Welcome to my revised Warwick guide for season 6. I have been playing as Warwick main since I started playing and have about 800 games with him. He is the first champion that I learnt to play with and I will always play him when I need first win of the day.

Warwick is mostly played in the jungle as his early game is really weak and cannot really trade well in lane. Any decent player will own him hardcore in lane. He only has one damaging skill and his passive needs to be stacked in order to be useful. Given the mobility creep nowadays, it is really hard for him in lane.

However, once he gets his third/fourth item, he will start to snowball really hard. By the time he gets his fifth item, most champions cannot go 1v1 with him. He is best built as an on-hit/attack speed/CDR champion which synergies well with his skill sets.

Pros + One of the strongest lifesteal tank + Best 1v1 champion + AOE attack speed buffer + Enemy champions below 50% HP are mobile wards + High movement speed with Blood Scent + Low skill cap + Identity change with skin

With both passive skill Eternal Thirst and Q Hungering Strike, Warwick is one of those champions that has very high lifesteal. On top of that, Infinite Duress will also increase his lifesteal making him one of the best 1v1 champions at end game. He also provides an AOE attack speed buff using Hunters Call which will help everyone especially the ADC to deal more damage. His Blood Scent is a very useful skill for detecting any low health champions and also increase his movement speed. Last but not least, he is the only champion that can change his identity with Urf the Manatee Skin.

Cons - Extremely weak early game - Infinite Duress easily interruptible - No dash beside Infinite Duress - No AOE damage - No crowd control abilities - No fanciful skills

Warwick is very weak early game. Most of the time if he is counterjungled during early game, he couldn't do much except to run and lose his buffs to the enemy jungler. His ult can also be interrupted. He does not have a dash, no AOE damage, no crowd control abilities and no fanciful skills like other newer champions make him a "boring" champion.

Smite : This is the standard summoner spell to take for junglers. This spell also double up as junglers' version of Ignite when paired with Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer or Stalker's Blade - Devourer. I also take Insight and Ionian Boots of Lucidity to lower its cooldown as you need to use it both on jungle minions and champions.

Flash : Warwick can use Flash for closing gap. He can also Flash through wall for chasing and escaping. He can also combo Flash-> Infinite Duress for a super long distance ult. On rare occasion, Flash-> Smite through wall to secure objectives at his own risk. A really good summoner spell to get.

Ghost : An alternative to Flash. He can take Ghost which is useful for pre-6 ganking with red buff. Ghost is also a very useful summoner spell for chasing and running away. I prefer Flash to Ghost but it is always an viable option.

MARKS

Greater Mark of Attack Speed x8
Greater Mark of Critical Chance x1

I take x8 Greater Mark of Attack Speed to improve jungling speed as Warwick is a very slow single target jungler. His attack speed needs to be increased to speed up his starting jungling as he needs to reach level 6 for his power spike. The reason why I did not take x9 Greater Mark of Attack Speed is because I do not want to exceed the attack speed cap at level 18. The x1 Greater Mark of Critical Chance will give us a cheesy critical hit once in a while which is fun to have.


SEAL

Greater Seal of Scaling Health x9

I take x9 Greater Seal of Scaling Health for late game tankiness. Greater Seal of Scaling Health will give more health as you level up making you more and more tanky. Alternative is Greater Seal of Scaling Armor but I prefer Greater Seal of Scaling Health as health will help for both AD and AP damage. Greater Seal of Scaling Health is better than Greater Seal of Health as it gives more health from level 6 and above.


GLYPH

Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction x6
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist x3

The purpose of taking Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction x6 is so that you get 10% CDR by the time you reach level 18. This will combined with CDR from Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Black Cleaver for max CDR in late game. Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist x3 is get more magic resist later in the game as you don't need magic resist in the jungle. You can also get Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction x3 and Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction x6 for more CDR early game but I don't find it necessary.


QUINTESSENCE

Quintessence of Movement Speed x3

I take x3 Quintessence of Movement Speed so that Warwick can move faster between camps in the jungle. This will help to improve his jungling speed and allows him to reach level 6 faster. Quintessence of Movement Speed combined with Dead Man's Plate and Blood Scent will make you super fast in late game.

On Warwick, a 18/12/0 mastery path will maximise his damage while improving his survivability. By putting 18 points into Ferocity, he can dishes out more damage and contribute more to the team and 12 points in Cunning will help in giving Warwick more damage.

