Hey out there! My name is Julius aka. Thrandor, I play on EUW and am a Warwick toplane main with about 300k mastery points on Warwick. I have been playing League of Legends since 2011 and am most of the time stuck somewhere in dia!
Check out my OP.GG if you wanna: https://euw.op.gg/summoners/euw/Thrandor

In the earlierst seasons I played a lot of adc, then I switched to jungle (playing Warwick, Yi and Kayn) before headding part time to the Toplane. Currently, it is the role I enjoy the most, Warwick jungle feels a lot weaker since the item changes.
I enjoy playing League of Legends with friends, my brother and alone, my greatest strength is that I am probably the only League player who almost never tilts/rages. This is my first and probably only guide so be indulgent with me, I am still learning ;)
I will try to update this guide from time to time so come back anytime to check out if I got some new ideas on matchups, items or runes!
I hope that you will enjoy playing the old W-man as much as I do and hope that you can leave a like to this guide as I put much effort into it. Let's get into it!

Warwick is usually considered a jungler and I also used to play him as jungler for 2-3 seasons. However, with the item changes in season 11 a new build path was introduced to Tiamat which makes it a much worse item to rush (the active was also removed). In my opinion, this put Warwick in a very weak spot for jungling so started to look for alternatives and found my new place on the toplane.
My playstyle is all about getting into the enemie's head and convincing them that they are able to kill you when they aren't and pretending like you are a threat when you aren't. But more about this later on!

Pros for playing Warwick top

-Great sustain due to passive and Q Jaws of the Beast
-Easy to learn -> Opportunity to improve your macro gameplay
-Amazing 1vs1 and 1vs2 potential due to W Blood Hunt combined with your passive Eternal Hunger
-Quick roaming with W passive
-Mixed damage
-And to emphasize on it again: INSANE 1vs1 and 1vs2 potential due to W Blood Hunt combined with passive Eternal Hunger in early- and midgame
-Off-meta pick -> less known matchup for some enemies


Cons for playing Warwick top

-Easily kited
-No ranged abilities (except for your ult Infinite Duress)
-No waveclear (unless you go Tiamat or Bami's Cinder which decreases your 1v1 potential significantly since it delays the Blade of the Ruined King)
-Falls off in late game
-Takes down turrets rather slowly

Warwick is one of those champions that benefit from being low on health- your passive Eternal Hunger healing activates at 50% health and increases times 2.5 when you drop below 25%. This means that you can play a lot with your own hp bar.
You can trick a lot of people into engaging you. When they do so, you pull out your Jaws of the Beast with empowered passive heal, activate E Primal Howl for damage reduction and start right-clicking them as hard as you can. Eventually, your opponent will drop below 50% himself which gives you more attackspeed due to Blood Hunt- you proc your lethal tempo and give your opponent some scratches at 2.0 attackspeed (healing yourself with passive and Q) until they die. But what's that: The enemy jungler is ready to deliver your doublebuff! You run a bit back into your minions before they start engaging you. Suddenly you pull out your Barrier and perform the same move that you gave the enemy laner- easy double kill.

Et voilá: This is the magic of Warwick toplane! You would be surprised how often this works out, Warwick top is all about knowing your limits and working around your passive heal. It is crucial that you never consider yourself dead before you actually die- and most of the time it is better fighting back instead of running off. Honestly, it is impressive what this champion can pull off when he can keep on hitting something! But enough of these stories, lets take a look at your abilities!

As mentioned before, your passive Eternal Hunger is, what you play around. Your passive gives you on hit magic damage. When you are at 50% health or below, you will heal on hit for 100% of the damage that your passive deals. When you drop below 25% health, this healing increases to 250%. I play my lanes extremely agressive and take trades that seem bad at first sight. But my passive allows me to stay around half HP while the enemy has to use all their healing pots!


