Hi guys and welcome to my first guide! *excited :D*
First of all I just want to mention that I'm German - so please dont blame me for my bad english :) And in case you're British/American/dont know (whereever English is spoken): be happy... you cant imagine how much I hate to be forced to do that many things in another language than German :D

EDIT: 26th Dec. 2011
After that big patches with the new masteries and stuff I really had to update this guide a little bit. Well, I reworked some chapters so far and especially the masteries, more will follow ;)

EDIT: 20th April 2012
Finally I finished my Abitur (general qualification for university entrance, if you dont know that word in your country)! And I took some time for my guide as well, as it's really old and out-dated by the time. I improved myself a lot and can hold >1500 Elo quite easily - not much, but I'm getting better and I'm happy with this :) But so my knowledge and thoughts on Warwick changed as well and I want to share them with all of you. By the way: though I didn't answer anymore comments, I read them all and I wanna give you guys a huge

THANKS <3

for your love and support!

So let's go ahead and check out Lanewick once again! :) Have fun!

Lanewick is dominating.
Well to be honest, he is still strong. After some small nerfes Riot changed his passive increasing his damage, though slightly nerfing his survivability (by auto attacks) - which sounds quite legit to me. Even more than that, it's increasing his offensive power in lane a lot.

Due to his enormous sustainability Warwick should be played on toplane in my opinion. In teamfights he is the perfect countercarry, shutting down anyone with his ultimate on a quite nice range, allowing your team to focus at least one target quite easily. With his Hunters Call and Blood Scent he supports his team as well. Think about that Attack Speed-Buff while picking - your jungler and AD carry should fit into this (for example: Shyvana will benefit more from Hunters Call than Alistar).

(It's the second one.)

Some old stats with my old build:




DyalekT made a cool video playing my old build. Make sure to watch it!
Play Video
The poor Nasus :'(


This should show you that the old build was working in a way as well. And I will keep it in this guide. But the "first" build will be a more up-to-date one. This does not mean you can't use the old one anymore, I still ran it at 1.5k from time to time (though I switched to the "normal" one in general) just to try - and still had quite accetable results. However, you should at least try the first build and maybe you will like it a lot more. I personally switched to a quite aggressive top-style by the time, which was leading me to the use of that first build as well.

Lanewick runes should focus on tankyness. ALWAYS.
- Why?
Well, you're already dealing a lot of damage with few items. But you're the one who will jump right into your enemies in the teamfights and thats why you got to be really tanky. You also need this tankyness on lane to survive.

Take flat armor as the armor value is the lower one (compared to magic resist) at the beginning and magic resistance per level as this value is the lower one later on. Simple math ;)

The Marks should be used for Magic Penetration as you're dealing more or less Magic Damage only. The essences can be used for Magic Pen as well or some other defense (somehow Mobafire seems to miss some Quintessences (e.g. the Magic Pen's), so I just picked flat HP).

The Masteries are focusing on damage. That's it, more or less... the defense masteries are quite useless on Lanewick (except the first ones) and so are the utility masteries.
Also I personally favor Executioner on Lanewick, it's just greatly fitting with your Blood Scent... chase to death while dealing more damage as well! Sounds great, doesn't it?

This is the way to go! Ignite is for First Blood, finishing people off and kick Vlads, Mundos and other Warwicks ***.
Use Flash to chase and escape or to get in range for your ult. It's a great skill - especially since we got our own "Ghost" with Blood Scent. Also useful to compensate our slowness.

Other viable options:


This can be used to escape, chase or shut down their carry. But not that good for escaping as Flash. You shouldnt use it versus heavy CC/Snare-Teams.


Another good choice versus too much CC.


Guys, I totally forgot about this awesome, but often underrated skill. Shame on me. (thx to ShadowNet for reminding me)
Teleport is very nice to grab some items early without loosing XP, to join teamfights and ganks in a few seconds and to do a lot of other funny things! There are too many usages of this skill, I can't tell you all of them :)
Just one important thing when you use this: your teammates should place wards in their bushes to allow you to port down and gank. The enemys won't expect you coming from there ;)
You should kick Ignite for Teleport, not Flash. Ignite/ Teleport won't save you, when it's needed!

