Hecarim in Dominion - is he really THAT bad?

Behold the Void·Nov 6, 2014·3 votes·660 views

I regularly see the Dominion tier lists rating Hecarim fairly low (although post-buffs I think he might have been promoted but I'm not entirely sure), but I'm curious as to why. I'm sitting around 1400-1500 MMR and he's ended up being my go-to pick into a lot of solo and duo comps that are often AP heavy and lacking in appropriate beef, and I usually am able to put out really strong performances in terms of map coverage, frontline tankiness, and even damage, which is surprisingly quite respectable. I've seen wolferer run him to great effect and I've taken some tips for play and incorporated them into my own game so I'm curious, what about him keeps him from excelling at the high level unless wolferer is using him?

Also, I often actually run him top. With his high mobility through his E I find I'm able to provide a lot of map coverage and engage on fights or make ganks on bot with impunity. I build Triforce first and I tend to go into tank items, maybe adding a few pen items or a Hydra if I need a bit more offense. I've also been running early Furor boots on him which gives him a nice degree of stickiness and an offensive boost. I've found he's quite durable and with the right defensive itemization can really ruin a lot of people's days. So what's his issue?

5 Comments

FDruNov 6, 20141 votes

Just be smart about when to use his utility spells, and he's fine. People probably think he's bad cause they take flash, rush mobility boots, build glass cannon, spam every ability as soon as it's up and then get wrecked by mages.

Behold the VoidNov 6, 20141 votes

Yeah that could be it. Honestly with SV or Locket and Merc Treads he really doesn't have an issue with mages most of the time, especially if you're good at crashing out of the jungle with his E or R before they can respond.

JunkοNov 6, 20141 votes

Because Dominion is played by bots

SKOBODONov 7, 20141 votes

In my top lane tier list for Dominion, available here, I put him in tier 3. He's not awful, but he's not great either. Some issues:

Mediocre gapclosing outside of his ultimate.
His burst damage isn't that impressive compared to many other bruisers, although his sustained damage is decent and he can be somewhat tanky.
Ignite hurts him more than most bruisers.
His early game is pretty weak.
His cc is lacking outside of his ultimate.

I think he's similar to top lane Skarner in many ways and he has similar drawbacks.

Behold the VoidNov 8, 20141 votes

That makes sense, I would argue that the tanky and sustained aspects work in his favor. The fact that he can stay in the fray for a long time and be a considerable tanky threat if he isn't dealt with is to his benefit. The damage I put out isn't immediate burst like, say, Vi, but if he's putting out enough it makes trying to go past him and get to the heavier damage backline a risky proposition. I've not suffered too much from Ignite since he's so beefy, to be sure it hurts but I find I'm seldom even targeted by it although that could just be my MMR.