"Welcome to the big leagues, ladies. Play hard or go home!" - Solo, Conquest Guide. Season 4

Introduction

...Why, I hear you say?
- Well you didn't say that, I know. You've noticed his burstdamage is ridiculous for a god that can heal oneself so much with a big heal at that.
You'll be no stranger having been ran over as if being hit by a truck.
Or having the sun suddenly disappear and the maps floor darken as a giant approaches from the other side of a wall to destroy you and everything you hold dear... R.I.P.

Pros and cons

Pros

[*] Weak to stuns
[*] Lack of escape
[*] Predictable play-style
[*] No point trying to box with Osiris
[*] His abilities can literally be hit and miss (especially against a high mobility god)

Stats

[*] NEW: Everytime Hercules takes Damage from Gods, he gains 5 Physical Power +1 multiplied by your level, stacking up to 3 times and lasting 5s.
[*] Decreased Mana Cost from 70/75/80/85/90 → 60/65/70/75/80.
[*] NEW: When activated, Hercules heals himself instantly and then heals himself again for a % of damage taken after 4s. Also, Hercules gains Bonus Magical and Physical Protections for the duration.
[*] Initial Heal 60/100/140/180/220.
[*] Heals for 30/40/50/60/70% of damage taken after 4s.
[*] Protections 10/20/30/40/50.
[*] Decreased Cooldown from 17s → 15s.
[*] Decreased Mana Cost from 60/65/70/75/80 → 60 at all ranks.

Abilities

1

• Damage: 85/155/225/295/365 (+90% of your physical power)
• Stun: 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5s
• Ability Type: Dash
• Cooldown: 14 seconds
• Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana

Tips: You just press it! Well it can be miss fired tbh, but compared to some abilities in the game it is really is easy to use and the reward for hitting it is quite big ( especially early game). Bear in mind that it is a stun on your opponent, therefore you should use this to escape by dashing into a target in a 1v1 scenario as opposed to dashing way. The reason being it is a fairly short dash whereas but your opponent will be pushed the length of that dash and receive a 1.1 to 1.5 second stun. Don't get me wrong it can be viable as an escape for increasing distance from a player you are trying to escape but you will rely on this ability more for engaging. However saying that once you get T2 breastplate the extra mana and the CDR you'll have from my build mid to late game means you can swing and miss at the cost of getting spammed in VGS with the chants of 'you rock'. (every other game for me).
So to summarize; use wisely, be sure to hit, and don't rely on this as your escape because there are other means of getting away ;) tell you more later...

Earthbreaker

2

Tips: This abilities main utility is it is a pull and a knock up, and should be used as so as much as possible to combo off or as set-up. You can however use it just as a damage output or primarily for clearing wave at the start of the game.
*If you're getting really ahead in lane, I recommend that after putting points into Driving Strike before putting points into Mitigate Wounds . Season 3 style.
Like so:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Mitigate Wounds

3

Tips: Instant heal? Damage returned as healing? Protections buff?
Well that update mentioned earlier in the previous chapter ("Batter Up!") was a bit excessive for a tick heal. They must have got carried away...
You can basically use this for everything. Early game you'll find yourself using for the heal then mid game as an escape because it works with shield of regrowth, then late game as an engagement/heal/escape.
This ability is what makes Jerkules so annoying.

Excavate

4

4th (ultimate) ability: 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.
[*] Damage: 300/425/550/675/800 (+100% of your physical power)
[*] Ability Type: Ground Target
[*] Radius: 15
[*] Cooldown: 90 seconds
[*] Cost: 100 mana

Tips: THAT'S TOO MUCH DAMAGE!!!
If you're under pressure you can throw it wave and it will clear after two points in
Go for the kill and throw at fleeing opponents with low health
Secure camps. I.e. mana buff secure via throwing between walls when your opponent tries to steal and can be used to steal your opponents buff with the same bot strategy or go for trick shots by throwing the boulder over the wall (yep, you can do that)

Strength From Pain

5?

Passive:Every time Hercules takes damage from an enemy god he gains a stacking self buff that provides increased Physical Power.
[*] Physical Power Per Stack: 5 + 1*your level
[*] Duration: 5s
[*] Max Stacks: 3
[*] Ability Type: Buff

Comment: Therefore, lvl 20 physical power per stack = 5+19= 24 so, 3 stacks= 24x3= 72 which is a nice little bonus of physical power that works well with mitigate wounds . Shame it only last 5s. Don't go outta your way to get hit (lol).

Combos

then, .

Well that's all there is to it...


Pull 'n' crush -> + Auto-Attacks

This is Herc's bread and butter. You pull them in which sets up for a free driving strike, and as long as they don't have escape or ability immunity i.e. Ravana flip kick isn't up you can position yourself to where you want to push them to, which could be under tower. You should follow up with auto-attacks, because the burst damage is good so chip at their health some more and use to back off while auto-attacking if you've bit off more than you can chew.



Push 'n' rush ->

If you can get in range to use your driving strike then that's good for a bit of burst to follow up with earthbreaker whilst toe-to-toe, because it's the same damage dealt at this distance but obviously you won't be grabbing your coat (because you didn't pull).



Push 'n' crush -> Or -> ->

If you got 'em on the ropes and catch 'em with a driving strike place the boulder at you feet and that should be a kill.


*Note* Your basic attacks are really strong and maybe even under valued so get into the habit of smacking 'em round the head. If you're against a Bellona try not to get into a boxing match or at least a long one. Use mitigate wounds and get that passive cooking you'll come out on top for a while.

offensive items:

Death's Toll: You'd be brave to start with this on Herc. If you're solo queuing nobody will like you and if like me the friends you play with don't like you either way. It's not the meta on Hercules because bluestone pendant is far superior for wave clear and will, and you don't hit more than one minion with auto attack so you can not fully utilize the passive. As much as other warriors with 'cleave basics'.

