This guide will hopefully perform the function indicated, which is to distinguish the "good" Warwick players from the rest, while carrying your team to victory.

Warwick is commonly known as a jungler and there are many, MANY jungling guids on Warwick, so that will not be covered (but it is still a viable path to alpha-wick). Instead, I will discuss various builds that benefit Warwick in varying degrees, depending on play style. Since this is not a junglewick guide, you can think of it as a multifaceted lanewick guide. By multifaceted, I mean that Warwick has many builds to go off from, like standard lanewick, magewick, tankwick, glass-cannon, and everyone's favorite . . . trollwick (just kidding).

PROS

Great duelist (one vs. one)
Has great sustainability in lane
Great chasing capability
Hybrid fighter


CONS

Weak early game
Has almost no escaping potential
VERY team reliant
No form of natural CC protection
Not a good initiator

By default, Warwick has great sustainability in lane as a fighter type champion due to his natural life steal Eternal Thirst as well as his active abilities such as Hungering Strike and Infinite Duress

Eternal Thirst is Warwick's passive ability.

Each of Warwick's attacks will him for 6% / 12% / 18% of the damage done. Each successive attack against the same target will restore increasing amounts of health.

This passive is what makes Warwick so great in lane, especially in the early game. For example, say you get ganked, but finish off your opponents, leaving you with low health. It is the early game, and you don't want to lose out on experience and farm. What do you do? Well, you start hitting minions (while remembering to last hit them for gold). Because of Warwick's passive, you regain health every time you hit an enemy unit, including champions. This passive literally brings you back from the brink of death.

Hungering Strike (Q)

Strikes an enemy for the greater value between 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+100% of ability power) and 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20 % of the target's maximum health, and heals Warwick for 80% of the damage dealt.

This should be the first ability to get as well as the primary one to max out. This is your primary damage and self-heal spell. Not only does this heal you, it deals a fair amount of damage to the enemy. This is partly the reason why Warwick is great in lane. It helps Warwick sustain himself and damage enemies. Also, it is not a skill shot, so it is easy to land.

Hunters Call (W)

Warwick lets out a howl that inspires all nearby allied champions. This increases Warwick's attack speed by 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 % and all nearby friendly champions' attack speed by half of the amount for 10 seconds.

This is your ONLY area of affect ability as the rest of your abilities only strike single targets. And no, this does not mean you build Tiamat

What this does is increase your whole team's attack speed, which is great because your team deals damage faster. What this specifically does for Warwick is allow him to attack faster, which leads to greater damage output and sustainability. Remember Eternal Thirst? Well, with this you will regain health even faster.

Note: we max this ability LAST. Why? It just is not great early game unless you want to kill turrets quickly, or engage in team fights. Early game, none of that will happen, usually. So just take one level of this at level four, and leave it for last after you maxed out all other abilities, unless you plan on being relatively aggressive.

Blood Scent (E)

Warwick senses enemy champions under 50% life within a 1500 / 2300 / 3100 / 3900 / 4700 distance of him, revealing them until they heal. Upon sensing an enemy, he will gain 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 % movement speed.

This is your iconic ability, your alpha wolf sense (take that Spider Man)! Basically, this is Warwick's speed boost if enemies are below 50% health. This serves three functions.
The first function is marking enemy locations. Think of it as your radar that only works if the enemy is below 50% life. The higher the level, the higher the range. This should be maxed second.

Note: turn this off before you gank as when the blood scent sign appears over an enemy's head, they will avoid you and run in fear. You generally don't want that because you want to kill them!

The second function - With increased movement speed, Warwick can chase down any enemy as most people will have level two boots. As you will also have level two boots with Blood Scent, you can chase them down as your speed surpasses theirs. So if you need to finish that running enemy, here it is.

The third function this ability fulfills is that you have greater escaping capability in case the battle didn't go so well. Hopefully, you and your team caused enough damage to the enemy to get them below 50% life. If they did, you might possibly live to fight another day.

Infinite Duress (R)

Warwick lunges at an enemy champion, suppressing the target for 1.8 seconds and striking for 40 / 60 / 80 (+0.33 per attack damage) magic damage in 0.33-second intervals. Warwick gains 30% life steal for the duration. Each of his strikes triggers on-hit effects and benefits from life steal and Eternal Thirst.

This is your ultimate ability. Obviously max this out whenever possible. This is one of your most useful abilities as part of a team. When you target an enemy, you stun and suppress them while doing massive amounts of MAGIC damage.

Infinite duress strikes five times, triggering on-hit effects such as Madred's Bloodrazor. So if you want to go proc-wick, this ability is the trigger for your build, aside from auto-attacking. Use this ability to suppress an opponent at critical moments such as when they use their ultimate to save a teammate. Better yet, use it to take out their squishy, high dps champion. Warwick is not that great at team fights due to the singular nature of his abilities, but this is his way of redeeming himself.

Note: although Warwick can stun and suppress enemies with this, it only suppresses one of them. While using infinite duress, you will not be able to move or cast spells, making you as vulnerable as the foe you pounced. Therefore, you DO NOT want to initiate a team fight with this ability because you WILL get focused down. Still, to further prevent that, use it when the fight takes place to take out your high priority target, or get Banshee's Veil as it will block one of their spells that can lock you down.

Typically, the combo is use your ult, and then hungering strike, and hunter's call. Most squishes either die, or are at the brink of death. So,you need to make a choice. Chase them down, or help the rest of the team. It is purely situational as you just increased everyone's attack speed, and you have your blood scent activated. Choosing who to ult, and take down is one of the most pivotal choices that Warwick is responsible for. Choose wisely.