The League Community currently undervalues Warwick and with good reason. As far as junglers go, Warwick isn't even close to the best. However, he is in a pretty good place right now in the preseason. With the Assassin's Rework and Tank Meta returning Warwick can be a tool to help you "beat the heat" so to speak.

Not only is Warwick versatile enough to join the Tank Meta, but he can also isolate any of the overpowered assassins diving onto your back line. In this guide I'll be going over how you can survive Pre-season 7 in the new jungle with everyone's favorite werewolf.

9 x Attack Damage reds
9 x Armor Yellows
9 x Magic Resist Blues
1 x Lifesteal Quint
2 x Attack Speed Quints

I personally run 9 x Health Blues instead since I rarely play against any AP junglers who are a threat to Warwick. It is much safer to go with the standard MR blues, but you do have the option to run HP blues as well.

You really only need 2 Attack Speed Quints the additional attack speed from your W and masteries is more than enough to clear the jungle without losing very much Health. Plus the Lifesteal Quint comes in handy when you end up in duels with the enemy jungler via invades, etc.

The Masteries vary depending on what build you choose to go for. Obviously if you're tanking you don't want to max the cunning or ferocity trees.

Standard

Varying from the standard Jungle masteries, you'll want to go for Storm Raider's Surge. I know it sounds crazy at first, but don't hit that back button just yet. Most of the time Warwick will be doing a large portion of an enemy's HP in about 3 seconds thanks to his ultimate. Combining his ultimate with Bloodrazor and Blade of the Ruined King allows for you to do more than the required 30% for Storm Raider's Surge. As for the Talent itself, most people's first reaction to Warwick's ultimate is to put distance between the two of you, either via flash or whatever ability they have that can be used as a dash or blink. Storm Raiders gives you 40% move speed and 75% slow resistance for 3 seconds allowing you to chase down anyone trying to get away from you after your ultimate is over.

With the new masteries being added you will also want to take Greenfather's gift being a jungler you'll be walking through bushes to gank lanes most of the time, and this talent adds to Warwick's already stacked % HP damage. On top of Blade of the Ruined King's 6% hp damage, and Bloodrazor's 4% hp damage this talent will be adding another 3% putting you at a whopping 13% HP damage with only 2 items.

Tankwick

Thanks to the addition of Courage of the Colossus the Tank jungle masteries shifted slightly. You'll want to grab the following:

Unyeilding - +5% Armor and Magic Resist
Explorer - +15 Movespeed in Brush and River
Veteran's Scars - +50 HP
Fearless - + 10%(+2 per level) Armor and Magic Resist when damaged by and enemy champ
Legendary Guardian + 3 Armor and Magic Resist for each nearby enemy champ
Courage of the Colossus - Gain a shield for 10 + 10 per level + 7% of your max hp for each nearby enemy for 4 seconds after hitting an enemy with hard CC

Savagery - Single target attacks do 5 bonus damage to minions and monsters
Runic Affinity - Buffs last longer
Merciless - Increased damage to targets under 40% health
Green father's Gift - Stepping into Brush causes your next damaging attack or ability to deal 3% of your target's current health as magic damage.

You'll want to Max Q first for the extra damage, and then max E for the extra movement speed and synergy with Storm Raider's Surge. As usual take a point in your Ultimate when available.

You will almost always want to take bloodrazor with Warwick the synergy with his kit is just too good to pass up. Plus as mentioned above combining Bloodrazor, Blade of the Ruined King, and Greenfather's Gift gives you a whopping 13% percentage health damage. Combining this with your ultimate means the damage is almost guaranteed to be free as well.

The choice of boots depends on what the enemy team comp is. If they are packed with heavy CC champs like Leona then Merc Treads are pretty much your only option. Otherwise Boots of Swiftness adds perfect synergy with your masteries, giving you move speed on top of Storm Raider's Surge and/or Wanderer & Explorer.

As for which jungle smite item to get, only get stalker's blade if you need the extra CC (for example your team has little to no hard CC at all.

With the pre-season changes came a change to jungle routes. The current meta as of the first pre-season patch has led to junglers reverting to season 4 starts. This means that you need to start at either RED or BLUE. The smaller camps have a longer spawn time and you will put yourself behind if you wait for them.

Which buff do you start at?

I usually start bot side regardless of where the blue buff is located. The misconception is that Warwick must always start at blue because he's so mana hungry. This isn't necessarily true. Starting bot side allows for you to get a larger leash and take less damage initially as opposed to starting top at the blue buff and only having your top laner to help you. You should only be using Q on creeps regularly if you actually have blue buff, otherwise you're just wasting mana and time because you'll have to back more often. Backing more often also puts you behind in levels and since your team is going to be patiently waiting for you to hit level 6 (hopefully) so you can start ganking, this is a bad thing. You absolutely want to hit 6 as soon as possible so farm as much as you can, and go to the lanes when the laners back to base to get the extra experience from minions.