Riot Games Pushes Hecarim Changes on the PBE

Hecarim will be the third champion to get some major updates in the League of Legends Public Beta Environment (PBE) cycle for LoL Patch 12.17. The company also announced big buffs for the long-forgotten tree of the Rift – Maokai – and the bounty hunter marksman Miss Fortune in the current cycle. Notably, all four of Hecarim’s abilities are being changed in an attempt to steer players from going for the assassin/full tank build on him. The only aspect of his kit that was left untouched is his passive, which will still give the champion bonus Attack Damage (AD) based on bonus movement speed.

Let’s first look at the abilities of Hecarim for a better understanding of the changes intended by Riot Games.

Hecarim abilities in League of Legends

Passive: Warpath - Hecarim gains Attack Damage equal to a percentage of his bonus Move Speed.

Q: Rampage - Hecarim cleaves nearby enemies dealing physical damage. If Hecarim damages at least one enemy, he increases the damage and lowers the cooldown of subsequent Rampages.

W: Spirit of Dread - Hecarim deals magic damage to nearby enemies for a short duration. Hecarim gains Health equal to a percentage of any damage those enemies suffer.

E: Devastating Charge - Hecarim gains increasing Move Speed and can move through units for a short duration. His next attack knocks the target back and deals additional physical damage based on the distance he has traveled since activating the ability.

R: Onslaught of Shadows - Hecarim summons spectral riders and charges forward, dealing magic damage in a line. Hecarim creates a shockwave when he finishes his charge, causing nearby enemies to flee in terror.

Hecarim changes for LoL Patch 12.17

Associate Game Designer Tim “truexy” Jiang introduced the changes and wrote, “The Hecarim changes will also be on PBE today/tomorrow. Pushing him to have more incentives to be a Fighter/Bruiser and less an assassin/full tank. This is aimed to be a buff, so we'll be tuning this the rest of the week.”

While Hecarim’s base damage on Q is nerfed, the scaling bonus AD for Q is increasing by 5% across all ranks. Its mana cost is reduced and the stacks on Q are increased from two to three.

Hecarim’s Spirit of Dread (W) is receiving a new passive, which will now grant Hecarim bonus Armor and Magic Resist while active. The E ability is being changed in a way such that it has less knockback but it has also received lower cooldowns at all ranks. For his R - Onslaught of Shadows, the fear duration is reduced from two seconds to 1.5 seconds, again messing with his ganking ability.

The following are the exact numbers and changes in Hecarim’s kit:

Rampage (Q):

• Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 (+90% bonus AD) >>> 60/85/110/135/160 (+95% bonus AD)

• Damage per stack: 2% (+3% per 100 bonus AD) >>> 4% (+6% per bonus 100AD)

• Q Cooldown per stack: 1s >>> 0.75s

• Max number of stacks: 2 >>> 3

• Stack Falloff: All at duration end >>> 1 stack per second at duration end

• Mana Cost: 28/31/34/37/40 >>> 30

Spirit of Dread (W):

[NEW]: Hecarim gains 15/20/25/30/35 Armor and Magic Resist while Spirit of Dread is active

Devastating Charge (E):

• Min Damage: 30/45/60/75/90 (+55% bonus AD) >>> 30/45/60/75/90 (+50% bonus AD)

• Max Damage: 60/90/120/150/180 (+110% bonus AD) >>> 60/90/120/150/180 (+100% bonus AD)

• Minimum Knockback :: 250 >>> 150

• Maximum Knockback :: 450 >>> 350

• Cooldown: 20/19/18/17/16 >>> 17 at all ranks

Onslaught of Shadows (R):

Fear duration: 0.75-2s based on distance traveled >>> 0.75-1.5s based on distance traveled

These changes are expected to go live on LoL Patch 12.17 on 8th September [Thursday]. Notably, these changes are live on the PBE currently and the numbers could differ after the initial testing and feedback chains.