means it can be spammed, however spamming this early game will deplete mana quickly so use it with caution. Late game this becomes less of a problem.
Rampage should only be used early game to finish off minions or harass, also you can spam to your hearts content when chasing champs but make sure to auto-attack in-between to maximize damage output.
Spirit of Dread is maxed second because it gives you high sustain and allows you to farm better, also stacks well with core items.
How to use
Spirit of Dread effectively:

Spirit of Dread should only be used when you don't have full health to maximize it's potential unless your being attacked/ attacking and need its sustain.
Spirit of Dread deals a small amount of magic damage in an area over 4 seconds and the range is bigger than your
Rampage, this means if your ignite is on cooldown and you can't quite reach your enemy before they reach their tower, then leaving this ability until this moment can allow you to finish the enemy off without getting too close to their tower or tower diving and finishing with an auto-attack/
Rampage. This won't happen often because if your opponent is good you will have to use your sustain more often than not, however if your winning your lane comfortably then you can save it until it's needed.
Devastating Charge is maxed last because it's more of a utility and the movement speed does not scale as you level up and it doesn't scale as well with your core items as your other abilities and isn't the primary source of damage as stated before.
How to use
Devastating Charge effectively:

Devastating Charge is a great gap closer and gives you high mobility, allowing you to escape ganks and setup ganks. This means that you must be patient and plan ahead when using this ability because wasting it can leave you almost helpless and unable to contribute when it counts, also unable to push enemy champs away from their tower so you can finish them off.
- Timing this ability well can allow you to maximize it's damage, make sure not to try and hit the champion around the 1-2 second mark. Also be careful not to accidentally target a minion or the front of the enemy champion because this can reduce chances of a successful gank/ kill or one altogether.
Onslaught of Shadows is maxed at levels 6, 11 and 16. This is obvious because it's Hecarim's ultimate and allows you to fear enemies, moving them away from towers, and to escape ganks/ set them up.
How to use
Onslaught of Shadows effectively:

Onslaught of Shadows Can be used in-conjunction with
Devastating Charge to run behind the enemy with your ultimate, fearing them, then pushing them towards your team or away from tower. Be sure to wait a couple of seconds before using
Onslaught of Shadows after activating
Devastating Charge to maximize damage.
Onslaught of Shadows can be used to escape risky situations because of it's large range, however be careful not to use this in a situation where your team will need your help in order to win the team fight, in other words, don't run unless it's absolutely necessary because your ultimate can turn team battles around from a losing situation.
Onslaught of Shadows can be used without moving
Hecarim into the enemy team or behind them if you don't want to get hit be the turret or get into a bad situation. Remember that your ultimate will always move its full range and you don't have to run into the enemy team if you know you won't be able to survive, also take into account that the enemy team won't move towards your team if you don't run the full distance behind the enemy champions.
- You can either use
Onslaught of Shadows to initiate onto the enemy team to fear them all and provide your team with a big advantage, or you can save it until your tank has initiated if you have one. But keep in mind if your tank makes a mistake by initiating, don't try to be a hero, and remember to keep in mind that you should only use this if your team is close enough to make full use of the situation, fearing the enemy team and being the only one dealing damage is a wasted opportunity for your team and can be punishing late game.

High Sustain Skill Sequence
Spirit of Dread is maxed first because it provides the best potential for sustain for the high sustain build, if you want to go AP. However you can swap
Seraph's Embrace for
Ravenous Hydra and go AD but this depends on player preference, both items are useful, just depends on how offensive or defensive you want to be.
Rampage is maxed second because it has the most damage potential for a short amount of time, while the build may focus on AP, if you decide to swap it around to focus on AD, then you could always max this first instead.
Onslaught of Shadows is maxed third because it's Hecarim's ultimate, leveled at levels 6, 11 and 16.
Devastating Charge Is again more of a utility and you won't gain much damage from it, it's better to level the other skills first.

