Smite and ghost are key on Hecarim. Smite is standard for junglers due to the power of objective control and buffs. Ghost is powerful on Hecarim due to the fact it gives him bonus AD and allow him to position his ult and E better in fights and ganks.

Armor pen reds help with jungler clearing with your Q and autos as well as making you do massive damage to squishy targets in ganks early on.

Armor seals standard for junglers

Magic resist per level for late game AP's

Movement speed quints to give Hecarim bonus AD and superior positioning in fights as well as being everywhere during the game.

Hecarim got nerfed too much so I can't use my traditional 0-9-21 masteries anymore... The reason I did it was because of OP health regain and I liked the movement speed a lot. A fast pony is a happy pony. But now I am a sad pony.

9-9-12

Offense: Taking all the offensive stats. This will make Hecarim a threat no matter how you build him (although I like to build him with TONS OF DAMAGE). I don't like taking butcher, because it ONLY helps him with his auto's, as all of his abilities are AoE. The AD just scales so well with Hecarim's Q and E, and the attack speed makes his auto's a lot smoother. I don't like getting the CDR because you always cap on cdr anyway.

Defense: Probably the best 9 points you can spend in the defensive tree for any jungler in my opinion. The health will scale better then the armor, and the health regain helps him a ton as well.

Utility: Improved recall for those clutch recalls, which I find very useful, improved speed to be the fastest pony around, and one point into mana regain just to help him with his mana. Just very basic utility masteries, pretty much the same as season 3.

Leveling Q is better now, as I believe killing the blue/red as fast as possible is better then sustaining. Although there are exceptions, such as if you have someone with a shield such as Lee sin.

W 2nd for the sustain, and at level 3 you can choose to level up Q again to farm faster to level 4 or to level up E for a gank. I usually farm, so I get Q usually.

Maxing Q to abuse it's damage on champions, as it's really high starting at rank 3 of the skill.

Maxing W so when the mid game team fights start you will heal absurd amounts of health during fights and in between.

Maxing E last for the utility of the spell for it's cool down and damage

Ult whenever possible.

TIPS TO USE YOUR ABILITIES

When ganking someone, remember to Q first and then auto and then just click next to the champion and not on him. You want Hecarim to be able to hit his Q on the champion, as it does more damage then his auto's.

Use your W when your able to take a lot of damage, or your teams about to deal a lot of damage. Don't just go in a fight and use it cause you initiated, because I see a lot of Hecarims making this mistake and dying when they should of lived.

Don't just "tap" your E in a small fight as your E will do less damage then your auto due to not charging up.

Try to use your Ult in conjunction with your E and ghost. When you ult behind the enemy carry, you can push them back further with it as well as dealing tons of damage.

Machete 5 potions is by far the most superior start in season 3 so far, so start out with that, as it helps Hecarim's weak early clearing a lot.

Going back buy boots first and then a spirit stone. The spirit stone will act as Hecarim's Philo stone, giving him the health and mana regain he needs, due to the fact he will be not be building any life steal items and depend only on health regain and his W.

Finish the lizard elder rune to make him clear the higher health creeps later on in the game faster as well as doing more AoE damage with his Q due to the true damage burn it gives.

Sheen improves Hecarim damage immensely, making him gank with more damage as well as clear faster. I like to build a longsword > ruby crystal > phage next as the AD and health is just so good on Hecarim, as well as the movement speed passive from phage.

Once you finish trinity force, you're damage will maintain high throughout the game, and at this point just start stacking tank items based on what you need.

Spirit visage/ninja tabi right after for the magic resist/health/cdr which Hecarim will most likely need in 95% of his games.

SITUATIONAL ITEMS

Merc treads and spirit of the ancient golem you will only purchase if the enemy has a lot of CC/burst and magic damage.

You will build a Runic bulwark if the enemy team has 2-3 AP that are just nuking your team and yourself.

Randuins if you need armor for a fed AD on the enemy team.

Warmogs if you need a higher health pool for nuke comps and health regain due to poke comps on the enemy team due to hecarim having no other way to heal besides his w and health regain.