Hecarim Build Guide by The Real Fake

Hecarim is a champion who revolves around mobility and speed. He is the BIG FAST. He snowballs hard, and likes to trample upon all opposition. The reason why he snowballs hard is that he power spikes hard early/mid game after one item (Triforce). His mobility allows him to take the map by storm, spreading his lead across the map. He can gank/roam to other lanes, slay enemies, quickly help push waves and destroy towers. After asserting dominance in the lanes, a sense a of fear is established. Now your advantage is not only from raw items, but psychological. Due his ability to traverse ground quickly, he is amazing at punishing and picking off poorly positioned enemies. The terror of Hecarim’s map presence causes any sensible enemy not to over extend. This often leads to you helping your lanes gain priority which can result in easier rotations for objectives. Hecarim is a champion for those who want to overtake their completely and gain absolute control of the map early to mid game.

PROS + Extremely mobile (Great map presence) + Snowballs very hard (Takes a lead and runs with it) + Fantastic at cleaning up fights + Easy, healthy and fast jungle clears + Versatile in team role (Beefy diver/mobile splitpusher/assassin)

CONS - Weak very early (Weak to counter jungling) - Painfully hard to catch up when behind (Expensive core items & Item reliant) - Teams with a lot of slows/peel/disruption is your worst nightmare

Teleport: A great pickup on Hecarim as his ganks are very good. Teleport can allow you to make cross map plays but it can also allow you to return to lane after you roam. It is also one of the best summoner spells late game as it allows you to split-push and regroup with your team for objectives/team fights. It also acts as a safety net for early game, if you do mess up in lane and need to back, teleport makes sure you don't miss crucial xp and gold.

Ignite: A very powerful kill tool for lane, it gives you a true damage burn and reduces healing - which is underrated. The healing reduction can assist in killing certain match that heal a lot in combat like Dr. Mundo , Singed , Darius . It also helps reduce healing from conqueror .

Ghost: If you want, you can replace one of the previously mentioned summoner spells with Ghost. This is because Ghost has very good synergy with Hecarim due to his passive . It allows him to burst/fight better by having basically a 10 sec AD boost. It also allows him to stick onto targets better. He is not reliant on flash as his ult can function as an escape tool, and his mobility from E and ghost also allows him to dodge easier and escape.

For the both the Sorcery/Precision and the Sorcery/Domination rune pages, I usually take Challenging Smite + Ghost . This setup is personally my favorite as you still have some dueling power, but you don't lose out on much mobility. Other times you may want Ignite due to a poor early game matchup, but with Phase Rush you can ultimately avoid early game confrontations if you choose to do so.

For the Precision/Sorcery rune page, I usually take Challenging Smite + Ignite . This setup works well because the mobility lost from not going Chilling Smite is somewhat replaced by Nimbus Cloak .

For the Precision/Inspiration rune page I tend to go Chilling or Challenging Smite + Ghost . The logic behind second setup is by going Magical Footwear , you lose the speed you get from boots early. Therefore by bringing Ghost you can somewhat make up for it.

Smite: Quite obvious, as a jungler it helps with clears and objective control.

Ghost: Has very good synergy with Hecarim due to his passive . It allows him to burst/fight better by having basically a 10 sec AD boost. It also allows him to stick onto targets better. He is not reliant on flash as his ult can function as an escape tool, and his mobility from E and Ghost also allows him to dodge easier and escape.

Ignite: Ignite is a very interesting substitute for Ghost that originated from some high elo Hecarim's take. The thought process behind this is that Hecarim is already quite fast without Ghost , by taking Ignite , Hecarim is stronger in early game duels/fights before he ramps up. Ignite is a great summoner to help you snowball faster/better early, as well as mitigating one of your MOST exploitable weaknesses (early game). If you choose to do so, be more wary of you usage of E , as you have less mobility with Ignite.

What i have shown on the guide is the general skill order for both Hecarim top and Jungle. However some situations may allow you to tweak the order slightly.

At level 3 usually you want E as it unlocks an another ability as well as your only real escape pre-6. However, you can put an additional point in Q in the following situations:

Jungle: If you believe you won't be invaded and plan to do a full clear first, you can get a 2nd point in Q to greatly increase your clear speed as once you clear your whole jungle (excluding scuttle) you will achieve level 4.