Starting Items
![]() sight ward ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() sight ward ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Core Items
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Core Items Vs. AD
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |

Core Items Vs. AP
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |

Alternative Items
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Other useful and viable items
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |

Situational Items
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

In order to farm well with
Hecarim you need to level up
Rampage and
Spirit of Dread first because of their AOE damage and the short cooldown of
Rampage. As
Hecarim you can auto-attack the minions that are taking the least damage from your team's creeps, then through careful precision you can time
Rampage perfectly to finish off enemy creeps that your minions and yourself have targeted. However at lower levels
Rampage will deal a small amount of damage so you must wait for the minion's health to be very low, this could lead up to a creep stealing a last hit from you, also, spamming
Rampage can lead you to losing track of all the enemy creep's health and end up missing the last hit and/ or giving your creeps the last hits. Whereas if you wait and keep an eye on your enemy creeps and not spam
Rampage early game, you should be able to clear creep waves most of the time, getting all last hits. At mid game when you have bought a few items and leveled
Rampage and
Spirit of Dread, you should be comfortable with just running into the enemy creep wave spamming these abilities and usually killing most, if not all the creeps, this is due to the higher damage of your
Rampage, the lower cooldown, and the damage from
Spirit of Dread which is useful at finishing off minions with very small amounts of health left, that they may die from 1 more attack from a creep.
Spirit of Dread can be useful at finishing off those minions that are close to the enemy turret on very little health or targeting those minions that are on very small health that are being attacked by your minions and your auto-attack is being used on another minion on small health and your in-between cooldowns with your
Rampage. If your creeps are too far away from the enemy turret and not being hit by it then
Spirit of Dread can reach those minions under the turret without you getting into range of the turret.

















Aims
As a solo top it is your job to outplay your opponent by getting as much gold and experience as possible, it is important to try and get more CS than your opponent by zoning and killing him. However it is equally as important to hold onto the tower as long as possible until mid game where everyone starts roaming more, at which point, everyone may leave their tower at some point. However it is also possible for you to leave your tower while your opponent has and to gank or help out other lanes, but be mindful of the enemies position, he may just be hiding in the brush in which case you need a ward and should be using them to ward off enemy junglers. If your jungler doesn't have to come top too often to help out then you're doing a good job and fighting well for your lane. Any lane requires careful play when deciding to harass and zone your opponents, also when you decide to go back. You don't want to go back after losing track after your opponent fakes back, you should be able to tell this by identifying which brush he went in if any, how high his health was and if he has any consumables or sustain abilities. If your opponent tricks you he can advance on your turret and lead the CS on your lane while your back buying items/ regenerating and replenishing mana. However you can try to trick your opponent too by hiding in brush, hopefully he doesn't think of your


Harass and Trades









Zoning and Wave Control
Zoning is very important in the laning phase, you can do this by harassing your opponent. Once you have reached a point by harass them continually and successfully, they will start to play cautiously and will back off a bit, this allows you to come between them and your minion wave, denying them last hits but drawing aggro from their creep wave. At this point they will likely back off just from your presence because they have been beaten in trades before and don't want to repeat themselves. As long as you keep attempting to harass while they have backed off, it will keep them at a distance because they will fear you. However it is important not to do this too often so you can't play on your advantage and lose your last hits, and become too cocky and take hits from their tower and pull too much aggro. Playing too aggressively for too often can lead to the enemy changing his style of cautious play to surprise attacks because, lets not forget, he wants to win the lane too. Also pushing the lane too hard can attract the enemy jungler. It is important to keep an eye on the minion wave and know when to freeze it or apply pressure to zone your opponent. Generally you want to freeze the lane just outside your tower's range, allowing you to have a quick retreat to safety in case of danger from the enemy jungler and it makes the enemy champion extend to get his CS which creates ganking opportunities for you and your jungler. If you manage to kill your opponent then you can stop freezing the lane and apply pressure to quickly push the tower, being mindful of the enemy jungler. Pushing the lane towards their tower may allow them to freeze the lane at their tower, however if you have managed to push to the tower then the tower will steal some of their CS and they will feel less inclined to trade with you if they have been harassed away from the tower, however if they have just came back then they will most likely attack you if your still under tower. After pushing the tower and your creep wave has been killed, it is prime time to go back and buy items/ regenerate and replenish mana.
Hecarim can push his lane by using AOE clears, for example
Rampage and
Spirit of Dread.
- Auto-attacking the enemy champion which draws aggro to you from the minions.
- AOE damage spells can be used to harass and do not draw aggro from minions.
- Intercepting the enemy creep wave which draws aggro, usually done to avoid them getting hit by the turret or hitting the turret if its on low health.
- Allowing the minion wave to hit your tower so you can look for last hits which is a quicker way of pushing the lane.
- Repeated auto-attacks on minions to push without using mana.
- Looking for last hits which is the slowest way of pushing and allows the enemy champion to push towards your tower (if he wants to).
If you are farming and your opponent is not, then you will be pushing the creeps towards him. Keep these methods in mind when attempting to zone and wave control your lane. You can use your positioning to make the enemy champion push the lane by making them use their AOE abilities around your creep wave so you can control the lane to a safer area and more risky for them, keep in mind that they can do this to you as well.

