Hecarim will probably be one of the strongest jungle champions in this year’s Worlds.
Hecarim, The Shadow of War, has been one of the most popular junglers for the past few years. He has been one of the go-to junglers for players in solo-queue and professional play. But after the Durability Update, he has struggled quite a bit. Although weaker, he kept up with the meta junglers with the help of the Turbo Chemtank. However, after the Turbo Chemtank nerfs, Hecarim fell out of the meta.
With Worlds 2022 on the horizon, Riot decided to give him a mini-rework. The rework aimed to push him towards Bruiser/Fighter build. And, with the mini-rework hitting the live servers in Patch 12.17, Hecarim has been in a good spot. Well, maybe too good of a spot.
Hecarim with the Bruiser build has been terrorising solo-queue recently. He currently has almost a 50% solo queue presence, with a 30% ban rate. These absurd numbers put Hecarim into the borderline overpowered territory.
Hecarim is so strong that even pro players question Riot’s decision to buff Hecarim’s numbers and how it will affect the Worlds meta.
Read more: League of Legends Worlds Patch 12.18 Notes
The former Fnatic jungler and Worlds finalist Broxah have also complained about how broken Hecarim is. Broxah, in a recent solo-queue game, got a Pentakill at minute 15 while casually 1v5-ing. Although he was quite fed, a champion should not be able to 1v5 and get a Pentakill at minute 15.
The twitch clip completely encapsulates the current state Hecarim is at right now.
Broxah, in his stream, said, “my champ is not balanced,” stating how “broken” Hecarim is right now. Not only Broxah but many solo-queue and pro players also feel that Hecarim is broken currently.
Upcoming Hecarim Nerfs
- Q: Rampage
- Bonus AD ratio reduced 95% >>> 90%
- Ramp damage reduced +6% per 100 bonus AD >>> +5% per 100 bonus AD
- W: Spirit of Dread
- Healing reduced 30% (+2.5% per 100 bAD) >>> 25% (+2% per 100 bAD)
The good thing is that Riot has noted the issue and is planning on nerfing Hecarim before Worlds 2022. The Hecarim nerfs are currently in the PBE (Public Beta Environment) servers and scheduled to hit live servers on Sept 21, 2022, along with Patch 12.18.
Let us hope that the changes will put Hecarim in a balanced state.