Ferocity 21 Points

Ferocity Tree - 18 points Tier 1 Fury vs Sorcery Higher attack speed is needed for slow jungler like Warwick. This last 4% will also let you cap your attack speed once you get all your items. As Warwick does not use ability very often, Sorcery is not that useful. Tier 2 Double Edged Sword vs Feast vs Expose Weakness Increase 3% damage for 1.5% more damage taken. Sounds like a good tradeoff. With your passive, this 1.5% is negligible. The 20 health gain from Feast is really negligible. Expose Weakness depends on your teammates to follow up which is only good during teamfights. Hence I prefer to take Double Edged Sword . Tier 3 Vampirism vs Natural Talent I choose Vampirism over Natural Talent as 10 more AD + 18 more AP is not much at end game. More life steal and spell steal is good for survival in both jungle and teamfight. Tier 4 Bounty Hunter vs Oppressor I prefer Bounty Hunter as you will get kills with this build. Oppressor is only good for Warwick ult and nothing else as he has no cc unless with red buff. So I think Bounty Hunter is better. Tier 5 Battering Blows vs Piercing Thoughts This is a tough choice. Warwick uses both AD and AP. AD is used during his auto-attack while AP is used when he use his abilities. I take Piercing Thoughts for more burst damage rather than sustained damage. Tier 6 Warlord's Bloodlust vs Fervor of Battle vs Deathfire Touch There is really no contest here. Our Warwick does not have crit and also do not use a lot of abilities. However, his ult will fully stack Fervor of Battle making it the best choice here.

Cunning - 12 Points

Tier 1 Wanderer vs Savagery Warwick have enough sustain in the jungle and does not need Savagery. Wanderer will helps Warwick move even faster between lanes for gank potential. Tier 2 Runic Affinity vs Secret Stash vs Assassin Secret Stash is pretty much useless for Warwick as he does not need potions. Between Runic Affinity and Assassin , I think Assassin is more useful for dueling potential in case of any counter jungling or to handle those pesky backdoor noobs. Tier 3 Merciless vs Meditation While Warwick has mana issue early in the game, as long as he gets first 2 blue buff, he should be fine. Merciless will help greatly in kill potential for Warwick. An Infinite Duress plus Hungering Strike will take more than half the health of any squishy targets and trigger Merciless . A very useful mastery to 1-2 shot squishy targets. Tier 4 Bandit vs Dangerous Game Bandit is useless as Warwick is in the jungle with no allies near him. Dangerous Game will help him stay alive for longer in the fight in case there are any kills or assists. Really no contest here.

Itemization Reasoning

The best way to build a Warwick is to focus on his attack speed, on-hit effects, CDR and tankiness. This is to maximise the synergy between his skill sets and items. Building AD and AP on Warwick is less than ideal due to his two damaging skills, Hungering Strike is using AP ratio while Infinite Duress is using AD ratio. If Warwick is built as a hybrid, he will be jack of all trades but master of none.

Warwick depends a lot on his auto attack to do his damage. His skill Hunters Call increase his attack speed by 80% at max level which makes him more effective at auto attack. Also at max CDR, Warwick can keep Hunters Call on infinitely given enough mana. Hence by focusing on attack speed and CDR his potential can be maximised.

Any auto attack champions will benefit immensely from on-hit utility. Warwick is special as his ult Infinite Duress will apply any on-hit stacks 5 times instantly. His ult will also trigger any on-hit effects such as Blade of the Ruined King current %HP damage. So attack speed buff plus on-hit effects will make him very powerful.

As Warwick is a melee champion, he will also needs some beef to withstand damage. So his itemization will also needs to include some armor, magic resist and HP. Together with his Eternal Thirst, Hungering Strike and Infinite Duress, he is very hard to kill if he just have one or two defense items.


Starting Items

Warwick should start with Hunter's Talisman instead of Hunter's Machete due to his early game mana issue. In theory, Warwick does not need any Health Potion to survive in the jungle. But in practice, it is better to have 1x Health Potion in case of counter jungling by the enemy jungler or no leashing is offered by teammates. I also take a Vision Ward to ward the bush near the river at the blue buff side. This ward is important to provide vision for any counter jungling and also if the enemy get into the river, you can see where he is going to gank. Stealth Ward is for general purpose warding. Normally I will not upgrade the Stealth Ward as I find invisible wards to be much more useful then the visible blue wards.

