@Feralpony - Returning Hecarim to his origins as a sustain fighter

So as most people are probably aware of by now, Hecarim is being played currently as a cheese burst-type champion, which doesn't leave much room for interaction with him. In my opinion, and most people can probably agree, this is not what Hecarim should be. I don't believe it's a healthy state for any fighter to be in, and is certainly not fun in-game.

Back in February of 2013, Spirit of Dread's healing percentage was changed to 20% at all ranks from 10/15/20/25/30%, and the cooldown was adjusted to 20/18.5/17/15.5/14 seconds from 14 at all ranks. In an early Season 3 environment, you can see why they would nerf this spell. With all the free range junglers had with little worry about jungle sustenance and fast camp clearing, you can safely say scaling to power was easy for junglers, and Hecarim reached rank 5 Spirit of Dread very efficiently.

In June of 2013, Onslaught of Shadow's end-location damage was removed with the intent of reducing Hecarim's burst damage on squishy targets. While this did affect his damage, it did not address what I believe to be his core problem of the same principle: the unrewardingness of putting ability points into Spirit of Dread due to its nerf, and in turn, being forced to amplify Hecarim's burst damage by maxing Devastating Charge second (a spell that is almost guaranteed to hit every time you use it).

What I believe is valuable to restore Hecarim to his intended, healthier gameplay as a sustain fighter is as follows:

•Spirit of Dread

       • Healing adjusted to 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30% from 20% at all ranks
       • Cooldown decreased to 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16 seconds from 22 / 21 / 20 / 19 / 18

•Devastating Charge

       • Maximum damage decreased to 70 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+0.3 bonus Attack Damage) from 80 / 150 / 220 / 290 / 360 (+1.0 bonus Attack Damage)
       • Cooldown decreased to 23 / 21 / 19 / 17 / 15 from 24 / 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 seconds

Behind Spirit of Dread suggestions

The cooldown values on Spirit of Dread as suggested here are not as quite as low as they were upon Hecarim's release, but they are similar. I hacked them down to accompany Hecarim's lessened ease of sustain in the Season 5 jungle, and to get better worth out of leveling the ability, though not very much, as it's a very touchy cooldown to reduce.

The healing percentage reversion on Spirit of Dread is to accentuate Hecarim's role as a fighter who's power lies in sustained fighting and power through scaling with experience and gold, not being a bursty-assassin.

Behind Devastating Charge suggestions

The incentive behind removing a lot of the damage behind Devastating Charge is the over abundance of power and reliance on one spell (that is very easy to use, mind you) to carry out a job of killing carries, whether it be a Homeguard+Teleport gank, Devastating Charge + Onslaught of Shadows, or simply Devastating Charge alone. I believe it's necessary for it to be a powerful spell, but I feel the power is very imbalanced currently with too much emphasis poured into this spell, and needs readjustment between the rest of Hecarim's kit. I reduced the AD scaling to cut the prominence of Homeguard+Teleport+Devastating Charge, which I believe to be an extremely toxic aspect of Hecarim's current playtime.

On the cooldown of Devastating Charge, I lessened the cooldown by a second to smoothen Hecarim's early and mid-game mobility, and ease the punishment of using it for transportation (camp to camp, or just leaving the base), due to the large cooldown it sustains if you do not choose to max it. I believe it should remain a long cooldown at lower levels, but still be usable at least twice in extended fights mid and late-game. With that said, Cooldown Reduction is a very itemizable stat for Hecarim, so cutting much of the cooldown is not necessary or warranted.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts you want to share, post them below.

@Feralpony

edit: (2:18pm est) gone for now