The champion of Rome, Hercules, is one of two gods added to SMITE 2 with Closed Alpha Update 4, and he is the true definition of a tank. With an enormous spiked club for a melee weapon and an ultimate that allows him to hurl a huge boulder, he's a perfect choice for those who want to brawl their way into the action.
He may have only just been added to the game, but we're giving you an excuse to try him out as we want you to teach us how to play Hercules in SMITE 2! Explain each of his abilities and how they work, the best builds for Hercules, his ideal roles, strengths, weaknesses, everything a newcomer to the character needs to know to start dominating with him. The more comprehensive and useful your guide, the better your chance of a reward!
There are ten $4 prizes available for the best written guides, while five of the best video guides can win $10 each. If you do submit video, remember to do so through a connected social account!
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I'm very fond of Hercules, mainly because I'm a lover of Greek mythology, but I believe that his representation in the game manages to demonstrate a lot of the strength that the character himself has to carry. In mythology, Hercules triumphed against absurd odds, symbolizing resilience and superhuman strength, which we see in the skils. He can be used in the jungle and as a solo.
Skills:
Passive - Apotheosis: Every time Hercules is hit by damage, he receives a stack that regenerates life and gives him resistance. With a maximum of 4 stacks or 6 when triggering the ultimate, it becomes incredibly durable in combat, so use it to your advantage in any exchange.
Skill 1 - Driving Strike: Hercules charges in, slamming the ground and pushing enemies backwards as he knocks them away and stuns them.
Skill 2 - Earthbreaker: Hercules creates a crack in the earth, pushing enemies towards him.
Ability 3 - Mitigate Wounds: Depending on how much damage he has taken in the last few seconds, he regenerates a certain amount of his own life.
Ultimate - Excavate: Hercules throws a large stone that rolls and bounces, damaging all enemies hit and knocking them down.
Build in the jungle:
Build solo:
I follow Overlay's builds, feel free to come and watch him:
For me one of the bests solo lane gods, Hercules is ideal to deal the good amount of damage towards other gods and minion while keeping alive with tanks builds (at least this is the way I prefer to play)
One thing that makes Hercules so special is his passive, the Apotheosis, that makes he a little stronger if he is hit by an enemy god, and to achieve to the apotheosis form you should use your skill to stack up the passive 4 times (the ultimate stacks up 2 times). So, this helps you to maintain more time in a direct fight and team fights! Just take care in the beginning of the game while you didn’t equip the first items you could be vulnerable while farming gold.
Now with the active skill we have first Driving Strike, and for first skill that is used frequently you will understand why Hercules must have so much defence and health, since the Driving Strike will make you dash towards the enemy so you be in close combat all the time, this will help you if your enemy has range attack so you arrive at them faster. The Driving Stike causes damage and stunning while pushing the other gods!
The Earthbreaker skill has another approach but similar in some ways, it has a long range and make the ground come up like a wave hitting every enemy on the range area and throwing them in you direction (it will also make you fight close to your enemies, but this time you can pull them to your team ground)
Now the third skill, the Mitigate Wounds, is a buff that you apply to yourself, healing you and give you protection an attack speed and after the effect you heal yourself again and this amount will be calculated by the amount of damage you have dealt while under the effect of this skill
And finally, the Excavate, your ultra, if you have already played pinball in some arcade around your town you know what this skill do. You will throw a stone ball on the ground that will roll around and will bounce at the wall and if it hits the enemy will deal a good amount of damage
So how you could see you maybe find this god at leas easy like me, and I think this is a characteristic of many tanks gods since Smite 1, but remember to have a good communication with your team since like any tank you will need support in team fights since you be relying on your allies while you are on the front line, but at least you have you auto heal that will help you to be alive a little longer
Hercules is one of the most iconic tanks in SMITE 2, and I really enjoy playing with him. He's a warrior that you can play as solo or support, being a very good tank for starting fights and still coming out alive while dealing a lot of damage. If you're one of those who like to lead battles, Hercules is ideal. Here's a summary of his abilities:
Passive -Apotheosis: every time Hercules takes damage, he gains a temporary buff that regenerates life and increases stamina. This makes him harder to kill.
Ability 1 - Driving Strike: He strikes the ground, dealing area damage and pushing enemies hit. It's great to use to disrupt enemies' positioning and force them to defend themselves. Use it to create combos with your team's skills!
Ability 2 - Earthbreaker: Hercules advances in a straight line and pushes the first enemy he hits, as well as dealing damage. I really like to start fights with this skill or isolate that more fragile opponent. If you need to flee or defend allies, it's also a good option.
Ability 3 - Mitigate Wounds: Regenerates a large amount of life, based on recent damage suffered. Try to use it after taking significant damage to maximize regeneration.
