Hey there, this is my first guide on Mobafire. I started playing Warwick as my first Champion and tried to master him. As most of you know he is one of the strongest solo laner in this game. For those who didn't know this let me explain this: he is so strong because of his ability to heal himselfe with basic attacks and his Q Skill Hungering Strike. When I play WW most of my team mates are going to force me to jungle. It's true that WW is a good jungler. And a good ganker too. BUT... playing WW on a solo lane and let him farm makes him stronger and stronger the more last hits he get. With his Q and Doran's Ring as start item he can stay much longer in his lane than most other campions. The result of this is, that your turette won't go down and if there are small teamfights going on on other lanes it's hard for the enemy campion to leave the lane. If he does anyway you can push the lane or hunt after him and help your team in the fight.

In the next chapers I will explain to you what runes and items I us and why. You'll see that I play Warwick kind of offtank/ap/ad.

The most important thing is: this guide may work in most games. BUT you need to play situational. I can't stress this point out enough. Which means that you don't have to stick to the item sequence. You have to get a feeling for what you need more at the moment in game. If you do so, you will do pretty well with all champs.

Cause I am German my english isn't perfect. If you see any mistakes feel free to correct me. And leave some comments don't matter if positive or negative. I may learn something from them.

For runes I prefer magic penetration, armor and magic resist. Last two of them I pick as armor or magic resist per level. This gives you more defense in late game. And with the magic penetration runes your Q Hungering Strike does quite a good dmg.

You can also go for more health and pick three Greater Quintessence of Health

You have to be a little carefull with harrassing until level 5 or 6. At that point your enemy will have much difficulties taking you out alone when you don't do any mistakes.

Update 16/11/2011

Since the Fizz Patch changed the masteries I updated the guide. It's still 9/0/21.

But now we have more choices in the Offence Tree. I pick Mental Force which is good for your Hungering Strike. Then go for Sorcery which lowers the Cooldowns. At last pick Arcane Knowledge for magic penetration. These three will max. your damage with Hungering Strike and lower his CD.

Utility Tree

Take one point for Summoner's Insight . This reduces you CD on Flash. You don't need [Good Hands] cause you won't die that much.

Take four points in Swiftness . This works great with Blood Scent. Hunting enemies down is much easier.

Two points for Meditation are enough cause you have your Doran's Ring.

Max Transmutation . This grants you 3% Life Steal. I think I don't have to mention that this is awesome for Hungering Strike and Infinite Duress.

Take one point in Runic Affinity . It's always good to have a longer buff.

Go for three point in Awareness and max Intelligence . With your last point you can either choose Mastermind which lowers your CDs on the Summoner Spells or go for Perseverance. I prefer Mastermind cause you don't need more mana reg.

This is your passive. Doing basic attacks on enemies or minions will heal you for each attack you landed on them. Although I recommend just last hitting, hitting minions more than once will restore your health much faster.



Hungering strike is your main dmg source. With your magic pen runes you do good dmg early game and restores your health at the same time. You should harrass your enemy with this skill only if you took some dmg so that he will lose life and you will gain some. And use this skill on minions only as a last hit to heal yourselfe



Huters call will increase your attack speed. After my opinion this is needed in much more in late game than in early game. That's why I max it last. Take it once at level 4 or 5 and leave it there. This skill will increase the attack speed of your team as well. Use it when you and your team attack turettes or in teamfights.



Blood Scent increase your movement speed if there are enemies below 50% health. With this you can chase down your escaping enemies. Or you can go fast under an enemie turette kill the enemie and flash out easiely.



This is your ultimate. You will jump to an enemy and supress him for a short time and dealing some dmg. The disadvantage is that you can't move either while using it. Don't engage a teamfight with it. You may die very fast. Make sure that your real tank engage and that you focus the carries of the enemy team.

Therefor I pick Flash Flash and Ignite Ignite. I think I don't have to say much what these spells do. But let me tell you why to pick them.
Flash is a very good initiate or escape ability. You can flash into range for your Infinite Duress Infinite Duress, flash our of trouble or do some counter flashes while hunting escaping enemies.

Ignite is a very good item to get First Blood or when you have some trouble hunting enemies down. When the enemie is very low healt land a Q and some basic attacks on him and ignite him. Chase after him until he is down. You need to be level 7 for Ignite. You also can use Exhaust Exhaust. But you should remove it as soon as possible.

If you are not level 12 by now use Ghost Ghost instead of Flash. You can escape with Ghost too or get in range with it. But with Flash you're way more flexible.

So here's the most important part of this build. What items are good for Warwick??

Before, I have to point it out again: play situational. In the following I will give you an overview for some basic situations.

There are many good items for Warwick. But after my opinion a good build does not consists of the most expensive items but of these items which have the best synergies with his skills and don't cost very much. Normaly the games wont take long enough to get your full build or some extra powerfull items. His main skills are his Q and his ultimate. His Q skales with ability power and his ultimate skales with attack damage. That's why I think you have to focus on that. And there are many items which gives you more that attack damage or ability power. Since Warwick is a melee camp it is also good to have some defensive items cause you need to handle some damage.

