League of Legends - Warwick Guide and Build (Jungle and Top)

Are you looking for a Warwick guide or a Warwick build? This page covers the basics of playing Warwick (Jungle and Top) effectively including skills, runes, masteries, tips and includes custom skins.

Warwick is capable jungler can be also be played top lane as a durable sustain orientated champion. Warwick performs a great anti-carry role thanks to his ultimate and his ability to hunt and chase down enemies is unmatched. Warwick is especially good for people who are just starting to learn jungling.

This Warwick guide and build aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Warwick, it is recommended for people just starting to use Warwick.

Don't own Warwick Or want to get one of the many Warwick skins available? Learn how to get free champions for League of Legends.

Guide current as of: Release Notes v1.0.0.148

This Warwick guide is also available in summary format (thanks to LeagueCraft.com).

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Eternal Thirst (Passive): Warwicks passive allows him to jungle with ease, making his jungle routes very sustained (he maintains a high amount of health throughout his entire route). It also gives him a strong edge in 1v1 fights, making him deceptively durable.

Hungering Strike (Q): Warwick's nuke heal and damage ability, this skill makes it even easier to jungle effectively with Warwick and is your main source of damage. It's range is larger than that of Warwicks auto-attack.

Hunters Call (W): This skill is amazing at destroying towers while also giving Warwick an element of support as he can give the AD champions on his team a nice damage boost (through bonus attack speed). This skill also aids in jungle clear times and should be used whenever possible while clearing the jungle.

Blood Scent (E): Makes Warwick a great chaser and even more deadly with the Red Lizard Buff. This skill is a toggle and should be toggled on and off as appropriate to maximise its benefit. Keeping it off until you close in on a low health enemy is usually best so you don't give away your position. It can also be used to quickly escape from danger (providing an enemy is low enough).

Infinite Duress (Ultimate): Warwick's ultimate makes him an incredible ganker after level 6 and allows him to fulfil an anti-carry type role through mid-late game. It is very important to use this ultimate wisely to shut out a vital enemy (carry or support most likely). This skill procs on-hit effects and also give Warwick extra life-steal.

Ult > Hungering Strike > Blood Scent (up to rank 3) > Hunter's Call

Maxing Hungering Strike first gives you great damage and also makes your jungle clearing fast and very safe. This skill also forms the basis of your lane harassment if you are playing top Warwick.

As far as second skills go I strongly recommend getting Blood Scent up to rank 3 for the extra distance and movement speed it offers, this is generally enough range on the skill to be effective. From here you'll want to max Hunter's Call for the attack speed boost it gives you and your team (then finishing off the rest of Blood Scent).

Red (Marks) - Magic Penetration // Attack Speed

Yellow (Seals) - Armor

Blue (Glyphs) - Magic Resistance Per Level

Purple (Quintessences) - Health // Movement Speed

Warwick's damage output is mostly through magic damage so magic penetration are taken on Marks for Top lane Warwick. If you are playing Jungle Warwick you'll want to grab Attack Speed for the faster jungle speed it offers. Seals will always be Armor to beef up your early game survivability against auto attacks and the jungle creeps.

Glyphs are your next rune choice with Magic Resistance Per Level being a strong option to boost your mid-late defenses. Finishing off this Warwick rune setup you want to look towards Health Quintessences to further increase your durability or Movement Speed to build on Warwick's already strong tanky ability.

For more information on runes and jungle Warwick rune options see this Rune Guide.

Best Summoner Spells:

-Flash

-Ignite

Flash and Ignite are your core Warwick summoner spells. Flash offers a strong escape but also allows you to Flash and ultimate onto an enemy champion which they may not even see coming. Combined with Ignite for the extra damage boost this makes Warwick very deadly.

Other Good Summoner Spells:

-Smite

-Ghost

Jungle Warwick wants to take Smite to clear his jungle faster as well as make sure his buffs can't be stolen. Ghost makes Warwick a great chaser and can be very deadly on him if it suits your playstyle.

