Warwick Build Guide by TboydSteam

Introduction

Warwick is a nasty werewolf you'll generally see in top lane or jungle. This guide will focus on solo top warwick and how to build and play him against the various champs that tend to be seen in top lane.

As the case with most champs who jungle/top, Warwick is best used as a bruiser, a hybrid between a tank and a DPS. Bruisers are generally very strong 1v1 and get their hands very dirty in teamfights. Since most bruisers (warwick included) don't generally have the mass CC or initiation to go full tank, their ultimate late game "goal" is to make themselves just tanky enough to survive fights while maximizing their damage. with loads of built in sustain, a spell that scales off a large % of enemy health, and an ultimate that instantly glues him to the squishy of his choice, Warwick is naturally equipped for this role.

Early game warwick is infamous for being an immovable object in top lane due to his extremely high sustain. While this aspect of him has been nerfed ( :( ) he is still extremely difficult to push out of lane or kill, and is still strong when trading or engaging. he's a bad pusher but is good at freezing his lane and usually ensures successful ganks on his lane with his ultimate. Overall warwick is generally considered to be a nightmare to lane against for many champions.

Late game it's important to maximize damage and not make yourself too tanky as Warwick. A warwick that is too tanky will never ever die (ever) but will not deal much damage. Since warwick doesn't have the cc or initiation tools of tanks, he will be extremely easy to ignore in teamfights after he uses hit ultimate and will be of little use to the team provided the enemy team is smart about stopping his ultimate. Always remember the second most important thing on a tanky champion (after being tanky) is giving the enemy a reason to pay attention to you. The only way warwick can do this besides popping ult is by bringing damage. Unfortunately for warwick, even if he has good damage his late game is still somewhat weak due to the fact that he deals purely single target damage. However if he somehow ends up in a 1v1 situation late game, there's a decent chance he'll come out with more health than he had when he went in.

with all that said, I hope this guide proves useful to many Warwick players or just people in general. criticism/suggestions are encouraged as this is my first LoL guide.

Hey! Why should I listen to this guy???

It's always a fair question. But just to show you all that I know what I'm doing and playing the way I'm going to tell you to play works (and maybe to stroke my ego a bit), I'll leave these here:

Pros / Cons

Pros Incredible Sustain Strong 1v1 Suppression ultimate Cleans up teamfights well Good utility with hunters call and scales with enemy health Naturally deals hybrid damage

hunters call

Cons Somewhat weak early game Mana thirsty and has a small mana pool Lack of range/ can be kited Bad pusher Ignite No AoE damage Only CC is channeled for the duration

Masteries

Defense tree is by far the best tree for a solo top warwick. It provides some nice early game tanky and provides some very useful CDR later on. Taking full points in expanded mind and meditation helps to alleviate some of warwick's mana troubles and allow him to use Hungering Strike more often. The point in summoner's wrath is standard to accompany the exhaust/ignite Warwick almost always has alongside flash. Warwick's masteries are pretty straightforward so I don't have much to add about them.

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Damage

I take these marks pretty much 100% of the time. flat AD not only improves your sustained damage but also improves your farming, something penetration doesn't do. ultimately flat AD improves warwick in the most areas out of the viable marks and come in handy whether you are being aggressive or conservative, which is why I always take these.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

Take these if you're planning on trying to deny someone early with your Q. They're good when the situation calls for them but it's very rare for warwick to be in the position to need them. the only opponent I can think of off the top of my head where I might prefer these over the other options would be Nasus. These are good late game but they're rarely useful enough early on to be worth bringing.

Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration

These are a viable choice if you don't want to take flat AD. Generally these are good if you're trying to win trades or engages early in your lane. These are the most useful later on during the roaming phase or late game, just improving all aspects of your offense. This suffers from the same problem the Magic pen marks do in that they synergize with an aggressive early game, which warwick does not usually want to have.



Greater Seal of Armor

Flat armor seals. Pretty much standard for solo top. Always take these unless you know you're going to be against an AP. Even if you're against an AP these are still probably want these because if their top is AP, their jungler is almost guaranteed to be AD. you can pretty much never go wrong with these and I honestly feel naked without them so I take them every game.

greater seal of replenishment

I don't take these though I've seen others do it. If the other team has tons of AP and you're against an AP top then these might be a good idea since you'll be taking a lot of harass and will need to use Hungering Strike a lot. Just make sure you're going to be against an AP before you take these because without any armor runes you're going to be rolling into top lane with less than 30 armor.

greater seal of defense

Another option if you're against an AP. I personally never take these because frozen heart is a staple item on my warwick, which provides more than enough late game armor. However if you don't want to go frozen heart and got an AP against you top, these might be for you.