Not good!


Srsly, this is maybe good for jungling Warwick. But wth this should be for in lane? You got your E, that's enough. Flash is much more viable than Ghost.

The passive allows you to heal up even without using Hungering Strike and mana. Also offers a lot of damage when fighting each other by "hands" :p


Your main skill to farm minions, heal up amazingly fast and deal a ****ing lot of damage (20% wtf!). That's why we gonna max out this skill first EVERY time. There is absolutely no game where you would max any other skill first than this one.


Great to farm, great for teamfights and to push towers. Fits great with Wit's End and any other on-hit-items and supports your DPS-mates (Jungler, Carry). Make sure that they pick something that can make use of this buff, if possible.


I like to call this Warwicks version of Ghost. Nice to chase down an enemy, but also good to escape in case the enemy has less than 50%. Great in teamfights as there is mostly always at least one enemy below 50%, allowing you to rush from enemy to enemy in a few seconds. Thats also one of the reasons for maxing this second. We want to keep mobility in lane as in teamfights all the time. In lane you should be able to harass enough to keep your enemy quite long below that 50%, making you almost ungankable as well.


Use your ult to towerdive, prepare a gank, gank, protect, avoid enemys towerdiving and stun them in toweraggro (that's a lot of fun actually), pick up cowards, stop Carrys from dealing massive damage... it got a very small cooldown and you should use if often. This also helps to focus out targets more easily in teamfights.
Be aware of champions who can stop your ultimate easily and fast (e.g. Janna, Soraka, Blitzcrank, Riven, Alistar, Sion). Dont get caught away from your mates as you jump in instantly; make sure, they have enough time to follow (though you should be tanky enough to stay in there for long enough).

Skill Priority:


Remember to get one point in Hunters Call at level 4.
If you get Wit's End really early you can also max Hunters Call second or switch between Blood Scent and Hunters Call.

Obviously, I'm showing you two completely different builds in this guide. For those, who read my guide the first time: the second one is the old one I created a long time ago. The first one is the "meta".

I will explain both builds in seperated chapters, so go ahead and check the one you want to play!

Always remember: there is NO PERFECT build for every game and situation! These builds are just good in most games, but never in all of them. At least the order will change almost every game.
For example, when playing against double AP with the first build:

+ 2 Pots

Don't stick with one order and build. If you're not familiar enough with the items of League of Legends, try to at least buy the boots that counter your lane enemy ( Mercury's Treads vs AP and hard CC, Ninja Tabi vs AD/DPS).

(This chapter is still referring to the second, old build, but it's meant in general gameplay)

It was pretty common to go for Madred's Bloodrazor as the first item (except the boots) with Warwick. And as a jungle Warwick it works quite good due to the farming potential of Madred's Razors. Also offers some armor and of course a lot of damage. Seems like a good choice for Warwick in general if you think about the synergy with your ult... or not?

Bloodrazor is very strong, but there's one thing to argue about: it costs 3.8k gold.
Just to remind you: the core build of Lanewick costs 3265 gold - 535 gold less. And by going for Bloodrazor your core normally includes your Sorcerer's as well => 4.9k gold. That's Lanewick's core plus Giant's Belt and another 600 gold to spend (close to Sorcerer's Shoes). Let's compare:

Bloodrazor core:
- 30 AD
- 40% AS
- 30 armor
- 4% of max. HP as magic damage
- level 2 boots
- 20 magic penetration

Lanewick core:
(plus Giant's Belt and Sorcerer's Shoes)
- 10% CDR
- 780 HP
- 60 MR
- 15 AP
- 12.5/5 manareg (plus 1% per missing 1% mana)
- 15% increased heal and regeneration
- level 2 boots
- 20 magic penetration

One thing is sure: Bloodrazor deals more damage, especially with your ult. But in lane you mainly deal damage with Hungering Strike, for what Lanewick's core is way better. My main argument:

Madred's Bloodrazor deals 20% of the maximum health as damage with your ult (ok plus some autoattacks but you won't do thaaaat many of them, especially when you dont have that much armor and MR) and costs 3.8k gold.
Hungering Strike deals 20% of the maximum health as damage as well, but costs no gold, is spammable (with some manareg-items for sure) and ranged (even though it is a short range)!

