Feeling like a hero

I played a game of League the other night that I completely dominated. Playing as Hecarim (my current favorite champ), I was able to crush in the jungle. The best moment came when I ganked top. Our Teemo had been struggling with Olaf for the first 10 minutes of the game (which is odd because Teemo should actually be decent in that matchup) and I came up to relieve pressure. I came charging in from the river and Olaf popped his Ult (which makes him immune to CC). I did a bunch of damage (took him down to half) but, without the knockback from my charge, there was no way I was going to catch him before he got to tower.

Our Teemo types, "I hate Olaf. Fricking impossible to kill."

So I went back into the jungle and saw that Olaf came back (and I think warded the river crescent bush). At that point, the lane was roughly frozen at the half way point. So I circled back and went into his tri-bush (he was red side) and came charging through between minion waves. This time my charge landed, knocked him towards Teemo. He was still tanky enough (and I think popped ghost) to get back to his tower but Teemo and I could easily tower dive him at ~10% health and kill him.

I typed, "Not impossible to kill. Just requires effort ;)"

Hecarim brings so much to the game and fits me really well. Some hints to playing him.

Smite, Ghost is the way to go. Flash isn't really needed and ghost works nearly as well for escapes given how fast you are. Ghost will make your ganks really powerful (increasing your AD by a fair clip) while allowing you to get around the map a lot quicker.

I've started building Zephyr. It gives you AD, attack speed, move speed and tenacity. All things which you really want to have as Hecarim. It's relatively cheap and easy to build (small cost components). The attack speed is SLIGHTLY wasted on Hecarim but not so much that I think it's worthless and while STACKING attack speed on him is bad, getting just a little bit is about perfect. Don't rush it though. My typical build is Spirit of the Elder Lizard -> Iceborn Gauntlet -> Sunfire Cape -> Zephyr.

Having said that, vary your build according to the circumstances. If you need to carry and your team has a lot of CC, Tri-force can be better than Iceborn. You may need to go tanky with a Warmog's or you may need a Runic Bulwark for the magic resist. You want to have 10 or so items that you "wish" you could buy and then choose accordingly based on the game. The enemy team's damage type will play a big role but so will yours. Here's the items I've built on Hecarim that I think are worth considering:

Any Hunter's Machete upgrade: I've honestly built them all. USUALLY I build Spirit of the Elder Lizard for the AD but you can make an argument for any of them. A note about Spirit of the Spectral Wraith. Building AP on Hecarim may look odd but Hecarim with Spirit of the Spectral Wraith (20% spell vamp), Iceborn Gauntlet and Rod of the Ages can be a frighteningly tanky monstrosity. I don't do this often (typically I want "burst tanky" not "sustain tanky") but if both teams are tanky, the fights can last really long and you may want to consider it.

The Black Cleaver: Black cleaver applies when physical damage is dealt. Shredding the armor of three members through your use of Rampage is a common thing and you'll often do it two or three times in a fight. Cleaver gives you AD, health and CDR which are all nice on Hecarim as well. Buy this if your team is heavy on AD.

Boots of Mobility vs. Boots of Swiftness: I've been buying the boots of Swiftness but I think I'm going to go back to the mobility. The boost to your alpha and the map movement more than compensates for the lack of escape speed and slight damage hit in longer fights.

Abyssal Scepter: Not a frequent buy but if I find myself initiating a lot and the other team is heavy magic damage, this is probably worth it.

Aegis / Runic: I typically leave this to the support to buy but if they don't, I'll pick it up.

Blade of the Ruined King: Hecarim auto-attacks enough to make this OK if the enemy team has a couple ultra health champs. Don't discount this simply because you're not the ADC. Not an ideal item however.

Frozen Heart: An awesome item for a champion that wants to be in the fight. If they other team has a dominant ADC and/or melee champs that rely on auto-attacks (Darius, Shaco, etc) this can be a really powerful item.

Hextech Gunblade: An interesting option on Hecarim. It's "OK" but not generally as good as tri-force if you want raw damage. Nevertheless, the sustain it provides is powerful and if you find yourself needing that, it might be worth it.

Manamune: I've never actually tried this but if you build a frozen heart often you should maybe consider this. The AD boost should be easy to max out given how frequently you rampage around. I think I'll try this tonight.

Youmuu's Ghostblade: Gives surprisingly good stats (30 AD, 15% crit, 10% CDR, 20 flat armor pen). The crit is a bit wasted on Hecarim but the other stats are all good and the active (20% movement speed and 40% attack speed for 6 seconds every 45 seconds) is very powerful with him. Just make sure you use it!

Your ult is NOT an initiate. It just isn't. Stop using it that way. It is longer range than Malphite and if you hit it at max range and aim for the MIDDLE of the enemy team, you're going to be isolated with enemies randomly scattered around you ready to clobber you after 1 second. People think of it as similar to Malphite's ult because, superficially, it is. The difference is that A) you're not as tanky as Malphite B) the bulk of the damage comes in the charge and not the end point and C) it doesn't freeze people in place it forces them to scatter. The better play is to use it after the fight starts. Charge through a bunch of enemies and get to the other side of them. If you do it right, you can force the ADC on the other team to run in fear TOWARDS your team. This will likely throw a bunch of damage on the enemy and, more importantly, force the ADC to both stop attacking and move closer to your team.

I've typed enough now but hopefully you can see the joy of being a powerful pony!