Warwick Build Guide by jlh165

Introduction

Hello prospective Warwick (WW) players out there! Warwick doesn't get nearly as much love as he deserves, being one of the most destructive late game champions out there. Fully built, within seconds you can completely destroy an ADC from 100% to 0% health, chase down champions with ease, and laugh all the while. If you're new to League of Legends, Warwick has the best natural sustain in the game.

If you are reading this guide, please note that the changes to 3.8 have more or less negated most of the builds I have presented. Until such a day I can find an effective solution, it will remain unfinished. Wit's End no longer offers bonus damage per swing. Even with the changes to Nashor's Tooth Warwick still won't have enough output in order to make it viable. I will most likely present an alternative solution focusing on the Gluttonous Warwick portion.

Pros vs Cons

Pros Amazing ganking potential Exception mid-late game Impressive sustain Powerful dualist High mobility

Cons Extremely weak early game Pitiful ganks pre-level 6 Mana heavy/reliant No AOE abilities Little cc

Game Statistics

Summoner's Rift Ranked Popularity: 4.81% Win Ratio: 49.9% KDA Ratio: 2.723 KD Ratio: 0.977 Normal Popularity: 5.4% Win Ratio: 50.76% KDA Ratio: 2.602 KD Ratio: 0.976

Twisted Treeline Ranked Popularity: 6.41% Win Ratio: 46.81% KDA Ratio: 1.907 KD Ratio: 0.749 Normal Popularity: 5.68% Win Ratio: 43.43% KDA Ratio: 2.008 KD Ratio: 0.896

The Crystal Scar Dominion Popularity: 6.72% Win Ratio: 50.41% KDA Ratio: 2.396 KD Ratio: 0.967 Howling Abyss ARAM Popularity: 7.7% Win Ratio: 46.89% KDA Ratio: 2.998 KD Ratio: 0.809

...People, bring skill to the game.

Last update: June 2, 2013

Champion Abilities

Eternal Thirst is Warwick's passive and what our entire build is structured around. Every time you level up, each attack will passively do more 3-16 magic damage, stacking up to 3 times (9-48). Not only will this damage the enemy, but it will heal Warwick for the same amount!

Hungering Strike is what truly makes Warwick someone to be feared. Fully maxed, in one little attack you can easily deal 20% of that lethal Miss Fortune's HP, while healing yourself for 80% of the damage dealt! Apart from our Ultimate and auto attack, this is our ONLY actual attack. Likewise, apart from our Ultimate, our only ranged attack.

Hunter's Call

One of the best IAS buffs in the game Hunter's Call will increase your own IAS by 40-80% as well as your ally's by 20-40%! Watch our towers, they go down in a breeze! Note: If a champion gets a kill while under the effects of Hunter's Call, Warwick qualifies for an assist.

As Warwick's telltale ability, Blood Scent, strikes fear to all within it's clutches. Got a single enemy below 50% HP around you? You'll match quick little Master Yi's Highlander.

Infinite Duress is Warwick's own little make-or-break a team ability. With this, you'll completely suppress an enemy for 1.8 seconds while dealing 5 consecutive attacks (full Eternal Thirst). However, all those OHE's you've been stacking will now burn your target 5 times over. Attacking with Hungering Strike immediately after...goodnight Vayne. Caution!: YOU are immobilized on top of your target for the duration and can be interrupted! Take care to not throw away your ultimate! Note: Infinite Duress can be used to navigate from one side of a team fight to the other, shut down Miss Fortune's Bullet Time (or any channeled ability), or lock an enemy down giving an ally time to escape.

Summoner Spells

Recommended

Don't be that jungler who claims "I can survive without Smite, thus I don't need it.This spell will help you fly through jungle monsters, kill or even steal blue/red, and secure the Dragon and Baron .

Flash is one of the most useful Summoner Spells in anyone's arsenal. Combined with Infinite Duress, Flash will help in any ganking situation. However, Flash looses much of it's potency outside of Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline where brush and walls are not proportionately spaced.

Ghost This spell is viable for Crystal Scar (Dominion). However, it becomes fairly lackluster on other maps, especially considering Blood Scent is usually all the movement you need.

Exhaust is terrific all the way around. It will slow the enemy allowing for the team to finish him off or prevent an enemy from killing off a teammate. Furthermore, Exhaust reduces the enemy's IAS by 50% and damage by 30%, turning that pesky ADC into an afterthought.

Ignite can come incredibly in handy. Everyone remembers a time when the enemy escaped with little to no hp, and just one more attack would have slain him. This spell is perfectly combined with Infinite Duress, dishing out even more damage in a short period of time. Plus, Warwick benefits from both the AD and AP bonus of Summoner's Wrath .

