Buddhist Conqueror Hecarim Guide 26.13

Reactive Pacifist Hecarim Bible

Blissful Monk Hecarim Build

Classic Conqueror setup but with Transcendence instead of Celerity, Ability haste shard is crucial to replace the haste from Ionian Boots.

Default first itemeldfghe

first item when vs ad assassin jungler or heavy ad/burst comp e.g. naafiri jungle + zed mid = must buy first

Default boots to snowball with and start stacking early

Always look to take if enemy team has lots of ad and/or 2/3 auto attackers

ONLY if extremely heavy CC

Default first back

first back when rich

Build either Cleaver or Deaths Dance first, then build the other item. Order of items should be adapted to the state of the game; E.G. Zero or Little AP = skip maw for another armor item.

Randuins for 3+ crit AD heavy comps, Guardians Angel for regular AD heavy comps Knights Vow if your ADC is extremely fed and your only win condition Spirit Visage for heavy AP comps Always go Elixir of Iron when max gold. (Or before Important Teamfight)

2 points in Q to maximize clear speed

Put point in E at lvl 3 if youre worried about getting invaded on your 2nd buff

10 Commandments:

1. NEVER gank top no matter how much they beg (its not worth the tempo)
2. Prioritize camps over everything (unless the play is absolutely free)
3. Do not give in to laner's pings

Play every game on your own terms, you don't want to commit to a laner's incorrect play and realize your biggest mistake was listening to them. Ideally every win or loss should be your fault, the fate of the game should rest on you; win or loss.

1. When teammates die, they will ping the closest teammate to them or the objective on the other side of the map (do not take it personal as they are just animals).
2. FlippER's

You're bound to encounter teammates who are insistent upon flipping the game; whether it be all inning lvl 1, perma fighting or contesting every objective no matter the situation. Despite it being impossible to stop teammates like this, your goal is to minimize your exposure to players like this by identifying them as FlippER's early in the game and not playing around or enabling their flipping tendencies.

1. Identifying your win condition

Identify your win con ASAP and play for them, possible wincons can be; yourself, teamfights, stacking drakes into soul, fed ADC.

1. Risk Classification (risk vs reward)

We do not go for low EV plays, we only go for guaranteed plays, the ONLY time we are making high risk plays is if the game is losing and we need a miracle to make it back.

When you're ahead, there is no need to limit test and go for high risk plays, making even plays and stacking objectives when ahead will allow you to close out games.

High risk plays are exclusively for last resort situations when a miracle is our only hope.

1. Ideally contest objectives with numbers
2. PING PING PING (jungle tracking)

Ping where the enemy jungler is at all times to the best of your knowledge, ping your teammates off whenever you think they are overextending, gankable or committing to a bad play. It does not matter whether your pings are the objectively correct play or not, what matters more is that you and your team are on the same page.

1. Patience is a virtue

Sometimes you may feel as if you have to make a play now, you feel as though because Hecarim's an early game jungler you need to make things happen early game, this is one of the biggest misconceptions Hecarim players have. Play every game as if you're a scaling jungler, maximize tempo and it's inevitable that the enemy team will make a mistake and a golden opportunity will present itself to you

Pills to swallow:

1. Scalepill

In pisslow where games drag out, scaling can often be the deciding factor in determining the outcome of games, its crucial you recognize the scaling's of you and the opposing team's comps, from there you can determine whether its beneficial for you to stall games out in order to enable your team to scale or whether closing games out quickly is the better choice. (less risk needs to be taken when you know your team comp outscales theirs).

1. Team comp diff pill

Happens once in every 50 games, if this occurs, dont stress and just let it happen, there's nothing you can do.

1. Patiencepill

The opportunity you're waiting for is just around the corner and will present itself to you in due time, don't be impatient and jump the gun.

1. Monk Pill

As junglers, we have the greatest responsibility out of all the roles. This also means we will receive the most blame — fairly or unfairly. To keep our sanity, it's imperative that the number one thing to focus on is improvement and improvement only (no player can win 100% of their games). We should strive to become monks, let go of our desire for material possessions (rank), and commit to the Four Noble Truths along our journey through the Eightfold Path, whilst aspiring one day to reach Nirvana.

