Hello. My username is Shinto5 and Im silver 4 (go elohell!). This is my first guide, so please give me constructive feedback on my guide. So when I first encountered Hecarim, I decided that he would be the champion that I would main. I began playing him a lot between level 20 and level 30, so I have a lot of experience, changing my builds throughout the game and trying new items to fit him. Hecarim mostly relies on MS, Armor, MR and a bit of mana (because of his Rampage) to carry games. He is one of the junglers that can carry easily, especially through his mid and late game where he shines the brightest.

Pros

Sufficient amount of CC
Tons of AoE damage
Very fast (jungle and speed)
Excellent Initiator
Is very scary when fed
PONY OP

Con

Can easily be killed if cced (slow especially)
Can fall off easily if not enough kills
Can be destroyed if denied blue buff
Build is very expensive for junglers

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Onslaught of Shadows
So obviously you would max your ulty first. So Onslaught of Shadows is your main initiation in team fights. It can also be used to gank, which is also good since you have that fear cc. Ever since the second part of his ulty damage got taken off, his damage has been ok-ish. Other than that, he can change a bad team fight and turn it around. His ulty especially synergizes with Orianna's Command: Shockwave, which does a lot of damage if you can get everyone in it.


Rampage
Spam. You max this first for the damage (obviously). This is what replaces your auto attacks because in mid or late game, your q is faster than your autos. The reason why I first choose Rampage over Spirit of Dread in jungle is that, yes, your w does give you sustain, but it just makes your speed slow as hell. If you get a good leash, you'll only need to use one or two pots and then one pot when you use your red. If no one leashes, then get w. It's really rare if someone doesn't help you leash nowadays, so just go with q.


Spirit of Dread
Spirit of Dread allows you more sustain, as well as more damage to the enemy team in team fights. If the enemy starts focusing you, you just need to pop your w and spam q, and your team will probably do the rest if they follow up. I usually get any tank AP item with this if I want to carry hard. Otherwise, I just stick to armor and MR


Devastating Charge
This is your main ganking skill pre-level 6. Hecarim's e can be very scary once you gain speed. There are techniques that you can use with his e to make him deadly. That will be listed in the Unique Skills category. Devastating Charge is also really good for escaping, which is one of his best attributes.

Spirit of the Ancient Golem
So before, you would get Spirit of the Elder Lizard on Hecarim. But now, its just a **** item. Its not even worth it. So its just better to build it into the Ancient Golem


Boots
Mercury's Treads and Ninja Tabi are much preferable since you're getting that extra armor and MR and scales well with Randuin's Omen. I would usually use Boots of Swiftness if I'm ahead of the other team and carrying the hell out of my team. Mobility Boots would be for early game and ganking which can help your team get assists or kills.


Trinity Force
Before, I thought that Trinity Force was an overpriced item for junglers. But now, Trinity Force is stronger then ever. If you ever want to consider buying this item, then you are going to need to constantly farm your jungle and hope that no one comes to your blue.


Randuin's Omen
This is one of the best items for Hecarim because of the slow, but it also scales well with Armor and MR, slowing for an extra second per 100 MR or Armor you have.


Spirit Visage
Spirit Visage is a good MR item for Hecarim because he is relient on health regen to sustain in fights even though his Spirit of Dread already gives him sustain.


Locket of the Iron Solari
Having that extra shield with Locket of the Iron Solariwill help a lot in team fights to survive a bit more. Locket of the Iron Solari works really well with Randuin's Omen, so you also get something free with it.


Iceborn Gauntlet
Iceborn Gauntlet are good late game for Hecarim since you can survive more in teamfights with Spirit of Dread with the AP and deals damage and slows everytime you use Rampage which is almost every single time, since that's what Hecarim do.


Sunfire Cape
Sunfire Aegis is also a really good item on Hecarim because of his initiation abilities. The AoE magic damage from the Sunfire Aegis is really good as a fourth AoE to Hecarim's skill set, therefore doing a lot of damage in teamfights.


Frozen Mallet
I mostly get Frozen Mallet because of the stats instead of the passive. The tankiness will be beneficial, but if you like to spam q, then get Rylai's since it also does pretty well with all AoE and it gives you more sustain in team battles. Getting Frozen Mallet is usually a good overall item, especially if you don't know what else to buy.


Maw of Malmortius
Maw, for Hecarim, is mainly used if the AP carry is extremely fed and can burst you down faster than your w and Spirit Visage can heal you. Personally, I won't invest too much to upgrade the Hexdrinker into Maw of Malmortius because of the gold, so I would probably wait, but you can get it anyway if you're being targeted a lot.


Frozen Heart
Frozen Heart is very similar to Randuin's, except it's more for mana issues, but the main point is to decrease the attack speed of the enemy. If you are going against a high dps team, then I suggest getting this item, and maybe replace it with randuins if they have little to no escapes.


Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Rylai's is similar to Frozen Mallet. Personally, I think that Rylai's and Mallet are like the same thing, only the stats and AP/AD are the difference. If you love to spam Hec's q, go for Rylai's. If you like the extra tankiness and like to add that one auto attack between your q's, then go for Mallet.