Jungle Items

Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer : This item fits Warwick perfectly. The stacking effect of this item make Warwick into a monster in late game. A sated Warwick with max attack speed is a monster to fight against. As he will be getting attack speed items, the damage will be huge. Rush this item as soon as possible to start getting the stacks. A secondary effect of this item is to change Smite into something similar to Ignite which give additional damage. Highly recommended.

Stalker's Blade - Devourer : An alternative to Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer. This item has a weaker Smite effect on enemy champions in exchange for a 2 sec slow. As Warwick does not have any crowd control skills, you can take this item instead for early game slow which can help in a gank without red buff. In my opinion, Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer is better due to the more damage it does.

Boots

Ionian Boots of Lucidity : Warwick skill sets has relatively high cooldown. This boots will help in getting more out of his skills. With the correct items and runes, Warwick can achieved max CDR with Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Also we need the CDR on summoner spells to get more Smite out. Overall the best boots for Warwick now.

Ninja Tabi : Normally I will buy a Ninja Tabi after completing Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer if I am not going for Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Warwick is very weak early game and a Ninja Tabi will help him survive during those tough time. As most champions are still doing mainly physical damage at early game stage due to lack of items for high magic damage, Ninja Tabi will help him survive much better.

Mercury's Treads : In matches where the enemy champions are predominantly AP users with lots of crowd control, I will build this instead. The tenacity buff is good in reducing the duration of crowd control and the magic resist will help to mitigate some damage. However, without the armor and damage reduction from Ninja Tabi, Warwick is much weaker and needs to be careful when engaging with any enemy champions

Core Items

Wit's End : This is a very good midgame item for Warwick. The stats are all tied up neatly with his kit. Get this for his first offensive items for a boost in attack speed as well as damage.

Dead Man's Plate : This is a new item in Season 6 and it suits Warwick perfectly. It give armor, health, movement speed and even damage. All these are needed by Warwick to do his job well.

Blade of the Ruined King : This item is a beast. The on-hit damage will apply with Infinite Duress. The attack speed buff will make him hits faster. The lifesteal will let him survive longer. The AD will make him hits harder. And last and most important, the active will let him catch all those noobs running away. This item offers too much for Warwick and in my opinion is a must buy. However due to its high cost, normally it will be the fifth item to be built.

Optional Items

Black Cleaver : I normally build it last. This item gives health which increase his durability. It also give AD and shreds armor which make it good against tanks. The on-hit also works with Infinite Duress. The cooldown reduction will also helps Warwick to get more Hungering Strike off and also help to cap CDR. Overall a very good weapon that works for Warwick.

Titanic Hydra : Another new item in Season 6. The health is nice for a tanky Warwick. The damage, passive and active all adds up to make Warwick both tanky and a force to be reckon with during team fights. Also increase his overall waveclear. You can build this instead of Black Cleaver if you don't need the CDR.

Frozen Mallet : Another decent damage item for Warwick. It give Warwick the crowd control he needs desperately and also increase his HP. Overall a good item even though there are better options out there such as Black Cleaver and Titanic Hydra.

Frozen Heart : Another decent defence item for Warwick. You can get this instead of Black Cleaver if you don't need the damage but want more survivability and CDR. It also help in reducing the attack speed for all enemy champions. However, the only drawback for this item is that it doesn't give any health which is needed by Warwick to be a tanky bruiser. Also normally support will build this item instead of jungler.

Randuin's Omen : This item is one of the better armor item. It also gives HP which Warwick needs to tank. The slow is very good on its active and the attack speed reduction debuff is decent for some damage reduction from enemy ADC. I like to take this item first before offense item most of the time as Warwick is really very squishy before this item.

Spirit Visage : This item is the equivalent of Randuin's Omen but in the magic resist department. The healing passive works very well with Warwick lifesteal skill sets making it very optimal for Warwick to get. The HP is a bonus on top of a very good item for Warwick.

Sunfire Aegis : Some players prefer to get this for Warwick. Since Warwick is a melee champion, he will be up close to enemy champions most of the time dishing out AOE damage to them. The armor and HP provided by Sunfire Aegis will let him survives better in melee range. A very nice alternative for Warwick.

Banshee's Veil : This item has its own niche. Infinite Duress is easily interruptible. This item may help to stop one crowd control ability from interrupting Infinite Duress. It also gives magic resist and HP which is good to have on Warwick. I usually will get this item if there are a ton of crowd control from the enemy team.