Taking some sort of magic resist glyphs is pretty much a requirement to keep warwick from needing to build a dedicated MR item like Force of Nature to have enough MR. MR glyphs + merc treads + wit's end give warwick a nice amount of magic resist so he doesn't have to pump gold into a FoN or a Banshee's Veil.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

Flat MR isn't a bad idea since it's likely that either the enemy top or enemy jungler will have some sort of AP. these definitely aren't required however since base MR is decently high enough to not need flat MR unless you're against an AP top.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

Take these if you're against an AD lane. The MR per level becomes better than flat MR at level 9 so these will generally be better against AD.


Greater Quintessence of Health

The early health from these comes in handy in any lane. if you're unsure what you're up against or are against a hybrid or AP, take these.

Greater Quintessence of Armor

if you're against an AD lane, taking these along with armor seals and cloth armor make you incredibly bulky to their damage.

Skill Sequence

Hungering Strike is by far warwick's best spell, so max that first. hunters call is maxed next for improved DPS, then maxing the primarily utility Blood Scent at the end. Feel free to level up Blood Scent and hunters call as you see fit however, as some games one iwll be better than the other and that call will be up to you. Always take Infinite Duress and Hungering Strike over them though.

Summoner Spells

Best summoner spell in the game and pretty much a must on warwick since he has no built in escapes. This helps you escape that level 2 gank, lets you close in to get that one last Q for a kill, and lets you jump the wall to try to steal that baron. This spell just has so much utility that warwick otherwise wouldn't have you have to bring it.

An extremely useful spell against tops who are heavily reliant on auto attacks such as Jax. It also gives warwick non channeled cc that can help him escape or finish off a kill much like flash can. In addition, exhaust can essentially negate the AD carry late in the game just in case your Ultimate didn't screw them over enough, you got cc'd off of them or you ulted someone else.

This is the best choice for a second summoner spell against AP champs as exhaust is mostly useless against them. Ignite adds a nice boost to your burst and is a must have against regen champs like Vladimir or Mordekaiser. You'll see a lot of this spell regardless as all of your opponents should be taking this spell to face you unless you're in blind pick. This is a good spell for top overall but doesn't offer the utility that exhaust does and isn't nearly as useful late game. Unless you feel like you need this, take exhaust instead.

In most cases this is just an inferior flash. situationally it can be better but 95% of the time flash will be better. the only time ghost would be better would be if you're chasing someone down a lane/ running away in a lane, but exhaust can accomplish that as well while having other uses.
A good solo top spell but not a good solo top warwick spell. teleport can be useful if your bot lane leaves a gank ward or if you are new to warwick and want an extra safety net so you can back without losing your turret but that's about it. Late game this spell is pretty much useless for warwick since the main thing you'd do with it is backdoor or counterpush which warwick is terrible at because of his lack of escapes and terrible solo pushing.
Warwick tends to get screwed over by ignite and CC effects, and this is an excellent way to counter both. having cleanse can definitely win you an early engage by baiting ignite and then cleansing it. however this just isn't helpful to the team later on unless you're carrying the game, and that's not a good reason to sacrifice some more useful spells. More experimentation is needed with this however, it certainly has potential.

This actually can come quite in handy in lane against other champs that need to use mana to trade with you like Pantheon. you run each other out of mana, then pop clarity and proceed to dominate the lane. unfortunately this is really hit and miss in lane and completely useless late game.

Just... no. whenever you hard engage you're probably going to get ignited making this almost useless for you. let the support or AD carry take this for lategame.


These are all unviable on solo top warwick for obvious reasons.

Items

Starting Items

standard start against an AD lane. Builds into wriggle's and combined with armor seals and quints makes you very tanky early. Combine this with 5 pots and it becomes very hard for early game AD champs like Garen or Renekton to gain a large advantage early on.
A viable start against anything really. Extra movement speed always comes in handy early especially if the enemy jungler is a gank heavy one like Nautilus. It's especially important to get boots first against any ranged champs, if you don't get boots against them you'll be kited especially hard and probably be unable to farm.
Get this if you plan on being aggressive early on. this is the only AP item you should ever buy on warwick as AP doesn't scale well into late game on him. I personally do not start with this item in almost all circumstances, but is certainly viable and can be used to great success.

Rush Items

These items are items that you'd generally buy early in the game to have an immediate impact. These items are strong early in the game but don't generally contribute towards your late game build.

