Something i found about Warwick and potential builds.
So the new practice tool is out, and its amazing! But more importantly, its the perfect playground to take a champion in and try out various item combinations, as well as even having a nice, passive target to test it on! Taking the new Warwick into this mode, I've tried out various items in various slots to determine what i think is a good, solid build that not only acts as a good base for the more situational, game to game builds to well... build off of, but even may make some item comparisons a lot easier to understand. Here are a few that Ive tested that I think will help out.
Boot options. Warwick really can use every boot in the game at this point, but a few are obviously standout. Boots of Swiftness are probably the single best all around boot item, providing a lot of movespeed for those epic chases and long range ultimates, but lack anything beyond speed. Merc Treads and Tabi are both solid defensive options, but they lack the movespeed WW wants. Mobility can be nice, but once you get the ult off, you are probably slower than any boot option, and Lucidity is only really useful when you are 10% off the CDR cap. Honestly, boots largely depends on the rest of your build, and how your game is going.
**Jungle Enchants. **While I'll leave it up to the player which of the three jungle items are best for you, as they all have positives and negatives, its a little easier to compare the enchants for them. Last place obviously goes to Runic Echoes, which, while a nice, cheesy pick for AP Warwick, provides little else. Cinderhulk can be very useful, but only really in tank builds, as otherwise plain health and a bit of AoE damage doesn't affect much than maybe your clears. Really good in a tank build with Titanic Hydra, but otherwise a pass.
But this brings us to Warrior and Bloodrazor. Both are heavily damage oriented enchants that increase his overall power, but do it in very different ways. So which is better? Honestly, either of them work pretty equally well, depending on how you want to play. Warrior is great for burst, increasing the damage that both his Q and R deal, and giving him a better base for his autos. It also gives you a really solid 10% CDR, which can make it easier to get to the 40% CDR cap, which can definitely be useful considering the Cooldowns of his W and R. However, Bloodrazor gives both attack speed and magic damage on hit, which synergizes well with his kit to begin with, and leads to an overall much higher DPS, which when combined with lifesteal can result in even higher sustain. Warrior doesn't have the extra attack speed and magic damage, but Bloodrazor doesn't have the attack damage to make his abilities stronger, or the CDR to have them come up faster. Basically, the choice here is, do you want a bit more burst and shorter cooldowns, or higher dps? One interesting note however, is that if you get Lucidity boots, you can easily get the 40% CDR with Bloodrazor anyways, if you are okay losing the extra movespeed you would have gotten from Swiftness.
Blade of the Ruined King, or Hextech Gunblade. Now, here is the thing, Hextech Gunblade seemed like such a good option when Warwick got 100% ap scaling back on his Q. Both the stats it provided made Q stronger, which increased healing, not to mention that all his damage being single target meant that he got 15% healing on EVERY bit of damage he did, rather than just on hit. Plus, the active was a great choice too, dealing bonus damage whenever he wanted. However, while on the surface Hextech Gunblade seemed great... the comparison loses a lot when shown against the other high sustain damage item Warwick builds.
Blade of the Ruined King may only have 10% lifesteal, but because lifesteal applies on hit, he actually still gets it no matter how he deals the damage, as both his Q and his R provide on hit effects, as well as their own healing. The extra 5% you would get from Gunblade is essentially negligible. And while its true that Gunblade still makes his Q more hard hitting... BotRK makes his autos harder hitting too. Extra attack speed, and extra magic damage on hit (that scales with enemy health no less), means that Warwick's DPS once again takes a really big boost. Even the active that BotRK has is comparable if not better than Gunblade's, also scaling with enemy health. Really, there is just... no reason not to build BotRK over Gunblade.
**Black Cleaver vs Trinity Force. ** Now this one may seem to come out of nowhere, but its no surprise that people started to think that Trinity Force would do well. Its a giant ball of stats, none of which are wasted on WW, and the two passives, Rage and Spellblade, are both very useful in those 1v1's. However, once again, what seems great on paper loses something in practice.
Black Cleaver has a lot of the same benefits, granting Health, Damage, and the Rage passive. While comparatively it loses a lot of other great stats, like attack speed, movespeed, and mana, it also gains Armor Penetration, and better yet, on hit Armor Shred. In practice, this once again increases his DPS over his burst, causing his autos to hit harder. It also has a higher attack damage, meaning his autos hit yet even harder with Black Cleaver, which also makes it easier for his teammates to deal physical damage to his target, which when combined with the sheer %health damage Warwick is capable of getting, can make WW a tank killer. One last note? Both items provide 20% CDR, and while getting both of them is always an option, considering how many items WW wants and how few slots he gets, choosing between them is just inevitable. 9 times out of 10, Black Cleaver wins this one.
Defensive Options For the last two item slots, all Warwick really needs is defensive stats to prevent him from getting blown up outside his E duration. Because of this, anything that builds Health, Armor, and Magic Resist works here. Some stand outs however are most certainly Dead Man's Plate and Spirit Visage. DMP provides pretty solid Health and Armor, but also give you extra damage on engage and that sweet, sweet movespeed for those big play ults. Visage of course provides that last 10% CDR to hit 40%, and the 25% bonus healing? Warwick loves that. Other options honestly have situational power, like Banshee's, Omen, Wits End, and Guardian Angel, but these two slots are the most mutable of the slots to begin with.
TL/DR: Build Swiftness/Lucidity, Warrior/Bloodrazor, Blade of the Ruined King, Black Cleaver, Dead Man's Plate, and Spirit Visage. Close to 1.2k to 1.5k DPS, easily 57% damage reduction outside his E, close to 80% during it, 3.4k health depending on level, runes, and masteries, and incredibly strong healing. Easy Raid boss status.
... As long as you don't get CC'd, Bursted, Focused, hit with Grievous Wounds, or kited to hell.
Awooo!
