You're playing season 2 lanewick, which is NO LONGER viable in today's meta.

I am almost certain that the guardsman bob stuff and the rain man guide you cite are from season 2, maybe even season 1. The NEW meta of WW top, which has become prevalent in the past few weeks, is BOTRK rush. If you want this to be an un-viable season 2 guide that doesn't conform to meta (which this is, there is no way you can fight the red-pot bruiser meta, you will die or flash at level 2) then you've achieved it.

The fact that you haven't even HEARD of the proper way to play lanewick isn't surprising, it's VERY new, and I got rolled by it recently. When I saw this guide, I thought it would be you writing the 'meta' way to play warwick. Bottle 3hp / bottle 1hp ward, boots dorans blade, ninja vamp scepter, cutlass, BOTRK. Try it and tell me your Q harass is better.

Ninja Tabi
Doran's Blade
Blade of the Ruined King
Warmog's Armor
Wit's End
Guardian Angel
Randuin's Omen

I like your guide. Everything is explained. +1

AS is my personal preference for siege comp ;D

I wouldn't say AA's are his primary damage source until you get a mana item. I harass with autos a lot and even so my Q still seems to be the one doing the most damage. But then again, might just be because I'm running magic pen rather than hybrid pen. :P If you've got them, try 'em out and tell me if they're good or not, because otherwise I can't be bothered to spend 7200 IP on them. :P Also, AD marks are fine, but I wouldn't use AS as they practically do nothing in-lane.


You can just call me Vap. ;D

"Again, sorc shoes are a huge mistake. The whole point of lanewick is to outtrade your opponent, not primarily with damage, but with sustain." Okay I'm going to have to admit this is beginning to annoy me. You speak as if I've got Lanewick's playstyle 100% wrong when this is merely what I've learnt from pro players. I've never even heard of the type of build and playstyle you speak of. Bilgewater Cutlass, sure, I could understand taking that. But Doran's Blade?

My guide isn't original. It's not something I came up with, it's what I learnt from Guardsman Bob back when he mained Lanewick and what I've always assumed was everyone's concept of Lanewick. The Rainman also has a Lanewick guide on solomid which follows the same principle as this guide, that is, magic pen and Q spam, and taking a quick look at lolpro I can also see that the top Lanewick guide there, by some pro player called Crs_YoungBuck, promotes exactly the same thing; magic pen and Q spam ( less importantly, it also maxes E second ). Every Lanewick guide I've ever seen was one that was based on spamming Q, and that's how I first found out about Lanewick.

I can understand you maybe not liking that kind of playstyle, and I have no problem with that. But when you say stuff like "The whole point of lanewick is to outtrade your opponent, not primarily with damage, but with sustain", I do have a problem, because it sounds as if you're saying I'm completely misunderstanding how to play Lanewick; yet you're coming to me with a playstyle I've never even heard of before, despite having classified Warwick as one of my main champions since I STARTED playing League nearly 2 years ago. Yet the only kind of playstyle I have ever heard of during that time, apparently "makes 0 sense".

Sorry if I'm over-reacting, but jesus that small comment annoyed me so much.

When talking about my kind of playstyle, the only one I've ever heard of, Ninja Tabi are viable, but don't leave as much room for snowballing, so they're better in lanes you're not confident about winning where your enemy has high physical damage, such as Riven or Irelia. Doran's Blade is simply a no-no, and Bilgewater Cutlass is good. I was even considering putting it right after Boots and Doran's anyway, but ended up deciding on a Giant's Belt instead because as good as it is for Warwick's laning phase, he only becomes heavily auto-attack reliant in team-fights; in which not instantly melting is more important than auto-attacking.

"Oh please. If you really loved me, you'd spell the shortened version of my name right. Vapora doesn't even HAVE an E in it. :< ( or maybe you mentally pronounce my name "Vape-ora" rather than "Vah-pora", in which case I forgive you )

No offense intended at all throat, but I'm doubting whether you've even properly played Lanewick before if you think most of his damage comes from his autos. :@"

So you don't want a nickname. That's fine mr. vah-pore-uhhhh

Again, sorc shoes are a huge mistake. The whole point of lanewick is to outtrade your opponent, not primarily with damage, but with sustain. Sure they can walk away from you at any point, but the goal is that your (damage receieved - health sustained) < (their damage receieved - health sustained). You don't want to do this with sorc shoes (more damaging Q) rather than higher defense (ninja tabi). Once you get level 6 and/or cutlass, 99% of your damage WILL come from autos. Which is why going dorans ring, giants belt, and sorc shoes makes 0 sense. Your primary mission is to get Ninja Tabi, Doran's Blade, and Bilgewater Cutlass. Anything else is unnecessary.

