Merkules

Hello, this is ICEN here with my first guide.

As some of you know from playing with me in game, I have Hercules God Rank 10 Legendary.
He is my go to god when I want to get serious or win games. I still play him for fun but he is a great god to pick on teams that like to win games wither it be conquest, arena or domination. Hercules is my best god and hopefully I did him justice in this guide.

I have added things in this guide that nobody has spoken on about Hercules
I cannot think of anything that I left out so I am confident that this Hercules guide is ready to be seen with the info I put out. Time to greet the "Champion of Rome"

Pros :
- Passive increases damage out put to extremely high levels
- High base damage
- High Scaling on his two damaging skills
- Extremely high damage overall because of his kit
- High health sustain
- Can move targets around and misplace them
- Can push away team fights literally
- High damaging ult that can be launched at escaping enemies or thrown into team fights
- Almost unkillable 1v1 if played correctly
- Can survive uncoordinated burst by entire teams
- Can solo, jungle, and Duo Lane
- Can be built to meet any play style and fit almost any role
- Can dive towers and come out with more health then he started with
- Strong all game but becomes most strong mid-late game.


Cons :
- No escape
- Extremely mana hungry early game
- Requires skill to play effectively
- Many skills require timing
- Mistaken for invincible at all times, causing players to do poorly with him
- Limited range for constant damage output
- Ult can get interrupted/canceled a lot
- Driving Strike seems very narrow at times making you miss a target
- Mitigate Wounds can be countered by items and smart players

Passive Strength from Pain
As Hercules takes damage he gains physical power based on a percentage of his missing health.
Up to 30 + (3 * your level) - I will explain how this passive works below

If you are level 1, the most power you can get from this passive is 33 at 1% hp. 30 in the equation is the amount of physical power you get at 1% hp for each level starting off. So no matter if you were level 1 or level 20 at 1% hp, the first part of the equation gives you 30 extra physical power from just being on 1% hp. The second part of the equation (3 * level) gives you extra power for every level you reach on top of that 30 power you are already given.

*At level 1 you get 3 extra power because 3x1=3, with the 30 power you have a total of 33
*At level 20 you get 60 extra power because 3x20=60, plus 30 you have a total of 90 power.
This is at 1% hp, so since we know at level 20 you get 90 power at 1% hp then we would know at 50% hp you would get 45 power because 45 is half of 90.


Hercules's 1 Driving Strike
Hercules delivers a mighty strike, driving all enemies back damaging them and stunning them.
This skill has a lot of base damage, high scaling, does tons of damage and can clear waves
How to use : This skill will be followed up with Earthbreaker in order to reposition gods and cause lots of damage. After a successfully landed Earthbreaker you simply turn towards the direction you wish to push the enemy god and they will be pushed/stunned in that direction. Driving Strike is your damaging tool along with your wave clear in solo lane. This skill is narrower then you think to land sometimes, so make sure you aim it right because it does have a reputation for missing here and there when not aimed perfectly.

Skill Purpose
Clearing waves
Repositioning enemy gods
Push away gods that are attacking friendly gods
Push enemy gods into friendly ults/skills
To cancel out a skill being used by an enemy god
Short dashes used for creating distance such as chasing or escaping

Hercules's 2 Earthbreaker
Hercules smashes the ground, sending a shockwave forward that does damage to all enemies in the path. Enemies at the end of the shockwave are thrown into the air towards Hercules.
This skill is not a main damage source so should not be used or thought as one.
How to use : This is Hercules initiation skill that shall be followed up by Driving Strike. This skill provides a decent range to which Hercules does not actually have to put himself in the middle of a fight to deal damage or pick people off. Earthbreaker is Hercules most required skill to aim properly, as it will be the main skill need to be an effective Hercules. There is a box at the end of Earthbreaker that knocks up/pulls back enemy gods within the box, if they are not within the box they will only receive damage. You will be required to think ahead interpreting enemy movements and thought patterns based on what situation the enemy god is in. Earthbreaker has a slight delay and forward traveling motion before the end of the box activates to knockup/pull back enemy gods within the box.

Skill Purpose
To pull back specific gods either to yourself or your team
To pull back gods allowing for the follow up of Driving Strike for repositioning them
To pull back gods chasing friendly gods
to pull archer minions next to melee minions in order to clear the wave with Driving Strike
To pull back escaping gods

Hercules's 3 Mitigate Wounds
When Hercules activates this ability, he heals for a certain amount every second for 4 seconds when initiated. The percentage damage done within the 4 seconds will be returned as healing over the next 10 seconds. This is what makes Hercules Hercules, along with making him a near invincible strong god.

How to use : This skill needs to be used at the right moment and is the very reason why new players or players in general who do not play Hercules do bad with him even when building full tank. Based on how many points you put into this ability is how you should be using it. At low levels Mitigate Wounds will not heal back alot of damage done to yourself, so at low levels you should only use mitigate wounds for sustaining not for trading although you can still use it like that. With 4-5 points into mitigate wounds you can start trading only if you know how to use it properly.