Your Q Jaws of the Beast makes you lunge forward and bite your target, dealing damage based on their maximum health and healing for damage dealt. You can hold it down to dash through your enemy and follow them when they flash/dash. Also, you cannot be displaced (e.g. knock-up) for the duration of your Q. Jaws of the Beast can be used in various ways: You can Q an enemy to poke them, heal yourself, dodge an ability, reposition yourself, follow your foe's dashes or to deny some cc spells (my favourite probably being Mordekaiser's Realm of Death). The possibilities are endless! Note that holding down your Q and to dash through your enemy or follow them will keep you from autoattacking for at least 0,5 seconds. When their dash lasts longer this duration is extended until the very end which tends to look a bit strange


Your W Blood Hunt makes you sense enemies below 50% health globally which means that there will be a blood trail leading to them. You gain Move Speed towards and attack speed against them. When they fall below 20% health these bonuses triple. (perfect for finishing off your enemies! The attackspeed bonus goes for minions and monsters as well which helps you farming under your turret or finishing Heralds faster) You can also activate your Blood Hunt to sense the nearest enemy regardless of how much health he currently has! In later stages of the game this can help you getting some information, for example whether your enemies set up a trap, try to contest an objective or do a sneaky Baron.

The active part of this ability is pretty expensive and has a long cooldown, I usually only use it during laning phase to get back to my lane faster when there is nobody else to sense. Be aware of the fact, that an enemy above 50% hp that you sense with your the active of Blood Hunt will see the usual "Warwick is hunting you" icon and thus know that you are near!

The passive of this spell is great though, a low botlane can make you go faster back to your own lane, dodge some skillshots at high speed or just threaten your opponent. Also, you can follow enemies into the jungle and jump at them from far away with Infinite Duress when they think that they are safe!

It is important to know that taking champion damage will briefly pause the movement speed bonus so avoid that when chasing an enemy.
You will not be able to tell the difference between two bloodtrails so make sure that you know who's tracks you are following by taking a quick glance at enemies before they disappear into the fog of war!


Your E Primal Howl gives you damage reduction for 2.5 seconds. At the end or when reactivated early, you fear nearby enemies for one second. This ability can be used in combination with your Q Jaws of the Beast to make your enemies run towards your base, just activate E, Q through them and reactivate it. The fear can also guarantee you to hit your ult Infinite Duress in case you want to make sure that you dont miss your R!
This ability is automatically recast when you hit your ult on anybody to fear nearby, however, I rarely use this mechanic- although in some teamfights it can be worth Flashing or ulting into the enemy team to fear multiple enemies and set up allied AOE spells!


Your R Infinite Duress makes you leap into a direction (the legnth of the leap scales with your bonus movement speed but the duration remains the same which can create interesting situations with allies like Zilean). You suppress the first enemy champion hit for 1.5 seconds, dealing some damage, healing yourself and procing on hit effects like the one of Blade of the Ruined King 3 times!.
You are unstoppable during the leap which can be used to skip some cc such as Zoe's Sleepy Trouble Bubble or Veigar's Event Horizon. You are NOT unstoppable while suppressing your enemy- any cc can instantly cancel your ult here!
Don't forget that you can use this ability as an escape tool to jump out of impossible situations!
An observation I have made is that enemies tend to Flash or dash away right after the ult, I recommend always holding down Q Jaws of the Beast after your ult to stick to them. This means that you will not be able to activate your Primal Howl before that
Note that your ult can be cleansed by Gangplank's Remove Scurvy or a Quicksilver Sash!

Nothing to debate here, I strongly advise you to equip Flash since this is, apart from your ultimate, your only way to catch up with kiting enemies


Barrier helps you to get a bonus shield while benefiting from the full heal of your passive. It is also a big surprise for enemies who think that they are about to kill you, perfect for cheesy 1v1s at early stages of the game! For this summoner spell to work out perfectly, you need to be able to predict just how much damage an enemy attack will deal so that you activate it at the very last second!

I use Ignite in very few matchups such as Nasus or Dr. Mundo. Just don't forget that baiting your enemies with a low health bar is much more risky this way!


This section is just here for telling you this: DO NOT EQUIP Teleport, IT IS NOT WORTH IT AT ALL! There is pretty much always someone low on the map who helps you sprinting back to lane. Do not waste a precious fistfighting summoner spell spot for a macro ability!


