With Patch 7.2 now hitting the live servers, many players are eager to try their hands at the new Warwick. However, like learning any new champion, it helps a lot if you understand what Riot was going for with his rework, and study up where exactly the rework benefits him in order to quickly get a better hang of him. In this analysis, we are going to go down Warwick's kit by analyzing his kit one ability at a time and then later bring it all together so we can get a head start at learning about our new Uncaged Wrath of Zaun.
Old passive: Warwick's basic attacks deal 3 - 16 (based on level) bonus magic damage and heal him for the same amount, stacking up to 3 times per target, for a maximum of 9 - 48 (based on level), and persisting for 4 seconds.
New passive: Warwick's basic attacks deal [8 + 2 per level] bonus magic damage. If Warwick is below 50% health, he heals the same amount. If Warwick is below 25% health, this healing triples.
So right off the bat we are noticing that this new passive does more initial damage, but will actually do slightly less damage if he attacks the same target more than 3 times. However, none of his healing kicks in unless he is below half health. While at first glance this may look like a nerf (in some regards it is), remember that we haven't look at the rest of his kit yet. Likewise, the amplifies healing means he will heal 24-126 (depending on level) if he is below a quarter HP, which especially becomes more effective if the player builds health and has masteries and/or a Spirit Visage to amplify that healing. This especially helps for some baiting in fights if your opponent miscalculates, thinking they have enough damage to finish you off, but also especially aids in the jungle to allow you to sustain and perhaps pick up an extra camp or two before recalling with the help of potions and his new Q. With this passive, it makes sense to build the Bloodrazor enchantment when jungling to maximize what you can potentially get out of the bonus on-hit damage and sustain.
Old Q - Hungering Strike: Warwick swipes at the target enemy, dealing magic damage and healing himself for 80% of the damage dealt. Against enemy champions, (Q)'s base damage changes to a percentage of its target's maximum health if it's higher than the flat damage.
New Q - Jaws of the Beast: Warwick lunges forward and bites his target. While the key is held down, he will attach to the target then leap behind them. On release, deals [120% AD]+[90% AP] plus 6/7/8/9/10% of your target's maximum health as magic damage (applies On Hit effects). Heal 30/40/50/60/70% of damage dealt. While attached, Warwick is connected to the target and follows any movement they make.
So, we notice that the core concept of his Q is still the same - deal some damage and get some sustain off of it. However, now it grants him the ability to stick to a target so that it is harder to kite him. Unfortunately for Warwick, this is not a free gap closer by any means, as it is simply a way to just stick to his target should they try to use their own gap closer once he reaches them himself. As far as getting to a target is concerned, he still has to put the work in. As for the healing portion as we touched on earlier, it's on top of his passive sustain and will help him out in combat, especially with any items/masteries that improve healing done on him.
Old Blood Scent Mechanic (E) - Blood Scent: Warwick gains sight of all nearby enemy champions with less than 50% of their maximum health, also alerting them to his presence.
New Blood Hunt Mechanic (W) - Blood Hunt: Passive: Warwick gains 50/65/80/95/110% attack speed against enemies below 50% health. He also senses low health champions globally, moving 35/40/45/50/55% faster toward them when out of combat. These bonuses are tripled against enemies below 20% health. Active: Warwick briefly senses all enemies. The nearest sensed champion is Blood Hunted for 8 seconds. Cast only while not in combat with a champion.
Since Warwick's Blood mechanic was transferred from his (W) to his (E), it makes more sense to evaluate the Blood mechanic by itself and then later make comparisons between what was effectively his old (W) and new (E). This new ability enhances Warwick's ability to execute a target. It is not an execute himself, but it does give him the bonus movement + attack speed to help him finish the job. This should help out his counter-jungling in the early game if the enemy jungler gets chunked out or in general has low health while clearing. Stay warned though, this mechanic may tempt you to blindly run into the enemy jungle. Fighting uphill, especially without vision, always comes with risks, so be sure to think twice before running in there alone. Pulling off a kill won't be worth it if enemy laners collapse on you and trade the kill while also giving over doublebuffs. The active also greatly benefits him in fights when a target is not low HP, granting him the bonus stats anyways.
Old W - Hunter's Call: For 6 seconds, Warwick gains bonus attack speed (40/50/60/70/80%) and grants half of that bonus to all nearby allies.
New E- Primal Howl: Warwick gains 35/40/45/50/55% damage reduction for 2.5 seconds. At the end of the duration, or if activated again, Warwick howls, causing all nearby enemies to flee for 1 second.
The first thing that probably stands out may be just the sheer differences between these two abilities. Bonus attack speed aura in exchange for damage reduction and crowd control. Especially when you remember that Warwick's new Blood Scent mechanic grants him attack speed, Warwick doesn't lose a single thing in this exchange but also gets more tools to help him be more impactful at all stages of the game. The fear can be great in any context that involves fighting whether its teamfighting, skirmishes or ganks, and the damage reduction will be especially noticeable late game once it reaches 55% (as if his sustain wasn't already enough reason to build health on him). These two new mechanics noticeably help him on the frontlines.
Old R - Infinite Duress: Warwick blinks to the front of the target enemy champion and channels for 1.5s, suppressing them for 1.8s and dealing magic damage 5 times over 0.3s intervals. Warwick gains 30% life steal for the duration, and each damaging strike applies on-hit effects.
New R - (Still) Infinite Duress: Warwick leaps 2.5 seconds worth of movement speed in a direction, suppressing the first champion he collides with for 1.5 seconds. Deals 175/350/525 (+ 167.5 bonus AD) magic damage and applies on-hit effects 3 times. Warwick heals for 100% of all damage he deals during Infinite Duress.
This ability is relatively still the same, although the biggest change is definitely that it is now a leap that stops at the first target struck instead of just being a targeted blink. This gives Warwick's enemies more counterplay and rewards proper frontlining, instead of punishing enemies too quickly for just simply being in range of him. Due to the nature of this ability, it's easier to use as a follow-up to an engage when the enemy frontline is already busy or on a potential re-engage. Opening up a teamfight with this ult, unless properly coordinated with your teammates, will prove to be more punishing since it is most likely to be interrupted earlier. The range of his leap also scales with his movement speed, promoting the usage of the Ghost summoner spell and synergizes very nicely with his new Blood Scent. A protip that is worth noting is that if you activate your (E) and then jump in, the (E) will immediately be cast again. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to be the engage, or you manage a flank onto an marksman that is next to their support, the Area-of-Effect fear will make it just that much harder for your opponents to interrupt the channel.
Bringing it all together
Riot's balance team did a great job of keeping Warwick's thematic and general gameplay the same - he is still a tanky DPS fighter that excels when he is able to properly get multiple attacks off and sustain in a fight. Health, attack speed and on-hit items will allow him to get the most out of this new kit. He is now also equipped with better gap closers, some crowd control, and damage reduction to help maximize his ability to both hunt down targets as well as be a nuisance during teamfights to divert attention away from the rest of his team. If you are running a standard team composition with Warwick, it's best to not rely on him to be the main initiator, but you can get away with not picking another tank or initiator if your team is running a pick composition. He still has his trademark sustain which synergizes very well with Spirit Visage and will allow him to stay in the jungle longer than others if need be and laugh off poke compositions. His ganks pre-6 still aren't as spectacular as other champions, but should be significantly better than before. On top of it all, he looks like he is a very fun champion to play and with the help of this analysis, hopefully you get the most of him when either playing him, with him, or against him.
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