As I pointed out above many players know Warwick as a jungler. That's why many players think to go for Madred's Bloodrazor first. False!!! As you can see it costs lots of gold (3800). And you need some shoes too. Let's pick for example Socerer's Shoes Sorcerer's Shoes. This item costs another 1100 gold. Starting with Doran's Ring you need 475 gold. So you need 5375 gold for your first three items. This is lots of gold and you need to farm alot to get this. Even if you take out some enemies.

Here it comes: you don't need Madred's Bloodrazor to play Warwick in a successfull way.

Start with Doran's Ring (475 gold) go to your lane and do some farming (last hits only). Go back and buy Boots (350 gold) and Madred's Razor (1000 gold). Now you have some more movement speed, attack dmg and armor. And with Madred's Razor you can farm now easily.

With your next trip back to base you buy Sorcerer's Shoes and buy Wriggle's Lantern or Recurve Bow Recurve Bow for some attack speed. You will need the last item for Wit's End Wit's End. Instead of buying Recurve Bow you can go for Null-Magic Mantle first if you need some magic restist first.

One can say it's not worth it buying Madred's or Wriggle's and they are maybe right. Cause you don't need the 20% chance to hin a minion with 500 dmg when you are on a lane. But it workes on him even if he isn't in the jungle. Wriggle's works for Warwick. It gives you armor and attack dmg. The extra lifsteal works perfectly with your passive and with it's active you can place every 3 min a ward. On my way through Mobafire bulids I found these discussion very often. After my opinion it's all about wheater you like these advantages or not. There are lots of items you can buy instead. My advice: buy items you feel comfortable with.

If you have all four items (Doran's Ring, Sorcerer's Shoes, Wriggle's Lantern and Wits End) you got your core items. This will cost you 5175 gold. So you see that you'll spend 200 gold less than going for the Bloodrazor first. And you have now little more Mana reg, ability power, health, attack dmg, armor, mag resist and attack speed. And don't forget the passiv of Wit's End with grants you extra magic dmg on your basic attacks and magic resist.

After having these items your next items are very situational. It depends against what enemies you have to play.

If you need more health, armor and magic resist go for Aegis of the Legion Aegis of the Legion. It costs 1920 gold and has an aura so your allies have some advantage too. This is a good item against balanced teams.

If you are facing a strong AP team you may want to buy a Hexdrinker Hexdrinker for 1800 Gold. This gives you more magic resist and attack dmg. You can also go for an Abyssal Scepter Abyssal Mask. More magic resist and even more dmg for your Q.

Against a strong AD team you can go for Glacial Shroud Glacial Shroud which gives you tons of armor and cooldown reduction. Which is good for your Q.

Update
It comes to me that this build is stronger by buying Glacial Shroud before Wit's End. Cause you can use Hungering Strike more often.

If you are doing well and lets say this: you will do so cause you will dominate your lane with these items you can go for Morello's Evil Thome Morello's Evil Thome and replace Doran's Ring. You can also replace Doran's Ring with Nashor's Thooth Nashor's Thooth. Replacing Doran's Ring you should concider in late game when you have much gold. You don't need Morello's or Nashor's Thooth really but it gives you much more dmg on your Q.

You can also replace Doran's Ring by a Fiendish Codex Fiendish Codex which grants you ability power, mana reg. and cooldown reduction. So you can upgrade Fiendish Codex later on to a Morello's or Nashor's. Please don't think this is contradictoy to the mentioned above. And it isn't. It's just a question of gold and your feeling about this item. I just can tell you that this item works for Warwick.


From time to time I'd like to do some science in order to get the maximum out of my camp. Recently I played Warwick and the game took very long. So I had lots of money. I started as usual with: Doran's Ring Sorcerer's Shoes Wriggle's Lantern Glacial Shroud Wit's End Abyssal Mask. Then I decided to replace Wriggle's Lantern for a Atma's Impaler and wanted to replace my Doran's Ring for a Frozen Mallet or Warmog's Armor. This may work with some success too.


I often see a Sunfire Cape, Force of Nature, Spirit Visage, Guardian Angel, Charlice of Harmony or a Banshee's Veil build on Warwick. Of course these are good items too. But the question is: do you need them?

Starting with the Sunfire Cape Sunfire Aegis: you get health, armor and aura which deals 35 damage to nearby enemies. But as you see in the stats above you don't need it cause you don't want to go full tank. If you go for the Glacial Shroud instead you get armor too, some mana and cooldowm reduction. With the cooldown reduction you can spam your Q and restore your health much quicker. So you don't need the extra health from Sunfire Cape.

Force of Nature Force of Nature grants you lot of health regeneration, magic resist and movement speed. This works for Warwick too. But you don't need it. Your health regenerates with your Q and your basic attacks. The health reg from your basic attacks is increased by Wriggle's Lantern. As I said that you need some defensive items I prefere the Abyssal Scepter which gives you magic resist and ability power. More abiliy power means you do more damage with your Q. As a result of your damage on Q is a higher health reg of this ability.

