Warwick Build Guide

Warwick Build

Runes for Warwick

Masteries for Warwick

Table of Contents

Introduction

1

Runes & Masteries

2

Summoner Spells

3

Items

4

Skills

5

Jungling & Ganking

6

Closing Words

7

• Introduction

  First thing's first; this is my first guide and I am still quite a bit of a newbie when it comes to tactics.  I am very receptive to constructive criticism, not so much with trolling and flaming; please keep it civil. :)

   

  I chose to write this guide for a couple reasons:

  1) I found that my current jungling stategy is a fusion of a few guides that are out there for Warwick and thought maybe someone else would like this build and maybe build off of it or combine with other builds.

  2) I want feedback as to some of the weak spots in the build or ideas on how to better accomplish the role of junlger/ganker.

   

  Glossery/Abreviations:

  WW - Warwick

  ET - Eternal Thirst

  HS - Hungering Strike

  HC - Hunters Call

  BS - Blood Scent

  ID - Infinite Duress

  AD - Attack Damage

  AS - Attack Speed

  ArP - Armor Penetration

  LS - Life Steal

  CrC - Critical Chance (%)

  CrD - Critical Damage (%)

  BBB - Big Blue Bluff aka the buff given by defeating the golem with the two lizard bodyguards.

  OOM - Out of Mana

  SS - Summoner Spell

• Runes & Masteries

  Runes:

   

  FYI, I am currently level 18 at the time of the first draft of this guide and have not actually purchased any runes yet.  I am waiting till level 20 to spend money on tier 3 runes.  The ones I have chosen are the runes I am most leaning towards.  I will explain my reasoning behind what I have chosen.

   

  Marks: I chose Might over strength as my math showed that they were about equal at level 7 and WW seems to realize his gank potential in the 11-13 range and only gets worse from there...

   

  Glyph: I chose Alacrity as AS is a stat that I really want to stack, along with AD.  I feel that I would get more mileage out of Might marks and Alacrity glyphs as opposed to the other way around.

   

  Seal: I chose Resilience over Defence as WW lacks armor early game and late game you regen so much health that unless its something rediculous like 3v1 (and you're the 1) the difference in armor late game would be negligible.

   

  Quintessence: I chose Desolation since the only other source of ArP in my build is from masteries.  This will enable you to make mincemeat of most of the tanks 1v1 or if the other team is buying armor to try and offset your dps.

   

   

  Masteries:

   

  I saw a lot of 21/9/0 builds for jungling and thought that was a pretty good starting point.  I focused on armor since most of your time, specificly early game, will be focused on neutral monsters or minions when top needs to return to base.

   

  Tough Skin is a must and Summoner's Resolve will help with gold since you will be falling behind level wise early game, I'll talk more on that in the Jungling section.

   

  I put a point in Summoner's Wrath for mobility with Ghost

   

  Based off the builder it appears that with this build that Deadliness 3/4 barely wins out over Havoc 3/3.  I could potentially take one point out of Sunder but I am unsure as to the pros/cons of that; whether the gain in AD is worth the loss of ArP.

   

  To Do: Learn and implement the icons for Runes.

• Summoner Spells

  Smite is an ABSOLUTE must. Without you will not be an effective jungler.  You need the damage to be able to solo the buff monsters.  I usually supplement this with Ghost for mobility between jungles and lanes.

   

  Some other spells worth considering are Exhaust, Ignite, or Surge, especially with the point in Summoner's Wrath.

   

  With this build you are going to move fast enough, especially when not in combat that Teleport will not be a major improvement over , especially considering that Ghost can get you out of a counter-gank.

   

  The other spells are... well... just a waste of space considering what these other spells offer.  Let someone else use the heal spell.  Even as a newbie, if you are smart about attacking other champs, you shouldn't die very much and revive again would be a waste.

• Items

  Starting out: Cloth Armor + Health Potionx5 or Health Potionx2 + Sight Ward.

   

  On your first trip back to base, upgrade the armor into Madred's Razors and purchase Boots of Speed if you can. Next purchase Vampiric Scepter and upgrade boots into Boots of Mobility, however if there is 4+ AP champions on the opposing team and/or lots of slows & stuns, you might consider Mercury's Treads, I put Berserker's Greaves as an option, but the other two are going to have more utility in the long run. The next item you want to buy is Wit's End, followed by your first The Bloodthirster and then Wriggle's Lantern.