Mitigate wounds shall be used as you are being attacked, not before or after. A common mistake for Hercule players is that they activate mitigate wounds too soon when you are not sure you will be taking damage as it can be countered by the enemy god waiting out your 4 second heal. Mitigate wounds should only be used when damage is actually coming or if you are in desperate need of health. The most common mistake is that people mistaken a 120% heal as meaning they can survive a 5 man burst. Remember that Hercules takes 4 seconds before he even starts to heal back that damage and he takes another 10 seconds to regen all the damage taken. That is a total of 14 seconds for you to be bursted down. In order to use this skill effectively you will need to know how much burst you can take, then you will need to retreat until your regen starts after the 4 second mark. Note that even after you start regening hp you can still be bursted from another team attack and die.

Skill Purpose
To sustain a lane
To initiate/tank fights/protect carries/mages
To dive towers/phoenix's/minotaur
To counter ults like thanatos's

Hercule's Ult Excavate
Hercules rips a huge boulder from the ground. Throwing the boulder does damage and knocks back all enemies 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 ult can destroy a team or single target even at range

How to use: Excavate does high base damage and has 100% scaling so this ult is nothing to take as a joke especially since Hercules passive can increase his damage output as if he had another 1-2 physical power items. You will need to judge your targets heal as you want to use a Hercules ult mainly to finish fights or throw at started team fights. If you throw this into a team fight you can almost bet that team fight quickly got broke up. It is important to know that the longer range you aim your boulder the faster it will be thrown something people do not know. This ult can also be thrown over objects like walls and will bounce off of objects doing more damage to targets hit. If you are soloing it is best used after you Driving Strike someone into a wall so it bounces and does more damage.

Skill Purpose
To secure kills that are running and are at distance
To use in team fights dropping entire team health and putting enemy teams at a disadvantage
To use on single targets after CC'd or driving striked on low health.

1 + 2 Combo
The standard combo for Hercules is the 1 + 2 combo that is what its called.
You fist use Earthbreaker on any enemy god or gods that you want to reposition then you use Driving Strike to reposition them along with deal a big chunk of damage.
This is the main combo that you will be trying to strive for when playing Hercules.

2 + 1 Combo
An advanced combo that you will rarely ever see a Hercules use is the 2 +1 combo.
This combo is performed in the opposite way, as you will use Driving Strike to push an enemy god/gods away then use Earthbreaker to pull them back. In order to do this you will need to start backing up with Hercules immeadiatly after you use Driving Strike in order to create enough distance for the end of Earthbreaker to be placed over the enemy god/gods. You will always have enough time to do this combo if you do it right. This does have some benefits as maybe you need to dash to avoid attacks but at the same time want to use your combo on an enemy. This also tricks a lot of players that never expect this combo as they are used to seeing the 1 + 2 combo, most people never see the 2 + 1 combo as it is rarely done.

Ult Combo Finisher
In solo lane and with 1v1 fights, Hercules finishes his 1 + 2/2 + 1 combo's with his ult
Note: A tip with his ult is the further you throw it the faster the boulder gets thrown so adjust your aiming based on the speed. Hercules ult should also be used against objects like Odin's ult in order to get max damage from bounces.

Early Game Friendly Tower
Since Hercules has super low mana early game you will be almost guaranteed to be under your tower at some point. Although this seems to be a disadvantage because you have Earthbreaker and Driving Strike you can pick off an easy early game kill by taking advantage of early game tower damage.

Driving Strike Chase
For some sad reason, some people who play Hercules seem to not realize that when enemies are out of range of your Earthbreaker all you need to do is use Driving Strike to gain enough distance to bring them right back to you or your team.

Mitigate wounds OP cheat heal
If you have Mitigate Wounds upgrade to level 5 you can officially do the most OP cheat heal in smite. Since rank 5 Mitigate Wounds heals for 120% damage taken, if you find yourself in need of some health all you need to do is purposely walk into an enemy tower to take damage. Wait why would you do that? Well you are doing this because if you activate mitigate wounds and take no damage you only get the initial heal, but when you walk into a tower purposely then step out of it after the 4 second damage absorption you will regen even more health then what you walked in with, thus making anyone watching you scream op!

Warnings :
Do not use Driving Strike to push enemy gods away from team mates unless they are being attacked or going to die. Team mates will get very upset if you push enemy gods away from a kill that was suppose to be secured by your team. When someone like Ymir freezes a enemy god it is up to you to decide if you should stun them because you might make another team member miss a skill shot. On another note its up to you to decide when to stun after you pulled back an enemy god with Earthbreaker as your team may waste CC or not be expecting it.

Mark of the Vanguard
You will need this item for Hercules right off the bat since Hercules will get out pushed easy by most gods early game. Hercules does not have the power nor mana to clear fast enough compared to other gods so prepare to be taking harrass from both minions and the enemy god pushing you. Smart players will push Hercules extremely hard early game since this is his weakest state and he is mana hungry. Mark of the Vanguard is just here to keep you safe being you are playing at your weakest early game.