Comming to Spirit Visage Spirit Visage: it's a good item and it is cheap. There is no real argument against it. But I feel that I don't need it. I get the stats from Spirit Visage from other items.

Guardian Angel Guardian Angel is a good defensive item too. But it's like dying twice. Everybody sees that you have it and a good enemy team will kill you instantly after your revive. I don't take it because it can be countered so easily. And with 2600 gold it is nor really cheap.

You don't need Chalice of Harmony Chalice of Harmony either. After having Doran's Ring, Glacial Shroud or a Fiendish Codex you don't need more mana reg.

So what's about Banshee's Veil [[Banshee's Veil]}]. Another awesome item. But it's very expensive. You don't need this extra Mana on Warwick when you build a Glacial Shroud. Abyssal Scepter may be a good alternative.

As you can see, there are many items for Warwick. You have to find the right balance of your stats yourselfe. As I said I like to fram and don't harrass very much as long as I'm not level 6. For those who like to play more agressiv it's maybe worth going for attack speed early.

If you can you play a solo lane. Normaly top lane cause your team won't let you go mid because you have no range. I played Warwick in mid lane too and it worked too. In the following I give you an overview of some enemies you can find on your lane. Remember your main goal in the laning phase is to get as many last hits as possible.

I will update this chapter from time to time. I need some further experience with other enemy champs. If you have any questions on other champs I haven't mentioned yet just ask me in the comments and I will answer asap.


Akali


She is a very strong champ due to her hugh burst damage. I recommend playing defensive. Don't harrass a lot. But this depends on your enemy skill. If she is pushing the lane farm as much as you can and wait for a gank. Don't forget to use your Ignite when you and your ganker are attacking her. You should buy some magic resist early.

Cho'Gath


His passive heal him too when he kills a minion. You can harrass him early cause his abilities needs much mana. More than yours. Don't let him heal so much.

Fiddlesticks


An easy champ to lane against since his CDs are very long. Care for his fear or silence. This makes you very vulnerable when you are going to be ganked cause you can't heal you. But he's is very squishy. You can take him out easily. And attack him while he wants to heal himselfe. This spell will be interrupted.

Gangplank


If your enemy is playing Gangplank right he won't you harrass much, cause he just want to farm and he's just doing damage to you if he crits. Buy your Madred's Razor as soon as possible.

Garen


You have to be carefull. He can silence you. And with his passive he can heal very fast. His passive grants him a higher health reg after not beeing attacked for some seconds. If you can make sure to land an basic attack on him.

Gragas


Watch for his barrels. They won't harm you in early game. This is the only range he has. After my opinion you can outfarm and harrass him easily.

Irelia


She can do some healing with her skills too. I haven't played much against her but I think she can't do any harm to you if you get some armor (but maybe the enemy player wasn't strong on her and didn't know how to play her right).

So let's come to your role in the team. As I mentioned above you are able to hold your lane. If you can go for a solo. You can play him on all lanes, even in mid. In mid you'll have to play against squishy AP carries most of the time. Since you aren't sqishy and can do lots of healing with your Q or your basic attacks it will be hard for your enemy to take you out if you don't make mistakes. But let's be realistic: if you play a public game most of the time your team won't let you go mid cause they don't know the potential of your Warwick.
Be carefull for ganks and spend some money for wards. Wards are very important in this game. They keep you from beeing ganked and allowe you sometimes a counter gank and knock out the enemie who tries to gank.

If you are on a lane with a carry as your laning partner you can easily tower dive at level 6 or 7. Just do this if your enemy is below 50 health.

In your job in teamfights is to take out the carries. If you are going into a teamfight search for them and don't go for the enemie tank. If you see one of them land some basic attacks on them followed by a Q. Then use your ultimate on them. Now they are below 50% Health that's why you land another Q on them. Don't forget to use your W so your team has much more attack speed. If the target tries to escape and your team have some problems with other enemies, switch your focus on the next enemie. And use your Ignite on low health enemies.

If you can grab the blue buff. It's good for you. You can use your Q more often and you won't run out of mana in a teamfight. But if you have an AP caster on your team you should help him to grab the blue for himselfe.

Go for the Dragon if he is up. You will be able to kill him very fast cause you have Madred's Razor which gives you a chance hitting minions with 500 dmg.

Although I think that stats doesn't show you really how good or bad this build is, cause you can't win a game alone I want to show you my ranked stats playing Warwick Solo Top or Mid. In this games I had a good team. At least you see that my guide works when heavong a team that is playing in a team.

With this build you will have a strong laner. You won't die fast in teamfights cause you can handle lots of dmg and heal yourselfe while the enemy is losing life. Try this build and you will see how good it works.

At last I have to say that will be a great Warwick if you know your enemy and what dmg they can do to you or not. This build as the most on Mobafire will work in most games you will play with him. Play him situational. Take a look what items your enemy is building. Take a look at other guides posted here. I've tried some of them and they are good too.