A great early item on warwick for a number of reasons. It gives you armor, AD, and passive that improves your farming and makes your pushing not so horrible. The beauty of this item is that against AD you can build this first and then build it into a Wriggle's Lantern if you're having a tough time in your lane or just pocket it for your Madred's Bloodrazor at the end of the game.
A great item for the first 30 minutes of the game or so. This item doesn't build into anything however so It's not a good idea to build this unless you're having trouble surviving your lane. Unless you really need this it's best to just build Madred's Razors and use it for a bloodrazor endgame
The "you want mana? I'll give you mana!" item. in some situations this item pretty much lets you set every key on your keyboard to smartcast Hungering Strike so you can then roll your face on the keyboard and win lane. in seriousness this item is generally what you'll want to build against mages like Rumble or Vladimir. Most of the mages that commonly solo top are manaless, meaning they can pump warwick full of ranged magic all day long, meaning warwick will have a hard time sustaining himself without running out of mana. Chalice gives him much needed MR, and gives him the ability to use his Q a lot without worry of being out of mana so often.

Boots

the boots warwick should buy 199/200 games. It provides some magic resist, and tenacity to help warwick shed all that infuriating cc a bit earlier. can't go wrong with good ol' merc treads.
you shouldn't need these with all the armor you'd get from runes , wriggles and frozen heart. but if for some reason you end up against 5 tryndamere-like champions, go for these.
Really gimmicky but still viable. This especially punishes lane enemies who are lazy and don't build any magic resist, however pretty much everyone should be against warwick. Late game these just aren't as useful as merc treads, and usually not worth building unless you're going full on magewick (which is silly).

Core Items

the "if you're warwick and do not buy this item, uninstall the game" item. this item's passive effects have a lot of synergy with warwick's kit and provide both tankiness and damage at a low relative cost. the attack speed and passive along with warwick's attack speed steroid cause this item to greatly boost warwick's sustained damage. and with the 5 on hit procs of Infinite Duress, this item adds 210 extra magic damage to his ultimate, greatly increasing warwick's burst as well. This item also provides some magic resist and provides even more that stacks with on hits, which warwick builds up quickly. all in all a must have item on warwick. If it all possible get this early in the game, with this item you become stupidly strong in lane.
provides a good amount of armor, mana, and cooldown reduction. build this item after wriggles against heavy harass AD champs like Garen or Riven. even if you're not against AD, it's still important to build this somewhat early (or at least the sapphire crystal) to remedy warwick's painfully small mana pool. if you don't have it you'll often find yourself running out of mana in the middle of teamfights. which, while not a total back breaker unless you haven't used ult, is still really bad. overall, the cooldown reduction helps in Q spam, the mana helps support the Q spam, and it provides the armor as your main armor item. takes out 3 birds with one stone.
Although warwick's healing causes him to synergize best with higher resists and lower health, it's still important to build some health. This item provides some AD and health. but most importantly, it provides the passive slow chance on hit, which helps you stick to people especially when your E is active. While the slow chance is only 25%, your ultimate gives you a good chance to have it applied since it applies on hits 5 times. I personally only get this item early on if I am ahead and trying to snowball. In addition, unless you're against an AD/true damage dealer in lane and feel you really need this, always get Wit's End before this item as it's simply a superior item on warwick early in the game.

Late game items

Late in the game dueling warwick is a lost cause for most champions, and as a result, most enemies will try to run from you when faced with a 1v1. having this item usually makes that option a lost cause as well. This item lets you easily chase down and stick to just about anyone thanks to Blood Scent and your high attack speed, making you extremely good for cleaning up after a teamfight. In teamfights, you're bound to get CC'd when you ult on to one of their squishy champions. the slow from frozen mallet is applied on them when you ult and helps you continue to stick to them even through all that cc. this item also adds a lot of health, a requirement for a tanky champ.
adds even more armor from glacial shroud as well as a bit more mana and cdr. The aura effect is useful simply to lower the enemy DPS. This combined with your exhaust on the AD carry and your ultimate on another squishy can completely cripple the enemy team's damage for a few seconds and can outright win a teamfight if done properly. I usually save this for after frozen mallet and sometimes won't bother finishing it until the very end of my build if one of my teammates builds it (since the aura doesn't stack)
Might as well just be called "warwick's bloodrazor" because this item makes warwick do so much damage by itself it's just silly. this adds 80 + 20% of the victim's max health in magic damage to your ult. Which on top wit's end, your passive, all the other AD you've built, and the base damage of your ult, will cause the victim to be a world of hurt, especially when you can sandwich your ult in bewteen two hungering strikes. combine that with the extremely high attack speed you should have with this item along with wit's end and hunters call and the permaslow from a frozen mallet and you'll see why I changed the word "enemy" to "victim" for this segment.

