Hecarim Build Guide by SammiBoiii

Introduction

Hi,
Welcome to my Guide on The Mystical Pony of Darkness Hecarim, For you that don't know Hecarim was released on the 18/04/2012 (Australian time)
And it was that day onward which I found The most OP champion.

His abilities allow him to get into and out of action fast and terrify the enemies to defeat.
Through this guide I plan to make you a better Hecarim player, and teach you the basics to the Do's & Do not's.

I hope you find this guide useful and thank you for reading.

Lore

Since his first sighting on the northwestern shores of Valoran, the towering, armored specter known as Hecarim struck a chilling fear into the hearts of all who laid eyes upon him. No one had ever seen anything like his titanic, ethereal form before, and the mystery of his sudden arrival was deeply unnerving. When Hecarim began to march eastwards, leaving a trail of desolate, lifeless ground behind him, the villagers of the plains fled their homes for the safety of nearby Demacia. In the city's now-overcrowded taverns, rumors about this inhuman phantom spread in hushed whispers. Some claimed that he was the vengeful shade of an ancient warrior, intent on destroying all living beings; one man insisted that they had seen him leading an entire legion of spectral cavalrymen; others still believed him to be the creation of some hateful necromancer. One Demacian commander, seeking to dispel the terror that had gripped the city, assembled a few of his finest soldiers and rode out to turn back or destroy Hecarim.

The commander led his soldiers to stand in Hecarim's path and braced for his assault. As the apparition bore down on them, an overwhelming sensation of dread gripped the warriors. The men, frozen in fear, could only scream as the ghostly titan ran them down, tearing them apart and trampling them beneath his iron hooves. Hecarim turned to the crippled, cowering commander and uttered a chilling statement: ''This is merely the beginning. No mortal army can withstand the might of the Shadow Isles.'' With that, Hecarim departed, resuming his grim march. Driven to insanity by his nightmarish experience, the commander stumbled back to Demacia, where his dire warnings were dismissed as the ravings of a madman. While Hecarim's origin and intent were still a mystery, his destination became clear when he reached the Institute of War and, in a voice both ominous and commanding, demanded entry into the League of Legends.

''You don't understand...the shadows will consume us all...'' - Former Demacian Commander"

Why Lane Hecarim?

People have asked me this question a lot since Hecarim's release, and my simple answer was just watch and find out.
I constantly play games only to see people Jungling with Hecarim. Some do okay others do terrible.
but you won't find to many Lane Hecarim's, Which to me is a problem because I find he's most dominate in the Lanes.
How many times I get first blood or even a double kill at the start due to Hecarim having such a high sustain and damage output is incredible.
And I thought to myself, these poor people who saved up there 6300IP or 975RP to buy this amazing hero, Aren't getting all the benefits you could with him.
So I figured I'd share my knowledge of this hero and let everyone feel the enjoyment when you stomp over there bodies, as much as I do.


Now onto what makes him have that advantage over other laners?
Well firstly, His health is 672, and Sitting on about 39 Magic resistance and 27 Defence, with 67 damage. with his Q doing 50 + (7) damage. with only a 4 second cool-down, repeating this skill will reduce the cool-down by 1 second, which can stack upon it's self twice.
Because of this Q and his stat's early game he's very dominate.
Don't be afraid to rush in with Hecarim and Dash & Slash your way to victory.

Pros / Cons

Where do you belong on the Battle field?

I thought I'd add this section in the guide so people know where I play Hecarim.
I believe he belongs Bottom with a Ranged AD or with a Support or even a Tank
He needs a partner to give off some harass or be the bait for him to shine in the sky.
2v1 is a no go unless your partner is a tank and can take tower damage why you kill the tower hugging solo. I do not recommend vs'ing a solo because Hecarim needs early kills to be amazing but that's the rule with all carries.

So I choose to go bottom, where I'm vs'ing 2 other champions.
Hecarim can solo fine with the same build vs'ing 1 other solo'r but I do not recommend.

Runes

I chose these runes because I having that Level 18 Magic resist/Armour bonus helps a great deal when it comes to surviving.
And I chose the Armour Penetration runes because having that ability to damage them helps early and mid game because you can deal even more damage to what your already outputting.


Why didn't I choose Speed runes? or Strength runes?

I didn't choose Movement runes due to I found with The 2 Phantom Dancer & Berserker's Greaves your already sitting at really high speed.
I didn't choose Strength runes because, after getting your Infinity Edge your already hitting by far enough, and getting that second Phantom Dancer increases you damage even further with all it's stats.

