Build Guide by LotSX

Introduction

Patch: v1.0.0.112


Warwick is a champion known for his jungling ability. However, I prefer not to play Junglewick. He is, in fact, an amazing mid laner. Hungering Strike allows for heavy harassing and its heal, along with Eternal Thirst, lets him stay in a lane for a very long amount of time. Blood Scent can prevent ganks if an enemy champion is low. Infinite Duress just dominates mid and will normally force the enemy to recall due to low health, if not die.

A question that most readers probably have is,"Why lane with Warwick when you can jungle with him?" Despite popular opinion, I don't really think Warwick is among the strongest junglers. I think he is only popular since he doesn't require runes and masteries to jungle and he's easy to jungle with. He doesn't jungle as fast as Nunu, Olaf, or Udyr. Midwick can serve still a good amount of early ganks and obtain lots of gold from being in a lane.

What is Midwick, in terms of champion roles? During early game, he is an offtank DPS harasser. During midgame, he is an offtank DPS ganker and well capable of tower diving. During lategame, he can serve as an offtank DPS initiator or even as a full tank.

Pros and Cons of Midwick vs. Junglewick
Midwick:
- Denied opponent mid.
- More gold.
- Stronger versus carries.

Junglewick:
- Enables top solo lane.
- More exp and ganks.
- Stronger versus tanks.

Runes

Greater Mark of Insight increases Hungering Strike's damage and healing, and increase Sunfire Cape (burn) damage {need confirmation}.

Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration is Midwick's most significant rune. I cannot stress how low Warwick's mana regen, and the amount of mana that Hungering Strike uses up.

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction lowers the cooldown on Hungering Strike, allowing more harassing and healing, and Infinite Duress, allowing faster ganks.

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed allows you to chase harder and land your Hungering Strike easier on the opponent during laning phase.

Masteries

Go 9 in offense, mainly for Archaic Knowledge , which will help your Hungering Strike damage and Sunfire Cape (burn) damage {need confirmation}.

21 in utility is mandatory. As I had mentioned earlier, mana regen is a big problem for Midwick, so Meditation is a great mastery for Midwick. Quickness will help Warwick's amazing ability to chase enemies.

Items

Starting Items

There are two ways to start Midwick's build. Doran's Ring is more effective at laning against a tank or offtank. Boots of Speed and 3 Mana Potion are more effective at laning against a squishy (HOWEVER, you should not try this without Meditation and Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration). My advice is to ask somebody on your team to carry Clairvoyance and use it at the start of the game to see who you are laning against and then make a decision on what to buy.

Staple Items
Your first objective is to rush Sorcerer's Shoes. This will give you a nice boost to your Hungering Strike's damage, and allows you to harass better. Next, get a Catalyst the Protector for extra survivability and mana regen. After that, get Sunfire Cape, which will give you a good damage bonus and survivability (by now, you should have little trouble diving and escaping low opponents). Turn your Catalyst the Protector into a Banshee's Veil, one of Warwick's most important item. With this, Infinite Duress becomes a lot harder to cancel, while giving you even more survivability. Then, get Guardian Angel for survivability and a great passive. Lastly, get Spirit Visage which will increase the heal on Eternal Thirst, Hungering Strike, and Guardian Angel's passive, while giving even more survivability and cooldown reduction.

Final Item
If you started with Doran's Ring, sell it at soon as you can afford your final item. There are many last viable items you may get on Warwick, mostly depending on the situation of the game.
A good idea if your team is mostly AP.
Frozen Heart is a good item to counter AD compositions and gives some sweet mana and cooldown reduction.
Madred's Bloodrazor is still a viable item on Warwick due to Hunter's Call if the opponent is mostly tanks or offtanks.
Quicksilver Sash is a great item to counter Malzahar, Warwicks, and Urgot. Gives some good magic resistance too.
If your team lacks CC, this will probably help a lot.

Skill Sequence

Eternal Thirst: Your passive. Lets you hold your lane a lot longer.

Hungering Strike: Level this up as soon as possible. It's your most important skill, and will allow you to harass and heal at mid. Don't use it too much until it's level 3, because it costs too much mana for its low damage. At level 3, spam it as much as possible on the opponent.

Hunter's CallHunter's Call: Since you're not getting much AD, this won't be very useful unless you have Madred's Bloodrazor. It has, however, a very low mana cost so you can spam this if you want.

Blood Scent: A very useful skill. Can prevent ganks and makes chasing and diving much easier.

Infinite Duress: Your ultimate. This is one of the most amazing gank skills in the game. If you've been harassing the enemy champ at level 5 to 50-60% hp, you should be able to kill him as soon as you reach level 6. Drop another Hungering Strike and/or Ignite if it doesn't kill him.

Summoner Spells

Standard Setup
Flash: All-around great chasing skill and escape skill.
Ignite: Great skill for finishing off enemies just out of your range.

Other Options
Exhaust: Good skill in general. Makes carries virtually useless in teamfights.
Ghost: A viable replacement for Flash.
: All-around good skill for escaping and laning, lets you push and still arrive at a teamfight in time.

Summary

Midwick is a great anti-carry mid, comparable to Malphite, Mordekaiser, and Katarina. Despite being a tank, Warwick still has a lot of damage from Hungering Strike and Infinite Duress. He is very versatile, having different roles throughout the game. Midwick is one of the best tower divers and chasers in the game.