Had some fun playing around with Ghost to keep up with ranged enemies but I don't really like to use it. It can be combined with other movement speed spells and items to create air strike WW with a super long ranged Infinite Duress though! ;)

Lethal Tempo is unquestionably the best rune for Warwick toplane! For jungling you might want to go Press the Attack but the bonus attackspeed of our main keystone rune just synergizes too well with Eternal Hunger and Blood Hunt!

Press the Attack is a lot weaker than Lethal Tempo when it comes to 1v1s. However, the bonus damage after three hits also enables your teammates so this rune might be a bit better during teamfights.

I have seen some Warwick toplane players going Grasp of the Undying. This is for more tanky builds, maybe even including a Demolish for splitpushing. I do not like this rune though as you will miss a lot of attackspeed and give up on the at least one good minor rune of the Precision tree

It is important that you equip Presence of Mind, otherwhise you will struggle a lot with mana problems since permanently using your Q will cost a lot. I know that Triumph seems tempting with the cheesy playstyle but how much will some hp help when we run out of mana in the middle of a fight?


Ahh, such a perfect rune for a strategy that relies on you going low and surprising the enemy with tons of healing and damage! Always take Last Stand!


I equip Second Wind when I know that that the enemy will poke me a lot during laning phase. Combined with Doran's Shield you got some good sustain to stay on the lane. In every other case, however, I recommend Bone Plating!


I equip Unflinching when the enemy team has tons of cc. Same goes for Legend: Tenacity! But usually I run Revitalize for more surprise healing :)


A kind Redditor by the name of KugioMC sent me this spreadsheet including other views on the matchups and different runes- definitely worth to check that out!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YMEF4_b9dDQTCmY-c_S1gUMRqgdBe_Vy4gVc8qRc_cY/edit?usp=sharing

This is probably the most debateable thing in my build. Unlike the usual Warwick player I do not include an early Tiamat in my build as this delays my Blade of the Ruined King powerspike and takes away a space in my inventory which can be annoying since my first two items have three-branched build paths. Also, Tiamat itself has a terrible build path these days, getting a Pickaxe back feels sort of difficult. The negative side of this is of course that I lack waveclear!


Whenever I play Warwick, I make sure to include Blade of the Ruined King in my itembuild! I rush it in almost every game, starting with the Vampiric Scepter. You benefit from all its stats and of course the amazing passive that deals bonus on hit damage and steals some movement speed from enemies to keep up with them. Exceptions where I don't rush blade are champions like Camille that give you one hit and then run away- I recommend building Divine Sunderer first to be able to fight back with your Q properly! I have tried several builds without this item but I consider Blade of the Ruined King the key for a succesful Warwick toplane game, keep in mind that a full tank build makes Warwick nearly useless!


New cool season 13 item! I recently play a lot with this item, it makes you very durable in teamfights and even serves well in 1v1 situations. However, Divine Sunderer remains my favorite mythic!


I buy Divine Sunderer in most of my games as my second item, the exception is, when I have to go tank. This item sharpens your teeth for even greater damage on your Jaws of the Beast while offering you a good amount of healing and damgage against tanks. In combination with Blade of the Ruined King you can 1vs1 pretty much every champion that is not too far ahead! The negative side of this item build is, that you are going to be a bit less tanky than a usual Warwick. Also be aware of the fact that you don't have any waveclear with this build, it can be worth it to ping your jungler for some help in shoving a wave after a kill!


I have tried out Trinity Force as an alternative for Divine Sunderer but I didn't like the outcome that much. In theory, it gives you more turret damage and bonus movementspeed but, trust me, you will miss the healing of Divine Sunderer


Sunfire Aegis is a fine option for a rather tanky build. Since season 13 its a legendary item so you can always include it in your builds, no matter which mythic you go. This item helps you to become a frontliner with decent damage. Sometimes I even build it before Titanic Hydra.


Don't be fooled by the looks of Kraken Slayer, in theory this item fits your playstyle with high attackspeed and some true damage. BUT in combination with Blade of the Ruined King you will lack HP and you mostly die in every fight before even starting to stack your Lethal Tempo. Your mythic item should always include HP!


