Hey there, my name is Arctic, also known as EUWRATS through my Twitch . I've been playing Hecarim since season 5 and currently his my main champion. I have reached Challenger with Hecarim with 70% winrate. I love playing Hecarim due to his speed, mobility and damage. It's a great champion to be able to 1v9 games. I usually stream every day on Twitch from 9AM - 9PM London time, so you can come and watch my gameplay to learn how to be the best Hecarim in the world. Feel free to drop a follow and stay for the insane 1v9 gameplay with some cool music.

Hecarim, The Shadow of War Not that long ago hecarim received couple buffs to his E which granted him more movement speed, which therefor made him more viable in the game. I one trick hecarim due to his speed. This allows me to chase enemies and run away super quickly. Furthermore, Hecarim is a really good 1v9 champion in jungle due to being a bruiser.

PROS + Super fast which gives mobility + Good for ganks with E + Really good in team fights with R + Is able to 1v9 games + Can be super tanky due to healing + Able to easily win 1v1's after Trinity Force

CONS - Counter jungle makes Hecarim's life hell - Becomes useless if too far behind - Super weak pre level 4 - Falls after 30min - Doesn't have any escape once you E in if R is on cd - Get's hard countered by slows / CC

SUMMONER SPELLS - SMITE: Always take smite in jungle GHOST:Most broken summoner spell for hecarim especially after the repeated buffs. IGNITE: Don't feel like its worth going ignite because ghost is just so much better, if you need anti heal you just buy it, try not to fight too much early vs people like graves or shaco who have ignite.

PRECISION

The only choice here is Conqueror because others are just too useless on Hecarim. The reason you would choose Conqueror is to sustain longer fights and withstand CC. You would usually pick this rune against tanks, bruisers and high cc comps. The reason this rune path is better than Phase Rush into most comps is because you are able to 1v9 a lot easier. This is due to runes like Triumph which heals you for 12% after assist or kill and Conqueror which gives you a lot of adaptive AD and healing. Additionally, Legend: Tenacity reduces duration of stuns, slows and other crowd control effects on you.

Overheal is by far the worst rune because it is only used in laning phase and you wont be able to get much of it playing it in jg. Triumph is the best choice here because it gives 12% health after assists or kill which allows for great sustain in fights. I've tried Presence of Mind however I feel like it's a bit weak due to Hecarim usually not running out of mana too often due to Hunter's Talisman. I would always highly recommend Triumph as your choice.

Legend: Alacrity is okay but I wouldn't recommend it because Hecarim counters are things like crowd control which mostly includes slows. I would highly recommend Legend: Tenacity due to amount of crowd control the game has from champions to red buff. This is by far the best choice here because Hecarim gets hard countered by crowd control. Legend: Bloodline is by far the worst option here because the rune gives life steal which means you need auto attack, most of your damage comes from Rampage which will mean you won't really benefit from Legend: Bloodline.

Coup de Grace is useful against squishes, however I wouldn't personally recommend it because most of the time you're going to be low health with Hecarim and healing up your health. Cut Down is by far the worst rune on Hecarim because you will have more health than most champions which will make this rune completely useless. Last Stand is by far the best rune to take here due to Hecarim always staying below 50% and becoming a lot stronger when lower due to the heals he gets from Conqueror. Triumph Spirit of Dread and Ravenous Hunter.

DOMINATION

There are couple variations to 2nd rune page like Inspiration, Sorcery and Domination. Domination is by far the best at the moment due to other rune pages receiving nerfs. The reason you take Domination is because of Ravenous Hunter which gives you insane healing on your Rampage damage. For the first rune in Domination it's going to be Sudden Impact this is because of the early burst which lets you do a lot of damage quickly into the fight after you used Devastating Charge. Sudden Impact gives you extra lethality for 5 seconds which is enough time to kill most squishes. Taste of Blood is only good in lane so on Hecarim it won't be useful. Cheap Shot can be good but you get less damage from it compared to Sudden Impact.