Barrier is ideal for survivability. Although I usually use it during Infinite Duress for the extra health while I'm immobile, anytime you might receive a large chunk of damage is a viable time to use this spell. It's best on Crystal Scar (Dominion) and Howling Abyss (ARAM) since nigh on 100% of your fights are team-oriented.

Heal is my preferred spell choice for Howling Abyss (ARAM) as the team is always in close quarters, and given Heal will heal multiple targets, it becomes the best defensive Summoner Spell in the game. Always combine this with Summoner's Resolve for an extra 5-90 HP.

Not Recommended

Clairvoyance: Although vision is always nice, this summoner spell is better spent in a support's aresenal. As Warwick your primary goal is to kill others, and not be killed yourself.

Clarity: With Crest of the Ancient Golem , there should be no need for extra mana. Don't waste your mana and assume this spell will save you. If you're top on Summoner's Rift or on a different map, buy a couple Mana Potions if you need to. Don't waste Hungering Strike; it won't be up when you need it, and it's a mana drain.

Cleanse: Simply put, there are better spells out there.

Garrison: This spell is worth it if you intend to turret dive for a gank early on. However, it looses much of it's potency mid-late game as armor will automatically mitigate turret damage.

Revive: If you find yourself dieing a lot, play more defensively; don't rely on a spell to mitigate death time.

Teleport: This spell is great for an ADC, but we aren't an ADC now are we? I've heard it argued for laning, but even then it looses value mid-late game when fights become more team-oriented.

Runes

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is the best offensive mark for Warwick, and since Marks are best used offensively, you'd be hard pressed to choose anything else. Although we are AP, more AP will only boost Hungering Strike by 14.85.

Although IAS is exceptionally good for Warwick, it is much easier to obtain than Magic Pen, thus severely lessening the value of Greater Mark of Attack Speed

Everyone gets hit, thus everyone needs armor. Greater Seal of Armor is generally wins the Seal of Choice award with how important Armor is on every map as well as how pitiful it's scaling counterpart is early on.

Although stronger late game, Greater Seal of Scaling Armor does not surpass it's counterpart until level 10.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist is the default favored glyph among many Summoners as AP becomes much more of a threat late game and you surpass the rigid counterpart by level 9.

If you find yourself up against a strong AP champion ( Nidalee / Teemo) early on, the extra early magic resistance from Greater Glyph of Magic Resist may be viable.

For stronger early dps, Greater Glyph of Attack Speed will give 5.76% IAS off the bat.

As Warwick doesn't care much for either AP or AD, you are left with either Utility, Defensive, or sub-par Offensive Quintessences to go for. Simply put, Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed scales best.

Greater Quintessence of Scaling Health is the best defensive Quintessence for Warwick. However, I personally would rather have 4.5% movement speed at level 18 than 145.8 HP, especially when I can enjoy that movement speed throughout the entire game.

Masteries

Summoner's Rift Solo Top

Twisted Treeline Twisted Treeline

For the rest of this section, this will be the default build, as every other build is a slight derivative of it: Offensive In order to maximize potential damage output, invest in Summoner's Wrath and Fury over Sorcery . Likewise, because all of our OHE is magic damage, we want Blast and Arcane Knowledge Defensive Although Durability isn't a great use of 4 points, we do want Veteran's Scars for that early game advantage. In Tier 2, we want either 2 points in Hardiness and 2 in Resistance or 3 and 1 respectively. Unyielding and Block may not seem like much, but when up against an obnoxiously fed Jax, 5 less damage per attack will add up very quickly. Even with Blood Scent activated wielding a Frozen Mallet will be able to chase you down if they managed a single strike. Reducing these slows can easily make the difference between life and death. Without having Mercury's Treads as our default boots, Tenacious becomes vital for combating those heavy cc champions and teams. I've heard arguments for Juggernaut , but that will only give us about 110-130 more health and you'll loose much more than that if you find yourself trapped in the middle of an enemy team. Take up Defender and Legendary Armor in order to maximize you defensive capabilities and Reinforced Armor to make Ashe cry. 3% health for 1 talent? If you skimp out on Honor Guard after reaching this far, please stop wasting your time playing League of Legends. Summoner's Rift Jungle There are three main differences from the top build. First, because we won't be taking Ignite, we'll reinvest that last point into Fury . Second, 10 more gold every time you use Smite can add up to over 300g (a kill) over the course of a match. Third, Tough Skin and Bladed Armor help speed up our slow jungle time and take just a little less damage. Sadly, Hardiness and Resistance must suffer in order to put these changes into effect. Crystal Scar Dominion Howling Abyss ARAM As we did for Smite, we'll invest a point into Summoner's Resolve in order to give Barrier a flat 20 HP shield increase. Removing the point from Hardiness would be equally viable stat-wise, but we build magic resistance before armor. Bruiser Warwick Use with Any Map There are two main differences with the Bruiser build: Because we build AD, we'll spec into Fury , Deadliness , and Weapon Expertise . Also, with Tenacity build into our boots, Tenacious becomes less necessary. If you intend to build Ninja Tabi, however, you will want to keep Tenacious . Gluttonous Warwick Use with Any Map Gluttonous Warwick is designed to maximize Hungering Strike, and since we'll be stacking AP like any normal APC, it only makes sense we go fully offensive. Specifically, Spellsword and Archmage become useful.