Luxury Items

It's very rare to make it this far with your build. It's rare enough to finish your bloodrazor but if you do make it to this point, it's probable that you're carrying the game so it's especially important to think carefully when choosing your 6th item.

This is an item that lets you go in even harder and be even more unkillable than you already are. with this item you'll just be unbelievably tanky and deal plenty of damage due to the items you've already built. Since you're not a squishy champion the passive will usually just prolong death in the event it's activated, but this is still a solid item provided you've built enough damage already.

This is an alternative if you need more MR and you still want more damage. Flat AD isn't amazing on warwick but the passive shield combined, with warwick's sustain let him maximize the AD gain from the passive bonus this item offers. It's not the best item on warwick, but it's definitely an option if you really don't need anymore armor.
if the enemy team is stacking magic resist and you've found that you're tanky enough, feel free to build this if you have the balls. Since both versions of Hungering Strike have an AP scaling now the AP element is no longer useless. The magic penetration benefits all your main sources of damage which would otherwise be well negated by enemy MR. magewick is still silly, but this is most certainly a good situational choice in the one in a million game you'd build it.
if you have no idea what to build and you're tanky enough, this can be a good build to increase your damage and help your team do more damage as well. there aren't many situations where I'd imagine this would be appropriate however.

other options (and why they're not main ones)

This item synergizes with warwick extremely well and is very cheap however in most games I don't find myself building it. generally I don't find myself needing the magic resist from it and ignite greatly hurts the passive. In addition, the boosts this gives other than the healing boost just aren't very significant late in the game, and in most cases there are better things to build early in the game. This item also buffs almost purely defensive stats, and I generally don't find myself needing the extra tankyness. Because of this I usually will go Hexdrinker against an AP heavy team for the extra damage. However if they are caster heavy and you find that you aren't getting ignited for whatever reason, take this item and punish the other team for letting you be an unkillable monster.
a solid choice for an armor item, however it lacks the large ammount of CDR and mana that frozen heart offers. the lack of mana would generally force warwick to find another item that gives mana. and unfortunately there aren't many viable alternatives for mana. even worse, the passive is almost useless if you have frozen mallet and the active has more synergy with a full tank and is most useful on the AD carry, who you could just exhaust if you have it. Overall it's an excellent item that is built into by a GP5, but it just doesn't have the synergy that frozen heart has.
the most situational item to ever be situational. only get this item if there's a fed maniac tryndamere or master yi running around and you're one of the first ones they try to take out. generally however you'll be saved for last, meaning you'll probably want something else.
While Warwick looks incredibly stylish in a cape, this item suffers from the same synergy problem that randuin's does. unlike frozen heart, this offers no CDR or mana, and building this in addition to a frozen heart would give you much more armor than you would ever need.
you should never need all of the magic resist from this since wit's end and merc treads are nearly a requirement. If you do need magic resist however, there are better options such as spirit visage or items that also give damage such as maw of malmortius
the MR and mana for this item shouldn't ever be needed. but if you built a randuin's or sunfire instead of frozen heart, this is a great item to buy. the passive is incredibly useful in teamfights, allowing your ultimate to continue uninterrupted for longer and forcing the enemy to waste more cc on you to try to stop you.
since ability power isn't very useful late game, you'd have to rush this item to make it most effective. unfortunately there are almost no benefits to taking this instead of wit's end. the only other useful element of this item is the MR debuff, which isn't very large. ultimately this is a magewick item, which as stated before, is silly.
the "you want health? I'll give you health!" item. due to warwick's high regen, the best way to build defensively is higher resists and lower health. While I'm not saying to build no health, I am saying that the 600 or so health lost from taking frozen mallet instead isn't a huge price to pay for all the utility it brings.
Since warwick doesn't focus on crit strike chance the only value on this item comes from the passive. The only way that becomes good is if you stack health, which isn't good for warwick to do. But if you were to do it, you'd pretty much have to build warmog's, frozen mallet and sunfire, and maybe banshee's veil first. leaving you with a spot for boots and something else (if it's not wit's end, uninstall). and to that idea I say:




if you were to get this item, it would be a luxury item. The only thing this has to offer is AD and lifesteal. Since ignite makes the lifesteal kinda useless (and you should be getting ignited if you're fed enough to build this) all this truely adds is 80-100 flat AD, and the other 6th item options just have more to offer to warwick. if you're not getting ignited however, feel free to take this and enjoy your 1v5 pentas.

