Warwick Rework Concept V 2.0

(A lot of this post is taken from a previous rework concept I made that was generally taken very favorably by the boards. I am reposting this from almost 8 months ago in the hopes that Warwick's rework will be coming soon now that major problem champs like Fiora are being taken care of)

Warwick needs a rework.

Before any WW mains out there say "No he is fine because I like how he works.", keep in mind that champion reworks are needed or not needed independently of whether or not players love playing them. I LOVE playing Poppy, but she is still toxic and binary and needs a rework, and I will probably dislike parts of her rework, but she needs one nonetheless.

Design Philosophy: My specialty when thinking up champ concepts is fighter/mages or tank/mages. This should fit well for warwick, since he already fits into that general theme and is just a little more focused on on-hit builds right now. Werewolves in my mind are characterized by two things: being extremely dangerous predacious creatures, and being nearly invincible. Of course having both of these things at the same time would be very broken, so that is where this kit tries to make its division. My chief goals with this kit redesign are to make his kit more interesting (fewer point and click spells and less focus on passive steroid gameplay), yet still keep it simple and beginner friendly for a newer player (he IS a 450 IP champion after all). His new kit will focus on giving him two separate identities that he can utilize: a nearly unkillable late game drain tank (low damage, immense survivability), or a single target pick based assassin (the kind of "I will hunt you down and kill you" type of assassin). The difference between WW now and with my new kit are that currently (at least before the nerfs) he could become both an assassin and an unkillable drain tank simultaneously. This is the majority of what makes him toxic to play against. He can over utilize specific items extremely well. While item synergy is generally a good thing, when it goes too far, it breaks the champion (forcing them to be nerfed brutally until they can be reworked, like any other broken champion).

For the sake of simplicity, I will not be messing with his base stats, although there may be some need for tweaks, they are not the main culprit behind his issues.

Kit: Passive, Eternal Thirst: Warwicks basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and heal him for a small stacking amount on-hit. Damage: 2% (+(1.5% AP)%) of target's missing health (max 100 versus monsters). Heal: 0.75% missing health per stack, max 6 stacks (4.5% missing health heal on-hit). Warwick retains his passive's stacks when he switches targets. Stacks last for 2.5 seconds, and fall off 1 at every 0.5 seconds after, losing all stacks after 5 seconds.

This change keeps his passive relatively the same, giving it game long scaling via percent hp values, while also rewarding warwick for building either offense (AP) or defense (HP). His damage on hit no longer stacks, but instead grows as he attacks because of its execute style damage. This maintains his current style of building threat throughout a fight while allowing for a scaling in a way that allows distinction between tankwick and assassinwick. The heal on hit does still stack, and the way it remains even after switching targets increases his team fight sustain after ramping up, while the lower stack duration means that he won't just use it to perma heal between fights as well. For those curious, at level 18 a Warwick with this new passive at 6 stacks needs to be missing at least 1067 health to health for the same amount on hit as live. This is purposefully a high amount of health missing so that for a Warwick to unleash his invincible drain tank power he has to actually built tanky to begin with (a 4000 HP warwick can get by missing 2000 HP and have uber sustain from it, but an assassin warwick sacrifices sustain for his immense damage).

Q, Hungering Strikes: Active: Warwick empowers his next attack to gain doubled range (250 range) and strike twice dealing bonus magic damage on each hit, healing himself for a portion of the bonus damage. Damage each strike: 35/60/85/110/135 (+40% AP). Heal each strike: 28/48/68/88/108 (+32% AP). The triggering attacks apply on-hit effects and can critically strike as normal, but the bonus magic damage is treated as a spell and triggers spells effects like spell vamp and Rylai's slow. 10/9/8/7/6 second cool down. 75/80/85/90/95 mana.

This spell is slightly weaker as an independent spell than before, since it no longer has any % hp scaling, and the AP ratio is reduced. However, it deals the damage of two basic attacks and applies on hit effects, and the % hp damage got moved to his passive instead. He also has more than one damaging spell now, so this is not as large a nerf as it might seem. The removal of % HP damage on this ability was compensated for by transitioning some of that power to his passive.

W, Feral Lunge: Active: Warwick lunges forward a short distance (400 range), dealing magic damage to the first unit he hits and gaining increased attacks speed for 6 seconds. If he hits an enemy champion or epic monster, the attack speed is increased by 50% and he immediately gains max stacks of Eternal thirst. Damage: 30/50/70/90/110 (+5% Bonus HP). Attack speed: 20/30/40/50/60% (30/45/60/75/90% if hitting an enemy champion). 20/19/18/17/16 second cool down. 80 mana.