   

  Under most circumstances the game will most likely end after this purchase, but should the game continue on without certain victory (or defeat) then the next items are to purchase a second The Bloodthirster and to finish with Phantom Dancer.

• Skills

  Your first six levels should go as follows Hunters Call > Hungering Strike > Hungering Strike > Blood Scent > Hungering Strike > Infinite Duress.

   

  After this I use Infinite Duress > Hungering Strike > Hunters Call > Blood Scent for priority resolution.

• Jungling & Ganking

  To begin you will be tangoing with the big golem, often refered to as BBB.  You will want to hide in the bushes at the bottom (or top if you are purple team) of the V shaped trees until the golem spawns.  You need to keep your eyes peeled, if your opposing team is experienced and notices you have smite, they will likely try to gank you before minions spawn to put you at a huge disadvantage ( Ghost is a life saver in this situation).  As soon as you kill the two lizard bodyguards, you should be level 2.

   

  In order to survive your first encounter with BBB, you need to pop W ( Hunters Call) as soon as you engage and pop your first potion as soon as you dip below 80-90% of your health, I generally hit it when the first bar of green is gone.  Be sure to hit the Golem with Smite, some people seem to like to use this spell as a finisher on the golem, but as long as you hit the golem with it you are good.  If your mid laner is nice, they can assist you with BBB at the very beginning with a move called "Leashing".  Leashing is when the mid laner, typically a ranged carry, will pop the golem with their basic attack and then run back to mid as soon as the golem reaches the bushes you are hiding in; this allows you to get some attacks in before the golem and his friends aggro onto you.  If the mid laner will leash, you are better off buying two health potions and a sight ward at the beginning, otherwise you will probably need to purchase more health potions, up to 5 with starting funds.

   

  Your initial kill order should be BBB > Wolves > Wraiths > Elder Lizard > Twin Golems > Wraiths > Wolves.  At this point you should have a enough gold to buy Madred's Razors which speeds up the jungling process.  If you are at full health, DO NOT ENGAGE COMBAT WITH Q (this goes for ganking too), save it for when you are at 70-80% health.  If there is no opposing jungler, you can dive right into their jungle and repeat the same kill order, just be careful not to run through their mid lane turrets.  Alternatively you can hit one of the lanes that a team mate has abandoned to go buy items.  Once you hit level 6 you will be able to harass enemy champions fairly bad, but it will be difficult to actually kill them unless you have a numbers advantage on them or they are fairly newbie as well. Early on, it is pretty important to make sure you have BBB, with out it it is fairly easy to go OOM

   

  Before jumping into a gank, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

  1) If you do not yet have Vampiric Scepter you better be at full health and have some potions handy, or have friends present.  Otherwise you should be ok to jump a solo champ when you are at 50% health or more, especially if you havea well fed The Bloodthirster.

  2) Do you have an exit plan and an exit plan B?  OK OK, there often isn't time to think of a plan B but definitely have a plan of escape.

  3) Are any of your abilities, particularly ID or your offensive SS on cooldown? Yes? - go do something safer like pushing a lane with a teammate or killing neutral monsters. No? - Lock and load.

   

  Assuming you are ready to gank, your opening combo should be W > R > Q (if you are below 80% health) and hitting W whenever it is up.

   

  Under most circumstances you will make the opposing summoner question what 18 wheeler just ran them over, backed up over them, and ran them over again.  Once you get a little experience under your belt, you might consider saving your full gank combo until after they have used their Flash so they don't escape as soon as your ID runs its course.

• Closing Words

  I hope some of you who are new to Warwick found this guide useful.  For those of you who are more experienced with Warwick, some feedback would be most appreciated!  I know I left out the section on Warding, but I really suck at warding (mostly just remembering to do it) so I didn't feel I have enough experience to write a section on that, but I will add it eventually, once I feel comfortable writing about it.

   

  Update 4/20/2012: Finally removed all the /'s, moved Wriggle to core items, and updated masteries.  I am experimenting with swapping in Spirit Visage and some other abilities to improve survivability and once I am satisfied on that end will update.