There are some builds out there who make Warwick a better splitpush champion, including Hullbreaker and Demolish. I do not really like to play Warwick this way but make sure to check out this guide for more detailed information: https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/best-warwick-na-for-2-years-534515


From time to time I like to build the good old Hourglass as one of my last items! It provides you with some extra safety after missing an ult or standing in the middle of a fight and waiting for your Q cooldown to come back up! Warwick also benefits from it's stats, as you have some decent ap scalings on almost every ability!


Played a bit with Stridebreaker as mythic, it's nice as an additional slow to keep up with enemies. Also, the Ironspike Whip adds a bit to your waveclear before you purchase your Tiamat. Be aware that your Q will deal significantly less damage than when buying a mythic with Sheen in it.


Although you want to start your lane with the usual Stealth Ward, I highly recommend switching to an Oracle Lens after the laning phase. Not only does this item allow you to set up traps properly, it also helps you finding out, whether low enemies that you hunt down through the jungle with increased movement speed of Blood Hunt see you coming or not!


Just a quick reminder to always pick up at least one Control Ward whenever you have enough gold and space in your inventory- a good ward makes the difference in so many games!



I think that this is all I can say for now, the other items are self explanatory!

A lot of Warwick lanes are decided within the first 3 levels so let's take a closer look at this.

The first thing you want to do is checking whether your opponent was smart enough to go Ignite! This makes a huge difference in your playstyle as Ignite reduces your healing that you so much rely on significantly. For example you beat a Darius with Ghost at level 2 without trouble whereas one who runs Ignite will stand a decent chance of killing you when he plays it right!
Keep track of the enemie's Ignite cooldown (which is 180 seconds)! Other than that you want to play the lane a little more safe.
Apart from that always check whether your opponent has healing reduction (e.g. Oblivion Orb, Executioner's Calling or Bramble Vest), and think good about your choices when you drop hp!

I usually start with my Q Jaws of the Beast, in some games I go Blood Hunt first for the bonus attackspeed on low units to make sure that I get the first 3 minions. Note that starting with Blood Hunt makes you a lot more vulnerable at level one.
Against melees, I recommend playing the first wave kind of safe (when your opponent wants to trade make sure to take a good bite out of them) and keeping track of the minions- try to hit level 2 before your opponent without pushing the wave into their side of the map. Once hitting level two you can hold down Q on the enemy champion and start autoattacking them. It is fine to tank some minions if your opponent does not run Ignite! When your Lethal Tempo is stacked up, your enemy should be below 50% health- enough for your Blood Hunt bonus attackspeed to kick in. There is pretty much no way you die at this point. Don't forget using your Barrier when the situation gets close but make sure to wait until the last second to benefit from the bonus heal of your passive Eternal Hunger.
You can repeat this move throughout the whole lane which will leave you most of the time below 50% hp so make sure to keep track of the enemy jungler! Do not underestimate yourself, when you get ganked there is a good chance to kill both enemies. Make sure to ping for assistance while walking into your own wave. A well stacked Lethal Tempo and some good dodging can make the difference here!

Against ranged enemies you will have a lot less fun since Warwick lacks a proper gap closer. Build Doran's Shield, go Second Wind and use your Jaws of the Beast on minions to stay alive. Most ranged champions will start to push while poking you, try to manage the wave in such a way that it will be close to your turret by 3:15- thats when the Scuttle Crab spawns and many junglers look for their first ganks. A top gank can be a free kill here, this, of course, requires good communication with your jungler.
If you are lucky, your opponent will also use his Flash which puts it to a 5 minute cooldown. When you still have your Flash you can use it to reach your opponent when they start poking you again. There is a good chance that you kill them (even when you start below 50% health, don't be afraid) and gain a good level advantage here!
When you don't recieve an early gank and can't get the enemy to use their Flash you will probably have to wait until you reach level 6 and unlock Infinite Duress to reach your opponent...

I am winning my lane, what do I do now?