Second option in Domination tree is going to be Ravenous Hunter because of how much healing it gives you from your ability damage. Most of your damage comes from Rampage and this is the reason Ravenous Hunter is able to heal you so much during the game. Ingenious Hunter is only used by champions who have lots of items which can be activated. Hecarim doesn't have any items that can be activated so this will be super useless for him. Relentless Hunter was useful until patch [10.21] when it got nerfed which makes it unusable rune for Hecarim. It was used for a fun predator build but after the nerf it's not worth taking. Ultimate Hunter this is not worth taking because your Onslaught of Shadows already has a low cooldown while you usually stack cooldown reduction on Hecarim anyway. So I would highly recommend Ravenous Hunter due to how broken it is right now and how well it works with Hecarim and his Rampage.

The reason you run Axe first is so your clear can be faster because you will need to auto attack and use Rampage to clear your jungle. The extra attack speed helps for you to clear and is super effective. The little extra attack damage from Diamond is also effective to clear your jungle quickly and it's always good in your kit because how well it works with Rampage and Devastating Charge. The last rune would be Shield to make sure you are healthy in the jungle and don't go too low. Base armor is always good to sustain in the jungle and not take too much damage.

Sorcery

The only choice here is Phase Rush because others are just too useless on Hecarim. Summon Aery and Arcane Comet are both runes for poking in lane and is never useful in jungle. The reason you would go Phase Rush in your runes is to escape hard slows like nasus Wither, tryndamere's Mocking Shout, zilean's Time Warp and other heavy slows. Phase Rush play style is to get couple kills and run away with Phase Rush, you're not supposed to stay too long in a fight.

Nimbus Cloak is the only good rune her for Hecarim because it synergies well with his Warpath which gives him extra attack damage based on movement speed. This rune is super good with Smite because you're able to smite a minion in lane while ganking to increase your movement speed. Nimbus Cloak also allows you to Smite jungle camps to clear the jungle a lot faster. Nullifying Orb and Manaflow Band are mostly used in lane and won't Hecarim in jungle. So, I would highly recommend only taking Nimbus Cloak here.

The only rune I can recommend is Celerity because it increases all your movement speed bonuses by 7% which helps Hecarim a lot. This rune is super good for his passive Warpath which allows Hecarim to get a lot more attack daamage. Transcendence is pretty meh I would say. Don't think it's any good because you will get 40% cooldown reduction in the build anyway and you really need damage instead of cooldown reduction. Most of the time you wont be above 70% hp so Absolute Focus will be super useless for you. I wouldn't take it because this rune is meant for ranged champions who can utilize range.

Scorch is by far the worst rune because it is meant for laning and will be completely useless for you, never recommend taking it in jungle. Waterwalking will the best rune here due to hecarim gaining extra movement speed and attack damage in the river. As a jungler you will be spending a lot of the time being in the river doing scuttle , dragon , rift herald and ganking lanes. This will your best rune to take for jungle. Gathering Storm, Hecarim doesn't that well into late game so I wouldn't recommend taking this rune. Usually scaling champions take this rune like Veigar or Kayle.

DOMINATION

There are couple variations to 2nd rune page like Inspiration, Precision and Domination. Domination is by far the best at the moment due to other rune pages receiving nerfs. The reason you take Domination is because of Ravenous Hunter which gives you insane healing on your Rampage damage. For the first rune in Domination it's going to be Sudden Impact this is because of the early burst which lets you do a lot of damage quickly into the fight after you used Devastating Charge. Sudden Impact gives you extra lethality for 5 seconds which is enough time to kill most squishes. Taste of Blood is only good in lane so on Hecarim it won't be useful. Cheap Shot can be good but you get less damage from it compared to Sudden Impact.

Second option in Domination tree is going to be Ravenous Hunter because of how much healing it gives you from your ability damage. Most of your damage comes from Rampage and this is the reason Ravenous Hunter is able to heal you so much during the game. Ingenious Hunter is only used by champions who have lots of items which can be activated. Hecarim doesn't have any items that can be activated so this will be super useless for him. Relentless Hunter was useful until patch [10.21] when it got nerfed which makes it unusable rune for Hecarim. It was used for a fun predator build but after the nerf it's not worth taking. Ultimate Hunter this is not worth taking because your Onslaught of Shadows already has a low cooldown while you usually stack cooldown reduction on Hecarim anyway. So I would highly recommend Ravenous Hunter due to how broken it is right now and how well it works with Hecarim and his Rampage.