Skillset in Depth

Passive - Eternal Thirst

Each of Warwick's autoattacks 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 the 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.

magic damage that stacks with each auto attack and heals you for the same amount. It may not seem like much but remember the damage and heal stacks up to 3 times. this rewards warwick for sustained battles against one target and can be used in lane to aid with sustaining. Late in the game this essentially becomes a built in wit's end that heals you for the same amount. This is an extremely good passive, never underestimate it as it's where a lot of warwick's dueling ability comes from.

Q - Hungering Strike

Strikes an enemy for the higher value between 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+1.0 per ability power) magic damage and 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16% (+1.0 per ability power) of the target's maximum health, and heals Warwick for 80% of the damage dealt. Minions and monsters can only be dealt the flat magic damage.

Your bread and butter spell. This is your sustain, your damage, your everything in lane really. this has quite a hefty mana cost associated with it however and warwick has a small mana pool, so it's important to not get careless with this. but just this spell alone lets you win trades with most lane opponents. And Late game this spell just continues to get better, scaling off of enemy max health. It may have been nerfed quite significantly recently but it is still very strong.

hunters call

W - Hunter's Call

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

Your attack speed steroid. It might not seem like much but it's great for early DPS and buffs your entire team in teamfights all at a very low mana cost. with close to max CDR this spell has 100% uptime, and even without max CDR it will pretty much be available whenever you need it.

E - Blood Scent

Warwick senses enemy champions under 50% life within a certain distance of him, revealing them until they heal, leave the area or Blood Scent is deactivated. While sensing an enemy, he gains 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% movement speed.

an extremely useful utility spell that's strong in lane and late in the game. in lane this allows you to pressure and deny a low lane opponent with superior movement speed while being able to escape should the jungler arrive. It's also always nice to get free vision of the enemy jungler should they be low and wander too close to your lane. Late in the game this spell is one of the best spells for cleaning up after teamfights. The movement speed makes it so that they can't run, and the free vision makes it so that they can't hide. It's also worth noting that in addition to granting vision of low enemies, you also get vision of a small area around them, essentially turning low health enemies into free wards for your team.

R - Infinite Duress

Warwick lunges at an enemy champion, suppressing the target for 1.8 seconds and striking for 250 / 335 / 420 (+2.0 per bonus attack damage) Magic Damage. Warwick gains 30% life steal for the duration. Triggers on-hit effects 5 times and benefits from life steal and Eternal Thirst.

The infamous warwick ult. pounce on champion of your choice and hit them with everything you got. Your ace in the hole in lane, with the damage it brings and the bonus lifesteal it completely turns an engage around. It pretty much ensures a kill from a jungle gank with the 2 second hard cc in addition to whatever the jungler has to offer. It can also funcion as a hilarious escape if you end up sandwiched because you can flash out of it (lol). Late game you use this on a squishy damage dealing champion to deal tons of damage to them, hold them in place, and prevent them from dealing damage. Although many would claim this is a strong initiation tactic, I would argue otherwise because it is a suppress, not a stun. The fact that it's a suppress means that warwick is immobilized as well as his target and any form of cc other than a slow will stop his channel and the suppress. Now if you initiate with warwick's ultimate into the entire enemy team, you can expect to have your ultimate stopped instantly assuming the other team is any good. It's generally best to have someone else initiate and use your ult later on when not everyone will jump on you and stop your ult, it'll be much more successful that way. Now feel free to use this if you've caught someone out of position, as doing so often wins games. But be sure to recognize the difference between catching someone and initiating. warwick's ult is amazing at the first, but rather bad at the second.

General Playstyle

Early Game with warwick it's important to focus on farming as much as possible since he's not going to be blowing anyone up. be sure to only last hit minions so that the lane won't push to the enemy turret where you can't harass and are vulnerable to ganks. Try to save your Hungering Strike for champions only as it is your main trading tool and costs a lot of mana. whenever you trade with people at full health always try to auto attack before using Hungering Strike so they deal damage to you before you use it and the heal isn't wasted. Always remember that you get much stronger every time your Hungering Strike gets leveled up. At level 1 it's very weak and i wouldn't recommend using it as it's mostly a waste of mana until you can at least get it to level 2. As soon as you hit level 6 and level up Infinite Duress you become nearly an immovable object because when it's up you are next to impossible to dive. Always try to have enough mana for it because you never know when you'll need it. In any situation where your lane opponent draws turret aggro, it's probably a good idea to ult them, The ult damage is substantial and the hard cc ensures they'll get hit by the turret at least 3 times. In addition, your ult is an excellent tool when your jungler ganks as well. In most situations you'll want to save your ultimate until after they shed your jungler's CC or they burn their flash. but if they warded river, you can initiate the gank with your ult to allow your jungler to get in position without your opponent having the opportunity to escape. against caster champions (champions that get most of their damage from spells) always pay attention to if/when they use their spells to farm minions, since warwick is a very strong auto-attacker, engaging when your enemy's spells are on cooldown likely leads to successful engages.

