While you're all patiently (or impatiently) waiting for the 4.12 tier list to arrive, I figured this an opportune time to opine on a long overdue explanation of Warwick's move to God Tier top and jungle.
We all know his win rate has been very high lately, so I won't beat that fact to death.
Well...maybe just a little
Instead, let's go over his latest indirect buffs and then some pros and cons.
Improvements
- Attack Speed Changes:With the change in attack speed items and blood thirster nerfs, no doubt you've noticed by now that certain champions that benefit such as Tristana and Kog'maw are now at the top of their game. Well Warwick has a 40% teamwide attack speed buff.
- Blade of the Ruined King Changes:The percentage damage on Blade of the Ruined King was increased and lifesteal/active nerfed.
- Warwick's ultimate procs at the same speed, and thus simply does more damage with this tweak. The active nerfs aided him more than hurt as they were more useful for AD carries to use to kite him.
With that quick summary, let's go over some Warwick pros that come with the character:
Pros
- Insane Sustain: Not sure if this needs explaining, but as he doesn't waveclear very hard and his harass is single target, this means that freezing the lane and regenerating health via his passives and Doran Blade/Doran Shield is very easy for him (and always has been).
- Mind-numbingly simple Ganks: As both a top laner and a jungler, Warwick's level 6 gank is absolutely incredible and almost impossible to avoid. As an added bonus for his top lane, once the enemy drops below a certain health level, Warwick gets his E bonus permanently and also allows him to run away from any jungler that comes to gank.
- Amazing Team Buff: With most junglers playing as auto attack heavy champions and AD carries packing infinity edge again, attack speed from his W gives him a huge advantage.
- Great Baron Control: When the enemy team barons, they always have to avoid having any one member dropping too low, even with pink wards and sweeper. This means that sneaking a 2-3 man baron is almost impossible with an enemy Warwick.
- Incredibly Tanky: After getting Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage, Warwick is almost impossible to kill, even with ignite.
- Mind Games: Often, one champion on the enemy team (such as Katarina) will want to wait until Warwick ults before jumping into the fight. However, by not using his ultimate, Warwick can effectively prevent them from ever engaging until it's too late.
- Forced QSS: While QSS can counter his ultimate, as a magic resist item, it becomes completely useless against AD carries (which happen to be extremely strong right now). Also, as it's usually built on glass cannons, it greatly reduces their damage output. Meanwhile, you can just ult someone else.
- Easy Telegraphing: When Warwick engages, it's very very obvious. This allows your team to follow up instantly. Speaking of instantly, his ultimate is instant, so it's also very easy to jump in when an important cooldown is down or someone is out of position.
Cons
- Weak pre-6 ganks and gank support.
- While his pre-level 6 ganks and gank support are weak both in jungle and in lane, his 2v2 ability is actually quite high due to his attack speed buff and heal. This means that while it's easy to run from him most of the time, if he counters a gank and they still want to fight, he can still come out on top.
- Not really a big deal. Someone else can provide it.
- After building a Blade of the Ruined King and a Wits End (I don't suggest doing both right after one another), Warwick's ultimate easily shreds through any squishy.
- While it's true that Warwick can't do much to prevent a smite attempt on his buffs, enemy junglers can't exactly kill him quickly either. As long as you smite well, it shouldn't be much of an issue for your teammates to come in for a free kill.
- This one's Warwick's one weakness that's difficult to overcome. However, if you can freeze your lane closer to tower and survive to 6, he can still grab some easy kills and make for a comeback.
Tl;dr: Indirect buffs via item changes and nerfs to other champions in the same role have made him amazing. He's also really easy to play.Agree/disagree? Comment below!