Also you're a lot more tanky as a Lanewick while being able to farm much more than in the jungle would ever be possible. You're also immune to counter-jungling, dont need to "waste" one summoner skill to Smite (as you all know is Smite more or less useless in a lategame - ok maybe not at all as Dumbodyret mentions with good cause: you're maybe able to steal some buffs or even the baron. If you make that Smite wasn't useless for sure even in late, but it's sometimes hard to do) and not depending on getting the blue buff to deal tons of damage with your Hungering Strike.

So who is the better Warwick?

I dont know it. But I feel the Lanewick being much more solid (and funny as well). You're easily able to outzone other champs due to your ridiciolous heal and harass/counter-harass options, what is great for getting into a lategame as well. Maybe it depends on your team. Maybe on your enemys. Maybe on yourself. Try it out.

EDIT: this theme is more or less out-dated, some time passed since I saw someone rushing Madred's (though Saint should've done that not too long ago, but this guy can do whatever he wants... he's practically a overall-Mundo, doing what he pleases... SAINT WE LOVE YOU! <3). I will still keep it so you can check if you got to the question by yourself, maybe as a new player ;)

This is a great start item for Warwick. It offers you some tankyness with 100 HP and allows you to use Hungering Strike a lot more and even increased it's effectiveness (remember that Hungering Strike deals either percentage based or the flat damage. At the beginning often the flat damage triggers what makes the 15 AP quite important).
We will grab the second one AFTER the Boots, but together if possible. Two Doran's Rings will allow you to stay in lane for long enough.


You're a tank. You want to run around a stop, denying actions, attacks, ... you want to stay mobile. That's why you need Tanicity.


This item is just perfect for Warwick. High damage with his Hunters Call, ultimate and finally his passive. If you get (an) early kill(s), you should grab this one pretty fast to get a huge early advantage.


This item will offer you a huge maximum of mana, allowing you to use your skills often enough. You're also tanky against both physical damage and magic damage. Also remember the quite strong aura of this item, from which you can make maximum use in combination with your ultimate, by jumping right into the enemies' team. The CDR is pretty nice as well, but not the main reason for picking up this item. It's just a great item in defense against any physicals for both you and your team.


At least when you finished this build you should continue with situational items.

Some aggressive options:

Madred's Bloodrazor
Ionic Spark
Malady

Some defense options:

Guardian Angel
Frozen Mallet
Spirit Visage

This is a great start item for Warwick. It offers you some tankyness with 100 HP and allows you to use Hungering Strike a lot more and even increased it's effectiveness (remember that Hungering Strike deals either percentage based or the flat damage. At the beginning often the flat damage triggers what makes the 15 AP quite important). You can grab a second one, if you like.

Alternatively you can start with either Boots and 3 Pots or Cloth Armor and 5 Pots, depending on your runes and enemy.


It's time to get some more speed! 'Nuff said.
If possible, get Kindlegem, Chalice of Harmony and Boots in one round (2090 gold). If not, get at least the boots and the other item depending on the lane and situation.


As soon as you get this item, you wont have any kind of manaproblems anymore and be able to spam Hungering Strike as much as you want. Also offers some Magic Resistance - and all that for less than 1k gold! :D


This offers you some more survivability and some more CDR to use Hungering Strike more often. Later on you gonna upgrade this to Spirit Visage.


This lets you stay in lane forever. In combination with the manareg from Chalice of Harmony and Hungering Strike you can heal yourself up as much as you want. Also some nice defense stats. Try to upgrade to Spirit Visage and grab the Giant's Belt at one trip.

