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Hercules - SOLO LANE

4 0 25,603
by Acrimony updated August 9, 2013

Smite God: Hercules

Build Guide Discussion 1 More Guides
Choose a Build: Doing Well
Doing Well Tough Lane
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Hercules Build

Starting Build

Build Item Mark of the Vanguard Mark of the Vanguard
Build Item Creeping Curse Creeping Curse
Build Item Heavenly Agility Heavenly Agility
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
2
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion
3

Core Items

Build Item Heartseeker Heartseeker
Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Void Shield Void Shield
Build Item Jotunn's Wrath Jotunn's Wrath
Build Item Shifter's Shield Shifter's Shield
Build Item Bulwark of Hope Bulwark of Hope

Situationals

Build Item Hide of the Nemean Lion Hide of the Nemean Lion
Build Item Ankh of the Reborn Ankh of the Reborn
Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)
Build Item Aegis Amulet (Old) Aegis Amulet (Old)
Build Item Girdle of Might Girdle of Might

Throughout the game

Build Item Ward Ward

Hercules's Skill Order

Driving Strike

1 X Y
Driving Strike
2 4 6 7 10

Earthbreaker

2 A B
Earthbreaker
3 8 11 12 14

Mitigate Wounds

3 B A
Mitigate Wounds
1 15 16 18 19

Excavate

4 Y X
Excavate
5 9 13 17 20
Driving Strike
2 4 6 7 10

Driving Strike

1 X
Hercules delivers a mighty strike, driving all enemies back, damaging and Stunning them. Hercules is immune to knockback during the dash.

Ability Type: Line, Dash, Damage
Damage: 100 / 170 / 240 / 310 / 380 (+90% of your Physical Power)
Stun: 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5s
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 12s
Earthbreaker
3 8 11 12 14

Earthbreaker

2 A
Hercules smashes the ground, sending a shockwave forward that does damage to all enemies in the path. Enemies at the end of the shockwave are thrown into the air towards Hercules.

Ability Type: Line, Knockback, Damage
Damage: 90 / 145 / 200 / 255 / 310 (+70% of your Physical Power)
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 12s
Mitigate Wounds
1 15 16 18 19

Mitigate Wounds

3 B
Hercules heals himself instantly and gains increased Attack Speed, Magical and Physical Protections for the next 4s. A percentage of the damage taken during this time is returned to him as an additional heal that at the end of the duration.

Ability Type: Buff
Initial Heal: 45 / 75 / 105 / 135 / 165
Damage Returned as Healing: 20 / 26 / 32 / 38 / 44%
Protections Buff: 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60
Attack Speed: 25%
Cost: 60
Cooldown: 15s
Excavate
5 9 13 17 20

Excavate

4 Y
Hercules rips a huge boulder from the ground. Throwing the boulder does damage where the boulder lands. The boulder continues rolling, doing the same damage to all enemies in its path. Subsequent hits on the same enemy do 50% less damage per hit. Hercules is immune to crowd control while casting.

Ability Type: Circle, Damage
Damage: 300 / 425 / 550 / 675 / 800 (+100% of your Physical Power)
Radius: 15
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90 / 85 / 80 / 75 / 70s

Introduction

The intent is for a concise and to-the-point guide that outlines what I have found to be important. I try my best not to repeat things that items have in their descriptions.

While this guide can certainly be used for people who are new to the game or god, I made it more in mind for people who have a relatively decent amount of experience with the game.

Explanations of situations you'll often find yourself in will be found throughout the guide.

I hope this is helpful to some of you.

Important Notes

Rather than make a Pros and Cons list, I've decided instead to simply talk about some things that make Hercules so strong.

First of all, because of his passive Strength from Pain, Hercules will do most of his damage when he's at low health. Mitigate Wounds is such a strong ability with such heavy reliance on correct timing. Anyone playing Hercules needs to practice enough or simply have enough awareness to know when the best time to use this ability is.

You actually want to stay in a fight as long as you possibly can when you're low. You're trying to find that sweet spot between life and death where you're doing a lot of damage while sustaining your health and not dying. This is why something like Eye of Retaliation is such a strong item on Hercules. The logic being: If you're already going to try and master surviving at low health during a team fight, you might as well milk it for all its worth.

Not only that, but the lifesteal on that item is equally priceless.

On a related note, your Bulwark of Hope is just another item designed to let you live when you're low. It gives you a big chunk of health which is good for both incoming magical and physical damage. The passive also works for non-magical abilities, rendering Hercules one high-sustain-tough-to-kill bastard.

Doing Well or Tough Lane?

The "Doing Well" guide is exactly as it sounds: you're winning your lane. The important thing to remember in distinguishing the two builds are the order of the skills you're upgrading. As always in a game like Smite: things are situational, and I don't expect that either skill build will be optimal for every situation, just most.

