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Bringing the Herc!

36 5 195,107
by SlurrayMoan updated February 4, 2013

Smite God: Hercules

Build Guide Discussion 14 More Guides
Choose a Build: Herculean Survivability (Bruiser)
Herculean Survivability (Bruiser) Herculean Strength (DPS)
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Hercules Build

Starting Build

Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Mark of the Vanguard Mark of the Vanguard
Build Item Mana Potion Mana Potion

Mid Game Build

Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
2
Build Item Voidblade Voidblade
3
Build Item Ankh of the Golem Ankh of the Golem
3
Build Item Shifter's Shield Shifter's Shield
3
Build Item Bulwark of Hope Bulwark of Hope
3

Final Build

Build Item Warrior Tabi Warrior Tabi
Build Item Frostbound Hammer Frostbound Hammer
Build Item Voidblade Voidblade
Build Item Ankh of the Golem Ankh of the Golem
Build Item Shifter's Shield Shifter's Shield
Build Item Bulwark of Hope Bulwark of Hope
Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)
Build Item Creeping Curse Creeping Curse

Other Notables/Situationals

Build Item Aegis Amulet (Old) Aegis Amulet (Old)
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Jotunn's Wrath Jotunn's Wrath
Build Item Midgardian Mail Midgardian Mail
Build Item Witchblade Witchblade
Build Item Gauntlet of Thebes Gauntlet of Thebes

Hercules's Skill Order

Driving Strike

1 X Y
Driving Strike
3 8 11 12 14

Earthbreaker

2 A B
Earthbreaker
1 15 16 18 19

Mitigate Wounds

3 B A
Mitigate Wounds
2 4 6 7 10

Excavate

4 Y X
Excavate
5 9 13 17 20
Driving Strike
3 8 11 12 14

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
1 15 16 18 19

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
2 4 6 7 10

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

Greetings! This is my first guide, so any constructive criticism is welcome.





Hercules is a very interesting god. He has very high sustainability and abilities that make him a great team fighter. However, I also find that he noteworthy DPS when built for it and is not to be trifled with.

Pros / Cons

Pros


Excellent team player
Fantastic survivability
Above average DPS
Two great crowd-control abilities
Relatively low cooldowns


Cons


Short dash on Driving Strike is his only means of escape
Ultimate leaves much to be desired
Higher damage output comes at the cost of being at low health, which can be quite dangerous
Earthbreaker can pull multiple enemies and creeps, sometimes biting off more than you can chew

Skills

Strength From Pain




[Passive] As Hercules takes damage, he gains 20 (+2 * your level) physical power based on a percentage of his missing health.

This is one of Hercules' greatest strengths, and why building him as a Bruiser is so deadly. Mitigate Wounds and Eye of Retaliation also syngergize wonderfully with this passive.

Driving Strike




Hercules delivers a mighty strike, driving all enemies back and stunning them for .8/.9/1/1.1/1.2s if Hercules is at or below 50% health, increasing with Focus up to 1.7s. Anyone hit by the blow takes 80/130/180/230/280 (+60% of your physical power) physical damage. Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana. Cooldown: 14 seconds.

One of the two parts of your bread and butter. We'll call it the bread. This is your most damaging skill other than your ultimate. The Bruiser build really takes advantage of the stun on this ability, while the DPS build uses this as a nice burst/finisher. The prospect of displacing your enemy can be devastating to them, especially when used in tandem with Earthbreaker. The short dash is also your only means of escape, so you have to be mindful of when it's time to fight or take flight. And let's be honest; Herc doesn't know the meaning of "[VRR] Retreat!".

Earthbreaker




Hercules smashes the ground, sending a shockwave forward that does 60/110/160/210/260 (+50% of your physical power) physical damage to all enemies. Enemies at the end of the shockwave are thrown into the air towards Hercules. Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

The butter to your bread (who wants their bread plain?). Earthbreaker is your most useful skill. Catapulting carries, or even tanks that are out of position, to your immediate proximity is the key to playing Hercules. Earthbreaker allows you to punish carries and put them deep into your creeps, and out of range of their teammates. Early game, this skill can be devastating if the enemy is thrown into friendly creeps. Furthermore, you can use Driving Strike immediately following Earthbreaker to push your opponent way behind your lines, where you can proceed to lay the smack down and Bring the Herc! Earthbreaker also brings pitiful foes fleeing from your might to a much more embraceable range.

Mitigate Wounds





When Hercules activates this ability, 30/55/80/105/130% (+1% for every 2% health missing) of the damage taken in the next 4 seconds is returned to him as health over the next 10 seconds. Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana. Cooldown: 12 seconds.

The reason for building Herc as a bruiser. This ability let's you soak up damage, and come out of the fight topped off. It's low cooldown gives you allows you to use it for every fight, and solo jungle camps at low levels with ease. If Earthbreaker and Driving Strike are your bread and butter, then Strength from Pain and Mitigate Wounds are your toast and jam. Eye of Retaliation further compounds upon this combo, making some delicious toast, jam, and cream cheese trifecta. Mitigate Wounds allows you to safely utilize Mitigate Wounds and Eye of Retaliation, and to devastating effect.