Alternatives for Spirit Visage:


If your enemy is a tough melee DPS, you can get this instead of Spirit Visage.


Now that's your core build:


Core build cost: 3265 gold.


This is for more survivability - if needed. If you think you do fine without (or could need some other kind of defense, more to this later on), go for Malady or another Doran's Ring (did I mention this is a great item for Lanewick?) instead or directly jump to Sorcerer's Shoes and Wit's End.


As already mentioned in the Rune section you deal a lot of magic damage. That's why you want to have these boots.
In case they got really tons and tons of CC you're allowed to buy Mercury's Treads as well. But never ever even think about getting Berserker's Greaves! THEY SUCK! And I'm saying this because there are still some people building that boots on Warwick...


Just an awesome item for Warwick. Perfectly fits with his mechanics and increases his ultimate damage a lot. Tankyness and damage for small money - perfect for those champs, who do not scale well on either AD or AP (like Warwick).

Situational items:

Up to now you're really absolutely free to buy what you want. Or better: what is useful. Ok, just in case you want to win. Otherwise buy as much CDR as you can and start laughing about the 40%-Cap. Or stack Ninja Tabi. That's pretty funny as well.
In case you want to win (I hope so): try to get items fitting with the situation. Usually I go for Sunfire Aegis next as it provides the missing armor and works quite good with the ult.

But in case there's a Karthus or Malzahar or whatever, you maybe should grab a Banshee's Veil (you can take Catalyst the Protector instead of Giant's Belt).

Auto-Attack-Champs like Yi? Get a Chain Vest (or a Heart of Gold if you prefer Randuin's Omen) instead of Giant's Belt and upgrade to Randuin's Omen or Thornmail later on.

Need some more damage? Go for Malady/ Madred's Bloodrazor/ Black Cleaver.

You picked up Sorcerer's Shoes, but they got more CC then expected (lol)? Grab Eleisa's Miracle (if you grab this you can sell your Chalice of Harmony if you want).

They feed you with 10-0? Forget about Wit's End and go straight the way for Madred's Bloodrazor!

What I want to show you: as soon as you got your Spirit Visage and finished your core with that, your build is extremely situational. The given example works most of the times quite well (versus balanced teams) and it's the build I use in like 80% of my games as Lanewick, so in case you're a low-level-player and/or dont want to remember all of those items you could buy in a special situation, just build that given one and earn some experience with it.


This is how your final build can look like:
(you can sell Doran's Ring later on of course)

Vs. heavy DPS



Vs. heavy caster



Vs. balanced

Enough theorycrafting about items and stuff like that! We're getting to the How to do-part :)

Farming is an easy thing for a Lanewick. There's not much to say about it. Auto-attack minions to heal yourself up and lasthit from time to time with Hungering Strike if you cant really harass with it.
At the tower Hungering Strike will kill a melee creep after 2 towershots and a mage creep after 1 towershot. Or get 1 auto-attack at the creep, wait for the tower to hit (in case it's a melee creep it should be the second one already) and set another attack on your own.

With your damage from your passive it is also possible to "stack" the two low-damage-dmg stacks for a few seconds on a creep to make the last hit a bit easier. Works also (with one stack) under the tower at a certain time.

By the way, just to mention that: people often complain about their team and claim themselves to be a lot better than the rest. Well, if you either heard that or called that on your own, just check your farm and your enemie's toplaners and compare them. Farming is one of the keys to become a better player and get into higher levels. Farm means gold, gold means items, items will give you kills, kills will ensure you the win.

I just to want to give you some hints and tips here to help you to get along with the different top lane matchups. In general it has to be said that Warwick is a quite solid pick and can be picked versus almost everything and everyone. So in case you lose your lane pretty hard, first check for your own faults and not this list.