Good job! When you are ahead of your enemy laner he will probably be smart enough to stay out of your reach (if not- kill him again!). What next? You can...
1) Freeze the wave close to your turret while standing between your minions and the enemy champion to deny them gold. If they get greedy for a canon minion it is your turn to hold down Jaws of the Beast on them, do some fear-action with Primal Howl and kill them.
2) Push out the wave and start roaming to help out your team- you can arrive fairly quickly at the midlane when there is a target below 50% due to your Blood Hunt bonus speed and dive them! Don't forget that the damage reduction of Primal Howl also works against turrets
3) Push out the wave and invade the enemy jungle or take a Herald. If you are just a bit ahead, you will have no trouble fighting your enemy laner and the jungler at the same time over a buff. This option becomes a lot riskier when you face a ranged jungler like Kindred or a hit and run jungler like Lillia.

I am losing my lane, what do I do now?

Poor you! Playing Warwick from behind is pretty hard since you have to go into auto attack range to get some minions. Also, you want to finish the round before the late game.
Be aware of the fact that you still have good chances of killing an enemy who is slightly ahead of you- maybe he used Ignite or Flash before, while you still have a summoner spell up?

If the enemy is freezing the wave and you can't get there without dying you may start roaming or taking a jungle camp- Warwick clears single monsters like Gromp, Scuttle or even Herald pretty fast due to his Blood Hunt bonus attackspeed. Of course, this will make you fall even further behind as you keep losing minions on your lane! Maybe you can ask your jungler to help you out and kill the opponent or at least push in a frozen wave under the enemy turret so that it bounces back to your side of the map (in case you didn't know: this will always happen when you manage to get a wave under the enemy turret)

Herald Placement

As you might have noticed, I included taking Herald in both cases. I always try to take down at least one Rift Herald during the laning phase to get some bonus platings. In many situations it is fine to drop one plating for the pressure (as long as you can make sure that the enemy doesn't notice you are on it/you have your jungler around to fight). The damage of a first Rift Herald's charge equals 1,5 platings, the second one even 2,5.
It is much more worth to place a Herald on midlane than on the toplane as a destroyed mid turret opens up the map for your team more effectively than a destroyed top turret. Also, make sure that your allied laner is there to pick up some of the plating gold, people don't like it when you claim that for yourself ;)
Generally, I recommend placing a Herald when a turret has 2-3 platings left, as mentioned the charge will deal true damage and the last platings have much higher resistances than the first ones!

Unless you went 0/5 in lane, this is Warwicks time to shine!
When you are ahead this is the time to transfer your lead onto the whole team by roaming excessively- it is fine to drop some minions for a succesful invade and a kill but make sure that you don't lose your turret.

It is crucial for Warwick that you end the round within this phase because you fall off very hard once we get to the lategame- so make sure to get the most out of every kill! Check if there are objectives to get, you can solo any drake without trouble so consider doing that when acing the enemy team while your team starts pushing! Keeping up the tempo is our keyphrase

You should be stronger than most champions at this point of the game in a 1v1 and with everything up you have good chances winning fights against 2 to 3 people (just make sure to ping for assistance, your team will most likely abandon you otherwhise because literally everyone underestimates the power of a good Warwick)!

It is still important that you keep on checking which enemy has healing reduction, there are situations where you can avoid attacking an enemy with Bramble Vest to recieve your full healing!


The Midlane swap
When I have finished 2 items and there is no Herald up I usually ask my midlaner to swap so that I can have more impact on the game. Before asking, check whether your midlaner would be able to deal with the enemy toplaner!
Once you are midlane push your waves as hard as possible (at this point you might have your Tiamat already) and then look for roams to the botlane. Also, keep an eye on your jungler, maybe there is an opportunity to help him securing objectives or place some deep control wards into the enemy jungle!

When everybody is at 5 to 6 items, Warwick struggles a lot to keep up, especially adcs are a massive threat if you cannot hit a good ult on them. You really want to finish the round before we get to the lategame! When I don't have to be the frontliner, I like to stay back and protect my carries, you still have a good lockdown on single enemies that threaten your backline with Infinite Duress and Primal Howl! When you are ahead of the enemy team and feel confident that you can oneshot the enemy adc with Infinite Duress and Jaws of the Beast, feel free to do so- just make sure that you get a good flank for a long ranged leap with your ult. Running into the enemy team or frontal ults are pretty much no options at this point of the game.
You still have a good chance of fighting some champions 1v1 but most enemies just deal too much damage before you can even reach them & a missed Infinite Duress results in death and some good old questionmark pings
When doing objectives be sure to tank them and heal yourself with Jaws of the Beast. When you are not sure where the enemies are or if they are setting up a trap, try using Blood Hunt to sense the closest opponent. Do not splitpush, with this build you lack turret damage!