I find because of these items it synchronizes very well with the Runes so you have a little more damage boost and more sustain.

Masteries

I chose 21/9/0 Because it gives your some nice starting health & Magic resistance/Defense and some nice damage.

Early game this is a must so you can get first bloods and kills.

Why did I choose this and not more tanker? or AP?

More tanker has it's benefits but having lower amount of damage, means you can't get them fast kills at the start.

Why not Ability power?
I didn't go ability power because your Rampage/ Devastating Charge skills both scale AD (Attack damage)
and with the huge amount of Critical Damage and Attack speed. You become a strong carry.

Ability power also has it's benefits due to Your Spirit of Dread/ Onslaught of Shadows skills both scaling AP, but not Rampage/ Devastating Charge skills I find this a problem because, with your charge and constant swings with your Rampage gives you a nice damage output as well as your normal right click attack's which will be dealing a sh*t load from your fast attack speed and critical's you'll be outputting immense damage. But if you were ap you can only rely on 2 spells and a lot of luck, Because of this I see AD (Attack Damage) carry is the most ideal path for Hecarim.

Items

Phantom Dancer Is a 2 Bladed weapon which gives bonus Movement speed , Critical strike & Attack speed.
How does this help Hecarim?
This helps him because more speed he has more damage he gets, and because of the Critical strike & Attack speed you have a high chance of Critting your enemies, constantly because of your attack rate.



Infinity Edge Is a strong carry weapon which gives Bonus damage, Critical chance & Critical damage
How does this help Hecarim?
This helps him by giving him so much bonus damage that no one can out dps (damage per second) him with the bonus Critical chance and Critical damage, it allow's you to hit hard to the point where they see half there life disappear with one swing of his Glaive.


Berserker's Greaves is one of many items, Which give bonus Movement speed & Attack speed
How does this help Hecarim?
This helps him because with the bonus Movement speed you can enter battles fast or escape them faster, and with the bonus Attack speed it allows you to hit faster to get more Damage per second out.


The Bloodthirster Is an amazing item which gives increased Life steal upon hitting & increased Bonus damage which can stack multiple times increasing its power per minion killed.
How does this help Hecarim
This helps him because with your increased Attack speed, and already high Damage output you can Heal yourself with every swing.
This means your sustainability is a great deal higher, so you can last in battle longer.


Madred's Bloodrazor Is a Tank killing item.
This item gives the owner More Attack speed, Attack damage & armour
With it's Unique passive] of bonus [[Magic damage every hit equal to a portion of your enemies Health
How does this help Hecarim?
This helps him by being able to take high health enemies faster, with the ability of having increased
Attack speed, Attack damage & Armour this will make you more tank & dish out more damage.


The Black Cleaver Is a Battle axe which give Attack damage & Attack speed with an amazing Unique passive of reducing your target's Armour per hit stacking multiple times.
How does this help Hecarim?
This helps him because more Attack speed is given & Bonus damage
And because of the Unique passive you can chew through Tanks or enemies stacking armour faster.


Guardian Angel is an Armour which gives you increased Magic Resistance & Armour with a God like Unique passive re-birthing the fallen champion after death, giving them some sustainable Health & Mana


Thornmail Is an all round perfection item. This items will protect you against them fed Tryndamere's It's a must when they have a fed AD carry.


Trinity Force This item has multiple affects & stats such as
Attack speed, Attack damage , Ability power, Movement speed , Critical chance, Bonus Health & Bonus Mana with a Unique passive of small percent chance of Slowing your enemies.






Hextech Gunblade Is a wonderful item to give you some extra Life steal , and Spell vamp , some Attack damage & Ability power
I would recommend this if your in need of some more sustainability.


Last Whisper Is a weapon similar to The Black Cleaver where it reduces the targets Armour but this is a constant passive, and you do not need to hit them for there armour to be reduced.
Also giving Bonus damage.


Maw of Malmortius This sword gives you some nice Attack damage & Magic resistance with a nice Unique passive of less Health you have more damage you get & a strong magic shield if you were take immense Magic damage which would leave you under 30% Health


Boots of Swiftness Are great boots which give you little more increased Movement speed then your normal boots, But given no Passive.


Banshee's Veil Is a AP resistant item. this item is made for blocking 1 spell every 60 seconds, And gives you bonus Health & Mana This item is very useful if you are being targeted by AP casters.