Thornmail : Haha, Thornmail deserves a honourable mention. Normally this is not built on Warwick. However, if there is a fed Master Yi in the match, I will get this to counter him. With this item, Warwick can go 1v1 with a full build Master Yi and come out on top. I consider this a troll item though.

Build Order

1. Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer
2. Ionian Boots of Lucidity
3. Wit's End
4. Dead Man's Plate
5. Blade of the Ruined King
6. Black Cleaver


Note1: Calculation of attack speed on Warwick
Warwick max out attack speed at 218.56% (Source)
Hunters Call - 80%
Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer - 40%
Wit's End - 40%
Blade of the Ruined King - 40%
Greater Mark of Attack Speed x9 - 13.6%
Fury - 4%
Total: 80% + 40% + 40% + 40% + 13.6% + 4% = 217.6%
Difference between max attack speed = 218.56% - 217.6% = 0.96%
This is the reason why I only take x8 Greater Mark of Attack Speed as I do not want to go beyond the attack speed cap.


Note2: Calculation of CDR on Warwick
Warwick max out his CDR using the below items.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity - 10%
Black Cleaver - 20%
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction x6 - 10%
Total: 10% + 20% + 10% = 40%
At max CDR, you can use your Infinite Duress very often for ganks and teamfights. Hunters Call can be keep up infinitely given enough mana and Hungering Strike can be used very often during teamfights.

Normally, I will put one point in Hunters Call first for faster jungling speed. However if the enemy team counter jungle in early game, I will start with Hungering Strike in order to trade with them.

The first skill that I will try to max is Hungering Strike, followed by Blood Scent and lastly Hunters Call. A point will be put in Infinite Duress at level 6, 11, 16 as per usual.

Eternal Thirst - Passive : Warwick passive allows him to stay healthy in the jungle during the early stage of the game. Do take note that his passive needs to be stacked in order to be useful so try not to keep changing targets as this will reduce the effectiveness of his passive.

Hungering Strike - Q : The only damaging skill that Warwick has besides his ult Infinite Duress. This skill scales off AP which is most likely not a stacked attribute. This skill will take 16% of maximum HP without zero AP which is still decent and will also heal Warwick. This should be max first as it is his only damaging skill. Do take note that at early level, the mana cost is very high relative to his mana pool hence the first and second blue buff is essential for Warwick to snowball. The third blue buff onwards can be given to mid without slowing down his progress.

Hunters Call - W : One of the best buff in the game. While other champions can only buff one or two champions at a time, Hunters Call will give an AOE attack speed buff to the whole team. If cooldown reduction is max at 40%, Warwick can keep this up infinitely as long as there is no mana issue. A very powerful skill but should be max last due to the poor scaling of the skill. At level 1, Warwick gains 40% attack speed buff while subsequent levels give only 10% attack speed more. In terms of per point reward, it is not that great hence I normally put 1 point in it and max it last.

Blood Scent - E : This skill is what makes Warwick a blood hunter. Many amateurs have requested for this skill to be removed or remade. However this is one of the most useful skills in the game. It turns all enemy champions into mobile wards when their HP falls below 50%. There will be occasions when enemy champions HP fall below 50% when they are trying to get a secret Baron and instantly allows Warwick team to know and react. Due to the huge range at max level, enemy champions will be wary of recalling without the protection of towers as they can be seen and hunted down even in bushes. This skill also prevent any juking as it ignores the effect of bushes. Turn this skill off during early game when the range is low so as not to alert enemy champions to your presence. Only turn it on when the chase starts. But when this skill gets level up, always keep it on as you never know when you will get a surprise alert and kill for your team.

Infinite Duress - R : One of the most feared and yet the most easily countered ability in the game. If this skill is not interrupted, it is very scary as it will lock an enemy champion in place for 1.8 sec allowing your team ample time to burst him down. Use Flash -> Infinite Duress for a super long distance engage. Infinite Duress can also be used to jump on enemy champions through walls if they are within range and you have vision of them.