The reason you run Axe first is so your clear can be faster because you will need to auto attack and use Rampage to clear your jungle. The extra attack speed helps for you to clear and is super effective. The little extra attack damage from Diamond is also effective to clear your jungle quickly and it's always good in your kit because how well it works with Rampage and Devastating Charge. The last rune would be Shield to make sure you are healthy in the jungle and don't go too low. Base armor is always good to sustain in the jungle and not take too much damage.

The first optimal clear will usually be this
Always start blue -> smite gromp -> wolves -> raptors -> red pop both pots -> smite krugs-> gank into sidelane or mid and then take scuttle

there's always risk in ganking
if you dont get a kill -> you lose tempo in the early game because in that time you could've been full clearing, so it can be devastating that you either get 0 scuttle crabs or either you your jungle camps / time
if you get a kill -> its actually worth and you / your laner will be ahead and will be able to get objectives such as a scuttle or gank a different lane together, but it really depends if you know how use your lead to your advantage because if you dont you will just throw your lead and give enemies shutdown gold for them to come back
if you full clear -> you will clear all camps for them to reset in 2.5 minutes and being lvl 4 which lets you be ahead of the enemy jungler just by clearing your camps. You will also finish full clearing before scuttle spawns and can either gank first or take scuttle first
I would recommend ganking first to get pressure and prio

Play Video

Emberknife and Refillable Potion will be always your starter items this is due to Hecarim being a bruiser and will always around 5-10 seconds to kill an enemy champion. If you're playing an assassin, you will choose a blue smite.
On your first back you should always build Boots. This is due to junglers having to walk around the jungle clearing camps instead of staying in 1 spot last hitting minions. Movement will also benefit you while ganking and giving you extra attack damage from your passive Warpath. For your first back you want to look to get some extra attack damage to be able to burst enemies early and clear your jungle faster so ideally you want to pick up Ironspike Whip and Boots which will cost 1500G. If you dont have enough gold for that, then get Boots and either Pickaxe or Hearthbound Axe. This should give you a nice path building into Stridebreaker. After you have finished your main mythic item, buy upgraded boots such as Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads to give you that extra movement speed and some defensive stats. Next will be your Bramble Vest due to many of the champs in season 11 being able to heal from runes like Ravenous Hunter, Triumph, Taste of Blood, Conqueror and different op items like Goredrinker. You'll finish your build with Sterak's Gage and last 3 items usually will be Thornmail, Spirit Visage and Gargoyle Stoneplate for that insane 1.7k shield in the late game.

Here you can copy this build to enable it on of your league item sets
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In the early game you will look to powerfarm your jungle to get higher level quickly. You can do this by full clearing and then getting the scuttles. This is important because Hecarim isn't the strongest champion early so he needs some gold to get his spike items like Stridebreaker. Try to look for ganks which are super free after you clared your jungle and you know you will get a kill. Try to take kills so you're able to get your Stridebreaker earlier and able to snowball all the lanes with the lead. Try to get behind targets to gank so you're able to easily push them back with your Devastating Charge

Mid game starts around 12min - 14min this is when you will want to have used your herald already on the tower before the 14min mark so you are able to get easy plates from herald. You should be looking for objectives like towers and dives so then you can easily get things like dragon due to the pressure you have created. You will need to understand and tell your laners to slow push or shove the waves to help you with roaming or invading into enemy jungle to get control to siege towers. Make sure you communicate well with your team so they consider helping you.

Late game is around 25min where you look to siege for inhib, soul and baron. These 3 things will help you win fights and gain control. Remember vision is super important in this stage of the game because if you get caught, enemy team can easily get lots of objectives to gain insane lead over you. If you have shutdown gold, make sure not be alone because if you walk into the wrong bush, you will giveaway 1k gold to enemies and will basically throw the game away. Play it safe, powerfarm, push sidelanes and siege as a team. In teamfights you will want to focus the adc's 90% of the time, the other 10% is when they have a insanely fed assassin.

If you have any questions be sure to find me on https://www.twitch.tv/euwrats where I stream daily. Good luck with your climb and may the odds be ever in your favor.