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I feel like no one is playing Hecarim in the jungle

Aboylova92·7/6/2015, 1:09:10 AM·3 votes·1,318 views

And they really should. The buffs a few patches ago were absolutely insane for jungle Hec. Stat wise, it seems like around 50% of the time smite is taken on him. While I know top Hec is good, the amount of pressure he can put out while still staying very farmed because of the Q change is really nuts.

Not only that, I feel no need to take a mobility spell on him. With Movespeed quints, and boots (generally I go Swifty), you're walking around at around 470 MS, plus the Phage passive and E make you extremely mobile. This lets you take either ignite or TP depending on the team.

Which brings me to my last point, and it's his build. WAAAYY too often I see people with too much damage on Hec. In reality you need one damage item and that's Trinity Force. Anything more than that is pretty much overkill. Cinderhulk is way better than Warrior on him as the AOE and extra health are too good to pass up on. More health equals more sheen procs. I know there are a decent amount of other solid junglers, but in all honesty if I pick Hecarim I almost never feel like he doesn't fit in my team comp, or make a big impact on the game.

19 Comments

WukongMain7/6/2015, 3:56:38 AM1 votes

i agree with you. Hes impact on games is crazy good. Riot gifted me Hecarim a few days ago, and instant love. i take ghost smite when i jungle. i understand your opinions on ignite or teleport. but i feel the ghost is too great to pass up. I've used to to counter gank lanes in a flash

imagine you're at red or chickens, and you notice the enemy jungler ganking top, you have ghost. you have E and you have your ultimate. between these 3, you will make it there in time to turn the fight around. Often times turning the game around for your top laner. you could argue teleport would do that as well.... but the bonus movement speed from running into the lane gives you so much extra AD for the counter-gank lol

Can i ask if there are any other reasons behind the ignite/teleport? in my personal experience ghost is just way to good.

Also why cinder-hulk over warrior? Wouldn't warrior give you that damage you need before you complete trinity force? wouldn't the cinder-hulk delay hes ability to deal a crap ton of damage on hes ganks?...

I've decided to main Hecarim, so thats why i'm asking these things, i just wanna know everything about him :D

Drunk Rummate7/6/2015, 1:21:29 PM1 votes

He's one of my favorite junglers right now :]

But I rarely jungle. Mid and ADC main. So idk why jungle mains don't like him. Probably something to do with his weak early game compared to reksai, nidalee, nunu, and gragas.

junglerboy167/6/2015, 2:16:10 PM1 votes

At the moment, it isn't really worth taking him jungle. He serves basically the same function as Rek'sai and Skarner, but is inferior in the jungle at the moment because he needs more gold to be effective. Rek'sai offers similar AoE, global presence, and comparable CC in a trade off for lower burst. Skarner offers equal/better sticking power, similar AoE, similar burst and DPS, similar durability, and equal/superior CC.

Basically, he isn't played jungle because there are other champs who do what he does better.

ChainedUp7/7/2015, 5:59:33 AM1 votes

He doesn't fit the tank meta right now because his cc isn't equal to that of Sejuani or Gragas that can get away with building full tank because of their percentage health damage in their kit and junglers like RekSai and Rengar who build some damage they have lock down cc that hecarim lacks to completely lock down squishies to "one-shot" which isn't what his kit is designed to do. And you shouldn't force him to do by building full damage. With his engage he has the be tanky to survive in team fights. Sure he can E into a back line and get to work but he is designed to get in the thick of things, use his W and start Qing (applying armor shred with clever) and being the center of attention while your back line follows up. If the meta favors the more farming jungler or into an assassin meta again hecarim will fit the bill great. til then he's not bad in solo que especially at lower elo but there are better picks at the moment that are more rewarding to play.

build to consider: stalker's -cinderhulk black clever righteous glory randuins omen spirit visage

and very early bots if possible (usually tabi or mercs and very rarely swifties) also running smite ignite is very common to help ganks and snowball, some people swap ignite for ghost which is ok, or tp which requires homeguards to be effective

BluePolarizer7/7/2015, 6:12:23 AM1 votes

I play him almost exclusively in the jungle (plat elo) and he is my most played (200+ games). He farms extremely fast, extremely safely, and does a shit ton of damage. He can solo carry (very important in solo queue), while Sej and Gragas can't. Some ppl say that Skarner is just as good - no he's not. Skarner doesn't have a gapcloser, doesn't have a huge AOE fear and doesn't have 20% spellvamp/lifesteal. That means Skarner gets kited like crazy or he has to burn flash - can't solo carry.