Jungle Warwick is infamous for his post level 6 ganks, and he can do the same from top lane in the event you pushed your lane. In most cases you'll just want to be ganking mid so you don't lose your turret. when ganking mid, just focus on landing your ult when your mid is close to being in range for their burst. the 2 second suppress will usually let your mid land their entire burst combo for free and pick up a kill for your team.

After the laning phase, your main role is to get your hands dirty and glue yourself to the enemy glass cannons so they can't shred your team. The easiest and most obvious way to do this is by using your ultimate. However since your ultimate is channeled it's generally not the best idea to use it right away or initiate with it because any sort of hard CC will stop you. If you wait a few moments to use it the other team will have often used all their hard CC and you can take whoever you want out of the teamfight for a few moments. You'll have to play this sort of thing by ear though because if one person is always saving a hard cc for you you might just want to use it earlier just to close the distance sooner. If you ever catch someone that isn't a tank out of position though, feel free to ult at them right away and let your team jump on them for a free kill. Just be sure that it's not a bait and they entire enemy team is sitting in a nearby bush. that would be bad.

The general flow chart of things for you in teamfights should go like this:

Wardwick

This section will essentially just outline how to use Sight Ward as a solo-top warwick.

These are extremely important to have with you and you should be buying at least one every time you recall unless you have a Wriggle's Lantern, and even then it's not a bad idea to pick some extra ones up. they provide you and your team with free vision and are paramount for objective control early and late in the game and necessary to help prevent getting killed by ganks; something especially important due to warwick's lack of escape options.

The Bush Ward

I normally do not ward this bush but if the enemy jungler has teleport it could be a good idea to place your ward here to help prevent teleport ganks. I personally don't like warding here because often times by the time this ward gets vision of an enemy coming up the river it can be too late. But if you are going to ward the bush, try to place it at the very edge of it for the best vision possible, as shown above.

The River Ward

Blue Team

Purple team

This is your standard gank prevention ward. Each image shows how to ward it safely and with the least likelyhood of being noticed. If the other team doesn't notice that you warded you can often times make the enemy jungler waste their time trying to camp your lane. If you want more freedom with your ward placement you can just go down into river, however be careful because you run the risk of being sandwiched in between your lane opponent and an enemy jungler if they happen to be comming up river.

The Anti-Dive Ward

Blue Team

Purple team

These are a little more defensive wards to keep people from coming from behind you and wrecking you. You'll find yourself warding the purple tribush a lot more often as ganking through it is much more practical as it doesn't always have to involve turret diving warwick. I generally won't ward in these locations but it could be a good idea to if your team has no jungle presence or the enemy jungler is someone like Alistar with extreme ganks.

The Buff Ward

Blue Team

Purple team

While warwick isn't an excellent counter jungler on his own because he clears camps slow, warding the enemy buff camp can allow your team to get free buffs and free kills with jungler/mid cooperation. Always try to ward these so you see the camp, the nearby bush, and as much of the nearby area as possible.

The Baron/Dragon Ward

For later on in the game, you'll often be putting your wriggle's ward to use by warding baron or dragon. When doing so try to ward behind the wall as shown here. A placed Vision Ward usually won't see it here and it has to be searched for a little more extensively by someone with an Oracle's Elixir

Matchups

This section essentially just covers warwick's specific lane matchups, There aren't many completed as of now but feel free to request a write-up in the comments section. I do plan on adding more and keeping this updated if people request matchups.

