Hecarim Counters: How To Counter Pick Hecarim

Hecarim is the horseman of League of Legends. He is one of the fastest champions on the Rift. He’s an avid fighter that normally plays in the jungle. However, he can also be a top laner. In this article, we discuss how to effectively counter Hecarim.

Best Hecarim Counters

• Nasus
• Sejuani
• Aatrox
• Dr. Mundo
• Vi

Blood Knight Hecarim

Hecarim Counter Picks

Now that you know who counters Hecarim, you can finally counter pick Hecarim in any matchup. Let’s take you through some tips on how to use a few of these champions who are counters to Hecarim. After, there is a general section explaining how to use any LoL champion as counters for Hecarim. After all, if you know how to play against Hecarim, you can play safely and effectively to defeat Hecarim in a lane.

Nasus

Nasus’ Wither is perfect against Hecarim. To be more clear, use wither on Hecarim and it will lower his attack gains from his passive.

As Nasus, your objective is farming (for your Q stacks). However, a skilled Nasus will wither a Hecarim when he goes in for a devastating charge (E), as it reduces his damage output massively.

Vi

• Vi can invade and take advantage of Hecarim’s long cooldowns to kill him in duels or counter his initiation with her own.

Dr. Mundo

Hecarim has no poke skill. He’s a close ranged melee champion that depends heavily on his ultimate to engage. As Dr. Mundo, you can poke him with your Cleaver or use it to kite him during his ultimate.

Sejuani

• Sejuani’s kit is great for fighting against Hecarim. She negates his passive and can interrupt his ultimate/engage with her move set.

Headless Hecarim

Tips For Playing Against Hecarim

• Avoid being clumped so Hecarim won’t be able to use his ultimate to fear multiple people.
• Move away from him when he has his Spirit of Dread on, as he will heal from any source of damage dealt to enemies.
• When an enemy Hecarim ganks your lane, do not allow him to go behind you while he has his ‘Devastating Charge’ movement speed buff active. He may knock you back slightly, away from your tower into the opposing laner, preventing you from getting to safety.
• To counter the power of Hecarim’s ganks pick exhaust or champions with stuns or slows. It will massively reduce the effect of his passive and Devastating Charge.
• Hecarim is a powerful AoE threat, especially in the later stages of the game. Spreading out will reduce his effectiveness by preventing him from terrifying your team with Onslaught of Shadows, mitigating the constant AoE damage Hecarim can deal with Rampage, and decreasing the amount of sustain he can gain from Spirit of Dread.
• Spirit of Dread grants Hecarim very high sustainability but has a fairly lengthy cooldown and a short duration. Consider using burst damage or waiting for Spirit of Dread to time out before targeting him.
• Hecarim may attempt to land behind you with Onslaught of Shadows and/or Devastating Charge to push you towards the rest of his team. Try to Flash away or position yourself so that this is not a possibility.
• Powerful slows, such as Nasus’ Wither, Singed’s Mega Adhesive, Rumble’s Electro Harpoon or Lulu’s Glitterlance can completely nullify the damage bonus from Warpath and prevent Hecarim from engaging with Devastating Charge.
• A jungling Hecarim is exceptionally weak at dueling against most champions early game, so he is susceptible to early invades from the opposing jungler. He is also incredibly reliant on the Crest of Insight buff, which can especially hinder his clear times should he lose the buff.
• While Hecarim seems to be oppressive during early game when laning against certain champions, he is actually easy to counter on top lane (most ranged champions will give him a hard time). Examples include Kennen, who has his own movement speed boost and can harass Hecarim from a safe distance; Lissandra, who has powerful slows and can prevent Hecarim from ever being able to engage; and Swain, whose Decrepify can slow Hecarim and also has powerful sustained damage.
  • Other champions who can beat Hecarim on laning are duelists, as Hecarim is a poor duelist by himself. Irelia, Jax, and AD Fizz are examples of duelists who are capable of beating Hecarim during the laning phase and are able to 1v1 him at most stages of the game.
  • Malphite can beat Hecarim fairly well due to his Seismic Shard which is a powerful slow. Malphite also stacks a lot of armor, which will give Hecarim a very hard time. Malphitealso has his own engage ultimate to counter Hecarim. However, keep in mind that Hecarim is immune to CC during Onslaught of Shadows.
• Kha’Zix can both slow Hecarim with his Void Spike and has better 1v1 potential with his isolated Taste Their Fear. He can also dodge Onslaught of Shadows by using Leap.

Arcade Hecarim

By using the champions who counter Hecarim and the LoL Hecarim counter tips above, you can now develop a strategy to help you, as a summoner, become an effective counter to Hecarim players.