Warwick Build Guide by the chaos bringer 00

Idealistic Introduction

Undisputed Pros / Critical Cons

So let's have a look at the Pros and Cons list of this awesome champion.

Masteries

Summoner Spells

My choice:

• I run Flash on basically every hero for the insane utility of the spell, and it also allows you to double your Infinite Duress's range when trying to chase somebody down. It can also allow you to chase another person's Flash over a wall, something you cannot do with Ghost.
• Ignite will give you extra lane pressure, and can net you kills at 6 thanks to the frenzy combo:++ ++Hunters Call+AUTOATTACKS with which you can deal TONS OF DAMAGE (as our beloved phreak says) plus heal your self!!!

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Other viable spells:

• Exhaust to keep close ****ing chickens or shut down a fed ADC.
• Teleport to get around the map quickly.
• Ghost to be even more faster even though you have high movement speed.
• Heal to have an even stronger laning phase and if you are playing as an initiator for your team.

Runes

• For marks I am going to run either a pretty self explanatory magic penetration with Greater Mark of Magic Penetration for extra Hungering Strike damage or Greater Mark of Attack Speed.
  
• For yellows I will recommend either Greater Seal of Health against casters in Solo mid or Greater Seal of Armor against beefy Bruisers in Solo top.
  
• For blues I will recommend Magic Resistance, flat or per level against a mid lane caster using Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration for stupidly awesome lane sustain against a juicy Bruiser in Solo top.
  
• For quints I could see Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage, Greater Quintessence of Health, Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed to improve my DPS side or a mixture with maybe 1 Greater Quintessence of Mana Regeneration and a couple of Greater Quintessence of Health or some kind of variation. Don't be afraid to try stuff out.

Abilities Explanation

• Passive: Eternal Thirst
  
  Eternal Thirst
  Each of Warwick's attacks will deal 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5 / 5.5 / 6 / 6.5 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 additional magic damage and heal him for that same amount. Each successive attack against the same target will stack this amount of healing and damage up to a maximum of 3 stacks. The stacks remain for 4 seconds.
  
  Explanation:
  Allows you to have incredible lane sustainability with your autoattacks in the laning phase. Remember that with that patch back then it now does magical damage as well as heals you. Great passive for a bruiser champion like Warwick. This is a part of Warwick's high base damage output and also is even more hard in lane since magic resist generally got waaaay more expensive.
  
• Q: Hungering Strike
  
  Strikes an enemy for the greater value between 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+100% of ability power) and 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 % of the target's maximum health, and heals Warwick for 80% of the damage dealt. Minions and monsters will only be dealt the flat magic damage.
  
  Cooldown 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds
  Cost 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 mana
  Range 400
  
  Explanation:
  Your main source of damage, does a percentage of the enemy's health into damage (NOTE: Great for Season's 3 Health-Stacking meta) and will in turn do more damage to higher hp targets. Still does a solid amount of damage to squishies, however, and heals you depending on the targets maximum health and their magic resistance (which as I've said has become harder to get). It is affected heavily by magic penetration and not much by ability power, so prioritize spell pen over ability power always. The only time that ability power will affect this ability is against squishies, against which the health and the magic resistance will be relatively low. However even some champs that look beefier won't have much magic resist because it got way more expensive in Season 3. This the main reason why Warwick is still able to put deal burst.
  
• W: Hunters Call
  
  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.
  
  Cooldown 30 / 27 / 24 / 21 / 18 seconds
  Cost 35 mana
  Range 1200
  
  Explanation:
  Situational ability, helps you last hit quicker in groups of minions and also is a nice AoE team buff in teamfights. Great for killing dragon and baron. Only rank it once, however, as this is arguably your weakest ability when playing Warwick in solo top. In 5v5's I max it out last but in 3v3's where the lanes are only 2 and everyone messes with everyone's lane you need it to farm more effectively. It is also very good for split pushing.
  
• E: Blood Scent
  
  Toggle: 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.
  
  Cooldown 45 / 40 / 35 / 30 / 25seconds
  Range 20
  
  Explanation:
  Allows you to chase down people with low health, and I like maxing this ability second in 5v5's. Warwick relies on being faster than his opponents to kill them, and this ability really comes in handy. It is like a mega ward that enables you to have map control. But without actually seeing the opponent. However it must be used carefully. Remember to toggle it off and on when you don't want to alert enemies of your presence, like say they are attempting Baron and don't have any true sight but you have a ward. Instead of letting them know that you know they are Baroning ('cause saying "doing Baron" is too damn mainstream), toggle it off and sneak up and then toggle it back on when you and your teammates are ready to mop them up. Kind of a confusing scenario, but just remember that there are times that you may want to toggle it off. In 3v3's I max it out last because the distances are very short in comparison to its range.
  
• R: Infinite Duress
  
  Warwick lunges at an enemy champion, suppressing the target for 1.8 seconds and striking for 50 / 67 / 84 (+0.4 per bonus attack damage) magic damage in 0.33-second intervals. Warwick gains 30% life steal for the duration, and is considered to have fully stacked Eternal Thirst against the target, which is removed at the end of the duration. Each of his strikes triggers on-hit effects and benefits from life steal and Eternal Thirst.
  
  Cooldown 90 / 80 / 70 seconds
  Cost 100 / 125 / 150 mana
  Range 700
  
  Explanation:
  Your ultimate which comes in handy for ganks and solo kills. The deadly ++ ++Hunters Call+AUTOATTACKS combo can do tons of damage especially early on, and your lane opponent may not expect the amount of burst that you are capeable of. Remember that this ability was buffed in a patch, and the base damage and the scaling from your attack damage was buffed too (This means that if Riot decides that it is better than mediocre they will nerf it). <--- TROLL FACE

Ability Sequence

• Basically, prioritize for damage.
  