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Running a 9/21/0 setup for both Top Warwick and Jungle Warwick offers the most benefits. Running 9 in the offense tree allows you to grab the all important spell penetration which increases Warwick's overall damage output.

You'll want to combine this with the defense tree for the added durability it offers you as Warwick needs to be very durable to be effective. If you are playing Jungle Warwick you will want to move some points around to grab Summoner's Resolve (extra Smite gold) and Bladed Armor (reflects damage).

To learn more about masteries and your mastery options, visit the LoL Masteries Guide.

How To Build Warwick (Top and Jungle)

Final Item Build:

-Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi

-Wriggle's Lantern

-Wit's End

-Frozen Mallet

-Frozen Heart

-Banshee's Veil

Steps/Reasoning:

-Top Warwick and Jungle Warwick can both open with Boots of Speeds & 3 Health Potions, this lets you stay safe in lane or move around your jungle faster and let you pull off some early game ganks if necessary.

-Your early game goals for Warwick are Wriggle's Lantern (sustain, free ward and pushing power), Phage (slow and survivability) and Wit's End (your damage item).

-If you are struggling as Top Warwick against an aggressive AD champion consider grabbing an early Glacial Shroud to mitigate some damage.

-Warwick's late game items are very dependant on the game and the enemy team. Some good items to look towards include Frozen Mallet (slow and health), Frozen Heart (armor, cooldown and mana) and Banshee's Veil (magic resistance and spell block).

Alternatives:

-Guardian Angel (Boosts both your defenses and provides a good passive).

-Sunfire Cape (If the enemy is AD heavy, also helps you push lanes).

-Spirit Visage (If you are laning against an AP champion, this will boost your defenses and survivability).

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• Don't forget to toggle your Blood Scent on and off, you don't want to give away your position when you are near a low health enemy.
• Always use your Hunter's Call when pushing a tower, especially if teammates are nearby.
• Watch out for enemies that have Banshee's Veil or Quick Silver Sash as it will stop/cancel your ultimate.
• As Jungle Warwick you want to either commit to clearing your jungle quickly to rush level 6 or put pressure on side lanes (generally needs red buff active for Warwick to be effetive without his ultimate).

• Warwick is very flexible in jungle routes thanks to his passive, this makes him the easy to learn jungler he is. He can also use this ability to steal jungle camps easily.
• You have very weak pre-6 ganks especially without Red Lizard Buff, if the lane your ganking lacks crowd control it is even harder. As such some games your best bet is to focus on a sustained jungle route and get level 6 as soon as possible.
• You always want to use your Hungering Strike and Hunter's Call when its off cooldown for maximum jungling speed.
• During this stage of the game Top Warwick simply wants to focus on farming and maintaining a good health level. You also want to combine this with some Hungering Strike harassment to hopefully setup a kill for when you hit level 6.
• Warwick's early game in top lane focuses on out-sustaining his lane opponent.

• You are now a ganking machine and should always be looking for a gank opportunity when your ultimate is available. Try to focus these ganks on the enemy carries to put them behind.
• Keep dragon warded at all times, as a jungler it is important to control and protect this objective for your team.
• Start invading the enemy jungle and warding their buffs. This allows you to steal their buffs or gank them at their buffs.
• In the small skirmishes throughout mid game save your ultimate to shut out the highest threat (this will usually be their source of damage or support), this will quickly win your team these battles.
• Consider what tanky items are a priority based on the enemy team.
• As Top Warwick you want to focus on combining with your jungler to secure lane kills, your Hungering Strike cooldown is also reasonably short so harass heavily with it.

• Wait for the team fight initiation before using your ultimate on the enemies carry, this will greatly reduce their incoming damage.
• Your ultimate is very effective at picking off someone that over extends just a little bit too much. This is an advantage of building reasonably tanky.
• Now your priority should be warding Baron and controlling it for your team.
• You are now pretty durable thanks to your tanky based build and your lifesteal, don't be afraid to stick around in the fight after using your ultimate.