---

Darius, the Linebacker of Noxus

Difficulty: slight disadvantage


summary:
having an attack speed debuff, slow, and a pull. fortunately his complete and total lack of sustain and your total surplus thereof can help you stand a decent chance against him. level 1 don't worry about him and just farm. if he spins on you just Q him and win the trade. once he hits level 3 be especially careful to farm because he can burst your lifebar for stupid ammounts of damage. Should he land his pull on you just Q him and try to retreat, to keep him from stacking Hemorrhage too much, nothing good will come from trying to autoattack him while your attack speed is debuffed. Now while this damage is scary there is hope. His pull is baitable and on a 24 second cooldown at level 1. It also slightly has more range than your Q, so use that as a gauge for its range when trying to bait it out. Once he's used it, feel free to farm and harass him if you want but try not to let him land his Crippling Strike. remember, even if you lose a trade to darius you probably actually won because you are high sustain and he is 0 sustain. even better, for darius to fight you properly he's forced to use his AoE abilities which will push the lane to your tower where you can freeze the lane safely and farm at/near your tower. this lets you take advantage of his biggest weakness: he has no escapes. once you hit 6 (assuming it's before darius's first back and there's no ward) just have the jungler show up and he's probably dead. at the absolute least he'll take heavy damage and be forced to go back due to his 0 sustain. at no level should you ever just try to straight up duel this guy. your passive rewards you for sustained battle but his rewards him more. at later levels it's more of the same, continue to try to bait the pull and farm minions in between, only harassing by using Q on him when necessary and keeping the lane frozen near your turret so the jungler can gank. All in all just try not to feed him, he's very much a snowball champ and will fall of the face of the game if he's not fed.

random tips:

• Never, ever dive darius alone, he bursts way too hard and has too much cc for you to do that.
• be especially careful if he builds Phage/ Frozen Mallet. the slow from these stacks with Crippling Strike
• always call him MIA if he goes missing, all it takes is one kill on your mid or jungler and he snowballs all over you and the rest of the game.
• Pay attention to when his passive is applied to you, if it's on you he'll draw turret aggro if he steps in range. Use this to punish a careless darius with Infinite Duress and drastically shift the lane advantage in your favor if not pick up an easy kill.

recommended summoner spells: Exhaust, Flash
recommended runes: flat AD marks, Flat Armor seals, flat MR glyphs, flat HP quints
recommended starting build: Cloth Armor, Health Potion x5
recommended rush item: Wriggle's Lantern

---

Renekton, CROC SCRAAH!

Difficulty: slight advantage


Summary: Fortunately he's almost all AD so he's very easy to counter by building against him and warwick has the sustain to survive through his early game onslaught. The one important thing to always keep your eye on in this matchup is his fury bar. He's bound to lose trades badly if he doesn't engage you with at least 50 fury, so pay attention to when that bar of his turns red. something also to keep in mind, in order for him to really build up his fury he has to push the lane like a maniac. and being able to farm at turret heps shut down renekton's harass as he has no ranged harass. In this position he is somewhat vulnerable to ganks early on however renekton has excellent escape with Slice and Dice and has the sustain to heal himself back if he takes minor damage. Another thing to remember is that the scary thing about renekton is that he can dash in, stun you, wreck you, and disengage before you have the chance to retaliate. always remember that he can only use Slice and Dice a second time if the first dash hits something. So ensuring there are none of your minions between you and renekton can let you punish him with Hungering Strike and hunters call boosted autoattacks if he goes in on you. just be sure to back off of him before his skills come off of cooldown. Post-6 renekton's burst isn't as scary as it is early game while your sustain is much better, meaning you generally don't have to worry about him wrecking you as much and just pay attention to farming and harassing him occasionally with Hungering Strike. However this doesn't mean you can just run at him and wreck him, as he will pop ult and take his 300 gold. You can kill him if you can manage to bait his ult and disengage without him doing serious damage to you, but unless his ult is down or you have a large advantage, do not hard engage him. Overall this lane will usually turn into a farmfest. even if renekton gets an early kill warwick has the sustain to just farm and is content to do so at turret: where the lane will usually push because renekton is dependent upon generating fury and naturally pushes the lane when engaging or healing himself with Cull the Meek. Ultimately it's an even lane but it in the grand scheme of things it becomes a warwick advantage because renekton relies on getting fed and snowballing, which warwick prevents him from doing.

random tips:

• Diving renekton is an extremely bad idea since his ultimate burst heals him, he has a lengthy stun, and he can dash away from you.
• Cull the Meek heals renekton for substantially more when he's enraged and it hits a champion. Don't let him land an enraged Q on you for free.
• Renekton is very strong ganker and will likely try to do so often due to how hard he tends to push, always be sure to alert your team when he goes MIA.

recommended summoner spells: Exhaust, Flash
recommended runes: flat AD marks, Flat Armor seals, flat MR glyphs, flat Armor quints
recommended starting build: Cloth Armor, Health Potion x5
recommended rush item: Wriggle's Lantern