AP: absolutely no problem as long as you dodge her spear. Even if she maxes heal, you will outsustain her easily.
AD: she's a bully in early. Start with Cloth Armor and 5 Pots and ask for a gank from your jungler at level 2. Don't expect to dominate her in early and don't fight her if you dont need to.


Hard at the beginning, easy later on. Even an full AP-Morde has not enough damage to stop you. Let him do at the beginning, try to get as much creeps as possible and heal yourself up on creeps with Hungering Strike from time to time, just make sure you will survive and as soon as you reach level 7 or higher, you should outzone him more or less easily.


Just don't let him farm his Siphoning Strike. As you can see in the video at the top, Nasus can be really easy for Lanewick.
Just try to push in midgame to deny him farming afk at top. Tell your team as well!


Lanewick counters Shen. All the time practically.


Riot really likes to nerf him, he's is still not that strong on top anymore. Just be aware of ganks, it's hard to escape Jarvan.


A quite hard one, if he's good. Harass him often and dodge his knock-up-spell. Remember his ultimate and silence, dont fight if you're both low on HP. Also dont fight him in early in melee combat (due to his E) and dodge his E as often as you can.
Anyway, if you made it through the first levels quite level you should dominate easily, starting between level 5-7.


After the nerf and Warwick buff quite easy. She's just not having enough sustain against Warwick anymore and with his passive damage he can fight her quite easily now.


Quite hard up from level 6. Start either with boots + 3 Pots or Null-Magic Mantle + 2 Pots and buy both Null-Magic Mantle's (if you go for the first build) early on. Try to zone her and stop her from harassing with MotA by using the bushes.


Never pick Lanewick against Vladimir. Vladimir is like Lanewick with a higher range and less cooldowns.


Pretty hard all over the time. The silence is the big issue. Don't let him silence you. As long as you're silenced, you are very vulnerable to him. Garen has also a very good natural MR.
Always use Hungering Strike and kite again (don't let his passive trigger). Rush boots to escape him. And don't forget about his ult! Do not engage a fight where both of you will end on low health - he would kill you instantly.


Easy. Dodge his barrels and be happy about the easy outzoning.


Start with Cloth Armor and 5 Pots. Rush some armor ( Glacial Shroud) and eventually buy Ninja Tabi, then you should be ok. Stay passive in early, there is no way to fight Riven at the first 3 levels - at least. Check her runes for either AD or ArP. If she is using AD, you got to be even more careful, but as soon as you get some armor, she wont be a threat anymore.


Quite hard as he is able to change his build every game and wont have a problem with buying some MR. And still dealing a lot of damage. Be aware of his level 1-3. After this make sure you know, what he is maxing. If he is maxing Q, concentrate on dodge his Sonic Wave and have creeps between you both all the time, also try to fight in the creepwaves (as long as his is not a lot bigger than yours) to deny the Q. If he is maxing W, just farm. Dont fight him as long as your jungler is not coming for a gank. Anyway, get some armor early if you have problems.

You can start with all 3 variants here ( Doran's Ring, boots, armor), depending on your skill, style and if you know what he bought first or what runes he is using (due to cv).


Pure farm lane. He shouldn't be able to kill you. A Yorick-Lane is not won by you or Yorick, but by the junglers. So ask for ganks, Yorick's only issue is this lack of mobility to escape such.


If you win this lane or not is based on your skill and build - and his, of course. Dont make mistakes, dont trade damage if you dont need to (except when you're in advantage) and you should be fine. But in general you shouldn't pick Warwick vs Udyr, as he is countering you in teamfights (he can cancel your ultimate with Bearstance quite easily, sometimes this even happens if you ult him).

General strategy: Laneudyr starts with Tiger (normally). If he activates Tiger at level 1, back off 'til he uses the DoT-Attack on some creep.
When Udyr reaches level 2, things are getting more difficult. Try to have some distance between him and you, if he uses Bear, back off. In case he manages to get Tiger DoT on you, wait 1 second, then use Hungering Strike while backing off again.
If you get a gank or stay at same farm/kills 'til level 6, you can make some advantage from your ultimate (Udyr's level 6 is pretty weak as every other champ (but Karma) is getting a "huge" increase in power with his ultimate, but Udyr is not even able to increase his damage spell, either Tiger or Phoenix, at level 6).

