Who is Hercules?

In Smite Hercules is the Champion of Rome and is (as his title could suggest) of the Roman pantheon, a warrior within the game. Hercules has been played in a range of roles throughout his time in the game, seeing plays in the support, jungle and solo roles. His main advantage in all of these roles is that he is very difficult to kill for most characters in the game and can still put out a large amount of damage despite how bulky his defenses are.

Hercules’ Abilities

Passive - Strength From Pain

As the name would suggest, Hercules’ passive allows him to deal more damage depending on the amount of health that he has missing. This allows him to deal huge amounts of damage when involved in combat and makes it dangerous for an enemy to attack as they could easily be boxed out by him.

In terms of countering this aspect of the character it is best to avoid close combat with him as his basic attacks can spike up to huge amounts of damage as he takes damage, this will primarily relate to your pick against him as certain characters face nothing but engaging in close combat which means Hercules can easily drive them out of any fight.

1st Ability - Driving Strike

Using his first ability Hercules is able to push enemies in an area backward, dealing damage to them and stunning them. It is also very important to take into account that Hercules is immune to knockup during this time which means other abilities such as Geb’s Shock Wave or Tyr’s Fearless will have no impact on him during the use of this ability.

To counter such an ability positioning is key, you must stay as far away from Hercules as possible as he will not be able to use this on you at all which means you are able to poke him out whilst he would then try to clear waves using this. As you may have also guessed he is immune to knockup but not other crowd control and utilising this weakness of Driving Strike could easily save yourself or a teammate as the stun applied is deadly in most situations.

2nd Ability - Earthbreaker

The 2nd ability in Hercules’ kit is called Earthbreaker and this ability will send out a shockwave in front of Hercules, damaging enemies in the general path and throwing enemies that are at the end of the ability towards him. The throw will then enable the Hercules to easily set up the use of his other abilities, either opting into using his ultimate against you or just his 1st ability, either of which in terms of your positioning can be deadly.

To do well against this ability it is again all in your positioning. The best things to do against this would be simply to dodge in any direction as only a square of the ability will throw you so even moving toward Hercules is a good option to avoid the pull. Moving toward him is probably the easiest option compared to moving left, right or backward as this reduces the risk of accidently dodging into the throw.

3rd Ability - Mitigate Wounds

Mitigate Wounds is the 3rd ability of Hercules and this is the ability that gives the character the potential to be invincible, the tank element of the character. When used Hercules will gain health over 4 seconds, but if he receives damage over this time he will have that returned (as a percentage) as additional healing over the next 10 seconds.

Countering this comes down to two simple ideas. The first idea is that you simply let him heal a small amount over the first 4 seconds and don’t damage him at all, this will reduce the amount of healing he does in total as he will not receive any of the 10 seconds of additional healing The second idea is to apply healing reduction as this will actively reduce the effectiveness of the entire ability and can, therefore, make him a much more vulnerable target in fights.

Ultimate ability - Excavate

When using his ultimate Hercules will throw a huge boulder toward his target area that will then keep rolling, dealing damage to those that come into contact with it though subsequent hits on an enemy will do 50% less damage. When throwing the boulder Hercules will become immune to crowd control that, therefore, means there is no way to cancel this once it has started.

This has been repeated already but again the counter relies on you being able to position yourself well against this, choosing an area with a lot of walls would be bad as the boulder can rebound many times whereas down a lane you could easily just step out the way. Continuing on from stepping out of the way, characters that have a form of dash or jump are the easiest to use in avoiding this ability.

Counter picking Hercules

- General picks

Picking generally to counter Hercules you should choose a character that is able to strip protections, reduce healing or have high amounts of mobility as these characters will not only be able to avoid the damage that Hercules can put out but also make him a much more vulnerable target.

- Specific Picks

Personally I have two picks that are very effective against a Hercules, Chang’e and Nemesis.

Chang’e can apply huge amounts of healing reduction, up to 90%, as items such as Divine Ruin can work greatly with her Moonflower Dance. Not only does she have great healing reduction but she is also able to avoid what makes Hercules a good pick as her Moonlit Waltz will not only negate the damage that she would have taken but also prevent any crowd control that Hercules could apply on to her.

Nemesis is able to strip up to 50% of Hercules’ protections and slow him in the process which also increases the vulnerability of the enemy. Like Chang’e she can also prevent damage from him with the use of her Retribution Shield that will actually go on to deal damage back to Hercules and allow her to sustain herself in a fight against him. The only disadvantage is that her form of protection against Hercules can be cancelled when crowd control is applied to her. Though, being Nemesis, she has the high mobility to escape anyway.

Counter Building Hercules

- Magical Characters

In my opinion I feel that the best items to build on a magical character that is in a match against Hercules are Divine Ruin, Spear of the Magus and Magi’s Blessing. Both Divine Ruin and Spear of the Magus are great at making Hercules a target as they reduce healing and protections and Magi’s Blessing is a great choice in saving yourself. This will prevent being stunned or thrown by Hercules’ abilities.

- Physical Characters

I personally believe that a good choice of items for a physical against Hercules would be The Executioner, Brawler’s Beatstick, Magi’s Blessing and a personal choice of lifesteal item.

Using Magi’s Blessing, The Executioner and Brawler’s Beatstick work in the same respect as my magical choices, The Executioner reducing protections whilst Brawler’s Beatstick reduces healing and Magi’s Blessing prevents being caught out by crowd control. I also included the idea of an item that gives lifesteal and this works better on a physical than a magical as it gives a much greater ability to box Hercules successfully compared to the healing reduction that would make him an easier target for magical characters.

- Actives

I think that there are two stand out actives for applying against Hercules - Weakening Curse and Purification Beads.

Weakening Curse will not only reduce the movement speed of the enemy but also healing, meaning not only will Hercules be unable to sustain himself but he will also be unable to escape whilst in his vulnerable state.

Purification Beads work much like Magi’s Blessing and will allow the player to prevent themselves from being caught in crowd control. However this will also reduce cooldowns which means that, if needed, players can use this to use a quick ability to finish the kill before he regains health with the use of Mitigate Wounds.

I wish you all the best in matches against Hercules and hope that this provided much needed information about what works well about the character, go show him that you do lift!

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