Fist of the Gods
You will buy Hand of the Gods which you will upgrade to rank 3 Fist of the Gods later on. Your jungler will most likely pick up Hand of the Gods as well so you can argue who wants what but for me I will take fist. Either way you are choosing this active for the same reason. This will help Hercules clear waves early game when he is weak as well as grab blue buff in solo lane. If you upgrade it into Fist of the Gods then you have even more kill securing after your stun.

Healing Potion
You will pick up 3 of these for sustain. You don't need many because of Mitigate Wounds

Mana Potion
You will pick up 5 of these because Hercules has a horrid early game and needs all the mana he can get, this will also let you spam mitigate wounds to heal as if its a hp potion.

Warrior Tabi
Always choose these boots because they give you speed and penetration. If new players must know, boots must be used for the speed alone other wise you will not be fast enough to catch players early on along with the fact you get stats with the speed like penetration. Hercules needs all the penetration he can get as we are focusing on dealing damage not missing skills and relying on cooldown reduction.

focused voidblade
Pretty much a must have item for Hercules if you want to deal damage since most of Hercules damage will come from skills which require penetration to deal more damage. We are mainly picking this item up because it allows your skills to do more damage at the same time giving you a decent amount of physical protections. You do gain some physical power as well. Junlgers are often Physical damage dealers so it will help to have some physical defense early on. Also small amounts of defense still take Hercules a long way since Mitigate Wounds makes Hercules naturally tanky even when built for damage.

Bulwark of Hope
This item needs to be picked up ASAP as you have no magical protections at the moment and when it comes down to team fights you will need this. This item also works well your Mitigate Wounds. Hopefully this item can save you when low on hp just enough for your mitigate wounds to start healing you back to survivable hp. Bulwark of Hope grants you health as well which you can see as extra physical/magical defense because in reality it protects you from both but in small amounts. The main reason for this item is the passive which will let mitigate wounds keep you alive.

ankh of the bear
We are picking AOTB up because of its passive, simple as that. This item is going to give you more physical protections so that the passive starts converting all your physical protections into physical power. You can see this as a focused voidblade with a bit more tankyness and physical power based on your protections without the penetration. We are mainly getting this because this will help us build another item to tank while letting us in return still keep our physical power running some what high. At this point that annoying Loki might stop wasting his ult on you.

Sovereignty
Remember that ankh of the bear we just got for the passive? Well now Sovereignty is here to not only boost your physical power because of ankh's passive, not only give you physical protections, not only give you health, but now we get more phsyical protections from sovereignty's passive along with magical defense can you ask for more? Actually yes you can, you also give some physical/magical protections to all allies near you! At this point no physical god should worry you too much, you have enough defense to take some damage from mages with Mitigate Wounds and your damage out put is enough to hold your own being that Strength from Pain only makes up for any physical power lacking which shouldn't be much.

Titan's Bane
Yes we are grabbing titan's bane for our last item because we are Hercules and we simply have no respect for your defense. At this point in the game if you are doing your job correctly almost everyone should be afraid of you and that is the exact reason we are picking up Titan's Bane because someone is going to start building up defense in hopes of your 2 + 1 + ult combo doesn't kill them in one go. Its as simple as that, people will start building up defense if they are taking to much damage and you need an item that will go through that defense. Titan's bane adds penetration to your skills as well which is why we are picking it up, those tanks will be effected as well.

Aegis Amulet
This active is a great idea to pick up if you do not need beads. Why is this item so great you may ask? Well being immune to damage as a Hercules is something that I would call "repeat that last sentence please?" Yes he is immune and if Hercules was unkillable before and hard to burst down with Mitigate Wounds then you surely never seen a Hercules using Aegis Amulet so that he regens heal back from minigate wounds. That is why we are getting it, because it acts like beads at rank 3 and by you staying immune on low damage/near death, it gives Mitigate Wounds time to heal you back up. You can easily stun people out of your way once you come out of it.

Hercules "The Champion of Rome" should be renamed to "The Champion of OP" because in the hands of a skilled player many see him as OP. His strengths are plenty and his weaknesses can almost all be countered by Mitigate Wounds making up for any weakness he may have. When you play Hercules you play a god that is respectable, feared and most importantly you feel like you are playing a god because you are "god" once you get your build.

Hercules can take a 1v5 burst and live if it is an uncoordinated burst. Hercules can dive any tower and come out with more health then he went in with. The more you hurt Hercules the stronger you are making him. He can fight from a distance, he can move gods around. He has snipe like capabilities when he throws a boulder down a lane and kills a running enemy god. Your goal as Hercules is to just survive long enough to buy items and get to mid-late game.

Hercules hits extremely hard while being extremely tanky why shouldn't you pick him is the question? He does take some time to get practice his skills but after that you have one of the strongest gods in the game who can almost never be brought down by nobody alone unless its a 1v2+. This guide can be used in Conquest, Arena, Domination ect. Most of this guide still applies.

"If you ever think of not picking Hercules just remember the time when he 1v3'd your team"
Scream OP! Scream OP! Scream OP! Scream OP! Scream OP! Scream OP! Scream OP! Scream OP!