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Top lane: You may get an additional point in Q if you believe you won't get ganked and plan to cheese a kill/force an early back. Many people don't expect the sudden jump in from your Q damage as it goes up a whopping 40 damage per rank.

Also, instead of maxing E immediately 2nd, you may want to choose to put an additional 1 or 2 points into W to raise the healing cap off minions. The time when you may want to do this is if you don't plan on roaming as much, the increased healing cap off minions helps greatly in fights in lane as well as general sustain.

These are the most commonly taken runes for Hecarim top. Although some runes may be interchangable based off of preference.

1ST TREE - PRECISION:

Conqueror: This greatly increases Hecarim's dueling potential. You ramp this up fast, and once you have it fully stacked you dish out absurd amounts of damage. The additional AD per stack help him out, but once Hecarim has conqueror and his Q ramped up he becomes a monster. Additional AD per stack and healing 9% of the damage you deal, this is all applied to your Q which stacks up to 2 times. Each stack of Q grants Hecarim 5% more damage on Q and 1 second of reduced CD on the spell.

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Triumph: The best rune for Hecarim of the three. Bonus 20 gold is small but helps Hecarim snowball, the restoration of health allows Hecarim to clean fights up fast with a breeze. Very useful for the hectic environment of solo queue.

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Legend - Tenacity: Tenacity is a very good stat on Hecarim as he always wants to be able to dish out damage constantly rampaging through enemies. Helps him survive getting locked down, and reduces slow duration, which is Hecarim's biggest weakness. You use your mobility to dance around deadly abilities in combat, escape unfavorable fights, and press on in favorable fights. Another factor you should bear in mind is that since you are playing top lane, thus you often are the engage/diver/frontline for the team and thus usually take the brunt of CC abilities. Also bear in mind that top lane are often filled with matchups that have constant CC and/or slows, making Tenacity crucial for trades. Another upside about taking Legend: Tenacity is that it allows you to more freely buy Ninja Tabi, where before you may have needed to get Mercury Treads for tenacity. Right now the most popular and meta top laners are AD bruisers which are quite auto attack defendant, thus being able to go Ninja Tabi without missing out on needed tenacity helps out a lot in trades.

Alacrity is quite good as it allows you to stack Conqueror faster and auto more with a stacked Conqueror for more damage. Go this rune when enemy top lane or team just lacks CC or if you are planning to go Mercury´s Treads . Bloodline is alright, but you already have healing from Conqueror , your W drain, and Biscuits /Corrupting paired with Time Warp Tonic . Besides the healing from runes and abilities, you may even opt for a Deaths Dance to heal from both autos and abilities. Therefore it often isn't worth taking bloodline, due to the sheer amount of healing you already have. Also grievous wound debuffs are quite prevalent now, making healing less valuable than before. Morellonomicon is a common item on mid lane mages, Ignite is taken by Top, Mid, and Support. You are better off with either tenacity or alacrity as allows you to be more free to dish out damage.

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Last Stand: This is the only rune really interchangeable. Last stand is good as Hecarim gets stronger as he ramps up his Q and conqueror , and by that time you may have lost a fair amount of health. Once you have lost some health and everything has had time to ramp up, your damage increases significantly. Last Stand is better into tankier teams. Most team compositions right now have usually a bruiser/tank top, bruiser jungle, and sometimes tank support so Last stand is usually better.

Coup de Grace is also quite good on Hecarim because he has a fair amount of burst from his E + Sheen (sometimes ghost and yoummus). Once you chunk them for a good amount Coup de Grace helps you finish people off. My recommendation is to go Coup de Grace into relatively all squishy teams. Cut down is a terrible in comparison to the other 2 in general, and even worse on Hecarim as he often stacks quite a lot of health.

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2ND TREE - Sorcery:

Nimbus Cloak: Nimbus cloak is very strong on Hecarim with his all-ins as not only does he get movement speed, he also gets more damage as his passive turns additional move speed into damage .

Manaflow Band is also a strong choice as Hecarim has a fair amount of mana issues so this rune does help. Nullifying Orb can also be picked into AP matchups if you want. However, I feel like the rune is very underwhelming and the other two are far better in comparison.

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Celerity: Amplifies the movement speed from things like your E , Ghost , and Nimbus Cloak . You move faster thus more damage.

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2ND TREE - Inspiration:

Biscuit Delivery: Basically free sustain in lane, it helps null bad trades. Also restores % missing mana which is great on Hecarim. One of the things that gated Hecarim from being viable top was his mana costs as he spams Q.