Warding
Warding is the best way to avoid ganks from enemy junglers or mid laners, in the laning phase there is only a few places you will have to worry about. Usually there is only 3 places from which they can come from unless they possess an ability that allows them to travel great distances or become invisible. For example








Apart from these techniques, there are only 3 ways of which you can be ganked from during the laning phase: Lane/ side brush, river and tri-brush.
- Lane/ side brush is the brush that is on the edge of the map closest to your turret and often the most difficult place to pull off a gank from, but this does not mean you should ignore it. Often this brush is never warded so it is possible for the enemy jungler or laner to camp in the brush. In order to do this, they must first push the wave to your tower, decreasing your line of sight so the enemy jungler/ laner can sneak into the brush/ pretend to go back. The enemy laner can either camp there until you extend from your turret or try to bait you by running into risky positions and then retreating. However this situation isn't very hard to spot if they have suddenly changed their style of play to a more bold approach or try to bait you into trading near the lane brush after recently pushing to your tower.
- The direct river gank is the most common method of ganking and should be warded at all times. If the enemy jungler has an ability that can move them over the wall then you should move the ward slightly closer to your lane across the wall.
- The tri-brush gank is usually performed if you try to push the lane too hard, allowing the enemy to hide in the tri-brush and come from your side or wait until you try to invade their jungle after pushing the lane. If you are on the blue team then it may be slightly easier to avoid a gank from the tri-brush near the purple team's red buff jungle. However if your on the purple team, then it may be quite difficult to avoid these ganks. Also don't forget about the brush behind your tower, these ganks are uncommon and take patience but do happen, sometimes the jungler takes the time to run around your jungle to get there.

Accepting Jungler Ganks
In order to accept a gank from your jungler, you need to stop pushing your lane. However you need to be careful not to signal your intentions, otherwise the enemy might sniff out your jungler. You can unintentionally signal to your enemy by suddenly changing your style of play, this can be from a sudden change in aggression or passive play. You should first inform your jungler if they have a ward/ warded the brush. If your jungler has managed to move to the brush without being seen and you haven't telegraphed it, then you should try to bait the enemy or use