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Quint of Movement Speed
So obviously, you would get this quint because it scales pretty well with your passive. It also helps jungling and ganking faster.


Greater Mark of Armor PenetrationMark of Armor Penetration
I get Armor Penetration because usually, people would be building armor against Hecarim because it's really hard to kill him without armor penetration. Therefore, you should get armor penetration to counter them... reverse psychology is broken


Seal of Armor
Armor is good on anyone, especially melee dps and tanks. Just get it. Nothing is better than flat armor.


Glyph of Scaling MR
Glyph of Scaling MR will allow you to sustain AP burst.

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Summoner's Resolve
I get this as a personal preference because I usually play Hecarim as a ganker, so I need the money from smite to get more items because as junglers, I understand how poor we can be. Also, if you are planning to buy that trinity force, the extra ten gold is worth



All of these masteries are the basic for a tank


Tough Skin and Bladed Armor
This is good on any jungler to have that sustain in jungle the first time you complete it.


Relentless and Wanderer
Relentless and Wanderer are excellent on Hecarim because he is the definition of speed. If anyone looks up "How to counter Hecarim", it is usually hard cc, especially slows. Relentless will allow him to disable most of the slow and Wanderer will allow him more movement speed.


Expanded Mind
Expanded Mind is useful because when you get into late game, your skills become more costly like Rampage and Spirit of Dread


Mastermind
Getting this skill will: 1. Reduce the cooldown of Spirit of Dread, 2. Spam more, 3. Ulty cooldown is shorter. Therefore, more fear and damage.


Improved Recall
Not bad if you don't want to wait the extra second and you have homeguard. vroom vroom :)


Runic Affinity
I choose Runic Affinity because it gives Hecarim a longer duration on his buffs, which he is reliant on, especially his blue.

So in these unique skills, there is some skill required to actually change the game.

1. Onslaught of Shadows is one of the fears that you can control since everyone moves away from you. Use that to your advantage when you are ganking. Make sure when you ult, you are putting the circle in the opposite direction that you want them to go. In other words, it's like Caitlyn's 90 Caliber Net. It has recoil, but you can control movement. In summary, if they run away from you, block their way with your ulty.

2. Devastating Charge is an excellent ganking tool as well as an escape. When you are using devastating charge, make sure you push them towards your teammates when ganking. This will use a bit of time for ganking, but in the end, will be worth it with a kill, or flash burned.

3. R>E. This is a combo that can ruin their whole team by dividing their whole team. With a well planned ult positioning, you can push anyone back to your team at your will. Of course, going for the back line will be harder, so in your initiation, charge up your Devastating Charge so you can move closer as well as push farther back or forward.

4. E>Q. I've seen many high elo players do this. With precise timing, you can q in midair while stunning them too, using your passive from your e to do extra damage on your q.


So if we put together all of the skills, then you can create many combos. I've listed some below.

1. E>(Q)>W>Q. I recommend using the E>Q combo and timing to do extra damage since it is early game, but it's not necessary. This is going to be the normal ganking

2. R>E>W>Q. This combo combines the ability to control your R>E combo. Whether it's in team fights or ganking it's always useful to have that extra push from the e.

As Hecarim, the main goal is to farm up as much as possible and try to get around 50 to 60 cs in 10 minutes. This will allow you to at least get your Spirit of the Ancient Golem and probably boots.

At the beginning when you first take your buffs, expect to have your life drained by half. Hecarim has pretty poor sustain early game since his Spirit of Dread only gives him 60 health in four seconds, which is 15 health per second, not enough sustain a lot. Make sure you have a good leash or else you will get analed when you get to red, especially against good counter-junglers (i.e Shaco, Lee Sin, Evelynn)

Pre-10 minutes, I would consider probably ganking once or twice, three at max. When you are done with the gank, try to lane tax as much as you can, probably about three or four minions.

It is very important to take your buffs as quickly as possible, even if there is a free kill in any of the lanes, unless you have a ward to protect your buffs. It's ok to spend a few gold on wards, but don't buy as much as 3 early game. It is better to secure your own buffs rather than invade, unless they have a really weak jungler (technically anyone with no escapes and bad duelist). In Season 4, it should be easier to protect your buffs because of the trinkets. You should type in chat your jungle spawn timers so that you know when your buffs are going to spawn. I remember the timers as 5,6,7. 5 minutes for buff, 6 minutes for dragon, and 7 minutes for Baron. A useful trick to sroll through your chat is z, if it is default. It expands the chat, allowing you to look for it without scrolling, most of the time.

In teamfights, you are the tank, therefore, you are in the frontlines. As Hecarim, you can do one of two things.


In this guide, I'll be focusing more on the initiating. When you initiate, follow the skills in the unique skills category and try to push the adc towards your team, making their team unorganized and positioned incorrectly. Try to peel their adc as much as possible if you have more than one front line. Otherwise, stay in their team and doint as much damage as you can.