Some people may swap this rune for Magical Footwear to save gold and get more ms from boots. Personally I don't prefer it due to it negating your ability to buy boots which is a very strong buy on Hecarim early. Also it gives away a lot of the free sustain, more specifically the mana sustain from biscuits.

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Time Warp Tonic: When paired with biscuits and your usual corrupting start, you get the ability to have sneaky instant heals. By granting 50% of the effect of consumables you can pop both Corrupting and Biscuits during trades in lane to get a sudden chunk of your health back. Also gives you movespeed when consuming these items which also gives Hecarim a small bit of AD due to his passive.

For the bonus stat runes, always go 2 adaptive force and choose between an armor or magic resist rune depending on matchup.

This is the secondary page sometimes taken for Hecarim top. This page is not recommended. It can and is usually taken against some matchups such as Vladimir or champs that have good disengage. Rule of thumb is Phase Rush into ranged/squishy matchups top, while Conqueror is usually into matchups that will go for longer trades.


1ST TREE - SORCERY:

Phase Rush: This rune can be triggered very easily with an auto/E > Q > auto, auto/E > Q > W , or even Ignite > Q > W (if you are trying to wrap behind enemy for E knockback). What makes this an effective rune on Hecarim is that it gives you a sudden burst of movement speed which is then converted into damage. It also reduces the effectiveness of slows for 3 seconds. This allows you to stick to your target easier.

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Nimbus Cloak: Nimbus cloak is very strong on Hecarim with his all-ins as not only does he get movement speed, he also gets more damage as his passive turns additional move speed into damage .

Manaflow Band is also a strong choice as Hecarim has a fair amount of mana issues so this rune does help. Nullifying Orb can also be picked into AP matchups if you want. However, I feel like the rune is very underwhelming and the other two are far better in comparison.

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Celerity: Amplifies the movement speed from things like your E , Ghost , and Nimbus Cloak . You move faster thus more damage.

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Scorch: Makes you do a little more damage in lane. As Hecarim you want to snowball so every bit of damage helps.

Waterwalking is unnecessary as you are not the jungler, also there is no guarantees you will have good opportunities to roam. Gathering Storm is viable and a good safety for late game, however as Hecarim you are playing for early to mid so chances are if the game does drag out too long you will get outscaled anyways.

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2ND TREE - Inspiration:

Biscuit Delivery: Basically free sustain in lane, it helps null bad trades. Also restores % missing mana which is great on Hecarim. One of the things that gated Hecarim from being viable top was his mana costs as he spams Q.

Some people may swap this rune for Magical Footwear to save gold and get more ms from boots. Personally I don't prefer it due to it negating your ability to buy boots which is a very strong buy on Hecarim early. Also it gives away a lot of the free sustain, more specifically the mana sustain from biscuits.

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Time Warp Tonic: When paired with biscuits and your usual corrupting start, you get the ability to have sneaky instant heals. By granting 50% of the effect of consumables you can pop both Corrupting and Biscuits during trades in lane to get a sudden chunk of your health back. Also gives you movespeed when consuming these items which also gives Hecarim a small bit of AD due to his passive.

For the bonus stat runes, always go 2 adaptive force and choose between an armor or magic resist rune depending on matchup.

1ST TREE - SORCERY:

Phase Rush: This rune can be triggered very easily with an auto/E > Q > auto, auto/E > Q > W , or even Smite > Q > W (if you are trying to wrap behind enemy for E knockback). So it is basically instantly triggered upon a gank. What makes this an effective rune on Hecarim is that it gives you a sudden burst of movement speed which is then converted into damage. It also reduces the effectiveness of slows for 3 seconds. This allows you to stick to your target easier. This rune is also fantastic in the jungle as if you run into someone you cannot beat early, like Olaf, you can proc your Phase Rush and run away. It will be hard for them to chase you down even if they have Chilling Smite or slows (like Olaf axes ).

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Nimbus Cloak: Nimbus cloak is very strong on Hecarim with his all-ins as not only does he get movement speed, he also gets more damage as his passive turns additional move speed into damage .

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Celerity: Amplifies the movement speed from things like your E , Ghost , and Nimbus Cloak . You move faster thus more damage.

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Waterwalking: As a jungler this rune is very useful as it gives you more movement speed in the river, where you often will be when looking for ganks. It also grants adaptive force in the river which helps you fight for scuttle crabs better. As Hecarim myou gain even more damage as the movement speed gained is also converted into damage by your passive.