Early game

Jungling After buying the starting items, I normally rush to the bush as shown in the picture on the left and put my Vision Ward there. Communicate nicely with either top or bottom lane team members depending on either you are blue or red team to help you leash if possible. Warwick is a very slow jungler and the leash will go a long way in helping him to get to level 6 faster. My usual jungle path is Gromp ( Smite) -> Blue Sentinel -> Greater Murk Wolf ( Smite) -> Crimson Raptor -> Red Brambleback ( Smite) -> Ancient Krug. Then I will recall and buy Skirmisher's Sabre before heading back to Gromp. The main objective is to rush to level 6 for Infinite Duress. Skirmisher's Sabre will give Warwick more gold and also the time taken to walk from Ancient Krug to Gromp is able the same as from base to Gromp. So I will recall even if health is max.

At level 4, if Warwick have red buff and any lane is pushed with lane team members using champions that have crowd control abilities, I may attempt a gank. Warwick is a very weak ganker before level 6 so I will need to make sure it is worthwhile to gank before doing it. A gank at this stage for Warwick is considered successful if I can 1) get a kill, 2) get an assist or 3) force any flash from the enemy champions.

If I am not confident of the above conditions happening, I wouldn't bother to gank and instead rush to level 6. Sometimes you might get a lot of pings from my teammates to gank their lane. Do not be affected by them. Only gank when you are confident of a successful gank. I have encountered too many times when they ping a gank when they are losing lane and I end up feeding cause the enemy laner is too strong and the teammates losing lane is too low/weak. Always exercise your own judgement rather than follow pings for ganks blindly. Always keep in mind you need to get sated as soon as possible. If ganks are unsuccessful, you end up losing time as well as losing stacks which is not worth it at all.

Counter Jungling

NO, JUST NO. OK, maybe. Warwick is a very weak jungler at level 1. Most of the time, he can't really counter jungle effectively. However, there will be situation where he will be forced to counter jungle. One situation is when the whole enemy team come for his blue buff at level 1. In this case, there is no way Warwick can defend his blue buff. It is better to go straight for the enemy blue buff and steal it. This ensures that he will remain relevant in the first few minutes of the match without running out of mana.

If the enemy jungler is a strong early counter jungler like Shaco, I will need to play smart. Most of the time, I cannot win any trade with them early game so I will avoid trading with them. If my buff is stolen, I will try to take their buff. I will then play safe and try to reach level 6 as soon as possible. Once I am level 6, I will start to trade with them.

Jungle timer



The above information can be obtained from the scoreboard by pressing O or holding down Tab button. The red and blue box on the left is the timer for the blue and red buff to respawn for blue team. The red and blue box on the right is the timer for the blue and red buff to respawn for purple team. The two center timers refer to Baron and Dragon respawn time. The timer will only appears if the team has vision of the last minion in the camp when it is killed. If the team has does not have vision of the last killed minion in the camp, the timer for that camp will not appear and the only way to know when the camp will respawn is to wait for it to appear on the minimap.


Mid game

I should be level 6 and beyond by now. A few towers may also be destroyed. Hopefully by now I have at least 2.5 to 3 full items. Small skirmish will take place everywhere. The top priority is to farm up the stacks for Enchantment: Devourer. Keep a look out on all 3 lanes for ganking opportunities. Use F1-F5 to move to the different lane quickly as these shortcuts help to center the camera view on teammates. Try to force a gank every time when Infinite Duress is up. Remember, kills and assists give 2 stacks for Enchantment: Devourer while big jungle minions only give 1 stack. So ganking takes priority.


End game

Try to stick to together as much as possible. In teamfights, Warwick should never be the one to initiate. He does not have the skills to do so. Let the real tank in the team initiate. Once the fighting starts, Hunters Call the whole team. Only use Infinite Duress if there is anyone out of position and most of the crowd control abilities have been used by the enemy team.

If my team is losing, Warwick is actually a very good backdoor champion with his cap attack speed. He can even tank tower shots for a short while. So try to backdoor as much as possible.

At this stage, any ace will most likely results in a win by the winning team. So if things look bad, run. If there are a few survivors left, there will always be a next time. Don't over commit in team fights. And do not chase anyone all the way back to enemy base. It will only results in giving the enemy team a free kill.

Thank you for taking your time to read till the end of my Warwick guide. If you have any suggestion to improve my guide, please feel free to comment. If there is any mistakes in the guide, please also kindly comment so that I can correct it. See you soon.

15 Mar 2016 - Change masteries from 18/0/12 to 18/12/0

25 Jan 2016 - Revised guide for Season 6

19 Jun 2015 - First version of guide