This spell gives WW a little bit more mobility, for whenever he doesn't have a blood scent target, and to help a little for pre 6 ganks. It trades a slightly higher mana cost and slightly lower AS at early levels for a new damaging dash component. The bonus AS and max passive stack vs champions make it easier for WW to finish a kill once he has tracked down his prey, which is a core identity to a predatory version of a Werewolf. It is relatively low damage (although it does have a small bonus HP ratio to reward a tankwick a little bit), since it is primarily used for the AS and gap closing. It is very short range though, and on a long enough cool down that you do not want to just use it to get around, but to get into a fight.

E, Blood Scent/Blood Howl: Passive: Warwick passively smells the blood of the nearest enemy champion within 1500/2300/3100/3900/4700 range that is below 50% health, gaining 20/25/30/35/40% movement speed (this effect is reduced by 50% if walking away from them). The MS buff and vision lasts for 2 seconds after they either pass above 50% health or move out of range. Active: Warwick howls, fearing the nearest enemy revealed by blood scent for .75 seconds. The feared enemy is slowed by 70% that rapidly decays over 2 seconds (1.25 seconds longer than the fear lasts). 750/1150/1550/1950/2350 range. 20 second cool down. 20 mana.

This spell is still all about utility and remains a non damage source. Blood scent becomes totally passive, but also only marks the nearest enemy, instead of all of them (WW will still be good at hunting down and cleaning up enemies, because as soon as he kills the nearest enemy champion below 50%, the next closest will become visible). This spell seemed like his most iconic, aside from his ult, so It is very similar to live, with the active just being a nice touch to allow a Warwick that is pursuing an enemy to have a little extra sticking strength or ability to close in on his prey.

R, Bestial Frenzy: Active: Warwick lunges forward in a straight line (700 range), stopping at the first enemy champion he hits. If he reaches the end of the dash's range without hitting a champion, he will lock onto the lowest % health champion within 200 range. When he locks onto a champion, he channels for 1.5 seconds and suppresses them for 1.8 seconds, viciously mauling them with his jaws for the duration dealing magic damage every 0.3 seconds (max 5 times). Each bite deals 30/50/70 +3/4/5% missing health (+(2% AP)% missing health) as magic damage and heals Warwick for 1/2/3% of their max health. If the champion he suppressed dies from his damage or is killed during the channel, Warwick howls, healing for an additional 5/10/15% of the targets maximum health and gives allies within 500 range 20/35/50% AS for 4 seconds. If Warwick hits an enemy, 20% of the base cooldown is refunded. Warwick is immune to CC during the channel, but takes 25% increased damage from all attacks and abilities while channeling. 150/125/100 second cool down. 120/100/80 second cool down if an enemy is hit. 100 mana.

This one took a lot of ideation to come up with. Basically, two really important things have changed: It is a skill shot, and it doesn't apply on-hit effects. Warwick's kit will still be able to support an on hit style build because of his passive and his new Q, but his ult can have more guaranteed damage each hit because it doesn't have to consider on-hit items that you might build (basically, it is okay to have this be a high damage ability since it isn't a possibility to get it to deal bonus true damage/% HP damage/bonus magic damage on-hit because of items). It is now styled as an execute ability, to either lock down a target and finish them off quickly as an assassin, or to help get that last bit of damage a full tank Warwick would need. It still isn't the easiest to get the kill with this though, because it can be dodged, and attacking a full health champion will only do minimal % hp damage. It would be exceptional for hard team fight engage (even more so than now) since if the suppressed champion is slain then he buffs his allies and heals himself (which can become quite a powerful heal if he collides with an enemy tank). Assassin Warwick would use this as a powerful finishing move after chunking an enemy with W, Q, and AAs, while a Tankwick would rely on his allies focusing the target he attacked in order to increase his % missing health damage.

Ideally, this new kit would allow AP and tank warwick to coexist simultaneously yet independently, while reducing the toxicity of an on-hit build by removing its interaction with his ult. He will still heal for a lot (tank WW healing for 4.5% missing health every attack at max passive stacks could be astounding if he has 4k HP to work with), but only if he builds for it. AP Warwick will deal a lot of damage, but his sustain will be quite limited. AS Warwick could have a moderate balance of both sustain and tankyness, but would not have the same durability as full tank, or the same execution power of AP (like current AS Warwick does). This redesign makes Warwick more interesting to play as, less toxic to play against, and improves his versatility through broader build path options.