I think I may have figured out how to bring Warwick into 2015

TL;DR: Warwick is in an awkward spot because his builds are counter-intuitive to his gameplay design. Proposed solution --without giving him a buff-- would be to add a leap to his E. While the movement speed buff is active, he would be able to leap to targets exactly like Akali, Lee Sin, and Jax. This would add a more fierce gameplay mechanic to his frenzy and give him much needed mobility to be able to tank and initiate effectively in competitive play.

Let me first note that this is not about buffing Warwick. I'm a strong believer that Warwick definitely does not need a buff. He's incredibly powerful as a tank(AP) or as a brawler(AD). I would agree that if you hybrid too much, you make him too weak to be practical.

Also, I should note that when I started playing League x number of years ago, Warwick was the first champion I ever played. He's always been my favourite, he's the reason I started playing, the reason I keep playing, and most definitely the champion I've played the most. Even my summoner name reflects my passion for this champion. I have a great amount of personal bias so many of you might choose to dismiss my perspective. I can respect that.

With that said, here's my idea on how to make him more practical for competitive team play:

One of the most difficult things about Warwick is his initiation. His ult has such a short range and does minimal dmg without building solid AD. Even then, you're pretty much going in alone every time because your team can't catch up with him and if you went solid AD, chances are slim that you'll survive the combat, especially against a Yi, Udyr, or Xin. His E is amazing, but if you're the AP tank in the party, you spend a lot of time playing 1v1 clean-ups in the jungle, assuming you survived initiating the combat.

Let's talk about build. Warwick --much like Trundle and Volibear-- has a heal mechanic that is entirely reliant on Spirit Visage , so his build slots are limited. I wanna note at this point that it's the AP Tank version of Warwick that is becoming obsolete. This would be fine if AD tank items --which are mostly Health/AD -- were as efficient as AP tank items like ice puncher and Abyssal Cepter . Point is, that as efficient a tank AP Warwick is, it's counter-intuitive to his engage mechanic and thus, renders several of his abilities nearly useless. This forces him to build like a Yi, Udyr, or Xin.

Because of how awkward his individual gameplay and build is, it's impractical to actually initiate with him and thus, we pretty much never see him in serious competitive play. Why would you when Yasuo, and Yi have a much more efficient initiation and higher survival capability? Warwick is stuck standing still and easy to target during his initiation. Because of this, he has to take the brunt of every bit of skill-shot, CC, and AOE that the enemy throws at him. :(

Here's my proposed solution! Add a short-range leap to his Howl(E). While the movement speed buff is active (and only while it's active), he would be able to leap to targets exactly like Akali, Lee Sin, and Jax. This would include minions (friendly or otherwise), Jungle mobs, and Enemy and Friendly Champions. It would function like Rengar's leap from jungles. Click a target and as long as he's in range, he'd instantly leap to it instead of running to it.

Why would this work? Warwick spends too much time standing still in a game where a player's skill in dodging is king. Being able to leap in and out of combat would give him a) more of a fierce frenzied gameplay mechanic that suits his character, b) much needed mobility to follow-up his initiation, c) survivability that synchronized with both AD and AP builds.

Now, I admit, I'm not the best player in the region. I'm more of a casual gamer who avoids Ranked because of some seriously terrible experiences with Trolls and DC's, but I hope that Riot might take this honest effort into consideration when updating Warwick.

On a related note, I'd like to point out that currently his R is suppression only and over the duration he his incredibly susceptible to CC. As difficult as it his to claim that it is an effective ult, to edit these things would buff him significantly. It is important to keep these details in mind, however, when working on Warwick.