Read me if you like Hercules, and winning lanes

Okay so first of all, thanks for checking out my build.

Also keep in mind, this build works for me because I'm extremely aggressive. Hercules is a walking tank, and I believe he should be played as such. You don't want to be behind, especially because you're not going to be a complete powerhouse until a little later.

I'm gonna try and not give you an novel, this isn't meant to be a "god tutorial", just want to go over why I get these items. I think this build is pretty solid, and I will more or less get these same items, on the other tanky Warriors, like Tyr or Odin.


Before I talk about certain specifics, I want to explain why exactly I don't get bulwark of hope, as you probably notice From other builds, that it's very common. I think bulwark is better suited to people who aren't trying to be tanky, but rather, just need a small boost of protection for various reasons, so junglers mainly, or maybe warriors like Amaterasu or Ravana, in my opinion.

Also, I really don't like getting any health items on anybody, regardless of whether they Self-healing or not, because it's a waste. I've tried them all in different situations, and all you end up doing is sacrificing potential damage, or much needed protection, to get some health back, but because you have less protection, that health is just going to disappear quickly. Mail of renewal, Gauntlet of Thebes, stone of Gaia, all of these are useless.

Steel mail into mystical mail and warrior tabi
Against other warriors, steel mail will gives you much needed protection against whatever annoying stuff they wanna throw at you, as well as against the minions. I always try to finish mystical before I start my boots, because mystical is expensive and can take awhile if you're not careful. After I get mystical online, the magic damage it puts out, plus your Driving strike which should be level 4 or 5 by now, will make short work of the minion wave, and even shorter work of whoever has the misfortune of having to fight you. Once you finish warrior Tabi, it just gets worse from there. Since you're a warrior, they will have no choice but to build physical protection if they want any chance at surviving you, so the magic damage from mystical will hit them for free. If they made the mistake of building damage first, even better for you.

Hide of the urchin
This is pretty simple, hide gives you the most amount of equal protection out of any of the other cloak items. Just getting a few kills will already put you in a good position. Mystical mail doesn't have very much physical protection on it, so Hide will help kind of give you that boost, plus it's always a good choice to get it early, so you can get it maxed out easily. Keeps you relatively safe if you have to fight a Mage earlier than you might think, which by the way, having mystical mail and warrior tabi, and a giant boulder on your side? No Mage should want anything to do with you.


Everything else

The first three items I've listed are completely standard for me with this build, everything else is situational. Nemean Lion will protect you from the Physical gods who try to mess with you. 90 physical protection is no joke, especially when you already have hide and mystical mail. The reason I get so much physical protection is because I personally feel like this is definelty becoming a hunter meta, and these guys will CHUNK your health away if you let them. Same goes for mages, but usually there will be only one Mage to worry about, and you can Handle them easily.

I used to get Genji's guard when it still had the movement speed and HP5 boost passive, but I still get it now with its cooldown reduction passive. Extra cooldown doesn't hurt. If you're not fighting the Mage very often, you could even grab Oni hunter garb, and it's passive will always be stacked up before up ever see the Mage, but it's up to you.


Jotunn's wrath for my final item, just because at this point, you'll need a but more damage to deal with the Tank and other warrior. You may even want to go Titan's bane if you feel like you don't absolutely need cooldown reduction.



One last thing, if you're being extra confident, you can do a bluestone pendant, red potion start, and get mystical after that. In this case, I won't get any damage items at the end, I'll just get an extra cloak, or a protection item, OR you can get rid of bluestone during late game.

Anti heal

Pestilence is never a bad option, EVEN if there aren't very many healers on the enemy team. It reduces ALL healing, so this includes any life steal they might have, or somebody with a self heal, plus it has protections on the same level as genji's guard, so you're not going to miss out on anything if you decide to grab this

If you really need to drive home the fact that you don't want them healing, just grab Brawler's beat stick and every time you charge into them or toss a rock their way, they'll really feel it.

Other breastplates

Breastplate of valor is perfect for Herc, because he's very mana hungry and sometimes his cooldown timers could hurt you, not the only reason this isn't part of my main build, is because I prefer the extra protection from Nemean lion, but if you really need the extra stuff this gives you, you won't regret it.

Spectral armour just recently got a buff. After using a relic, you gain an ability to "ghost walk", menacing you can walk through players and physical objects, like Ymir wall, or Thor wall, or Odin ring. If there's a lot of that, grab this, pop shell, it doesn't even matter anymore.

Midgardian mail slows enemies who hit you with basic attacks, so for obvious reasons, I like to get this if there are a lot of hunters, or even if is just one hunter who's really bothering you. It doesn't give you too much in the way of protection, so I would replace mystical, because in my opinion, having both mystical and midgardian will make you extremely less tanky.

im just going to list these items based on how important I believe they are. Some relics will share a spot, All relics however, are best picked after talking to your team about it.


1) Teleport, Curse, Meditation

2) Shell

3) Sprint

4) Sanctuary

5) Purification


Teleport is great lategame, so you can be anywhere your team needs you
Cursed a perfect to catch up on kills, escape, as well as anti heal
Meditation, I normally hate, but if the enemy solo has it, you are pretty munch forced to have it.

Shell is free protection

Sprint counters curse, and helps chase kills or escape

Sanctuary can really save your life if you're close to death or just need to avoid unnecessary damage

Purification is always helpful, but as you'll be a tank, you should be fine without it, but it's here if you really feel unsafe.

Okay I may not know exactly what level I'm supposed to be when I get my skills up, all I know is I get a point in each skill, then I max out Driving strike first, level up my ult as it becomes available, then max out Mitigate wounds, and get Earthbreaker last


The reason you level up Earthbreaker last, is becomes this is mainly used as a tool to get people closer to you, the damage it does is useful, but not important. What's important, is the damage and stun from driving strike, as well as Mitigate wounds helping to keep you alive.

Hope this build and item explanation helps you out, I'll be doing other gods that I play most often, or I feel like I have a good understanding of. Everybody has their way of building gods, some better than others, so keep in mind that if you don't like this build, you can make your own or find somebody else's.

Thanks, bye~