Herc Theory

[*] Hercules is a position master. You can disrupt the enemy very easily but if you do it wrong you are about as irritating to your team as a bad Odin ult.

[*] Hercules does massive auto damage regardless of his build for the most part (this build is meant to at least slightly exploit that fact)

[*] A well built Hercules can pop his 3 and withstand just about anything, in fact he will pop his three just as a fight starts and often come out with more HP than he started.

[*] He is strong but generic. Everyone buys beads, and every good support gets creeping curse. You aren't going to be causing people to go outside of their build, such as Odin who makes people waste an active slot with blink.

Driving Strike is your bread and butter. It's got initiate potential, escape potential, chase potential and of course there is it's damage and 1.5s stun to consider.

Earthbreaker will make people cry, especially your team if you lack situational awareness. It's damage is ok but don't expect to crush your lane with it. Stick to maxing Driving Strike first.

Mitigate Wounds has a nearly useless passive healing ability if no one attacks you, but if you time it right you can eat a God's entire damage combo and walk away with more health than you started with.

His ult just has high raw damage. Don't be fooled it's knock back ability was taken away, though it still can hit people multiple times for reduced damage each hit.

In lane pre 5 the general idea is to play possum and get the enemy to get a little to close to your minions, allow yourself to take a hit from them then A) Driving strike them into a wall if possible and kill them with auto attacks and minion damage (his level 1 is super strong if your lane opponent goes to agro) and then when they inevitabley run bring them back to the pain with Earthbreaker. B) You still attempt to eat a hit. But let's say you are against someone who is clearing from a range and there is no opportunity for you to Driving strike them in your own minion wave. The strategy now becomes to Earthbreaker them just barely hitting them with the end of the ability which pulls them to you, then either put them into a wall or drive them straight back towards your tower following up with your autos and hopefully your minions will be agroed on the enemy god. Both A and B have very high kill potential. Hercules is very scary early on.

Post level 5 is similar with one slight change. Your ult of course. Keep to the same strategy except driving them into a wall is much more beneficial now. If you can pin them on a wall then instantly blow your ult on them. Hercules' ult bounces off walls. This guarantees a double hit on your ult. At level 5 that is 605 damage before calculating your own Physical Power you may have or their armor. Most players don't leave base the first time with physical defense so this combo should be pretty much a one shot as most God's only have about 700 HP at level 5. You have a strong early game, take advantage of it. Even later on this is still your basic combo. Driving Strike into a wall, Ult, auto until they start to break away, bring them back with Earthbreaker and finish them off.

In the Jungle. At level one you have a terrific stun. Better yet this stun works great with walls. Stealing jungle camps is a cinch for Hercules. At level one buy one ward and one potion instead of no wards and two potions. Get to the enemy laner's blue buff ASAP and pop that ward. Now hide and wait. Most people bust their Hand of the Gods early to kill small minions at the camp and take less damage. Kinda stupid really. So, if they do this they cannot secure their buff. Wait for it to hit about a quater HP and run in like a bat outta' hell. Driving stike them into a wall and go to town on them, when it looks like your HoG will insta kill the buff blow it. You should end this with a kill and their buff especially if you get your own jungler on board. Pretty much rince and repeat this throughout the game. Later on remember your ult bounce. Hercules is a nightmare for the enemy team at Fire Giant or Gold Harpy. Your ult does so much damage it's not uncommon for it to steal the buff and/or wipe the enemy team. Ward and be aware. Your map presence is more game changing than any other warrior in the game.

The obvious stuff. Using your ult in tight spaces, such as Odin's spear ring, or in a jungle path, or inside a camp spawn, will grant you multiple hits on multiple people and do absolutely ludicrous damage.

Where should you use Hercules and why.

Jungle
- Meh, of course he can do it but his clear time is kinda garbage and his sustain isn't
really worth blowing on a jungle camp. He has great ganks, but you don't need to be the
jungler to gank a lane.

Support
- Depends on what you're going for here. Hercules has pretty bad wave clear so your lane
stands a really good chance at getting overly pushed. You can max Earthbreaker first to
help clear, but it's worth saving for when you intend to fight. That being said Hercules
does a ton of single target damage. Catch a Hunter out of position and he will melt at
your feet. So decent support for a warrior as long as you intend to go supper agressive.
He combo's pretty well with Anhur.

Solo

- Where he shines IMO. He has good sustain and great damage. He has two gap closers so
range isn't that hard for him to deal with. He has a slow push speed though so expect
to blow you HoG in lane. The reality is even if you are crushing your lane ceartain
gods, such as Ra, are going to take your tower. This is ok. High push on their side
gives you two things. 1) an easy way to Driving Strike them into your tower adding tons
of tower AA damage to your combo, 2) if the tower is down you might as well roam. When
Hercules roams enemies die. Just dont let them push your lane to far. The first tower
is ok, the second is much less so.

Mid

- I mean... maybe if you are really good with him. But any mid mage is going to crush you
with push and will most likely insta wipe your wave and just roam. You're going to get
a lot of your teamates ganked if you are in this lane because any decent mid god should
be able to push you enough so their jungler can stay in other lanes and so he can roam
constantly.

ADC

- As strong as Hercules is he needs defense. He's a balls in kinda dude and you don't do
that very well with a Deathbringer's and no protections. Leave it to the hunters friend
it's kind of their gig.

Sorry, I've never made a guide before so some of my explanations might be bad or lacking information I pass off as common knowledge. Also I appologize for bad grammar and not knowing how to link skills or items.

Constructive criticism helps and if I'm giving bad advice let me know. I don't want to be responsible for a bad Hercules.