Items

Starting

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2 Mana Potions and Doran's Ring: 15 damage + 12 more healing from Hungering Strike as well as 4 mana per kill and 60 health will help keep you in lane just that much longer. With 200 more effective mana, Warwick has a ton more early sustain. The 2-3 extra Hungering Strikes alone will give roughly 225-300 more health before you're first back. Note: Eternal Thirst will help offset some of the extra damage Doran's Blade offers for last hitting.

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5 Health Potions and Hunter's Machete: If you are jungling, this is the only viable starting rotation. Season 3 made jungle minions stronger, thus Hunter's Machete is necessary for the increased damage output (clearing speed) and Health Potions for 625 effective health.

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2 Mana Potions, Doran's Ring, and Boots of Speed: As with the Top build, Doran's Ring offers extra damage and sustain necessary for early game. Boots of Speed, despite being necessary in every build, offer a huge movement speed increase vital for survival in Twisted Treeline starting out.

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2 Health Potions, Prospector's Ring, and Boots of Speed: Prospector's Ring is the only thing unique about this start, but who cannot love 200 health, 30 extra damage to Hungering Strike, and all the mana regen needed throughout the game?

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22 Health Potions and Mana Potions, Doran's Ring, Doran's Shield, and Boots of Speed: This gives a huge fighting chance early on.

Early - Mid Game

Wit's End: This is our first damage item. In fact, Wit's End synergies so well with Warwick, you won't have any need of an additional dps item for a while. Adding 42 magic damage to Eternal Thirst as well as reducing the target's MR by...and here is where I stop. This build is getting Archived as the changes to Patch 3.8 have more or less completely negated it.

Glacial Shroud: Apart from being a core item in Frozen Heart, Glacial Shroud offers much needed armor, mana, and 10% CDR.

Spirit Visage: I think Riot may have had Warwick in mind when they created Spirit Visage. 20% more to our already obnoxious sustain? Health? Magic Resistance?

Frozen Heart: Bigger is usually better in League of Legends, and Frozen Heart is no exception. More or less, you get a second Glacial Shroud with a passive enough to make Gangplank, Teemo, Vayne...well anyone who auto attacks...hope you completely ignore team fights.

Spirit of the Ancient Golem: Jungling Only! Although this item can be used by any role, increased minion damage is a junger's specialty. This can be built defensively for anyone else if needed if your Warwick is lacking Mercury's Treads.

Boots

Sorcerer's Shoes: Sorcerer's Shoes are Warwick's best offensive boot option. Even built with physical damage in mind, these will increase the damage of Eternal Thirst and Hungering Strike.

Mercury's Treads: The default melee boot for it's tankiness and how Tenacity saves lives.

Ninja Tabi: Now here's something worth looking into! If you have to deal with a fed Tryndamere, 10% less damage is one of the best buffs in the game!

Boot Enchantments

Enchantment: Furor: Although this can be useful for chasing down opponents, it becomes fairly redundant with Blood Scent. Additionally, you first have to land a hit to make use of this, and Warwick is quite lackluster in range.

Enchantment: Alacrity: In Dominion, Alacrity is very useful. Summoners tend to pick champions that can run like no other. Although Warwick joins their ranks, we don't have control of when to take a speed boost. Passive running in general helps get around the map period.

Enchantment: Captain: To be honest, I've never tried using this enchantment. However, it would go well with a Bruiser build, as you jump in and allies can run faster, scoring another 1-2 hits, saving lives, killing foes.

Enchantment: Distortion: It's always nice to have Flash up, but you shouldn't be relying on the Summoner Spell. Use it when needed. With that said, Flash + Infinite Duress makes a great combo.

Enchantment: Homeguard: Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline only! This seems to be a Summoner favorite. Saving up to 10 seconds per callback in healing and offering up to 16 seconds of saved run time. You do the math.

Offensive Options

Kitae's Bloodrazor: Crystal Scar (Dominion) and Howling Abyss (ARAM) only! Kitae's Bloodrazor is the best dps item in Season 3 for Warwick, single-handedly dealing 12.5% of the champion's maximum health as additional damage during Infinite Duress!

Blade of the Ruined King: This is a mid-late item in the Bruiser and Pure DPS builds. In every map other than Dominion, Blade of the Ruined King becomes the top tog dps item for Warwick. However, it's pricey and looses nearly all of it's potency on enemies with low health. Then again, they have low health; who cares? The activation alone has won many battles for me.