• Get 1 rank of Hunters Call for teamfights and for ganks, and even for farming minions (under tower).
  
• Prioritize over Hunters Call because the speed boost will be key to chasing down low health opponents, and also catching low health junglers early-mid game.
  
• Obviously get a rank in whenever possible.

Items (STILL UPDATING FOR SEASON3)

This is not completed yet so take a look at the notes for some extra info :)

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Starting Items:


• -->You can turn this later on in a for bonus gold and total lane sustain
  
• -->Safe first item if you are learning Lanewick
  
• -->Also a good starting item, allows you to chase down and zone weaker opponents at top from a very early level, and also gives you the ability to escape ganks.
  
• -->Start with as many pots as you think you will need, with boots I usually end up only grabbing 2 as lanewick's sustainability is insane.
  
  

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  Boots:
  
• Great versus heavy AD team, and enables you to stay longer in battle.
  
• -->A must versus a heavy caster setup. The 35 tenacity will allow you to eat tons of crowd control for your team, and still be able to pump out your Q every couple of seconds for massive self-sustainability.
  
• -->If you don't want to be so tanky. Synergises well with the Autoattackwick build.
  
  

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  Autoattack build:
  
• Madred's Razor--> Makes you a little more durable against AD characters and helps a lot at farming.
  
• -->Assuming you are going to be autoattacking a bunch, you will want this item for some extra damage, attackspeed, and MR.
  
• -->Great item for being able to chase down enemies (it keeps them close to you), as that is what Autoattackwick is good for. Also gives a pretty massive amount of hp.
  
• -->Having Guardian Angel late game can either make or break a teamfight. It will also discourge the enemy team from attacking you while you pound on one of the squishies.
  
• -->A great mix of durability and damage. It is very good against tanky characters as it deals a percentage of their max health.
  
  

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  Q spam build:
  
• -->Great item for being able to chase down enemies (it keeps them close to you). Also gives a pretty massive amount of hp. Which can help you survive since you are the initiator.
  
• [icon=Charlice of Harmony size=55--> Gives great mana regen as you will not be runing for mana regen at all, and also adds some nice magic resistance. Great item on any melee bruiser with mana problems.
  
• -->Bumps your healing dramatically from your Hungering Strike and autoattacks, and synergizes nicely with any Q-spamwick build.
  
• -->Maximizes CDR and gives armor as well. Great core item for Q-spamwick.
  
  

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  Off-tank initiator build:
  
• -->Assuming you are going to be autoattacking, you will want this item for some extra damage, attackspeed, and MR. This is your main sourceof damage.
  
• -->Having Guardian Angel late game can either make or break a teamfight. It will also discourge the enemy team from attacking you while you pound on one of the squishies. It also enables you to take some serious damage while destroying the most important enemies; THE CARRIES.
  
• -->Maximizes CDR and gives armor as well. Great core item for spamming your abilities.
  
  
  

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  Optional items for either build:
  
• into or -->If you are getting great farm and the enemy team isn't, hextech can beef up your Hungering Strike heal dramatically. The AP won't benefit your Hungering Strike much, but the spell vamp is nice and you can upgrade it into a will of the ancients to benefit your other AP carry as well. If you upgrade it into your Hungering Strike's damage will be augmented at a rather ... alarming rate
  
• -->If the other team has some heavy magical damage Banshee's Veil is never a bad item to consider because it gives also mana and health.
  
• Sunfire Cap-->If the other team is heavily physical, I would still take a Frozen Heart in first priority though.
  
• -->If you are just godlike and the other team is stacking MR. Offers no defensive stats so use at your own risk.
  
• -->One of the best damage items and makes you even more dangerous as you kill enemies also the lifesteal is good for surviving. Offers nothing in defense so use it at your own risk

Gameplay

Someone would now say: "Thanks Chaos Bringer 00, I learned how to build Warwick. I am now ready to play!!!".

Me:Yeee...Nope, not at all, you must now complete the most important stage of your Warwick training: How to play with Warwick.

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Early Game
Early game you are going to want to farm safely and depending on your lane matchup and how often your jungler is ganking for you, you may be able to pull a few kills. At 6, lanewick has some serious pressure on the lane because of his ranged 2 second stun + Ignite. He can also dive pretty easily as he will usually be full health because of his incredible lane sustainability.

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Mid Game
Mid game you are going to want to focus on setting up kills for your team, and in teamfights you will want to be zoning out carries when possible. You are going to want to soak tons of damage, but be wary of Ignite as this will completely destroy your sustainability in teamfights.

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Late Game
Late game you have normally build a very taky damage dealer, and you are going to want to use your tankiness to your advantage in teamfights. Because lanewick does not have incredible burst damage, you are going to want to drag fights on for as long as possible, while avoiding bursts of damage + Ignite .

Conclusion

Guide details

Guide was created on: 21st of March 2012
Guide was completed and published on: 6th of May 2012

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Updated:
7 of May 2012: Changes in runes, no wriggles any more, added Olaf to early game section as a "be-afraid-of-me" guy, Added the cheat sheet of Off-tank initiator Warwick

26 of February 2013: General Updates for Season 3 concerning building Warwick, Re-formatting gameplay section.

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Things to do: Add lane match-ups re-write the item section.