User blog comment:Astanas7/Champion rant: Hecarim/@comment-10257787-20140222105954

Well, i really like to play hecarim, althoug i always use the bloodknight skin

I think it's pretty strange, but hecarim is one of my strongest junglers, as i win most of the games with him and even if i don't, i always got good stats.

The problem is, that because he was once op, they nerfed him pretty hard and brought him down. Now, that season 4 jungle arrived and other, also very strong jungler appeared, hecarim just isn't the strongest anymore.

The problems I see with him are:

1.) Passive is useless: well, maybe not completely useless, but it doesn't really do anything and there are MUCH better passives out there

2.) Mana costs: The Manacosts on his q are just ridicolous, making him blue buff dependend all game if he doesn't want to run out of mana all the time. One Teamfight can bring his mana completely down, and he just can't sustain his mana efficiently back up when he's jungeling.

3.) Jungle Limitations: His Q does reduced damage and his W has a healcap against monsters. When he was released, in the old jungle those adjustments were necessary. Back in Season 3, everyone could go jungle with the new items. But now, the Season 4 jungle got a lot harder, and those reductions on his abilities aren't necessary anymore

4.) Item dependend: You need an iceborn gauntlet or frozen mallet for a slow and without damage items you don't really do that much, other then vi or shyvana for example.

If you got a good early with him and some enemies who aren't really prepared for a jungler like hecarim, he becomes a real monster. His teamfight is ridiculously strong if he got some items, which only leaves him with his high mana costs

TL;DR: Hecarim is ridiculously strong, especially in teamfights, but he is itemdependend, thus needs a good start in the game, were his biggest weaknesses lay. He is all about using his secretly overpowered kit in early properly or dying in lategame as he doesn't bring much to the table without items