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Recommended Items
Runes: Press The Attack
+10% Attack Speed
+6 Armor
+6 Armor
Spells:
Flash
Smite
Items
Threats & Synergies
Rammus
Kayle
Kayle's ultimate and consistent healing works perfectly with Warwick's game plan. A classic Warwick R, Kayle R, is a huge engage, almost guaranteeing at least one pick, whilst keeping Warwick in relative safety. Additionally, what Warwick lacks in endgame team fighting, Kayle can compensate for - and vice versa.
Kayle
Kayle's ultimate and consistent healing works perfectly with Warwick's game plan. A classic Warwick R, Kayle R, is a huge engage, almost guaranteeing at least one pick, whilst keeping Warwick in relative safety. Additionally, what Warwick lacks in endgame team fighting, Kayle can compensate for - and vice versa.
Champion Build Guide
As aforementioned, Warwick generally plays as a duelist, meaning that he favors 1v1s rather than 5v5 team-fights. However, Warwick still has some powerful team-fight abilities such as his e-fear and ultimate, both being able to cc enemies and assist in getting picks.
Warwick's entire kit revolves around his ability to heal, though. This can only be done when he is in range to use his low-range Q and auto-attacks. Everyone has that one memory of the 100hp Warwick 1v3ing in the early stages of the game; just refusing to die. Hopefully, after this guide, you too can become that stubborn, unkillable terror of Zaun...
On blue-side, Warwick players tend to favor starting with their Red Brambleback and pathing up towards Raptors; Murk Wolves; Blue Sentinel; Gromp; and finally finishing with top-side scuttle crab. However, even with a 5-camp clear, Warwick may find the enemy jungler is already on scuttle crab. This allows Warwick players to full-clear, clearing Krugs before Raptors, avoidng scuttle crab, or 3-camp clearing with Red Brambleback; Blue Sentinel; and Gromp. This quicker clear allows Warwick to be on time for the scuttle crab: or even ahead of time for an unexpected early gank top-side.
On red-side, Warwick players tend to favor starting on Blue Sentinel, pathing to Gromp; Murk Wolves; Red Brambleback; and matching the opposing jungler for top-side scuttle crab, heading for a gank either mid-lane or top-lane. This faster 4-camp clear is prefered due to Warwick's slow clear, giving him enough time to reach scuttle crab before his opponent.
Although Warwick's clear is slow, it should be mentioned that he aims for first item to be Tiamat on first back, possibly with a Control Ward to be placed in drake pit. This means that a full-clear may be prefered to a faster clear with fewer camps to give Warwick sufficient gold for his items after a quick first gank. Additionally, a full-clear will give Warwick level 4, possibly giving him a level advantage if cleared optimally or ganking bot-lane.
For initial clearing, it should be known that players will want to use their Q - Jaws of the Beast whenever it is available. However, you do not want to be mindlessly spamming it, but, instead, weaving it inbetween basic attacks to prevent cancelling basic attacks or stalling a basic attack. If used straight after a basic attack, Warwick can use his Q without delaying his next basic attack; maximising damage per second and efficiency.
Now, additionally, a lesser known interaction that Warwick has has to do with multiple unit camps and his W - Blood Hunt's passive. Its effect is when Warwick is attacking a unit below 60% max health, he will gain attack speed, further increased if the unit is below 30% max health. However, this effect can be exploited to increase attack speed against higher health units as well. By initiating a basic attack against a lower-health unit, a player can reassign the target half-way through the attack animation to redirect the attack without cancelling, but also retaining the attack speed for that single attack. This can greatly speed up Warwick's clearing of Krugs, Raptors and Murk Wolves, which can be greatly beneficial due to Warwick's slow initial clear.
The final ability exploit in initial clearing for Warwick is his use of his e - Primal Howl to remove the scuttle crab's shield, which may seem academic when one should already know that smiting the scuttle crab will remove the shield and deal extra damage. However, due to Warwick having a slower clear than most, a player may want to save their smite for the final 450hp, preventing a smite-steal from the oppositions jungler. Also, if Warwick is successful in taking one scuttle crab, he may attempt the second scuttle crab, and this information to hasten his clearing may prove crucial information for killing the second scuttle crab (or finishing it quick enough to gank the nearest lane in time...)
As a jungler, a player should know the most health-efficient methods to clearing monster camps, such as 3 basic attacks before kiting Blue Sentinel or Red Brambleback. However, Warwick's W - Blood Hunt gives him the ability to just continually auto-attack these monsters once the passive is in effect. This is also useful against the Gromp.
