About myself: Hi! My name is Nyan. I have played League since the release of Ahri (love Ahri - the very reason i started playing League) in NA sever till the end of season 3 (or 2, it's been so long that i forgot most of the details).

Currently, I'm a Gold V player but NOT in NA sever XD (Internet connection issue again); I moved back to my country to play with my friend, SEA sever I think!
I'm too lazy to get higher and I play ranked only for the Victorious skins at the end of season XD!
I'm not a pro gamer or anything but I love Hecarim (love at first sight since the release of him along with Thresh)
I wanna share some of my knowledge and passsion with Hecarim to other people who want to get out of Elo Hell and get to Gold (or even higher???) easily.

So, I started playing Ranked games as a Support (mainly Thresh) with a friend of mine. Why Support? Cuz i thought in lower elo, we lack a good Support, and of course to avoid troll picks.
Wards? Have you seen any1 in lower elo buy wards? Joke aside, we made a well AD-SP duo and usually dominate our lane. At first, we had very high win rate, at best 83% with my Thresh (now 58% *cry*), but then our win rate drop constantly and we couldn't figure out why.

*After sometime, I had this bulb floating on my head. We came to a conclusion :"In lower elo, It's very hard if not possible to carry game as a support (again, I'm not a pro gamer), I feel utterly powerless, only can watch my teammates fail so hard and I can't do anything, people don't listen, they act their own way and get caught very often then fall lower and lower and ultimately lose our game. Then, me and my friend think of a solution:
- If you want to carry games in lower elo, you need power. It's hard to trust any1 and rely on others but yourself. So your champion should be mobile and have high dmg output, some forms of cc... (The meta favors mobile champions). The reason to pick mobile champions is to roaming around effectively, helping other lane, and many many more cons, blah blah blah...
- Two easiest role to carry games are Jungler and Mid-laner.

So we went separate ways, i became a Jungler and he respectively Mid-laner. I came up with Hecarim and he Kassadin. That was the best decision we have ever made, we won 9/10 games after that. As Hecarim and Kassadin, people can't chase us, and they can't run away from us either. We can hardly get caught and have almost 100% secure kills.

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About Hecarim: By far, I think he's the perfect model of how the Jungle-champions should be and a champion can be. He have everything: Dmg, Tankiness, Sustain, Lane presure, Objective control, Teamfight...

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End of introduction note: My english is bad and I should feel bad. I'm not a native English speaker, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes.

Pros He's a Majestic as *F Unicorn-Helicopter hybrid. Easy to learn. Not banned in Ranked games (lol). Usually get first-blood then snowball. Hard to get caught. Fast + Power farming. Can interrupt enemy(ies) mid fly (Shyvana, Tristana..etc..) with his E and R. Great Assassin, Initiator, Tanker...Racer, any1???. Can carry game by himself.

Cons Hard to master. Easy to get counter-jungled. Very squishy early game. Early games, items, buffs dependant. Pretty useless when fall behind.

• Greater Mark of Attack Speed - Help you clear your jungle faster.
  
• greater mark of armor penetrationGreater Mark of Armor Penetration - Scale very well with Hecarim Q.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor - You are a Jungler, need flat amor to deal with neutral monsters.
  
• Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - Hecarim benefits from cooldown reduction, Q spamming and you will turn into a helicopter XD.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed - No need to explain, Hecarim butter and knife, give him extra speed and dmg.

Whattttt???? No magic resist???

• I like to crush others as fast as possible! And Hecarim does not need magic resist at the first few levels when jungling. After a few successful early ganks, you can buy magic resist items later.

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• The reason for 22/5/3 masteries is to bring out most of Hecarim dmg potential with the sacrifice of his defense power (don't worry, you have enough sustain by clearing camps and ganking effectively). I have tried alot of builds and this build satisfy me the most. Hecarim excels in killing weakened enemy, plus you have element of surprise aiding you. No need to worry! I usually get first-blood and then snowballing after that, easily.
  
• You don't want 9/21/0 or other defense-masteries's trees because of the lack of dmg. You want to surprise enemy and secure kills, not to let their laner walk back in peace. Hecarim is a powerfarm Jungler, and a Item reliant champion. His presence in game depends on the early game phase, but turn into a unstoppable monster when ahead, so you need to farm fast to gain access to better items, and to keep yourself ahead.

Eh...You're a Jungler, so no need to ask ok? Help you secure Buffs, Dragon, Baron, or to finish off Zac, Tibber, Voidling...

Always take this with Smite, give Hecarim everything he need. Enemies flash? No worry, use your Ghost and chase the **** outta them. Got chased? Ghost and leave them crying.

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Personally, I NEVER take this Summoner Spells on Hecarim. Meh!!! You have enough mobility to make enemy feel tired of chasing or escaping from you, they will mostly struggle or give up and die XD! Plus, even in dangerous situations, you have your Ulti to run away!!!