Ultimate - Excavate: Hercules throws a huge boulder that rolls across the battlefield, knocks down enemies in its path and deals a lot of damage. Excellent for starting or ending fights. A very good strategy is to combine it with an ability that groups enemies together, see if your allies have any like this!
To play as a tank, I recommend prioritizing skill optimization in the following order: 3 - 1 - 2.
Here's a build with the main items I recommend: Bluestone Pendant; Axe; Sundering Arc; Breastplate of Valor (cooldown reduction); Spirit Robe; Glorious Pridwen; Pharaoh's Curse, Gladiator's Shield.
Strengths: high survivability; group control; abilities that affect many enemies at the same time; flexible play style.
Weaknesses: when he's trying to heal himself, he's vulnerable; depends on positioning to hit the ultimate; incorrect build makes him less effective; skills that consume a lot of mana, especially at the start of the game.
Still looking for follow up on my inquiry regarding my submission for the Baron Samedi Guide video. So if possible can I please talk to someone about that. I reached out on X (twitter) and through this platform and haven't gotten a response.
Hercules, the Champion of Rome, is a melee-based god with massive crowd-control (CC) potential, durability, and substantial area damage. He is designed to brawl and withstand high amounts of damage, making him ideal as a frontline Tank or Bruiser. His kit is loaded with CC abilities that allow him to control the pace of engagements, disrupt enemy positioning, and create openings for allies.
Abilites
Passive – Apotheosis : Hercules gains Strength when enemy Gods damage him. This stacks up to 3 times and lasts for 5 seconds. Additionally, hitting an enemy God with an ability provides a single stack, or 2 for hitting your ultimate, towards achieving Apotheosis.
At 4 stacks, enter an empowered state that immediately subtracts 2 seconds from your active ability cooldowns and provides additional strength, protections, size, and cleaving basic attacks for the duration.
First Ability – Driving Strike : Dash forward dealing damage, stunning, and pushing enemies hit.
Second Ability – Earthbreaker : Create a rift that deals damage to enemies in front of you. Enemies hit by the end area are pulled to you.
Third Ability – Mitigate Wounds : Immediately heal yourself, and gain attack speed and protections temporarily. At the end of the duration, Heal yourself again for a percentage of damage taken during the effect.
Ultimate – Excavate : Hurl a boulder at a location, Displacing enemies straight up at the landing spot. The boulder then rolls and bounces off walls, dealing Physical Damage to enemies hit.
Build
This build is for Hercules Solo, focusing a lot on cooldown reduction and trying to make Hercules very tanky.
This build is for Hercules Jungle. It is more focused on damage, managing to deal a lot of damage in the mid/late game.
Ability Leveling Order
Max skills in this order:
Tank: Ability 3 -> Ability 1 -> Ability 2.
Jungle: Ability 1 -> Ability 2 -> Ability 3.
Increase your ultimate whenever possible
Playstyle
Hercules abilities make him a natural fit for the Solo Lane or Jungle due to his durability and crowd control. His brawling playstyle suits aggressive, close-range engagements, where he can sustain damage, control the battlefield, and support his teammates by disrupting enemies. As a frontline tank or bruiser, your role is to initiate fights, absorb damage, and create chaos among the enemy team.
Strengths:
High CC and Area Damage: Hercules has great crowd control and AoE damage, which makes him a disruptive force in team fights.
Survivability: Thanks to his passive, Hercules can sustain longer in fights than many other melee gods.
Disruptive Ultimate: The ultimate can scatter enemy teams, giving his team opportunities to focus on isolated targets.
Weaknesses:
Skill-dependent: Hercules requires precise use of his abilities, especially the Second Ability and the Ultimate, which can be avoided by skilled opponents.
Low Mobility without Abilities: He relies on the First Ability for mobility. Without it, he can be kited by ranged enemies.
Long Ability Cooldowns: If Hercules misses key abilities, he becomes significantly less effective until they’re available again.
Tips
Engage with Driving Strike: Hercules Driving Strike knock-up can serve as a strong initiation or interruption. Engage with this ability to disrupt and create an advantage for your team.
Sustain with Mitigate Wounds: Use Mitigate Wounds in prolonged fights to gain some protection and chase down foes. It’s also a crucial escape tool.
Combo Setup: Use Driving Strike for the initial knock-up, follow up with Earthbreaker to maximize damage and stuns, then activate Excavate when enemies are bunched together for high-value damage.
Ultimate Timing: Don’t waste Excavate on a single target unless it’s for a secure kill or to push them away from an objective. It’s best saved for hitting multiple enemies or scattering groups during team fights.
Tank and Bait: Hercules passive makes him deceptively tough. You can bait enemies into overcommitting.
Hercules, Champion of Rome and current champion of SMITE 2 (he's kinda broken):
Herc is one of those simple Gods who's easy to get into but has a lot of advanced tech you can utilize to push your game to the next level!
