Warwick Build Guide by Khazem

Introduction

This will be a build for lane warwick (also known as Lanewick). Besides being a really good and fast jungler, he is also a very competent solo laner. His amazing sustain combined with great survivability and decent damage makes him one of the best solo laners in the game right now.

Runes

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: I use these runes for more damage on Hungering Strike. More damage on Hungering Strike > more lane sustainability > more healing > more lane dominance > win. Obviously very helpful later in the game as well, you'll already be very hard to kill and these runes will just make it harder.
  
• Greater Seal of Evasion: I find these to be the best runes for almost any melee these days as more often than not, you'll be laning against other strong melee's, such as Irelia/Jarvan IV, Udyr, etc. These runes will make a great difference when going toe-to-toe with them.
  Another kind of Seal I like to use on him is Greater Seal of Replenishment, allowing for more Hungering Strike spam in the laning phase, making you alot harder to deal with.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Gives you quite some magic resist, does great things for you lategame. Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction work too if you don't need the magic resist.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Desolation: I like going for armor pen here as more and more people like to use armor runes. These quints pretty much nullify that and since my build focuses on more of an autoattack approach, these are great. Other choises include Greater Quintessence of Health, good for the early laning phase or even Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration if you want even more Hungering Strike damage.

Masteries

I like to go for a 9/0/21 here over the more common 21/0/9. 9 points in Offense for Sorcery and Archaic Knowledge . The rest of my points go into utility, mainly for Quickness , Blink of an Eye , Awareness and Utility Mastery . All of that I feel is more worth it than the Offense tree offers for warwick.

Summoner Spells

• Flash: Great Summoner Spell, bother for offensive and defensive purposes. Makes for a godlike gapcloser together with Infinite Duress
• Ignite: For securing the kills. Usually used in combination with Infinite Duress if you're going for a kill.
• Ghost: Synergizes well with Blood Scent for chasing people down or even trying to get away.
  

• Teleport: As Lanewick is always going to lane solo top, teleport becomes a viable choise. Making sure you don't miss any exp/kills can be important. Also allows for better dragon control and random suprise ganks.
• Cleanse: Can be good against CC heavy teams.
  

For me personally, every other summoner belongs in this list. Some of them MAY be sort of viable but I feel there will always be better choises and you should not get these.

Skills

Eternal Thirst

Passive: Each of Warwick's attacks will heal him for 5/10/15 health. Each successive attack against the same target will restore increasing amounts of health to Warwick.

Warwick's passive. Gives you great lane sustainabilty, not very noticable later in the game though.

Hungering Strike

Strikes an enemy for the greater value between 75 / 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 (+100% of ability power) and 8 / 11 / 14 / 17 / 20% of the target's maximum health (can only do flat damage to monsters), and heals Warwick for 80% of the damage dealt.

Warwick's bread and butter. His main sorce of damage and sustainability. Makes you nearly unkillable in the laning phase. Heals you depending on target health and MR (hence the magic pen runes). Even though it has a very good AP ratio, unless you go pure AP and get like 300+ AP it will almost always use the %health value as its base damage will be higher in most scenarios. This ability was recently nerfed (healing went down from 100% of the damage dealth to 80%) but it's still a great sustaining ability.

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 that for 10 seconds.

Awesome ability to buff your team. I do tend to level this last though as it only really becomes useful later in the game.

Blood Scent

Passive: Warwick senses enemy champions under 50% life within 1500 / 2300 / 3100 / 3900 / 4700 distance of him; while he detects a low-health enemy, he gains 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% Movement Speed.

Warwick's chasing ability. If the enemy is low health, this ability will allow warwick to chase him down no matter the enemies movement speed. Very useful in teamfights as well since it's very likely someone will end up below 50% at the start of a fight, making you fast for nearly the entire fight.
It does, however, give the enemy a very clear and obvious notification of when you're near and possibly incoming, so it's not a bad idea to turn it off now and then if you're looking for a gank.

Infinite Duress

Warwick lunges at an enemy Champion, stunning and making them unable to use summoner spells for 1.7 seconds. While they are stunned, Warwick quickly strikes the target 5 times for 33% of his attack damage plus 40 / 60 / 80. Warwick gains an additional 30% lifesteal while performing Infinite Duress.