During team fights, as
Hecarim you will be wanting to initiate most of the time. You can do this by using your ultimate
Onslaught of Shadows to run in and fear the whole team, to get maximum effectiveness you can wait until they are all grouped up and then do it, also you can use
Devastating Charge beforehand to push on the enemies further towards your team, primarily the enemy carry. After running into the enemy team you can behind to spam
Rampage and activate
Spirit of Dread after the fear has ended to maximize sustain. Team fights usually happen mid or late game and by this time you should have
Iceborn Gauntlet or another slowing item, you should be using your abilities and auto-attacks to maximize damage and slowing potential so the enemy team can't get away. If you don't want to initiate as
Hecarim you can get the tank to initiate first if you have another on your team or you can signal someone else to go in if you have small health. Alternatively you can bait the team with your large model and superior MS.
If your team is winning the fight then you can continue to give chase and use
Ghost to chase down the faster champs and
Ignite to finish off the ones on low health, spamming
Rampage and auto-attacks throughout, to slow and deal the most damage. Once the team fight has finished you can proceed to baron/ dragon/ blue or red buff or push the lanes. Be wary of the spawn timers which increase throughout the game, if it's still early then the enemy team may reach you in time to steal dragon/ baron/ red or blue buff. It's important not to over-extend and become trapped while trying to push a lane. Try to take notice when the enemy will spawn and retreat a couple of seconds after they have spawned.
However if your team is losing the fight, you can either ping the retreat and run to safety and defend or you can try and save your team's carry by attacking the closest champion to him/ her. It's important in these situations to protect the carry on your team and keep away the dangerous enemies, so if your
Devastating Charge has refreshed or hasn't been used then use it to push away enemy champs, just remember you lose the bonus MS after contact and it only lasts 4 seconds. If you haven't used your ultimate
Onslaught of Shadows, you can use it to fear the enemy team, jump back in, or run to safety. Just make sure not to suicide needlessly, and remember that is better if the carry lives, if you are playing the tank. Don't forget to use items like
Randuin's Omen.







If your team is winning the fight then you can continue to give chase and use



However if your team is losing the fight, you can either ping the retreat and run to safety and defend or you can try and save your team's carry by attacking the closest champion to him/ her. It's important in these situations to protect the carry on your team and keep away the dangerous enemies, so if your




Hard match-ups
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |

Medium match-ups
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |

Easy match-ups
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() |

In summary
Hecarim is one of my favorite champions to play at solo top with his harass and trades/ sustain and high mobility. His build may be expensive but late game he is almost unstoppable. He's a pony.
Thank you for reading my guide! :) - feel free to comment below, submit feedback and criticize, just give me a (good) reason before you down vote my build, I will be making changes throughout and there are more things to come, and I'm sure there may be some things to change or add that I have missed or made a mistake about.
Please up vote my build if you thought it was good and tell me if something needs rectifying so I can change it so others don't lose out if they forget to read the comments :D.
Note: I will be adding screenshots of the masteries and scores of the games I have played at a later date, and I will be adjusting the counter champs section all the time when I encounter different champs or if I find that I have made a mistake in one of the placements.
Hecarim Solo Top [In-depth] (Patch 3.8)

Thank you for reading my guide! :) - feel free to comment below, submit feedback and criticize, just give me a (good) reason before you down vote my build, I will be making changes throughout and there are more things to come, and I'm sure there may be some things to change or add that I have missed or made a mistake about.
Please up vote my build if you thought it was good and tell me if something needs rectifying so I can change it so others don't lose out if they forget to read the comments :D.
Note: I will be adding screenshots of the masteries and scores of the games I have played at a later date, and I will be adjusting the counter champs section all the time when I encounter different champs or if I find that I have made a mistake in one of the placements.
Hecarim Solo Top [In-depth] (Patch 3.8)

09/06/2013 - Published build
09/06/2013 - Completely removed
Muramana from the build, apparently its bad. Replaced item with either
Black Cleaver or
Hextech Gunblade.
10/06/2013 - Changed the name of the guide from Hecarim and Pony's cHECkmate Solo Top to Hecarim and Pony's cHECkmate Solo Top [In-depth].
12/06/2013 - After the 3.8 patch I have slightly edited the guide to explain how
Spirit of the Elder Lizard and
Spirit of the Ancient Golem are less viable since they don't help your lane farm. Also slightly rearranged the build order for examples against AD, AP and preferred build to favor a rush of
Black Cleaver which will be very nice with
Rampage. Also changed the standard starting items from
Long Sword and
Health Potionx2 to
Boots, sight ward and
Health Potionx2.
12/06/2013 - Changed the name of the guild to include "Patch 3.8".
09/06/2013 - Completely removed



10/06/2013 - Changed the name of the guide from Hecarim and Pony's cHECkmate Solo Top to Hecarim and Pony's cHECkmate Solo Top [In-depth].
12/06/2013 - After the 3.8 patch I have slightly edited the guide to explain how








12/06/2013 - Changed the name of the guild to include "Patch 3.8".

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.