Dont start with Doran's Ring in this matchup, otherwise he can chase you down in level one if he uses MS-essences and boots! This may ruin your whole laning phase, dont risk it.


Winnable, but hard. Dodge his spells, especially in early and you should be fine. Start with boots + 3 Pots or mantle + 2 Pots.


Start with Cloth Armor and 5 Pots. His level-2/3 burst is quite high, but you should have enough time to heal up between his initiations. As soon as you got Glacial Shroud he shouldn't be a problem at all anymore.


Really hard one. He's tanky, ignores your tankyness, has a higher zoning range, better damage trading and his ultimate counters yours. You should be ok with him, but you shouldn't pick Warwick if you know you gotta play vs Olaf. It's not a really nice lane at all.


Don't fight him early on, get armor early (start with Cloth Armor + 5 Pots as well) and you will be fine after ~ level 5.

Warwick's level 1 is quite weak. Versus most other toplaners (except Vladimir, Nasus, Akali, ... those, who are weak early as well) you will just lasthit and use the bushes to stay in experience range without getting harassed too much.
Don't push your lane too much without a ward at this level. Don't attack your enemy too often. Attacking a champion will cause nearby creeps to attack you while your creeps are still pushing the lane. To deny this, use Q either when the creeps are too far away (they wont run towards you, they just turn around if you are in range) or go right after the Hungering Strike into a bush. Don't be afraid to take some damage from your enemy so he will push the lane due to this mechanic. You can heal up little amounts without any problem.

Warwick is getting strong now. With Wit's End your ultimate deals tons of damage. At this point of the game, try to push your lane - if you're dominating. If their jungler ganks and they are still not able to kill you, you definitely should push the tower.
Prepare for the first dragons. Warwick has a quite important role in teamfights as countercarry and "walking (de)buff". Make sure, your team is able to follow you fast enough when you use ultimate.
Remember: you dont need to engage with your ultimate and as long as their AD carry is not overfed you dont need to ultimate him - as your ultimate is on a quite short cooldown, you can also use it to catch anyone else who is out of position.

In Late Game, Warwick is just going crazy. You ever played Olaf? It's pretty similiar. You're just rushing trough their team, killing their carry and they are not able to get you down due to your tankyness. Warwick has just infinite chasing power and you will make lots of use in late from that.
Remember to get a Madred's Bloodrazor at some point. This item will make Warwick even in an endgame a strong and devastating champion who can kill a squishy almost with his ultimate only.

Credits go to Hyfe whose Nasus guide helped me a lot to learn LoL by playing Nasus. And to my mate Feuerkaiser... this guy ****ing saved me with his Alistar or Taric so often, there is no number to describe that anymore. Even Chuck Norris doesn't know.

If you got any critics, just leave a comment please so we can discuss about it our whatever educated people like we are doing in such a situation. In case you got no criticsm and just want to say you love this build and want a autograph leave a comment as well. I love comments :) And dont forget to vote!

Greetings

CellOne

06042011:
Guide published.
06062011:
Added a pic to show my ****ing awesome Lanewick-skills and added a few rune options and alternative starting items.
06132011:
Added "Why Lanewick?"-chapter and final builds in the "Item"-chapter. Fix'd some typos as well.
07012011:
Added "Some other sololaners you will maybe face"-chapter.
07182011:
Patch chapter added.
DyalekT's Lanewick gameplay video added.
07192011:
Added a little discussion to Hextech Revolver due to patch 1.0.0.121 in the item chapter.
07272011:
Updated item chapter a lil' bit.
08102011:
"Luxury Items and stuff like that..." chapter added for more lategame power!
12262011:
Masteries updated, some chapters updated.
04202012:
Huge Update! Enjoy my revamped Lanewick-Guide! :)