Bluestone Pendant: Bluestone Pendant is a no-brainer on Hercules. In this current solo meta just play to your strengths as Hercules is an ability based warrior and this item is tailored for these type of gods.

warrior tabi is you're got to because we're not building death's toll and so have no need to build ninja tabi which is better for attack speed which we don't want as we would like the little extra physical power from warrior tabi

Frostbound Hammer: It fits most warriors as a go-to item. But I'd never pick it up on Hercules not even last because we're not in the face of some basic attacking alot of the time late game so adopt a team mentality as this won't make to much of an impact on back-lining either.

Runeforged Hammer: It's ok to build but build it late as possible, I'm talking last item the passive is applicable.

Jotunn's Wrath: This item does really well on ability builds for obvious reasons. Hercules is a mana hungry man, especially without his blue buff, so he can make good use of every stat on this item. Combined with Breastplate of Valor you get much CDR, Especially if you add shield of regrowth shield of regrowth in to the mix you will be casting driving strike constantly. Probably best to build breast plate and shield so you can mitigate more though. :(

Titans Bane Titan's Bane: I like this item on Hercules, it is strong against gods with a lot of protections, and less useful against opponents with little or no defenses for whom +15 flat pen would strip much more than 30% of their total defenses. Titan's bane is considered to be a fit ability-based gods (which is what we are). Makes your boulder hit like a bigger boulder.


*Disclaimer*
A list of offensive items that if I see you build these I will show up at your house and haunt you wearing my Friday clothes-

• Ninja Tabi - We're not Herc the hunter.
• Hastened Fatalis - Usable, but we're not Herc the hunter.
• The Executioner - We're not Herc the hunter.
• Qin's Sais - We're not Herc the hunter.
• Ichaival - We're not Herc the hunter.
• Silverbranch Bow - We're not Herc the mage hunter.
• Stone Cutting sword Bow Stone Cutting sword - Or Herc the jungler
• Transcendence - You'll never pull it off
• ... And no crit items

Mark of the Vanguard: I'm a fan when I'm playing Bellona, Osiris, Xing tian etc. However you don't need to bother on Herc, as his sustain is as such where you can race to buy breastplate of valor or mystic mail mystic mail and get item advantage over you opponent. Take that! told you Herc is OP!

Breastplate' or mystic'?...

mystic mail Mystic mail: An item I've loved since I started playing and when it came in meta I was over the moon. However, there's a problem with gold advantage going either way by a considerable margin this season and some gods can really perform better after building it. On Herc you are pulsating damage while the other team are struggling to take you down so you'll really pad your stats (lol).

Breastplate of valor: Ability gods are great with Breastplate. The stats just suit Herc like a glove as well as it will fuel you with some mana and CDR, Great! A Breastplate however in a straight up fist fight will get beaten by mystic mail as it's health and phys. protection as well as pulsating damage. But it is cheaper

So which is best?

Well there is no decisive winner in how it fits into a build. But, as I've suggested you should build Breastplate of valor over mystic mail.
Reason?
The T2s can fight it out...
In my opinion Silver breastplate beats steel mail by a mile... Silver Breastplate costs 950gold and provides +35 Physical Protection, along with some much needed mana= +200 Mana and +10 MP5 given.

Whereas T2 you get from backing costs 1400gold +200 Health and +20 Physical Protection which is measly in comparison. There also no point keeping it as a T2 item because you want it T3 - mystica mail to make use of that nice passive which is an additional 1400gold. 1350gold is needed to complete breastplate but you can finish it when the gold comes rolling in after getting shield of regrowth online asap and get travelling around the map

So that is why I decide to build breastplate of valor in to shield of regrowth. Well... That and I love CDR!

shield of regrowth Shield of regrowth: For As I've probably said this is must have for me the passive is too well suited to Hercules and his Mitigate wounds for me to not want to build it, and not only can we justify building it but it is also extremely fun. After healing yourself from an ability, you gain +40% movement speed for 4 seconds. This cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds. That's like a free sprint relic going off. Also you get +10 HP5, +10 MP5, +10% Cooldown Reduction along with +300 health.
You should get some health built in solo in general any way as it would be like a fragile egg wearing armor, whereas this is like a hardboiled egg wearing armor (lol).

Hide of the Nemean Lion: To trade CDR for a pretty sweet passive good against all basics providing. With some nice physical protections that beats Breastplate of Valor as it gives +80. IKR so you can throw breatsplate outta the window if there's a few heavy auto-attackers in your match.

midguardian mail Midgardian Mail: The love child of frostbound hammer and of hide of the Nemean lionhide of the namean lion. Just build it when you haven't gone into mystical mailmystic mail, or haven't built Breastplate of valor and hide of the namean lionhide of the namean lion.

Pestilence: Is an item built by a lot of solo-laners in SPL games. Pestilence will give excellent magical defense and health while passively reducing all enemy healing nearby by 25%. That includes both direct healing abilities like Ra's heal, and even lifesteal from items. So it's bad news if someone on the other team picks it up.

Any of the cloaks are good pick-ups, and are kind of a must have... So any of these, just pick one... spirit cloak, , . Maybe not so much magi's blessing unless the CC is unbearable.

Conquest match

o to battle to then...

I think the best way to pick up on all the little things about Hercules that some wanna disregard just because. Is to watch how he's played. I could describe to you the habits for when I play and what I think is good but to save time (which I'm short on).
I will reference to a popular streamer that I watched before picking up Hercules. That is what I recommend; watch a video and adapt to play style before experimenting with build etc.