I feel like no matter what hybrid pen would be better, because you generally aren't just Qing to harass. Warwick trades by auto attacking and then Qing to get health and win the trade. So by that merit hybrid pen would still pretty much even out in damage. His mana pool is ****, so no matter what auto attacking always feels like his primary damage source until you get a mana item. He also can't kill any one without his ult or a jungler (Even then, before 6, you're lucky to take someone's flash let alone their life with a jungler gank as Warwick).

Atleast that's what my brain's logic tells me.

I personally run AD/AS marks when i play lanewick.

Wut, no. O.O Vs physical damage lanes I go Sorc Shoes, Doran's and Giant's Belt. Then I built w/e I feel is necessary: If my enemy poses no threat, I get Spirit Visage. If they're a high threat such as Kha'Zix, I upgrade to Sunfire or Randuin's. I don't get BotRK until I have Spirit Visage and at least 1 other tanky item most of the time.

Dunno why it never occurred to me to start wards + pots with cloth armor. I'll edit my guide tomorrow.

And they really aren't stronger. Early armor pen got nerfed, but practically no top laners took armor pen anyway, neither in runes nor with Brutalizer. The only ArPen most bruisers took was from Weapon Expertise . While that was also nerfed, so was armor. Chain Vest's cost went up by 20 ( PRETTY MUCH IRRELEVANT, I KNOW ), and the armor got lowered by 5. That leaves early armor in either the same spot as season 2, or maybe even slightly weaker. But because of the inclusion of Black Cleaver, quite a lot of top laners DO take Brutalizer now, meaning they have more ArPen than they used to, as well as it synergyzing better with Weapon Expertise , and armor being slightly weaker, which DOES mean early armor is in a weaker spot than it used to be. It also scales worse later on into the game than it did because of Last Whisper, Black Cleaver and flat ArPen, etc.

Health is quite simply the strongest tanky stat now, even on WW. Not only is a Giant's Belt cheaper than Glacial Shroud and more effective, it also defends vs magic damage. Then I agree with Spirit Visage, as it both gives flat HP, and increases his sustain, which effectively increases his HP pool.


<3

Hybrid pen runes are inferior in laning phase, yet scale better into late-game where Warwick transitions into an attack speed based champ, more so in season 3 now we have an on-hit item that actually deals physical damage. I guess I'd take hybrid pen runes in match-ups where you'd lose even with magic pen runes, such as vs Cho. Or if you're willing to sacrifice early-game laning dominance in return for higher late-game power, feel free to do so. I don't actually have hybrid pen runes so I don't know HOW MUCH lane dominance you lose by taking them, but if you already have them, feel free to experiment and see what you prefer.


Oh please. If you really loved me, you'd spell the shortened version of my name right. Vapora doesn't even HAVE an E in it. :< ( or maybe you mentally pronounce my name "Vape-ora" rather than "Vah-pora", in which case I forgive you )

No offense intended at all throat, but I'm doubting whether you've even properly played Lanewick before if you think most of his damage comes from his autos. :@

Some champions that are auto-attack reliant in laning phase that immediately come to mind are Jax and Irelia. Each have a relatively low CD gap closer, and a form of CC which forces their enemy to take some of their auto-attacks until the CC ends, where they can disengage and wait for their spells to come back up.

Warwick has 0 gap closers AND 0 CC until level 6. The CC / gap closer is on a ~70 second CD cooldown, and the CC doesn't even let him auto-attack them. He remains immobile for just as long as his enemy does, dealing relatively low magic damage if you don't have magic pen. Not to mention, if he turns on his W, his only AA steroid, there is absolutely nothing that forces your enemy to fight you.

Warwick has absolutely nothing that indicates he should be an auto-attack reliant champion during laning phase. Literally all his auto-attacks would be good for is the occasional AA poke, which is easily out-traded by a spell. And his Q is pretty much useless if you have no mana regen nor magic pen, so it's not even worth mentioning his own ability to trade back with spells.

I focus on early magic pen to make his Q hit like a truck and heal like a truck. ( if that even makes sense??? ) I don't rush BotRK because he doesn't get the chance to do a lot of AA damage like Jax or Irelia do, and most of my laning phase damage and trading comes from the huge base damage on my Q, which only needs magic pen and mana sustain to be effective, so after that I just build tanky. I take BotRK later on in team-fights because of its immense synergy with WW, even with no armor pen, and late-game I would sell Sorc Shoes for Merc Treads, which I guess I should probably edit in too tomorrow.

And like, this isn't even something I came up with, I thought everyone knew magic pen and mana sustain was the standard Lanewick set up. This playstyle is just how Gman Bob used to play Lanewick back when he mained him.

I've play-tested this over the course of well over a year, it's based on the gameplay of a player much better than me ( Gman Bob ), and TheRainMan even has a similar, though immensely out of date, guide on Lanewick.

And don't get me wrong, I have also tried auto-attack based builds on Lanewick. I either went even or lost all the match-ups I tested before getting fed up with it, apart from a lane vs a Tryndamere. But even then, I also later on trashed an auto-attack based Lanewick as Tryndamere despite accidentally giving him first blood in a poorly thought out tower-dive. And THAT one wasn't a normal game.