Abilities:
Passive - Hercules gains stacks as he takes damage, granting him bonus strength and every time he hits an ability he stacks Apotheosis, 2 stacks for hitting his ult. At 4 stacks, he becomes THICC and gains a tonne of bonus stats as well as extra basic attack range and cleaving basic attacks.
1st and 2nd ability - So Herc's 1 and 2 go hand-in-hand and while they of course can be used seperately, they are extremely often combo'd together. His 2, Earthbreaker flips enemies in the farthest hitbox towards him and his 1, Driving Strike, pushes enemies with him and stuns them. This creates one of the most deadly combos in SMITE 2 right now, the pluck and f-
This is your bread-and-butter combo and can mean instant death for squishy targets if you hit them with it and push them into the rest of your team. You'll want to get good at predicting enemy movements and mixing up your timing on Earthbreaker as simply walking up to enemies and letting it rip will let them quickly adapt and juke it. Your hit rate on this combo will directly correlate to your win rate on Hercules so actively try to improve at hitting this and get better at reading enemy movements.
You can also squeeze in a quick 'auto attack cancel' in between Earthbreaker and Driving Strike if you're fast enough, just basic attack the enemy as they're flying past you and instantly Driving Strike as soon as the attack hits for a bit of extra damage while still being a true combo.
3rd ability - Mitigate Wounds is a unique healing ability. Not only does it heal you on activation and grant attack speed and protections, you also gain an effect for the next 4s that tracks damage you take and returns a large portion of it back as healing once the effect ends. This allows Hercules to play way more risky and 'unga bunga' than a lot of other Warriors since he can easily press this button, walk at a whole team, take 1000 damage and then heal back almost half of that and keep the fight going. Especially in the laning phase you can just use this as a flat heal and for the free stats but in teamfights you want to pop this at the right moment just before you're going to take major damage to get maximum value off the return heal.
Ultimate - And finally, Excavate is Hercules' ultimate and it's a pretty simple one. Throw a giant rock. This does massive damage for a tank ability and knocks up enemies (new change in SMITE 2). The knock up is short and is mainly there for interrupting enemies or setting up your 2-1 combo, it's not really a CC that will lock down enemies for a significant amount of time. As mentioned though, if you're struggling to hit your 2-1 combo, the knockup from this ult can keep enemies in place long enough to guarantee it as a follow-up for major CC time, though this will take a bit of practice to get the timing right.
Items and Builds:
Hercules is somewhat versatile and can be a lot of fun with a full damage build, but works best as a bruiser or tank from Solo Lane in my experience. You're looking for high protections, health and especially cooldown rate as building a lot of CDR means more CC chains and near-constant activations of Mitigate Wounds so you're constantly healing back 40-50% of the damage you take.
Here's an example build to get you started on Hercules for Solo Lane in SMITE 2:
Starter: Bluestone Brooch - This gives you extra lane clear and damage to help take down enemy backliners much more easily late game.
1st item: Mystical Mail - This item is just really strong right now and gives a magical damage aura around you that helps clear the wave early on and since it deals magical damage and Hercules is physical, you'll bypass the enemy Solo building physical defense against you and get a lot of value from this item
2nd item: Breastplate of Valor - As mentioned, CDR is very important for Hercules and this is the premiere physical defense CDR item in the game right now, super efficient.
3rd item: Genji's Guard - The same as Breastplate of Valor but for magical defense, as you'll start needing some of this around 3rd item when you begin rotations to other parts of the map.
4th item - Stone of Binding - Gives great tank stats and reduces enemy protections on hard-CC hit and guess what? Hercules has a TONNE of hard CC and can keep this passive nearly constantly on enemies he's fighting. Increasing not only his damage, but his team's follow-up damage too.
5th item - Spirit Robe - Both kinds of defense, a passive to stop you getting CC chained down which is Hercules' main weakness in late game, and some CDR to boot. What's not to love?
6th item - Glorious Pridwen - This last slot can really be replaced with whatever you need in the current match. If you need more magical defense, get something like Oni Hunter's Garb, more physical defense? Maybe pick up a Void Shield. Or try one of the myriad of other active items that can be a tonne of fun to use. Pridwen is just the most generically good option I can suggest for 6th slot, it's active effect grants a shield based on your protections and the item has a tonne of CDR on it as well which as we've discussed is amazing for Hercules.
This build should get you started but as always with SMITE, situational building is critical and you should switch out items if you need to pick up other options. Like getting Genji's Guard first instead of Mystical Mail if your lane opponent deals magical damage or dropping the Pridwen for Ruinous Ankh if you need anti-heal, etc.
Hopefully this guide for Hercules helped you out, have fun on the battleground!