Excavate





Hercules rips a huge boulder from the ground. Throwing the boulder does 200/300/400/500/600 (+100% of your physical power) physical damage and knocks back all enemies where the boulder lands. The boulder continues rolling, doing damage to all enemies in its path. Subsequent hits on the same enemy do 50% less damage per hit. Cost: 100 mana. Cooldown: 90 seconds.

This ability got a much needed loving. After removing the 50% damage reduction after rolling, this ability actually does decent damage and serves well as a finisher, or setting up a kill for your lane partner. Where this ability is truly deadly is in the jungle where you can get multiple hits on multiple enemies, but it's nothing to get too excited over. However, considering it's minimal use before, it's nice that it's worthwhile.

Items

Warrior Tabi
What's not to love about these boots? Physical Power, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike Chance all work wonderfully with the Bruiser or DPS loadout.

Voidblade
The Physical Power and Physical Protection Debuff make Void Blade a good choice for either loadout, but its definitely more geared towards the Bruiser setup sporting the Physical Protection and Focus. However, if you find yourself a bit squishy against AD carries, then slapping this on the DPS set will help ease the pain.

Eye of RetaliationEye of Retaliation
This item was practically made for Hercules. The Physical Power and Physical Lifesteal are great, but the passive is what really seals the deal, seeing that any incarnation of Hercules doesn't mind being at low health.

Frostbound Hammer
More Health means you can better take advantage of Mitigate Wounds, more Physical Power means you can slap your enemy hard with your giant club, and the slowing passive means you can make them stick around a lot easier. A higher HP pool also helps Anhk of the Golem realize its full potential. The Focus is just a bonus.

Ankh of the Golem
Physical Protection and Health help you to further abuse Mitigate Wounds, while the passive and Attack Speed help you to further abuse your enemies.

Mark of the Vanguard
A great starting item, nearly useless later in the game. The most notable thing about is the passive, which negates some creeps' damage (I believe ranged creeps and the small jungle furies). Early in the game, it can be a life saver. Sell it and replace it with whatever the situation calls for later on.

Bulwark of Hope
The real selling point here is the passive, which can let you survive some insane burst, and then completely heal it off thanks to Mitigate Wounds. The Magical Protection is nothing to scoff at either, nor is the Health. The Focus seals the deal on this lovely item.

The Executioner
Even after the rework to this item, I still find myself picking it up. The Physical Power, Attack Speed, and excellent, armor shredding passive are too good to pass up for such a cheap price.

Rage
As any AD carry, this is one of my favorite items, tied with Deathbringer. It's got the three most important stats to a physical damage dealer; Physical Power, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike Chance. Not to mention its lovely passive that sends your Critical Strike Chance through the roof.

Deathbringer
Here's what makes your enemies crit their pants. Coupled with the insane Critical Strike Chance of Rage, you'll be melting enemies in seconds.

Jotunn's Wrath
I'd only take this item if you're having Mana issues early on. The Physical Power on it is nice, the Focus doesn't hurt, and the passive helps you to spam your skills more. However, I can hardly ever justify buying it due to its cost, given what it offers comparatively.

Breastplate of Valor
The cheaper, tankier verison of Jotunn's Wrath. The only difference is that Breastplate of Valor offers a good deal of Physical Protection instead of Physical Power. A fine pick if you're having Mana issues, or just feel the need to harass enemies more often with your Earthbreaker.

Midgardian Mail
A good chunk of Physical Protection and Health. I'd use this item as a tankier alternative to Frostbound Hammer, given its passive slows down enemy Movement Speed and Attack Speed.

Witch StoneWitch Stone
An item meant for a Bruiser. Physical Power, Physical Protection, Attack Speed, and Focus all rolled up into one neat passive. The item is especially useful against an AD heavy team due to its passive, and when coupled with Midgardian Mail, you can slow their Attack Speed to laughable levels.

Gauntlet of Thebes
The boon of this item is the Health it offers, by default and from its passive. The HP5 doesn't hurt either. Gauntlet of Thebes works quite well in tandem with Anhk of the Golem.

Heartseeker
The Physical Power and Movement Speed offered by this item for such a cheap price make it such a great choice, especially given Hercules' innate survivability. Smart play is required to take full advantage of the snowball effect of the Heartseeker

Titan's Bane
If you find that you're having trouble with tanks, then this is a great item to slap on. The Physical Power on this item is just an added bonus to the +33% Physical Penetration.

Brawler's Beat Stick
A useful alternative to Rage. It offers a decent helping of Physical Lifesteal, Critical Strike Chance, and Health. The main use of this item is to shutdown healing threats like Hel or Ra, or even AD carries with copious amounts of Physical Lifesteal.
As far as abilities go, its pretty situational. I prefer to use Purification Beads as a sure means of escape, and Creeping Curse to help secure kills. However, Aegis Amulet isn't without its place if the enemy has heavy nukers, and SprintSprint isn't a bad choice for either chasing or escaping.