Nashor's Tooth: Not a typical item in Warwick's Arsenal, but there isn't a single wasted stat. Especially with the Gluttonous Build, this will offer a large chunk of damage per melee swing. However, zero defensive stats is hardly appealing for a melee champion.

Abyssal Mask: If you prefer to make that Hungering Strike even more lethal and need even more magic resistance, Abyssal Mask is for you.

Rod of Ages: Rod of Ages gives extra AP, health, and mana...yes please.

Defensive Options

Runic Bulwark: This is a early-mid item in the Bruiser Build. An item usually built by either the support or top champion, Runic Bulwark offers the best team defensive stats per gold in the game.

Warmog's Armor: Warmog's Armor boasts the highest health per item in the game, and with 1000 of it, it can single handedly add nearly 50% more hp.

Randuin's Omen: High Health. High Armor. And a slow Aura that kills or saves lives. Maybe Riot should change the name to Divine Omen.

Frozen Mallet: Even with Blood Scent enemy champions can still escape Warwick's grasp. Frozen Mallet will make it as if they stand still while your team pounds them into oblivion.

Sunfire Cape: People swear by this for Warwick so I included it. However, you won't be standing in the middle of the team long enough for this to do any real damage. Nonetheless, it's a reasonable dps alternative to Randuin's Omen.

Gluttonous Warwick Specialized Items

Void Staff: Gluttonous Warwick stacks AP for exceptionally deadly Hungering Strikes. With increased AP, magic pen becomes even more important.

Blackfire Torch: Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar (Dominion) only! I cannot begin to explain just how valuable this item is, it alone makes Hungering Strike do 3.5% + 80 more damage, offers 20% CDR, and health!

Deathfire Grasp: The active on this item makes for an insanely powerful combo with Hungering Strike, roughly doubling the amount of damage dealt.

Rabadon's Deathcap: Summoner's Rift and Howling Abyss (ARAM) only! The highest AP item in the game, scaling with all other AP items, runes, and masteries in your inventory.

Wooglet's Witchcap: Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar (Dominion) only! If you're on a map that can't get Rabadon's Deathcap or Zhonya's Hourglass, this item gives the best of both worlds!

Zhonya's Hourglass: Summoner's Rift and Howling Abyss (ARAM) only! Dueling a champion and need another couple seconds before activating Hungering Strike or about to die during a team fight? Worry no more for your invincibility is here!

Jungle (Summoner's Rift)

Caution! Blood Scent will give you away as you lie in wait for a gank. If you want to sneak up on someone below 50% health, turn your toggle off.

Know Your Jungle Minions:

Ancient Golem (blue) . . . . .♦ 20 / 6 Armor . . . . .♦ 1:55 initial spawn . . . . .♦ 5:00 respawn Lizard Elder (red) . . . . .♦ 20 / 6 Armor . . . . .♦ 1:55 initial spawn . . . . .♦ 5:00 respawn Golems . . . . .♦ 12 Armor . . . . .♦ 1:40 respawn . . . . .♦ 1:40 respawn Wolves . . . . .♦ 9 / 6 Armor . . . . .♦ 1:40 initial spawn . . . . .♦ 1:40 respawn Wraiths . . . . .♦ 15 / 5 Armor . . . . .♦ 1:40 inital spawn . . . . .♦ 1:40 respawn

Dragon . . . . .♦ 2:30 initial spawn . . . . .♦ 6:00 respawn . . . . .♦ OHE: 60 true damage over 4 . . . . . .seconds and reduces attack . . . . . .speed by 20% . . . . .♦ Grants team 190g each Baron . . . . .♦ 15:00 initial spawn . . . . .♦ 7:00 respawn . . . . .♦ Grants team 300g, 900 exp and . . . . . . Exalted with Baron Nashor

Starting Jungle Rotations

Passive, no ganks or invasions, starting blue

1) Wolves 2) Ancient Golem (blue) 3) Wraiths 4) Lizard Elder (red) 5) Golems 6) Wolves 7) Wraiths 8) First Back

Blue

Purple

Passive, no ganks or invasions, starting red

1) Wraiths 2) Lizard Elder (red) 3) Golems 4) Wolves 5) Ancient Golem (blue) 6) Wraiths 7) Golems 8) First Back

Blue

Purple

Steal enemy Red with Gank

1) Invade: Wraiths 2) Invade: Lizard Elder (red) 3) Gank: Either Adjacent Lane 4) Ancient Golem (blue) 5) Wolves 6) Lizard Elder (red) 7) Golems 8) Wraiths 9) First Back

Blue

Purple

First Blood

1) Wraiths 2) Lizard Elder (red) 3) Gank: Lizard Elder (red) (bring mid) 4) Ancient Golem (blue) (give to mid if you already have buff) 5) Wolves 6) Wraiths 7) Golems 8) First Back

Blue

Purple