Depending on how bad or how good you're doing in your lane is often the reason behind leveling your Driving Strike or Mitigate Wounds first. I like to imagine it as a spectrum. If the current state of your Mitigate Wounds simply isn't getting the job done, then you're probably going to need to prioritize it a little higher at first. A lot of this is - of course - dependent on having a jungler with a strong presence.

The "Tough Lane" guide is also exactly as it sounds: you're losing your lane. This is built for more sustainability, as the most important thing is always to not lose your tower. If you're upset that you're not kicking around your two opponents hard enough - don't be. Your primary role in your lane will always be to not lose your tower. Making sure you follow up on ganks is important, but secondary.

Keep in mind: The item builds are also mostly going to be the same. The boots are a very important purchase early game depending on how things are moving along. After your Voidblade and Ankh of the Bear, you really have to take a look at the enemy team comp and decide what is most viable. It's completely possible to start Reinforced Boots and get Deathbringer rather than Hide of the Nemean Lion if that's how the game progresses.

Skills

Driving Strike

A very important skill. Correct positioning of this skill can certainly between the difference between a kill and your enemy getting away. High damage and a CC when you're below 50% health.

Earthbreaker

Another very important skill, the positioning of which can also make a great impact on whether or not you get the kill. This is often used in tandem with Driving Strike, which will be explained below.

Earthbreaker + Driving Strike Combo

I have found this to be a very important combo not just in teamfights, but also during the solo lane when you have two people pushed up to the edge of your tower mean mugging you. It's especially nice for those gods that do not have getaways.

The object is to toss someone back into your tower with Earthbreaker, turn quickly, and push them further into the tower with Driving Strike. It's best to do this when - of course - there are no enemy creeps in the range of the tower so that the tower is sure to focus your enemy. This is even very effective on tanks at low levels.

I'll give you a scenario: You're laning against an Apollo/Ymir. You'd preferably like to get this off as soon as possible. Assuming you're level 3 and they are too, you'd actually want to get the Ymir over the Apollo simply because he doesn't have a dash. It's especially effective if you're level 5 and you have a chance to get the tower pull and secure a kill with Excavate.

Remember that this is really only something you can do in the early game, as later on, someone like Ymir would be tanky enough to not care how many times you toss him into the tower. It's simply good to get you ahead at the start so you can try and get that snowball rolling.

Mitigate Wounds

Your lifeline. This is something you're going to want to activate when you know that high damage will be coming your way, i.e., you're engaging the enemy. If you're having trouble in your lane, it's important that you level this first for the extra sustain.

In a 2v1, this is especially important because often times you can be a little more brave at the start of the game and soak up that early experience. This is why I always recommend getting this ability first. With how quickly you reach level 2, it's often a good idea to simply feel out who you're laning against to see if you can manage not getting killed while getting that precious gold and experience.

Excavate

Giant boulder you throw that does massive damage. A very important tool in teamfighting, especially in the jungle when you're in those tight corners or halls and your chance to miss is close to zero. As I mentioned above, it can also be very important for early lane ganks either by yourself or with your jungler.

In smaller fights, I try to hold off throwing my boulder until I believe they're going to escape in a lot of situations. As it's by far my longest range ability, it can make for a good finisher.

On the other hand, in big 5v5 teamfights, you really want to look for an opening to roll as many people as possible with this thing. A lot of people seem to like to use it as a finisher rather than an engage tool, but it can really give your team the upperhand if you flatten a lot of their players right from the start. You don't want to miss an opportunity to hit as many people as you can.

Items

These are not necessarily in order, and I'll only be briefly explaining a couple of them as I'm sure all of you can deduce the reasoning behind most of these items.

Voidblade

A staple in any bruiser build. Provides a lot of physical power, physical protection, and physical penetration. It also works very well with the item below.

Ankh of the Bear Ankh of the Bear

A very useful item, especially if you find yourself building Hide of the Nemean Lion during your game as it only becomes stronger with more physical protection.

Bulwark of Hope

Another staple in a strong Hercules build, especially if there's any strong magic damage on the other team at all (which is the case 99.9% of the time). The "Important Notes" section should explain why an item like this will frequently be helpful.

Eye of Retaliation Eye of Retaliation

Works amazingly well with his passive Strength from Pain. Hercules sustain at low health is incredible, and the damage he dishes when low is very high.

Warding

I've highlighted a few very important places to ward in pink. This is especially important for the early game to deal with jungling. Often times at the beginning you're not going to have to worry as much about warding the opponent team's side as you'll be spending most of your time at your tower.

However, it's very helpful in situations where you are pushed up assuming your lane is dead and the jungler is not. It's also very helpful for your friendly jungler to know the location of the enemy, seeing as correct positioning of the ward should give you vision of anyone entering Blue or CDR, respectively.

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1
WiseWarrior | July 11, 2013 1:31pm
Great, Finally i got a complete guide, you're pretty useful congratulations. I like Hercules, but he is hard to play, I dont have many good matches with him. When I play in bruisser role, i usually pick Thor or Odin.
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