Force of Nature Is a great item to boost your Magic resistance up, and give you a very nice Health regeneration.
I recommend this items when the Opposing team is building a lot of AP.





I would also like to add that, you should never follow Moba-fire guides 100% Because every person is different and there play styles different. Some guides will work perfectly every game, other will only work good in some.

Tip - I recommend that you change your build up a little to suit who your vs'ing.
If your vs'ing a team with a lot of Ability power, then you wouldn't buy a Thorn Mail
You'd buy Banshee's Veil or a FoN.
I just thought for the people who didn't know that this is a great way to go by.

Skill Sequence

Why do I Level my skill's this way and not a different way?


Warpath - This is Hecarim's Passive which allows you to run through minion waves, without having to go around this is extremely useful when trying to run or catch up to an enemy.
Unique Effect - A percentage of your Movement speed gives bonus Attack damage to Hecarim So more speed you have harder you it.
I level this skill at level 0 and max it by level 0


Rampage - I do this because Rampage has such a low cool-down to wear it becomes spam-able, and being able to spam a fair high spell for such a low mana cost, this becomes my main Skill early game.
Unique Effect - Every time you use this skill within a certain time you can reduce it's cool-down by 1 second. which can stack 2 times.
I level this skill at level 1 and max it by 9


Spirit of Dread - I level this last only because It's based on AP which in this guide I'm focusing on AD (Attack Damage) So a skill which isn't attack damage would be sort of useless on your AD champion.
Unique Effect - Hecarim gain's a small life steal percentage, to who he damages that are in his affect area.
I level this skill at level 4 and max it by 18.


Devastating Charge - I make this my second skill to max because of It's high damage & the speed you gain from it allows you to run into battle or escaping quickly. this is a very important spell to help with ganks and chasing down enemies.
Unique Effect - With this skill I'd like to point out that after activating it, you want to wait at least 1-2 seconds before charging into a Enemy champion.
Because doing so you will dish out more damage from the distance you travel from it.
I level this skill at level 2 and max it by 13.


Onslaught of Shadows - As this is an ultimate, in every guide they tell you to max this as early as possible, being level 6/11/16 in this guide it's the same. You want to max this ASAP!
It's a very useful spell allowing you to tower dive like an absolute Bo***!
With this skill you travel a small distance, while damaging all enemies in it's affect range.
Unique Effect - Upon landing this skill on a enemy champion, within the circle provided by the ultimate. you terrify them for a short duration, upon this terrify, they run away from you. This can be used to your advantage by fearing them the into your Team or even into your tower.
Cool Trick - This can be used to escape from battles that snowballed in the enemy teams favour. Doing this you can ultimate through walls or to get a head start on escaping.
This ultimate doesn't always have to be used to damage your enemies remember that.
I level this skill at level 6 and max it by 16.

Summoner Spells

Okay onto the Summoner Spells.
When I join games and see people playing Hecarim with Ghost I think to myself, do you really need that?
Mid-game you run speed is already so high, that becomes partly useless.
That's why for my summoners I choose &
I choose these summoners because:

Flash
Has so many benefits, now or though you have your E/R skills which gives you fast movement speed and ability to move through walls.
Having Flash will give you the bonus escape option or even Kill option.
How many times I see enemies escaping, and me sitting there feeling like a headless chicken. Drives me insane So grabbing flash, will help with escape/ganks/kills/assists.


Ignite
Ignite is a must on carries, this can help you kill them enemies that escape with bare minim health.
It also helps immensely in 1v1 battles to output even more damage then you currently are.



Ghost
Ghost can be used to catch up to them running away enemies, and can be used to escape the lethal carry which is chasing you.


Cleanse
Also can be very useful to remove them so badly unwanted stuns/slows


Teleport
Great for protecting a sure to be gone turret. or even help with an assist/kill when used on wards/minions.


Heal
This summoner spell is a miracle worker.
How many times it can save you from turret dives which you perform or turret dives from enemy champions.
Great to pull this on a 1v1 battle. when they think they have you, then BAM! you pop a skill heal and there just like OMG -___-


Exhaust
Has it's many benefits when it comes to them damn Tanks/carries. It slows them down immensely so you get free harass on them.
Or save your life when running away from them.



Clairvoyance
You are not a support.


Smite
You are not a jungler.


Promote
You are not a support


Revive
You are not an idiot.