Playstyle

Playing as Hercules is mostly about being the aggressor. Your ability to harass people with Earthbreaker and heal off (most of) the damage via Mitigate Wounds is almost unmatched.



Be mindful of your teammates', especially your lane partner's, abilities and playstyle. Don't put throw Thor into Ao Kuang's face unless they are prepared for it. Communication is vital to success with any god.


Use Earthbreaker and Driving Strike to keep enemies away from retreating teammates.



Mitigate Wounds should be used in nearly every exchange.



Do not try to pull and enemy with Earthbreaker over/through obstacles (jungle, tower, walls).



Punish your enemy, especially carries, for bad positioning. An early beating can grind their whole game to a stop.

Credits

That's about all I have to offer on Hercules at this point. I'll be sure to add more and change things as necessary, as well as give credit where it is due.

Thanks to Ragingstorm and OddArcade for their great tips and pointers for putting some of the cooler effects in this guide together.

Thanks to the readers of this guide for taking the time to through this wall of text; I hope you got some use out of it.

[VVGL] Good Luck!

Do You Even Lift?

*Not using any build listed above, nor is it my gameplay or video. Just a fun video I found of Herc tearing it up*

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1
Moistmuffins (1) | September 14, 2013 11:24am
Used the survivability guide in a 3v3 joust having only played Herc one or two times prior and was unkillalbe while being able to dish out a good amount of damage. Great guide for me!
1
IHateMMOs | April 24, 2013 9:02am
What do you guys think of the Hydra's Lament? I found it somewhat useful. Pesky cooldowns.
1
Smigze (1) | April 3, 2013 2:24pm
This is nice.
1
Xalamander | March 31, 2013 1:19am
Awesome build! Really helped me learn Hercules! I just hate that they nerfed the range on his pull. It was op without question, but you can't troll as much now. :D
1
AnimetionArt | March 5, 2013 10:09am
One thing I noticed is that in the paragraph with mitigate wounds it says "Mitigate Wounds allows you to safely utilize Mitigate Wounds and Eye of Retaliation, and to devastating effect" im assuming that you meant you put strength from pain instead but other than that love this build. You did an amazing job :)
1
DragonLordG | January 22, 2013 10:35am
First thing I noticed here was you only have one item that gives Magical Protection in the core build, with 0 items that give Magical Protection in the list of items that also work. I would recommend having at least a few more items in the "could work" category for if the other team has something silly like 3 mages, or a superfed mid.
I like how you have short descriptions of how to play, but most guides benefit from a more in-depth analysis of the champion's strategy. Does he have any situational combos? When should and shouldn't I run into each fight? Is there anything quarky about his abilities I should be made aware of? I notice he appears to have a lot of forced movement on the hostiles. Should I be throwing their carry into the fight? Should I be throwing their tank to the side? Should I be saving my things for when one team starts to run, and then use my forced moves to either let my team get away or catch the other team? I get that I am supposed to be using Mitigate Wounds, but when do I pop it? Is it something you initiate with? Should I wait until I lose about 1/4 of my HP?
Overall, this has potential to be a good guide, and I would have to try it out before I decide if it works or not.
1
The DooD | January 21, 2013 11:30pm
Absolutely awesome build! I just went my first game doing this after trying the recommended build/skill order. I could not be killed if I had mana! I died once which was my fault for having no mana and he still does amazing damage.

Was laned with a Xbalanque vs another Hercules and Bacchus, though, so take what you will from that but we carried the game by far. Getting healed by Phoenix er'ry day
1
SlurrayMoan | January 17, 2013 3:03pm
Adding God match ups is a great idea and I'll definitely add that in the near future. I'll also play around with a full tank build and see if I can come up with something nice. WomensRightsLOL was the player in the video I linked, and he obviously played a full tank Hercules to good effect.
1
SlurrayMoan | January 15, 2013 3:06pm
I'm considering this guide complete for the time being. Thanks Ebenuscrux and Fusebaum for your comments. I hope I can get some feedback from readers on how this item build worked for them.
1
Ragingstorm (49) | January 14, 2013 9:13pm
Fusebaum wrote:

I wish people would stop posting reviews about the guide itself. I would rather know how the guide actual works in game. That's the whole point, right? ^_*


True, but he did ask for Constructive Critism since this is his first guide.
1
Fusebaum | January 14, 2013 8:31pm
I wish people would stop posting reviews about the guide itself. I would rather know how the guide actual works in game. That's the whole point, right? ^_*
1
Ebenuscrux | January 14, 2013 4:54pm
Good skill build, item build is a little lacking in my opinion. I, personally, find life steal a bad stat to have in a build with this god. Other than that I see this as a very nice set up guide. Voted up as it is well put together over all and has some nice strategy beyond the life steal.

I would suggest you put less focus on listing details on abilities and items in your guide and add more 'how to play' combos and ideas as the player base that does research their gods come here for that over reading what they can read in the game directly.
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League of Legends Build Guide Author SlurrayMoan
Bringing the Herc!
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Pros / Cons
Skills
Items
Playstyle
Credits
Do You Even Lift?

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