Warwick's ultimate. Awesome for supressing a high priority kill target and having your team drop that target instantly. Also allows your jungler to gank your lane without any problems, jungler pings your lane, you ult him as he's about to enter the lane and unless something goes horribly wrong you'll pretty much almost secure a kill.

Skill Sequence

Infinite Duress > Hungering Strike > Blood Scent > Hunters Call

Whenever you can level your ultimate, level it.
Other than that I will always max Hungering Strike first for the extra sustain/damage in lane. I then max Blood Scent to secure kills early in the game. I put one point in Hunters Call at level 2 for some extra farming power early on in case it's needed or in case you need to last hit at your turret. I then leave it at one point untill everything else is maxed because, as I explained in the Skills section, you only really need it late game.

Items

Builds on Warwick are very situational and there are alot of different viable paths to choose from. I will try and cover what I feel are the best options in every situation.

This is generally what my build looks like. Gives you alot of damage with Madred's Bloodrazor and Wit's End combined with a ton of tankyness.


Very tanky build that balances out armor and MR. I grab Atma's Impaler so my damage doesn't completely fall off.


Offensive build. I grab a Frozen Mallet and Atma's Impaler so I'm not TOO glass canon.

Item explaination

Core items

: Key item for Warwick. The passive makes your Hungering Strike heal for alot more. The cooldown reduction is also very good on Warwick both for offense. Also has a nice health and MR boost and all-in-all this item is very cheap. A must have in any Warwick build in my opinion.

: Another great cooldown reduction item with alot of armor and a great passive. Really good to have in most situations.

: When a Warwick gets this item, his damage starts becoming noticable. Gives a good attack speed boost and some nice MR on top if it.

: This item is what makes Warwick become a threat. You generally get this later in the game when people's health values are starting to get up just so you can get the most out of it. Coupled with another attack speed boost, this item is a must-have for any damage oriented Warwick build.

Optional items

So now that we've been over the core of most Warwick builds, here are some very good optional items.

: A great all-in-one survival kit that gives you a second chance in life! (well whenever it's off cooldown that is)

: Good item to use against AD heavy teams.

: If enemy team has alot of CC, it's never a bad idea to get one of these.

: Good offensive item that, combined with your attack speed, pretty much perma slows whoever you're attacking with nice health boost as added bonus.

: Great item if you're against an AD heavy team and want some damage on top of your tankyness.

: If noone else on your team has this and your team has alot of AP, getting this can actually be pretty good. The spell vamp has a pretty big effect on Hungering Strike.

: When you really want your auto attack damage to start hurting people, this is a good item to get, mostly because of the added lifesteal this item gives you.

: If you find yourself in alot of mana problems, this item will pretty much solve that. Comes with a nice MR boost as well.

: Good if you need the extra lane pressure/sustainability. More on this item later in this guide.

: If enemy team is AP heavy. The extra movement speed boost/health regen is a nice extra.

Boots

: Usually my boots of choise. If enemy team has any CC, this is usually the safest choise.

: Against AD heavy teams. However if even an AD heavy team has alot of CC, I find Mercury's Treads are still a better choise.

: For the agressive build. Moar attack speeds!

: Another good source of magic pen, Hungering Strike scales very well with magic pen so these are an obvious good choise.

General item build order

For my starting item, I usually go with a Doran's Ring, some AP for early game Hungering Strike damage and healing (it usually WILL be affected by the AP value in early game) some health and mana regen. Ideal first item to get. Other situational options are either a Doran's Shield or a Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion, though this is very situational.
First trip back I will aim to buy at least a Spirit Visage which makes your lane sustainability godlike, Boots of Speed and a Sight Ward. Finish the boots next to whatever kind of boots you might need in the current situation and then start building a Wit's End.
After my Wit's End I will usually start building a Frozen Heart, followed by a Madred's Bloodrazor and finish up by selling my Doran's Ring for a Guardian Angel.