And that is about all I can say to help you climbing with our good boy Warwick. Thank you for reading to this point, I had a lot of fun getting into the guide writing business!
I would be happy to see more toplane Warwick players out there for this is an extremly fun and unexpectedly strong off-meta pick that many players don't know how to deal with.

While writing this guide, I got to think a lot about mechanics and ingame strategies that I often pull out without even considering alternatives- one could say that I learned about my own playstyle and improved just by writing this guide! ;)

It is fascinating how much there is to say and to think about a, let's be honest here, simple right click champion- I guess this is the magic of League of Legends.

Thank you once again for reading my guide on agressive Warwick toplane and see you out there on the Rift!

Julius aka. Thrandor

I finished this guide somewhere in Summer 2022 but I will keep on coming back to this section to drop my thoughts on recent patches and how they influence the wolf!


In the infamous "Durability Patch", Warwick recieved some new scars, as if he hadn't had enough ;)
- The heal percentage on Jaws of the Beast decreased on all ranks: 30/45/60/75/90% -> 25/37.5/50/62.5/75%. I think that this is just fine, compared to the nerfs on other healing champs. Also, your passive Eternal Hunger remained untouched, so things could be worse.

-Good news: The effectiveness of all Grievous Wounds items has been decreased, (basic items 40% -> 30%, full items 60% -> 50%). This makes an Executioner's Calling or Bramble Vest rush by the enemy much less scary for you!

-Every Champion recieved some additional defensive stats (Armor, MR and even base HP included). Since this patch it is harder to oneshot an ADC in the mid-lategame, however, concerning your laning phase, things haven't changed too much in my opinion.


-Poor Divine Sunderer recieved some nerfs on it's healing and it's damage! It remains my go-to mythic item though :)


-Almost all Resolve-runes got hit pretty hard in this patch. Bone Plating has a higher cooldown now, Conditioning gives less defensive stats, Unflinching adds less to your tenacity and Second Wind regenerates less health. Luckily, Revitalize was NOT nerfed during this patch, so I consider the Resolve-branch still the best option for secondary runes!

- Sunfire Aegis now has less base damage and scales more with HP! Riot wants to push more into a tank-only item but it still does decent work for champions like Yone, Master Yi and, of course, Warwick.

-All health potions got nerfed in terms of how much they heal. To me, this is a clear buff to Warwick toplane, as it will become harder to outsustain your passive and Q! Just be aware, that from now on the quick Health Potion during a close fight will not heal as much as before.

-Since this patch, Rift Herald gives 200 local gold when you take it down! Even better for Warwick, who can quickly take it down while the enemy freezes the lane


-More nerfs for the old Divine Sunderer! Its healing has decreased but to me, it still remains the best mythic for Warwick.


New season approaching! Welcome to season 13. Not too many changes that affect us but here are some thoughts:
- Sunfire Aegis is no longer a mythic item. Still a good choice for Warwick. I like to include it after my Titanic Hydra now!
- Jak'Sho, The Protean is a new mythic for tanks but fits bruisers well too! Tried it out a bit and its pretty good! :)
-Rift Herald gives a bit more XP, nice to have. Especially with platings being worth a bit more gold than last season!
-Rift Scuttler recieved more HP, thats annoying...

- Legend: Tenacity recieved some nerfs, making Legend: Alacrity even more attractive...

-Grievous wounds were buffed this B patch! Now, the tier 1 anti-healing items such as Oblivion Orb apply 40% healing reduction rather than the former 20%. This hurts our good boy Warwick a lot! Be extra careful in the laning phase and watch your opponent's items!

The wolf is getting more and more attention from toplaners! Although he hasn't recieved any direct nerfs yet, Lethal Tempo took some hits this patch, making it weaker in the early stages of the game. However, I still recommend going Lethal Tempo!