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2ND TREE - Precision:

Triumph: The best rune for Hecarim of the three. Bonus 20 gold is small but helps Hecarim snowball, the restoration of health allows Hecarim to clean fights up fast with a breeze. Very useful for the hectic environment of solo queue.

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Legend - Tenacity: Tenacity is a very good stat on Hecarim as he always wants to be able to dish out damage constantly rampaging through enemies. Helps him survive getting locked down, and reduces slow duration, which is Hecarim's biggest weakness. You use your mobility to dance around deadly abilities in combat, escape unfavorable fights, and press on in favorable fights. Another upside about taking Legend: Tenacity is that it allows you to more freely buy Ninja Tabi , where before you may have needed to get Mercury's Treads for tenacity.

Alacrity is quite good as it allows you to clear faster and auto attack more in fights. Go this rune when enemy team just lacks CC or if you are planning to go Mercury´s Treads . (Personally if I do not need tenacity I tend to opt into Domination as my 2nd tree.)

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2ND TREE - Domination:

Sudden Impact: Gives you some nice extra lethality when going in with E or Ult. Helps bursting squishies which is nice when looking for picks and trying to snowball early.

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Ravenous Hunter: Since the meta on Hecarim is now taking Phase Rush over Conqueror , you miss out on a lot of healing in fights. Ravenous Hunter makes up for the lack of healing. It is also very useful for sustain in the jungle and just overall feels very nice on Hecarim.

For the bonus stat runes, always go attack speed, adaptive force and choose between an armor or magic resist rune depending on matchup jungle/overall enemy team damage type.

1ST TREE - PRECISION:

Conqueror: This greatly increases Hecarim's dueling potential. You ramp this up fast, and once you have it fully stacked you dish out absurd amounts of damage. The additional AD per stack help him out, but once Hecarim has conqueror and his Q ramped up he becomes a monster. Additional AD per stack and healing 9% of the damage you deal, this is all applied to your Q which stacks up to 2 times. Each stack of Q grants Hecarim 5% more damage on Q and 1 second of reduced CD on the spell.

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Triumph: The best rune for Hecarim of the three. Bonus 20 gold is small but helps Hecarim snowball, the restoration of health allows Hecarim to clean fights up fast with a breeze. Very useful for the hectic environment of solo queue.

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Legend - Alacrity: Alacrity is quite good as it allows you to clear faster and auto attack more in fights. Go this rune when enemy team just lacks CC or if you are planning to go Mercury´s Treads . I generally prefer alacrity in the jungle because it give mroe damage, thus helping you snowball better. Also you generally are not the main tank/frontline (which is usually top or support) so you do not take the brunt of CC abilities.

Tenacity is a very good stat on Hecarim as he always wants to be able to dish out damage constantly rampaging through enemies. Helps him survive getting locked down, and reduces slow duration, which is Hecarim's biggest weakness. You use your mobility to dance around deadly abilities in combat, escape unfavorable fights, and press on in favorable fights. Another upside about taking Legend: Tenacity is that it allows you to more freely buy Ninja Tabi , where before you may have needed to get Mercury's Treads for tenacity.

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Coup De Grace: As a jungler this rune is usually the best of the three as you are often bursting enemies in ganks with a number advantage. The extra damage when they are low just helps you secure kills early, which in turn helps you snowball.

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2ND TREE - Domination:

Sudden Impact: Gives you some nice extra lethality when going in with E or Ult. Helps bursting squishies which is nice when looking for picks and trying to snowball early.

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Ravenous Hunter: Since Conqueror and Death's Dance got reworked to either give less healing/no healing at all, Ravenous hunter gives Hecarim the vamp he so desperately wants and needs.

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2ND TREE - Inspiration:

Magical Footwear: Give you free boots after a certain amount of time has passed. Ultimately saves you 300 gold, also boots gained from this rune have slightly increased movement speed. Useful if you plan to power farm or gank a lot. Ghost can kind of make up for the mobility you lose early on. (Personally this is the very reason I do not like running Inpiration as my 2nd tree as I enjoy my early boots. However, in the end it is always personal preference that matters most.)

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Cosmic Insight: Some extras cooldown reduction. Always feels nice, as your abilities/summoner spells are very important on Hecarim.