---

Udyr, the Furry

Difficulty: neutral


summary: this because wolf stance udyr would be insanely OP. Udyr has always been somewhat of a counter to melee champs in that all he has to do is pop bear stance on you to stun, switch to tiger stance to destroy you even further, then back off and use turtle stance to get all his health and mana back. Fortunately you have plenty of sustain yourself but do not try to fight this guy early on as you'll get wrecked. In fact your ultimate goal is to avoid him and just farm since you're more useful late game. thankfully, this isn't too hard to do actually since he is 100% auto attacks. If he tries to stand in your wave and deny you just harass him and force him to attack you. you may lose the trade damage wise (both of you will heal it all off anyways) but he'll pull minion aggro and cause the lane to push towards your turret, which is good as both champions are very susceptible to ganks and both champions excel at freezing the lane. Overall this generally just turns into a farm fest, with udyr having the early advantage and warwick getting stronger later and having better cc when his jungler ganks.

random tips:

• Udyr has no true ultimate, meaning you will suddenly grow much stronger relative to udyr when you hit level 6.
• most of his burst damage comes from tiger stance's DoT effect. making it appear like he deals much more sustained damage than he actually does. this damage is much less relatively at later levels, as udyr usually maxes turtle stance first.
• warwick can psuedo kite udyr with hungering strike if his boots are a tier above udyr's or Blood Scent is active.

recommended summoner spells: Exhaust, Flash
recommended runes: flat AD marks, Flat Armor seals, flat MR glyphs, flat HP quints
recommended starting build: Cloth Armor, Health Potion x5
recommended rush item: Wriggle's Lantern

---

Vladimir, The Genius who Attacks Werewolves with Blood

Difficulty: neutral


Summary: him enough, this matchup becomes close to even and very fun to play. Early on you have to take the fight to him, otherwise he's just going to harass you with Transfusion and auto attacks all day long since he has no mana costs. In general your harass is stronger than his early on however his harass outranges yours. Thankfully you are significantly faster than him and this along with clever use of the bushes can help you get in his face. If you harass with only Hungering Strike you will run out of mana fast and not get a large lane advantage from harassing so be sure to get as many auto attacks in as you can. also if he ever uses any of his spells to farm minions (he'll sometimes use Tides of Blood to build up stacks or Transfusion to heal), that is a fantastic time to go after him as he won't have all his damage. if and when the lane gets pushed, be sure to try to have your jungler gank, because his escape isn't fantastic and if you can get an early kill you can get an early Chalice of Harmony and start destroying him. Even if a gank doesn't result in a kill, lane advantage means everything in this matchup because if vladmir gets it, he can just kite you off minions and if you get it, you can easily deny him from the brush, especially if he's low enough for Blood Scent to be active. When you hard engage him alone post-6, try to ult him the instant he uses Hemoplague to minimize the increased damage and ignite him as your ult finishes to mitigate the healing he will use afterwards. Later on in the lane the same thing applies. If you just try to farm he will push you out of lane in seconds, you must always take the fight to him to stand a chance, and if you do so you'll likely do very well. Overall this is a fun, winnable lane, but if you fall asleep even for a second, things can go south in a hurry. And if he ever gets way ahead of you, he'll just start destroying you and there's nothing you can really do to stop him other than ask the jungler for help.

random tips:

• the bushes are your friend in this matchup, using them frequently will help you get in his face or force him to play closer to the river where he is most vulnerable to the jungler.
• it's generally a good idea to finish your merc treads right after you get chalice for extra magic resist and to keep your movespeed higher than his or increase the advantage even more. Having a higher movement speed is extremely important in this matchup.
• early ganks can turn this somewhat hard lane into a faceroll easy one. but if you get ganked yourself the lane could become a lost cause.

recommended summoner spells: Ignite, Flash
recommended runes: flat AD marks, Flat Armor seals/Flat MP5 Seals, flat MR glyphs, flat HP quints
recommended starting build: Boots of Speed, Health Potion x3
recommended rush item: Chalice of Harmony

---

Change Log / Updates

- 06/11/12 Guide Released! Yeah!
- 07/17/12 Updated Item section and made updates to accommodate added AP scaling to the % health damage version of Hungering Strike.
-9/27/12 Added "why should I listen to this guy" section and matchup section overhaul planned

Special Thanks

Thanks to FF Sade for teaching me tons of solo top stuff back when I first started (and still new stuff to this day). without all that this guide would be unable to exist.

Thanks to ChozoSyra, EraofGames, LycanSlaze, and GraphicArt for being cool teammates and calling MIAs and stuff.

Thanks to EraofGames for ganking my lane sometimes

Thanks to LycanSlaze for letting me steal his penta

Thanks to ChozoSyra and GraphicArt for putting up with bot lane. I have no idea how you do it.

Thanks to BFC since everyone from there is pretty much the coolest person ever. <3