To summarize:

As I said before, building on Warwick if very situational and you will probably end up having a different build every single game. The items listed are just the items I feel you will be choosing between. Observe the game carefully and adjust to whatever you need at any given time. Knowing what to build and when to build it takes some getting used to and a healthy portion of common sense, but once you get your builds down, your Warwick will be a beast.

Gameplay

Early game

Level up your Hungering Strike, buy your Doran's Ring and either head to your lane, or help your team protect your jungler. In case of a level 1 fight, nothing about your starting build/skill sequence should change so you're safe to go ahead and put the first point in Hungering Strike right from the bat.
If there's no level 1 action, head to your lane as soon as your jungler is in the clear (usually safe to leave at around 1:45 ish). Last hit minions with your auto attack and leave Hungering Strike off cooldown to either harass or simply to keep your health up. Do not use Hunters Call in the early laning phase unless your jungler is coming for a gank and you need it for the extra damage.
At level 6 you can start getting more agressive and looking for kills. Harass with Hungering Strike and if you can, throw in some auto attacks. Make sure your harass is not missing you creep kills as these are still your priority. When your opponent gets to around 50% health and you're far enough from the enemy turret, you can try going for the kill by using your Infinite Duress in combination with Ignite and if needed, finish off with a Hungering Strike.
Go back to base when you can afford a Spirit Visage, Boots of Speed and a Sight Ward. As always, keeping that ward up in your river is very important, so always add the extra 75 gold you need for at least one ward in your calculations before you go back to base.
Continue farming top lane as much as you can and keep up the lane pressure. If enemy laner starts roaming, punish them by taking their tower.
To get ready for a fight (dragon fight for example) try and farm for your Wit's End and level 2 boots before leaving your lane.

Mid game

When the laning phase ends you want to start leveling up Hunters Call as at this point, while everyone else is having a staring contest in mid-lane, you can start pushing towers with your immense attack speed. Do make sure you keep key entry points warded when you do this to make sure you don't get caught.
When a teamfight happens, focus on casting your Infinite Duress on a high priority kill target. These can include the enemy AD carry, the AP carry that got super fed in the early game, or you can even use it defensively to protect your teams fed carry. When your ultimate has ended, buff yourself and your team with Hunters Call and proceed to right click whoevers the biggest threat at this point. Use your Hungering Strike to survive in the fight.
Try and grab the red lizard buff whenever you can and whenever your teams AD carry doesn't want it OR ward up the enemy's lizard and steal it when the time is right. A red buff Warwick is scary.

Late game

If you didn't already, now is the time to get that Madred's Bloodrazor. As soon as you get this, your priority will be shredding the high hp targets. You won't do much more damage to squishy targets so you might want to leave those for your teammates while you shred through those tanks. You should still focus Infinite Duress on the highest priority kill target for your team to instantly drop them.
Another bonus that comes with a bloodrazor is amazinly fast baron kills. Capture those times the enemy team is either dead or out of position for a quick baron kill and finish the game.
At this point you will be really really hard to kill and even if your team loses a fight, chances are you can finish off whoever is left standing by yourself.

Some extra tips

• One of the few counters to Lanewick early game is a champion that can push real hard. They will usually push the creepwave into your turret, making you miss alot of last hits since Warwick doesn't really have a way to finish them off efficiently when they're under turret fire.
  The best way to deal with this is getting an early Wriggle's Lantern. The proc instantly kills a minion and will allow you to push the lane back up pretty hard.
• Using Infinite Duress on someone who is overextending right before a teamfight occurs can turn the tide of the game. Make sure to pay attention to enemy positioning and capitalize on their mistakes.
• Infinite Duress allows you to towerdive pretty well. If know there is backup nearby, you can flash up and ult an unsuspecting enemy under their turret.
• Blood Scent gives the enemy a debuff whenever you get in range. Toggling it off when you're ganking and don't want to get detected can work in your favor.

Summary

This is the end of this guide. Remember that nothing in this build is absolute and this is not the only way to play a proper Lanewick, it's merely the way I usually play him and am quite succesful with.
I always appreciate any feedback, be it positive or negative and will respond to any questions you may have.
Thanks for reading and I hope this was helpful for someone.