Interesting spell indeed, I have seen some1 use this spell combine with Boots of Mobility-Homeguard and hit like a truck. A situational spell, but not suit my style.

Always start with: Hunter's Machete + Health Potion x4 + warding totem (trinket)

First back: Spirit Stone + Boots + Health Potion x3 + Stealth Ward

If you rich enough, buy extra Long Sword x 2

Next back: Finish your Spirit of the Elder Lizard + Mercury's Treads
I usually switch my warding totem (trinket) with sweeping lens (trinket) at this point

After this: Just finish your Sunfire Aegis + Spirit Visage

Last 2 items: Iceborn Gauntlet + Randuin's Omen

Buy this when you have money to spend after finish your 6 items: Elixir of Fortitude + Elixir of Brilliance

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Note: Always buy Stealth Ward + Health Potion x 3 each time you recall and have extra slots.

1. Jungling

• Start at the buff near Bottom-lane.
• Recommened to have a leash.
• Do 1 Wraith/Wolf camps.
• Do the other Buff.
• Usually gank Top after this point or Mid.

2. Counter-Jungling

• It's very hard to teach how to Counter-Jungle. You have to play to gain experience.
• The ugly truth, Hecarim is very hard to going around Counter-Jungling others. In fact, he often fells victim to Counter-Jungling champions. But It's not impossible to Counter-Jungling with him.
• When to Counter-Jungling? Hecarim is one 1 the fastest camps clearer in LOL if not the fastest. So if you are facing a slow jungle like Maokai, you even have time to clears your 2 Buffs and then go hunt Maokai when he's doing a 2nd Buff.
  
  Ex: I am Hecarim in Blue side, Maokai in Purple side,
  I start at red, and Maokai blue.
  After doing my blue, I can charge right into his red and finish a weakened Maokai doing red.
  
• You can Counter-Jungling when enemy Jungler is away (ganking or recall...)
  
• Wreck their camp, leave only 1 small monsters behind.
  
• Time their Buffs to stole, even better, have kills. Only do this if you are very ahead or can gain help of your laner(s).
  

1. Ganking

• First thing first, I see alot of Junglers who don't know what to do. Playing Junglers all about smart. They just wander aimlessly, doing every camp they see. And i tell you, that not the way to play Jungler.
• To gank effectively, you need to choose where to start Jungling by knowing which lane is the best to gank.
• You need to ask yourself about enemy and your teamate cc + escape routes (Skills, Flash)
• Enemy tankiness is also a problem. I love to gank Yasuo and Zed, the least is Malphite.
• You usually want to gank Top first because It's the longest lane, easiest to have First-blood.
• Ask your laners about enemy wards. Don't bother ganking a warded lane.
• When facing some champions with escape skills like Zed or Yasuo, I usually wait for them to burn their respective skills, then engage.
• Gank when enemy over-extended
  Low on health
  etc...

2. Counter-Ganking

Again. This is very hard to teach and learn.

• When you see a lane has signs of aggressiveness (either our laner or their). Most of the time, their Jungler is waiting somewhere nearby trying to have a kill. You have to be ready when the time come. Wait for their Jungle to appear and charge foward, wrecking havoc. Usually, they will focus their dmg on your laner, but with your apperance, they will be vulnerable because they just burn all of their skills, now you with your trademark helicopter skill, start beat the **** outta them with the help of your laner. They won't even try to fight back, and run. But, It's hard to run away from Hecarim, even with Flash. Hecarim have a monster's mobility and slow from Red Buffs. Lots of people struggle trying to get away from Hecarim with Flash and you just need to Ghost(...) and finish them off.
• Think of possibilities and ready for them.
  
  

1. Warding and Map awareness

Whichever role you are playing, always buy wards, as i said, even if you are an AD carry. Yes! AD carries out there, you can't rely on 3 wards of support to control map's vision. Do not hestitate to buy 1 each time you recall.
Especially Junglers, your role is a team supporter who pressure every lanes and even enemy jungle. So you need to have vision control of enemy jungle, buffs, etc... The purpose is to invade, ganks, counterganks effectively, and catch people offguard alone.
I invade alots and usually result in a kill and a buff (sometime 2).

Aside from warding, you need to keep an eye on minimap constantly, 1-2 secs/ time. What the point on warding but not looking!!! Seriously!!!
Being a jungle taught me that, you need to play smart, and you need informations to decide which is the best way to act. And where is the information from? Warding and have good map awareness, exactly!

I can hardy tell you the importance of warding and having a good map awareness.

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2. Value objectives over kills

People in lower elo tend to value kills too much and don't care about objectives (Turrets, Dragon, Baron).
The purpose of the game is to destroy enemy base not the competition of who kill the most.
Do every Dragon and Baron if you can.
Push the enemy Turrets and have vision control of their Jungle.