Warwick Rework Idea

Hey! So I know that Warwick is on the list of champions waiting to be reworked in the near future, and I was thinking up of some changes that would help him out as well as my thinking behind the changes. I am aware that Riot has ideas in mind, but the idea of them seeing my design is too much to pass up.

So from a design perspective, Warwick doesn't seem to make much sense. He is the Blood Hunter, a name that screams "jungle assassin" (at least it does to me), but live he is a tank? I guess? An on-hit tank. Regardless, his presence in the game makes balancing for other champions really difficult because he becomes an unstoppable on-hit powerhouse with items if anything gets buffed, but that in turn leaves some items in a weaker-than-desired state ( ) or are so powerful on him that the synergy is crazy ( ) My goal with this is to take away the "on-hit item stacking tank" that Warwick is and turn him into someone more assassin/bruiser based with sustain. Still auto attack based, but steering away from on-hit builds.

Let's get started.

Passive: Eternal Thirst Warwick deals an additional 1 magic damage to targets with his basic attacks for every 2% of health they are missing. Warwick heals for an equal amount of the damage dealt (Calculated before resistance).

I find that this passive is perfect for Warwick to have. Instead of having it stack, I wanted to emphasize the "Blood Hunter" theme by making it so that as his opponents bleed, he heals more and deals more damage. I feel that with the low amount of damage and the heal make jungling easier for him than most, while allowing for his sustain to not be too crazy. He has to deal a significant amount of damage to monsters and champions before the heal makes a bigger difference.

Q: Hungering Strike Warwick's next basic attack deals 20/30/40/50/60+(120% AD) physical damage and applies a second instance of Eternal Thirst (Eternal Thirst's damage and heal are applied before the damage from Hungering Strike).

An auto attack reset, this doubles the heal and damage from his passive as well as enhancing his next auto to apply additional damage. With the note in the parentheses, If a target is at 70%, Hungering Strike will deal 30 magic damage and heal 30 health from Warwick's passive. Simple ability to add to sustain and enhance extended trades.

W: Hunter's Frenzy Passive: Warwick smells the blood of enemies under 30/35/40/45/50% health within a 2000 unit radius and can detect their movement. Active: Warwick reveals all enemies within the 2000 radius that are detected by Hunter's Frenzy for 5 seconds. During this time, Warwick gains 20/30/40/50/60% attack speed and 5/10/15/20/25% movement speed regardless of enemies being detected by the passive effect. Eternal Thirst effects are doubled during this time (passive damage for Hungering Strike is amplified to 250% instead of to 300%; healing remains the same at 200%)

For the passive in regards to the detection, think along the lines of Tremor Sense (instead of sonar there is a small blood trail, and enemies are detected even if standing still). For the active, it gives Warwick the ability to somewhat stick to targets as well as trade for longer periods with more sustain.

E: Howl of the Hunter Warwick emits a seething howl. Enemies within 400 units are slowed by 20% for 2 seconds. Enemies that are visible within 1000 units of Warwick while under the health threshold from Hunter's Frenzy are feared for .5/.75/1/1.25/1.5 seconds

I wanted Warwick to have some ganking presence pre-6, as well as teamfight contribution come late game other than "pick a target, blow them up". I felt that this adds to his theme. Imagine the fear that strikes the hearts of those who hear the howl of a bloodthirsty monster. Chilling enough to freeze even the mightiest of warriors.

R: Infinite Duress Warwick gets down on all fours, channeling for 1.5 seconds before chasing down a target (1000 cast range). When Warwick gets within 400/500/600 units of the target, he leaps into the air, suppressing the target for 2 seconds (The leap lasts for .5 seconds) and then applying 150/250/350+(60% bonus AD) physical damage over 1.5 seconds. The damage and the healing from Eternal Thirst are applied 5 times (once every .3 seconds; heal is at double effectiveness; if under the effects of Hunter's Frenzy the heal and damage is at 300% instead of 400% ). If Warwick suffers a movement impairing CC effect (excluding slows) before the leap, the ability is cancelled. Warwick can cancel the ability early before the leap by reactivating the ability, putting it on half CD.

The bread and butter. This is the ability that defines Warwick. I wanted to take away the lack of counterplay from the live iteration (a blink is too hard to stop, and adds too much guaranteed power) by giving the other team a chance to stop the suppression, and adding a level of skill to the Warwick player (when to ult, from how far away, checking for wards, etc.). It no longer applies on-hit effects outside of his passive, eliminating the effectiveness of on-hit builds even further.

I decided to leave base stats and CDs out of it, for those are balanced around the gameplay effectiveness. All numbers can be changed, but I feel this wouldn't be too overbearing while allowing Warwick to be relevant throughout all stages of the game.

Standard build for Warwick would probably look along the lines of with other builds consisting of and other items along those lines.

Leave your feedback! I would love to hear what people think.