Personal Scoreboards

As you can see with this build chances of going very well if not amazing is fairly high.


Video coming soon!
Waiting on LolReplay to start working again, since patch updates break it.

1 vs 1 PVP

Hecarim is a great 1v1'er he can win almost every battle after he has 1/2 his core items.
Due to Attack speed * Damage output you take down enemies with bare few spells/hits.

Never be afraid to try 1v1 someone, Because you have the power to stun them for .5ms knock them back & fear them. because of all these abilities it makes 1v1 a breeze.
Don't take on enemies who drop you, you may be Hecarim but your not god.

Team Work

When in team fights the best way to win is Team work, and Hecarim is a very viable champion in any team match up. Because of his Onslaught of Shadows he can fear his enemies, the opposite direction to get very easy kills.
And activating Spirit of Dread to get off some AOE damage. this makes Hecarim a very useful Team mate.

When I play Hecarim I never start the fight's I leave that for the Tank's, then come sweeping in with my Devastating Charge to get maximized damage. Then my first priority is to obliterate the squishy's so you can reduce the damage from there team an win team fight's easier.

Late game when your much more tank initiating fights is a lot more possible.

Creeping / Jungling

When it comes to dragon , baron nashor & buffs your goal as a Carry is to constantly have great Global for the people who don't know what that means it means to control the Buff's on the map. Your first task is to maintain Dragon/Baron & give buff's to friendly allies who need them more then your self. Now or though Hecarim can benefit from both Blue buff & Red buff only Red is more needed, over Blue so if you have a AP caster on your team always offer Blue to them, as for your team will perform a lot more efficiently in team fight's if your AP caster can spam his/her spells, and have unlimited Mana to do so.

Farming Wraiths and Wolves when your a little low on cash can never hurt. You take them camps down within seconds. Doing so can get you Health Regeneration from the BT or HG & get you Money to buy more items, and it Globalizes the Map.

Farming

When it comes to farming, This is EXTREMELY easy on Hecarim because of his mobility, and his spells such as Rampage & Spirt of Dread you can farm down minion packs extremely fast running in activating Spirit of Dread, then Rampage then right click the remaining minions. you take down minion packs within seconds mid game.

Never stop farming through out the game even though you may have a lot of kills, or lanes have been pushed killing minions for 15-30g each is always very useful for Experience & items/stacks.

Frequently asked Questions.

Q.1 I don't understand what's with your build. That will never work good in games.

A.1 I understand a lot of people will be questioning me upon my Item choices, but i wouldn't of put them up there if I didn't honestly know it'd work.
So please test the build out before any criticism. Thank you


Q.2 What's your play style like? Do you play Defensive or Aggressive or Both?

A.2 I play quite Aggressive, I do this because not a lot of people play like that, And playing aggressive early game your more likely to get kills.
Now saying this I would never tell someone to Tower-dive at level 2 but, Control your lane. keep them from feeding your little brave minions. Doing this your more likely to have more success in winning.


Q.3 Is Hecarim Fun? Is he worth buying?

A.3 In my opinion yes he is one of the best Champions I've found being able to run at such high speeds and always dominate gives a great feeling. But saying this everyone is different, some may find him boring or weak. My only suggestion would be try him when he becomes free if you like him then buy him.


Q.4 What skins do you have? and which one would you recommend?

A.4 I own both skins for Hecarim an I use the Reaper skin & I'd recommend buying that one. But If your new to the Champions I'd suggest waiting before buying a skin to make sure your definitely going to want the skin.


Q.5 How many games have you played with Hecarim?

A.5 I have played around 80 games unsure of the exact number. 25/04/2012


Q.6 What makes your guide better then others?

A.6 I believe my guides better then most but not all, but I believe this because I have put a lot of depth into my guides. And as I look at the top guides out at this current time they only have about 1/4th the information I do.
But word count doesn't make Guides pro It's the information your supplying, What techniques to use, or How to play the champion. Making the Consumer a better player at the champion is what makes the guide good.

Custom Skin's for Champions

I made a Youtube video on how to install custom skins, in case anyone want's to know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJa68eeltis

Summary

In summary, If you like a Malee Carry with huge speed and fast attacks then Hecarim is for you.
This has been the more valuable buy so far. I'm glad I chose to buy him because he's just out right amazing, He's worth every penny.

I'd like to throw a shout out to jhoijhoi for his 'Making a Guide' It helped me Make this.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you dominate the fields of justice with this new profound Champion.