I shall take your downvote like a man, but know that I strongly disagree with it. :< But then again, I doubt anyone agrees with a downvote on their own guide l0l.

Love you vape, but I hate sorc shoes on lane wick. Boots provide your primary first line defense (assuming you're rushing BotRK like you're SUPPOSED to...) and throwing 750 gold away for no damage and no defense is a mistake.

I also think that maxing W second would be better.

I think this warrants further playtesting. I think you're too focused on spell pen. BotRK does physical. You need to concentrate on making his early laning phase easier with your runes and early item choices. Your damage comes from your auto attacks, not your Q, and that's true at all levels.

I friggin love Lanewick.

What about hybrid pen runes though?

So you rush botrk against physical damage lanes?

What i meant with cloth start was cloth+wards+pots start and then get a doran's ring for mana sustain.

You're aware that early-game resistances is even stronger than it used to be right? The brutaliser got nerfed, the armor pen mastery got nerfed. It's not until people get some real pen that healthstacking is actually good to do - don't be one of the mindless warmogg's sheep - albeit health being good early-mid game a Glacial-shroud -> Spirit visage will leave you unkillable

The masteries thing is plausible. I shall have to experiment.

Good point about the boots, I'll remove that, but I like starting with flask for the early ward. If you get ganked and killed once early on, it's entirely possible you won't ever get back from that because of the loss of XP. Even if you Flash away, if you don't have a ward, you have no idea if he's still there waiting for you to come into gank reach again or not, which zones you out of gold and XP until you can be sure he's not waiting for you anymore, or forces you to recall and get a ward, which places you in just as much of a disadvantage as getting zoned from XP does.

@ the Glacial rush: In season 2 that's exactly what I used to do, but in season 3 recistances just don't cut it if you don't have enough HP to survive initial burst damage. Glacial rush is good in a lane perspective, but if you get thrown into a team-fight early and only have the extra HP from Doran's Ring, you're in trouble. I DO rush Spirit Visage after Doran's + Boots in most if not all magic damage lanes, and I should probably specify that somewhere. :@

Anyway, in season 2 you could build Warwick with super high resistances and let his sustain replace HP, but nowadays resistances aren't as good. Back then WW was unkillable because he could have super high resistances, yet his effective HP was also super high because every Q had the same effect as buying a ~300 HP item on the spot. Now that resistances aren't that strong, he's still unkillable because HP is boss, and his sustain acts as a replacement for HP but isn't affected by all the % damage that's being thrown about to counter the HP stack meta. But he needs to have enough base HP to survive initial damage and let his sustain take effect. Resistances don't tank that initial damage well enough anymore. :(

BotRK and Spirit Visage are both more important than Glacial because of their synergy with him, and so I only have space for it in my build as the last item, because before that I'm taking BotRK and Spirit Visage, and getting other tanky items that will stop my dog becoming roadkill 5 seconds into a fight.

Hextech isn't to replace BotRK. :P Idrk what I'd replace it with, I've never had it in a full build, only as part of an incomplete build when I've won the game. I've never gotten as far as needing to decide which item not to build. I guess it's more of an item you'd take to press an advantage and end the game soon. I might remove it though, 'cuz doesn't really fit in with the rest of the full build, I guess.

I'd never take Tri-Force on WW. I take Fro-Mal when I want CC seeing as WW's only in-built CC is on a ~50 second CD, so it depends on my team comp. Tri-Force doesn't fit the same role, BotRK is better if you want DPS anyway, and you only really have room for 1 DPS item in your build, so can't say I'd ever consider taking Tri-Force.

Anyway, thanks for the review mang, it helped. :3

First of all, everything i write should be taken with a grain of salt, haven't played him since mid s2, but i guess i could get ya some insight anyways.

Runes are good.
I disagree with the masteries. I'd go for a setup with more utility and skip the doran's ring - 9/13/8 maybe?

Boot start is ***** in s3, just plzno. Go cloth start against pure AD jungler+top lanes, then you could buy a doran's ring for mana sustain in place of the flask.

Health isn't as dominant a factor on WW as it is on other champs. In the lanephase you want CDR and resistances mainly. Spirit visage rush against Magic damage, Glacial shroud against Physical - THAT'S WHAT WE CALL LANE-DOMINATION SONNYBOY. Both theese items give resistance and CDR everything a healthy WW needs, it also increases your kill-potential on your enemy-laner as well as them sick ganks on the mid-lane cuz dat ULT cdr.

Remove hextech, please.... Botrk is just better in all shapes and forms.

Most of the time i'd much rather get a tri-force than a Fro-mal but i'm not gonna tell ya to remove it because it has its uses.

Good guide, don't like doran's ring too much and i consider it situational rather than core, also don't go for early health on a sustain monster like ww