"The game rewards those who seek no rewards"

Example Full Builds and notes:

Hecarim → Gluttonous Greaves → Black Cleaver → Death's Dance → Endless Hunger → Maw of Malmortius → Sterak's Gage

(Optimal Build in Majority of games)|

Hecarim → Death's Dance → Plated Steelcaps → Black Cleaver → Endless Hunger → Guardian Angel → Spear of Shojin

Deaths Dance is broken item, abuse while you can -- build every game and rush it if you ever see the opportunity too

Hecarim → Death's Dance → Plated Steelcaps → Black Cleaver → Randuin's Omen → Endless Hunger → Spear of Shojin

Hecarim → Black Cleaver → Gluttonous Greaves → Maw of Malmortius → Death's Dance → Spear of Shojin → Spirit Visage

(Keep in mind Deaths Dance is still good vs AP as it is anti burst and AP champs tend to try to burst you)

Hecarim → Black Cleaver → Mercury's Treads → Death's Dance → Endless Hunger → Maw of Malmortius → Spear of Shojin

Hecarim → Trinity Force → Gluttonous Greaves → Black Cleaver → Death's Dance → Endless Hunger → Maw of Malmortius

Triforce is cope unless they have 3+ melees.

Hecarim is one of the best champs at stacking cleaver and he can apply cleaver stacks to the entire enemy team at once so always buy Black Cleaver over Serylda's Grudge.

Can build Endless Hunger earlier depending on need for Tenacity.

Item orders are all changeable depending on who becomes fed on the enemy team. E.G. If enemy Mage goes 0-7 then you can delay purchasing Maw of Malmortius.

Once full build you should sell Ionian boots for Plated Steelcap's or Mercury Treads as the Ability Haste is redundant at this stage of the game.

Elixir of Iron is best pot on Hecarim (Don't buy Elixir of Wrath unless you're really feeling it)

Flaming:

When you queue into a game of league, during the 30 minutes you share with your teammates; you all share only the same goal of winning LP. You will likely never run into your teammates ever again, so why bother holding a grudge. Having too high of hopes for your teammates is incredibly dangerous, it will lead to you getting upset at your teammates for not living up to your expectations, It's optimal to expect the bare minimum from your teammates,.

In the long run your average teammate will be the same skill level as your enemies so don't get tilted when your enemies are better than your teammates (You will have better teammates at the same rate)

Do you truly believe in your heart of hearts that flaming/pinging/typing to your teammates will make them play better?

Playing teammates will make them play worse, so if your goal is to win then logically you should never flame.

The most immature mindset to possess is believing that one of your teammates does not deserve to win therefore losing the game is delivering justice against your teammate. This is a common cope your brain creates to cope with losing the game and making it seem as if losing the game was your decision and thus you still feel in control.

The Babysit Method:

Watch on YouTube

You should never type to or ping negatively to your teammates.

Hecarim Ideology:

Hecarim is the ultimate tempo jungler, what makes hecarim good is that he's able to build a lead on the enemy jungler through farming camps which can be converted into making more plays on the map compared to the enemy jungler. In the average game you should have a gold or XP lead vs enemy jungler.

Feast or Famine- Hecarim is the type of champ that will feel unkillable if ahead, or the weakest champ in the game if behind, so playing selfishly (prioritizing yourself) is essential for playing and carrying games on hecarim.

Full clearing and looking for plays while your camps are on cooldown is ideal unless there's a play on the map with a 90% chance of leading to a kill.

Deny resources from the enemy jungler whenever possible (prioritize enemy camps over your own if both are free)

Never let the enemy jungler make a play while you do nothing in return.

E.G. your botlane ints and you have no hope of contesting drake: Dont just stand by the pit and watch or try to flip a 10% chance steal, make a topside play such as taking enemy topside camps/top gank.

You want to minimize the loss you face when the enemy jungler makes a successful play, in the very worst case this will be in the form of just farming your own camps to gain tempo instead of wasting time at a dead play.

Yes if you're behind you may feel like all you can do is watch but if this happens you must convert your mindset to becoming a little peelER for your carries/wincon.