Additionally, one should know that when fighting either Raptors or Murk Wolves, to try to get the smaller monsters to low health to kill all at once with a multi-target ability, and, even though Warwick does not have a multi-target ability, Warwick players should do the same, spreading the damage, to get as much value out of the W - Blood Hunt passive as possible.
Finally, Warwick's Q - Jaws of the Beast gives the Unstoppable buff for a short amount of time, allowing Warwick to avoid the Drake's knock back when initiating the fight if timed correctly. Additionally, when holding Q - Jaws of the Beast, Warwick will dash through an enemy, which can be useful to get behind the Rift Herald and hit the Eye on its back quickly and consistently.
Warwick is not a scaling champion, so should prioritise ganking over farming jungle camps. He is particularly potent at ganking Top lane since he should have superior movement and won't have to rely as heavily on avoiding getting kited. However, Warwick's main advantage is his presence across the map due to his W passive, allowing movement from one side of the map to the other in a short amount of time. He should use this to help with counter-ganking and pressuring lanes when he know's the enemy jungler is not around to contest. This also can translate towards objectives such as Drakes, Rift Heralds, and Baron Nashors, using his high solo-damage to quickly and stealthily take objectives whilst the opposing jungler is off ganking some far-away lane.
Warwick's dueling capabilities means that it is ideal for him to fight people 1 on 1 rather than in team fights and should avoid extended team fights where possible. Additionally, Warwick players should be wary of match-ups since the majority of their game play relies on whether they can win the 1 v 1 or not, relying on their stats since Warwick's low skill ceiling does not allow much room for outplaying someone in a bad match-up. If you know you can win the 1 v 1 fight, you should try to force as many as possible, using your jungle advantage to snowball yourself and your team to victory.
Finally, Warwick relies heavily on his passive - Eternal Hunger to help keep himself alive at lower hp. This means that you shouldn't shy away from a fight when you get quickly bursted at the beginning. Of course, it takes a lot of macro to know whether you can win the fight or not, but if your opponent has high cooldowns and are forced to auto-attack you for a few seconds, you can use this time to heal back part of your health, quickly turning the tide. Additionally, this gives the option of baiting enemies in, thinking this "low-health" Warwick will be easy to kill, meanwhile, you heal back 500 health in the first couple of seconds of the fight and easily dispose of the opposition. The key to being a great Warwick player is knowing when to fight with low health and when to turn tail and run.
Generally, in the mid game, laners should be looking to group up and push the remaining outer turrets to help solidify their position in the game. This, you might think, is bad for Warwick players since you want to avoid extended team fights. However, since you should be the driving force of the game at this point, you can afford to limit test, sometimes even splitting from your team to try and pull 1 or 2 enemy champions into a side lane whilst your team pushes mid. Also, with this grouping, this only strengthens your ability to solo a jungle objective before anyone even notices. With 4 out of 5 champions accounted for, inexperienced players may disbelieve that the enemy Warwick is attempting to solo the drake. However, that is exactly what you should be doing, using your team to push out mid; diverting attention away from the jungle; taking drakes and second Rift Herald before the enemy team knows what hit them.
In straight-up 5v5s, Warwick can prove to be quite weak, having to sit on the frontline, not being able to just dive into the midst of the enemy. However, his powerful ult suppression can prove to be indispensible to help lock down high-value targets throughout the team fight. Additionally, Warwick's Primal Howl - Infinite Duress combo can help to completely disperse the enemy team, throwing them out of position and rendering them all useless for a few seconds whilst they're feared.
Warwick should, however, look to be a nusance in the side-lanes, forcing 1 or 2 enemy champions to match him in the side lanes whilst the rest of his team can use their numbers advantage in the teamfight to win the game. Using his mobility with his W - Blood Hunt, Warwick can quickly return to fights if not matched in a side lane by an enemy champion, or even pressure ending the game whilst the rest of his team stall the enemies' recalls to buy him time.
In general, however, as Warwick, you will find many favourable match-ups to become losing during the late-game period due to Warwick's lack of scaling. As a rule of thumb, a player should look to close out a game before the enemy reach their final power spikes; using the gold advantage he should have earned his team, and possibly even the dragon soul, to win games quickly and cleanly.
Warwick - when used correctly - should be an unkillable healy boi that should easily dispose of almost any other champion in a straight and fair 1 v 1 fight, but you should always be wary of match-ups and team scaling favor. In general, as Warwick, you should either be looking to stomp games... or get stomped... hopefully this guide has been helpful towards doing the stomping.
Thank you for reading,
Spidrpug
Bronze 4 - Warwick enjoyer
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