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2ND TREE - Sorcery:

Nimbus Cloak: Nimbus cloak is very strong on Hecarim with his all-ins as not only does he get movement speed, he also gets more damage as his passive turns additional move speed into damage .

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Celerity: Amplifies the movement speed from things like your E , Ghost , and Nimbus Cloak . You move faster thus more damage.

For the bonus stat runes, always go attack speed, adaptive force and choose between an armor or magic resist rune depending on matchup.

Ever since the major item rework of season 11, many Hecarim players began to debate over the superiority of Trinity Force, or Divine Sunderer. Well I am here to tell you both are good on Hecarim, and at the end of the day it comes down to your playstyle and how you like each item. Let us start by analyzing the stats of each item and what it means.

Trinity Force:

+ 20 ability haste + 25 attack damage + 35% attack speed + 200 health + UNIQUE – THREEFOLD STRIKE: Basic attacks grant 25 bonus movement speed for 3 seconds. If the target is a champion also increases base attack damage by 6% for the same duration, stacking up to 5 times for a 30% increase. + UNIQUE – SPELLBLADE: After using an ability, your next basic attack within 10 seconds deals 200% base AD bonus physical damage on-hit (1.5 second cooldown, begins after using the empowered attack). + MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 10% bonus attack speed.

+ 20 ability haste + 40 attack damage + 400 health + UNIQUE – SPELLBLADE: After using an ability, your next basic attack within 10 seconds deals 10% of target's maximum health bonus physical damage on-hit, with a minimum damage equal to 150% of base AD and a maximum damage against monsters equal to 250% base AD. If the target is a champion, Heal for (Melee 50% / Ranged 30%) of the pre-mitigation bonus damage dealt (1.5 second cooldown, begins after using the empowered attack). + MYTHIC PASSIVE: Empowers each of your other Legendary items with 5% armor penetration and 5% magic penetration.

As of now there is only 2 Smite types - Challenging Smite & Chilling Smite .

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USES OF EACH SMITE

Challenging Smite is best picked when you are against a enemy jungler with stronger dueling than you early, thus by picking this you can match their early power and not let your weaker early game get abused. Best picked into brusier/dueling junglers/enemy team comps.

Chilling Smite is best picked when the enemy jungler is not as strong early, therefore you do not need the dueling power. You would then pick Chilling Smite as a provides a bit of extra burst damage as well as utility. The movement speed steal can be used to help catch up to targets or run away, as it slows them and increases your movement speed. Best picked into squishy and/or slow/disengage team comps.

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Author Notes/Preferences:

For the Precision/Sorcery rune page, I usually take Challenging Smite + Ignite . This setup works well because the mobility lost from not going Chilling Smite is somewhat replaced by Nimbus Cloak .

For the Precision/Inspiration rune page I tend to go Chilling or Challenging Smite + Ghost . The logic behind second setup is by going Magical Footwear , you lose the speed you get from boots early. Therefore by bringing Ghost you can somewhat make up for it.

Personally I have no preference, I believe both Chilling Smite and Challenging Smite are very good. Both have their pros and cons and you should pick one off personal preference and/or game situation. However, I believe Chilling Smite is much easier to utilize effectively. Challenging Smite has potential to be stronger but can be underutilized, meanwhile Chilling Smite is never bad/useless.

Conqueror/Phase Rush Page Start:
Predator Page Start:

• You can cancel your auto attack animation if you Q right after the auto damage goes through, however if you Q too early/before auto damage goes off your Q will cancel your auto attack.
  
  
• Right before impact of your E , you can Q for slightly more damage due to the movement speed buff from E .
  
  
• When using your Ultimate (duration of ultimate animation) your E duration is "frozen" where it will not tick down. You can use your ult to buy more time to re-position yourself for a good E . You can ult behind an enemy and use your E to kick them into your team for a pseudo-Insec.
  
  
• Your E knockback distance increases based off of distance traveled during the E duration. If you utilize this well you can knockback an enemy into your team while following them, consequentially singling out a target and also bringing yourself to safety.
  
  
• You are tanky via your W drain, therefore you have to do damage to heal/absorb damage. Make sure to dodge vital cc and buy tenacity (or take in runes). Also damages your allies do, also heals you, so make sure you communicate that to your team.
  
  
• During your Ultimate animation, you can still cast spells such as Q , W , Smite , or Ignite . You don´t need to wait for full animation to be over to use abilities