Champion Guide

Hecarim Guide

By LoLSuggest

Jungle

Play Hecarim as a fast-clearing, high-tempo diver who farms and invades to keep momentum, then uses movement speed to reach the backline and get back out.

Recommended Setup

Our recommended Hecarim build

Our recommended runes, summoner spells and items. Compare build win rates on the stats page.

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

Situational Items

Our page is Stormraider's Surge with Nimbus Cloak, Transcendence and Waterwalking, plus Cash Back and Cosmic Insight; the second runs Stormraider's Surge with Celerity and Waterwalking plus Legend: Haste and Last Stand, or Conqueror. Take Ghost with Gustwalker Smite (or Ignite). Ionian Boots of Lucidity plus a Long Sword or Pickaxe is a strong first back. This setup builds Hubris into Spear of Shojin, then Serylda's Grudge or Black Cleaver and Death's Dance or Maw of Malmortius. The second's standard build is Ionian Boots, Spear of Shojin, Black Cleaver, Death's Dance and Endless Hunger, with Axiom Arc first for more damage, and it advises against Eclipse, Muramana, Dead Man's Plate and Youmuu's Ghostblade.

Runes

Primary Tree

Secondary Tree

Summoner Spells

Strengths

Huge mobility and tempo for diving the backline and resetting fights.
Flexible damage builds — lethality, bruiser or sustain — to fit the game.
Strong momentum when ahead, snowballing through invades and fights.

Weaknesses

Early duelists and invaders like Udyr, Rengar, Lee Sin and Kindred can set him behind.
Glass-cannon builds die quickly if he gets caught by crowd control.
Armor stackers like Rammus punish AD-heavy builds.

Laning Phase

Your clear is one of the fastest in the game, so use it: farm efficiently, steal camps from slow junglers like Sylas, Nasus or Shyvana, and gank when lanes are set up. Ward your other buff before your clear to spot invades early, especially against Ivern. Early duelists like Graves, Udyr or Master Yi can beat you 1v1 — kite Udyr, who has no dashes, and against Graves look for your window from level 4 until he has three or four items.

Mid & Late Game

From the mid game you're a backline diver: aim for squishy targets, using your speed to get in and out. Either engage with Onslaught of Shadows or hold it to counter enemy burst. Adapt items to the enemy — tenacity and Maw against heavy crowd control, lethality into squishies, Black Cleaver for longer fights — and always keep tempo by farming, invading and forcing fights when you have an item lead.

Key Tips

Against Master Yi, Plated Steelcaps and Death's Dance are strong; Frozen Heart and Randuin's Omen are viable.
Against Rammus, avoid full AD builds — his armor and Thornmail make extended fights painful.
Milio's ultimate can shut down your Onslaught of Shadows engage.
Your ultimate is very effective on Sylas, but he beats you in long skirmishes — make him burn his cooldowns first.

Matchups